As I type this, I’m on a plane heading back to Portland from Austin, where I attended the travel blogging conference TravelCon. More than 600 bloggers, vloggers, creatives, photographers and travel lovers attended the three-day conference, and I know I’m not speaking just for myself when I say I left inspired and ready to up my travel blogging game. Not everyone could attend, though, so I want to share my biggest TravelCon blogging conference takeaways.

I’m super old-school and took frantic notes in a notebook for all the sessions and keynotes I attended. In fact, it was often hard to choose which session to attend because so many of them could help me grow my blog, improve my photography and master marketing.

Even though I couldn’t be everywhere at once, I did soak in some serious wisdom from the travel experts who led breakout sessions and spoke on stage.

Although it’s hard to pick the best travel blogging advice from so much great wisdom, I did—for you! Without further ado, here are my biggest TravelCon blogging conference takeaways.

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TravelCon blogging conference takeaways for travel bloggers

How to create a lasting, sustainable business

Ryan Holiday, author of The Obstacle Is the Way, spoke in his keynote about making something—a business, a blog, a creative project—that stays relevant even as time passes. Although we’re often enchanted by quick wins, it’s actually the slow burn of steady growth that leads to long-term success.

(Isn’t that what you want for your travel blog? I know I do.)

Ryan’s book makes for a great read, but if you’d prefer the audio version, you can download it for free using this link to an Audible trial!

Ryan had many tips for making something that lasts, but the most striking was that we should be creating something that is a verb, not just a noun.

Let me explain.

Ryan pointed out that a successful travel blog needs to fill in this statement:

This is a ______ that does ______ for _______.

The middle part of that sentence is often missing from new ventures, but it’s key because successful travel blogs should be performing some service—inspiring, educating, helping, persuading. In other words, it’s a verb.

So what does your travel blog do?

Answer that question and you’ll be on your way to building a successful travel blog that lasts.

How to monetize your travel blog with tours

Derek Baron, who runs the international tour company and brand Wandering Earl, ran a session about expanding your travel blog business to include tours. This is something I want to test out in 2019 (holler if you’re interested, and tell me where you want to go/what you want to do in the comments or via email!!). But honestly, I felt a little lost about the how.

Derek shared the process of how he went from one tour in India (that, he admits, was severely underpriced) to running a tour company that runs trips in Romania, India, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco and beyond.

My biggest takeaway was that you don’t need a gigantic audience to branch out into running a tour. As he repeated several times, all you need is 10 people to sign up (or the number of people to make your targeted profit).

To diversify your revenue streams and expand into travel tours, you don’t have to be the next Intrepid Tours; you can offer something different that your audience wants. You don’t need to get the entire world to sign on to your tour; you can start with 10.

Crush email marketing to expand your travel blog’s reach

Ask any blogging expert these days about the most important (but underused) resource to grow your blog, and they’ll probably have the same answer: Your email list. Yet most of us don’t dedicate the same amount of energy into building, cultivating and using our email list for blogging success. (I know I’m guilty.)

That’s why the session on email marketing led by AWeber’s Chris Vasquez was so helpful: He took an intimidating topic and made it feel doable.

My biggest TravelCon blogging conference takeaway from this session was that you have to actually do something with those emails you’ve collected. The first step in the process of monetizing your email list is a welcome campaign.

By creating a sequence of automated emails that go out when someone new signs up, you make them feel, well, welcome. You also begin to build a relationship with someone, which keeps them coming back to your travel blog. Just as important, it gives them a way to connect with you—to ask you a question or give you feedback, for example.

“You’re not trying to build a list of emails. You’re trying to grow relationships with people.” -Chris Vasquez

Bravery isn’t about being an adventure travel blogger

A few years back, writer and editor Helen Russell left her job in London to move with her husband to Denmark, where she knew no one and didn’t speak the language. Her curiosity about why Denmark is consistently ranked the happiest country in the world led her to write The Year of Living Danishly, a New York Times bestseller. You can download this in an audiobook format for free with this link.

Helen focused her keynote speech on finding your story—the unique way you connect with others with your personal narrative.

My big TravelCon blogging conference takeaway was that as a travel blogger and a storyteller, you have to be braver thank you think you can be.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to intentionally poison yourself with Amazonian frogs. It does mean that you have to challenge yourself, be vulnerable and put yourself out there—in spite of the possibility of failure and rejection.

Taking a leap into travel blogging is scary. Anytime you pursue your passion on an unconventional path, people won’t understand, and you might not reach your goals. But you have to push past that fear to create something meaningful.

