Welcome to the SuccessLab Podcast episode #16. In this episode, I’m in The Lab with Kirsten Alana, a travel photographer, content creator, digital marketer and conference speaker.
Interview highlights:
- Kirsten started her travel photography blog 5 years ago, which led her to leave her office job and begin a career in travel photography. As the blog grew, it became her business in conjunction with photography.
- Although the blog is not her primary source of income, Kirsten monetizes it with Google Ads and sponsored content. She said she earns most of her income by hosting travel chats for brands, and Instagram takeovers. The blog is more of a passion than a paycheck.
- Kirsten has been using Instagram since its inception – gaining followers organically by commenting and responding on as many photos as possible. She has also been featured by several national publications (Grazia Magazine, Huffington Post) as an “Instagrammer to Follow”.
- Tips: She never uses more than 1 or 2 hashtags for any Instagram post and adds the hashtags in the comments rather than the post caption. This keeps posts looking cleaner, yet the post remains hashtag searchable – they are just hidden from view.
- Her favorite app for productivity is Buffer, which she uses to schedule Tweets. But she tries to use social media as organically as possible – preferring post quality over quantity.
- She recommends for bloggers just starting out to go through some sort of specific training to the type of blogging they wish to do – like the Matador Network‘s travel writing and travel photography courses, or courses through Book Passage. She said this would have helped her gain a good footing to build up her business.
Connect with Kirsten on Instagram, at KirstenAlana.com, or at aviatorsandacamera.com.
This week’s Biz Hack: This week’s hack builds off of last week’s, which was about tracking your activities to see where you are spending your time. Continue reading…
Action Items: This week’s action item is to apply the Warren Buffett focus process to your to do list. Continue reading…
Quote of the week: Another Seth Godin great! “How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be great.”
Next week we’re in the lab with Robin Bramman, an amazing business brand and digital strategy coach. We talk all things branding and even get into when you should think trademarking. So don’t miss that one!
Don’t forget…the SuccessLab forum is now live! Head over there to collaborate with other entrepreneurs. Until next time, have prosperous week!
