Travel Blogger Blueprint

February 9, 2015February 14, 2015

Facebook Training: How To Use The New Facebook Select Targeting Option When Creating A Post

Facebook Select Targeting - How To Use The New Facebook Select Targeting Option

Facebook is always launching new ways to target your audience when making a post. The most recent is that they now added the “Select Targeting” feature when creating a post.

Once you place your cursor in the Create Post box, you will notice a compass rose appear to the right of the Location icon. As indicated by the blue arrow below.

Facebook Select Targeting option - First Step — Facebook Select Targeting option – First Step

Once you’ve created your post, first hover over the compass rose icon to see the message below explaining the usage of the function. You will also see “Select Targeting” dropdown arrow appear as well.

Once you click on the compass rose icon, you will see all the targeting options that are available to you:

Gender
Relationship Status
Educational Status
Age
Location
Language
Interests
Post End Date

If you decide to Target by Gender, just choose Gender and then you will have options appear for Male or Female. You will also be advised the number of people you are targeting based on the subset of the number of Likes you have. This will help you to figure out the likely reach of your post.

Facebook Select Targeting option - Target By Gender — Facebook Select Targeting option – Target By Gender

I’ve included examples of some of the other options here for you.

Target By Location allows you to choose a country, Region or State or a City.

Facebook Select Targeting option - Target By Location — Facebook Select Targeting option – Target By Location

Targeting By Age allows you to chose the age range that you wish to target.

Facebook Select Targeting option - Target By Age — Facebook Select Targeting option – Target By Age

Post End Date let’s you add a date and time to end your post. This is helpful if you have a timely offer that will expire. It helps to show scarcity as well.

Facebook Select Targeting option - Post End Date — Facebook Select Targeting option – Post End Date

So there you have it, a whole new way to target your post to ensure that only the customers you want will see it, thus improving your engagement.

Have you tried out this new feature? What do you think? Please leave a comment below.

January 28, 2015February 14, 2015

The New York Times Travel Show: 200+ Potential Partners All Under One Roof

NY Times Travel Show 2015 - Welcome To Travel Show

January in New York is tough, its always cold and depending on your timing, you may have a winter storm which just makes things more exciting. Of course this January came through with flying colors.

But its the time of year when the New York Times Travel Show occurs at the Jacob Javitts Center. That does not dampen spirits at all as there are over 200 potential partners under one roof for you to sample. Plus there are travel sessions abound that will increase your knowledge of our industry.

Heavy hitters in the industry attend this show including, JohnnyJet, Paula Froelich from Yahoo Travel, Arthur Frommer and his daughter Pauline Frommer, Lee Abbamonte, Peter Greenberg and a host of other travel bloggers. So its a treasure trove. I hope its on your list for next year.

New York Times Travel Show 2015 - Arthur Frommer and Pauline Frommer Giving Future Trends — New York Times Travel Show 2015 – Arthur Frommer and Pauline Frommer Giving Future Trends

My best part of this show is the Caribbean Round Table, where the partners from different countries come to your table and educate you on their countries. It’s like visiting the Caribbean in 45 minutes. Nothing I’ve done beats this experience. I had representatives from St. Lucia, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas, Cayman Islands to name a few.

NY Times Travel Show 2015 - Pure Grenada Food — NY Times Travel Show 2015 – Pure Grenada Food

Africa, Asia, The Caribbean, Europe, North America, South America, I think the entire world had a representation. It’s not as big as say World Travel Market in London or even ITB Berlin, but it packs its own punch.

NY Times Travel Show 2015 - Atlantic Canada — NY Times Travel Show 2015 – Atlantic Canada

I came away with quite a bit of knowledge as well and can now act as a resource for you in more areas.

For 2015, river cruising seems to be the biggest item; this was big in 2014, but is getting bigger. I even sat in on a session with LeBoat from Europe who allows you to rent a boat and go boating down some local rivers. A very neat and pretty inexpensive concept based on what you are getting; really good value for your money.

Normal cruises are not to be left out as well. Cruise lines such as Carnival, Celebrity, MSC and Windstar were all represented.

Most of the Caribbean islands were represented with their usual fare of surf, sand and sunshine. Which based on the northeast weather is very much needed.

NY Times Travel Show 2015 Antigua and Barbuda with the Jamaica Bobsled Team

Of course Cuba was talked about a lot. But if you’re from the U.S., you can’t go just yet. Hang in there. I actually made a good contact so I’ll give you more information as I know more.

It was good to see Atlantic City there again with their DO AC campaign. They’ve taken quite a beating since Katrina, but they keep on going. I even got a chance to meet Miss America 2015, Kira Kazantsev, who is actually Miss New York, so she was happy to be back in her home state.

They really want people to know that despite the bad news, Atlantic City is still open and things are well. They have a number of acts performing as well as casino renovations continuing and some commercial and residential improvements coming online. Even Gordon Ramsay is opening a new restaurant at Caesars this year. So things are looking up.

