If you’re a frequent traveler, you might want to start considering using a VPN as they have many benefits for travelers. I’m going to explain a few reasons to use a VPN for travel, which are the reasons I have used one (and tried many) over the last 7 years of travel.

When I first took a trip to Europe in 2009, I did not know what WiFi was (and I’m dead serious – I know that seems crazy). My friend had an iPhone and was like “It has this thing WiFi and apparently we can connect like anywhere…” We never figured it out. It was still the time of going to internet cafes and paying to use their big, slow computers to book a hostel on Hostelworld or call our parents on Skype and let them know we were alive.

Now, things are so technological. You can get SIM cards as you travel for mere pennies so you are always connected, you can stream movies, book hotels from your phone, make cheap international calls, and text anyone for free on Whatsapp. No more carrying around a book with train timetables!

But, with more stuff being online it means more chance of someone hacking you and when you log into public WiFi, that can happen! As a blogger, it’s something I think about when I get into my WordPress and banking at airports and other public places. Beyond that, there are other reasons a VPN helps like saving money on flights and being able to access blocked websites.

What is a VPN

A quick little Google search explains it as: “VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, allow users to securely access a private network and share data remotely through public networks. Much like a firewall protects your data on your computer, VPNs protect it online”.

Basically, when you log into a VPN, you can change your IP address and change the country “the internet” thinks you are in. For example, if you are in China and Facebook is blocked, you can change your VPN to the USA and voila, you can access Facebook. You can read more about them here.

VPN’s are really easy to set up and usually show up as an icon in the apps section of your PC.

What VPN To Use for Travel

I use several, actually. But that is mostly due to streaming TV shows. You can get by with just one, and the best one is NordVPN. I use it in conjunction with Vyper and Unblockus. Almost all VPN’s will be a monthly fee and you can either pay monthly automatically or pay for a year or two up front to save money. I recommend the latter. I think right now it’s under $3/month. For the latter two, I think it’s $7 per month. Ben has us all set up with several as sometimes streaming channels recognize one VPN, but won’t get past two.

5 Reasons to Use a VPN for Travel

1. Safety

One good reason to have a VPN is just to protect your information. If you are often using public WiFi spaces, this is a good idea for you. I don’t know what people sit around trying to steal online information from people working at Starbucks but apparently, it happens. People can somehow steal your credit card information and passwords but using a VPN can help protect that.

2. Booking cheaper flights

I never book a flight without checking with a VPN for prices from other countries! Let’s say I’m in India and booking a flight from India to the USA. The price might say $1200 round trip. Just for curiosity, I could change the flight to be USA, to India round trip, and it might come up $800. You might think that’s odd but the way I had read about it ages back is that because I’m IN INDIA booking a flight out of India, the price is higher as they know I need that flight. So, what you can do is change your VPN to the USA, and then search that same India to USA flight (but now you’re doing it from a country you’re not in, so basically backward) and you might find that flight for the same $800 price.

With the VPN, you can also check random countries to see if it’s coming up cheaper there. Remember to always open up a new incognito browser each time that you check as if you don’t, it remembers you with “cookies” and the price can go up and up.

3. Accessing blocked websites

Some websites are blocked around the world. This could be social media sites in places like China, or even a banking site being blocked if you are outside the country. Any time you come across a blocked site, you can simply turn on your VPN and change the country.

4. Streaming

Maybe the reason I need a VPN the most… TV! While Netflix can be accessed as you travel, the shows change to what is available in that country. Let me tell you – it’s not the same in the USA and India! It’s not even the same in the USA compared to the UK. You can switch countries to access different shows and movies.

Hulu is blocked outside the USA so I use the VPN to access Hulu here in Mexico and did in India as well. I also use it to access my Amazon Prime shows (so I can watch every episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm).

5. Language Barriers

If you are in Mexico and google something, often results will show up in Spanish. If you are on Amazon, it will automatically go to Amazon Mexico, etc. If you want the USA websites, you can just turn your VPN on to the USA.

If you want to try out a VPN, I recommend starting with NordVPN. You can sign up for it here.

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We all need internet when we travel. It just makes things so much easier – grabbing an Uber, checking out maps, booking hotels and transportation on the go. It’s hard to believe my first trip to Europe 10 years ago had me popping into internet cafes still not understanding what WiFi even was or owning a smartphone. I actually had a Eurail book with all the train times I lugged around so I’d know what trains to catch and where to switch for connections! Wild.

These days, everyone and their mom have a smartphone and many people traveling with them choosing to either buy a local SIM in their destination, calling their provider to add the country which can be pricey, or using a WiFi hotspot which many people choose to do. I’ve tried many over the years.

Last year, I shared about a WiFi device I had been using in the USA, Mexico, and India to name a few places called Vision Global WiFi. It works in more than 130 countries and has over 5 million users. It stood out from other devices I reviewed as rates varied by country (as low as $2/day in Japan or $7 per day in Europe) rather than being a set $10/day like many are, it had no setup, and it doubled as a portable charger. The cost has recently been lowered from $15/day for Mexico to just $8.80/day which is such a slash, I wanted to reshare about this WiFi device with you.

I’m going to explain what a WiFi device is, what type of traveler it’s good for, how this particular device works, and the pricing for it. This Vision Global WiFi review will break down the basics so you can decide if it’s something you want to purchase. I can actually track links on Hippie in Heels and can see over the last year so many of you have used this device on your travels!

In this post is a link to Vision Global WiFi- this link will give you 10% off

The post Using the Vision Global WiFi Device in Mexico first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post Using the Vision Global WiFi Device in Mexico appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

Press trips can be exhausting and packed full from sun up to sun down – yet, you still need to be active on social media and taking notes for blog posts, plus editing photos for social media as you go along. Back when I wrote about how I manage time as a blogger where I shared my daily and weekly blogging checklist, I said I’d follow up with how to manage time during a press trip as a travel blogger and some of you were eager to hear more. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long!

Read more: these are the WordPress plugins I cannot go without, this is how I make money, and here are 10 of my best blogging tips.

How to manage time during a press trip as a travel blogger

Okay, so first I’ll just talk about what a press trip is. A press trip or FAM trip basically means the blogger or journalist is invited to promote somewhere. Usually, they are unpaid and have no set deliverables (blog posts, photos). However, a brand campaign is usually paid and has set deliverables each day. I’m just going to use the term “press trip” to make it easy. In general, they have the same amount of work.

There are often huge group trips for bloggers and journalists or you might be a little further along in your blogging career and doing more one-on-one work with brands and tourism boards so you aren’t traveling in a big press group. That will give you a little more say in the schedule of your trip, while a group trip just comes with a set itinerary that you cannot change.

Before the press trip

The biggest thing you can do to manage your time as a blogger on a press trip is to prepare ahead of time. For me, this is key. I prepare enough that my blog runs in the background while I’m on the trip and I can focus 100% on where I am at the moment.

This means making sure:

• I have blog posts scheduled. During a trip, since I’m promoting a destination, I tend to share travel tips posts. So, if I’m working with a hotel in Singapore, the blog post on Singapore won’t come for about a month after. While I’m actually in Singapore, blog posts will still go live as they always do, so I might post for example How I take care of my hair while I travel. I post 2-3x per week, so I schedule that out. I also schedule out a few days after the trip so that if I’m really tired, I don’t have to worry about this.
• I make sure my email inbox is completely read and at zero new messages. I then go through all my “flagged emails” and follow up with anyone that I have unfinished business with.
• If I have any other brand commitments during the time of the press trip, outside of the press trip, I will schedule those. For example, if I have to post a Facebook post for Hertz or an airline contest, I’ll go ahead and schedule it out so no other commitments go missed.
• During the week of the press trip, I assume I won’t have any time for freelance writing. So that I don’t get behind on my monthly quota (which is just made up in my head of how many I like to write), I will write as many as I can ahead of time.
• I make sure all of my income and expenses are up to date and take any old receipts out of my purse and go through my banking to make sure I’ve documented it all for my taxes. I can then keep all new receipts from the press trip that I would need to keep as expenses.
• If it’s when I have a monthly email to go out, I will go ahead and write it and schedule it to go out as usual.
• Personally, I make sure I’ve replied to all my friends Facebook and Whatsapp messages, and as a blogger the messages I get in my Instagram inbox and FB comments. This just kind of clears my head and then I know I’m not leaving people hanging while I’m away on a trip and possibly not able to get to my phone.
• I will follow all the brands I’m going to be working with on the press trip ahead of time so that they show up when I start typing them in on social media – and I don’t have to look them up later. The hotels, restaurants, museums, adventure activity places, etc are usually on your itinerary so I go ahead and give them all a follow.
• If I know that I’m going to be without WiFi and know my schedule on a group trip, I might schedule tweets on HootSuite for specific things I know I’m going to be doing with a brand that is a partner of the trip. I could tweet that “I’m at @mumbaiairport about to head off with my favorite airline @jetairways to Tahiti” (haha I wish) or if I know one day I’ll be seeing Mickey Mouse at Disney I could tweet how excited I am, tagged Disney one of the imaginary sponsors in this scenario. This makes me feel like I’ve already done some things from the trip and if I forget to tweet while I’m there, it’s not going to go without at least one mention.
• I plan out my outfits for each day based on the schedule so that I don’t have to think about it at all during the trip and can just shower, put on the outfit I have laid out, and be done with it. I tend to actually wear makeup on press trips since I know I’ll be taking more photos than usual so I add on 5 minutes of getting ready time than I normally would at home. Bonus for those who blog with fashion in mind: go ahead and favorite the items on Rewardstyle so they are already “hearted” and you can use them to “swipe up” on Instagram stories quickly.
• I also make sure that I don’t do any big brand pitches or try to start a project like fixing something on my blog right before a trip starts.

As you can see, preparing for the trip is the most important part for me, and I do quite a lot to get ready for a trip and just have a clear head. The less I have to do on a trip, the better. If you are in the moment you’ll get 10x better content for your readers and actually enjoy yourself in the process.

Each morning of the press trip

I do the same thing that are on my “quick morning checklist” every day to start out. That doesn’t change. These are the things that I do every day pretty much and it takes just 5-10 minutes. The only thing I take off is my banking because I just wait, put that on pause while keeping receipts, and do that after the trip.

To repeat them, they are:

1. Twitter – just check notifications, reply to them, and tweet about what I’ll be doing that day
2. Banking – I check any payments and update my income and expenses excel sheets which I keep track of all year so my taxes are easier.
3. Pinterest – I have Pinterest set to autopilot with Tailwind but I just quickly manually pin two pins and make sure it all looks good.
4. My own blog – Next I check my blog and see what post went live (which I would have scheduled before the trip) then I share that post to Twitter right away. I schedule it on Facebook and add the pin to a Tailwind interval to all the relevant boards. I then add the post to my Instagram stories. This would just be 2-3 days of the trip and does just take a minute.
5. WP comments – Lastly, I check my comments on the blog and reply to ALL of them unless they are spam.
6. Facebook – I reply to comments on posts on my page. I started a Facebook group as well, so I go in and moderate that and reply to traveler’s questions.
7. Instagram – I check my Instagram comments and DM’s. This is something I DO get behind on, that’s why it’s last on the list because I can do this on my phone throughout the day when I get any downtime. On the first day of the trip, there’s nothing to post, but I will on the rest of the days post an Instagram image from the press trip in the morning and share it to Facebook and Twitter. I can then reply to comments throughout the day.

That is all done in just 5-10 minutes and actually doing that while I make a cup of coffee makes me feel so much more ready to start the day. The next big thing I do EVERY morning on a press trip is to check my emails. If I do not have time to reply to them, I at least go through them and flag ones I need to reply to later then I will delete the ones that are spam.

During the press trip

I do all this crazy planning because once I leave the hotel in the morning and start the press trip itinerary, I want to be 100% head in the game. That means taking photos, listening to stories, keeping a note on my phone of specifics I want to mention in a future blog post.

I make sure to do my daily deliverables which usually include 1 Instagram post and 1 Facebook post. I Tweet and do Instagram stories and always make sure to tag the brands I am working with on the trip which I’ve followed ahead of time and am familiar with their handles, saving me time during the trip.

When it comes to photos, I take a mix of fashion ones, creative ones, food, the streets and architecture and even boring stuff like train signs or the entrance costs of a place that I might later need in a blog post to help me remember where I was at a certain time for a future blog post.

Before bed on a press trip

I will make sure:

• All my emails are answered and up to date that I had flagged in the morning
• Edit ONE image that I’ll post to Instagram the next morning. I won’t go through them all.
• I will charge up all my devices that might be dead, camera, camera batteries, portable charger, kindle, headphones, or whatever I need and have it ready for the next morning.
• No more work! For one, I did all the work I needed to before the trip and already have finished the daily deliverables in real-time. I don’t get on social media at night because I’m obsessed with getting enough sleep on press trips since they usually have an early morning wake up calls, plus in the morning I check it each day.

At the end of the night, before bed, I will reply to those emails. I actually do this EVERY day no matter what because emails with other brands shouldn’t go neglected. For me, it’s the most important thing I can do to stay on top of opportunities with my blog.

After the trip

I prepare a lot ahead of time before the trip. I do my basic work in the morning before I head out each day, I do all my trip deliverables on social media in real-time and I go to bed early. This means that I’m usually not that worn on while on a press trip and it means that when the trip is over, I can chill out a bit.

Like I said, I will schedule my blog posts for a few days after the trip as well so that I can take time to not worry about posting new content. I am kind of OCD (shocker after reading this blog posts I’m sure) so I tend to get my post-trip work done ASAP. Here’s what I do:

• First, I actually organize my finances. I take photos of my receipts which will go to tax expenses and I write down any income that I earned during that week so my accounting is up to date.
• Now, I edit images. I use Lightroom and organize things into blog posts. This is when I start to think about what posts I want to write.
• Next, I write down my blog post ideas. I try to think about the basics people need to know like a 10-day itinerary for Jordan or is it safe to visit the Golan Heights? then I write fun stuff like the top 10 adventures to have in Maui or 9 epic experiences you don’t want to miss in Tel Aviv. I write about the things I loved from the trip and I’m sure to link to my sponsors and show people how they can book the same trip.
• Eventually, these posts go live and I share them to social media and with the tourism board or agency I worked with.
• About a month after the trip, I’ll send a follow-up email with stats from the press trip. That would include blog posts that went live and the engagement they got, as well as the social media posts and engagement for each of those.

So, that’s pretty much it – a look into my very organized mind, lol. I haven’t been on a press trip in a year now actually because I’ve had this big move being planned all year and really wanted to enjoy Goa this season. But, this is the breakdown of what I do for every trip! I hope it helps you. Is there anything that YOU do that I don’t have on my list?

