Travel Massive Düsseldorf Shares Blogging Tips for 2017

We’ve hosted industry presentations, beer safari tours, and BBQ’s, but this time Travel Massive Düsseldorf came together for our first ever Barcamp.

There are thousands (if not millions) of topics to discuss when it comes to the tourism industry, so choosing the right one isn’t the easiest thing to do. This time, I decided to host a Barcamp in a topic that I knew best. Blogging.

We were hosted at The Fritz Hotel Restaurant & Bar (Fritz’s Frau Franzi) and spoiled with signature cocktails and a variety of different delicious finger foods. What surprised me was that most attendees enjoyed the sheer factor that The Fritz was a super ‘Instagrammable hotel’. I think in a room full of content creators and Instagrammers… that’s a pretty great compliment.

The event was open to bloggers and industry professionals alike, to discuss how we can help each other grow our blogs.

First I’ll tell you a little bit about our “mini” Barcamp and then I’ll share some of our blogging tips we came up with as a group to grow our blogs for 2017.

What is a Barcamp?

Barcamps are hands-on events where every attendee is a participant. They are collaborative events where members can share their collective knowledge in a number of breakout sessions.

Why Attend a Barcamp?

• Learn from your peers and share your knowledge
• Learn insights to help take your travel website to the next level
• Meet some new, cool people with a similar passion

So, let’s get to it, shall we? Here are just a few of the topics we discussed (and a few blogging tips for those who weren’t able to attend).

How do you monetize your blog?

• Work with sponsors on collaboration posts, but make sure YOU write the post to ensure it’s written in your tone (don’t scare the readers off) and include a maximum of 2 external links
• Go on press trips, but don’t just go for free (if you want to go on a free trip, great, but make sure that you’re selling each blog article to the partner who hired you / or charge a fee per day if you have a larger following)
• How do you find partners to work with? The web is filled with information and businesses, so finding the right one isn’t easy, take a look at what others are doing in the industry and who they are working with
• Whenever you mention a product or service, you can be getting paid for that, use sources like Amazon Affiliates to make sure your monetizing even the little bits of content
• If you write book reviews, they’re typically an easier sell, make sure you include the affiliate link so others can purchase the book right away

Where do you share your content on social media? How do you avoid being spammy?

• Don’t share your content on the large blogger Facebook groups unless you think the post is going to be relevant for bloggers (i.e. don’t share a post on 10 things to do in Paris – it’s not unique, instead share 10 Hidden Gems in Bhutan – a place where even travel bloggers might not have been)
• Research on the web questions that relate to a blog post you’ve recently written, instead of sharing your post with readers who may not be interested, share your post with readers who have asked a specific question relative to a topic in your post

What makes the perfect blog? How do you revive old posts?

• You can use Plugins like “Revive Old Post” to continue to share older content that you’ve written (it’s still good quality)
• Constantly share your posts on social media (numerous times on Twitter)
• The length of the blog doesn’t seem to matter (it can be 500 words or 1500 words)
• Include an average of 3 tags per 700 words
• Recreate old blogs posts (that were previously written for your mom and dad) and change them into destination guides (so more than just your mom and dad will want to read them)

That was just a teaser, but there were plenty of more topics we discussed throughout the evening (15-minute intervals) including finding the right niche, improving your SEO, e-book tips and how to get readers to stay on your site longer.

Interested in hosting your own Barcamp? Our inspiration stemmed from a Travel Massive London event, you can check out more details on how to host your own Barcamp on their event wrap-up.

Written by Jenna Davis. Jenna is a global content creator and freelance social media manager originally from Toronto, Canada, now based in Düsseldorf, Germany. She is one of the Cologne/Dusseldorf Chapter Leaders and the Global Content Manager at Travel Massive. She also runs two active blogs: Give for Granted (a sustainable travel blog) and Life in Düsseldorf (a local community blog).