Garaphernalia 7.5

With a bit of time to digest everything, here are some random thoughts on this year’s TBEX conference in Toronto. I’ve been to every TBEX except for the event in Copenhagen, so I have something to compare it to.

• TBEX is all grown up. 1,300 people is a lot. The feel of the conference has definitely changed. Even last year in Colorado I could still at least say hello to most of the people I knew. This year there were many people who I know attended but I never once saw. This is just the new reality and is something everyone is going to have to live with. The number of people who want to be travel bloggers is swelling and I see the growth rates continuing for at least several years. How big can TBEX get? There are other blogging conferences which get 3,000-5,000 attendees, so I think that would be the upper limit. I don’t, however, think that travel blogging will be a popular as parenting blogs, so I think 2,000-2,500 might be the max. If it goes beyond that it will be because the conference evolves beyond blogging into a general new media conference for the travel industry.
• Increasing Pressure for Quality. There were 45 slots in the writing workshops and a waiting list of 91! There is clearly a demand for this level of education for writing (and to a lesser extent photography and videography). I would not be shocked if next year the writing workshops go a full day and have even more instructors to fill the demand. I could easily see 150 people attending the sessions. The preBEX workshops could very well become their own thing independent of the main conference.
• Many businesses are still clueless. A common thread I heard from bloggers is that a lot of businesses they spoke to still don’t know why they were there or what they want to do with bloggers. They were pretty open about admitting that they had no clue what they were doing. Everyone feels like they should do something, but they don’t know what. A few companies have figured it out (or at least have figured something out), but it is still a mystery to most companies.
• People expect too much from sessions. I never go to a conference expecting to learn anything. Anything you need to know can be better learned online. 50 minutes listening to someone with a PowerPoint presentation isn’t an optimal learning environment. You should hope to come out of a conference with ideas. The seed of something you didn’t think about before that you can expand after the conference is over. Most probably, you will get these ideas from talking to people in the hallways, which is the real value of any conference. That is the real danger of having such large conferences. The hallway time you spend talking to people get diluted and it is hard to find people. The parties this year were just so big, I couldn’t have as many meaningful conversations as I have had in the past.
• Have smaller events. Rather than one massive party each night, 2 or 3 smaller ones might be better. Last year they had breakfasts for bloggers in various niches to meet and talk. That was absent this year. It would be nice if they brought that back.
• I have no idea how productive this year was. I had 2 meetings all weekend. My manager Amy’s schedule was full. We talked afterwards and we might have a few things which could pan out business wise, but I won’t know for months. Oddly enough, several organizations who really wanted to talk to me didn’t bother to even notify me before the conference. None have followed up with me as of yet.
• Supply is still greater than demand for press trips. A sobering thought, but the reason why so many people are starting blogs to get free trips is because people are giving free trips to almost anyone. I’ve been amazed at some of the bloggers I’ve seen some PR companies and DMO’s sending on trips, but they don’t seem to care. Right now we are in a phase where just having “blog” attached to you is enough to get people excited. PR clients want to do “blogger trips” without really caring who the bloggers are. I’m not sure if this is a fad, or just the modern day equivalent of hack writers going on press trips, which has been happening for decades. The truth is, there are still more hotels and destinations than there are bloggers. So long as there are budgets, you probably wont see the end of this. I’ve noticed more veteran bloggers cutting back on sponsored travel because the trips are often not that fun and are tiring. That means more opportunities for newbies.
• New sessions for next year. I would like to see a session on how to pitch stories to traditional media. I would also like to see a session (or track) dedicated to traditional media people who are getting into blogging. Both would be useful and welcome.

While TBEX has changed, it is still the #1 conference on my schedule each year. It is the only place I can meet people like myself and companies who are looking to meet people like me. That alone makes it worth the trip.

I am getting more and more emails from people I’ve never met who seem to think that my mission in life to to promote projects and companies that I have never heard of, for no compensation.

I reject 99% of what I pitched to me. In fact I can count on my hands the number of companies that I have worked with simply because so few have ever presented me with anything worth responding to.

For those few who will read this, here is how to pitch me:

1) Contact me personally.

Form letters will get instantly deleted. Making a single reference to a blog post that happens to be on the front page of my site and following the rest with a form letter will get deleted. Providing generic compliments about how you like my “content” will your email deleted.

Anything which smacks of an email that was sent to multiple people is something I’m probably not going to want to be a part of. You can’t separate yourself from the crowd if you are part of the heard.

Write me a personal email. It isn’t hard to tell if it is a cut and paste job. Show that you’ve actually sat down and have gone through my site, you didn’t just get my name off of some list with a number on it.

Even better, make an effort to meet with me in person. I know that isn’t always possible, but it goes a long way. (I’ve had in face meetings with every company I’ve worked with just to give you an idea of how well it works).

2) What is in it for me?

That sounds selfish, but it is far less selfish than a for profit company begging for free publicity. I didn’t get started blogging so I could promote companies for free. I know damn well what you want. You need to give some consideration to what I’d want.