NY Times Travel Show 2015 - Miss America 2015 (Kira Kazantsev) AtlanticCity — NY Times Travel Show 2015 – Miss America 2015 (Kira Kazantsev) AtlanticCity

Perhaps the best find was a number of airlines that serve the New York area making a showing; such as Air Berlin, Air Malta, China Airlines, China Southern, Etihad (got to walk The Residence again) and Turkish Airlines. It was great to talk with them and get to understand their goals. Did a few Instagrams and tweets as well.

NY Times Travel Show 2015 - China Southern (CZ) Boeing 787 — NY Times Travel Show 2015 – China Southern (CZ) Boeing 787

There were a few bloggers giving presentations as well:

Michael Hodson on working with bloggers. He later asked Veronica from Gypsy Nesters (who is getting ready to publish their first book) and Stephen from Walks of New York/Italy/Turkey to join and answer questions.
Adrien Glover, deputy digital editor, Travel+Leisure; Johnny Jet, from JohnnyJet.com and Paula Froelich, editor in chief, Yahoo Travel did a panel on the power of influence.
Karen Christensen, Regina Fraser, Pat Johnson, Kate McCulley and Ed Salvato talking on travel safety
Christine Maxfield, Kelly Lewis, Sherry Ott, Matt Stabile and Caroline Trefler talking about solo travel
Lee Abbamonte on using social media when traveling,
Nomadic Matt on budget travel and
Lauren Matison, Paul Brady, David Farley, Megan McDonough and Brendan Spiegel on the topic of NY Weekend Getaways.

The topics were quite varied and the audience loved the information.

NY Times Travel Show 2015 Sherry Ott and Matt Stabile — NY Times Travel Show 2015 Christine Maxfield, Kelly Lewis, Sherry Ott, Matt Stabile and Caroline Trefler talking about solo travel

NY Times Travel Show 2015 - Lee Abbamonte talking about using twitter and DMing your travel partners when traveling — NY Times Travel Show 2015 – Lee Abbamonte talking about using twitter and DMing your travel partners when traveling

NY Times Travel Show 2015 - Nomadic Matt talks about Budget Travel — NY Times Travel Show 2015 – Nomadic Matt talks about Budget Travel

NY Times Travel Show 2015 - NY Weekend Getaways with Lauren Matison , Paul Brady , David Farley , Megan McDonough , Brendan Spiegel — NY Times Travel Show 2015 – NY Weekend Getaways with Lauren Matison , Paul Brady , David Farley , Megan McDonough , Brendan Spiegel

It was also good to see fellow travel bloggers and catch up as well. This is always a good thing. Had a chance to catch up with Harvey, Annita, Matt, Johnny Jet, Matt, Turner and vlogger Brian to name a few.

So if you’re in the neighborhood next year, plan on attending. The networking was fantastic and the learning was indeed worth braving the elements for the three days.

October 23, 2014October 23, 2014

TBEX Athens 2014 Presentation – How To Network Without Becoming Annoying

Thank you for attending my talk at TBEX Athens. I certainly hope you enjoyed it and have now met a few more people than you imagined you would when you first decided to attend.

Cherish these relationships and nurture them so they will grow. Do not under any circumstances abuse them. The new people you’ve met have entrusted you and you should honor that trust.

In case you missed the presentation or wanted to listen to it again, it will be available soon from this page. So please check back from time to time.

Please leave a comment below and let me know what you thought of the session and also if you have any tips of your own or any funny networking stores.

Again, thank you.

October 15, 2014

Networking Does Not Stop At The Parties; It Continues On The Pre/Post Trips

My mother gave me the gift of gab, my dad gave me the gift of listening; thank you Mom and Dad. We don’t all have the gift of gab and are good listeners though, but we all have a gift. Look inwards and find that gift and use it to help others. What does that have to do with networking you are perhaps asking?

Well, I’ve met a ton of people at conferences and at the cocktail parties as I talk a lot, but I also listen. This helps to break the ice and build relationships. But I’ll tell you, one place that relationships are built even more is at the pre- and post-conference tours/trips.

I remember one trip in Dublin when we toured the Wild Atlantic Way Southwest. We all started not knowing each other much, but at the end, we knew each other better and now had a new perspective and respect on what makes each other tick and most importantly, we learned a tremendous amount from each other.

Travel Bloggers on The Wild Atlantic Way

I danced with a broom; long story :-). Just ask Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi. I even think she has a video :-). On that trip, I also learned how to take better Instagram photos by listening to and watching how the masters Katja, Kym, Laurence and Zach works. Note: I’m still learning so be nice when you view my Instagram account :-). I connected a little better with Cacinda from Points and Travel.com and really got to know here better on another trip to Athens earlier this year. She makes luxury travel easy and not so costly by using loyalty points.

