Does this blog have the merit to go BIG in the future? What do you think?
I started a travel memoir blog in August this year. I'm focussing on solo unplanned budget backpacking. I want to create a collection of stories from different states of India and use my blog as a portal for stating that:
1. India is a friendly, beautiful and bizarre country. We are all ultimately the same be it Punjab or Kerala.
2. Travelling is not such a big deal and can be accomplished without going broke
3. Solo female travel is safe and more women should step out on the road
I'm doing everything 'prescribed' for blog prosperity and I see my audience is slowly (very slowly) increasing. I would like to grow faster of course. But I want feedback.
- Do you see potential in this blog? Do you like the stories? Do you feel this is something lots of readers would eventually want to follow?
- I hope it's not too personal and I hope the reader finds the information here useful.
- Also, what other type of articles could I introduce?
Your content is good, plus you make videos. Since your website is hosted in WordPress org, you dont need to take additional costing for an SSL certificate. I dont think you will be in a situation to have versatile plugins that can be used only in self-hosted wordpress- and you don't have to worry about backup as long as you have a solid alphanumeric password. Google search is giving more preference to SSL-based sites (the one with HTTPS and a lock next to it). The benefits of non-self hosted websites.
My preference would not be using my name as a domain unless its for personal page. It doesn't work for everbody. Potraying your activity and content as a brand is just not that easy. It should be something that people will remember. If your blog name was 'mitratravels' or something like that, its easier for folks to remember- and hence the brand is built. Your website's title is living unplanned. livingunplanned.in domain name is available. Have a logo for your website. Use it as a watermark on your images and youtube videos. People say its for preventing plagiarism. I say its a good b*****ng opportunity. If its your picture, have your logo as a watermark. Choose 1 good brand name and have a logo which represents that brand name without the need to redesign it. You have a great content so its all the more important. Your current watermark looks pixelated. I am assuming the original watermark is in PNG format.
you should have 1 featured video or image and an exercpt on the main page rather than the entire content listed. Main reason I give is to have scrolling easier and have people see maximum possible content within a screen with least amount of scrolling. In your case however there are many images and videos that load thumbnails. Its unecessarily increasing the page load times. The idea is that the website loads as quick as possible. Reduce all the post into 1 excerpt and 1 image per post. Interested people will click to open.Rename your images relevant to the title and content. I run a PC hardware review website- so per review has more than 10 images, sometimes going as high as 50-80. I use irfanview to bulk rename and watermark. Naming is done keeping the title in mind. Like say Nokia 6600. So it renames itself to Nokia_6600_1, Nokia_6600_2, Nokia_6600_3.......Don't take videos on potray mode. Everybody uses widescreen on all devices and its annoying when there's two vertical black bars.
Rather than having multiple videos per content, have one video and put them together nicely. Remember, your travels and living might be unplanned, but a well planned video makes unplanned living/travelling very attractice towards the audience. Have a good intro, outro. Subtle music. There are many guides out there. Or else get it made by Fiverr. There are many royalty-free music. If you can, get a microphone for smartphones which concentrate on you or the subject, while it reduces background noise. You also need to concentrate on earning if you're to spend money on quality content. non self hosted wp probably has its own ads. So putting more ads is counter-productive. instead, maybe have amazon affiliates and have relevant product listed there. Google adsense also gives revenue from search bar, so you could sign up for it and have it up.
Edit- its B-R-A-N-D-I-N-G. Indiblogger censorboard has a dirtier mind.
Hey Sorcerer, Thanks much for such an intensive reply. Very helpful. Particularly the bits about the domain name and the page layout ideas. I'm now looking into a new theme which can present more content to those who land on the home page.My website is on the free wordpress.com portal. I've just bought a domain. Still have to get hosting. Hopefully in a year. Looking forward to it because then I get to do more detailed SEO antics.
Hello Neetole Ji,
This is very nice Blog. 
It will be very useful and helpful for readers. 
Keep Blogging.
Best Regards,
