Hundreds of travel bloggers did what they do best over the weekend in New York City, they blogged, Tweeted (#TBEX) and explored the Big Apple during the Second Annual Travel Blog Exchange Conference (TBEX '10), June 25 through 27. During the conference, about 300 travel bloggers and public relations professionals gathered in Manhattan to improve their craft by learning and sharing with fellow bloggers and travel journalists.
Business of Travel Blogging
Travel blogging has evolved from a casual hobby of journaling vacations to a money making business. Just ask Jim Benning. He and college friend Michael Yessis co-founded the online travel magazine World Hum in 2001 with $35. Early on, the site did not make money but as Benning told the audience, "Follow your passion…great stuff will come out of it."
In 2007, TravelChannel.com saw value in World Hum and purchased the online magazine. Benning and Yessis remained as coeditors-in-chief and the online publication has a built a reputation of publishing intriguing travel stories by well-known and unpublished authors.
Travel blogger John E. DiScala (JohnnyJet.com) shared his story of once being someone who was afraid of flying to one who has built a career of traveling the globe and writing about it. Six months after launching his site, he quit his day job and 10 years later, he’s expanded his existing site and launched additional travel sites.
A panel of journalists offered insight into writing a great travel story while another panel focused on search engine optimization (SEO), monetizing and other strategies to make money from travel blogging including adding affiliate links.
Additional sessions included a G-Rated travel porn presentation by Gary Arndt (everything-everywhere.com) who emphasized the importance of photography in travel blogs. Travel video for the Web, working with public relations firms, finding a niche, and podcasting were other covered topics and the Web’s best travel blogging stories were read during the community keynote.
FTC Blogging Disclosure Clarified
Mary Engle of the Federal Trade Commission and Susan Getgood of BlogWithIntegrity.com participated in a travel writing ethics panel and clarified the FTC blogging disclosure policy. They explained when a blogger has a relationship with a marketer and receives compensation or freebies, it is good practice to disclose. Engle explained the responsibility of disclosure is with the marketer who needs to tell the blogger to disclose the relationship within the blog post. It was further explained disclosure needs to be made when the relationship between an endorser (blogger) and marketer are not apparent to the reasonable citizen.
Engle said disclosure phrases can be as simple as "I was hosted" or "I was give" in the body of the blog post. When it comes to Twitter, if a travel blogger or journalist is being hosted on a media familiarization trip, they should Tweet in the morning include #ad to indicate disclosure. The tag does not need to be included in every Tweet. She said when endorsing products, Twitterers should also use #ad in their Tweets.
The FTC is "not policing the Web," Engle said but will follow up on complaints submitted by consumers. Getgood has written "Eleven Urban Myths about the FTC Guidelines for Endorsements & Testimonials" to further clarify the FTC blogging disclosure policy.
TBEX Attendees Explored New York City
During the day, bloggers attended informational sessions at the Cantor Film Center and during down time, they networked at various events hosted by Australia’s Outback Northern Territory, BootsnAll, Diamond Public Relations, EuroCheapo, Tourism Vancouver, TripAdvisor, and Weber Shandwick Travel & Lifestyle. NYC & Company (New York City’s official tourism marketing organization) and New York CityPass provided attendees with complimentary admission to some of New York’s iconic attractions and Context Travel offered complimentary New York walking tours.
About TBEX and 2011 Host City
Kim Mance, founder of GoGalavanting.com, is the brainchild behind Travel Blog Exchange, an online travel blogger community, which has evolved into the annual conference. TBEX '11 will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia in June 2011. Travel bloggers interested in attending should visit the Travel Blog Exchange website for registration details.
Jennifer Huber - A 20-year veteran of the tourism industry, Jennifer's career path began during college when she followed the hiking path in Yellowstone ...
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