It’s already been a couple of weeks since I ventured off to Athens, Greece for the TBEX Athens Conference. For those of you who don’t know what this event is, it is an event hosted by Travel Blogging Exchange – An organization structured to help build connections between travel bloggers, content creators and social savvy people. Every year, twice a year TBEX holds the world’s largest gathering of travel industry professionals together somewhere across the world in order to build connections, build partnerships and enhance the knowledge among us all.

Not only did I learn a lot of great blogging tips, but made a ton of remarkable blogging friends and am now eager to jet off to the next TBEX conference held in Costa Brava, Spain.

If you’re a travel blogger reading this, you have to come — send me an e-mail [giveforgranted@gmail.com] and I’d love to be your ‘conference buddy’. It was my first TBEX this year and though I was overwhelmed at first, however it is such a personable space to be that it takes all of 2 minutes to meet your newest friends.

For those of you who didn’t make the conference this year in Athens or for those of you who perhaps attending different speaker sessions…

Here are the top 5 blogging tips I learned from attending this years conference:

1. Numbers aren’t what matter in today’s blogging society – it is the interaction you have with your readers

I can’t tell you how many times I heard this while at the conference from many different speakers, industry professionals and other bloggers. It was a relief to hear this because in reality, anyone now-a-days can just buy an extensive following and be up there in the top 50 world renowned travel bloggers list. Many more companies today are looking not just for the numbers, but for the interaction between you and your readers. This includes using your blog, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and so on.

2. Don’t make your press trips your paid opportunities

I actually don’t charge clients for press trips as I am so thankful just to be getting the accommodations and excursions covered. I know that many other bloggers in today’s ‘travel industry’ are requesting obscure amounts of money.. if you’re look for dollar figures, I think most bloggers today will suggest between 100 – 200 euros per day. The worse part about it is that many of them may only offer you 1 blog post and 1 picture upon the end of their trip.

In on of the sessions I sat in on with Carol Cain (writer from girlgonetravel.com) she mentioned that no one should be charging for press trips. So how do you make your money, right? Well.. she suggested going on these press trips, seeing what areas they may be lacking skills or strength in and then offering additional services which would be paid. For example, hosting a social media lecture for the employees at the hotel, or if you’re a great photographer perhaps offering new photographs of all the food at the restaurant, you get the idea.

3.  Be passionate, exciting and energetic! 

This sounds so simple to understand, yet when you get on the road to being a ‘professional travel blogger,’ a lot of the excitement is slowly washed away and you start to consider your travels more like a ‘job’ rather than enjoyment. Don’t get me wrong, travel blogging is hard work, but the one thing you should be the most excited about is the TRIP! How couldn’t you be?! Good news for the new and eager bloggers — this may be your opportunity to shine.

4. Build your elevator speech from a story, not from a selling point

Though most elevator pitches should be more formal, us travel bloggers are story tellers, we make content into unique content and bring each property and business we work with to life. Don’t be so formal when you’re pitching your blog to businesses, act natural, be yourself and let them know why you would be fun to work with. Note: This isn’t to say to show up wearing shorts and a backpack, still dress to impress, but just be yourself!

5. There are 5 keys to making great content

– Original: Be yourself, not someone who you think the people want you to be. It isn’t true if you aren’t your fun and original self. Try to create your own ideas and your own blog topics or video topics. So many bloggers today feed off of each other and end up creating very similar blogs.

– Simple: This is what I take pride on… being as simple as possible. Think about it as you are the reader of your own content. Do you have time to read it all? Is it easy to navigate through? These are all areas to look at so you make the readers experience simple and quick.

– Valuable: Well if it isn’t going to benefit someone reading the post, don’t even bother writing it. There is nothing worse than writing a piece that no one cares about.

– Entertaining: Tell all your blogs in the form of a story,  it’s your life you’re writing about here so make it interesting – if you’re a travel blogger already, chances are your life is already pretty wild.

– Emotional: As I mentioned, you probably already have quite an interesting life as a travel blogger but on the contrary, you also probably fall into a lot of uneasy or foreign situations that you were hoping to avoid. These aren’t things to hide from your readers. You can’t make it seem like you’re perfect everyday or people won’t want to continue following you. Be emotional, share your stories, but share ALL of them.

Enjoyed the blogging tips and looking to start writing your own blog??For inspiration about travelling the world, check out the following posts: Why You Should Travel Now, How to Create Your Own Blog, How to Break Out of Habit and Travel the World, The Best Quotes to Inspire You to Travel, The Bucket List.