Travel Blogger Laurence on Inch Beach, Ireland

I’ve followed, (not creepily, you know on social media :-)) the people who were on that trip and I have since been on other trips with at least two of them. I’ve also supported and followed them on social media and they’ve done the same.

I think in Toronto on the bike trip, I rode with my laptop in hand so I could keep my battery charged, so I was dubbed the computer geek, but it was all fun.

Travel Bloggers on Toronto Island, Toronto, ON Canada

I’ve been on a few trips (Ireland and Athens) with Laurence N from Finding The Universe and also did his and Daniel’s from Canvas of Light photo session in Dublin. Here’s a video on how to photograph a fountain from the pair. I now follow them both and continue to learn from their photographic works. I still have fun with Daniel as he’s not a fan of using the iPad for photos, which I was doing in Dublin (so I ran out of batteries, what’s a blogger to do? :)). But you learn this from casual interactions and that is what the pre- and post- sessions offer.

Travel Bloggers in Dublin Photography Seminar

So enough examples, you should get the point by now.

Let me be clear though, you are not going to get along with everyone as that is just how it is. Life would be so dull if this was the case; don’t you think? But you can still be civil and professional :-). The idea is that you get to understand how others think and whether or not you can make a friend and/or partnership with that person. Be sincere, genuine, helpful and respectful.

Now in the future when you come across an opportunity and you’ve met someone with that skill set, you know exactly whom to refer. For me, this is a very good feeling. How about you?

I can thank my grandmother for making me a giver without expectations. So always think about how you can help your fellow blogger, the rest will work itself out.

One thing too is to talk to the person(s) who are holding the tours and the owners of the establishment you meet along the tours. Listen first as you will hear what issues they are having, then think how you can help them solve it. Ensure you get their contact details so if nothing else, you can send them a thank you note after the trip. I remember a vendor in Ireland, he just wanted to fix something on Facebook. I helped him out and he was a happy camper. Sometimes that is all it takes. So Look, Listen Help.

I hope you are signed up for a few trips at TBEX Athens and other upcoming conferences. I’m speaking about Networking in Athens on Friday, October 24 at high noon, so please come visit and say hello if you see me in the hallways or on a trip :-). I’m excited to be able to see some of you on a trip and get to know you more.

What have you found in your experiences? Please leave a comment below.

October 9, 2014October 16, 2014

Networking Not Your Cup of Tea? Come To TBEX Athens And I’ll Help You

So its all set in stone now. I’m due to speak at TBEX Athens on networking. My friends have always said I could talk to a flea, so I guess that’s a compliment. I was also that kid in school who could not stop talking in class; I’m better now, honest :-).

Over the years, I’ve met many people; some have blossomed into great friendships, others not so much. But that’s networking, you don’t always relate to everyone you meet.

On Friday, October 24, 2014 at noon, I will focus on you. My talk will provide techniques and tips geared to help you learn how to network without becoming annoying and becoming frustrated.

The session will draw from personal experiences as well as observations from life and attending previous conferences. Come prepared to interact with and meet new people.

If you’re scared to introduce yourself, you must attend.
If you’ve introduced yourself, but can’t hold the conversation, you must attend.
If you’re just curious, you definitely must attend.

In case you want to practice what you’ve learnt, check out this post about continuing the networking in the pre- and post- TBEX events.

See you there. Learn More about TBEX Athens and Register.

Will you be there? Leave a comment below and let me know.

October 9, 2014

Facebook Advertising: A Beginners Guide

Facebook Ads-Travel Blogger 101 21 Days Blueprint

If you’ve not been using Facebook Advertising to get your message out about your business then you are not utilizing one of the best advertising/marketing tools that exists in the marketplace today.

In my TBEX Talk in Cancun, Mexico in September, I shared how you can get started for as little as $5/day. As a followup to the talk, I’ve created a series of FREE Facebook videos about setting up a Facebook Ad campaign from start to finish.

Check it out today!

September 20, 2014October 3, 2014

10+ Things I Learned At TBEX Cancun From 12+ Interactions/Observations

I just got back from Cancun, Mexico where I spoke on “Getting Started With Facebook Ads And Getting Results.” It was a great experience and I was also able to attend some of the sessions, met new bloggers/potential partners, caught up with old friends, visited some of the local sites and enjoyed the facilities of the Moon Palace Resort.

The presentation is available on now Slideshare. I also did some videos on how to get your facebook Ads setup. Check it out (registration required, but there’s no charge).

It was great to meet “old” friends and certainly good to meet new ones. I’m always amazed that I see social media messages after conferences from people I know saying they were at the conference and I never saw them.

Now that I’ve left the Cancun area, I wanted to share my reflections on what I’ve learnt from this conference as I prepare to head to TBEX Athens where I’ll speak about “How To Network Without Becoming Annoying.” I hope to see you in Athens.