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The post How to Manage Time During a Press Trip as a Travel Blogger first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

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I have been a really bad traveler and even worse travel blogger for years. Why? Because I just got my first credit card and signed up to points programs. It actually makes me a little sick to think of the 500+ flights I’ve taken and not gotten a single point from – and it doesn’t make sense. I am the girl that uses the free undies coupon Victoria’s Secret sends out. I have McDonald’s coupons in my purse and a Domino’s coupon on my fridge for the next time I call. But, I never signed up for points which would have given my FREE flights (especially considering how much I fly, but even for people who don’t fly often, they get a couple free flights a year). Like I said, it kind of makes me sick thinking about it but it’s never too late to start.

Why didn’t I start sooner? It’s really not laziness as you might guess. I’m actually really Type A and on top of things but I just found points to be a confusing topic. It sounded like a huge project and I wasn’t sure it was really worth it. More and more, I would see friends on Facebook who didn’t even travel that often getting business class upgrades and free flights in the USA and writing in their caption it was because of points. After years of traveling and meeting travel industry experts at conferences, they all balked when I said I wasn’t signed up to points – telling me stories of their free travels around the world thanks to their loyalty programs.

When I was back in Ohio last February, my BFF from nursing school was like “this is enough Rachel, I fly 3x a year and get Southwest points and use my Chase card and got a free flight already this year… you could have so many! You need to sort this out!”. I remembered that years ago I did an interview with Bryce, a friend from college, who runs 10xTravel which has grown into this huge online travel community that shares information about points and loyalty programs. He posts his trips with his wife on Facebook and travels more than I do – so does his Facebook group of other points people! Since I interviewed Bryce, he’s been on TV telling his secrets to Good Morning America, ABC’s Nightline, and even is a TEDx speaker.

If I was going to start doing points and getting credit cards, I was going to do it right. In fact, one saying on his website is “do it once, do it right, get on with your life”. That’s what I wanted: to set this up right then just reap the benefits. For years, I’ve followed their Facebook group and they were the source I went with to learn everything I could about flying for free. Step 1: read their free ebook that has all the information in one place. You can download it here. It’s short, it’s straight to the point, and did I mention, free?

The book gets into the basics of how traveling for free with points works. It’s not rocket science and actually, I’m kicking myself more that I have waited this long. If you’re reading this, start now – don’t do what I’ve done! It’s torture. His book explains how with super minimal effort, you can get at least 3-4 free domestic flights per year. Really.

Then you’ll want to go to this page and start going through the basics of how this all works. Bryce types like he’s chatting to a best friend and that is why I chose to get my information from him. Other sites on points seemed like they were selling credit card sign-ups or talked with vocabulary that confused me. These are articles anyone can understand.

Some of Bryce’s success stories are going to make you really jealous, I warn you – but it just goes to show how well this can work if you do it right. Honestly, the main reason people don’t travel is money and the main cost of traveling is the flights which you can literally get for free if you do this. There’s nothing in your way! Here are some of the articles he’s shared about deals his readers have gotten:

• How A Reader Got a $24,000+ Honeymoon for About $1,200
• How I Booked a $28,000 Trip to Thailand for $326 (Detailed Step-by-Step)
• How I Saved $978.25 on My Vegas Trip (And How You Can Too)
• Booked Hotel and Flight to Thailand for $72.80
• Marcus Booked 2 Round Trip Flights to Paris for $185
• Booked a $24,368 Itinerary to Thailand for $166
• $10,659 Worth of Airfare for $320 (first class to Bora Bora)
• Booked $3,500 Trip for Only $101 (Costa Rica)
• $102 Round Trip from NY to London
• Booked a $3,263 Trip to Paris for $266

You guys, I want to go first class to Bora Bora. I want to go first class anywhere. So, it was time to start the process!

How to Use Points and Miles to Travel For Free

So, a little bit about my banking situation: I went to school on full-tuition scholarship and my parents (thank you mom and dad) gave me their old Tahoe SUV (which I promptly flipped going 80 MPH and totaled so then they bought me a very old indestructible Dodge car). Basically, I had no credit. I never got a credit card in college. I have a Charles Schwab ATM card and that is where I keep my money – I like this card because it reimburses me ATM fees all around the world so I never have to worry about that $3 charge at the gas station ATM.

I have been living in India for 5 years and it’s a cash-only society so I very rarely used my card anywhere other than an ATM. You don’t get points on ATM withdraws and no one really accepts credit, so I think that is why I never really pushed to get a credit card. Knowing I was moving to Mexico, it was really good timing. Thanks to Bryce’s advice, I signed up for the Chase Sapphire Reserve. I did it online in .2 seconds and got approved right away. I don’t know how it works, but they clearly don’t investigate that hard (lol, jk, sort of).

I was in India at the time of applying and I asked them to FedEx me the card (so expensive). They did (overnighted!). This was shocking and I loved them already. Some reasons I went for the Chase card, thanks to Bryce’s site:

• 50,000 points sign up bonus if you spend a minimum of $4,000 in the first 3 months. I had Ben and I’s flights to Mexico to book and two months rent to pay on Airbnb so I knew I’d hit the minimum spend.
• Free Priority Passes. Now, I’m one of those fancy people who can go into airport lounges, eat and drink for free, and take a shower. Oh my, how my trips have changed thanks to this gem! Plus, whoever is traveling with me gets to come in, too.
• Car insurance. I can decline car insurance and have Chase cover me in full. We rented for a month in Mexico for $17 USD.
• Adding a second person to my account. I added Ben (who is English and probably couldn’t get a credit card in England because he lived in India for 10 years) to my account without issue. He got his own Priority Pass and gets car insurance and all the other benefits.
• Travel insurance. I get travel insurance now included!
• 3x points on dining and travel and 1x points on everything else. I spend 100% of my money on dining and travel so that’s perfect for me.

To be fair, there are other cards but when you look at Bryce’s card breakdowns in this handy little chart, this one just worked best for me. The next steps for me with credit cards, are to get more. If you read his free ebook it explains how you can get all these sign-up bonuses and if you want to you can even just cancel the credit card after you get your points. You still get to keep the points. Just stay on top of things and write down dates so you know when to cancel it.

Step two was to sign up to the loyalty programs of the flights I often take. This took about an hour of just knocking it out and jotting down all the usernames and membership ID’s and passwords so I have it all in one place. I signed up for Jet Airways, United, Malaysian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Air France, and Air Canada.

Step two was what I dreaded: I had to get all my flights for the past 6 months and claim them back. It’s awesome that airlines let you do this actually, but since I fly a lot it was a headache trying to find all my details. I went back and claimed tens of thousands of miles for various programs. You can only go back six months.

Now, when I book a flight, I always enter my membership ID. If I don’t have one for that airline, I sign up for one. I like to stay on top of this so I don’t have to go back and claim them later.

All in all, it took me a few minutes to sign up to the Chase credit card. It took me a couple of hours to get my loyalty programs sorted (only because I had so many old flights to claim) and I was already on track to have loads of points. I’ve read Bryce’s book twice now so that I know how to use my points, and keep track of when they expire so that I can get my free flights. I use Points.com to keep my accounts organized. You can enter all your loyalty programs there and then see all your points in one place. It’s free.

Actually, all this information and Bryce’s book are all free and it’s all here for you to just soak up and start following the advice he lays out so you can fly for free. If your dream is to travel, make it happen! Apply for a credit card and get some points, sign up for a loyalty program. Read Byrace’s ebook and devour his site for information. Reach out to him with questions! I’m sure he’d get back to you with personal advice.

I’m so excited to finally be trying to do this points thing – after putting it off so many years. I hope that you sign up and don’t do what I did as I probably could have flown to Bora Bora like 10 times first class if I’d done this from the get-go!

For me, the next step is getting more credit cards and more points (then probably canceling them) and using his credit card guide for the next steps. I have been a member of his Facebook group “10xTravel.com Insiders” and just eat up the information in there from other people just like me who are getting into points. I love seeing their success stories and it just gets me excited to get my first flight booked with points or my first upgrade! I hope that this helps you get stoked for free travel and I hope you join me in his Facebook group to learn more and get started!

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The post Are Points and Miles Over Your Head? Here’s Your Easy Guide Toward Free Travel first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

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Hey, bloggers! I know sometimes after a huge trip, you sit down and think “oh my god where on earth do I start writing about this!?” You’ve just spent two weeks in Morocco and had the most epic time, have 700 photos, brands to promote, and you just don’t know where to start. I thought I’d share how I organize writing blog posts about a destination and decide which posts I want to write after a big trip is over.

For more blogging posts you can see my whole list of them by clicking here. Some of the most popular posts on this website about blogging are 10 fail-proof ways to up your blogging game and tools I use to be more productive and earn a better income.

How I Organize Writing Blog Posts About a Destination

To show how I organize writing after a trip, I’ll use my Morocco trip as an example. I tend to do the same style of articles for each trip I take like packing tips, hotel reviews, itineraries, and in-depth posts on cool activities. First, I’ll share all the posts that I wrote and what made me decide on them. I wrote 14 articles. To start deciding, I ask myself what my readers are going to want to know before their trip. Sometimes that might be how to get a sim card, how to get a visa, or packing tips. In this case, I only wrote packing tips as the rest wasn’t long enough for a whole post and could be mentioned in my itinerary post.

Packing for Morocco

Next, I do my hotel reviews. Sometimes these are hotels that have been sponsored so it’s required that I write the review and others are just places I’ve paid for that I love. I write the reviews either way.

Reviews: Riad Star, El Fenn, Les Cinq Djellabas, Karawn Riad

I do the destination specific posts next and in this case, I went to Marrakesh, Fes, and Chefchaouen. I didn’t have enough tips for Fez since I was there a short time, so I actually included all of those in a round-up article later on. There isn’t any point in writing a post about a place you visited unless you really have something to offer.

Chefchaouen tips: everything you need to know

My girly guide for 5 days in Marrakesh

Next, I’ll do more detailed posts on things I did there. Sometimes I don’t know what these will be until I write the destination posts above. As I write those, I can see what is actually worth having a blog post of it’s own. I might even open up a new blog post tab and start working on it at the same time.

In Marrakesh, I visited from museums and attractions, but they weren’t interesting enough for their own blog post, so were all added to my 5-day guide, while on the other hand, I did a food tour and shopping tour which were both amazing and worth a blog post of their own. The desert camp I visited outside Marrakesh was also so cool that I wanted to make sure it has it’s own blog post.

Crazy and delicious food to try in Marrakesh

Shopping in Morocco: what to buy and how much to pay

Get the Morrocan desert experience without driving 10 hours into the Sahara

At this point, all my blog posts that cover the things I did are finished. I could stop there if I wanted to, but this is when I like to do a what to wear post and summary itinerary post that brings ALL these articles together as a cornerstone article and is what I can share anytime someone asks me about Morocco. This makes it easier for my readers to find things. I’ll also make several unique pins for this post. All my images are already uploaded so for the what to wear post, I can scroll and choose the ones that show my outfits the best.

How to “do” Morocco in under two weeks

How to dress in Morocco in a way that is stylish and appropriate

If I have a lot of photos left over that I haven’t used, I might do a photo gallery post and in this case, I had way too many from Chefchaouen so I did a post for just there, plus a post on Morocco altogether. I do this last because then all these images are already on my WordPress.

My Pinterest dreams came true in Chefchaouen

20 photos to inspire you to visit Morocco

That is how I end up with 14 posts about Morocco after the trip was done. When I get home from a trip, before I organize these posts, I actually go through ALL the images at once. I will put them in folders by destination so they are all ready to go once I start writing.

I do think about SEO when I write each post and I might also think about ways I can link to these posts from posts I’ve already written on my blog so that they have some backlinks. I then add them to my calendar but schedule them really far apart so that people reading don’t get bored reading about Morocco. I don’t necessarily post them in the order I write them.

I always write my posts within a week of being back from a trip so I don’t forget anything. I don’t do ANY writing during the trip because I feel like taking time to process it will make for better blog posts than writing it as I go, like a diary.

I hope this can help you organize how to write posts and which posts to write about your next big trip as a blogger.

The post How I Organize Writing Blog Posts About a Destination After a Trip first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post How I Organize Writing Blog Posts About a Destination After a Trip appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

Okay, blogging buddies, let’s talk about the best plugins for bloggers! While I’m a travel blogger, I also do a lot of posts on fashion and lifestyle, so this is not just for travel bloggers, but any kind of blogger. There are some must have WordPress plugins that nearly everyone has to optimize their sites, then there are some plugins that you pay for, and some that are really unique for earning money. Over the last four years, I’ve tried many – some I love, some I didn’t – and am summing up some favorites that I’ve kept.

My Must Have WordPress Plugins

This is not a list of ALL the best plugins for bloggers but really a list of what I use to keep Hippie in Heels running – these are my must-have WordPress plugins that have lasted four years on my blog.

I’ve had 3 different hosts over the last four years, dealt with CPU issues with shared hosting, had three different developers over the years, and these are the plugins that have managed to stay on the blog and not get nixed for taking too many resources. I am a minimalist at heart and if there’s a plugin I can delete, I DO. I hate unnecessary plugins, plus they slow your site down.

If you are planning on adding plugins from this list, try to do one at a time, waiting a day or two in between as plugins can “conflict” with each other and if an error happens on your site, you’ll not know what caused it if you add them all at once. If you’re new to blogging and this all sounds kind of confusing, I recommend taking Nomadic Matt’s blogging course so you can ease into all this!

Best Plugins For Bloggers who are a bit minimalist, want to earn money on their blog, and want to keep things running fast!

Okay, let’s take a look behind the scenes of Hippie in Heels. I get a lot of questions about my website design. These plugins DON’T make your website pretty; a designer does along with a web developer. The key to a pretty looking site is starting with a HIGHLY customizable theme. I use Avada and love it!

These plugins also don’t make your site run faster, although some do help; a good host is what makes your site run fast plus a developer helping you optimize your site. My host is Performance Foundry now because I outgrew Siteground, but if you’re between 100,000 – 200,000 page views a month, I suggest Siteground. Their Go Geek is so affordable and it was the best customer service ever. If you are just starting your blog and want something cheap or are under 100,000 page views, Bluehost is the way to go and this link will give you their lowest rate of 2.95/month.

Let’s start with ones that are must have WordPress plugins that nearly ever blogger has added to their site. These are kind of the base and some of these I’ve gotten rid of as my new host takes care of these big things.

1. Wordfence Security

This is what keeps your site safe! There are more out there, but most bloggers I know use this one and as long as it doesn’t cause conflicts on your site or slow it down, it’s a good one to use. It is “anti-virus, firewall, and malware scan”. My new host actually recently got rid of this as they have their own system and are also my developer, doing monthly maintenance. 

2. JetPack by WordPress.com

There are 101 reasons to use Jetpack and it’s a whopper of a plugin that kind of gives you a handful of things that if you didn’t have it, you’d have to download 10 different plugins. For example, a small bonus, it adds a grammar and spelling checker to your dashboard when you write posts. It has stats, security, image performance, showing related content after a blog post, sharing, commenting, and more.

