A cornerstone of the au pair experience is exploring the many cities, states and geographic diversities of the USA. Whether it be on the weekends, on vacation with your host family or during your extended travel month at the end of your au pair program, you’ll be seeing America—and lots of it! What’s the best way to share your experiences with your family and friends back home while keeping a forever record of your stories, photos and videos? A travel blog!
How to become a travel blogger, you ask? It’s simple—all you need is a platform for sharing, some fantastic content and the ambition to continue posting while on the go. We’ve broken down how to start a blog and how to maintain it with the best possible travel photos, trip recaps and more.
Tip #1: Write quality content
The first thing to remember when learning how to write a blog is that your readers will want to see quality content—they’ll want to hear your stories and adventures in your own voice, and in a way that’s engaging and inspiring. You’ll want to keep them coming back for more! The most important piece of writing good content is simply writing from the heart. Think about your blog as if you were telling your best friend a story, and channel that same tone of voice and attention to detail in your posts. It’s also important to be as specific as possible, because it will help the reader feel like they’re there with you on your travels. A good way to keep track of all the details of your travels is to keep notes as you go. Whether you jot them down in a paper notebook or keep a running note on your smartphone, you’ll have something to go back to when crafting your posts. Trust us, you’ll be thankful you did!
Tip #2: Write content as you go
With all the traveling you’ll be doing, it will be easy to feel overwhelmed by everything you want to share. Don’t let your travel blog become a stressful part of your experience—keep it a fun and balanced part by doing your best to write content ahead of time, as you go. For some people, this means writing blog posts on your smartphone! Au pairs find that being in transit (on a train, airplane, or in a car) can be some of the most productive time for writing. Without Wi-Fi or social media to distract you, you can get in a solid chunk of writing time—then, simply email it to yourself and continue your work on your laptop or whatever device you’re most comfortable on. It’s all about maximizing your time, so don’t be shy to write on the go!
Tip #3: Set aside time to organize and edit
Organizing, editing and posting your content is a huge part of the blogging process. Don’t rush it! The stage immediately before posting can be the most important part, because it’s during this time that you’re most likely to catch mistakes, think of improvements, etc. In order to keep a great travel blog going, you may need to allow yourself certain chunks of time in the day that are dedicating to your writing, editing and posting. Whether you schedule 30 minutes every morning to simply write as much as you can, an hour every other day to choose and edit photos, or perhaps a 3-hour block every week where you organize, edit and release a post—consistency is key. Your readers will want to know when they can expect new posts from you, so it’s good to get on a schedule and stick to it as much as possible.
Tip #4: Take incredible travel photos
Half the battle when it comes to becoming a great travel blogger is taking high-quality photos to accompany your posts. You want the reader to see all the beautiful places you’re exploring, and visualize themselves (and you!) in those spots. The better the photography, the more inspiring your blog will be. There are a few tricks you should keep in mind when taking good travel photos—for instance, always look for patterns. The human brain is wired to respond to patterns, whether they be cloud shapes, symmetry in trees or leaves, or even colors that complement each other. Look for things that are visually pleasing to your eye, and capture those. Be sure to always keep your camera level, and to stay still when taking the shot—blurry and uneven photos are never good. Another important rule when it comes to composition of your photos is the “rule of thirds”—this is the concept that humans break down all images into three equal parts, either vertically, horizontally or both. It’s best to dedicate one-third of your photo to one subject, and the other two-thirds to another. For instance, a photo of a boat in the ocean is best composed by dedicating one-third of the frame to the boat and the other two-thirds to the sea. It’s a foolproof way to take professional-looking photos during your travels.
Tip #5: Maintain a strong social media presence
Last but not least, being consistent with your social media presence can take a travel blog from good to great. When you share your experiences with your viewers in real-time, they feel even more connected to you, and will be more willing to check in to see your latest blog posts when they’re published. If you go silent on social media, you may fall off everyone’s radar! There are so many different users out there today creating travel content—if you want to stand out, you’ll need to maintain a strong following. Try and post to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook as much as possible, and be sure to update your “stories” on these social media platforms as well. Of course, every time you create a new blog post, you should share it on all your platforms and direct your followers to your latest bit of content. The more you create content and the more you post about it, the more top of mind you’ll be—which means all the hard work you’ve put in to taking great travel photos and writing quality content will be noticed and appreciated!