This month we are delighted to feature Catherine from Lux Life, a luxury lifestyle blog. Catherine is currently busy packing up her life in Perth, Australia to return to her home in London. She ranks constantly high in our Trips100 rank, currently in fourth place based on the popularity of her blog, engagement and influence.
Below I have asked Catherine to share her tips for travel writing, her travel plans when she lands back home in England and her favourite travelling moments. Over to you Catherine…
Travel-wise I have trips booked in to Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Dubai, Spain, France, and Monaco. I’d also love to go back to the US and do a road-trip from Chicago to New Orleans in time for the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival next March! Years ago when I was 14 we did a Deep South road-trip, so my aim is to re-visit some of those places but start in Chicago this time, then drive down to St Louis, Nashville, Memphis, Vicksburg, and then NOLA. I’m also moving back to the UK from Australia within the next month, so I’m excited to get back to Europe and be closer to everything again.
From a blogging perspective I’m working on a new expat project called Say Hello, and doing more bits of freelance writing on the side (I recently wrote for Grazia UK which was definitely a highlight of my year). With both Lux Life and Say Hello, I’d also love to start being more open about the struggles that go in on the background. I think we have a tendency to show off this amazing life and all the perfect moments, but are very reluctant to share the tough times. Personally I think this is incredibly dangerous for our followers to see such perfection constantly, and as bloggers we have a duty to start being more relatable and show that everyone has struggles and everyone goes through hard times. Not everything is perfect and it’s OK to admit that.
Where is your happy place? Your favourite destination in the world?
That’s such a tough one – I’ve been to 38 countries now and struggle massively when it comes to choosing favourites. I think I’d have to go with Cuba for the beaches and friendly locals, New York for the bars and clubs, and Budapest for a European city break. Then of course there’s always Australia, my second home and the most magical country for a little bit of everything! They really do have it all; beaches, cities, rain-forest, rugged gorges and canyons, desert, and the magnificent Great Barrier Reef.
Which blogs do you love to read for inspiration?
I have a bunch that I have bookmarked, but my absolute favourite travel blogs are Handluggage Only, Girl Tweets World, Lee Abamonte, Fresh and Fearless, Silverspoon London, and Londoner in Sydney.
Can you share the three most popular posts on your blog?
My most popular travel posts on Lux Life are;
The Perfect West-Coast USA Roadtrip Itinerary
Can you share any tips for newer bloggers who would love to set up a travel blog?
Oh gosh, I have so many! I think the main one though is SEO. I actually work in SEO for my full-time job and I wish I had known more about SEO when I first started blogging. Because I do it as my day job I hate doing any SEO tasks on my blog because blogging is my escape, but I think it’s so important for new bloggers to get a basic understanding of how it works and how it can benefit your blog.
Another big part of SEO and getting your posts ranked in Google is backlinks. Offer to guest post for bloggers who are open and looking for guest writers, find relatively new online sites to write for in return for a link (I did this with Culture Trip and Aglaia – two great sites who welcome new writers), and don’t be afraid to pitch writing ideas to the blog sections on the likes of Huffington Post and brands like Flight Centre. Make sure you ask for a link to a deeper blog post on your site rather than the homepage – the more links you have to deeper pages the more it increases your site authority as a whole.
Also don’t corner yourself off – make friends and embrace the blogging community! For the first year of blogging I didn’t even know about the blogging community, but when I found it I made friends for life. Some of my blogging friends have become my closest friends and have been there for me when some of my oldest IRL friends haven’t. It’s a very special place and a place of constant support and encouragement.<
If you could go back in time to when you first set up your blog would you do anything differently?
I would probably just make friends in the blogging community from the very start! It’s a huge regret of mine that I didn’t find it sooner, and something I wish I had done as soon as I set up my blog. It really is an invaluable community and just so amazing for bouncing ideas around, being able to talk to other people who love blogging, and have people to vent to when you have those off days!
If you would like to follow Catherine on her travels pop along and check out her social media channels – Instagram, You Tube, Twitter.
