For many travel bloggers, it’s quite simply not feasible to travel all the time. Unless you have worked your way up to elite status and are making a living from travel blogging, many of us simply cannot afford to travel to far flung and exotic destinations every week of the year. Many of us also have partners and families who have commitments back home too. Yet, at the same time, it wouldn’t feel right, to blog about places we’ve never been to and for those who focus entirely on reviews, it’s nigh on impossible. To solve this problem, without running out of lively, relevant and interesting blog content, many writers are now turning to something known as “backyard blogging” says blogger Emma Day..
What is backyard blogging?
Backyard blogging is quite simply blogging the places near to your backyard. Places that are local to you. This can be anything from parks, leisure centres, theme parks, days out, zoos, restaurants, bars, pubs, nightclubs, towns, cities, beaches and hotels. It’s also surprising how much fun it can be, being a tourist in your home county.
Where is the value in backyard blogging?
Whose review would you trust the most… a review written by somebody who had visited a location once, briefly, whilst on holiday, or a review written by somebody who has visited that same location numerous times throughout the years and lives nearby?
At the end of the day, you know the places around you, better than people who pay a flying visit. You also know how to get to them – you know the nearest airport and the nearest public transport links. Your reviews are more credible, because you are repeat customers – you’ve received good or bad service on more than one visit. It wasn’t luck of the draw, your review is an accurate account of that venues standard service. Not only this, but other local businesses, local people and local tourist boards will often share your posts. You become an expert in tourism in your own area and your blog becomes a very valuable resource for people who travel both nationally and internationally, to your region.
Can you be a backyard blogger AND an international travel blogger?
You set the niche for your blog. If you want to blog about one county, one country, one continent or the whole world, that’s up to you. It’s perfectly acceptable to specialise in one area and blog about other areas too. The brilliance of travel blogging, is that if you’re doing it right, most of your traffic will come from search engines, so if your blog review matches what someone else is looking to read, you’re onto a winner – whether it’s Bognor Regis or Barbados.
British backyard bloggers.
I started my own travel blog, South West Reviews, in 2014. I specialise in blogging about the South West of England, but I happily cover other parts of England and any other countries I visit too. Similarly, Samantha who writes North East Family Fun, specialises in backyard blogging around the North East of England, yet she also covers further afield, from Barcelona to Mexico. Another backyard blogger I recently discovered (and love) is A Lady in London – pretty self-explanatory, she blogs passionately about London… and over 100 other countries around the world, with the most spectacular photography.
There are many other travel bloggers backyard blogging too and the popularity of it is beginning to soar. So if you were thinking of starting a travel blog, but were worried you wouldn’t be able to travel enough to make it worthwhile – why not give backyard blogging a bash?
Discussion11 Comments
Think this is a great idea. Like you say, it isn’t feasible to travel all the time and actually there are some pretty good things in our local area. I’m going to try a bit more backyard blogging now!!
I love the idea of being a backyard blogger. I definitely fall into this category for my eating out section on my blog as I mainly feature restaurants near to where we live. Just shows you don’t need to travel far to be a travel blogger. Great post Emma x
This is a great idea, I’ve definitely come across a few blogs who are writing about travelling but it’s clear they’ve never been to the places they’re blogging about. Backyard blogging allows for original content without breaking the bank – I definitely want to try this for the area we moved to last year since we’re still finding our feet.
Thanks for this interesting piece encouraging bloggers to realise how much they know without moving far from home. I love travel adventures, but to save cash and keep my family’s carbon footprint lower, I dreamt up a unique stay-at-home travel experience. So far I’ve visited 110 countries… without leaving the UK. I just researched countries I wanted to go too and then tried to find places i had visited locally or wanted to take the kids which gave a similar-ish experience so we went to Edinburgh to find Greece, to the River Orchy to find New Zealand, climbed Skiddaw to get the feeling of climbing Mt Everest and so on (there’s another 86 to “visit”). It’s not as authoritative as Backyard Blogging, though often I make mini trips from my home in London to places I do know well & restaurants are a very good way to travel too – but it does get rid of my itchy travel feet & it’s been pretty good for my two daughters’ geography knowledge (and mine if I’m honest). If you’re interested in looking see http://aroundbritainnoplane.blogspot.com
Backyard blogging is a great to share your local knowledge with people who don’t have time to explore it in the depth that you do because you live there.
Thank you for this Emma, this is me all over. I was worried that since my husband had an accident that prevented us from going anywhere I haven’t done much “away from home” type travel blogging. But I review attractions in the local area every week so you’ve restored my confidence that I can still call myself a travel blogger.x
Love this post , I am trying to do a mix of content of days out and travel abroad , as much as I would love to be travelling more than we do it isn’t always practical or affordable. There are so many great places to explore close to home too (we are lucky to live in a great part of Scotland) and the kids are happy on a beach whether it is in the South of France or the North of Scotland!
There’s so much to be said for writing about local destinations that you know well. Good post!
I do backyard blogging… There’s so much to see in and around the UK 🙂
There certainly is! Have you joined our #GetGone linky this month featuring holidays in the UK Nikki-Ann? https://www.trips100.co.uk/2017/04/getgone-linky-may/ Open until the end of May
Nice idea, I am still finding places around were I live that are new to me, so blogs that point them out would be very useful