3. Google Analytics

While Jetpack does collect stats, brands and well basically everyone will only take Google Analytics as a true source of what your stats are. This plugin is how Google Analytics can track your readers: the number of them, where they are from, their age and interests, and so many other cool things to find out.

4. UpdraftPlus

With this plugin, you can back your whole site up to Dropbox, Google Drive, or straight to your PC. Backup plugins are notorious for slowing down sites. You have to make sure you get one that works with your host and other plugins. My host backs my site up, and I used to run this weekly, but my new host is someone I trust a lot so I’ve recently disabled this. 

5. EWWW Image Optimizer

While you should export your images at a smaller size and resolution before uploading them to WP, you can also have this plugin to make them even smaller (in terms of kb). This will help your page speed. My new host also got rid of this plugin and replaced with their specific Foundry one, but this is great for other hosts. 

6. Really Simple SSL

When you do the dreaded switch from http to https (which Google is pretty much forcing us all to do), this plugin makes it much easier. Most hosts will make the switch for you, but the plugin makes sure all old URL’s are redirected to new URL’s and more. When I switched to my new host, this is another that they got rid off and they coded the SSL switch so I didn’t need this.

Now, let’s talk about the plugins you might want to add if you want to earn money from your blog. These are the ones I use.

1. Mailerlite

If you want to do email marketing, you need to sign up for a program to do so. Mailchimp is not the only option, and if you plan to grow fast, it’s not the best for you. I got it ages ago because it is free up until I think 3,000 subscribers. Once I hit that it was too expensive to stay with Mailchimp. Mailerlite is easier to use, makes cuter emails, and they have an actually “Mailchimp to Mailerlite” system to help you shift everything over. It was really easy and I love it. I’m paying 1/4 of the price! You can sign up to Mailerlite with my link and get $20 off.

this is the image on my home page which links to Mailchimp

2. Yoast SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is SO important if you want earn money as this is what makes you show up on Google. Yoast makes it easier to understand and make sure you don’t forget something. To learn more about SEO and ranking on Google, check out the Digital Nomad Wannabe blog.

3. Mediavine Control Panel

If you are going to have ads on your blog, you might need a plugin to make them run. I use Mediavine which is an ad network you have to apply to and they recommend using their plugin to enter my code the easiest way, so I have done so. I can make changes directly here instead of going into my dashboard on their website.

4. rewardStyle

Ever seen those “shop the post” widgets? You can input them via HTML or you can make shortcodes with this plugin. I always make mine on rewardStyle’s website, but since hiring a VA, she said this makes things a lot easier and more organized.

5. EasyAzon Pro

You can sign up to Amazon Associates and create all your product links there, or you can do it on your blog with the EasyAzon plugin. I use the “Pro” one, which I did have to pay for, but it can cloak a link to make sure it goes to the landing page of the correct country (which means you need to see where your traffic is and sign up to the Amazon affiliate program of those countries). This means you aren’t missing out on non-USA sales (or UK, wherever you are from).

Okay, now for some plugins that are unnecessary for some people, but that I have found really useful and love to have on my site. 

1. Instagram Feed

I have this plugin so that I can have my Instagram embedded into my homepage at the bottom.

you can see the IG posts across the bottom, although I now have fixed that they weren’t the same size at first.

2. Revive Old Post

This plugin lets you tweet out old posts so that they get recycled. You can exclude categories you don’t want to be tweeted out and you can set up how often, like every 8 hours. You can even have the WP tags or categories show up as hashtags on Twitter.

3. ReplyMe

When I reply to a blog post comment, an email automatically goes to the person who left the comment. This way they know I replied to them and they get an answer to their travel question.

4. jQuery Pin It Button For Images

This plugin is so that when someone hovers over an image on your blog post, a Pinterest logo pops up and they can easily click that to add it to any of their Pinterest boards.

5. Under Construction

This just makes your site look pretty while you are working on it and it’s “down” rather than someone just getting a 404 error or whatever other error it would be.

In conclusion…

For me, these are the best plugins that I have used for years and help me blog faster and easier! The fewer plugins you have the better because once you have too many they start to conflict. You should definitely take a look at yours to see if there are some you don’t really need. The first section were must have WordPress plugins, the second section were good ones if you want to monetize your blog, and the last were some fun ones that are really helpful. What plugin do you use and love that I might like? Tell me in the comments!

Pin these best plugins for bloggers for later:

The post My Must Have WordPress Plugins: The Best Plugins For Bloggers first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post My Must Have WordPress Plugins: The Best Plugins For Bloggers appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

It’s almost embarrassing how much I need WiFi when I travel, but it’s really important for my job to stay connected as I work 100% online. I have tried and reviewed 3 other WiFi devices and get super geeky about it; I love seeing how the speed is, which networks they connect to, and how the battery life is. Because I’ve used multiple WiFi devices, I have a good idea overall of what to look for in a good pocket WiFi, and will share the pro’s and con’s in this Vision Global WiFi review.

Vision Global WiFi Review

Why Use a WiFi Device?

First, I want to explain how this device works in case you aren’t familiar with a WiFi device, as I know if my mom is reading this – she won’t know what this is (I use that as my “do I need to explain this more?” hehe).

This is a small handheld device that once you turn it on, will connect to 4G or 3G signal (whatever network that is in the area, in any country) and immediately give you internet before you even get off the plane.

It is a “hotspot” which means that it IS the WiFi and you simply turn on your WiFi on your phone or PC, select the Vision Global WiFi and then put in the password that comes with your device.

The reason for using a WiFi device is to save on international roaming on your own phone plan back home and to be able to have your own 4G or 3G without having to get a local SIM (which can be a difficult or impossible process in some countries). You also have your own internet and don’t need to plan on connecting to WiFi in Starbucks or be limited to two-hour airport WiFi limits.

When a device like Vision Global is great for me is when I am bouncing from country to country and can use just this one WiFi device in all places rather than get a new SIM each country I go to – which can actually be a waste of money if I’m not there long enough to make the most of the SIM. For example, in Morocco, my SIM was $40.

Just turned it on, getting ready to explore Merida, Mexico!

What Comes With the Vision Global WiFi Kit

Below is an image of what comes with your WiFi kit once you open it in the mail. You do want to have this sent to you before you start your trip. There is a little bag to hold it all, the device itself, and a charging cable. Pretty standard.

The first time I used this device was in the USA, and I was totally shocked to see that it connected to Verizon Wireless. This is by far the best connection in my area of Ohio, but other devices and international SIM cards I used in the past had connected to T-Mobile, which isn’t great in my area but is cheaper for them. I was impressed that they connected to Verizon even though it might cost them more (I’m not sure that it does, but assuming so). Because of that, I have had the best connection with Vision Global in the USA than other devices. I took this with me to South Carolina and Florida and also had a perfect connection.

Perfect for when I get dropped off at a museum, find out it’s closed, and am stuck! I can turn it on and get an Uber.

How to Order & Set Up the Vision Global WiFi Device

There are three easy steps to get this WiFi device ready to go.

1. Order the plan that works for you on the Vision Global website and pay online ahead of time.
2. Your device will be sent to your home address in the USA or other designated airport counters.
3. When your trip is over, you send the WiFi device back to them (it’s a rental). They will have sent a pre-paid envelope in the mail. It’s really easy to send back – I’ve done it twice already. They do ask that you send this a day after your trip ends.

There is basically no set up required. You turn on the device and click over to the WiFi name and password. That’s all you need to know to be connected. If you have no tech-knowledge it’s fine. It will automatically connect to the network and the internet will start working.

On the homepage, you will be able to see your data usage and see what date you had ordered the device until. You can see your data allowance on this screen where it says 0.00/4 GB. They will soon be changing all countries to unlimited. It will be high speed at either 500MB/day or 1GB/day and speeds down to 2G speed until the next day.

Pricing of the Vision Global WiFi Device

To show price, I’m going to go ahead and “plan a trip” on their website and share exact results with you. So, I’ve used this device in Mexico and the trip is November 24th to December 4th. The price that came up is $150 for 11 days in Mexico using 300 MB per day as a limit (again, after this month they are changing all countries to “unlimited” as mentioned above. You then click the pink “reserve” button. Here is where you can add other destinations if you are not going to only one country.

They give options for delivery or pick up. The pickup option is only at LAX. One downside is that you pay shipping fees even if you pick it up yourself and drop it back at LAX. It’s $16 to have it shipped to your home and back and $10 if you get it and drop it at LAX. There is an optional insurance you can add onto the device in case it’s lost or stolen which is $2 or $3 per day depends on the plan you choose.

Since I am doing this review for Vision Global, they offered free shipping to you guys! If you use this link your shipping will be free, saving you that $16!

The total price runs up on the right side and it came to $166 with shipping. That comes to a total of $15 per day. You might think this seems like a high price, but keep in mind a WiFi device isn’t for everyone. In the start of the article, I listed out reasons why you might want a device like this but I’m going to sum it up here:

• You can’t get a SIM in the country you are going to
• It’s difficult to get a SIM in the country you are going to
• You need WiFi from the moment you land to get an Uber or start working
• Bonus: you are traveling with friends and can all join this device and split the cost (best possible situation!)
• You have the budget to spend on this and don’t want any WiFi hassles, you just want your internet to work with ease.
• If you are traveling to multiple countries

While $15 per day seems high that is for Mexico. If you look at traveling to Europe and bouncing around to multiple countries you are going to pay $7.50 per day or $10 per day for 500 MB instead of the base amount of 300 MB. This European travel rate is actually lower than the other devices I have reviewed.

Multi-countries for Europe will be $7.50/day and a single European country would be the same. As I wrote above, they give you “unlimited” data with 500MB/day of highspeed internet and slows down to 2G speed until the next day once you run out of that.

So, what cons have I found with Vision Global WiFi?

As mentioned, the shipping fee even with pickup at LAX seems high with $5 for pick up and $5 for drop-off.

A second thing is that you are paying ahead of time for the whole trip on a daily rate regardless of if you use the WiFi device each day. Other companies allow you to pay by the day and you can choose if you want to turn it on or not and start a day’s usage. You might have a day in a nice hotel with high-speed WiFi and not need your device one day, but you’re going to pay for it anyway.

The plan for Mexico was only 300 MB/day. As a blogger, I need around 500 MB per day to do Instagram stories and be online pretty much all the time. 300 MB is a very good amount for the average traveler, but a little low for a blogger or someone who needs to stream or do a lot of video calling for work. Unlimited daily data would be ideal since you are paying $15 per day. Luckily, they are changing it to unlimited by the end of December.

A Little Bonus with Vision Global WiFi

The device itself is also a portable charger! This was key for me when I used it on my two-week trip to Florida as I would normally take a portable charger and got to leave that at home. Every little bit of space in a carry-on helps. Since you’ll likely have this device in your purse while you travel, it’s great that if your phone dies you can plug it in and get a little battery boost.

A Few More Things to Know about Vision Mobile WiFi

• It works in more than 130 countries and has over 5 million users
• The longer your trip, the less it is daily and some regions are more expensive than others. For example, a month-long trip to Japan would be just $2 per day which is an incredibly low rate I haven’t seen before.

• You can connect up to 10 devices!
• It’s a secure network
• This is the most lightweight WiFi device I’ve used on my travels which is pretty cool since it’s a portable charger, too.

Click here to get a quote and get free shipping.

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The post Vision Global WiFi Review – International Pocket WiFi first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post Vision Global WiFi Review – International Pocket WiFi appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I have flown hundreds of times and had huge delays and canceled flights a lot. Other than Air India putting me in a terrible hotel one night, I have never been compensated by an airline with cash or vouchers. I suppose it’s really my own fault for not asking in some cases – but in other cases, I have asked and I’ve been told they can’t help me. The truth is, in many cases not only can they help but they should be able to compensate you in some way. Enter: Service, the company that helps you get compensated for airline mistakes, delayed and canceled flights. On average, this company gets their clients $600 per year back.

How Service Works: Get Compensated for Airline Mistakes with Service (getservice.com)

The best thing about this is you don’t have to do anything. The number one reason Ben and I never go after airlines for cash or vouchers is that after a delayed or canceled flight that causes a domino effect on subsequent flights in that journey, we are exhausted and angry. The last thing we want to do is call up the airline and fight with them. Airlines are notorious for making you basically beg for something that is your right already. But what if someone else could do it for you? Better yet, what if someone else did it for all your past flights that were delayed and canceled?

That is what Service’s software does. Once you sign up, they comb your inbox for old flights that might be in their system for compensation and they keep up to date with new flights you are taking. Just sync your email and Service will find all the flights you’ve been on within the last year that were delayed past 90 minutes canceled. Plus, with their “Auto-Protect” feature enabled you can monitor all future flights and file claims automatically whenever you’re disrupted.They know what is legal and what’s not – and they know when you are meant to get compensated so you don’t even have to know or worry about it when you encounter a delay. Keep in mind, at this time it’s only available for people with Gmail and Hotmail email accounts.

Read More: Best Pillow for Flights

Service has a simple three-step program:

1. Sign up: They detect flight itineraries in your inbox (just metadata, they don’t actually read your emails, don’t worry)
2. They do magic: Their software will find delayed past 90 minutes and canceled flights and Service will directly negotiate with the airline on your behalf. Airlines must be hatin’ on Service just about as much as travelers love them!
3. Get compensated: They take 30% of what the airline gives you. That means they are going to push the airline for the highest possible amount – likely higher than you would get yourself not knowing all the rules, and definitely higher than I would get since I’ve never even asked (like the Today Show mentioned when they talked about Service on-air).

Joking aside, the airlines don’t actually hate Service. In fact, because they end up giving back to the customers who deserve it, they get to keep those customers who might have jumped ship to another airline on their next journey. Their average recovery for a single flight compensation is $124 for American Airlines, $76 for Delta, and $101 for United Airlines. Getting that money back keeps some customer loyalty instead of just ending up with a bad taste in your mouth about the airline. Compensation is usually in the form of vouchers or miles, not in cash – I don’t think airlines ever give straight cash unless they have to give a full refund on a flight.

If you have “AutoProtect” turned on, you never even need to do anything or submit a claim, that means they will just search your inbox and they’ll know if there was a flight you were on that could get compensation. It’s pretty cool!

Do you have some weird secret stuff in your inbox you don’t want Service to see? Don’t worry you can keep your sercets. This is how they scope out your inbox: “We look for flight confirmation emails from airlines and OTAs (online travel agencies such as Expedia, Priceline, etc). We only look for meta data (certain senders and subject lines) first, and if we find a matching email we then pull down the body of the email so we can process it. We also look for replies from airlines related to claims you’ve filed with us, and we pull them into our system. We do not read any other email or do anything else with your inbox.”

What exactly will get you compensation?

Legally, airlines never have to offer you compensation on delayed and canceled flights, according to Service – but, according to Service they often do on “good will” to show they care about their customers. It’s a nice a way of them saying “sorry things didn’t go as planned”. Funny that when I’ve tried for this, the airline counter has literally shooed me away, haha! But, that’s the great thing about Service; they have connections already with the airlines, they do this all day every day, and like clockwork, they know how to negotiate what is fair.

