We recently connected with Erin Hynes and have shared our conversation below.
Erin, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
Finding my purpose was a long journey, that began with figuring out what gives me joy in life. Over the years, I learned what activities, experiences, and tasks I felt passionate about, and I used that knowledge to guide me into finding my purpose. In my case, I leaned into my love of travel. Since I was 19, I have frequently traveled, doing months-long trips around the world as well as shorter trips. Over the years, this “travel phase” never faded like some people said it would. In fact, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become even more invested in travel. I eventually realized that doing work related to travel would give me purpose. This is what inspired me to become a travel blogger, with a presence on my website and social media channels. Creating travel content fulfills my love of travel.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m Erin, a Canadian travel writer and podcaster! When I’m not traveling internationally or exploring Canada, I write and talk about how to travel in a way that is better for the planet and for people. Recently, my profile was featured in the Toronto Star, True North Living, and I won a Traverse Creator Award for Best Written Piece.
My travel love affair originally started at 16, when my parents sent me alone to visit family in the Netherlands. Following that I spent time living in Italy, the Netherlands, and traveled across Europe and Central America solo. To date, I have traveled to Asia, Africa, Europe, Central America, Middle East, Oceania, and across North America.
When I was 19 years old I moved on a whim to Venice, Italy, where I spent many months working in a hostel. It was there that I earned the nickname Pina because Erin is hard to pronounce if you speak Italian. This nickname later became the name of my travel blog.
I believe that travel is an incredible way to learn not only about the world, but about yourself. But, travel is not accessible to all. Those of us who have the financial means, passport, and other benefits that allow us to travel have a responsibility to do it in a way that’s better for people and for the planet. The goal of Pina Travels is to not only inspire people to travel, but to teach them to do so responsibly.
On my blog I share guides that cover topics like how to avoid overtourism, tips for traveling sustainably, and explanations of travel privilege. I also write destination guides that include responsible travel tips! While a lot of my content is focused on my home province, Ontario, you’ll find blogs covering international destinations too.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The most important skills for becoming a travel blogger, in my experience, are writing skills, storytelling skills, and SEO (search engine optimization).
For people to want to read your content, it needs to be compelling (tell a story!) while also providing detailed, helpful information. Writing and storytelling skills are key for this. Then SEO comes in. SEO is what bloggers use to help their content rank on Google’s results pages. It’s the process used to optimize a website’s technical configuration, content relevance and link popularity so its pages can become easily findable, more relevant and popular towards user search queries. Learning SEO helped ensure that the content I wrote was found, and read, helping me to develop an audience.
In my experience, learning the writing and storytelling skills came with practice. Reading other’s people content is helpful for learning, and then just practicing by writing yourself, reviewing, and improving. Then, I leveraged digital courses and free resources online to learn how to optimize my content for SEO.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
The most helpful people have been the blogging community. Early in my blogging career, I joined facebook groups and forums for travel bloggers, and over time, have made great connections. I’ve learned from the community, and also gained great friends.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pinatravels.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pinatravels
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@pinatravels
Image Credits
Erin Hynes
