Advertising income based on your ride reports?

[bobdonny]

Hey guys,
I'm planning a trip in 2016 with a shakedown trip hopefully late summer 2015.
More to come on that in the months to come.
I've been doing lots of research on the route, countries etc. and I plan to put reports here and perhaps on horizons unlimited and on some website I create for the trip.
Whilst I was thinking about that it got me wondering about putting advertising on my website along with the reports to see if I could earn a few quid from it.

To be honest, I know you will never make a lot but I thought its better than nothing. But then I started to think that there were others out there with great stories of adventure travel, but no one reading about them.
For me the only thing I love more than going on an adventure is reading about one. So I got to thinking what if a few of the travellers got together to put their reports on one website... not a discussion forum like this but more like a dedicated report site or journal type affair? The more writers, the more the potential readers, and then in a year or so new writers could tap into a huge readership base.

To that end, I am actually going to look to putting something like that together, and I would like to find maybe 5 people here who have completed ride reports here. Anything from a few days to a few years would be great.
I'd really just like to ask you questions, and see what kind of a website and service I could make to suit your needs.

Feel free to ask any q's here or PM me for details.

(Hopefully this is in the right spot and OK mods, if not let me know)

Thanks
BD

 

[tuftywhite]

I think it's a great idea.

 

[adventuredon]

there would have to be some sort of set format. Some way of rating hotels / b and b's fairly. A sharing of routes and spares taken ?. Good idea. A fair amount of admin though. If you want to have blogging it opens itself to a forum similar to this: where the OP is often forgotten in 3 replies and the whole post goes off topic about Uncle Bill's trip to Kenya way back when....

 

[Ogmios]

Love the idea / hate the thought of the admin work required.
Dont think there's any money in advertising aspect though. But happy to be proven wrong.
~~
note to self -
i HAVE TO finish that Gambia on a Gapper blog. .. there, i've said it - now i have to do something about it.

 

[John RTW]

I think that Horizons Unlimited and ADV Rider have the monopoly on travel blogs with many other motorcycle forums having their own travel threads will provide any avid motorcycle travel reader with enough blogs to last a life time.

Blogs really need to be written for yourself, not for the masses. You can go for it and head for sponsorship/blag of the motorcycle/gear/accessories companies that may want some pr with their kit, but they have most probably been hit up by every man and his dog that have ridden the dusty road before you. Time on the road and the dedication to the blog is a big thing, most start out keen and write every day, then it becomes weekly and then monthly before it finally drops off and then they resort to dropping a few pics and words on Facebook to keep their fans happy.

It is not impossible to get some help, some of my traveller friends have managed to get a little assistance from the big bike companies, Touratech, Garmin and clothing manufacturers some of them have contacts or they are unique or have a twist to their travels. Some are professional blaggers and will write that certain items of (free) kit is the best thing since sliced bread. As for the money aspect, you'd probably have to prove that the website had enough hits to warrant payment for advertising. I believe some companies (Amazon) will give you a small percentage of profit or discount if people buy through links from your site.

A few riders write articles for magazines and some do presentations to bolster their income.

I could always be wrong,

Good luck with your travels, you'll love it.

 

[Ash]

Seems OK as long as trip /ride reports don't get bogged down in just advertising, that certainly would get on one's pip and turn readers off a bit sharpish....
I love great reports written by those involved, but would we get such honesty if there was money to be made rather than just the pleasure of sharing a trip, be it short or RTW..



Always good to get good recommendations of places to see or stay at of course

 

[bobdonny]

Thanks guys, awesome feedback
I have a beta version ready, pm me your email and I'll send you an invite to check it out and may put up a few posts?
Could be perfect for you Ogmios

The beauty of forums is there is a big community, but as you rightly point out there is a lot of noise.
An online magazine that puts the focus clearly on authors and builds a massive community of readers gets that balance right. Well for reading reports anyway, forums will still be used for discussion.

 

[Popeye]

Thanks guys, awesome feedback

Awesome, really????? You're gonna run out of superlatives pretty damn quick if that truly represents your idea of something awesome.

 

[bobdonny]

Awesome, really????? You're gonna run out of superlatives pretty damn quick if that truly represents your idea of something awesome.

That people took the time out of their lives to give me some feedback on my idea is pretty awesome to me. Ymmv

 

[Maxxx]

I had exactly the same idea about 6 years ago when I got back into biking after a long break. I would sit on this forum and ADVRider and seek out the well written ride reports and I really thought that thee was a gap in the market for a "monthly publication" comprised solely of ride reports. My idea was a well curated, well edited, professional production consisting of what I (or the "editor") considered the best / most interesting / best followed / whatever ride reports that I had seen that month. I thought that perhaps asking the OP's permission / consent / collaboration for a "freelance journalist fee" might be possible.

The publication could then be in digital / pdf / downloadable format and perhaps even a "print-on-demand" link could be provided (too expensive at the minute) and multi-month / multi-year / EPIC journeys could be serialised. As someone else has already pointed out, certain aspects could be standardised - perhaps things like cost of accommodation / meals / fuel at the very minimum kind of a thing but the actual stories could be as individual in style as the OP.

At the time, I was in full time employment and it remained a background thought.

AND THEN - the Adventure Bike Rider publication hit the shelves - and it's pretty much what I envisaged, albeit in print form. The format works for me as I can read the ride reports (often serialised) without distraction and as a good story - which is what I was after. They added a digital version, a site and a forum - but I don't think the writers get compensated in any way other than "kudos".

Forums win for immediacy and interaction (it's fantastic being able to ask the riders questions and have them respond) and publications win for entertainment value - at the end of the day if you can work out how to compensate the writers for their contributions, you'd have a massive draw card over any other site / publication that I know - which I sure would convince more than a few people to "defect" over to you with their original material.

For now, I blog for my own personal satisfaction and I occasionally repost reports to this forum - but much of what I write is personal introspection which wouldn't be suited for this forum.

Good luck with your endeavour - I do wish you success and will watch with great interest how you progress (and maybe I can even be a client one day )

 

[Ogmios]

bobdonny,
Thank you for the offer - i am determined to get the damn thing down in text of some sort first - then work out the best way of 'presenting' it.
... or choose which publisher gets it... before applying for the Turner Award.
~~~
Get a grip Og!