How can I Improve my contribution with Byteful.com?

[Andreas]

Hello my beautiful, fellow humans,

I've been growing my travel site Byteful Travel for a few years now, and lately I've been wondering more and more why I don't have more audience engagement on the site. I spend hours on photo post-processing, outlining, writing, proofreading, revising... but my audience engagement still only ranges from low to medium low. Is it that I'm not providing value? Or that I haven't spread the word enough?

I'm a big believer in creating value AND delivering it, and I suspect the latter is lacking, by way of me simply not being the best marketing person.

Anyway, I published an article on Tuesday called about a very beautiful yet little-known park in Oregon, and I'd really appreciate yall's feedback on it:

7 Rare Glimpses of Ashland’s Vibrant Lithia Park | Byteful Travel


Where could I improve? And what am I doing right?

I know a few of you already read the site, and huge hugs to you all for helping me see things I can't since I'm so close to the situation.


Much love,
Andreas

[Brutha]

Anyway, I published an article on Tuesday called about a very beautiful yet little-known park in Oregon, and I'd really appreciate yall's feedback on it:

7 Rare Glimpses of Ashland’s Vibrant Lithia Park | Byteful Travel

Why should I care about some park in Oregon? Why should your visitors care?

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by Brutha

Why should I care about some park in Oregon? Why should your visitors care?

There are many reasons why this article (and the accompanying gallery) is helpful to my readers and people who find it through search engines. Would you like me to list them?

This article gives people a taste of this vibrant place without people having to leave their home. This article is also useful for someone doing research for a trip through Oregon because this article exposes them, in first-person detail, to a point of interest they've probably never heard of. This article is also interesting to those who are following along as I chronicle my multi-month solo trip, of which Oregon was only a small part. Not to mention the 33 high-rez photos that accompany the article make delicious desktop wallpapers, as well.

In case you skipped the sidebar of the site, a few years ago I began a multi-month month solo journey to the West Coast and back without a car. The primary focus of the site is to chronicle that adventure and what I learned along the way.

I do my best to bring my readers along with me, but let me also be clear that I make no allusions that travel writing is for everyone. But I started this thread so I could get some feedback from those who find it inspiring or useful.



Incidentally, my audience engagement has gone up a bit since I first started this thread. Could it be the Law of Attraction at work?

[Brutha]

There are many reasons why this article (and the accompanying gallery) is helpful to my readers and people who find it through search engines. Would you like me to list them?

Audience engagement is about more than satisfying readers momentarily. It also about giving them a reason to come back.

If I want to now about Ashland’s Lithia Park and type it into Google I might be happy about your article. It however probably doesn't give me a reason to subscribe to the website.

I do my best to bring my readers along with me, but let me also be clear that I make no allusions that travel writing is for everyone. But I started this thread so I could get some feedback from those who find it inspiring or useful.

I don't think that you have a good idea about your target audience.

[Staticwarp]

Hey, I really like his website and he's doing an awesome job.
You could have been a bit nicer Brutha.

[Harmonium]

Originally Posted by Staticwarp

Hey, I really like his website and he's doing an awesome job.
You could have been a bit nicer Brutha.

Sounds to me he is just being logical and honest about what he can add to the threadstarts situation that he asked for input on.

So to agree with Bruthas advice a target auidence might be a good idea. Have you looked into SEO? Maybe come up with another type of marketing plan. Just keep learning about new things and apply them along with building your content regularly.

[Brutha]

You could have been a bit nicer Brutha.

The point of the question was to let Andreas explain the purpose of his website.

Andreas answered that there are "many reasons" with basically means that he hasn't decided on a clear purpose.

If you look at the headline of this forum you find "finding your purpose". I'm not saying that everybody has to have a purpose.
If you however make a decision to come to this forum than I can take it as the giving that the person wants to find their purpose.

Hey, I really like his website and he's doing an awesome job.

By the standards that Andreas uses to judge whether he's doing a good job he isn't doing a good job.

Maybe Andreas could be more successful by doing some clever SEO-scheme. I however rather focus on deeper issues.

[joydream]

Hello Andreas, you have a lovely energy.

I think the problem with the site is the branding.

byteful.com sounds like something to do with food or computers. Definitely not travel.

Also the travel you are describing is not appealing to everyone. It's more like "off the beaten path" type of travel. That does appeal strongly to a certain type of person, but not the mainstream because obviously the mainstream is on the regular path.

You need to get "raving fan" followers... the kind that love this type of travel. ("raving fans" are a tony robbins quote). That's your audience, right?

Target your audience.... interview them to hear their needs.... change your branding so your message "off the beaten path" is more clear.... like Lonely Planet is good branding for that type of message.... it could be like "beyond travel" or something like that...

Good luck!

[Agota]

Andrea,

I have two questions:

1. How much traffic do you currently get?

2. What is your marketing strategy? What are you doing to increase traffic?

[mlj]

Hi Andreas

In all due respect, I agree your website sounds more like a software company, rather than travel.

Since you say your marketing is not the best, perhaps you may want to outsource.

Sites like odesk.com, and fiverr.com maybe able to help you promote your business.

I would also look into social media. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are now arguably providing the best traffic on the web today.

Hope this helps!

[InterfaceLeader]

Travel writing is really really hard, and it requires more than "I went to this place and here is what was awesome about it".

I suggest reading some of the great travel writers--both classical (in the sense of published books) and popular blogs in that niche.

I used to read travel writing, but I read it for amusing/enlightening encounters with other people. It was the entertainment value that kept me reading, not the descriptions of shrubbery.

With any writing we want to see a change, a development. Either in the place you visited (what did YOU bring to the park?) or in you as a person (what did you take AWAY from the park?) Essentially, you are telling a story with every blog post. We want to be entertained, but we also want a sense of fulfilment.

If you are going the photographic route, then you need to take stunning photographs, and you need to maximise the impact by changing your theme and bring the photographs front and centre and keeping the word count briefer.

I think focusing on your writing, and really working to make every blog post the best it can be, will help you more than trying different marketing schemes. It doesn't matter how many people you get to the site--you want them to stick around after they get there!