Travel Blogging Do’s and Dont’s - How to avoid Plagiarism, Spam, and Road Blocks
Travel Blogging has not only become a therapeutic activity, but also a source of income, a hobby, a way to meet new people, and a resource for Americans hoping to follow in my footsteps and become an Expat. Blogging from the outside seems easy, your just writing like in a journal and adding a few photos, no big. LIES. ALL. LIES. There is research, social media, actually taking photos, if not scouting the web for copyright free images. It takes a lot of time, thought, effort, and can be exhausting. All that being said, I still love it. It has been a way to communicate with family back in the USA, and reach out to those who need assistance and guidance.
Like anything you will run into many issues along the way. Web hosting. Blog Design. Advertising. Blog Ideas. Resource lists. Really I could go on and on, but instead I am going to give some advice for all start-up Travel Bloggers (really all bloggers in general). Im no professional on the matter but can definitely tell you from experience: What to do and not to do on your blog.
DON'T Plagerise! The general rule of thumb is less than 8% of the same verbiage is not considered plagiarism, but never use that as a strict rule. If you must only use one resource, read the article or blog post first and then write your own from what you can recall. This will generally work, but the next best thing is to save that as a draft and go back to it tomorrow. The second passthrough will ensure it is completely original and only discusses the same facts as the reference. NEVER Copy and paste. It will only get you in trouble if you forget to rewrite a section or like a phrase they used. If you just can’t change something CITE the old fashioned way and link to the original article (Just quotation marks don’t cut it anymore).
DON'T delete comments! Sounds dumb, but people have their opinions, and if you delete them, they will only get more aggravated and can make things more annoying or even make others frustrated too. Speak calmly with the individual and offer any way to assist (offering free stuff ALWAYS works!). If there is no way to be reasoned, do not argue back and forth, just simply say, if you would like to discuss this a little more, please email me at ___ and we can resolve this right away! and apologize for any inconvenience. Most of the time they just want to be acknowledged, and you will look like the stronger individual in the end (even if you were crying in a corner the whole time.).
DO talk to people in your niche market! They will be the best to help you come up with new blog post ideas. I am constantly getting stuck, and using already existing travel blogs as inspiration, but you need to make your own stamp in the market and that will not be done by following in the footsteps of the ones before you. By talking to others who you are marketing to you will find out what people are really concerned about/need to hear/wish they new. You may think you know what people need to know, but the topics change even daily so try to work with those instead.
DO download a SPAM blocker! This can be a crazy huge time saver when your blog becomes the next big thing since sliced bread! (serious question: when was sliced bread a big deal? where did that saying come from??) It will help you find the real comments and questions and help you respond to your audience as soon as possible. Besides, who whats all of that junk spam at the bottom of your page anyways?
DO Be Yourself! Don’t let anything get you down! If you have to deal with haters, remember they are only haters because your doing something awesome and they wanna be as amazing as you! If you run into a road block, its because you have so many amazing ideas in your head your brain had to take a break to catch up with itself. You are doing something you love, you are expressing your opinion, you are sharing your knowledge with the world, and no one can take that away.
DON’T let Social Media become your enemy. Know the saying “Any publicity is good publicity”? True, but still bad publicity is hard to simmer down if it has gone out of control. Depending on who your blog is catering to, you will most likely have competition. Competition is of course fine, and most of the time great if you can work together and help each blog by back-linking, post-parties, and sharing ideas. Some however are not so friendly, so proceed with caution. I have had experiences where a blog post got shared on a competing site that had a lot of crossover audience with me, and they accused me of something that I politely denied and asked for advice from the group who had much more experience than I. Still things got out of hand and I had to excuse myself from the conversation to avoid further implications, but I instantly saw an increase in my Facebook visits, website views, and even saw other individuals I did not know stand up for my site. Be careful how you word things, how you express opinions, and how you interact with comments. Always stay neutral, and if you feel yourself getting hot headed, ask for assistance from an unbiased individual. It is always good to stay ahead of it all, but never attack or belittle anyone, you will only look bad to your audience and could alienate many entirely.