Most pitches I get provide no reason whatsoever as to why someone would ever want to accept it. I recently got one that pitched an ambassador program. Ok, fine. Why would I want to be an ambassador for your company? There was nothing in the email to indicate there would be any upside to me whatsoever. They just wanted “ambassadors”.

If there is at least something in your initial pitch which would at least indicate there is a benefit to me in partnering with you, there is no point in sending it.

3) You almost certainly cannot provide me any exposure

Unless you happen to be a major media company, you can’t provide me exposure. No one is going to visit your company blog. If they were, you wouldn’t need me. Your link is meaningless. I’m not a freelancer. Go to oDesk and hire someone to write $5 articles for you if that is all you want.

If you are a start up, you especially are in no position to provide “exposure”.

Unlike some writers, I’ll happy provide free content, but only if you are a major media outlet that actually can provide exposure.

4) If all you care about is SEO, move along

If your title has anything to do with “search” or “SEO”, I know all you care about is a link and I’m not going to work with you in any fashion. Period.

5) Do something for my readers

Me promoting you isn’t doing something for my readers. What would really be nice is if you provide some sort of deal/coupon/download/contest which was only available through my site to my readers.

6) There needs to be more than an affiliate link.

Affiliate programs are very lopsided. I promote you for free and then only get credit for sales from my website. I get zero credit for any other sales which might come through different channels. The only sort of affiliate program I’d enter is for products that I’d be linking to anyhow, usually for companies that sell a wide range of products (aka Amazon).

In summary, if the only thing you can tell me is how you will benefit from a deal, it is a deal at all. Presenting a real win/win is the only way to do business.

I’m shocked that most people don’t know that.

Two weeks ago I moved from Media Temple to Websynthesis. I think this graph tells the story better than I could:

There is something that has been gnawing at me for several months now. I’ve been suffering from a bout of cognitive dissonance ever since I attended the Book Passage Travel Writing Conference last August. I sat in on the sessions by Spud Hilton, the travel editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. During his 4-day sessions, one of the points he brought up was that the story “is not about you”.

I think he makes a valid point. If you are writing about the Russian winter, then the story is about the Russian winter. He backed this up by confirming what I’ve been saying for years; no one reads the byline on articles. No one knows or remembers who wrote anything.

Online, however, people often do remember who wrote something. They follow individuals on Twitter and subscriber to the blogs of particular individuals. There are many individuals who have personal followings larger than some media outlets. Online it seems, personality isn’t only important, it is really important.

So how do you resolve these two seemingly contradictory things? Just because you read something in pixels instead of ink doesn’t mean that the rules of telling a good story have changed. Likewise, the tendency of people to follow individuals online should be obvious to everyone.

The answer lies in understanding the difference between a story and a meta-story.

Most readers have no idea what they are getting when they receive a new issue of a magazine or a newspaper. They didn’t subscribe because there was an article on a particular subject scheduled at some point in the future. They subscribed because the publication made a promise as to what it was it was about.

National Geographic is different than People Magazine. Most people would call this branding. It is the implicit promise of what you are going to get in the future. I can be almost 100% certain that the article about ivory poaching will appear in National Geographic and the one about Kim Kardashian’s baby will appear in People.

In a publication, people are interchangeable. Most people have no clue who the editor or publisher is of any magazine they subscribe to. Even if they see a byline on an article, they have no idea who the person is or what their back story is. Moreover, if that person is a freelance writer, there is no way they can follow that person to read more of them even if they wanted to.

Online, that all changes.

If someone reads a post from me on my blog, they can easily find out more about me. They can read articles on similar subjects that I’ve written about. They can see my face and hear my voice.

When you read an article in a travel magazine, you usually have no idea how experienced a traveler the writer is. On my site, you can see a full list of every place I’ve ever been.

The decision to follow someone online is similar to the decision to subscribe to a magazine or newspaper except instead of the promise of a brand, there is a meta-story.

Meta-story is the term I’m using instead of brand to describe individuals. The idea of a brand really doesn’t apply to people, despite the attempts of social media gurus to apply it. A meta-story is exactly what it implies. It is the backstory to you and your life. It is the collection of your values, priorities, personality and history that makes you who you are. Meta-story is a rather vague term that can apply to any number of things, all of which result in a reader wanting to hear more from that person in the future.

The resolution to the conflict I described above is in understanding the nature of a story vs. a meta-story and the difference between playing the role of writer vs. that of publisher.

Individuals have followings online because of their meta-stories. What makes a good story, however, hasn’t changed.

We have all read articles online that did not result in following the author to read the next thing they published. Being a good storyteller and having a good meta-story are two different things.

I’m sure that the vast majority of the people who follow me do so because of my meta-story. A guy who travels around the world full time is inherently interesting. That doesn’t necessarily make me a good storyteller, however. I’ve had to work hard to become a better photographer and I’m still working at becoming a better writer.

Likewise, being a good storyteller doesn’t mean you have a compelling meta-story. There are plenty of good writers I’ve met who provide no compelling reason for people to follow them. Even if there is a compelling meta-story, a vehicle has to be in place for people to discover it. A byline just doesn’t cut it anymore.

