Travelblather

I've blogged in the past about a new model for online travel writers - working directly with a tour operator or travel agent to create genuinely compelling content for them. Perhaps the most groundbreaking example of this new model for travel writing is the very excellent Granturismo blog. Travel writers Lara Dunston and Terence Carter are working with HomeAway Holiday-Rentals. They are travelling the world for a whole year, staying in HomeAway rental properties in every location and writing, photographing, videoing and tweeting as they go.

That's a serious undertaking for both the writers and the operator - a big commitment from both parties. I'm fascinated by the idea. So I figured it was time to find out more. Here's a truly fascinating look at both sides of the relationship. The same questions answered by Lara and by Sarah Chambers who is the PR manager for Homeaway UK. Very interesting stuff!

How did the idea come about?
Lara Dunston: Terence and I were having coffee with my aunt in Australia, where we spend time writing each year. We were working on books and articles and whining about the downsides of guidebook writing (i.e. tedious tasks like checking bus times and dotting banks on maps) and magazine work (spending only a few days in places). We were also complaining about how some travellers travel: how they rush through places, only staying a day or two, seeing sights mainly, using guidebooks obsessively, and in the process miss out on amazing experiences.

Sarah Chambers: I was thinking about how best we could communicate not only the benefits of staying in a holiday home rental, but also the huge range available in terms of destinations and property types. Sending two journalists on an ‘around the world’ discovery-type trip seemed like an engaging and adventurous way to do this. Luckily, and coincidentally, Lara and Terry were already considering a similar idea.

Why did you do it?
LD: Selfish reasons and lofty goals: we wanted a more enriching project that would give us the best of both worlds, i.e. a month or so in a place as we have when we work on guidebooks, but to get to know the place deeply through its people, culture, food, music, etc, as we do researching magazine stories. Plus we sincerely want to see travellers overcome their shyness, not rely solely on guidebooks, connect more with locals, stay longer, do and learn things, travel more slowly and sustainably, and travel in more enriching ways. Although obviously we appreciate sometimes people just need to lie on a beach! Ah, that would be nice…

SC: We wanted to do something that would really inspire people to try this different way of travelling and show them that ‘holiday rentals’ = much more than just apartments and villas with pools. I love travelling myself and often stay in rentals now too, so I’m committed to spreading the word!

What have been the big successes so far?
LD: We’re halfway through the project so Terence and I have just been reflecting on these actually. We’ve concluded our experiment a success: this is definitely the best way to travel! We can now confidently say that staying in apartments and houses enables you to have so many more meaningful experiences and allows so many more opportunities to connect with locals in ways that staying in hotels do not. This has truly been the most memorable 6 months of travel of our lives. We’re also proud of the content we’re generating. We’re working hard to create compelling stories, do engaging interviews, and Terence in particular is making beautiful photos and videos.

SC: The blog is beautiful and really seems to have captured people’s imagination. They are getting great traffic and involvement via social media, plus we can see there is some good conversion in terms of visits and property enquiries on our site. For me, their writing also really captures and eloquently conveys the type of experience you can enjoy in a holiday home.

What have been the things that haven't worked so well?
LD: We don’t have enough time and we’re spending too much money! It’s always time and money, isn’t it? We compromised on two weeks per place, though we understand why HomeAwayUK needed us to do that. We’re working harder than ever: on top of connecting with locals, having experiences, writing, editing photos, and maintaining the site, we’re constantly planning ahead, running a monthly competition, doing social media, tweeting, and so on. It’s also been frustrating that we haven’t had as good Internet access as promised in many properties we’ve stayed at, as that’s crucial obviously – in one place the best access was from an olive grove! Not fun in the rain.

SC: We had hoped that other publishers and media would be interested in featuring content from Lara and Terry, as they have complete editorial control over everything they produce. However it seems that publications are still hesitant to engage with this kind of innovative hybrid projects presenting independent content sponsored by a brand. 'Though essentially this is no different to one very long press trip.'

