Sheila Beal publishes the Go Visit Hawaii, a Hawaii travel guide and vacation advice blog – which recently won Lonely Planet’s best destination blog award.
Why do you blog? Do you have specific goals?
My goal is to provide user-friendly, practical tips that help my readers make the most of their Hawaii vacations, while appreciating the culture, people, and scenery.
How do you come up with new post topics?
I have two main sources for post ideas:
1. I make a list of all the questions and challenges I had when I was planning my first vacations to each island. Each question and challenge eventually becomes a post and solves my readers’ questions and challenges.
2. My husband and I take lots of photos when we visit Hawaii so I draw quite a bit of post inspiration from our photo collection.
What writing style do your readers seem to like best?
I like to provide a balance of styles, but my most popular posts have been advice based. I have a variety of readers – some are planning their first trip to Hawaii while other readers have visited so often that they know the islands like the back of their hands. Believe it or now, I have a very faithful contingent of readers who are long term Hawaii residents. So a mixture of styles engages them all.
What’s your biggest tip about writing a successful blog post?
It’s very important to think like a visiting tourist would think. Try to anticipate their needs and challenges so that you can address them. Readers will appreciate the valuable information.
What is the most common mistake new bloggers make?
I think that new bloggers tend to obsess over their blog analytics. I confess that this was an issue for me in the early days. It’s a natural thing to do, but my advice is to try not to focus too much attention on the figures. Instead of obsessing that you only have 50 or 100 readers while another blog has thousands, celebrate your small successes, such as a growing readership, occasional comments, and the valuable skills you’re learning as a blogger.
Another mistake I made in the beginning was that I was reluctant to let my personality show in my writing style. That was frustrating for me, plus I think my blog was more boring. After I gave myself permission to be me, I started having so much more fun blogging. So, I’d encourage new bloggers to show personality. That’s one thing that sets blogs apart and engages readers.
