10 Travel Writing Tips When You’re Not Traveling

Not many people are traveling 24/7. Even the busiest travel bloggers take a break to head home for a bit. In fact, Vicky and I ran this travel blog for several months despite the fact that we we’re not actually traveling.

How do you continue to engage your readers when you don’t have any travel stories to write? Here are a few ideas:

Guests Posts - This can be a great time to “outsource” your blog by hosting some guest posts. Bloggers always appreciate the opportunity to guest post and readers enjoy hearing a different story every now and again. You have full control over the content and quality so it’s safe in that respect.

Interviews - Why not interview another blogger? Similar to a guest post in that it involves another blogger, yet you’re still the author/main driver. Moreover, interviews with other bloggers benefit in that they will often share it with there readers and you can reach a wider audience. In fact, one of our most viewed articles is our interview with Landing Standing since their Stumble Upon followers brought huge numbers to our blog.

Reviews - Writing reviews for restaurants, websites, and accommodations can make for interesting posts, especially if there is a bit of a story to go along with it. If you write a review for someone be sure to send it to them and perhaps they will share it with their own social media (many restaurants, for example, have Facebook pages nowadays).

Photographs - If there is one thing that’s always true it’s that the number of photos someone has will vastly outweigh the number of photos that are incorporated into posts. Consider some photos that didn’t make the cut and do a photo essay of a place you went to. Or, like us, do a photo of the week series.

React To A Recent Article - If you’re not in a position where you can produce your own content from nothing, then leverage existing content. Find a post from another blogger or sometime that recently happened in the news and write a reaction to it. It’s amazing that I often see these types of posts at the top of search engines.

Make An Announcement - Let your readers know what’s coming next by making an announcement on your blog. Reveal your route or particular activities you’re looking into. If possible make it interactive. If there are choices involved you can run a poll on your blog or host a giveaway.

Showcase Recent Accomplishments - People like to see progress. It can be difficult to find continuity from post to post when your travel writing – a lot of posts seem to stand on their own. However, there are some opportunities to provide monthly updates such as website progress (traffic, social media), advertising revenue, and budget.

Write About A Recent (Weekend) Trip - Just because you’re not traveling through Thailand doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything interesting to say. Maybe you went to the beach or on a hike some place local? This may be even more useful for readers who are from the same area.

Summarize Your Learnings - You’ve been traveling all this time, talk about what you’ve learned. Provide insights about traveling, or tips on packing and planning. There’s always someone a few months behind you who can benefit from your “wisdom”.

Share Something Technical - Some portion of your audience is likely to be other people in the same niche, therefore, it can be interesting to share something technical related to blogging. Even non bloggers, at times and in moderation, find the technical side interesting.

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to cover those “dull” times, you just have to be a little creative. If you don’t want to do any of the above, then write a post on what to write when you’re not traveling…

What do you write about when you’re NOT traveling?

photo credit: Sterlic via photopin cc

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