So knowing that it’s based on good will, here’s what the airlines will consider compensating you for:

• If there is a flight delay over 90 minutes
• If there is a canceled flight
• If you have a frequent flier status there is more likelihood of being reimbursed.
• Any delay or cancellation that was preventable and within the airline’s control, for example, your flight crew was late or there was a preventable maintenance issue.

If the flight is coming from Europe or operated by an EU carrier, it must be delayed at least 2 hours, instead of 90 minutes. But, you can sometimes get cash instead of vouchers for these! You can read more about these exact details in this article as the EU has different rules (or don’t read it because Service already did and has your best interest covered).

What about the weather? Airlines are not required to give compensation due to weather disruptions and usually won’t offer goodwill compensation, but sometimes they pull through so Service puts in these claims, too. It doesn’t hurt to try!

Service is FREE.

Say what!? I know. You think nothing is free anymore, but this actually is. If they search for flights in your inbox and find nothing, then you pay nothing and they get nothing. It’s really that simple. If they do find something they will take 30% which I’m going to explain further down.

Take a minute to sign up now before you forget since you’ve got nothing to lose. Sign up with this link. Please email me or comment on this post and tell me if they find any deals for you!

Caveats on compensation

Let’s talk about how they take their 30% since usually you get compensated with vouchers from the airline. If you are paid in a voucher from the airline, you will get 100% of that voucher amount. They will charge you 30% of the voucher amount to your card on file. For example, if you get a $100 voucher, you keep that for your $100 off your next flight and Service charges your card $30. If you are compensated for miles, they will take 30% of the cash value of the miles, again to your card on file. You can sync all of that when you sign up. If you don’t have a frequent flier account, you can set those up with the airlines every time you book a new flight and read this article to learn more about the value of miles.

If the airline offers compensation, you can’t decline it – it’s all automatic so it’ll just go through. If it’s not the amount you were hoping for, it can’t be undone. It takes 2-4 weeks to get results on a claim, although the EU can take longer. They mention on their site that you don’t need to follow up with them about it; they are totally on top of things. Of course, they would be as they are going to get 30%. That’s why I like these profit-sharing scenarios because you know they will work hard for you since there is something in it for them.

Once you sign up, you can get your friends to sign-up and receive referral credit of $20 off your next claim. So, let’s say you were compensated a $100 voucher and Service is meant to take $30 of that (charged to your card), if you refer someone, they will use that $20 credit and take only $10. The referral link is on your settings page.

I signed up with my Gmail account and watched as immediately their software started searching…

It pops up saying it’s starting to search. After some time it found my upcoming flights to Mexico, which was cool to see that it worked and synced. Now only time will tell how many flights they can save me money on! I’ll be sure to come back and update this and let you know when they save me money – but in the meantime, it’s free to use so I lose nothing by signing up. That’s a win-win in my book!

Pin how to get compensated for airline mistakes with Service (getservice.com) for later:

The post Service Review: Get Compensated for Airline Mistakes (Even Past Flights) first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post Service Review: Get Compensated for Airline Mistakes (Even Past Flights) appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I’m excited to introduce Relovate, a new travel planning website. It has some really unique features that I haven’t seen on other travel planning sites and I think you’re going to love it! In a nutshell, it’s a website that you and your friends can plan a trip collaboratively from flights to hotels and activities and book it all in one website – but without any higher prices that if you did it on multiple sites AND it keeps your budget in check. I’ll show you how with this Relovate review.

Relovate Review

In this review, I’m going to address what Relovate is, what they do that is unique to them, and who would get the most out of using Relovate.

How does Relovate work?

When you go to the website you’ll see that it does a lot: searches flight deals, hotel deals, car rental, and activity bookings. While that in itself is awesome the thing that caught my eye is that you can also choose your restaurants and attractions. So, basically, you can not just book every aspect of your trip but plan it.

An example of this would be before I went to Nashville with my family, we were in a group Whatsapp trying to talk about restaurants we wanted to try, shows we might be able to see, and what the top attractions were in Nashville to check out. It was an unorganized way to do things and hard to tell if we were all on the same page. Had we had this website at that time, we could all be looking at the same thing and within the website been searching the best restaurants and attractions.

When I plan big backpacking trips with friends, we always used Google docs but this is so much better than a blank document we all just write it – it’s a full itinerary totally organized with software made specifically for this purpose.

What does Relovate do that other travel website don’t?

When I travel plan, I have always started with flights, then hotels, then adventure activities I want to try. Lastly, I add in restaurants, bars, and cool places to visit in the place. I use MANY websites to do this. Relovate does this all in one place so it’s saving you a lot of time.

You might wonder why it hasn’t been done before and if it’s too good to be true – aka are they charging higher prices? Usually, when there is something like this it’s a concierge type website directed toward luxury travelers only and they are charging a higher fee to make travel planning this easy. Relovate doesn’t – they don’t have any fees or ads. They simply use the same search engines for flights, hotels, and activities that you’d see if you searched on Expedia or Kayak. You actually still earn your points and miles just the same as if you booked through any other search engine or directly with an airline.

I did a search for London to Paris and got results of $132 with Air France. I searched on Kiwi.com who I usually use and there are flights for $80 with EasyJet. Relovate had originally not included carriers like EasyJet because the price shown doesn’t include luggage and sometimes even a carry-on, but they have since decided to change that and have started adding in all the low-cost carriers so you’ll see all the same rates listed. I know some people won’t fly budget airlines but for short flights, I don’t mind them. Once you find a flight you like, you simply click “consider” and can do this on multiple flights so your friends can help decide which they like best.

They are using software to get this all in one place, on one website without charging you for it. That’s pretty cool. They also monitor changes in price, so if you have a hotel or flight that you are considering, you can add it and get alerted when the price goes down. While you plan your trip, you can add multiple options to compare prices and start narrowing it down as you go.

I named my trip “Paris”. Next, I looked up hotels on that trip and it saves the dates from the flight search – saving time. Paris has an overwhelming amount of hotels, though, and it needs to be filtered. You can filter by a name of a hotel you know you like, guest rating, star rating, or amenities.

I searched a well-rated 4-star hotel with free high-speed internet which narrowed it down a lot. You can then start clicking hotels in the area you know you want to stay and “consider” ones that stand out but for me, I can’t visualize it like this so I clicked on “show availability” which switches it to a standard list with prices rather than a map.

Once you make the filters you want for your hotels, you can “sort” them. You can sort this list by price low to high or by distance but once you do the original filters go away. A lot of the hotels were around 100 Euro, and I “considered” all the ones that had the best reviews and photos.

Next, I added in a car rental and found an airport pick up and drop off for $69 USD total price. I thought I was dreaming because that is too cheap, but it is real! You can see on the left of the screenshot all the companies that they search.

You can now see on my trip planner my hotel options, car rental options, and the flight I selected in one place. You would continue you this with attractions, activities, and food.

Okay wait for it- this is the fun part:

I can go to my budget tab and see all the options lined up and start check marking what I want. The budget calculator will change as you add and remove things. You could add that fancy hotel and see the budget go up, so then unselect your flight and change it to a low-cost carrier to bring your overall budget back down. You could see that you are under budget and decide to upgrade your car rental or add an activity. It’s amazing! I’m obsessed with this part of it and as someone who loves to budget for trips, this is really cool and something I’ve never seen before.

My favorite part about this is the collaborative trip planning which is easy and you can see your friends’ changes in real-time as they do them. Beyond that, you can chat with them on the website privately. But the cherry on top is that once you have it all planned out: flights sorted, perfect hotel chosen, and all your adventures planned – it doesn’t have to be one person paying for it and others paying them back – you can split the cost within the website and all book totally separately. Umm, best thing ever!? This is very useful for people on a budget. You just click “collaborate” and can add the traveler to your “trip”.

Who is Relovate good for?

• People who like to keep travel planning simple
• People who don’t like to take a lot of time planning and like to just “book it” and be done
• OCD, Type A folks like me who want to see your plan all organized in a pretty format!
• Those who are traveling with friends or family and want to book together and split costs through the website and book individually
• People on a budget – this website finds good deals but it also has a budget calculator that keeps tabs on what you’re wishlisting and you can see if you are starting to want a little too much on your dream trip and need to cut back a bit.
• People who are planning more than one trip at a time as it can separate the trips completely.

Overall thoughts on Relovate

The only downside of this website is that it does take some time clicking around to get used to the interface and feel comfortable with how it’s all designed and organized. The unique features that are offered on Relovate make it completely worthwhile to take the time to learn how to use this website. I would say with about 15 minutes of playing around you’ll get the hang of how your trips are organized.

The best parts about this are the collaborative aspects and the budgeting. I have never seen a site that can keep tabs like this on a budget where you have multiple flights, hotels, activities, car rentals, and more all in one page on their site with checkboxes. You click and unclick until you find a travel plan that matches your budget. This is truly something unique and is the main reason that I will use this even on non-collaborative trips in the future.

The activities are a little overwhelming to look at on the platform so I recommend also searching blog posts to see what bloggers are saying about tours and read some reviews to help you narrow down what activities you might be interested in. Maybe you never knew you’d be into a wine tasting tour or food tour until reading a review on that specific tour. While the site has everything you need to book and see reviews, it’s always good to do a little side research and implement that into your planning on Relovate.

Pin this Relovate review for later:

The post Relovate Review: a Collaborative & Explorative Travel Planning Website first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post Relovate Review: a Collaborative & Explorative Travel Planning Website appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I am all about productivity but I’m also a minimalist. I have the bare minimum of apps on my phone and also use only the blogging tools that really make my life easier. There are so many tools out there that actually just take too much time to learn and use, that they don’t make getting a task done any faster. I want to share with you the best blogging tools for productivity, organization, design, and earning money.

The Best Blogging Tools

Blogging tools I use for social media, photo editing, and graphics

1. Tailwind. I use this to schedule new and old pins on Pinterest as well as schedule out pinning other people’s content to my own and group boards. I haven’t actually used this as much the last three months because I hired a VA (virtual assistant) to do this for me. It does cost to get a Tailwind account, although I don’t remember how much (over $100 for the year I think). You can do a free trial. This is a very important tool that can bring you so much traffic and one that I 100% recommend unless you are going to hire someone to help.
2. Triberr. This is a tool that you can join “tribes” and retweet each other’s content. It would be great if you had some cool tribes, but I’ve never taken the time to join others. I do stay with this, though, because even having 5 retweets on a new post from that group is a nice way of getting it seen by more people, especially when it’s sponsored.
3. HootSuite. I occasionally use this to schedule tweets. In my everyday life, I tweet when I feel like doing so, but on press trips, there isn’t always time so I might schedule out some tweets based on my scheduled itinerary. You could also use this to schedule a new post to tweet out every 12 hours for the first couple days it goes live.
4. Canva. Everyone is using Canva which kind of sucks because you can see on Pinterest and on feature images that people have similar designs. I still find this useful because I don’t use any preset designs on there and I make my own up. I have the paid version which is $10/month and I can add my own fonts. You can pay to have the premium and then add your own fonts as well. It will help you keep the theme on the Pin matching your website.
5. [easyazon_link identifier=”B00VWCKJVA” locale=”US” tag=”Hipinhee-20″]Adobe Lightroom[/easyazon_link]. I got this after getting a new camera last year. I paid for the Adobe Lightroom 6 on its own and didn’t do the CC monthly payments or the whole Adobe set. I did a one-time payment that was around $150 for the software. I know that you can download this illegally but I do suggest buying it as it will help you have security with your images especially when there are updates to the software.

Hosting, email, & theme choices

1. Avada Theme. I loved my theme, Avada and it’s so customizable and is one that doesn’t slow site speed. It was a great investment and I consider all that it can do a great tool for my blog.
2. Bluehost. For beginners, Bluehost is the best option out there for hosting. You can read this post about how to start a travel blog that details exactly how to set up a Bluehost hosting travel blog for just $2.95 if you use my link.
3. Siteground. For those who are not beginners and outgrowing the host they are on now, Siteground is amazing. I was with them nearly two years but once I reached around 100,00 UMV, I had to upgrade.
4. Performance Foundry. If you are getting over 100,000 UMV, I recommend Performance Foundry. They are AMAZING and with the price tag of $125 per month, keep in mind that includes an hour of WP development help. I actually let go of my developer because my host was doing everything for me. It’s a steal.
5. CloudFlare. I use CloudFlare to cache my site and make it load WAY faster. It also makes changing hosts easier and have no downtime.
6. Mailerlite. I use Mailerlite for my emails. I send an RSS weekly with new posts and a monthly newsletter. I switched to them from Mailchimp as they were a lot cheaper and easier to use. They have it set up to help you switch from various email systems you might already be signed up with so it’s an easy process. Totally worth doing it and if you do, you can get $20 off with my link.

Affiliates

1. AWIN. Affiliate Window is the main website I use to keep all my affiliate programs in order. I am a partner with Etsy and Agoda on here, primarily. You can join all the hotel and flight affiliates through here.
2. Rstyle. Rewardstyle is what I use to link to all the outfits I wear and earn commission when someone buys the clothing. You can make widgets and there is a plugin you can add to WP that makes this even easier.

Outsourcing & learning

1. Fiverr. Fiverr is where I go to get little things down. For example, I wanted a HTML email signature with my logo that matched my blog theme. Instead of wasting time googling how to do this, I just hired someone for $5 to do it for me. I love using Fiverr!
2. ServiceScape. If you are working on a big project like an ebook, media kit, or a huge blog post guide then you can hire someone qualified to proofread and edit it. Just use their filters to sort by your budget and the type of work required. You guys have seen my spelling and grammar for years – I NEED an extra set of eyes on the important stuff and ServiceScape proofreading is the easiest most affordable way to get those eyes, all while knowing the person doing the editing is actually good at it.
3. Upwork. I use Upwork when I want to get work done that is a little more intensive. I have hired a girl to help with Instagram, a guy to help with SEO, and more. It saves time, is affordable, and if you find someone you like you can easily give them more work.
4. Skillshare. Skillshare is a learning tool. I have used this to learn how to set up a monthly newsletter, how to use shortcuts for editing on Lightroom, and how to prep and ebook. It has been really helpful. You can actually get two months free trial with my link. Here’s a full review of their platform.
5. Keysearch. This is the best investment you’ll make in your blog if you want to earn money and get more page views. This is an SEO tool that I swear by, and it’s likely why I have over 320,000 UMV now. It’s easy to use. You just enter the keyword you want, see if many people are searching it (to know if it’s worth writing about), and then see if you rank in the top 10. They give you a list of the top 10 currently with their stats like DA, PA, and backlinks and you can see if you would outrank their rankings.

Websites that put brands in touch with bloggers

1. Izea. This is the primary website that I use to be matched up with brands. I mostly promote them via Facebook posts and have most recently done a couple of campaigns with Hertz.
2. Socialpubli. I have done less campaigns with Socialpubli, but the ones I have done are for Twitter and are travel-related tweets that pay around $50/tweet. It’s easy money for articles that I would tweet anyway!

