Here is the deal with my blog: I'm traveling around the world. I've developed a steady increase in traffic over the last few months, but at no time have I ever gotten a link on a large site, nor I have I ever gotten serious attention from Digg. I get a steady stream of SU users, but never a big spike. My content seems to be sticky (RSS compared to visitors or pageviews). I'm asking everyone as general members of the internet public who might have a casual interest in what I'm doing: what sort of content could I product, particular to traveling, which would make you send it to someone else and say "hey, you got to see this!" The closest I've gotten to linkbait was this article: http://everything-everywhere.com/2007/07/25/the-curious-case-of-the-solomon-islands-moon-rock/ I can't expect things like that to happen every day. Descriptions of locations, and typicial stuff like that doesn't cut it. I'll certainly keep doing that, but I think I need to occasionally do something more. I'm open to suggestions....
I envy your idea and lifestyle. Having said that for a linkbaiting idea hmmmm..... I love reading articles where people compare things. So maybe compare the places you visit on nature, nightlife, people, food, whatever and be tough about it. I dont where you are atm but I am hooked to Gordon Ramseys Kitchen nightmares (as is most people) and he is just totally honest and ruthless which makes it interesting and may make your persona stand out amongst bloggers. I am thinking of doing the same in my blog but generally I am too nice I think you should add video as well (if you havent)
Well, if you are trying to get on to Digg, the first thing you need is friends with solid Digg accounts. Second, your design and content seems to be good, but you should maybe read Copyblogger and steal some ideas from that site as far as how to structure your headlines and such. Also, just start participating on Digg and such to make friends and build up an account. It's worth it.
http://www.profitbaron.com/2007/10/24/what-you-need-to-know-about-linkbaiting/ http://www.profitbaron.com/2007/10/24/everyone-can-linkbait/ read those ^
Link baits is the process of pumping quality content out there. The more content you write the better off. People might not know about your content right off the bat, but sooner or later people will start linking and promoting your content
Have you seen http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/ THAT is the type of thing you should do. He did/is doing much of what you are doing. He got so much notoriety that Stride Gum sponsored him to do it again! Don't copy him, but you could come up with something goofy or interesting. Another thing that I'm sure you've heard about is the yard ornament (a rabbit I think) that was kidnapped and carried around the world, pictures taken of it on the Eiffel Tower, etc, then it was returned with an envelope full of pictures. It made it into the newspapers.
How can you afford to go traveling for so long? I would love to see a post about that and also a post about how you manage to keep your blog updated while traveling! On to the topic: Read my post about link building. Take a special note of #12, since you upload your images to flickr. I'm going to use this image of your as an example. Here is what your doing wrong: - You should have a link to your blogpost containing the picture in the description field below the picture. - You should have a title. Do you have any idea how many people use flickr to search for destination images? - Add tags to your images. - Add them to groups related to the destination and travel. - Also write below your picture that people can use your images for private use, as long as they live a link to your blog. Your images would be included in heaps of search engines that search for images that everyone can use in their blogs and personal websites. - Be active on travel related social sites like tripadvisor and boo.com! Leave your links! Just by following these simple steps you can increase your traffic by heaps..
I also have something about linkbait. But seriously, the link I mentioned above is exactly what you're doing.