Grokker Review: How to maintain a happy travel workout routine

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Maintaining a fitness routine while traveling is extremely hard to do.

You throw your workout gear in your suitcase with the best intentions. You are going to stay fit and slim on your trip!

But then, you have a tour that starts at 6am and doesn’t get you home until 8pm. Or, you made new friends in the hotel so you want to spend more time chatting with them.

Sometimes it is hard to keep up your fitness routine because you have to go find the best place to workout.

Does your accommodation have a gym? Is there a safe running track nearby? Are there any yoga studios you can pop into?

Instead of wasting time trying to figure all that out when you possibly already feel less motivated, make it easier by bringing the workout to you.

I do this in two ways:

1. Maintain an adventurous and active travel schedule

If you love working out and staying fit, then be sure to incorporate plenty of adventurous and active activities.

Biking, kayaking, hiking, supping, zip lining, and rock climbing are just a few of the ways I love to explore a new destination. But sadly, as I have learned the past few years, as I have gotten older this has not been enough.

Despite being so active, I also do sample too much of the local food and wine which counteracts all that fun moving my body outside exploring.

2. An online workout routine that specifically focus on strength and flexibility

I want to keep up my strength, core fitness and flexibility. To keep do this I use my online yoga and fitness membership through Grokker.

Grokker gives me maximum flexibility to work out around my travel schedule and makes it effortless and fun.

I have tried other online fitness membership platforms before, which have been great, but Grokker has been the standout. I’ll share with you why in a moment in this Grokker Review post.

You can also keep up your fitness when you travel via YouTube videos. It’s free which is a huge bonus.

However, free always trades off with time, and possibly expert trainers.

I’ve done the free YouTube videos before, but I found it so time consuming searching for the right fitness or yoga video I wanted AND then being sure the instructor was good and I’d enjoy their class.

Sometimes after spending a good 5- 10 minutes searching, I’d start the video then hated the instructor or found the class outside of my level.

So I’d have to stop and start the process all over again.

When you travel you are so time stretched.

If you want to keep up with your workouts and maintain your fitness (and keep away as much f that excess travel indulgent weight as you can) then you you want to jump quickly into it with a routine or instructor you know like and trust and at a level you know you can manage.

If you are using the YouTube route, I recommend doing all the research and planning before you leave and create playlists so you are ready to go.

The older I’ve gotten, the more I value time. I spend more money now on things that will save me time and give me ease.

That’s why I am more than happy to pay the membership fee to use Grokker and have access to classes and instructors I love.

Introducing Grokker

As mentioned, Grokker is an online fitness and yoga membership site.

It’s a holistic solution to well being and offers over 4,000 exercise, mindfulness, nutrition and sleep videos to help you feel happy and healthy.

You are probably wondering what Grokker means.

To Grok means:

“To drink or soak in knowledge such that you are transformed by it.”
To “grok” or to say you are a “grokker” is to say that you have been transformed.

Time for your transformation!

Founder Lorna Borenstein was busy working mother, in the high-stress world of tech,  and saw the need for a flexible wellness program that could be accessed from anywhere.

In this Grokker review, I’ll outline reasons why I think Grokker is a great online fitness membership program to help you maintain a travel workout routine and keep your body in shape.

Why Grokker is a great online fitness membership

Variety of Online Fitness Classes

No matter what fitness style you are looking for, Grokker will have a workout routine.

From Barre to Dance, HIT and Interval Training to Cardio, and Pilates to yoga, Grokker has you covered.

It’s important to mix up your routines so your body is not getting used to one form of training. That’s when it starts to go to sleep and transformation is more challenging.

I love how this variety can work to your mood and your bodies needs. You can go as hard and fast or slow and gentle as you like.

There are also dozen subtypes of streaming yoga classes are offered, e.g., hatha, power vinyasa, and prenatal yoga. You can check out more here.

There are plenty of fitness and yoga videos that don’t require equipment. Each video description will tell you what equipment is needed.

You can search for the classes you want based upon style, level and duration.

You can also create your own collections of your favorite classes based on topics or styles that resonate with you eg. Great Workout Routines for Hotel Rooms

It’s a comprehensive online fitness and yoga membership which makes it stand out from others I have tried.

