Hey Guys!
Today I want to share some tips on how I’m learning to travel for free, or on the cheap side. I’m headed to New Orleans at the end of February and started reaching out to hotels who I thought might be interested in some photos for their Instagram or website. Below I’m attaching the email I sent for you to see how easy it is.
I went on Instagram and searched #nola and #nolahotels and started digging. I found blogs that directed me to some of the best spots to stay in New Orleans as well as Instagram pages dedicated to the city of NOLA. From there I found some of my favorites, and ones that I felt would actually be interested in photos. If it looked like they were posting pretty regularly but didn’t have the best content and a small following they went on my list of people to contact and on the other side of that hotels that were really cool looking and had potential for better content also went on my list. Remember, now and days EVERYONE NEEDS CONTENT!
Once I gathered a few places I went to their websites and found the contact email. If you like to be super organized like me, you can create a spread sheet of who you contacted, the date, their emails, and when to send a follow up email. In my experience you have to send out quite a few emails to get even one response, so do not be discouraged by not getting a response, just keep trying.
I also like to send follow up emails because people are busy and mean to get back to you but forget. This time I got lucky and the 2nd hotel I emailed responded with a yes! So now me and my two family members that I’m traveling to NOLA with are staying for free! There goes one of the biggest expenses of traveling!
If you have a skill that you think someone could benefit from don’t be afraid to share that with people. It doesn’t matter the size of your following all that matters is the quality of your work! Think about what you can offer to people that will benefit their business and ask them if they’re in need of it and offer a trade.
Please send any questions my way! I’m happy to try my best at answering them. I'll also share more info as I continue to learn about traveling for free as an artist!
Here are some photos that have nothing to do with New Orleans, but I’d thought I’d add some pretty pictures to the post :)
Have a great day!