Chrome extensions

The following are extensions (like plugins) you can add to your browser toolbar. I’ll give a brief description of each so that you know what they are used for.

1. MyAwin. Add links from exact pages of affiliate websites you are with on AWIN and get the affiliate deep link.
2. CJ. Add links from exact pages of affiliate websites you are with on CJ and get the affiliate deep link.
3. Link Ninja (rewardstyle) Most fashion brads are on Rstlye, so you can be on any website like Free People, and if you see a dress you want to link to, just click the Link Ninja and it will give you an affiliate URL.
4. MOZ. So you can check DA’s of websites. This comes in handy when someone wants to interview you or offers “exposure”. You can quickly check their DA and see if it’s worth your while. It’s usually not!
5. Hootlet. If you use HootSuit to schedule tweets, you can use Hootlet as an extension. This works if you are on a random blog post you like and want to tweet it, not immediately, but add it to your queue of tweets. You just use the extension to schedule it.
6. Page Ruler. Page ruler is great for design because it measures pixels of your website. Ever wondered how wide your side bar is? Or the images on your blog? Just use this extension to measure the pixels.
7. Tailwind Publisher. Like HootSuit, this is the same thing where you can Pin from a website and add it your queue instead of pinning it right away.
8. ColorZilla. I use this when I make pins or do design changes on my website. You can use the “pick color from page” tool and find out the exact HEX code of something.
9. Grammarly. This is a spell check plugin that will underline spelling and grammar errors when you make them on any website: WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, Emails, etc.

Plugins

I wrote a blog post about the plugins I use on my site. Many are just to keep things working, but some are actually there for productivity like “Revive Old Posts”. You can read about the plugins I use on my website here.

I hope these tools for blogging help you! If you want more posts about blogging, check these out:

• How to Make Money Blogging
• Best Plugins for Bloggers (coming soon)
• Weekly Tasks I do as a Blogger
• How to Start a Travel Blog (from Scratch)

There are some affiliate links in this post which means that if you purchase something from a link here I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks!

The post Best Blogging Tools for Productivity and Earning a Higher Income first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post Best Blogging Tools for Productivity and Earning a Higher Income appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

Have you ever read my blog and thought “I could do that! I travel a lot and take good pictures, too”. While travel blogging isn’t as simple as traveling and taking photos, it actually is the start of a budding career! When I started my travel blog, that was my only skill and I wasn’t even very good at photos back then. This post is going to share exactly how to start a travel blog from scratch the easiest and CHEAPEST way, step by step.

In case you don’t know me or my blog, I feel like I should tell you a little bit about why you should trust me on these tips on how to start a travel blog. I started my travel blog, Hippie in Heels, in 2013 and within 6 months as was one of the top 50 travel blogs in the world, which at that time I made the list with around 65,000 unique monthly views a month. That’s a lot for just a new blogger, six months in. Fast forward to now and I’m still on the list and have worked with travel brands and tourism boards I had only dreamed about back then – and now make nearly 2x (almost 3x) times more annually than I did pre-blogging when I was a nurse. Right now, I average around 230,000 unique monthly views on my blog and have a combined 200,000+ social media followers.

I knew literally NOTHING about blogs or travel blogging when I started mine and googled my way through everything. It is 100% possible to create a travel blog and become successful financially even if you know nothing about it. I’m proof of that.

How to Start a Travel Blog from Scratch

1. Pick Your Niche

It’s important that you think about why you are starting this blog and what will make you stand out from other blogs. When I started, there were so few travel blogs that having a niche other than “travel” wasn’t that important. Now, it’s important. Are you into adventure travel? vegan travel? gluten-free travel? Travel in a specific destination only? Learn more about niches here.

2. Name Your Travel Blog

It’s something you want to narrow down but not pigeon hole yourself. There are a million blogs like Backpacker Bob or Budget Backpacker… these are lame and you should stay away from them! Not only are they lame, but they are overused, and if you do then you’ll be stuck “backpacking” forever or doing an expensive, complicated rebranding down the line. Don’t choose anything that is similar to another successful travel blogger because they will always outrank you on Google. Think about who you are as a person and try to make your personality come through.

I got Hippie in Heels because my friends and I put a list together of words that describe me and Hippie combined with heels showed how I am two different people (a true Gemini) and my niche became India travel and Boho Chic vibes. After a year, my tagline became “a glamorous travel blog” but I’ve since gotten rid of that.

Here are some extra tips on how to choose a blog name.

3. Choose the Domain & Secure the Social Media Handles

You have to choose the domain aka the URL or www in other terms. This is like “www.hippie-inheels.com”. For me, Hippie in Heels was taken by a breastfeeding website that was no longer active. I had to add the hyphen, but this is not recommended. I loved the blog name though and have no regrets!

You need to make sure that your name can be on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you choose a long blog name that makes it difficult. You can shorten it and abbreviate it but people won’t know what it is when they want to get in touch on the fly, which is annoying for them and will make them less likely to find and follow you. Go ahead and set up accounts in your new name on these platforms to secure them.

4. Buy Your Hosting

I wish I could say that you’ll buy hosting with a great host then never have to think about this again, but that’s not the case. As your blog grows, you will need more resources and will need a better hosting plan which often involves changing hosts. For beginners, Bluehost is the best and cheapest out there (don’t use GoDaddy, just my two cents). Once you hit around 50,000 UMV which takes most people at least a year, you might consider changing to Siteground which can handle more. I went from Siteground (who I loved but outgrew) to A2 Hosting (who I hated) to Performance Foundry where I am now and am obsessed with. I pay $125/month to have servers that can handle my traffic and site size.

I talked with Bluehost and asked them about a discount code and they offered one to my readers aka you! If you use this link to pay just $2.95/month. It’s normally $7.99.

There are some perks to starting with Bluehost and using my link:

1. The discount code above makes it the cheapest option that actually has good support
2. They will give you the domain FREE
3. You can install WordPress with just one-click (OMG, I wish I had this)
4. They offer a special 30-day money back guarantee

I’m going to share screenshots now that will literally walk you through the entire setup. You can follow along and within 10 minutes you’ll have your blog totally ready to go. I am dying writing this because it took me weeks to figure this all out and I paid so much more, haha – how things have changed in the travel blogging world! I love how much information is now online about blogging.

To start, just click on this link and then click the green button that you see in the image below that says “get started now”.

That will bring you to the next page where you can select the plan you want. You’re just starting out so select “basic” as you can see it allows loads of space to grow.

Once you choose basic, then you continue by signing up. You will want to say “new domain” on the next page and type in the domain name you choose above. You will type in only the www.____ and then leave the rest blank as they fill in the .com. You can change the .com to .edu or whatever you want, but as a travel blog, I recommend keeping it as .com.

After you click next, you have officially chosen your domain. Awesome! Now you have to pay. Just choose the account plan as “basic” like you already had but then decide how long you want to take it.  As you can see it’s a mere $106 for THREE years (less than I pay a month now) or you can pay by the month.

*Hint: if you take the hosting for one year, then need to renew the prices often go up. This is the same with ALL hosts. So, I always take a longer time frame out, at least one year.

If you want, you can click SiteLock Security if you want. It’s more expensive, but it makes your site more secure which means it will show up higher in search results. Every blogger I know switched over this year as Google announced they were taking this very seriously. It means your blog will start with https instead of http. It’s a pain to change later and you can lose domain authority for months after the switch, so I recommend getting it ahead of time. Then just simply put in your payment information.

5. Install WordPress

Bluehost will prompt you to set up WordPress, so just keep chugging along and follow the instructions. The first thing to do is make a password for your account and WRITE it down somewhere because you don’t want to lose this password.

Just click “create your password” from the blue button above.

The following screen will appear:

Once you hit next, it will say Congrats! Now you can log in.

Once you log in, you’ll then get to make a few decisions about how your blog will look.

As part of the setup, Bluehost will suggest a few themes. Just choose any random one, because you’ll change this later.

Once you choose a theme you can click “start building” as seen below. How exciting is this!?

There are a few more choices to make. The screen below will be the first thing you see after you choose “Start Building”. You should click “Business” because I’m assuming the goal would be to make money? But, if you aren’t into that and just want this for a personal journal to show friends and family then you can choose “Personal” here.

Almost done. You just need to make up a little name for the site. In my case, I would type in for Site Title “Hippie in Heels” and for Site Description “A Glamorous Travel Blog”. Think of the site description as your “tagline”. My first tagline was “an India travel blog”. This can always be changed later.

Now the following page will pop up and you can easily click on the blue “Launch” button as seen below.

So, you are literally set now. Your blog is real and it’s live! You could click “Posts” on the left and start writing if you wanted to – but don’t. There is so much more you can do to make your blog special and you really should before you take any further steps.

You will want to know how to login if you exit out of this, so the way to do that is by going to www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin and a login will pop up. Just use the information and password you saved from the above account set up and login. You’ll see the same WordPress dashboard as above.

6. Change the Theme

Now, you can choose a free theme when you set up the Bluehost package, and this is the cheapest and easiest way by far BUT many people find changing themes stressful later on, including myself and I highly recommend purchasing a theme that you’ll be happy with for years. There are some things to consider when choosing a theme. You’ll want one that is highly customizable, responsive on mobile devices and is tested to be a theme that does not slow down the site speed.

I cannot say enough good things about my theme, Avada. It’s so customizable and I did a month of research before I settled on this theme, with the help of my developer. It’s capable of pretty much anything. You buy it one time and then own it – no monthly payments.

My homepage looks like the following image:

It’s really easy to add a new theme. You can download the theme, then it will be in a zip file on your computer. Just click “Appearance”, then click on “Themes” then “Upload”. Now just drag and drop that file in. You’ll have to click something like “Install” to make it go live.

Now you can play and customize your site. I recommend just clicking on everything is the left side of your dashboard and getting a feel for where everything is before you start playing around.

You’ll want to know what comes with your theme because that could mean installing fewer plugins later.

7. Install Necessary Plugins & Design Your Site

This is KEY and I have a blog post about the plugins I use on my site and what I use them for. You can read it here. Installing a plugin is easier than a theme. You just go to Plugins > Add New > then in the search bar search the plugin you want. You need to “install” and “activate” it. Once it’s activated it will show up under Settings > and you can click on the plugin from that list and play with the plugin settings.

You do NOT want a million plugins. They do conflict with each other and can slow your site down. Use only what you NEED. Remember that if it can be coded in you should do that rather than add a plugin.

An example of this is if you have to redirect a URL. You can do this with a “redirect URL plugin” or you can add this directly on your server. It would take a developer a couple minutes to do and you could outsource this.

When it comes to design, you can play around and do this yourself by messing with theme settings. It’s very user-friendly inside WordPress so after an hour of fiddling, you’ll easily start to see how it all works. You could also hire someone, but it’s pretty pricey. I talk about my redesign (which I waited three years to do) in this blog post.

Basically, the design draws people in and it will get you more views on your blog and make you look more legit: your logo, header, background. The plugins are what makes everything work. Plugins will add extras that are actually necessary like security, backing up your website content, resizing your images to keep site speed acceptable, and more. Again, I write about this in another blog post.

Set up the “pages” and “categories”. Your “about” page is very important. It should show people who you are and what this site is about. You can have other pages like I do (just check the top of my homepage). Categories are like “blogging”, “India”, or “Packing Tips”. Don’t just make this up willy-nilly, put some thought into how you want your site to be organized.

Below is my “Glamorous Globetrotting” page that has some of my top categories. When you write a blog post, you can choose a “category” of the post. For example, this one is under “Blogging”.

8. Learn EVERYTHING about Travel Blogging

When I started my blog there were no posts about starting a travel blog. I kid you not, it was just like diving into something completely clueless. I watched YouTube videos. I cried. It was a lot to take on when I knew nothing about computers and internet. I was as clueless as one could get. I figured it out but it was a stress. You can probably figure it out too!

If you want a shortcut, you can look into the Superstar Blogging Course by Nomadic Matt. He’s the number one travel blogger in the world and is probably a millionaire (guessing, but I bet so). It’s expensive but will give you all the secrets about travel blogging: how to make content go viral, how to get your blog ready for people to see it, how to set up a newsletter, rank on Google, work with brands, pitch brands, and make money. It’s a huge course with webinars from the top people in their fields and gives you access to a secret Facebook group where you can talk with other top travel bloggers and get advice directly from them. This course will put you 6 months to a year ahead of your competition. I wish there was something like this when I started blogging!

You are also going to want to read up on everything about travel blogging, join Facebook groups about travel blogging, network, meet other travel bloggers, comment on their blogs. Be a part of the “travel blogging world” which is huge.

9. WRITE

During all this, while you are learning, making your site WORK, and making it look good – you need to write. Personally, I set aside 6 hours every single day for three months and wrote and wrote… it was neverending. I wrote about all my travels. I used my journals as help when I forget where I stayed or ate. I didn’t go live until I had about 10 posts already live and 30 in my “pending” folder, ready to go.

You will need to edit images and have them added to your blog posts, too. This all takes a lot of time but it’s the fun part! Make sure you are using blogging tools like Grammarly for spell check and keeping SEO in mind (something Nomadic Matt’s course will teach you). Be sure to tell funny stories and be yourself!

10. Go Public

Once you have a bunch of posts live and have been networking on social media, it’s time to start sharing those blog posts with people. It’s time to show the world your travel blog!

Read More:

• Blogging Tips After One Year
• How I Make Money Blogging
• Blogging Tips After Three Years
• My Blogging Daily Checklist

Pin how to start a travel blog for later:

There are affiliate links in this post. I will make a commission with the purchase of some items mentioned here at no extra cost to you. I only promote things I belive in!

The post How to Start a Travel Blog From Scratch The Easy and Cheap Way (Just $2.95/Month) first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post How to Start a Travel Blog From Scratch The Easy and Cheap Way (Just $2.95/Month) appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

As October got closer, I actually didn’t know if I had been blogging for three years or four. I had to look back at my previous posts to see! I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for four years. I wanted to just write a little bit about how the last year has been as a blogger, what’s changed, and what I learned. I also wanted to ask you guys to fill in my first ever reader survey. I am doing a giveaway of my favorite travel product this year you can enter as well!

If you want to read my past updates you can do that here:

• Year One
• Year Two
• Year Three

Changes on Hippie in Heels this year & what I’ve learned after four years of blogging

New Writers

The biggest change I made this year is bringing on more writers so that I can let them travel in my place when I get invited somewhere but already have travel plans. It’s been so amazing to let you guys experience:

• See what a local island in the Maldives is like thanks to Nam
• Yacht trip about Greece thanks to the talented photographer Monet
• What it’s like trekking in Nepal thanks to Michelle & Nicky
• The best city guides to Luxembourg thanks to Sophie

I’m happy that I got to send them on trips in my place because they were amazing opportunities. Now you can learn more about these places even though I haven’t been. It was bittersweet sending them; I was getting some major FOMO. Nothing is changing on this front, except for I hope to send our India based and USA based writers somewhere, too!