Here are some of their online fitness videos

Expert and Likeable Online Fitness Trainers

Grokker hand picks their fitness and yoga instructors and experts.

Grokker tells you the fitness training credentials for each online fitness trainer. The trainers are also very engaged with their communities, answering questions and providing help in the comment section under every video.

Just like the variety of classes there are a variety of fitness instructors as well for you to choose instructors that best suits your style.

A good idea to get to know which instructors you like and don’t like is to join the challenges.

After a couple of online classes you get to know them, then if you want to do one-off classes, you can easily find what they are offering by following them.

You can also follow topics like baking or cardio.

I like having access to a wide range of online fitness trainers that I know like and trust. The trainers give clear instructions and modifications and are very professional and supportive.

Programs and Challenges

Grokker run a series of special programs and challenges.

They run from 1 to up to 6 weeks.

It’s a great way to stay focused on a particular workout style or area of your body. I love how it’s organized for you. All you do is go to your calendar and press play.

For example, they currently have the #BeABetterYou challenge – a 30 day challenge to jumpstart your wellness and make 2018 your best year yet.

You can join others in the community doing it for more accountability and support and share your progress on their channels and your own using the hashtags.

Some of the programs I have done are:

• 21 day happy yoga challenge
• 21 day Pilates sculpt
• 7 day total body reboot
• 7 day primal vinyasa – loved this one. did it with a friend and it was fun
• Energizing Vinyasa
• Tone and Trim your body
• Evolution – great strength training

There are also programs for better sleep, nutrition boost, mindfulness, stress reduction and other well-being related topics.

There’s even wine programs!!!

Calendar and Email Reminders

I love the calendar scheduling function of Grokker. It’s effortless and helps you be accountable with your workout routine.

You could easily schedule your travel workout routine before you leave your house.

It’s so much easier to maintain your fitness if you schedule things in. This works especially well if you know your itinerary already.

I tend to workout early in the morning as it is usually the only time of the day I can control.

So find the workout videos you want to do and just add them to your calendar. You can then easily see what you are working on each day.

I love how it changes to an I did this” after you have completed (you must check the complete box once you’ve finished your workout for this to appear) but it’s a great visual for you to see how you are working out and where you are up to in your training.

Super helpful when you have chaotic travel schedules.

Adding a program or challenge to your calendar is easy.

Once you select join program, it will ask you your start date and then it will automatically add each training video into your calendar with the appropriate rest days in between.

You can rearrange them in any way you want.

The only thing I don’t like is that you can’t drag and drop a change in schedule. You have to enter in the new dates and time. The drap and drop ability would make it so much easier and faster.

You will be sent workout email reminders for when your next training video is due to start.

Don’t worry if you miss it. You can play these videos at any time regardless of when it is scheduled into your calendar.

Collecting Workout Points

Another motivating part to Grokker is the collection of wellness points.

You collect wellness points with each video you watch. The points you collect depends on how many minutes of training you do.

They are displayed under your profile, so it;s wonderful for fitness tracking and motivation.

Set yourself a goal to achieve an certain amount of wellness points and Grokker will help you track that.

There’s not much else you can do with the wellness points. But, with some challenges those who achieve a certain amount of wellness points have the opportunity to win prizes.

You can connect your Fitbit or Garmin trackers with Grokker, which will track your outdoor workouts and add it to the I did This section of your profile!

This is a great way to add in those extra adventurous activities you do when you travel like hikes, city exploration, and beach strolls. These also count to your wellness points.

Grokker is really setting you up to win with your fitness and workout routines.

Fit It Into Your Schedule

Now when you get home, or have a break in your travel schedule, instead of trying to motivate yourself to workout knowing that just the decision making and preparation is going to take you at least 10 minutes, you can throw on your gear, open up your Grokker schedule, press play and start.

With classes that can be as short as 15 – 20 minutes you can easily fit in a high intensity workout each day, or even something a little more restorative and relaxing.

Working out has become a travel habit for me now because of Grokker.

I don’t work out every day when I’m traveling as some as I just can’t fit it in, but I workout way  more than I ever did before I had Grokker.

It’s just so easy to get it done.

The 7 minute HIT workout videos will be perfect on those ultra busy travel days.