So here are the 10+ things I learnt at TBEX Cancun from 12+ interactions/observations:

Get A Publicist – I finally met Lee Abbamonte; I thought he was the most laid back guy I’ve ever met until later that week I met Louis Cole; see number 2 below. He and I have the visit every country mantra in common; except he’s already done it by the time he was 21. I’m still getting there. Lee did the keynote with Sherry Ott on Saturday morning. They were both interviewed by Paula Froelich from Yahoo Travel. The interview was really well done, funny and educational. One thing that Lee said that struck a chord with me (there were many from that talk) was that he said “the best thing he ever done was to hire a Publicist.” I can’t stop thinking about that since I heard it. So I’m going to investigate this. I mean, I meet a lot of people, but I find that its getting difficult to really investigate opportunities properly. I believe in hiring the right people for the right tasks and hiring a Publicist seems to be the right thing to do. I can’t believe that I’ve not thought about this before. This is why I go to conferences and you should too. The learning aspect is simply incredible.
FunForLouis – I’m not sure how many of you are into video blogging. I do know a few bloggers who use video in their blogging though. However, Louis Cole from FunForLouis is a bit different. By the time you read this he should be at 1,000,000+ YouTube subscribers. I was able to hang out with him and three other video bloggers (Alex & Mark [VagaBrothers] and Nadine from heyNadine) for three days and watch him work which included him having a local meetup. He’s charismatic, charming, friendly, genuine and fun. What you see in his daily vlog about his travel adventures is what you see in person and he works hard to make it work. He taught me to keep working hard at my craft and collaborate more with my peers so we can help each other to get our message out. I’ve also learned from watching his videos that I can share more than I currently share except in videos. I currently have a YouTube channel, but my videos are not as good as they should be.You can look at his YouTube channel to see some footage from the TBEX conference as a matter of fact. Let me know if you see what I see. If you are not doing videos, I highly recommend starting as we are in travel and people love to live vicariously through us. Photos just scratch the surface. Thanks Louis.
All You Can Eat Resorts – So, Cancun is full of these places. Years ago I stayed at the Fiesta American Condesa and it was fantastic. This time I stayed at the Moon Palace Resort. This place is just simply incredible. There’s one price and you eat all, just like it says. No hassles, no holding back. It’s truly the place where you can just go and hide. Except that they have property-wide Internet access that actually works. The mini-bar is really a bar as it has top shelf liquor in the normal size bottles and each day the attendant comes by to refill it. I had to tell him no thank you as I’d not touched anything when he showed up the second day I was there. And to top it off, there’s a jacuzzi in your room. Yes, seriously! My only drawback was checking out as it was a bit slow. They sent me a survey and I included the comments there so they can improve that aspect of the stay. So what did I learn here? Ensure that you deliver quality content to your customers at all time. Always give them their money’s worth and more. This breeds repeat customers that are always happy.
I’m Not A Big Fan of Whale Sharks, But My Friends Are – The Cancun Visitors Board gave a group of seven of us an opportunity to swim with the whale sharks. I’m not a fan of water sports, so I opted not to go. No I’m not scared, but its just not my thing. I’ll swim, the occasional snorkel and hang out on the beach, but I’m not an ocean lover. The others went and had a blast though. You can see several videos in the #CanYouCancun twitter and instagram hashtag feeds. When you travel, you should know your limitations and don’t push it.
It’s Cool To Advertise A Beer On Your Control Tower – I’m an airline geek so I like to see the different Control Towers at the airports worldwide. They are truly works of art. The Cancun airport (CUN) has a large Corona beer bottle painted on it. You can see this thing from pretty far away. Sometimes you just have to do something really big and bold. So watch out for it coming soon. Think of what you can do on a much larger scale than you are doing it right now to propel your blog forward.
Social Blade – This is a an App and also a Web site that gives you follower statistics about your Youtube, twitch and Instagram accounts. You can actually do anyone’s account so you can keep an eye on your competition as well. The App is free and can be found here. Louis told me about this app; thanks. The learning here is to be curious and talk to your fellow bloggers if you see them using a cool tool, just ask about it.
Cooperatize – I was sitting at lunch with another blogger, Robin Ewers (met him in Rotterdam at TBU) and Al from Cooperatize came over, introduced himself (that’s how it’s done at TBEX) and talked to us about this monetization concept. I’d read about it before and was thinking of signing up. Also other bloggers had talked about it on the Facebook Groups and said they liked it as it worked and they got paid. You basically sign up, enter your data and wait to be matched up with a partner that wants to work with you. Then you evaluate the opportunity to see if its what you want and voila. They even have a referral program so you get paid when you refer others. Check it out and evaluate it to see if its for you. Lesson here is to be receptive and respectful when approached. It’s just the polite thing to do.