Goa Ebook

My biggest accomplishment (and the hardest thing I’ve done so far in this career) is writing the Insider’s Guide to Goa. It’s a 169-page ebook that took me a LONG time to put together. I’ve been in Goa almost five years and I’ve been wanting to put this together for a long time. My blog has Goa information but just some basic travel tips. This book is where to eat, sleep, party, and what to do in every area of Goa. It’s a completely comprehensive guide to get around Goa from vaccinations to where to get waxed, lol. I covered all the FAQ I get about Goa and am really proud of this book. If you don’t have a copy, you can buy it now with the button below! Use “welovegoa” for a special 30% off.

Buy Goa Ebook

Hippie in Heels Monthly Newsletter

I finally started a monthly newsletter! You can sign up to it by putting your email at the end of this blog post in the box that says “sign up for my newsletter”. There are also options to sign up at the bottom of this post and on my sidebar.

The newsletter has been cool because I tell what I’m actually up to at that time (since this blog is usually about 30 days behind), I share my favorite post of the month and tell you what my upcoming travel plans are, among other things.

The biggest thing I learned in my fourth year of blogging

This year, I learned that I need to invest into my blog for it to grow. I didn’t see it as a “real” business until this year. But, things have gotten real! I had to hire someone to do my taxes, I’m getting ready to set up an S-corp, and I’m finally putting away money for retirement. Being self-employed is cool for sure, but there is a lot of extra responsibility that comes with it and it was a big stress on me this year to figure it all out. I’m not done sorting it all, but it’s in the process. I knew I couldn’t do it myself, so I hired people to help.

Investing back into my blog became a no-brainer when after my redesign last year, I saw the increase in readers that I feel were partly because my site was easier to navigate.

So, what investments did I make?

• I gave up on Long Tail Pro (which was paid) and bought Keysearch
• I got a premium plan for Gumroad
• I upgrade to a new host with a VPS THEN upgraded to another host 4x the price of that one that came with extra support, Performance Foundry, who I love.
• I bought Lightroom and took a class on Skillshare to learn to edit better
• I have a developer I pay a monthly fee to, who helps me when things go wacky and takes care of my security and WP/theme/plugin updates
• I upgraded my email
• I have a Pinterest VA who I pay a monthly rate to take care of all things Pinterest for me – even though I already bought and knew how to use Tailwind
• I outsource more with multiple VA’s and on Upwork and Fiverr.

With many things I do, I outsource parts of it. This could be things I don’t have time to do, hate doing myself, or don’t know how to do and want a professional. For example, when I wrote my ebook I hired a professional editor to edit it and paid my past designer to make it match the theme of my blog. I paid to have the graphics done to promote it on my homepage and get custom CSS to make it all match.

These days, I am realizing that instead of taking hours to figure something out on YouTube, it’s so worth it to hire a professional.

I also moved my email list from Mailchimp to Mailerlite. These things sound like they might be hard but it was really easy and I’m spending a quarter of the price that I did with Mailchimp. You can get $20 off with my link. My new host helped switch it over, since I get a free hour of developer work from them each month, but you could do it yourself.

I’ve outsourced anything from updating rstyle links to changing my affiliate links in my posts. It’s been a relief and I’m happy to have more people on my team that I can trust. If you’re also a blogger all I can say is that I wished I started delegating earlier.

I’d Love If You’d Take My Reader Survey!

It’s just 10 questions long. I really want to know what you guys think about my blog, the changes I’ve made, and what you like and don’t like about Hippie in Heels.

A blog kind of feels like I’m always “broadcasting” or basically talking too much since I’m just posting my travels all the time and it’s a one-way street. I love when I get comments and readers reach out on social media but I’d really like even more of your input about what you find useful on my blog and if there are things I could do better.

Click here to take the survey.

Enter the Giveaway: 3 Winners for Ebags Packing Cubes

It’s not too shocking that I’d give away packing cubes! I have three sets of packing cubes from Ebags myself and I cannot travel without them. They make life so much more organized and easy. I’d love you guys to have some, too.

I’m giving a set away to 3 people. If you win, I’ll email you and you can choose if you want the [easyazon_link identifier=”B016CIVHYQ” locale=”US” tag=”Hipinhee-20″]classic eBags packing cubes[/easyazon_link] or the [easyazon_link identifier=”B01AH2SFBG” locale=”US” tag=”Hipinhee-20″]Ultralight eBags packing cubes[/easyazon_link] plus what color you prefer. Then, Ebags will mail them to you directly. Because they only ship to the USA, I’m sorry to say that this giveaway is for people in the states only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Thoughts on Blogging Four Years Later + Reader Survey and Giveaway! first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post Thoughts on Blogging Four Years Later + Reader Survey and Giveaway! appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

There are quite a number of fellow bloggers who read my blog and have requested more posts on blogging, so I have a line-up of posts over the next few weeks which I’ll share. This one is kind of a checklist for travel bloggers sharing what tasks I do each day and/or weekly ones. If you could care less about blogging, you can go read this post with some beauty packing tips.

Checklist for Travel Bloggers

This is by no means all the tasks you should be doing and you might find that some things that you find important for your blog, are not on my list. I used to do a lot more, but over the years, I have simplified what I do each day and taken out anything that I didn’t see making a huge difference in the grand scheme of things.

The feature image is where I literally do everything, haha, the couch with coffee and catching up on my TV shows in the background.

I’ll start with daily blogging tasks which I do every day.

Okay, mostly every day but I mean some days I don’t do anything if it’s a day off. I guess I take about two days off per week and just check emails.

I actually have all the websites I need to access to do my daily tasks in my toolbar and I open them all at once so that I can do each one and close them as I go along. That way, I have to do the work as I won’t exit the tab until it’s done! I start with the easy quick ones.

I start with the easy quick ones:

1. Twitter – just check notifications and tweet something random :p
2. Banking – I check any payments and update my income and expenses excel sheets which I keep track of all year so my taxes are easier.
3. Pinterest – I have just hired a VA to help me with Pinterest, so I just check any comments that need replying and see what new pins she’s added.
4. Triberr – I am not super active on here, but do go through and tweet out some relevant content so my Twitter account has some outgoing tweets scheduled. Tribber is set every 6 hours to send out an article I liked on there.
5. My own blog – Next I check my blog and see what post went live (I have them scheduled so forget) then I share that post to Twitter. I scheduled it on Facebook. My VA adds it to Pinterest for me.
6. WP comments – Lastly, I check my comments on the blog and reply to ALL of them unless they are spam.
7. Facebook – I reply to comments on posts on my page. I started a Facebook group as well, so I go in and moderate that and reply to traveler’s questions.

These are the quick things I do each morning before I have coffee. Then I make coffee and scroll through Instagram and reply to comments and DM’s on there.

The last big daily task I do each morning is Email. I use Microsoft Outlook and organize important emails by flagging them. So, I answer all new emails then I go through my flagged emails and see if there are any I need to follow-up on.

After this, if I had no time to do nothing all day or something came up, it would be fine because all that’s left after this is writing blog posts and editing images! An upcoming post is about how I organize blog posts and another which is live now is how I stay on top of working during a press trip.

This is what I do whether I’m at home or traveling. Even on a press trip, I will do these things each morning. The first things only take 10 minutes. Only email takes longer which will end up getting put off, but I’ll read them all and flag important ones.

To stay organized, I then know which emails to follow up on first when I do have time. I have a Word Document that I list all my articles I want to write, all the sponsored things I have to write, and all my freelance articles I need to write. I also have all my “should do but don’t want to do” bits on this list. I also keep track of all my brand partnerships, features, and a list of everywhere I’ve traveled. The list is great when someone wants to hire you freelance and asks where you can write about! On that same document, I have my blog post calendar typed out.

During the day, once these tasks are done I can write blog posts if I’m feeling creative, work on sponsored content, or take the rest of the day off if I don’t feel like writing.

At the end of the day, I post an Instagram image before I go to bed.

Read More: How to Make Money As A Travel Blogger I share about how I make money and what travel blogging is all about.

Next, are the daily tasks I stopped doing or never started.

I no longer use HootSuite or bother scheduling tweets anywhere else, as I find that it doesn’t bring me traffic and they weren’t getting a lot of engagement. Honestly, I don’t like Twitter and pretty much use it to talk about tv shows, books, and share selfies with my dog. It is good to answer travel questions quickly, though.

I don’t share my posts on Facebook groups except for if I have one that really needs a boost, I will share on Female Travel Bloggers Facebook group. I mention that if someone pins my post, I’ll pin there’s back. It’s a thread called #BlogPostSaturday and everyone shares. Other than that, I find people always share in these groups but never look at other’s content.

I used Tailwind for about one year which is a tool to schedule new and old pins to your boards on Pinterest. It spreads them out on an interval so every few hours a pin goes out. But, as mentioned I hired a VA and she does this now on Board Booster.

She also goes through my new posts and pins any nice looking vertical images, which is something I used to do with all my posts.

Next: These are the weekly blogging tasks I do.

Weekly tasks are something I usually try to do on Monday so I’m all finished for the week.

The first one would be checking in with my web developer and share any issues I have with my blog or follow-up with anything we are working on. There’s always something techy going on behind the scenes. Right now, it’s working on my site load speed which has something to do with a caching plugin not working. I can’t really deal with this daily or I go crazy so I try to just work on this one day a week if there is work to be done. Sometimes I have to talk to my host and be a middleman which is always stressful. I was with Siteground, my favorite but when my blog passed I think 250,000 page views, I started having issues and while my Go Geek plan was cheap and awesome, their cloud plan is expensive. I had to change to a VPS server with a less expensive host, A2. I’m totally totally down with A2, yet. It’s been about 6 months and there’s nothing wrong with them but I don’t love them like I did Siteground. If you’re under 250,000 PV’s, stick with Siteground. But, if you’re a newbie and just starting a blog the best cheap option is Bluehost and they offer 2.95/month with this link.

I then focus on my freelance. I like to do my freelance writing all in one day. This is pretty much what my Mondays consist of. I usually submit them, invoice, and pitch for new articles all at once.

I can also do some shares on my Facebook group for India Travel Tips so once a week I need to go in there and schedule posts with tips, topics for discussion, and whatever else I want to share with the group. Scheduling in FB groups is a new feature!

Weekly, I plug my phone into my computer and move over any images I took that I want to save and add them to the right photo folder.

Lastly, these are the monthly things I try to do.

Once a month, I go through my “projects folder” which is where I keep emails from clients that invited me on trips and timing didn’t work out, or wanting to collaborate but said to reach out in August, etc. I see if any need follow-up on and do so.

I have just started a newsletter and the first one was July. So, writing this up each month and sending it out is a new thing I’m trying to do.

Monthly, I try to write at least one semi-boring SEO article I’ve put off. The most recent one was “Everything You Need To Know About Uber In India”. What this means is that it’s something people are Googling and I can answer. I use Keysearch to find keywords I might rank for.

Usually, by the end of the previous month, I get a list that grows of things I want to be done but I have too much writing to do or I don’t know how/have the patience for. I use Fiverr to get small tasks done (graphic design, better HTML email signature, and use Upwork when I need to hire someone for something a little bigger like fixing affiliate links in old posts and want to pay hourly. I used to do everything myself, the first full three years of blogging but after I got a web developer and saw the stress that came off me, I started outsourcing other things that I hated doing.

The last little thing I do is update my bucket list in case I can cross something off, and update my Work With Me page and Featured On page to update any news, partnerships, or stat changes.

What about the actual blogging?

Ah ha, that actually blogging… turns out there is a lot more other stuff that there is blogging! 

So, if I do a personal trip or press trip and have article ideas the first thing I do after a trip is write the article, edit images, and the get the post ready to go, including any hotel reviews and making pins for Pinterest. I then add it to my calendar (which always gets moved around).

So, I always have destination posts ready to go and scheduled at least a month out. Therefore, I don’t feel pressured to write more and during the week whenever I am in the mood, I’ll write other types of posts like This is India series, Ask My Anything series, general travel tips, sponsored articles where I’ve partnered with a brand, blogging, luggage reviews, or whatever else I have on my list of “things to write about” (like this post!).

I always edit all photos after any trip and delete at least 2/3 of them. I hate duplicates and wasting space on my computer! I have them edited and ready after a trip so I don’t need to do this very often. When I edit images, I also send the best ones to my phone so I have them ready for Instagram.

If you have any blogging questions, please leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them in my next blogging post.

Pin this checklist for travel bloggers for later:

The post Checklist For Travel Bloggers: The Exact Daily & Weekly Tasks I Do As A Travel Blogger first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post Checklist For Travel Bloggers: The Exact Daily & Weekly Tasks I Do As A Travel Blogger appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

From the beginning of my blogging career, 3.5 years ago, I taught myself everything online. It meant watching hundreds of YouTube videos and reading correlating blog posts and it was truly a lot of work. I still do this, but as my blog grew I started to outsource things I couldn’t figure out (and didn’t have the time to research it for hours online)… BUT I hated it. I love doings things myself! I’m a little Type A like that. So, Skillshare was a great option for me. In case you don’t know, Skillshare is an online learning website with more than 16,000 classes on anything you’d want to learn, including lessons on photography, graphic design, marketing, and blogging!  You pay a tiny monthly fee then have access to all of them!

The information is divided into modules and has everything you need in one place so you literally watch the video and do it alongside the video rather than scouring the web for ages. Not just anyone can make videos on Skillshare, only the top pros. It’s amazing because now I can just search what I need and watch a Skillshare video rather than going on YouTube and watching 5 videos trying to sell me some course until I finally get one that will tell me what I need to know.

Skillshare is usually $10 a month, but for a limited time, they’re giving Hippie in Heels readers two FREE months of unlimited access to stream their more than 16,000 online classes. Just click here to start your two free months.

Getting Started on Skillshare

I have a to-do list and there are some items that never get checked off because I simply don’t know how to do them. Eventually, I will hire someone to help but many are things I really need to do myself (especially ones that are not one-off tasks but something I would need to do once a month and the cost of hiring would add up).

I got started on Skillshare by first searching specific things I wanted to learn. Rather than just choosing random things, I looked over my to-do list to get ideas.

1. Start a monthly newsletter
2. Write an eBook
3. Hire someone to teach me manual setting on camera
4. Edit photos better

Numbers 1 & 2 have been on this list for over 3 years. I’m being serious. Numbers 3 and 4 were added last year when I got my mirrorless camera and wanted to learn how to use it better. I decided to focus on these things in Skillshare and see if I could find courses to help me. I wouldn’t be surprised if these tasks are getting cobwebs on on other bloggers’ to-do lists as well.

Start a Newsletter with MailChimp

I know the basics of MailChimp. I set up an RSS that goes out weekly to my email subscribers 3 years ago and haven’t logged in since. But, I needed to know how to set up a pretty newsletter and put in links to posts as well sections for other fun things I want my readers to know about each month.