A good story isn’t about the writer, but a good meta-story is.

Good storytelling hasn’t changed, but publishing has. A good story can bring people in and a good meta-story can keep them coming back.

I had a problem in 2012. I spent so much time traveling and running around that I had very little time to focus on growth of my site and the goals I set out to achieve.

I’m going to purposely slow down this year and focus more on creating content and getting the word out.

My biggest failure in 2012 was with my email newsletter. I didn’t send out a newsletter for FIVE months! My subscribers stagnated and it is pretty easy to see why it happened.

It isn’t enough just for me to set arbitrary goals anymore, I also need a corresponding plan.

Email/RSS

I lump these two together because they both show up in my Feedburner count, but in reality almost all the growth is in the email newsletter. In fact, in the minor site redesign I recently did I deemphasized RSS and put more emphasis on email.

I also released a new incentive ebook and the results have been pretty good. The open rate has been high (65% so far and I sent it on a holiday) and the click rate has been insane. Almost 85,000 clicks so far. How did I get far more clicks than subscribers? Simple. People sending the email to their friends so they can download the book. Also, I had links to 2 ebooks in the email, so it is still may 10’000’s of people who downloaded the new ebook alone.

My goal for 2013 is more modest than last year. In fact that goal is exactly the same: 30,000 subscribers. Breaking this number down, it is 800 per month or 27 per day. I am already getting 20 subscribers per day on most days, so it isn’t that crazy of a number.

I ended up gaining about 5,000 new subscribers in 2012, which is more subscribers than pretty much any other travel blog has in total, save for one. Despite the number, it is still only a 33% increase and far shy of my 100% goal for last year.

A 50% increase in 2013 will still represent a big improvement over 2012.

We have to promote the newsletter more across my other channels as well as just being more diligent about sending it out.

It is entirely possible that if I do a few things correctly, I could blow past this number. I’ll just have to wait and see.

Facebook

I made my goal for Facebook fans. Once I hit 30,000 fans I started testing Facebook ads and we had some success. We (Amy and I) cut off ads in December but are going to start them up again soon. The goal for 2013 is to have 125,000 Facebook Fans by the end of 2013. This amounts to 6,000 new fans per month which should be easy with smart advertising and current organic rates of growth. I’m also going to be doing more live updates this year now that I’ll have access to internet in more places (unlocked GSM phone). That type of content tends to do well.

After email, Facebook is by far my top priority. I get more engagement on Facebook than all other social platforms combined. It isn’t even close. I could probably spend all day answering questions on Facebook if I wanted to.

I should also note that another important metric isn’t just raw followers, it is engagement levels. Given the nature of Facebook, only a small percentage of people will actually see what you post. I shoot for a 5% rate of engagement, which is pretty good. People aren’t just viewing content but are actively commenting and/or sharing it with their friends.

Twitter

No goals at all. I annualized out my 2 month rate of growth on Twitter. Assuming current rates of organic growth I’ll wind up with around 130,00 followers at the end of 2013. That is fine. I don’t put much effort into Twitter. Since I got Twitter verified my organic growth rate has gone up a bit, which is good enough.

Instagram

I have paid almost no attention to Instagram until recently. The last few weeks I did a promoted post on Facebook to let my fans know about Instagram and that netted about 2,000 new followers. I also talked to a guy on online who has a huge Instagram following and he promoted a few of my photos which netted me several hundred more fans. I’m current sitting just below 5,000 followers. I’m not sure it is worth putting that much effort into it. I have recently tied my Instagram account with my Facebook Fan Page, which I assume will help organic growth on Instagram the more I use it.

Google+

I have 7,000 followers on Google+. I have no idea how or why. I get little in the way of engagement. However, there are some photographers out there who do fantastic on Google+. I’m not going to abandon it, but I’m not sure what to do with it. Maybe do more Google Hangouts. I’m open to experimenting and will welcome it if something happens, but this isn’t goal worthy.

YouTube

I think I can do a LOT here. I simply haven’t bothered to do video, but this year I want to make some changes. I am basically starting at zero (112 subscribers). I have some ideas and I think that I’ll be able to develop a style that will work well, but I’ll have to test it. I will also probably need to hire some editing help, perhaps in the form of a VA. Stay tuned.

The more I think about it and the more I research people with large YouTube followings, the more important I see YouTube being. It is possible that it could be the most important thing I have listed here (but I’m not confident enough to stay that conclusively yet).

Conferences

I’m going to cut down on conferences this year significantly. I’ve already finished NMX in Las Vegas. The only other ones I’m planning to attend are ITB Berlin and TBEX in Toronto. I might go to TBEX in Dublin, but that is probably it. I didn’t get much value from World Travel Market. It just isn’t set up for media. If they do speed dating at ITB, that should be more than enough to keep me busy. Those three events (ITB, TBEX, TBEX Europe) are spread far enough apart during the year that I wont feel rushed in attending them all.

eBooks

I’ve had great success with my photo ebooks. I’m going to make more. They can serve as both a monetization strategy and a way to grow my audience, and if done correctly they can do both at the same time. Bigger items tend to do better than any individual blog post.