Jay LeonardQuality travel blogs are a highly sought-after space for any business that works in tourism, transport, travel insurance or any other travel-related field. The best of them attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, gaining huge follower numbers on social platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
As 2012 drew to a close – a rough year for many in the digital realm with its Penguin and Panda updates and requisite new content strategies formed accordingly – FHR, in collaboration with digital agency No Pork Pies, contacted a range of travel bloggers – with a survey to get a greater insight into the process of sponsoring travel sites. We got a total of 52 participants and created the infographic below based on findings.
It was a time-consuming task that involved a lot of painstaking email-gathering, sifting through data and, of course, design hours. But the value in it is that a huge element of content strategy for agencies and brands is now about having close collaborations and strong professional relationships with the owners of these increasingly powerful media outlets, so it’s worth getting a closer look at how they work with sponsors, how many blogs each website owner runs, if and how they monetise their sites, what brands they choose to work with.
On the flipside, it’s useful for other bloggers – many of whom operate solo – to get an idea of what their contemporaries are up to, and how they compare to others in the industry.
The publication of The State of Travel Blogging 2013 brought on plenty of lively debate in forums, Twitter and blogs – many expressing surprise at the number of blogs that accept sponsored posts, and also the number of blogs some people run. We’re looking forward to tracking it long-term and finding out how much more the industry has changed by 2014.
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Jay Leonard.
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Hey Kristian – well done infographic. I’m certainly intrigued and would like to learn more. I’m curious what your response rate and geographic distribution were for the survey? I tweeted you in hopes that we could connect. Thanks.