Listen in to today’s episode as I talk with Nomadic Matt about how he took his budget travel blog to over 100,000 followers on Instagram and created a NY Times Bestseller, How to Travel the World on $50 a Day. When his life took a turn from a gap year to living as a digital nomad, Matt created a business from his lifestyle. Today, he has experienced over 100 countries in the timespan of a decade and runs his business as a digital nomad.
Writing His First Book from His Blog
When writing his book, Matt’s first goal was to take his blog information, curate the content, and add coupons to his book for travelers. Instead, an editor from Penguin found his book and asked him to turn his ebook into a print copy. Today, Matt has a third edition published with a fourth edition in 2023, which includes information on post-COVID travel.
The Difference Between Writing a Blog and a Book
For his book, he realized that he needed to do a bit of research on top of his practical experience traveling, such as website names. He also realized he needed to add more specifics with his book that he didn’t need to add when writing his blogs. “People don’t want to read 15,000 words on buying a backpack online.” For blogs, consumers want immediate, actionable steps they can take. When reading a book, readers want to know more about the process and fundamentals of traveling.
Listen to discover the level of authoring you gain when writing a book, how it can increase your PR and legitimize your expertise, and how he hit the New York Times bestseller list.
Show Highlights
- [02:00] How Matt came up with the idea to make his travel blog into a book.
- [04:05] Putting together the outline for his travel book.
- [08:44] Hitting the bestseller list with the second edition of his book.
- [10:42] Book launch marketing and the top marketing strategies that sold the most books for Matt.
- [14:50] Choosing a title for his book, how he decided on his SEO book title.
- [16:30] How to ask for reviews for your book.
- [17:35] Advice for bloggers looking to write their own book.
- [24:09] How Matt’s travel books fuel his business growth.