Dr. Paul Johnson
A CUT ABOVE THE BEST
With over 25 years of experience in the travel industry,
Dr. Paul Johnson is your go-to guy for charming hotels,
gourmet restaurants and unique adventures. His website–A Luxury Travel Blog attracts more than 200,000
visitors a month, and has been named by the Daily Telegraph as one of the world’s best travel blogs.
What gave your blog the edge?
I started out early, which gave me a big
advantage in terms of early adoption, and
I’ve worked hard at it and continue to do
so. That’s all there is to it, really; there’s no
secret formula.
Dr. Paul Johnson
"Luxury-travel
blogging is a
saturated market but
if you're keen to work
hard to make it, know
not only about luxury
travel but also how to
market your content”
What monetisation strategy would you
recommend to fellow bloggers?
The one that works best for me is
engaging with large brands. I’ve worked
with a number of airlines, hotel groups
and tourist boards, as well as brands
outside of the travel industry such as
major credit card companies and car
manufacturers but with an emphasis
on travel.
Three of your most exhilarating
experiences?
Gosh, that’s a hard one. I was fortunate
enough to go on a private jet recently. The
Russian Banya (naked sauna) that you
mention was also memorable, though I’m
not sure if I’d call it exhilarating. Driving
all the way across Nepal whilst working
with Land Rover also turned out to be an
amazing experience.
Point us to a travel blogger whose work
you admire. We’d love to be inspired, too!
I’m not sure if you’d refer to him as a
travel blogger–rather a photographer, but
he travels a lot with his photography: Trey
Ratcliff from Stuck in Customs (www.
stuckincustoms.com). Some of his work
34 Travel Secrets September-October 2015
is amazing and he has very effectively
marketed himself too.
Luxury-travel blogging sounds
glamorous and lucrative. Is it?
It can be, but there are many people
trying to do it with little success. I’d
suggest that it’s a saturated market but
if you’re keen to work hard to make
it, know not only about luxury travel
but also a thing or two about how to
market your content. If you’re prepared
to be in it for the long term, then you
can make it work. The hard part is
that there are so many blogs out there
already and many have been around for
some years. That is an advantage they
have over someone starting out now.
They already have established traffic and
a good social media presence. These are
all things that take time and/or money
to develop.
Pick a favourite post from your blog,
and tell us why you love it
Just a bit of fun but earlier this year I did
an April Fool’s post on Glouchsurfing
(Glamourous Couchsurfing)–a concept
where you get to stay in the homes of
the rich and famous for free. I talked
about how a billionaire heiress, Avril
Le Fou (French for April Fool) opened
the doors of her palatial abode on the
outskirts of Paris for me so that I could
see what glouchsurfing was all about and
sample it for myself.