Beat My Path’s Essential Blog Writing Tips
So you’ve submitted your application to join the Beat My Path blogging community, and you want to know how to get started writing great articles that will not only get published on our public website, but will also get you noticed and seen by our huge monthly audience of readers?
Will you be the next big thing? Will you be our next top-travel-blogger? Only time will tell, but if that’s your goal, there’s a few things you should know about creating the best possible blog so you stand out from the crowd!
MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING ELSE – WE LOOOOOOVE LISTS!!!
CREATE ARTICLES THAT PEOPLE CAN ACTUALLY USE!!!
We, and our readers, LOVE lists. They are easy to read, easy to understand and they’re full of great information! So what do we mean when we say lists? Something along these lines; “The Top 10 Things To Do In New York City” – write about your experience with the top attractions in New York City; tell the reader what each attraction is and what made it so great for you. Maybe you could try the “Most Beautiful Cities To See In Spain” or, “Top 10 Countries To Visit in Asia”. Readers love to read them, and we love to publish them. It should go without saying, but make sure you don’t just list a few countries and cities on the page – and that’s it. For each country, city, or attraction that you list in the blog, you will need to write a few interesting paragraphs explaining what it is and why it made your list.
HERE IS A GREAT EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW: The Ultimate Historic Walking Tour Of Vienna
MAKE THE TITLE INTERESTING AND RELEVANT TO WHAT READERS ARE LOOKING FOR
One of the simplest ways to get people to read your article is to create a title which catches their eye and sparks their interest! It seems such an obvious thing to do, right? Well, you would think so, but it’s amazing how many people don’t consider this. What do they do instead? They call their blog “Day One Of The Holiday” or “Stuff We Did On Our Trip.” It should go without saying – THIS ISN’T GETTING ANYONE’S ATTENTION!!!
So, what do readers want, and what sort of title should you give your blog post if you want it to get read? Well, our readers are looking for a variety of things when they come to our website, but most of all, they are looking for detailed information on the destinations they are researching, and tips from people who have experienced these places for themselves. They want to know the best things to do in a city or country – what to see and what not to see – they want to know how they should spend their time, they want to know what to expect from a certain destination or attraction, and they want to know how all of this might compare to other options they might be looking at… so, give them what they want – it’s such a simple thing to do, and it really has the potential to take your post to the next level, with minimal effort!!!
What might be some examples? “The Top 10 Things To Do In…” or “The Ultimate Walking Tour Of…” or “My Favourite Holiday Spots In…” or “The Best Way To Spend A Week In…!” See how easy that is? An informative title to an article that is relevant to what the reader is searching for; it’s the key to unlocking your ultimate potential, and the cornerstone to the success of your blog over the long term.
CREATE GREAT CONTENT WITH DETAILED INFORMATION
The most important part of writing a great travel blog is to make sure the content and the information it provides is exceptional. You don’t necessarily have to be the best writer on the planet, but the information you provide must be detailed and well set out so it can be useful to, and easily understood by our readers. We recommend that a good quality blog article should be NO LESS THAN 2000-WORDS IN LENGTH.
Make sure you explain what you liked, and why you liked it; describe the country, city or attraction in great detail, and speak from the heart – tell the reader what you felt when you had the experience and why you felt that way. You want to make the reader jump out of their skin, feel what you felt, and wish they stood where you stood.
A GREAT ARTICLE NEEDS A GREAT STRUCTURED LAYOUT
At Beat My Path we write for the love of writing – we are not always trained professionals, and it goes without saying, there are bound to be some grammatical mistakes in your posts! We understand this, and we would never hold this against you – we firmly believe that any writing is good writing, if you’re having fun!
However, with that said, a little bit of basic structure can really go a long way to make an average blog look absolutely fantastic. Likewise, a lack of structure and a poor layout can make what could have been an amazing blog article, un-readable and not very useful! When writing your blog posts, try to set them out in structured paragraphs, and use big, bold titles, to illustrate your points and bring attention the articles’ subject matter.
When a reader first comes across your post, they will usually skim the article before they read it in its entirety, to make sure it contains the information they are looking for. If your article is set out in nice, neat paragraphs, with large titles to indicate the information it contains, readers are much more likely to read your article in full, and much more likely to find the information useful.
WE ALSO LOVE TRAVEL ADVICE
When it comes to travel blogs, we also like to hear your advice on a subject. Maybe that’s regarding “Solo Female Travel In South America”, or “Scammers in Beijing”, or “How To Make Your Money Go Further in Australia”. When it comes to these types of blogs, they need to be specific to a region, country, city or attraction, but our readers find them VERY informative – so tell us what you know!
WRITE ABOUT A SPECIFIC TOPIC
When it comes to getting published, we give a very high weighting to specificity. Basically, if you’re writing about a country, then write about that country. If you’re writing about an attraction, then write about that attraction. Try to stay away from writing about multiple unrelated countries or attractions in the same blog.
For example; if you are writing about “Mexico”, then write about Mexico as a whole, the cities you visited in Mexico, and your favourite attractions in those cities. We wouldn’t recommend including the next country you visited along the way. If you visit more than one country, we recommend you split them into separate articles.
WRITE ABOUT INDIVIDUAL ATTRACTIONS
Most people tend to write generally, about a country or a destination they have visited. However, no one seems to want to write about the little guy – an entire blog dedicated to one specific attraction. It might surprise you to know that these are often the articles that are read the most. Think about it, when you’re looking for information about a hotel, restaurant, bar or attraction; what are you going to read? Obviously, you want an article that details every aspect of the attraction you’re interested in! Go a step further – do you want to read a 2 sentence review, or do you want a full-blown article by someone who can not only capture the feeling, but can positively describe the experience in every single detail – someone who makes you want to experience it for yourself!
For example; if you visit Paris and you loved the Eiffel Tower – write a travel blog about Paris, but then you should consider writing another blog specifically about the Eiffel Tower, or the quaint little cafe you had breakfast at, or the luxury hotel you stayed in. It’s these sorts of articles that not only get published, but really get the readers juices flowing!
TAKE AMAZING PHOTOS
When it comes to the images you include in your blog, more doesn’t always mean better. The most amazingly written travel blog can be ruined by an overbearing amount of really bad photos – so if in doubt, only use the best looking images and leave the others out. That said, they don’t have to be perfect! People want to see what they’re reading about and it doesn’t matter if you’re not the world’s best photographer. Bottom line – whatever you decide, don’t let us scare you away from including every image you want to include, because at the end of the day, it’s your blog and yours alone – add in whatever you want! Just keep in mind that when it comes to being published on our main website and standing out our readers, images matter.
Try to make sure your images are of the highest quality available. If you’re taking photos from your phone, we HIGHLY RECOMMEND a free image editing app called “Snapseed”, which is available for download in all major smartphone app stores. This easy-to-use app allows you to instantly turn any bland image into a masterpiece bursting with colour and vibrance!
POST INFORMATION ON NEW DESTINATIONS & ATTRACTIONS
Beat My Path is always growing and we can’t grow without new and informative information! One of the easiest ways to get published on our website is to write a blog about a destination or an attraction that we don’t have listed on our website. If it’s not on our website, and it’s popular and relevant, we want it on our website, and if you’re the first person to write about it, there is a good chance we’re going to publish it!
SO, THERE YOU HAVE IT!!!
These are our best practices for creating the best possible travel blog to get published! If you have any further questions regarding our process, or you would like to know how we can help you with your goals of becoming the best writer you can be, please Contact Us at any time. We wish you the best of luck with your goals, and want to say a big welcome from everyone in the Beat My Path travel blogging community!