Would you do it again?
LD: Absolutely! After a period of recovery of course! But in our original form, i.e. one month in each destination, so we could really get beneath the skin of places and do and learn more things. For instance, Terence is a brilliant musician as well as a great cook. Our original plan involved him learning instruments and working in kitchens. I’d hoped to take language lessons, other classes, and volunteer. We haven’t exploited as many opportunities as we could have, or slept as much as we’d like. If we did it again, we’d ask the partner company to handle more research and planning tasks, more social media, do more PR, and run any competitions they might want. Projects like this need in-house staff dedicated to it full-time for better results. My advice to writers embarking on similar projects would be to clarify the amount of resources being allocated to the project.

SC: I’m not sure, but only as it seems a lot of other companies are jumping on the bandwagon now, doing similar things. So I think we have to set ourselves the challenge of finding a slightly different angle for our next project!

If you did, what would you change?
LD: We negotiated a fee based on industry rates, but agreed to part of it in bonuses attached to securing additional print coverage. We’re widely published so didn’t envisage that being a challenge, but we didn’t expect editors to see this as advertorial. We thought we’d negotiated things to circumvent that, like editorial control (HomeAwayUK doesn’t see our content until you do), only reviewing a property (critically and honestly!) every two weeks, and promoting the travel lifestyle rather than company. However, some editors still see it as advertorial because HomeAwayUK are paying us. That will be the main challenge for writers working directly with travel companies who want traditional media coverage in addition to social media content. My advice is to negotiate a fair and realistic fee and don’t agree to bonuses based on anything, because – just like travel – there are some things you just can’t predict.

SC: I imagine the answer is the same for lots of projects; Plan more in advance about how we could fully integrate our PR and marketing activities. I think this is an ongoing challenge for many companies. We are doing this, but we have also taken a lot of learnings from this project so I think we could do it a lot better next time.

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This idea was actually Lara's and a very good one at that! Thanks to both Lara and Sarah for contributing as I know both of you are very busy!

Lots to take away for travel writers and for PR people too. What's the single most useful insight here for you and why? I'd be interested to know.

I’ve blogged a couple of times already about Simonseeks. I think it’s great to see innovation in the travel sector online. And I think there is a need for this kind of ‘inspirational’ content to help people research holiday ideas. But I also think they went about launching the site all the wrong way. It wasn’t remotely surprising that when they launched they attracted the ire of a lot of travel writers. The whole premise of the site is that anyone who can write a bit can be a travel writer now. Simon Nixon the guy with the cash behind the site (founder of Moneysupermarket.com so he has a few bob to spare) talked of a new ‘cottage industry of travel writers’. I still find it a bit amusing that there seemed to be such surprise that pro travel writers reacted the way they did.

Whether you can seriously earn revenue from writing for the site is - I think - decidedly unclear. In theory you earn 50% percent of any referral or booking fees that come to Simonseeks as a result of someone reading one of your pieces on the site.  At a blogger get-together at WTM last year the question was asked ‘has anyone earned anything from Simonseeks yet’ and I answered: "about £2.50". This was a little disingenuous as I only have a couple of features on the site – hardly enough to generate significant revenue. I did it to make a point and generate a laugh. Perhaps unsurprisingly Fiona Reece who handles the PR for Simonseeks who was also in the room was quick to counter my implied suggestion that you don’t earn much writing for the site, by saying that some people were starting to see earnings increase and that it was very early days so unfair to make these kinds of comments. Fair enough.

I was fascinated then to read an alert on Travmedia today from the editor of Simonseeks Nick Trend:

Editor's Alert: Simonseeks Seeks Destination Experts Sent at: 23rd Jul, 09:42
Simonseeks.com provides independent travel advice on destinations around the world. It is backed by Internet entrepreneur Simon Nixon, founder of leading price-comparison website Moneysupermarket.com.

We already have top-class travel writers in place as experts for some key destinations. We are now looking to rapidly expand our coverage to include the following cities and resort areas, and are seeking new experts for these destinations.

UK cities: Bath, Glasgow, Liverpool, Oxford, York. Overseas cities: Athens, Boston, Bruges, Brussels, Budapest, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Florence, Lisbon, Marrakesh, Milan, Naples, Prague, Seville, Vienna. Resort areas: Majorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Costa Brava, Costa Blanca, Costa del Sol, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria; Algarve; Sorrento/Amalfi Coast, Sardinia, Sicily; Corsica; Dubrovnik area; Malta; Cyprus; Sharm el Sheikh.