“[Writing] should be terrifying. If you’re not being honest and bold, it should give you butterflies. If you’re not being bold and brave, and telling your very own story, then really what’s the point?” -Helen Russell

You don’t have to have a super-specific blogging niche

Niche: It’s a buzzword among bloggers, and common knowledge says you have to have an extremely focused niche to grow a successful blog.

Kiersten Rich, aka The Blonde Abroad, straight-up refuted that assumption.

In her session about building a six-figure brand, I wrote down this takeaway because it really spoke to me.

To & Fro Fam is a family travel blog, where I aim to help parents spend quality time with their kids by making travel easier. But just take a look at To & Fro Fam’s navigation tab (or even this blog post) and you’ll see I write about more than only family travel.

That’s because I recognize that my audience—primarily moms, as well as other travel bloggers—are three-dimensional people with more than one role and more than one interest. Sure, they might be moms, but they’re also friends, wives, and curious, independent women. It makes total sense, then, that I write about couples travel and kid-free travel as well as travel blogging tips.

Kiersten’s refusal to exclude from her brand what interested her just because it wasn’t “niche-y” enough totally freed me.

It works for her—she makes a solid six-figure income every year. And it can work for me—and you—too.

“I owned the fact that I wasn’t just a niche traveler. A lot of people travel in that way.” -Kiersten Rich

Speak your voice

Oneika Raymond, travel blogger and journalist, told a story at TravelCon about a video she made that went viral—and actually got her death threats.

Her video about the Dutch tradition of Black Pete called out the racism of dressing up someone in blackface and having him parade around like a simple-minded lackey. Lots of people didn’t agree. Hateful comments and threats against her safety rained down, but she says she never regretted creating the video.

People don’t come to travel blogs for only travel tips and advice; they come, in part, because of you. Your audience can get dry travel facts just about anywhere, but only you can provide something wholly unique: your authentic self.

My TravelCon travel blogging conference takeaway from Oneika’s keynote was this: Take a stand, have a perspective and speak your piece. Not everyone will appreciate it. But honesty comes from integrity, and that will ultimately keep you happy with yourself (as well as earn the loyalty of long-term fans).

“Sometimes staying true to your voice will make you an enemy to some. But you’ll also be a hero to others because you’ll amplify what they want to say.” -Oneika Raymond

Sell your travel photos

This one session, How to Sell Your Photos led by travel photographer and writer Lola Akinmade Akerstrom, was one of the biggest factors in why I decided to attend TravelCon. It proved that the travel blogging conference was committed to providing practical, in-depth information that would challenge us—and provide a road map to growing our brand.

I wasn’t disappointed.

This session on how to sell your travel photos got very nitty gritty on the process of beginning to develop this revenue stream. But my biggest takeaway was more of a mindset shift.

In this hour-long session, in a room with about 100 people, Lola instilled in me the belief that I can sell my photos. She showed me I can be a travel photographer. No, she showed me I already am a travel photographer.

This is another blogging goal for 2019: I want to jump-start my services as a travel photographer.

“The moment you start treating yourself as a professional is the moment you become a professional photographer.” -Lola Akinmade Akerstrom

Build a giveaway/Facebook ads combo to exponentially grow your email list

Facebook marketing is intimidating for bloggers in part because you have to keep up on a constantly changing algorithm. It’s no wonder that many of us aren’t taking full advantage of Facebook ads—or that we’re wasting money by not approaching ads in the right way.

Jack Paxton of Paxton Projects led a session at TravelCon about Facebook marketing. Some of it was over my head—I’m a total newbie when it comes to Facebook ads—but I didn’t need to be an expert to come away with this blogging conference takeaway:

The fastest way to grow your email list is by combining a giveaway with Facebook ads.

By offering something your audience wants and will get excited about, you incentivize them from giving you their much-protected information—their name and email. And as Chris Vasquez pointed out, getting their email is one great way to begin to build a relationship with readers that goes beyond your blog.

Jack walked us through exactly how to do this, step-by-step. He even showed us exactly how he recently ran a giveaway/Facebook ad combination, even going into the cost-per-click and other granular detail.

I left Jack’s Facebook marketing session with a clear plan of running several giveaways for my blog and other marketing clients. Even better, he provided an outline that taught me exactly how to execute that plan.

Turning blogging conference lessons into action

One last takeaway, this time for the travel blogging conference as a whole: Attending a blogging conference and soaking up all the information is a great first step. But you have to put that conference learning into action to actually affect your blog.

So you can bet I’ll be spending the coming months working on growing my blog. This isn’t only a self-promotional, selfish aim; I want to make it better to serve the parents, families and travel bloggers who come here for practical advice and inspiration. I also want to reach more of them.

That sounds like a solid goal to me.

What was the most helpful takeaway in here for you and your travel blog? Are you adding anything as a blogging goal or to-do list task after reading this post?