I’ve already scheduled this in for my business trip to New York this week. You don’t need much time or equipment with high intensity workouts.

They can be done anywhere.

Know What to Pack

If you are taking care of your own workout schedule when you are traveling you often don’t know what to pack because you don’t know what type of exercise you’ll do.

It depends on whether you can find a good running track, or a gym, or yoga studio.

With Grokker you can plan ahead and so only take what you need.

So on trips where I am restricted on luggage I will only pack my yoga gear and make the decision to just do Grokker yoga classes while I’m away. (Yoga is not all easy training btw).

That way I don’t have to pack any workout shoes and I can usually get away with not having a yoga mat.

When we do road trips, I mix up my Grokker classes as I can take all my workout gear – sometimes even my hand weights.

So I’ll do some fitness, core strength training and yoga classes.

Recipes and Mediation Classes

I don’t really use this function of the membership site, but you might.

I’ve had my own meditation practice for years so I don’t put any time into the meditation videos.

But if this is something you want to pursue and you are just starting this is a great added benefit for you.

I highly recommend a meditation practice, especially when you are traveling to help you cope with the transient nature of travel.

Your Chakras will need help coping with the constant change. These short meditation videos will help you center and find your Zen.

Check out some of the meditation classes here. 

There are a bunch of recipes to suit any style. It’s good clean eating. They all have video instructions to go with them.

I don’t really use the recipes as I have enough already in other aspects. It’s probably not something you will use when you are traveling but it’s good to have when you’re at home.

Other Things I Like About Grokker

• Easy interface. Grokker is so easy to use and find what you are looking for. You can easily see what workout videos are coming next for you and I like the recommendations and suggestions that pop up, making it easier to join classes instead of searching for them.
• You can watch it on mobile, tablet, web and TV and of course desktop/laptop.
• Grokker is very community focused, You can follow and connect with other like minded members Social media-like profiles make it easy to find friends who have the same healthy living ideals you do.
• Everything is great quality and deigned so beautifully, which does make a difference to how you feel when you use it.
• The streaming quality is good. I’ve used other sites before that constantly froze. Not great when you are stuck in challenging yoga poses and have to unwind to get it started again.
• There are fitness and healthy living articles, Q & A, and forums to help evolve your fitness knowledge.
• You can now download videos to watch offline using the Grokker app! A fantastic way to overcome the challenge of internet when you travel. I have not tested this out myself yet as I always have internet and so don’t worry about downloading before I leave home.

Price

For the quality, accountability and flexibility I think the price of Grokker is great value.

I’ve had the membership now for nearly 12 months. I purchased the annual subscription as it is a much better rate at $119.88, which is just under $10  a month.

Otherwise it is $14.99 a month.

You can try it on a 14-day trial period during which you may cancel service before your card is ever charged.

It’s annoying that they do make you put in you card to access thee trail, but it might be worth it for you to have a look.

Just be sure to write it in your diary or set up an online notification so you don’t forget to cancel!

For my local gym, my membership is $22 a month which includes all machines and fitness classes.

I only recently joined our local gym (a sign of my growing need for roots) because I needed to get out of the house to exercise and I love fitness classes and wanted to take it up another level.

I will continue my Grokker membership so I can maintain my fitness and keep up my workout schedules while traveling, as mentioned above, it is too hard to keep on top of it trying to find a gym to go to, a local yoga class, or going for a run which I hate!

So Grokker is a no brainer for easily fitting in those workouts in a hectic travel schedule.

If fitness is important to you and you like ease, accountability and a quick, efficient way to incorporate travel workout routines into your daily schedule, then Grokker is a wonderful solution for you.

You can use it at home as well for consistency, especially if you don’t like gyms and aren’t intrinsically motivated to get outside and workout.

For the price and benefits, Grokker is worth it.

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How do you maintain a travel workout routine? Do you use online fitness and yoga classes?

