BITW 015: Creating a Mancation Travel Niche with Mantripping Founder James Hills

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015: Creating a Mancation Travel Niche with Mantripping Founder James Hills

James Hills is a Lifestyle & Travel blogger focusing on Mancations, Guys Weekends, food, beer, spirits, fishing, cars and gadgets. James’ professional journalism background includes working at WashingtonPost.com. He launched and is founder of one of the leading men’s lifestyle websites – mantripping.com that has more than 40,000 monthly readers. He is is co-host of the Men Who Blog Podcast– a bi-weekly podcast discussing Travel, Food, Cars, Gear, Men’s Fashion and Style. Today’s guest was featured as an industry expert by iBlog Magazine in 2014 as a Blogger and Influencer Marketing Expert. Find out his inside secrets to use sponsored posts to grow revenue for your website and how to use social media to build a successful travel website on the 15th episode of Break Into Travel Writing.

The Finer Details of This Show Include:

The definition of a mancation.
The value of mancations for men.
Why being a travel blogger is harder than it looks.
The importance of using social media during a media or FAM trip.
James’ male bloggers group “Men Who Blog”.
Why you’ll need a vacation after your FAM trip.
How to guest post and submit to James’ website (women can apply too!).
Why James hates driving but loves roadtrips.
Definitions of a CVB, DMO and other fun acronyms
His favorite John Lee Dumas’ piece of advice for starting a Podcast; “Don’t over think it. Just do it!”
And loads more!

James also shares his insights on how to break into travel writing, make money with your travel blog and what social platforms are driving the most traffic to his website. Some of the main points we discuss are:

Make sure to understand the KPI (key performance indicators) each PR rep is looking for.
How to create a sponsored post page to sell advertising on your blog or website.
Which social media platform drives the most traffic to James’ site.
James’ favorite social platform to connect with people.
How to assure a DVB/DMO will re-tweet your tweet on Twitter.
How to use a CVB/DMO photo gallery.
James’ advice to create a goal and game plan for your podcast or blog.
If you fail quick and fix faster all will work out!
How to keep up an ongoing email relationship with CVB and DMO reps.
How to assure you stay front of mind with PR reps.
Why you need to register yourself everywhere.
Why monthly visitors of 10k and 20k are the magic numbers.

There’s plenty more James shares on today’s show on that same subject – and offers great insights! Be sure to listen to hear what he has to say on this and his mindset advice if you are serious about becoming a travel writer or podcaster and “If you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t trying hard enough”. Have a listen to get the inside scoop, and then join me in thanking James for being here! And thank you as well. We’ll see you next time!

Episode Resources
The “Super Secret” Men Who Blog Facebook Group
Cosmo article
Chick Vacations
Flagship Cruises
Cmp.ly
Apple air play
Colby’s Days of a Domestic Dad
Tom’s Bourbon Blog
Fred’s Mocha Dad blog
freeconferencecall.com
Mario Brown
Submit travel articles to 52Perfectdays.com
Submit travel articles to mantripping.com
Cision

Connect with James Hills & Mantripping:

James Hills website
James Hills Podcast
James Hills on Facebook
James Hills on Twitter
James Hills on Youtube
James Hills on Pinterest
James Hills on Instagram

Connect with Break Into Travel Writing
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Facebook
Instagram
The Aspiring Travel Writer, the Facebook group

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