Experts need to have in-depth knowledge (including of hotels and restaurants) of the city or resort area they plan to write about. They should either live in the destination, or at least visit it regularly.

Being an expert for Simonseeks is a major commitment. Current experts are filing more than 20,000 words for most destinations, though some smaller cities and resorts may need somewhat less than this. As well as providing the initial material, experts are also expected to keep their pages up to date.

It’s a demanding role, but we hope the rewards will be substantial.

If you are interested in being a Simonseeks expert, send a brief CV outlining which destination you are interested in covering and your expertise and suitability, to experts@simonseeks.com.

It’s remarkable for a number of reasons:

1) They are now actively targeting pro travel writers (only pro travel writers can register for Travmedia alerts). This suggests that perhaps Simon’s ‘cottage industry’ isn’t delivering the real depth of knowledge and perspective that people looking for travel inspiration really need. Sure, anyone who can write a bit can turn out a feature on the highlights of their trip to Seville or wherever, but even if you get say 10 different people writing stuff about the place, is that enough? And is it on context? And is it totally objective and trustworthy. I’d suggest the answer is no. And this is why this role of ‘expert’ has presumably been created.

2) There isn’t the slightest hint of what potential earnings could be. Just the statement that it’s a serious undertaking to be an expert and that 20,000 words or so is the likely requirement. I just think it’s ridiculous that there is an expectation that a pro travel-writer will write 20,000 words in the ‘hope’ that they might make some money out of it. Most freelancers are struggling to make ends meet as it is. Additionally, the site has been up and running a good while now. In fact it launched just over a year ago. At the outset I can accept that it’s impossible to know how a project like this will work, but not now, surely? They ought to have at least some idea of what people can earn from an average feature on there. Frankly this is just arrogant. I’ve also seen no promotion of Simonseeks at all anywhere so far. Where’s the support? Where’s the commitment to the writers? Where’s the drive to get more traffic to the site? Maybe there’s been some, but I’ve not seen it.

It just feels like the writer is expected to take a huge risk with no idea of the reward.

To put it another way. It feels like Simon has invested in the premises, kitted out the shop, got the staff in to stack the shelves... and then just asked anyone who fancies to dust off their second-hand stuff or knock something homemade up in the garage and bring that along to sell it in the hope that people might buy it.

I’ve responded to the Travmedia ad and offered to be the expert for Seville – as author of a guidebook to Seville I know the place very very well. I’ve asked for them to give me some idea of what I could expect to earn from writing them 20,000 words. So far I just got an automated response (not particularly impressive) thanking me for applying. If they can prove to me what the earnings could be and they want me... I’ll happily do it and blog about the experience too. And let’s remember here that About.com has been doing something very similar for several years now and they offer detailed explanations of earnings and support the writer with direct fees to begin with.

So... Is anyone earning anything decent from Simonseeks?

So, the Times and Sunday Times websites have now retreated behind their paywalls. I've had a busy few weeks what with one thing and another so I didn't get to look around behind them much during the free trial period which is a disappointment. As I've said in previous blog posts about paywalls and this experiment, I'm fascinated to see if it will work. In many ways I hope it does because I see it as offering a far more stable financial model - which I hope will translate into better pay rates for the writers who contribute. (Am I just kidding myself here?)

But I was really struck by a problem with this approach today. @timestravel the Times travel desk's twitter stream tweeted:

Got any questions for our panel of travel writers? They're online until 1pm: http://bit.ly/awAypw

But of course this discussion was behind the paywall. Click the link and you just got a 'subscribe for access' message.

Maybe there's a new phrase I can coin here - is this the first example of 'Anti-social media'?

Unsurprisingly the tweets that followed were just a tad sarcastic:

From @alastairmck (BGTW member and travel editor):
RT @timestravel: Got any questions for our panel of travel writers? >> behind a link that goes nowhere (unless u pay)

From @DanielPearce (editor of travel industry magazine TTG:
@timestravel Well if only we didn't have to pay to join in then!!! Hope it goes well

From @maketravelfair:
Discussing how to get into travel writing... http://bit.ly/awAypw (via @timestravel) - great! but I have to pay to participate?

As Twitter and Facebook in particular have shown, Social Media is just a fantastic way to engage with new customers, to get people who don't know about you to come on board and participate. No chance of that for the Times Travel team now. They're stuck with their own walled-in population of subscribers. This to me just seems to run totally contrarily to the way Social Media is 'supposed' to work. (If you subscribe to the points of view of people like Clay Shirky et al.)