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Three reasons to start a travel blog

Do you want to start a travel blog?
Have you already, and you’re striving to become one of those successful travel bloggers?
Our travel blog is called ‘y’ travel blog because we believe in the power of your WHY – the greater purpose for doing things. After spending years stuck in a job I hated, I can’t stomach living any kind of life now that is not driven by a powerful WHY.
The clearer you are on the whys, and the more passionate you are about them, the greater your chance for travel blog success, or success in an endeavor you’re working for.
I want to share with you three powerful reasons to start a travel blog, or to continue to grow the blog you have already. I think the first two are possibly well-known and spoken about, but I don’t hear the third one talked about as much as being an important reason for travel blogging.
I think it’s a vital role travel bloggers can play in uplifting the industry and our wider communities. A travel blogger’s impact can be huge if implemented correctly with pure intentions.
(P.S. This post is written more in mind for those who want something more than a travel journal or travel blogging hobby, but one that wants to make money travel blogging and create a lifestyle around it in some way.)

1. For yourself

Let’s be real here. You want to start a travel blog and become a successful travel blogger for yourself. You’d be crazy not to. Any life we set out to create has to be born from passion and a desire to live a certain lifestyle.
There’s nothing wrong with self-service, it’s how we keep our cup full to spill over to others. More about the spilling over in reason two below.
First and foremost start a travel blog for you.

What do you want it to give you? What do you want to experience, write about and share? What lifestyle are you searching to create?

The reason I want a successful travel blog is to:

• document and share my adventures and memories
• get the stories and lessons within me out and allow them to have a deeper and wider purpose
• help sustain and create a lifestyle I love
• continue living and breathing travel with my kids!

Share the reasons you travel blog for yourself in the comments below!

2. For your community

I’ve said this so many times in previous blog posts, in talks I give at conferences, and in my own premium webinar training.
If you are only into travel blogging for yourself – that is just to get free trips, or to make money – you’ll end up quitting.
Travel blogging is much harder than you realize. It involves an intense amount of energy and time, both with the travels and what you give out via thoughts and words.
The majority of our posts on this site are over 1200 words long, some as big as 6,000. We want to provide epic content, but it comes at a huge expense – energy drain. Expressing a part of your soul with vulnerability can wipe you out.
You’ll be learning to overcome many hurdles, mostly your own vulnerability, insecurities, and doubts, which only intensify when you sometimes come across a few random trolls and mean-spirited people who love to tell you what a horrible human you are. #thanksforsharing
We’ve been travel blogging for six years and there is probably not a month goes by where I don’t feel like quitting. I don’t for two reasons:

1. Travel blogging is way better than teaching. I love the freedom and opportunity it gives me to live life on terms and experience travel with my kids.
2. We have such an amazing community who feel like friends. I receive hundreds of emails from readers each month telling us how our posts have inspired them to transform their lives and travel more. It’s hugely rewarding to know you’re helping people achieve their dreams.

I always intended from our first post to create a site like Lonely Planet – super useful, but with a dash of inspiration and a real story. I wanted to help people travel as I know how much travel gifts you in all aspects of your life.
But, I never realised until those emails started coming in what a huge motivating influence that is for what we do and it’s why I don’t quit.

Travelling friends

When you start a travel blog, consider how you can help others through your content.
What’s in it for them?
Make the journey one where you continually evaluate this purpose outside of yourself and evolve to serve your reader’s needs as well as your own.
Don’t confuse your why with someone else’s. We each walk a different path and comparing what you do will only lead to either insecurity and self-criticism, or arrogance.
It’s why you find so many list and tip posts on this site – and why they do hugely well. Since we’ve started this journey, so many people have torn down this approach to travel blogging and said how it’s destroying a story.
But from what perspective are they looking at that? From their joy of narrating their story, or from what they know their readers like?
Each community is different. Our readers love us to empower them with our tips and strategies. They plan their trips around them and then contact us to let them know how our tips helped them have the best travel experience they’d had.
A reader just wrote to tell me how our 2-week itinerary of Outback Queensland helped her effortlessly plan a memorable holiday. I LOVE hearing that. What a disservice I’d be doing to listen to what other people want and ignore what our community tell us they like.
Taking on other people’s opinion is hugely valuable – you can learn a lot from others. But don’t disregard your inner voice and what your community tells you they want.
How do you know this?
Talk to them, ask the right questions, listen very carefully, and pay attention to your data. When a post gets over 200,000 shares then you know list posts work!
Join our free Digital Lifestyle Travel Tribe and grab some free training to help you make money travel blogging:

3. For the tourism industry

Kakadu National Park

I can sometimes get a little irritated when I hear conversations from travel bloggers or travel influencers asking “‘What can I get for free?” before even contemplating, “What value can I offer?”
Understand your value and stand by this, but don’t ask for, or demand value in return that doesn’t match with what you can offer. It will hurt you more in the long run, as well as the industry.
Travel blogging is valuable for the tourism industry and can offer so much, but there’s a lot of disgruntlement because people are asking for too much, too early, for little value in return.
I love travel.
I love being part of the travel industry and helping it evolve and bring travel to more people with solid, relevant partners. You can do creative things that work and help everyone, but build your value first with the intention to raise the tourism industry.