I watched the video MailChimp for Beginners. My previous work with MailChimp started to come back to me, so I used the function to watch the video at 2x speed (I know, crazy) so I could fast forward without missing anything important.

While this was directed toward beginners, the last module was really helpful and it inspired me to start my newsletter immediately. She talked about “segments” and creating new lists so you aren’t sending it to your whole master list. I realized that is what I needed to do as so many subs don’t open my emails and I only have a certain amount I can send out each month (I have the free MailChimp account). I worked on it as I watched the video.

I decided I would make a segment for people who open my emails at least once in the last 60 days and send my first newsletter to them. I used the videos tips to help decorate and set up my newsletter. In the end, it took me around 25 minutes to watch the video and an hour to make my newsletter. Now I’m kicking myself I put this off for YEARS! It made me excited to try the next Skillshare class and see what else I can learn.

I also checked out this class which had the biggest takeaway being I really should be offering something “free” as an incentive to sign up to my email list (and that email lists are great for marketing, not just updating your readers).

Check out my newsletter for July, which should be out by the time I hit “publish” on this post.

Update: about a year after writing this, I switched to Mailerlite for my emails instead of Mailchimp, as once you get over 3,000 subscribers on Mailchimp it is really expensive. I pay a lot less for Mailerlite and it was easy to switch over. I suggest using them from the get-go if you don’t already have an email newsletter going out. You can get $20 off with my link.

Write an eBook

When I searched for videos on ebook, it wasn’t really to see how to write. I have written 800+ blog posts and probably 300+ freelance articles over the years. It was more to get inspiration to start and possibly see some kind of eBook outline. It’s been on my list for so long, what was mostly holding me back is that it seemed like a HUGE project that I just didn’t have time for since I’m always traveling.

I found the course The Step By Step Process For Creating Quick And Simple eBooks. It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but there are no classes yet on how to write a destination guide ebook, specifically. This did show me how to set up a table of contents and adding important steps like making the book responsive, or clickable to the chapter inside. Watching this very quick video where the guy was enthusiastic about popping these eBooks out like it’s a piece of pie, made me see that every other blogger seems to have written one and there’s no reason I should have delayed for so long.

As for marketing the book and getting the book actually into a PDF, although there are many classes on this I believe it will be over my head and will likely hire someone for the next part! Plus, I’m pretty sure after I write this, I will want it live straight away and not have the patience to learn more, lol.

I took the first steps in Downloading iBooks Author, choosing my template, and setting a deadline for myself including daily and weekly deadlines. I won’t share the title/topic of it as I don’t want to jinx myself but I’m sure you can guess.

Learning to Edit in Lightroom

I’m not a total idiot at editing in Lightroom but I did teach myself (with a few extra tips from Silvia while on a press trip). I feel like my images are okay, but there’s a lot in Lightroom and maybe some things that could make them way better, save images I think are not useable and speed up my time editing (like can you edit in batches? I bet so!)

I started with the 4 set of classes Workflow Like a Pro, but I skipped class 1 as it was how to set up Adobe (although I did skim it and if you are new to Adobe, definitely watch it first!). I started with Class 2 Importing & Culling in Adobe Lightroom. I know how to import but culling is something I struggle with.

How this woman culls her images is LIFE-CHANGING! I mean, there are so many shortcuts I never knew about, and one in particular at around the 3 minutes mark is basically the best thing I’ve learned all year.

It’s called “survey mode” and it’s the perfect example of something so basic and easy on Lightroom but you won’t know to use it unless someone tells you. It will probably cut my editing time in half.

Class 3 was Lightroom Editing in Develop Module which had the basic tips I already knew except did teach me how to do batch edits (yay), and the last class Advanced Lightroom Editing & Exporting which had new editing techniques with tools I hadn’t used.

I used this to edit all my Florida photos. I had over 1200 images from my 8 days there and it took me FAR less time to edit these using her techniques, so I am really grateful for this class!

Next Up: Shooting in Manual Mode & More

There are many classes for shooting in manual mode but the one I have saved is from the How to Work It series. It’s a series by the same girl who did the editing. I loved those classes, so who better to teach me how to shoot in manual? The first class is aperture which is a great place to start since I know a little bit about it.

This is next on my list of classes to take, but it’s definitely not the end. I’ve recently gotten more into handwriting (I blame Instagram Stories) and have a lot of lettering classes saved like brush lettering and faux calligraphy. Although there are language classes, there are not yet Hindi classes or I would certainly be taking some.

Another couple I’m excited about are how to make gelato and how to draw cute animals in 3 steps. I mean, I’m useless at drawing but it’s worth a shot. It has over 5,000 people who watched it and a 100% rating so if those people can do it, so can I! The ratings are really helpful when choosing classes.

Overall Opinion of Skillshare

I feel like when I got to watch the videos on how to edit, it was like watching someone just do their job and being able to copy them. There have been so many times I’ve seen great images online and thought to myself “If only I could see the settings they use to edit…” These videos allow you to do that.

The website itself is categorized well and very well-curated in that you know the videos on there are not just random people who feel like blabbering online. While it used to take me 10 minutes just to find the right article or YouTube video, I can now be finished with some classes in that time.

Skillshare is usually $10 a month, but for a limited time, they’re giving Hippie in Heels readers two FREE months of unlimited access to stream their more than 16,000 online classes. Just click here to start your two free months.

Pin this Skillshare for bloggers post for later:

The post How I Use Skillshare To Keep Learning About Blogging & More first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post How I Use Skillshare To Keep Learning About Blogging & More appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

One of my most popular posts is called “Accidental Boyfriend” about finding love abroad and it is something on many people’s minds when they travel. While people are traveling to try the food and new experiences, they might also wonder if they’ll meet someone. You very well might, but the app Inner Circle is there to help you.

The Dating App Perfect for Travelers

It’s not always so lucky that you will cross paths with your soul mate, for example, what are the chances that I an American and Ben a Brit were in Goa, India at the same time to meet? Not very good! This app kind of helps you along to meet someone you might be in the same town as abroad, and would otherwise not know it. 

So, first let me tell you what the app is before we go into how travelers can use it, as the traveler feature is just a new addition.

This app is a “selective” dating platform that “connects ambitious like-minded poeple” meaning that when you sign up, you are first vetted before your account is approved. You have to link up to your LinkedIn or Facebook to sign up. The idea of their app is that quality matters, not quantity (which is my go to slogan when shopping for clothes lol).  

They hold exclusive events around the world on a monthly basis which brings us to why this is good for travelers. I’m going to share a few details in the app that are great for travelers looking to date abroad.

“Trips”

Imagine an English girl is finding herself in Singapore for two days for a work meeting but then has nothing to do and no one to meet. There’s a guy there from Sweden doing the same thing. Using trips they can put under “Singapore” that they are there for X amount of days for work. They can see who else is there and the two of them can choose to meet each other. If it weren’t for the app, chances are they wouldn’t have met EVER in life. But, maybe it’s the date that would change everything for their lives and they’ll get married. Worth a shot!  

While meeting up with guys over a bucket of beers in Ko Phangan might have been great, there comes a point when you’re looking for more than that. You aren’t going to find it on Khaosan road either. Unfortunately, many people on RTW are just looking for a good time. Because this app is selective, you’re going to be meeting people who are a bit more grown up – plus they are on a dating app, so of course, they are looking for more than just a fling.

“Spots”

Under each city header in trips, there is a “spots” section. Here you’ll see their selective list of the best places to go, so if you do end up with a date you have a nice list of cool restaurants and bars. I searched out a few cities I’m familiar with and they hit it on the mark. 

Monthly Events

As I mentioned above, they do monthly events in different cool locations around the world. It’s a great way for travelers to meet other travelers passing through as well as meet local expats. 

Okay, now go date and I’ll live vicariously through you since I’m all boyfriended-up! You can download the dating app perfect for travelers for free on Andriod and Apple. 

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The post Inner Circle is the Secret Weapon Travelers Use to Find Dates Abroad first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post Inner Circle is the Secret Weapon Travelers Use to Find Dates Abroad appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I mentioned before how Israel is a home of innovation and has invented some of the best apps like Viber and Waze. While we were there, we got to meet with some startup tech teams (during a whiskey tasting, while epically hungover- in fact, one blogger didn’t make it out that morning!). They gave us their pitch and introduced what could very easily be the best new travel apps in 2017.

Here are some apps that you might want to have on your radar and will most likely see popping up this year in more cities, hopefully YOUR city.

photo via Matanya Tausig

Late night out, 10 am meeting with whiskey tasting = no one trying the whiskey. But the Milk and Honey Distillery was very cool and they gifted me a bottle of gin, which got handed on to Ben’s family since I rarely drink liquor these days.

Best New Travel Apps 2017

1. Cool Cousin

Cool Cousin is a really interesting app that I can see taking off fast. So you know when you are on TripAdvisor and someone reviews a restaurant saying “best steak I’ve EVER had” and for all you know it’s a 16-year-old girl who wouldn’t know a good steak from a mediocre one? Well, they want you to find recommendations by first finding a person you relate to, aka a cool cousin. They have cool cousins in the destinations available on their app who are vetted (seriously, and do professional photoshoots to show their style- many are bloggers). You can even message your cool cousin.

2. Eatwith

 

Tammy is a food engineer by day and and a chef by night. Check out her posh loft in downtown LA and enjoy a trio of appetizers, braised chicken with quinoa pilaf, lemon chocolate tart and more. Book it here: http://bit.ly/EatWithLA411 ‪#EatWithTammy #LAeats #communaltable #eatingtogether #foodie #food #loft #yummy #delish

A photo posted by EatWith (@eatwith) on Apr 11, 2016 at 6:56pm PDT

You’ve probably heard of Eatwith. I might have even mentioned it on here before. It’s an app to eat dinner at a local’s home while you travel. They have to do “practice” meals first and be good cooks. They have to have a unique home and be cool people. They are also vetted, and you pay them rather than going to a restaurant. There are a lot of new apps like this, but Eatwith was the original and is growing like crazy. You can book by cuisine and read reviews. Some hosts are really popular and are hard to book!

3. Sidekix

Sidekix fixes an obvious problem, which is that Google walking maps aren’t always the best and lead you in places that aren’t really somewhere you’d want to walk. If you have to go from point A to point B and there are multiple routes, this app tells you what’s on each one. Maybe route 1 passes a few shops you want to check out, maybe route 2 goes by a scenic bridge. They actually used my post best boutiques in Istanbul where I manually mapped them out as an example. As local bloggers add their recommendations, this will end up being very cool! Each recommendation is in a set and put up by someone who is vetted to have good judgment in that area. It’s only on iPhone for now.

4. Givingway

 

Beach lovers!! Check out some of the volunteers working hard to protect the turtles through the Yepez Foundation. As a volunteer, you will patrol the 43 km long beach (by foot or by quad bike) to help protect the female turtles that come to lay their eggs on the beach.  #mexico #centralamerica #volunteerwork #volunteerabroad #gapyear #ngo #charity #volunteering

A photo posted by GivingWay (@givingway) on Aug 1, 2016 at 1:17am PDT

Since I heard about Givingway, I have already sent it to readers who want to volunteer when they travel. I am so weary of voluntourism and it’s negative effects on the people, plus the money grabbing companies who make you pay to volunteer and never give that money to the ones who need it! Want to volunteer and NOT pay an agent? Givingway is the answer, with reviews TripAdvisor-style from people who have volunteered at places before. You DO sometimes have to pay the place you are staying for accommodation, etc, but read reviews to make sure it’s legit. I do not know the vetting process for who can get listed on Givingway.

Interviewed by Tel Aviv newspaper

While in Tel Aviv, a newspaper wanted to do an article on the “influencers” (as they called us) that were in town. They wanted photos of us on our phones hence the photos below. The article came out if you’re interested. You can use the translate option to read it since it’s in Hebrew. I hope that you like these new travel apps for 2017 and let’s see if they take off! If they do you can say you knew about it first ;)

photo via Matanya Tausig

Pin it for later!

I was in Israel hosted by Vibe Israel, a non profit, non political company. Thanks Vibe!

The post Best New Travel Apps 2017 – Tel Aviv Edition first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post Best New Travel Apps 2017 – Tel Aviv Edition appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I went to Finland recently and had a blast exploring Helsinki and Oulu, but the actual purpose of the trip was to attend MATKA, a travel conference. I learned a lot about how to prepare and what to expect at MATKA Nordic Travel Fair as a travel blogger and am going to share that in this article.

I have personally only attended one other travel conference and that was TBEX in Bangkok which I wasn’t really a fan of. I have also spoken at the Gypsy Travel Fair in Mumbai. I haven’t attended huge travel fairs, like the ones in NYC and London.

What to expect at MATKA Nordic Travel Fair as a Travel Blogger

Chances are if you are attending this conference as an international, non-Nordic blogger, it’s because you are in the Nordic Blogger’s Experience (NBE) along with other selected invitees. This is why I was attending MATKA.

To be honest, I was so excited to go to Finland, I didn’t think enough about the conference and I regret that which is why I want to share my experiences.

If you are in the NBE then there are special days set aside for you before and after MATKA.

Networking Day for NBE

One important day is a speed networking day with select brands at the fair, which included a lot of tourism boards like Mexico Tourism, Czech Tourism, and more. You set these up ahead of time, online, and request 15-minute meetings with them.

DMO Breakfast at NBE

There is also a DMO breakfast which is a chance to speak with even more representatives from other countries. I even spoke with a killer hotel in Alaska that might want to work together.

You have coffee and such and walk to their tables openly to talk with whoever you please.

Exploring the Region with NBE

This includes a pre-tour (pre-MATKA fair) somewhere in the region (not necessarily Finland), a “stopover day” where you explore close to Helsinki”, and a post-tour (post-MATKA fair).

So, you’ll need about 10 days in Finland, but I suggest staying longer after it’s done to relax and explore Helsinki on your own as you don’t get much time to yourself.

Another benefit of being in the NBE are the blogger courses that are offered during the days of the fair and the day before the fair starts. Experienced bloggers and videographers give lessons on what they’ve learned from blogging. There were speakers talking about how to build a niche and more.

Compared to TBEX Bangkok, I found this much better and really enjoyed listening to how they grew their blogs into more than that.

The MATKA Fair & How Accepting Brands Are of Working With Travel Bloggers

Basically, I hadn’t seen a fair like this before and really didn’t know how MASSIVE it would be.

I actually thought that the networking meetings were kind of the end of it all, and that those 50+ tourism boards, tour companies, and hotels were the only ones there. That wasn’t the case at all. In fact, there were hundreds, maybe thousands of tour companies and tourism boards at the MATKA fair.

When I walked into the conference center I thought maybe another event was going on the same day.

It was set up by region, and I started on the International side. So what do you do? You literally walk up to the booths and tell them who you are, and why they might want to work with you/hire you + what you can do for THEM.

