Our first blogger of the month for 2018 is the lovely Kavita, currently number 5 on the Trips100 index, who has been sharing her love of travel and food over at Kavey Eats since 2009. Kavey loves to write about her travels with husband Pete, and in particular the culture and cuisine they experience whilst travelling. The couple have enjoyed travelling around the globe together over the last 25 years including adventures in Argentina, Botswana, Canada, India, Japan and two magical journeys to Antarctica.
Below Kavey shares her thoughts on blogging, the couples travel plans for 2018 and her top tips for setting up a travel blog.
What inspired you to start blogging?
Kavey Eats (as the name probably makes obvious) started out as a food blog back in 2009, though always with some travel thrown in. Over the years, the travel content has gradually become the stronger focus and these days I’d describe it as a travel blog with a strong food focus than the other way around.
Back in April 2009 I attended a fun one-off Easter egg tasting event run by the Guardian’s Word of Mouth online team. I was so excited by the experience that I wanted to share. I was already in the habit of writing up restaurant reviews, recipes for food cooked at home, reviews of cookery books I’d bought… which I shared on various food discussion websites, a kind of stealth-blogging, as I called it – I spent my time writing and sharing content but without a blog of my own to host it all. That night, I got home from the chocolate tasting event and spent the next few hours setting up my blog, customising the theme and tweaking the template. The next day I found and copied all those bits and pieces I’d already written elsewhere and loaded them to the new Kavey Eats site, and that was it, I have not stopped since!
What are your blogging and travel plans for the next 12 months?
On the blog front, I’m planning a big redesign to include a rebranding of sorts. I want to make it obvious to visitors that Kavey Eats is now a Foodie Travel blog, with more emphasis on the travel.
I’m not a full-time blogger, my day job is working as a Business Analyst specialising in Travel and Retail. But I work on a freelance contract basis so once my current contract comes to an end, possibly in spring 2018. I plan to take a few months off in which to do the big relaunch. And of course, I’ll cram in some extra travelling!
On the travel front, my husband Pete and I only have the one trip booked so far, we are spending three weeks exploring Thailand – Bangkok, Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai, two national parks (Khao Sok and Khao Yai) and the temple city of Ayutthaya. Unusually for me, there’s nothing booked beyond that, but like all travel bloggers and enthusiasts, I have an ever-growing wish list. It seems to gets longer and longer, no matter how many new places we visit each year!
Please share your favourite destination Kavey!
There are many destinations that my husband Pete and I love – Botswana and Namibia, Antarctica and France all come to mind.
But I don’t think it’s any secret that I have a special love (verging on obsession) with Japan. We only made our first visit in 2012, visited again a year later in 2013 and spent a full month there on our third visit in 2015.
It’s our 25th wedding anniversary in 2019 and I’m thinking we might celebrate by making an even longer visit to Japan, revisiting some of our existing favourites as well as a bunch of new-to-us places.
Do you read other blogs for inspiration?
I’m a voracious blog reader but I’m also very fickle, in that the vast majority of the blogs I read are as a result of googling for posts on a particular topic or place I’m thinking about visiting.
Of course, there are blogs which I do read regularly, I love Angie Silver’s SilverSpoon London for beautifully photographed and richly detailed luxury travel reviews, Fiona Maclean’s London Unattached for a wide range of travel content plus lots of local London lifestyle, and Kellie Anderson’s Food to Glow for stunningly styled and photographed, enormously delicious and genuinely healthy food content.
What are the most popular posts on your blog?
My most popular travel post is about a walking tour of Hong Kong’s Tai Po Market, closely followed by our day trip from Taipei to Maokong on Cable Car. I also get a lot of traction on my various Japan posts, which is not surprising as its my fave destination!
The most popular Travel Quote Tuesday post by far is a wonderful quote by Vladimir Nabokov, which really struck a nerve for many readers.
Readers also enjoy recipe posts inspired by my travels; the two most popular are Japanese-style yakitori chicken hearts and Icelandic bacon-wrapped hot dogs, (yep Icelanders love their hot dogs! Who knew?)
Can you share any tips for newer bloggers who would love to set up a travel blog?
Don’t stress so much about the ‘rules’ because you will never actually get started! New bloggers spend a lot of time panicking about the so-called ‘rules’; they worry about the ideal length of posts and how regularly to publish, about how many pictures to include in a post and what size they are, about keyword research and Search Engine Optimisation, about finding a very specific niche and sticking to it, about using follow or no follow links, about replying to reader comments and whether to hide the occasional nasty ones, about blog themes and logos, about mobile phone responsive design and a million and one other little things that are part and parcel of the blogosphere.
My advice is to inform yourself about these, sure, and then to implement only what feels right, is of interest to you and is realistically manageable. Few of us do it all!
The only “rules” I’d suggest you pay more attention to are clearly disclosing paid content and review services and products; and understanding copyright (especially when it comes to sourcing images), as well as the importance of seeking permission before using ideas and material created by others.
If you could go back in time to when you first set up your blog would you do anything differently?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing! If I were setting up the blog right now with the mix of content I publish today, I would name it slightly differently, to make the travel aspect more obvious. But the name worked well for me for many years, so I’m not unhappy with it at all and I’ll likely retain but adapt it slightly in the 2018 redesign.
Huge thanks to Kavey for sharing her expert advice and making us drool over Icelandic hotdogs! If you would like to find out more about Kavey and her blog, Kavey Eats, check out her social media channels – Instagram: kaveyf Twitter: @Kavey Facebook: Kavey Eats
