10 Steps to Start Your Hiking Blog
As more people get stuck on their smartphones and forget to engage with the world’s beauty, this is your chance to reconnect them with their cradle.
You will be serving a bigger purpose by reconnecting people to Mother Nature while at the same time exploring your hiking passions.
A hiking blog might be the answer to your adventure business or the foundation of a new passion if you are almost retiring from active hiking. Here are some ideas to kick start a titillating hiking blog for fun and profit.
Build your website
Your website is a one-stop shop for your target customers to browse and look through your blog posts, hiking pictures, videos and treks. Your audience also has a platform to contact you as well as make bookings on upcoming hiking adventures.
If you have a YouTube blog ensure it works well and remember to fix YouTube black screen so that your audiences don’t miss out on your content.
Determine your specialty
Find an area of hiking niche you are passionate about to make your blog more appealing to a specific audience. Hiking itself might sound like a specific area, but an experienced hiker will tell you there is more to do than meets the eye, like through hiker, fast-and-light hiker, hunter, trail runner or photographer.
Build your brand
After determining your specialty, you need to be identified by your target customers. They should easily distinguish your brand from the crowd. Your identity and image should be your selling points that attract customers to your blog. You should think from a business point of view to create an engaging audience.
Establish a social media presence
Social media is currently the greatest platform for promoting your blog posts, creating a new following, and generating traffic to your website. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, WhatsApp are the top platforms to enhance your social media presence. Post links, pictures, engaging memes and relevant hashtags on your social media platforms.
Choose a blogging platform
Blogging platforms are the easiest way to get started because they offer necessary tools and ideas tailored to your hiking business. You can begin for free or with an affordable domain option on Blogger or WordPress. A free platform is okay but for a serious hiking blog, you need to subscribe to a premium CMS that offers you greater tools and options to maintain your blog.
Post on your blog
Your website should never be idle because your followers need to be engaged with new ideas. You should update your blog with new information from time to time. Create a schedule of when to write content on your blog. It should be periodic, like daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on the nature of your blog and the demand for your camping videos or hiking experiences.
Create video content of your hikes
Are you using visual content for your treks, hikes, nature trails to promote your blog? Excite your audience with appealing videos of mountain ranges or waterfalls you trekked or hiked. Writing about them on your blog posts should be enhanced by additional visuals. You can post the videos on your social media platforms with links to your website.
Check out on SEO
When was the last time you worked on Search Engine Optimization? It may be obvious but most bloggers forget to take advantage of SEO marketing. To make your blog on top of search results, incorporate keywords on your blog contents, be creative with unique content that hasn’t been posted elsewhere or write blogs that increase your social media visibility. Consistent quality and original content will ultimately enhance your SEO.
More hiking, more ideas
This should always be your foundation because it is the key to new ideas. You get to unwind and it always reminds you why you started. It is one thing to research hikes and post on your blog, but it is a different thing to experience the hikes yourself. By going for hikes, you will be in a better position to provide your audience with content that is not only personalized but, more importantly, original.
Stick to the plan
You shouldn’t give up on your hiking blog vision no matter what. It may take time to reach your desired goals, but it is always that one post or video which will take you to the next level. You don’t have to post content every day or weekly. Post when you have an idea or the zeal to do it. As long as you are still passionate about hiking, your blog will always have content.
In Summary
Your passion for hiking should be fun and rewarding at the same time. Starting a hiking blog is the best decision to enhance your hiking experience and have an engaging platform that makes money for you. Follow the above blueprint and see how your passion turns to profit.
