Today on the blog, we’re offering an publisher spotlight interview with Kristin Addis of the gorgeous solo female travel blog, Be My Travel Muse. This MVP paused from her rockstar world travels to speak with us from her years of blogging experience.
You’re going to be seeing a lot more of this type of spotlight post, like this one with Melanie Gunnel of Mel’s Kitchen Cafe. We want to highlight as many of our awesome publishers as we can, so you may be receiving an interview request email from us.
Now, on to Kristin!
I’m a native Californian who has been traveling, largely on her own, for the last five years. I’ve been to six out of seven continents and have hitchhiked on all of them, I have camped on most of them, and absolutely love the great outdoors.
I quit my job as an investment banker and really wanted to take a sabbatical, but I’m also incapable of not having a project so I started the blog out of a deep desire to be a travel writer. It’s something I always fantasized about as a kid and so I finally set out to make my dream come true.
I remember when I started, the way to make money was to have a bunch of niche sites and to have ads on them, or to sell links, and Twitter was the hottest social network. Instagram was brand new back then. Since then a lot of people have come and gone from travel blogging but I think the same things remain true: good content will always be king, or queen, actually.
I really love the connections it has allowed me to make, both with other bloggers and with readers and people from the industry. I have learned so much and I’m so grateful for the ride it has taken me on.
Blogging can be really catty. In a lot of ways it feels like junior high or high school. It’s easy enough to just unplug and disconnect by not going on social media and just focusing on my own plot of land, if you know what I mean. As long as I am honing in on my unique gifts this part of the industry doesn’t have to affect me. Easier said than done but it gets easier with each passing day.
Nomadic Matt was the first blog that I ever read about long-term traveling and it made me realize that it could be a reality. Now I have a column on his site about solo female travel so it’s kind of cool how that worked out. I often read thebloggess.com as well because she’s just so funny and reminds me of the importance of being relatable.
https://www.bemytravelmuse.com/how-to-prepare-for-trekking-in-patagonia/ https://www.bemytravelmuse.com/how-to-take-travel-selfies/ https://www.bemytravelmuse.com/iceland-packing-list/
https://www.bemytravelmuse.com/be-my-travel-muse-tours/ https://www.bemytravelmuse.com/destinations-solo-female-travel/ https://www.bemytravelmuse.com/how-much-does-it-cost-travel-the-world/
All kinds, from journaling every day to set an intention to WordPress and the help of my lovely assistant.
I’m always learning about SEO and keeping it in mind when I am writing.
The biggest thing is being original. Go deep into a niche and do the things that other people are not doing. At first that means you’re going to be pushing it further and working harder but the more that you can think outside the box the more likely you are to have success.
At first, get the lay of the land and see what everyone else is doing, but then stop paying attention to your competitors and logging onto social media and focus on yourself and your brand and your unique gifts.
Oysters on the half shell!
Thank you, Kristin! I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve been inspired to pull out the atlas and plan my next trip. Where are you headed? Maybe we’ll meet Kristin out there.
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