What about the small tourism operators?

One part I love about what we do is having the opportunity to help small tourism operators in the industry. Owning a business, particularly in travel, is very challenging.
Travel bloggers get annoyed when brands want them to promote their stuff for free, but travel operators also get annoyed when travel bloggers always approach them to experience their product for free. It’s a cost for their business, and one they can’t always carry.
When you contact someone, stop to think about how many other people may have contacted them asking the same, and how that could impact their bottom line.
There is a value exchange here.
Obviously, if a travel blogger promotes a company, they are giving out free exposure (and time to experience and write), so a value exchange is necessary. But, go into that exchange offering something valuable in return – not hyped up stats, or over inflated egos, but truth and service.
But, go into that exchange offering something valuable in return – not hyped up stats, or over inflated egos, but truth and service.
I think travel bloggers hold a unique perspective to share a real travel story and highlight tours etc., but it does come with responsibility.
We can’t get it right all the time – we’ve made mistakes. But, when you come from the perspective of wanting to help, and not just be about you, it becomes quite a gratifying experience.

I felt the most amount of joy from this when we first traveled through Outback Queensland, and I saw the struggles the community was having with the drought. What a privilege and
What a privilege and honor it was for me to come to this region and help them by promoting the valuable tourism experiences they offer. It’s something that can help them overcome the hardships of a land they have no control over.
I loved that I was in a position to help in that way, and I realized this was a vital part of what we do – to give a voice to the local communities working to share what is great about their region and helping them to be successful as well.
So when you reach that privilege with your travel blog to receive free trips (and I hate using that word free because it’s not, you give a lot of work and exposure in exchange) or get paid to travel blog, then look at that greater picture and ask,

“How can I best serve the people in the communities I am visiting? How can I help grow their business?”

On our recent trip to Snowmass for the Travel Influencers’ Summit, Courtney, the representative from Colorado Tourism spoke to us about the huge impact we can have on local communities. We can showcase their region and bring new travelers to the area, which doesn’t only affect the owners of the travel related business, but all businesses within the community. This, in turn, impacts their families and every person’s individual dreams.
Her talk lit a fire under me to keep growing and getting better because I want to have that kind of impact. I want to use my love of travel to, not only help others to travel but to help every person that feels the ripple in the communities we visit.
It’s pretty awesome to think of the positive influence you can have on the world simply by doing something you love and having very clear and strong reasons for doing it.
When you come from the place of service and elevation, you will be supported in many ways.

How to get your place in the travel blogging industry right

It’s your responsibility to share only the things you find valuable and believe is a worthwhile experience.
Even though we get paid to travel or go on “free” trips, we only share what we love with honesty. Some people don’t believe that is possible based on their life experiences, so our word is not enough for them – that’s their journey, not mine. We turn away a ridiculous amount of travel experiences and money every year because we don’t feel we’ll enjoy it, or it’s a good fit for our readers.
We turn away a ridiculous amount of travel experiences and money every year because we don’t feel we’ll enjoy it, or it’s a good fit for our readers.
We don’t know for sure that we’ll love it, but we listen to our heart and gut, and we do a lot of research beforehand; we’ve rarely gotten it wrong. Anything we experience that we don’t like, we either won’t write about it or think of it from the perspective of, “is this just our personal preference and may someone else like it?”
If we feel it may be a good experience, but just not suited to us, then we’ll still share it, but explain why it didn’t suit us and why someone else might like it.

