#112 | Ciao | Niche Site Lady

I’m in Italy today! 🇮🇹

I feel so blessed to be able to travel every few weeks.

Around half of my trips are press trips – so the stay is gifted to me in exchange for coverage on my travel blog, social media and YouTube channels.

Thanks to press trips, I can stay in some very luxurious places that I wouldn’t otherwise choose.

(When it’s my own money I’m more likely to choose a Megabus and a Premier Inn!)

However, I’m actually really bad at securing press trips…

In fact, I’ll admit that I’ve never actually reached out to any brand to arrange a trip.

I’ve just waited for things to land in my inbox out of nowhere.

This isn’t a strategy I recommend at all – it’s an area I definitely need to improve.

I can see that travel bloggers with much smaller followings than me go on much bigger trips and more often, because they actually put the work in and do outreach.

Time to change that!

Since my husband has joined my blogging business, he’s now in charge of brand partnerships.

So I’ve handed him this course that shows exactly how to partner with tourism boards.

Anna Cook, who made the course, not only travels for free, but she gets paid to travel!

That’s the dream, right?

She started landing partnerships with:

15k monthly blog visitors
1,500 Instagram followers
1,000 Facebook followers

So you really don’t need a big audience to partner with brands.

It’s at this point that I’ll hand over to my other half ‘Niche Site Hombre‘ to continue writing this email…

“A few weeks ago, I left a job I loved after 9 years of climbing the ladder to join the Niche Site Lady empire. It feels strange, and it’s a huge leap of faith.

NSL isn’t just my business partner; she’s my wife and a fantastic mum. Working together has been incredible so far.

But let’s be real, after a few months of living and working together, she might either sack me or kill me.

Why? Because NSL knows exactly how she likes things done, and she’s not keen on the new guy giving tips on her already wildly successful business.

But a fresh pair of eyes can be valuable.

I often joke that I have to make her think my ideas are hers because she’s too strong-willed to take them directly from me.

One staple of our marriage is me sending her podcasts and YouTube videos that support my points, knowing she’ll listen to them over me.

So, it’s perfect timing that a new course just landed which could add a ton of value to our travel brand.

Created by Anna Cook, an expert travel blogger, it’s all about working with tourism boards, destinations, and local attractions and maximising your revenue from each trip.

We’ve never really worked with the destinations we visit, and spending a day last week working through Anna’s course made me realise that this was a massive oversight.

The course dropped at just the right time. We’re taking four trips in the next three months and are keen to maximise the value.

We’ve paid for some of these trips, but the dream is not just to travel for free but to get paid to travel – just like Anna does.

Her course has given us so many new strategies and insights.

Here are some areas we’ll focus on to elevate the travel brand:

Media Kits: We haven’t been doing this (despite my suggestions!). Anna explained the value of comprehensive media kits and compelling case studies, and how to make them appeal to tourism boards.
Crafting Tailored Pitches: We don’t pitch to destinations and attractions currently, but Anna taught us how to create pitches that highlight our unique strengths and align with the destination’s marketing goals.
Maximising Value from Tourism Boards: I learned strategies for getting more value from tourism boards, including getting them to share our content post-trip.
Building Service Packages: Anna shows real-world examples of comprehensive service packages, which will help us provide more value and boost our revenue.
New Monetisation Strategies: I never would have thought of half the ways Anna monetises her trips.
Networking and Follow-Up: Anna explains how she builds and maintains relationships with tourism boards.
Utilising New Tools and Resources: We already use Canva, but Anna showcases other great tools that make our work look more professional and guarantee buy-in from the tourism boards.

If you’re keen to learn more and take your partnerships to the next level, I highly recommend checking out Anna’s course. I learned so much from it!

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to contributing more to the NSL community.”

I’m really excited for us to start pitching to tourism boards.

I did work with a tourism board once after they reached out to me last year.

They made us a whole 2-day itinerary to follow with complimentary hotels, restaurants and entrance to attractions.

We felt like celebrities that weekend!

If you’re not sure working with tourism boards is a route that’s right for you, then Anna has a FREE WEBINAR that will teach you the basics.

It’s on tomorrow at 9 am PST / 12pm EST / 5 pm UK.

Click here to reserve your seat for free.

– NSL