My first instinct would be to say - keep the great content like travel features and professional opinion and advice behind the paywall and use social media to point people to landing pages that are free for all to access. Reel people in with some engaging debate and hope this will encourage people to become subscribers.

But I can see the dilemma. For the very reason that social media gets people really engaged and interested in what you're up to because it's unique and compelling, it's the kind of stuff that the bean counters and marketers at the Times will want to charge people to access. In fact some might argue that it ought to be the very lifeblood of the website. Absolutely NOT something to give away for free.

So, you can follow @timestravel on twitter, but as is the case for most newspaper and magazine twitter streams their tweets are most of the time about features they themselves have published and debates and discussion on their website. So if you aren't subscribed to The Times you just click a link that dumps you in front of the 'subscribe now' screen. I wonder if as a result they will see a drop off in twitter followers? And will their tweets become nothing more than promotional messages encouraging people to 'sign up for great debate' or whatever?

Interestingly a further tweet exchange between Kevin May editor of Tnooz suggested a degree of frustration at the situation might be creeping in.

His Tweet was asking the Times Travel desk to comment on a post on Tnooz:
What say you @timestravel to this Tnooz post from @imckee http://bit.ly/bmM5Nx

The response?
"Timestravel will have a view but you will have to pay to see what it is"

Looks like absolutely nothing is free at the Times nowadays - even a quick comment on another blog post! I wonder if this is as a result of a directive on high or just a joke? A rueful acceptance that they are kind of caught between a rock and a hard place?

Personally I think for The Times to make this paywall thing work they will need to mix it up a bit and chuck some free stuff into the mix. How they do this without meaning all the best stuff leaks out from behind the paywall I don't know.

It will be so interesting to see.

What would you do if you were in their shoes?

It's now official. The Times and The Sunday Times will soon have separate websites and will charge people for access. News International, the newspapers’ parent company, has announced that people will be offered a day’s use for £1, or £2 for a week’s subscription.

For me this is one of the most important announcements in a very long time. As a journalist who believes in the value of his craft I have long been fed up of the way that it's just become 'normal' for anything online to be free. Why should that be? I write a feature for a newspaper and, without my say-so, it appears in the online edition too - for no additional payment. As a reader I've become fed up too with the amount of crap that is clogging up the net - words used just to target search engines rather than to deliver useful information to readers. Just this week I was offered between £15 and £25 to write 500-word pages for a fairly well-known travel website about flights and hotels in particular destinations. This is the sum-zero of this game. Content that's of little real use to anyone aimed in the main at getting people to land on a page - even if they click straight off again, just to earn ad revenue. And the people who write it being paid a pittance to do it. Something has to change.

More interesting still, it's looking increasingly likely that Murdoch (who is of course the real player behind all this as the Chairman of News International) will bar all his content from Google and conversely do a deal to make it available on Microsoft's competing search engine Bing. Google - no longer the search engine that covers everything? Wow... that is a serious cat amongst the pigeons and something only a huge player like News International would be able to consider.

So, I applaud the intent. But will it work?

1) People hate paywalls. Ironically I wanted to link to a piece on the FT that I found on Google about this - but I hit a 'register to read this' wall. So I went elsewhere to find something. I just struggle to see how they will get the casual browser to convert to  becoming a paid-up subscriber. Hitting a paywall will not make me want to subscribe.

2) Differentiation is all important. News is totally commoditised. Sorry, but I just don't see people paying for news. If I can't read it on Times Online I will read it on the Guardian or the Independent or literally hundreds of other sites. (There is a possibility of course that everyone will follow News International's lead. I wonder if NI management have been having quiet chats off the record with their opposites at other major publishers?But even then there's the BBC. ) Features of course are a completely different err, story. I had a fascinating chat with someone who works at News International last week about the way that NI plans to have The Sunday Times' online content focussed on Features - print, images, video and the Times on News. I can see a payment model working for the ST's more feature-orientated approach because this content will be genuinely unique.