Incorporate mission and journey into your travel blogging

There are many bloggers who do a fantastic job of creating their travel blog around an intense passion and purpose like Green Global Travel for environment, Uncornered Market for culture, and Time Travel Turtle for World Heritage Sites, and for us, it’s about unplugging from life’s chaos to reconnect to what’s important – especially for families.
Don’t weigh yourself down by thinking it has to be such a profound and meaningful mission; it can be writing stories that entertain – we all need more of that! Whatever it is, make what you do serve, give back, and raise up, rather than it being a means to take as much as you can.
Whatever it is, make what you do serve, give back, and raise up, rather than it being a means to take as much as you can.

It’s okay to take when it’s balanced by giving first.

When you create a personal journey on your travel blog, you’re not just flipping from one free trip to the next; you’re on a mission to serve, and the “free” travel or partnerships work to serve the journey and mission.
It’s one reason we’re going on our America Unplugged trip, and will be working with tourism boards and brands along the way. We want to showcase the depth to a country we love so much.
Many people ask us for advice about travel to the US, and they’re thinking of NYC, Grand Canyon, LA and Las Vegas. And we always say, what about Utah or Charleston and Savannah? These are some of our favourite destination is the US that aren’t promoted as much and we want to share.
It gives me so much joy to know we can help our US readers express what they love about their country, help the small tourism operators and communities share what they have to offer, and to future travelers to the US from other countries some new and exciting places you can discover and have an incredible journey.
The journey, and the travel blogging, then becomes bigger than just wanting to create a travel lifestyle for ourselves.
When you create a journey and experiences that merges these three powerful purposes together, you have something that can make a powerful impact upon other travellers, yourself and the industry while helping you create a full-time income from your travel blog and a travel lifestyle.
Win.Win.Win.
You can also read more about the power of storytelling travel bloggers hold to share the stories fo the world and bring together its people in this post: Why we need more travel bloggers (but not the annoying kind) 
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
How do you incorporate mission and journey into your travel blogging?
Why do you travel blog?

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7 Important Things to Focus on When Building your Blogging Business

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Ever feel overwhelmed by blogging?

You’re not alone.

Overwhelm, and its best friend, frustration, is a large part of my blogging life. I’ve accepted it as being so and I’ve learned ways to manage and overcome this.

It’s a daunting journey with so many things that require your attention. Increasing your traffic and your income will be your most pressing problems to solve.

In the online world things change quite quickly. It’s easy to get caught up in the latest shiny object or chase the wrong things down the rabbit hole. How do you know what to give attention to?

Which social media platforms will help grow your business the most? How can you create content that stands out in a crowded world? How do you get readers AND then keep them? What is the best way to earn money through your blog without draining all your time and making you look like your “selling out.”

That’s a term I completely despise by the way and one I don’t believe you should use or pay attention to. You’re are not selling out by making money from the hard work you put into your blog, you are selling into your dream and the dreams of others.

Geeking out at the Social Travel Summit in Austria – learning all I can about travel blogging

The blogging and entrepreneur journey is one that has many ups and downs. That is why it’s important you NEVER stop growing and learning. Finding ways to reinvent the wheel is essential.

That is one reason I spend a lot of time and money on my own personal growth, my energy levels, and learning as much as I can. Just these past six months I have attended three conferences and am flying out to my fourth tomorrow.

It’s an exciting one because we have been nominated as a finalist for a Modern Entrepreneur award. That was a word I never thought could be used to label me. I didn’t believe I was smart enough or creative enough to be an entrepreneur.

But here I am. And you can easily do the same.

Like you, I have moments where I am afraid and get stuck. In this post, I want to share with you the main areas in my blogging business I focus the majority of attention and resources on.

These are the essential core foundations of my business that help me consistently grow –  in traffic, opportunities and income.

Is blogging too crowded now?

There is plenty of room for you in blogging

It may seem like the blogging world is overcrowded and you may be too late to the game. Absolutely not. I can tell you the pie is HUGE and now has never been a better time.

The money people are spending online is increasing into the trillions, online users are increasing everyday and more and more money is being put into digital marketing, especially in the tourist industry.

We live in a world full of abundant opportunity.

Now is your time. It’s important that you learn from the best, develop your skills and create a rocking blogging strategy so you can take advantage of it.

7 important things to focus on when building your blogging business

Sharing my travel blogging campaign insights at the Social Travel Summit conference

Do not let the crazy game of Instagram likes and comments fool you into thinking that is what is vital for your business. Our Instagram engagement is CRAP. It always has been and is only getting worse.

