Travel bloggers, don’t just walk away
How to maintain the original intention in the era of "traffic is king" is a question that needs to be considered
Read the tips
Our reporter Wang Yu and Zhao Chen
In recent years, with the development of self-media platforms, the number of travel bloggers has grown rapidly.
To become an excellent travel blogger, you have high requirements for physical strength, content creation ability, and operation ability.
At the same time, "traffic is king" has become an unspoken industry law, and travel bloggers also need to strike a balance between catering to the market and sticking to their original intentions.
"Wandering all over the mountains and rivers, I still feel that the world is worth it. The bonus is millions of dollars per year, and I am the boss." With the booming development of self-media platforms, travel bloggers have become one of the career choices of many young people.
The number of travel bloggers is growing rapidly.
According to incomplete estimates by industry insiders, there were less than 1,000 full-time travel bloggers in China before 2016. Today, the total number of travel bloggers on various platforms has already exceeded 100,000.
In the eyes of many people, travel bloggers only need to go out to have a "life of lying and winning".
Is this really true?
What kind of training do you have to go through if you want to be a good blogger?
Not limited to self-satisfaction
"I am Madman Sun, an adventurer who handed myself over to the world." This is the Weibo signature of 30-year-old Harbin guy Sun Changjian.
Since being a travel blogger in 2017, he has been to more than 60 countries, tried various extreme sports, and has accumulated more than 5 million fans.
Now he earns more than one million a year and has successfully turned his interest into a career.
"The meaning of life is to do what you like best." Sun Changjian explained his original intention of starting a business in this way.
He used to be a product manager for a dairy company. He lives a stable life but repeats machinery.
It was not until the end of 2016 that he suffered from depression. Friends began to take him to play outdoor sports to help him get out of the trough. He decided to end the "life of seeing the head at a glance".
To explore the "possibility", he chose to start with the distant scenery.
The deep and mysterious blue ice of Lake Baikal, the northern lights and reindeer of Murmansk, the ebb and flow of the Arctic Ocean... In Sun Changjian's view, the sensory stimulation during the journey is itself a shocking education.
In the eyes of Xiaohongshu travel blogger @皮皮 in blue planet, the landscape along the journey may be repeated, but the story is not the same. "On the road, going deep into the lives of locals can sometimes make people become Open-minded, I don't think that my own business is anything." After every trip, she is used to sending videos to friends on the road. She thinks this is a way of "giving back love."
The exploration of travel bloggers is not limited to self-satisfaction. As content producers, they are opening up more “incremental” areas for tourism consumption in the post-epidemic era.
According to the "2020 Douyin Travel Creator Ecological White Paper" released by People's Cultural Tourism, compared with January, the number of Douyin travel bloggers in November 2020 has increased by 6 times, and the average number of live broadcasts has also increased by 528%. , The online process of tourism is accelerating.
"Compared to platforms, bloggers are closer to consumers, so they can reach users more accurately and influence consumer decisions." Some insiders analyzed this way.
One person is a team
Just posting a short video on Douyin has won tens of thousands of likes. Is the era of "everyone all bloggers" coming?
Sun Changjian said with a smile: "This is just an illusion."
"The brilliant literary talent, sharp lens capture, and efficient post-processing are just basic skills. If you want to be bigger and stronger, you also need sufficient physical strength, interpersonal communication and business negotiation skills." In his opinion, travel. Bloggers have very high requirements on the overall quality of the individual, because "you are a team", and freelancing is far from arbitrary, it requires absolute self-discipline.
In the professional experience of many bloggers, "anxiety" and "giving up" are high-frequency words, and it is common to get confused.
"The blogger circle is a miniature entertainment circle. The blogger is always the one chosen. It takes luck to stand out." Faced with the unpredictable development of the industry, Sun Changjian occasionally gets confused.
Last year, affected by the epidemic, he had no income for half a year, and his team members resigned one after another. They had to rely on previous inventory and development of domestic tourism to keep a low profile.
In contrast, Pippi, who has just been a travel blogger for a year, seems to have a more relaxed attitude towards this job.
The 25-year-old Beijing girl told reporters that she currently does not have the pressure to raise the team, and her focus is still on content creation.
According to reports, the working methods of travel bloggers at this stage are mainly divided into two categories, one is to complete Party A's prescribed tasks, and the other is to shoot custom-themed works.
For the former, Party A usually sets up the route, shooting scripts, and arranges the ground connection, and the blogger only needs to complete the travel shooting content; the latter requires the blogger to pre-set the route, expenses, accident risks, etc., and complete the script during the travel process The content will be promoted after post-processing.
"Many topics are determined by myself." When it comes to this, Pippi smiled boldly, "I can slowly figure out what the content will be higher, but the pleasure is only temporary. I can make it now. A good work will make me feel more fulfilled."
"Be a blogger, please be sincere to yourself"
"The fairness of being a blogger is that no matter when you enter the venue, as long as you have a continuous output of high-quality works, you have the opportunity to stand out." Sun Changjian described the blogger industry in this way.
Some bloggers concluded that high-quality works cannot be quantified, but good works can definitely provide happiness, knowledge and resonance.
The reporter learned during the interview that platform traffic subsidies and brand advertising accounted for the bulk of travel bloggers’ income. Therefore, “traffic is king” seems to have become the industry’s tacit logic, and the problem has arisen from this.
"Some people have never been to India, and they directly use online material or other bloggers' videos to piece together editing, just to like the amount." In Sun Changjian's view, some bloggers were kidnapped by traffic and even discarded the most basic truthful elements. , "If things go on like this, bad money can only drive out good money."
Even more worrying is the distorted view of tourism under the profit-seeking bubble.
"Some bloggers' irresponsible curious behaviors have brought wrong travel views and sometimes endanger the personal safety of tourists." said a senior travel expert in the industry.
Also kidnapped by traffic, there are also MCN institutions that incubate Internet celebrities.
Some bloggers revealed to reporters that many MCNs are still in the stage of barbaric growth. In order to earn traffic, they will replace bloggers with a lot of ads to make quick money, and Guangcasting will sign up with various talents in the hope that after the bloggers become popular Share benefits.
Many travel bloggers have begun to reflect on the endless catering to the market, is it the original intention of looking for "poetry and the distance"?
In a tweet released by Pippi, she shared the technique of shooting vlog "the most invincible"-"Be sincere to yourself", "Many people's misunderstanding is that they pay more attention to the audience than they are, but they don't understand the truth itself. It’s very attractive."
"Being a blogger has helped me regain my self-confidence and accept my true self. If I can help more people find myself, it may be considered a little achievement. This is my original intention. I believe that my sharing will attract people who are similar to me. Fans." Pippi said.
At the end of 2020, after experiencing the epidemic, Sun Changjian decided to sign an organ donation agreement. "After experiencing, I will cherish my possessions and be grateful for my luck. I just want to do something for the society." Many fans watched. After his sharing, he was thinking about the same thing.
"Being a blogger is more than just sharing travel. I realize my ideals and perhaps change other people's small world. This feeling is particularly good." Sun Changjian said.