A New App Called Been – While driving to Coba, Alex, one half of the brotherly duo VagaBrothers (Mark is the other half) showed me this App on his mobile phone. It allows you to enter the countries you’ve visited and it then displays the percentage of the world you’ve visited. Since one of my goals is to visit every country in the world; 109 so far, I’m intrigued. If this is your thing or you are just curious, Check it out! I downloaded it and its simple and way cool. I’ll recommend it to my geeky airline audience whom I know will love it.
You Can Get Certified As A Cooking Blogger – So who knew this was the case? I also run a cooking blog, CookingWithKerwin.com where I talk about cooking Jamaican food. Eventually there will be cooking videos, etc. In my travels, I’ve noticed that there are also tons of food bloggers out there. I’ve never heard talk about a CCTP until I sat in on Diana Laskaris’ talk. The World Food Travel Organization came up with a certification called “Certified Culinary Travel Professional.” To get your certification, its necessary to take a paid online course, then you get certified and now have street creds. Check out the course details.
How To Get More Traffic To My Blog – Ian Cleary from RazorSocial is one smart dude when it comes to social media tools. At the last TBEX (Dublin) his talk was up against mine so I could not attend. This time that was not the case so I wandered over to his full house talk and I learned more than I need to about traffic building. Watch the TBEX emails for links to Ian’s 15 tips to build traffic to your blog. In the meantime, check his latest blog post with even more tips. Ensure you sign up for his newsletter as well so you don’t miss out. It was in his newsletter that I learned about Canva.com. With Canva.com, you can quickly create an image without much expertise. This helps me whenever I need something done quicker than I can outsource it.
Long form Instagram Posts – At one of the events, I said hello to a young man from Kansas City called Nicholas Andriani. I love to say hello to just random people at conferences, as this is what you do. We had a great conversation and I found out that he’s an author with excellent knowledge of Israel and the Middle East. So we connected socially and I started following his Instagram stream. This is where it gets good. Nicholas gets on average 10% engagement from his Instagram posts! one even had 16%. But his audience is 1,166 followers. That’s insane! I’ve not seen that much engagement even for others who have a ton of followers. So the next day I saw him and we talked about it. He thinks its due to the length of his posts. He tells a mini story in the posts and of course adds the appropriate hashtags. Genius. His fans are also raving and clearly loves his content. Check out his stream on Instagram and follow him so you can learn the craft. I’m going to look into being more informative in my posts and see what gives.
Get Your Podcast Going – I had the fortune of sitting next to Lou Mongello on the bus back from one of the TBEX parties. He’s the Disney expert and does a podcast on the subject. He’s huge! I’d seen Lou speak in Vegas at NMX this year or was it last year? It all blends together; but had not had a chance to connect with him. Thanks to the long bus rides at TBEX, we chatted about podcasting, how he got started with Disney and he gave me some pointers to get started with my podcasting. I actually used to podcast ages ago when it was first launched with a software called Odeo, which was founded by twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. I’ve already setup the podcast template compliments of tips from Pat Flynn’s “How To Podcast Guide” and I do something similar currently as I answer questions from my audience using YouTube videos. The podcast will be called Ask Kerwin where I answer travel-related questions for my audience. After my talk with Lou, I told my audience via my weekly newsletter to expect a podcast, so now I’m committed. Thanks for the convo and words of encouragement Lou. So always talk to people you meet, sit next to or pass in the hallway. At the end of the day, TBEX is really about networking.
Find A Newbie – At every conference there’s a newbie; well several. I never seek them out, but I usually find them. In Dublin, it was Eugene from Traverse in Converse. In Cancun, it was Jessica Medina. She was writing a book about how we travel differently and wanted to talk to a few bloggers to see if they were interested in being interviewed. We spoke and I introduced her to as many people as I could whom I know would also introduce her to others. Conferences are scary especially when you are there for the first time and meet or want to meet your online idol. So if you see a newbie, stretch your handout, say hello and guide them.
I Have A Lot More To Offer – I ran into Jen Leo at the registration desk. I’d previously met her at the LA Times Travel Show, said hello, but had not really interacted much. An interaction online here and there over time was about it. I follow her on twitter and enjoy her App reviews with the LA Times as I’m an App geek. She does a lot of travel-related stuff, a podcast with Gary Arndt and Chris Christensen, in addition to a new enough site, BestKidsApps.com. Just Google her and you will see what I mean. After meeting her at the registration desk in the Moon Palace Arena, we headed over to the main lobby, sat down and really had a conversation. It was very inspirational to get to know her and what she is all about a little more. We shared stories, had a drink, just relaxed and enjoyed the moment. Yes, its not always chaos at conferences. Thanks Jen. So what did I learn here? Well, you don’t always make a connection the first time you meet someone. Take your time, it comes eventually and naturally.