The place was packed and the energy was full-on! I was kind of in a daze walking around alone just talking to random companies and seeing what might come out of it.

Overall, people were interested in talking to me (as a travel blogger) but some were a little upfront that they don’t work with bloggers. You just have to ask and not get discouraged if they aren’t interested.

As it’s a Nordic travel fair, you have to understand as an international blogger, not from the Nordics, you might not have as good of luck. Each tourism board represented, send their Nordic representative and they are looking to promote their region to the Nordics, not USA, UK, etc.

I did have some brands ask why the NBE had international bloggers come, which was a little rude. But, overall, most Nordic reps were more than happy to pass my information along to their USA or India colleagues and getting that connection makes such a difference when you send over a pitch.

Also even if your connections from the MATKA fair didn’t work out for you, the pre and post tours with NBE are incredible and the networking is fantastic. You can go just for that.

Tips for how to prepare for MATKA Fair as a travel blogger

1. Do it alone. You’re going to make a lot of blogger friends at the conference but when you walk around the fair you don’t want a buddy. You want the 1 on 1 attention with the brand and to seem independent and go at your own pace.
2. Bring more business cards than you think you need. Bring 200! I ran out.
3. Be sure to introduce who you are, that you are a travel blogger, and your niche. Think about what you’ll say before you walk up to the booth.
4. Don’t be afraid to say your numbers if they are something you think would help. I told them a few stats about my blog and my page views monthly.
5. Print a few media kits for the meetings that are going REALLY well, but for everyone else show them the media kit on your tablet. This worked out so well and it helps to have something tangible in your hand for them to look at.
6. There’s no point in saying right away that you charge for a per diem on trips, etc. They aren’t going to remember and it might seem off-putting at first introduction.
7. Carry a little backpack to keep all the pamphlets they give you. It’s pretty rude to not take it when they offer as you are meant to be looking interested in their destination!
8. Take a note on every business card you get so you remember what was said. Maybe they wanted to connect you with a colleague or they talked about a specific upcoming FAM with dates. It’s so important that you have a little reminder with a personal note to follow up with them.
9. The entire MATKA fair is pointless if you don’t follow up. I ended up with 54 connections that seemed important enough to follow up and see if it could go somewhere. I sent e-mails to them all about 5 days after the fair. It was worth the two days of writing! Send them a copy of your media kit and your normal pitch plus personalized message at the beginning so that they remember you.
10. Get there early and scope it all out. You want all the time you have there and you want to know the important brands to talk to. By the late afternoon, people are tired and it gets harder to get people’s attention.
11. If you are with NBE you get a coupon to check your coat for free. You also get lunch coupons to eat anywhere in the building. There are restaurants, buffets, and cafes inside the conference center. It’s huge.
12. To get to Messukeskus where the MATKA fair takes place in Helsinki, you can take any letter train (A-Z) from the central train station to the stop. It’s easy and they’ll give you detailed directions + a local transportation pass so it’s free of charge.

I hope this gives you an idea of what to expect at the MATKA Nordic travel fair as a travel blogger. It’s a great opportunity for both new and experienced travel bloggers. I DID get some really great contacts here and even have a few trips in the pipeline (fingers crossed).

The post Travel Bloggers: What to expect at MATKA Nordic Travel Fair first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

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While you might imagine the bulk of my time working is spent writing blog posts or editing photos, actually it’s writing emails that take up the bulk of my time every single day. There’s a new(ish) app called Kiwi for Gmail which is meant to make life easier for Gmail mail users. Anything that saves me time is something I’m up for trying.

Kiwi for Gmail Review

This app started as a Kickstarter in 2015 and has grown massively since then. Basically, Kiwi for Gmail takes your mail out of the web browser. Many other email services do this but Gmail hasn’t yet. It’s something that people who use Gmail have always wanted as an extra, so this really fills a gap in the market. 

My boyfriend uses Gmail as well and after I told him about this new app, he’s already using it himself and loves that he can now work outside the browser. He used to work at Microsoft and went to school for computer science so he gets a little over the top excited about tech things. Based on his excitement and the fact he was using it before I even got a chance to download it myself, I knew it was going to be good. 

If I break it down, I spend about 20 minutes daily answering emails from readers, about an hour replying to new emails from brands, and about 30 minutes following up with brands I’m negotiating with or work long-term with. I also spend time on email setting up press trips, getting myself organized with hotels I’m partnering with or pitching new opportunities I’m interested in working with. Each week, I spend about 13-15 hours writing emails. That’s a lot of time on email!

Each week, I spend about 13-15 hours writing emails. That’s a lot of time on email! Gmail is by far the most popular email that people use thanks to the fact it’s free and has a lot of space allowance. It’s easy to use and it seems the only complaint was that it was limited to the browser. 

I downloaded Kiwi for Gmail from the Mac App Store on my computer and took a few screenshots to show you. You can get it on Windows/PC too. You just log in and answer a few questions before it’s ready. It is simple and straight forward. 

Once it’s downloaded and opened, it looks exactly the same. You just have desktop features like notifications of email and ability to easily switch between accounts.

It’s not just an inbox, though, it has all of Google’s features from Google Hangouts, calendar, contacts, Google Drive and Docs/Spreadsheets. It’s all on the left side bar and you can click on them from the app. 

It’s a full version of Gmail on your desktop.

I didn’t post a photo of this from my crowded work account because I’m no photoshop genius and don’t know how to blur out names and subjects. Instead, I’ve done screenshots with my personal account which as you can see is mostly Uber and Next Vacay notifications (for cheap flight deals)

Easy “New” Emails

I love that there is a little envelope up in my dashboard that when you click on it, it opens a new email. So, that moment when you are watching Netflix and remember you had a quick email to send? You don’t even have to leave your tab. You just open, write it quickly and send!

The Zen Switch

I would say my second favorite feature is the button to turn off your email for a second. They named it the “zen switch”. When I write blog posts like this one, I need to focus and make sure I get all my thoughts on the subject out without distraction. I can turn off email notifications for a few hours while I work. 

More Than One Account With Just a Click

Since I have two accounts: personal and work, the full version of Kiwi lets you switch between accounts. But, if you have just one account there is a Lite version which is cheaper. The full version is 14.99 and lite is free.

You just go to the preferences > accounts tab to add another account. It’s very simple and you can set different notifications and colors to keep things organized. Once the second account is added, or more, you can switch between them with just one click. Even better, you can see how many emails you have in each account before you click on it.

Sending Attachments:

While on some emails you can’t send more than 15 mb or something like that, with Kiwi for Gmail you can send huge files and even entire folders. The crazy thing is, you don’t have to open a new email and then find it through attachments. You can be in your Finder, right-click the folder you want to send, and click Share > Kiwi For Gmail. That’s so much easier than having to open up Dropbox and add it there, then send that link via Gmail in the browser! 

To Sum It Up:

The benefits of Kiwi for Gmail are that it makes life easier without making you learn anything new. It’s exactly the same as the browser just with added features. I was hoping that like Outlook this would let you write emails offline and save them to send once you get on the WiFi but that feature isn’t on Kiwi for Gmail, yet, which I would say is the only con. 

I recommend trying this out. You can try with one account on the Lite for free if you’re unsure, before purchasing it. You can go to download this by clicking here. 

Kiwi for Gmail is about unleashing Gmail from your browser and making life easier. I felt it did make me more productive. I liked that in my bottom dashboard on Mac there is a number count for new emails, which I can turn off with notifications but is good to have when I’m working during the day. I’m actually really surprised this wasn’t always invented by Gmail. 

I was compensated for my time in writing this review. All opinions are my own. Let me know what you think of Kiwi for Gmail if you try it. 

The post Kiwi For Gmail Review: Making Life More Efficient first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post Kiwi For Gmail Review: Making Life More Efficient appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

Welcome back to my “Ask Me Anything” series. I try to answer FAQ every once in a while and something I get asked a lot is Why did I start travel blogging and what led me to make that decision.

I’ve kind of written about this before throughout the years on this blog but will answer it more detailed here.

Blogging was not on my forecast that is for sure!

I know a lot of people ask because they want to start a travel blog. If that is the case you might be interested in these posts:

• How I Make Money
• Tips on travel blogging after 3 years

Why I Chose to Start Travel Blogging

I met Ben in India and moved here, leaving my job as a nurse to live in Goa with Ben. I didn’t have travel blogging on my mind then,  and at this time, 4 years ago, I didn’t know what a travel blog was.

Even though I had traveled to around 20 countries at that time, I hadn’t used a travel blog as a resource and got all my information from Lonely Planet. I never traveled with a smart phone or computer.

After about 6 months, I was in Thailand with two of my best friends backpacking for a month. We were having a boozy night and I was telling them that I really needed to figure out how I was going to make money. At this time, I was doing Thai massage here in Goa and had fliers up around town. That made me about $60 per massage.

They both went to school for marketing/sales/PR type stuff and started telling me I should start a website or blog about traveling, particularly how to travel to India. They told me people made money from this. They even talked about SEO. I was like that’s cool, but I bet its way too hard. They said I should focus on solo female travel blogging.

After that trip, I came back to India and Googled: Top Solo Female Travel Bloggers. I discovered the blogs of some of the best bloggers there were at that time. I read their “about me” pages and saw where they traveled. A lot of it was similar to what I had been doing for years, but never writing about.

PS if you want to start a blog, don’t bother with Godaddy, they were terrible! Bluehost is cheaper and better for new blogs and this link will give you hosting at 2.95/month.

Luckily, Ben worked for Microsoft and went to school for IT before moving to India.

I didn’t know what WordPress was. I didn’t know who GoDaddy was. I didn’t know a URL was the same as a domain. I was clueless. Ben showed me how to buy a domain, buy hosting, and install WordPress. He set up my free theme and showed me how to get plugins and customize them.

If you are doing this alone you can learn this from YouTube videos but I highly recommend having someone help you.

After it was set up, I just started writing everything about my past travels to Europe, Thailand, Uganda, and everywhere else I’d been.

I posted them so that my blog wouldn’t be empty. I told my crazy backpacking stories. People started reading them. I didn’t know SEO or anything like that. I just wrote and posted pictures. I am so OCD that I loved doing this. It was actually fun. I wrote 5 posts a day sometimes.

Next, I started writing about India. I wrote about each place, tips on trains, buses, and how to dress. It turns out I was writing things that Google liked and by the end of the year, my blog became one of the top 50 travel blogs in the world (a site called the Expeditioner keeps track of this with Google Analytics screenshots).

The next year, I watched a lot of YouTube videos on blogging and learned more about SEO.

Now, it seems crazy that I actually give tips on blogging and social media and get paid to consult people on this! It is nuts what you can teach yourself online.

The main reason I started my blog was to earn an income, not just tell my stories, and I’ve always been honest about that. At first, I didn’t even want to share my real name. I wanted it to just be tips, like Lonely Planet. I quickly learned that more personal touches and stories did the best on my blog and that I had to put my personality into it to succeed or else I would be like any other travel website.

It was strange at first but now feels natural.

Although at first, my goal was to make money and share tips about India, that started to change once the blog became personal.

People started to e-mail me about their life goals and needing help to take steps to change their lives. It started to change how I wrote and who I was writing for. I wanted to help people do something different from what they were doing, and not liking.

It was funny because it was similar to being a nurse where people tell you everything about themselves knowing there is a confidentiality agreement and we have to keep their secrets! People were telling me their whole life stories via email and asking me for advice on where they could travel. It was so much fun to help them decide!

So, this is why I started blogging and why I continued to now! I started to enjoy learning more about photography. I learned more about design and actually enjoy blogging a lot now. Of course, traveling for a living is a fantastic job but I actually like the writing and editing photos part too. I don’t like the tech stuff so finally, I hired someone to help me with that. I’d rather spend my extra time making images like the one below (hoping they get shared a lot on Pinterest lol).

The post Ask Me Anything: How did you start travel blogging? first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post Ask Me Anything: How did you start travel blogging? appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I love doing app reviews, and this Pepo app review is a little different because I have been using this app every day for three months and even run my own chat on the app and share live video there rather than IG stories or Snapchat, that I’d love you to join. You can click that link to download for iPhone or Android.

I’ll tell you a little about what Pepo is, how you can use it, and how all people (not just travelers) can utilize the app, plus how bloggers can, too.

“Every day, thousands of people turn to Pepo to share their stories and connect with experts and enthusiasts. Travelers. Foodies. Fans. Politicos. Designers. Dog Lovers. Gym Fits. LGBT’s. No matter your interests, Pepo connects you with the people and voices that matter most to you.” – Jason Goldberg, Founder

Pepo App Review

My chat has around 1100 members and because it’s a small community of people who are really interested in seeing the places I travel, I often share “spotlights” which are videos kind of like SnapChat on here. I actually don’t use Snapchat or IG Stories, so this is the only place I share live videos and talk about what I’m up to as it happens.

On Instagram, I have over 68,000 followers, and it’s a little daunting to do live video on there! I like that this is a little more interactive so I feel I can let loose a little and it doesn’t have to be so “curated”.

One of the best features is the “nearby” option which is great when you are in a place you don’t know well or you want to find a gem in your own town. I clicked nearby to see what was up in Goa, and there were a couple chats going on here other than mine. Yay!

First off, wait where is that in Palolem!? (lol) I want to visit there. But the good thing is, I can just comment and get directions from that chat host.

You don’t have to start a chat. You can just join chats that seem cool to you. Some are crazy like the UK soccer (football!) ones. Some are interactive and you can post in the group, and others you just follow what the host is posting.

You can check out all kinds of chats that might interest you, that your friends have joined, or that friends of friends join. Wanderlusting Foodies sounds pretty damn good to me!

On my chat, I like to share a variety of things from my own blog posts to articles about travel I find interested online. I post images, quotes, and travel tips. I ask for advice too, like on my recent Mumbai trip.

Like I said, this is where I feel comfortable doing videos and they usually get the most interaction from people in the chat. 

It’s fun because you add geotags, filters, and you set the reaction emoji so for some, like the one, above I set a “snowflake” emoji and below is the star emoji… then people don’t just “like” something – they interact by clicking your emoji or they add their own.

The name Pepo comes from “People” and “Passions”.There are thousands of people on this app, and lots of connections to be made and stories to hear/tell. You could literally make a chat about your dog if you wanted! You can also make secret chats and only let in the people you choose. It’s a free app and you can download it by clicking here.

I hope you’ll follow me on Pepo and if you start your own chat, send me an invite!

Pepo for bloggers

If you’re a blogger, this is a great way to connect on a deeper level with the people who follow your blog whether it’s food, fashion, DIY, travel, etc. There are chats for everything and you can make your own.

You can share images, videos, links, or whatever you feel like and people will engage with you here. I hope this Pepo app review was helpful for you!

The post Pepo App Review: Everyone Has a Story first appeared on Hippie In Heels.

The post Pepo App Review: Everyone Has a Story appeared first on Hippie In Heels.