I got an email yesterday from a guy who’s putting together a trip for some travel agents and writers around Uganda. Actually, it’s so close to the departure date that I’m sure the thing has been arranged for a long time already. It’s due to start on November 23rd and finish on December 2nd with lots of goodies thrown in, including chimp tracking and, the biggie at $500, gorilla trekking.
After getting the email I thanked him but had to refuse given that I had just returned to Kigali from Uganda and, more importantly, that a permaculture course I’ve signed up for is due to start 600kms outside of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on December 2nd. I didn’t even look at the itinerary and didn’t give it a second thought. But he emailed me back today saying I could finish the tour a bit early which led me to look at the itinerary and now I’m thinking that this is too good an opportunity to pass up.
Lucky for me, I haven’t booked my flights yet to Addis. Luckier for me, flying to Addis from Entebbe (Uganda’s main airport near Kampala) is cheaper than flying from Kigali. Unlucky for me, gorilla trekking is on the 29th, the day I was hoping to fly to Addis in order to be able to catch a ride to the farm the next day. Lucky for me I can take a flight instead from Addis to the farm town on December 1st in time to start the course the next day. So, it looks like I’m going to be spontaneous and just go for it. I’m pretty excited to meet some people in the travel industry, as well.
Besides scamming a free Busabout pass back when my only website was Travoholic.com, I’ve never been offered freebies besides the occasional book to review. I’ve never pursued them either even though I’m sure I could have landed at least a few during my travels. I don’t have anything against them, I’ve just ever really thought much about them… until a few weeks ago when I read a comment somewhere by Gary from Everything Everywhere. It might have been on his forum, I don’t remember. His point was basically that people use money to buy stuff so if you can get the stuff, then that’s just as good as earning the money. I think he was talking about how his blog doesn’t necessarily earn lots of cash, but he does get a lot of free things and trips out of it.
Then, yesterday before I got the Uganda offer, I was reading Nomadic Matt’s post over on Problogger where he talks about being a personality and making a name for yourself online, and then also mentions the alternative of staying more behind-the-scenes. I feel like bloggers who are able to establish a personal brand are very likely to land lots of freebies, trips, speaking gigs and accolades which can be very valuable, not to mention fun.
I would say I’ve been a more behind-the-scenes web marketer. If you go to any of my websites you’re not going to find my personality shining through. I might have an ‘About’ page, but that’s about it and, even still, I don’t even know if any of them link to my blog. I might have accidentally established myself as someone who’s making money online and travelling, but I wouldn’t say that I’m an online travel personality or that I really want to be. But am I missing out on lots of cool opportunities by not pimping myself more? Probably.
So I guess my point is, when you’re starting up a blog, don’t forget about the non-cash incentives out there. It’s not all abut making $5 a month with Adsense. True, freebies don’t pay the bills, but for travel bloggers (who, I’m guessing, love to travel) they can be a nice perk. I was planning on spending that $500 to do the gorilla trek in Rwanda (actually, another lucky thing is that I didn’t book it and pay for it last week, which I almost did) so that’s $500 that stays in my pocket.
Establishing yourself as an online travel personality isn’t easy, especially with the seemingly zillions of other bloggers out there, but it’s something to aim for, especially as more and more companies seek to reach their markets through the blogging community (like Gap Adventures are creatively doing at the moment).
Would you say you’re more of a behind-the-scenes web marketer or is your aim to be a well-known blogger in whichever industry you’re in?
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