So, get your act together, attend a conference that is related to your niche and also attend one that is not in your niche (its how you learn other things). Get out there and meet other bloggers, share your craft, study them, its the only way you will move forward. Give, give and then give some more.

If you were at TBEX Cancun, what are your thoughts? If you were not, I want to hear your thoughts too. Please leave a comment below.

Here’s a screenshot of a video I took of the Moon @PalaceResorts on takeoff today from CUN. #TBEX #tbexcancun pic.twitter.com/IS95Bnn4pk

— Kerwin McKenzie (@mskonfa1990) September 18, 2014

May 20, 2014

State of the Travel Blogging Industry Survey 2014

Post by Travel Blogger 101 (A blueprint for travel bloggers).

May 15, 2014May 15, 2014

Kerwin’s Korner: March 2014 – My Monthly Activity Report

I’ve been meaning to start this for sometime now, but have not. Initially, I wanted it to be a Monthly Income Report, but I think a Monthly Activity Report works for now and will see where it heads. Maybe you’ll hate it and see no value in it and thus I’ll stop doing it or you’ll love it and want more. Let me know what you think though by leaving a comment below after you’ve read it, but only after you’ve read it. The goal is to inspire and stimulate you, so here goes.

Business Cards

I’m fresh out of business cards, so I made slight modifications and ordered new cards. This is my fifth iteration now. I keep making changes as my business model changes and I receive feedback. When I hand someone my card, I watch their reaction and listen carefully if they have any comments. Once I handed someone my card and they asked me what is my name. A clear sign that my name was not prominent enough. I fixed that as quickly as possible and dumped those cards. You have to be observant and adapt to feedback quickly. I use Vistaprint for all my cards.

Conferences

I’m very big on conferences so I tend to plan my stays with friends around that time. I get to see my friends and spend time with their families. A win-win for all involved. It’s fun being a nomad in that respect. Here are my conferences for March 2014.

New York Times Travel Show

I decided to hang out with one of my high school friends who live in the Bronx around this time. It’s always fun hanging with them and seeing my godsons as well. I can’t go to New York and not visit.

You can always apply for a Press pass for this event. If you qualify, there is no charge. The event brings together DMOs from mostly the Caribbean and local U.S. This year, Atlantic City, NJ had a large presence with their DOAC promotion. One cool event was a better form of speed dating. This allowed the DMOs to come to our tables and talk with us. As such, I was able to talk with several of them within an hour and a half (Barbados, Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Martinique and the USVI). These are now excellent contacts and will serve as great information for my readership.

It was freezing cold during this New York visit, but I took time out to do a Walks of New York walk with Jeff Dobbins. I had not realized that I knew so little about New York, even though I lived there for about six years or so until I did this walk. My favorite part of the walk was the visit to Grand Central station plus an inside look at the being renovated St. Patrick’s Cathedral. If you are in New York, I highly recommend it.

Blogger Match up in Asia

I had signed up for this new service to be able to get in touch with DMOs from the Asia side of things. I have readers always asking about this part of the world so I need to develop contacts and become proficient. I had signed up and totally forgotten about it. I did receive an invite to fill out the forms to qualify for attendance, but totally missed the “you are invited to apply” email. Once I saw it, I quickly filled it out and am now awaiting a response.

If you want to sign up for Blogger Match Up program, head over to http://bloggermatchup.com/sign-up/.

ProBlogger Event

I think, that this is one of the most hotly contested blogger conference tickets ever. Typically, within minutes of being available they disappear. For 2014, I missed the first offering as I was out of money, but was able to catch the second wave. No idea how I’m getting to Gold Coast, Australia just yet, but I’ll figure it out. Last year I got a great deal flying on Delta and booking a hotel together and may try that again this year. The year before, I just could not find anything that was worthwhile, but I did buy the virtual ticket so enjoyed the content. I got frequent flyer miles for the trip and also got upgrade to Business Class on the Sydney to Los Angeles, CA segment on the way back. It helped that I was already Gold Medallion status on Delta Airlines too.

Besides the obvious, networking, one great thing about this conference is that you get to apply for press trips setup by Queensland Tourism. I attended last year and was able to do one of the trips. I had a chance to explore the Gold Coast area, visiting attraction such as Warner Brothers Movie World, Paradise Jet Boating and the Tamborine Rainforest Skywalk as well as cycling along the beach then having breakfast at one of the local places. I now have great information for my readers who want to visit the Gold Coast area.

This year is no exception and you can see what they are offering here. Even if I don’t get one of the slots, I now have some great ideas of trips to do for myself and to suggest to my readers, plus I now have the great resource of the Tourism office. Either way I win in my book.

It’s too late for this year, unless someone cancels for the event, which does happen. You can keep an eye out for any extra tickets here. Oh, Darren provides a virtual ticket, so you can hear all the presentations. They are not live, but almost live. Somehow he manages to upload the audio and sometimes the presentations within hours after they are presented. You have to purchase a virtual ticket though to make this happen when they become available closer to the event.

