Hi everyone! I just wanted to share some of my secret tools that I love using as a travel writer! Note that there are affiliate links in this article.
BLOG HOSTING
People's Host: I 100% recommend People's Host as a hosting company. I used to use a very popular hosting company that is highly recommended by many top bloggers (because they offer high affiliate payouts). That hosting company is great if you are just starting out and have not too much traffic to your website. However, once my website started gaining tons of traffic, the website kept crashing. I contacted my hosting company dozens of times and they could never give me a valid explanation. Also getting in contact with tech support was always a hassle. I don't want to call out this hosting company publicly but if you shoot me an email I'll tell what the name of the bad hosting company is. Anyhow, when I switched over People's Host, they held my hand through the entire process, helped move my site over for me and my site has never crashed again since the move. Also their tech support is stellar, sometimes they reply immediately after I send an email!
Thrive Content Builder: This is a plugin for WordPress which allows you to create beautiful webpages easily. It allows you to create more complex webpages without knowing any serious coding. I love creating columns in my review articles, wouldn't know how to do that without Thrive.
EDUCATION
Niche Pursuits: I listened to every podcast from Niche Pursuits and read every article on the website and learned how to build an Amazon affiliate website without spending a penny. I now make $1000 a month off one of my affiliate sites, have launched 4 other affiliate sites and am growing!
Travel Writers Academy: Alexa Williams leads the Travel Writers Academy and its very affordable! It's perfect if you are just getting started with travel writing and blogging. An added bonus is that if you are a member of the Travel Writer's Academy, you can go on the two media trips that Alexa plans per year for the group (usually to Mexico). I also recommend her Break into Travel Writing podcast, I learned so much from listening to every single one of the episodes and learned so much.
INFLUENCER AGENCIES
I wrote an article about the top 33 influencer platforms that you can sign up for. Here are the ones that I have actually made money from
Tapfluence: Worked on about 5 campaigns over a year, all paid well. Currently working on a very well paid campaign for social media posts only (no blog post)
Socialix: I love Socialix, such an easy platform to use and the brands are quite responsive. Worked on one paid campaign and a recent product only campaign (product was worth $950). The brands are very responsive on this platform, even if they are turning you down, at least you know!
Social Fabric: I love that the platform features several new opportunities almost every single day. Currently working on a solid campaign with one of their brands and just completed several social media posts for several other campaigns.
Massive Sway: Currently working on a solid sponsored post with Massive Sway and worked on social media posts in the past.
Find Your Influence: They offered me many more lucrative blog post campaigns in 2016, slowed down significantly in 2017, just worked on some much smaller social media campaigns.
Famebit: Haven't booked anything lately but have worked a paid Youtube campaign with them previously. Recently reached out to many brands on the platform with no response.
PHOTO EDITING
Selfmade: Selfmade is my ultimate secret weapon! I don't have a great eye for Instagram and keeping a consistent, cohesive theme. Scroll all the way down my Instagram profile and you'll see how bad my feed used to be, before I started using them. Selfmade helps me make sure that all new photos match the feed and make any edits that are necessary, up to 2 photos a day, with ultimate revisions. Tell them I referred you!
VIDEO EDITING
Wondershare Filmora: I use Wondershare Filmora to edit my videos and they are a Godsend! I do eventually probably need to learn premiere but Wondershare has pre-made graphics that you can just easily drag and drop onto the video. Here's a video that I recently edited with Filmora.
TRAVELING RESOURCES
Skyscanner: The best option for finding super cheap flights! Read my tutorial here.
