Blogger Spotlight: Abigail King, Inside the Travel Lab

Abigail King started her career as a hospital doctor but soon felt a different calling. With hopes of pursuing a more creative career, Abigail decided to combine her passion for writing with her love of travel. And the risk paid off! Today she is the author of Inside the Travel Lab, where she blogs about her globetrotting adventures in Croatia, Spain, Sweden, Paris, Hong Kong, and the Cotswolds. In this spotlight Abigail chats to us about paid partnerships, keeping editorial control, creating bespoke projects with clients, developing a successful strategy for social media and why live video will rise in popularity this summer.

Why should people read your blog? What makes it different? Inside the Travel Lab focuses on thoughtful luxury travel, culture and unusual journeys. It’s less about being seen in fashionable places and more about seeing places with new eyes. I like to think it focuses on quality writing and quality photography – a mix of tips and practical pieces with heartfelt articles on destinations. I worked in neuroscience research and as a doctor in intensive care prior to moving into writing, so I think that slant appeals to fellow professionals.

How do you measure the success of your website? I’m quite fortunate that I’m able earn a living doing what I love? That’s pretty good! I keep an eye out on statistics and awards as they are useful indicators, but really it’s about helping and reaching people.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a blog? Practice on a free site first to make sure that you love the writing and regular blog site maintenance aspects. Work out what you are passionate about as it’s not an industry with quick success: you’ll be working away at this for years!

How do you work with marketers and PRs? Inside the Travel Lab works in a number of different ways. Occasionally, we work through traditional editorial exchanges but as expectations from blogging and digital media grow, we do take part in more paid partnerships. We always keep editorial control to protect the integrity and authenticity of the site, but we can and do create bespoke projects with clients. This work includes developing a successful strategy for social media, working with hashtags, eBooks, themes and more and providing in-depth analytics at the end. The blog is a founding member of both iAmbassador and the Must Love Festivals project and I am a founding director of Captivate, which is an elite group of award-winning digital storytellers who reach an audience of discerning 30-plus travellers in the UK.

How do you use social media to promote and share content? What are the challenges? I’m active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Periscope, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat and, to a lesser extent, Google Plus and YouTube. I think the main challenge is keeping up with them all! They all require different approaches for success, which can become time consuming (for example, different image formats suit different networks better.) I’m excited by the rise of live video but that does make it harder to keep things balanced with travel.

What can PRs do in working better with you? Please have a look at the site and the kind of things we cover. Almost everything is written in house: our audience simply doesn’t respond to repurposed press releases or infographics. Voting contests also don’t really work for us.

As I’m not based in London, meeting up for coffee only works a few times a year. A good way to get in touch is to attend some of the top blogging conferences, such as the Social Travel Summit, which will be held in Inverness this year in September.

What has been your blogging highlight? Interviewing a survivor of the Nagasaki atom bomb attack in one way, and flying over the Maldives in another.

What will be big in your blogosphere in the coming months? In terms of the blogosphere at large, I think live video will rise in importance over the summer. In terms of Inside the Travel Lab, I’m expecting my first child in November, so I’m sure that will lead to some change!

What does being in the Vuelio Blog ranking mean to you? It’s a great honour and a wonderful piece of good news in a largely solo or small team enterprise. Thank you for the encouragement!