ITB

I journeyed to Berlin, Germany to visit two friends who live in the city and also took the opportunity to visit the ITB Berlin Show. It’s fun being a nomad with friends worldwide. This turned out to be a very productive conference, I met two key contacts that I’ve wanted for a while and ran into random people plus rekindled friendships with other travel bloggers as well as meeting new travel bloggers.

I did also stay at the Wombats City Hostel so I could check it out having heard about it from a fellow travel blogger. The hostel is well run, clean and has ensuite rooms (toilet and showers in the room). I too would recommend this joint.

Medical Insurance

As I do not have medical insurance, I have to sign up by March 31, 2014, so I did just in the nick of time. I still have to call back and complete the application as the systems were down. I actually have travel insurance which does cover medical as long as I’m 100 miles or more from Houston.

Monetization – Affiliate Signups

This is my month of signing up for affiliates. Well all my months will be checking out affiliates. This is a great way to fund your blogging ventures. This month was pretty tough. Here’s what happened:

I got this notice from Mad Ads Media Network after submitting an application on Feb. 26, 2014. Looks like I have a lot of work to do.

We regret to inform you, but weâ€™re unable to accept your site into the Mad Ads Media network at this time.

Reason:
Unfortunately at this time, this site fails to meet our traffic requirements. You are encouraged to reapply when the site reaches an 800k Alexa rank.

We encourage you to make the required changes and to submit your site for approval again.

Thank You,
MadAdsMedia.com Publisher Team

Linkoffers.com

I signed up with Linkoffers.com which is a service that allows you to chose credit card offers. It’s a very tough approval process that is based on the content on your site as well as the traffic. Hopefully I’ll get approved. I signed up for this service as my audience is a travel audience and I tell them how to get miles from credit card offers.

Avangate Affiliate program

I signed up with this company as they host the affiliate program for Screenflow for the Mac from Telestream. This piece of software allow you to record your screen as well as edit videos. I use it to edit my travel videos as well as create instructional videos for travelblogger101.com as well as showing travelers how to do something. Check out Screenflow.

Madmimi

This is yet another email marketing tool; yes there are many of these. I’ve not used Mad Mimi, but in looking at it, its another alternative on the low end of the scale. It starts out at $10/month and goes up from there. Aweber is $19/month for 500 subscribers and then it scales up from there. You can try Aweber, which is what I use, you can try it for $1 for the first month.

LinkVehicle

LinkVehicle is an affiliate network to earn money for your blog. I met these guys in Las Vegas at NMX and signed up then. I only got approved this month. I’ve not started using them as yet, but will check them out and advise. You enter information about what you would like to promote and what you will charge. They then go find advertisers that want to reach your audience and pay what you are asking.

Expedia Affiliate Network (EAN)

This is like having a complete booking engine on your site. The back engine is from Expedia.com. You also have options to change the colors so it matches your site. This is good to make money if you are trying to get your users to use your systems to book flights, cars and hotels, plus attractions.

LeadPages Affiliate program

This is a cool piece of software. I use it to create my offer pages. I’ve had it for almost a year now and love it. They have varying levels of sign up to meet your budget. The good thing is that you can easily create your pages without having to hire a programmer. The pages are very appealing as well. You can see a page I’m setting up here for a new project. Check out Leadpages.net for more details.

Affiliate Window Affiliate

This is the company has several affiliate programs. To keep out people who are not serious they have you pay 5 USD up front on applying, but that is credit to your account once approved. I had mixed feelings about this at first, but they had an advertiser whom I wanted to work with; Virgin Trains, so I signed up. If they have an advertiser that you want to use, you can sign up here as well.

Virgin Trains

They are handled by Affiliate Window, hence the reason for signing up. I’m starting to provide more content for my readers and ground travel is one of them. As such, I’m signing up with the different train services to make this happen. I’ve actually taken Virgin Trains before and love their service, so this works for me.

Affilinet

I signed up with this company as Deutsche Bahn uses them to manage their affilaite program. This vendor ties in with my offerings for train information for my readers. Check them out here.

Running for Office

I was nominated for a position with the Professional Travel Bloggers Association and I accepted the nomination as I know I can help to enhance our profession.

Outsourcing

I have a current developer, but he’s gone missing. I do need to continue providing functionality for my users especially with new partners, so I placed an ad on elance.com and Odesk.com for an API programmer. I’ve not yet hired someone, but will do that soon. I highly recommend that you outsource the things that are repetitive and that you are not an expert. This frees you up to do the things that works best for you.