I am so grateful I had the intuition and foresight from the very beginning to know that was not the path to building a solid online business. It was just an arm of it, a weak one that does not impact how my business grows or the money I make.

Every day I see more and more people complaining and crying because of Instagram reach. They have put all their eggs in that one basket and now their business is in the toilet. You cannot build a business on rented land!

Put the focus into your blog – you own it, you control it.

If you continually focus on the following you will have success and your blogging business will grow:

1. Great Content

Great content should always be your number one priority. I am thrilled every time a reader lets me know how helpful our content has been to their travel planning and experiences.

I know from the amount of research I do for our own travel planning, that so much of the content online is absolute rubbish and unhelpful. We know how to create great content because we are, and always have been, full-time travelers.

The key to creating great content is to be your reader. Understand what life is like for them and what they most need. Give this to them in a way that is better than the rest.

I don’t say that for you to play a comparison game, but to really research and focus in on what is missing in the market so you can provide it and stand out.

2. Email List Building

It astounds me how little effort people give to email list building. It is always my first focus, and still I don’t give it as much attention as I’d like.

Forget about putting all your focus on growing your Instagram account, grow your email list! It’s a much more personal and rewarding relationship and they trust you so much more!

The conference I am attending this week is run by Ontraport, my email software system. I can’t wait to learn more advanced strategies from them.

3. SEO

We recently took an old post that had very poor search optimisation on it and applied the SEO principles we have since learned to update and improve it.

That post went from receiving nearly no traffic to now getting over 6,000 views a month and is in the top 5 position on the first page of Google for several highly searched terms.

SEO is powerful.

This is where you can write one useful post and have it bring traffic to your site, which not only helps people looking for that solution, but can increase your ability to earn money and grow.

Many of our posts that are three years old still bring in 2,000 – 10,00 views a month. And we receive so many emails of gratitude to people who have used that to help them.

REad More:3 Common SEO Mistakes Hurting Your Travel Blogging Results

This is the most amazing SEO tool ever! IT’s what we use and now can’t live without. It’s expensive but it helps us grow our traffic and income so worth it.

4. Pinterest

Like other social platforms it has tricky algorithms to work out. But with Pinterest, it is just like a search engine. So if you can optimize your posts and pins with the right keywords you can gain a lot of traffic to your site.

So I highly recommend you invest time and resources into growing your Pinterest strategy. Anything that drives traffic to your site, requires attention!

A great course to take on Pinterest is from our friend Claire Robinson called Structur Pinterest for Travel Bloggers

Read More: 8 Ways Tailwind App Improves My Pinterest Marketing Results

5. YouTube

Although YouTube may seem like you are building a business on rented land, you still retain ownership over your content creation, i.e. videos, and can do what you want with it on your own platform.

What’s great about YouTube is that it is the second biggest search engine, which works in your favor. Video is also the way of the future. At every conference I have attended over the past year this has been the consistent message.

So I highly recommend you find ways to make video a part of your content and blogging strategy.

We are putting more and more of our resources into it and I need as much help as I can get, as it is definitely not a strength of mine.

You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here. 

6. Monetization Plan

Of course, how to make money blogging is at the top of your priority list! We have multiple streams of income on our blog – some passive and some very active.

Having this diversity helps us to consistently earn a balanced income. If one income stream has a slow month, we can rely on the other income streams to keep us steady and growing.

You want to always be focused on generating different income streams and increasing your income every month. Without income you don’t have a business, you have a hobby.

Read More: How To Get Paid to Travel and Make Money Travel Blogging

7. Mindset

I can promise you, it does not matter how many strategies about business you learn and perfect, if you cannot master your mind you will take yourself out of the game quite quickly.

Entrepreneurship is a roller coaster of emotions. You have to learn how to manage the downs and ride the ups.

This is why I recommend constant and never ending improvement – it is because YOU are your business. That is why you always work on yourself. The more you grow, the more your business will.

With blogging, you are building a business around YOU – your expertise, your passions, your insights. Its essential you have got YOU in tip top shape.

More posts to help you with travel blogging:

What are the lessons you’ve learned from travel blogging?

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