Travel Soup Logo

Our Travel Soup Site Launch

Client

Our Travel Soup

Role

CEO
Writer
Photographer
Content Strategy
Branding
Visual/UI Design
Social Media Marketing

Overview

Our Travel Soup is a family travel blog I launched in November 2018. This project is a labor of love which I started from scratch. My mission is to inspire other 9-5er's and families to get outside their cubicle and explore the world. I also want to help others plan their trips with detailed guides, personal recommendations, reviews and tips. As a bonus, it's an outlet for my photography passion, and a way to grow as a writer.

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What's Behind the Name?

The hardest part about starting a business is the name of course. I thought of a lot of obvious and typical names, but none of them really clicked. But when I started to think about what travel means to us, the name Our Travel Soup just came to mind. As we travel, each experience adds to our big pot of adventures. It's also good for the soul, just as a bowl of soup is.  

Goals

Currently I'm in the building stage of this project so my goals are the following:
  • Establish a social media presence
  • Form a loyal community
  • Build an email list
  • Provide consistent, high-quality content
  • Continue to build and maintain SEO

My Process

As I'm building this project, I am continually managing tasks to accomplish my goals. This has been my journey since the beginning.
Travel Soup Logos

The Logo

Now that I had a name chosen, I had to do a logo. I originally thought about a bowl of soup, but wasn't feeling it. Then I thought, well what about my daughter? She's the central core of why we travel, to share with her everything about this world. Her name even means earth! It was perfect, so I started by drawing a character of her face. I then created a simplified vector of it and it was ready!  

Site Design

Next up was the site design. With my limited capabilities in coding, I had to work from a template. My blogging preference is always Wordpress, so I found a theme that worked for my needs. Since I do know how to edit code, I was able to completely customize it to meet my visual design goals. The end product is unique, and not completely out of the box.
Travel website content tiles

The Content

With the site design complete, I now had to start building content. I had a few recent trips so I started with those. I started publishing articles on a consistent basis up until the actual launch date of my site. I now maintain it on a weekly basis. Since we are not full-time travelers I also write local travel content in between.
Travel website social media

Social Media

While building the blog, I also had to start building a social media presence. I setup accounts on Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram. These three are my primary focus. As of today I've reached a total of around 4k followers between these. I'm continually working on maintaining and building my engagement and following.
Travel pinterest graphics

Pinterest Marketing Content

So far, Pinterest has been great success for me. My impressions, engagement, and link clicks have stayed fairly consistent and are steadily rising. With this I've spent some time creating and testing out various graphics. I've reached a defined style, but continually testing imagery and copy.

Instagram Highlight Icons

In order to keep my instagram more professional, I've created some vector icons for the highlight covers. With each country we visit I plan to keep creating these in order to keep the branding consistent.
Travel planning kit

Opt-In Freebie

I've been starting to put more focus on building my email list. I've created an opt-in freebie for anyone who subscribes. I thought about what things would be helpful for me while planning a trip. So I created a basic Travel Planning Kit. My list is slowly growing, and I'm working on other freebies to test out in the future. 

Photography Presets

Currently I'm developing a photography preset product aimed primarily at travel and lifestyle influencers. My style is to keep photos more natural, but with an added flavor of magic. I'm developing packages based on themes and inspiration from the places that we travel.

See more on Instagram

Our Travel Soup Site

I officially launched Our Travel Soup in mid-November 2018. Growth was fairly slow at first, mostly from social referrals and self promotion. However recently Google SEO has started kicking in, and my unique visitors are now reaching around 1k per month. I'm excited to see it continue to grow!

Next Steps

I'm continually working on this as time allows. Having a full-time job means I can't fully focus on it, but I'm slowly accomplishing small goals. I've learned so much so far while building this site, especially with managing various tasks and roles. Here's what my hope is for the future:
  • Continue growing my email list and create a bi-weekly newsletter
  • Build relationships and connections with those in this niche
  • Guest blog for other travel bloggers
  • Market and sell my photography presets
  • Consistent site updates with valuable and helpful travel content