3) What will that mean for writers? Well, again, according to my contact at NI there are serious budgets available for pure online content. Our conversation was all about the importance of video, and I can see how exploiting the technical advantages of web over print seems the logical way to add value here. So, maybe, just maybe, it will be possible for journalists to make a living writing/creating content for the web? If that's the case what will that mean for the travel writer? Now it's not just notepad and SLR to carry around, you'll need a video camera, tripod and mic too and the requisite skills to use this new kit.

4) What will that mean for advertising? This is the one that really fascinates me. I watched the video clip on that link above to the timesonline of Times Editor James Harding explaining  (not particularly effectively in my opinion) why this step is  being taken. Ironically, I had to watch an advert before the piece. I hate that. God, I'd pay not to have that crap getting in the way if I could. I loathe the increasing banality of online advertising - as the media landscape gets more cluttered advertisers resort to ever crasser ways to try and grab our attention - people walking across the screen, pop ups, things jumping around in the sidebars. For me it just doesn't work. An ad-free reading/viewing environment on-line would be heavenly. But will Timesonline and Sunday times online still carry ads? I bet they do.

Fascinating times. What do you think this means for writers and for readers?

Regular readers (hello and thank you!) will I hope remember a recent post about how I see travel writing changing. (And I think it's happening increasingly quickly.)

As I explained, I see an opportunity for travel writers to associate themselves with a brand and get paid for doing so.

In return the brand gets credibility and quality content on their website/blog (or even out there elsewhere on the net.)

Here are a couple of interesting live examples:

• Fiona Hilliard writing the Glove Box blog for Argus Car Hire
• Lara Dunston and Terence Carter, writing the Gran Turismo blog for HomeAway Holiday-Rentals (screen shot above)

Anyone found any others?

So - what are the new skillsets that a travel writer in the web-age needs?

Here are a few that I can think of:

A blog and a twitter feed - you need to demonstrate that you 'get' web. That you are live in your network.You need to demonstrate too that you get CMS systems like Wordpress and would be comfortable writing posts directly into a CMS platform yourself

Comments and followers - you need to demonstrate that the web gets you. People online are following your tweets, commenting on your posts, interacting with you. This is actually quite subtle in my opinion. Or to put it another way... how do you get comments and followers and what does that show about you as a writer? You need to know how to write posts that are opinionated, thoughtful, and encourage others to respond. You need to know how to nurture that discussion by moderating the comments and responding. You need to tweet usefully (an obvious example, don't tweet that you've just eaten a donut or someone on the bus is annoying you if your twitter feed is supposed to be about you as a travel writer. Set up a separate personal twitter feed for personal stuff!).

Connections in the right networks - marketing bods are all about audiences and customer groups. So instead of profiling yourself as say an expert on six different destinations that you've written Lonely Planet guides to or whatever, profile yourself as someone who can interact successfully - with real credibility - with backpackers and independent travellers. Pick an audience and focus on that. I don't know how crucial this one is... but it's certainly interesting. Editors like to be able to think of their freelance writers as having a particular skill or specialism. If someone has a ready made network that targets a particular demographic, wow, that's a powerful thing.

I guess I'd summarise the above points in one phrase: Social Influence

And then as a counterpoint - Search Influence

Page Rank - If you haven't downloaded and installed the Google toolbar - try it! It has a particularly handy Page Rank indicator that gives a rough and ready idea of the relative authority and hence link-value of any website you are looking at. It's a mark out of 10 (Travelblather is currently Page Rank 4). So... a link from Travelblather to your website is worth 4 out of 10 in Google's eyes. Not great, but not too bad either! The higher a site's page rank the more authority the links from it have. If you know a bit about SEO you'll know that links to a site have a huge impact upon its position in search rankings. (Another post on this sometime, but enough for now to say that if your blog has a decent page rank people who know their stuff will want to get you to link to them and this could be a revenue opportunity for you.)

So... if you're a travel writer (be that an old pro or a complete newbie) and you've set up a blog and maybe posted a few times and are now wondering 'why am I doing this?' the answer could be because in another year or two's time it could be your most valuable asset. Print sure isn't dead and it will always be there, but as opportunities for publication in print decline, the alternative will be on-line and in my opinion the winners will be those who demonstrate the qualities and skills I've blathered about on this post.

What do you think? Does this give you hope or fill you with despair?

(Another post you might want to read: The Future for Travel Editors)