Pitches

Fellow travel blogger, Lola Akinmade Akerstrom from geotraveler’s niche, has inspired me to document my pitches. She does a great job here. From conferences, referrals, etc. I sent out twenty-five pitches. This is a combination of hotels, tourist boards and reservation systems. You really have to do pitches, otherwise your business will not grow. Afterall, you do have to keep the lights on, right? The pitches were to people I met face to face as well as those to whom I was referred. Each month, I will endeavor to give you a good idea of what I’ve done in this realm. Here are the stats:

25 Pitches sent

8 responses received
2 – success; one granted me access to the system I needed, the other sent additional information requested
1 – success; will contact me once project is ready
1 – Works with bloggers from a specific country only
2 – Reviewing my proposal; awaiting decision
2 – Waiting for me to setup a time to talk with them (ArrivalGuides.com and Sixt.com)

17 – Awaiting a response
17 – followups sent

Tools

SimplyMeasured.com

I subscribe to Ian Cleary’s blog Razorsocial.com as its chock full of really good social media marketing content. I’ve also met Ian on to separate occasions and the guy is really an inspiration, plus he really knows social media. I recommend checking out his stuff. He mentioned a few tools in one of this newsletters and and one of them Simplymeasured.com, is pretty good. There is a 14-day free trial so you can see if it matches your needs otherwise its $500/month; pricey, but it depends on how you value what you want to measure and what additional business that can bring you. I tested out a few of the reports and loved them; no money to subscribe at this moment though.

WebinarJam

This is a tool that competes with a few other online streaming tools. It uses Google Hangout as its backend. I will check it out and see what gives. I had bought MeetingBurner about a year ago, but its not working out for me, so I’m dropping it. My aim is to use this software to hold live events with my readers where we can talk about a destination, share ideas, tips, etc. Plus it can then replay the broadcast at the reader’s convenience. So check out WebinarJam and see if it will help you in your travel blogger business.

Blogging Finances

I’m a big fan of Pat Flynn over at SmartPassiveIncome.com. He has solid information and is actually a great person in person; met him a few few times at blogging conferences. He’s create a new podcast called AskPat where you can ask him questions about blogging. It actually inspired me to finally implement my AskKerwin.com service where users can ask me travel questions. So watch out for that. Well, he had an offer to try Freshbooks for 60 days instead of the normal 30 days. So I took him up on it as I’m still looking for something to keep track of the books. I think the offer has changed now as its just for 30 days without entering a credit card, so still a good deal. Hop over to AskPat.com.

Flew Norwegian Air

On my way back from Berlin, I had the pleasure of flying Norwegian Air from Berlin-Schonenfeld (SXF) to Oslo, Norway (OSL) and then onto Fort Lauderdale, Fl (FLL). This flight was a great price at just under $300. You do have to pay for your bag and food, but even with that you can’t beat the price to cross the Atlantic. Especially when you cross in a new Boeing 787-8. Check them out at Norwegian.com.

casey zeman building your audience with live vide 3/18

Sixt contacts

At ITB, I was able to get a brochure that has contact information for Sixt sales and marketing teams worldwide. If you are interested in working with Sixt, please let me know the country via email and I can send you the contact information for that representative.

myDriver.com

While visiting ITB, I met the folks from myDriver. This is a division of Sixt that offers three types of luxury cars (Mercedes, BWM and Audi) for local ground transportation. Berlin is one of the cities they serve, so I decided to test it out. Besides they gave me a 25 EUR certificate to try them. My trip from my friend’s house to the Berlin-Schonenfeld airport was abut 34 EUR, but the drive was sweet as I was picked up in a BMW 520d and had my personal chauffeur. I actually took a local train to a stop that was closer to the airport in order to minimize the cost and that worked well. The car had magazines, a charging unit for my phone and two bottles of water. The drive was polite and ontime. Plus, he gave me a 10 EUR coupon to use for my next trip. I highly recommend using them if you are in one of the cities they serve.

March 2014 Expenses

Item	Amount	Type
FounderFly (emarketing course)	9.95	Monthly
Payloadz (ebook distribution/hosting)	14.95	Monthly
Hostgator (Website Hosting)	15.94	Monthly
Hostgator (Website Hosting)	15.94	Monthly
Hostgator (Website Hosting)	15.94	Monthly
Lujure Media (Facebook Page)	15.00	Monthly
Wishlist (Membership site software)	20.00	Monthly
Outsourcing	27.00
Meeting Burner (streaming service)	39.95	Monthly
Reel Marketing Insider (Video Marketing Course)	49.00	Monthly
Aweber (email marketing software)	69.00	Monthly
T-Mobile (phone service)	82.16	Monthly
Sub Total	374.83

Webinar Software	297.00	One time
Problogger Event	358.42	One time

Sub Total	755.42
Grand Total	1,130.25

March 2014 Income

Item	Amount	Description
Amazon Royalties	9.80	Kindle Books
Passrider Series - How To Book Hotels in London, England	9.36	Ebook
Membership Site	89.52
Total	108.68