#MakeUrPenLoud: How To Plan Your Own Press Trips

Dear Pennies & Pens, 

In this post, I am going to talk about how to plan your own custom press trips. As you hopefully know, I have been blogging for 11 years. Over the years, I have found that I am the type to create their own lane because I can’t find the right path for me. 

I say that because many people in the industry do not believe in planning your own custom press trips. Respectfully, I disagree with this. But first let me define what a press trip is and then we’ll get into why I plan my own trips.

What is a press trip? 

A press trip is defined as a trip in which members of the media are invited to experience a destination in exchange for media coverage. Press trips are usually sponsored (paid for) by a brand. 

They are also organized by the brand’s public relations or marketing agency or their in-house team that is responsible for the same thing (marketing & PR). Once a brand decides to host media outlets, the PR & marketing team then extends the invites. 

How do you get invited to go on a sponsored press trip? Idk, little baby. 

Please, please with all the inkcherries on top, don’t ask me how you get invited to go on a sponsored press trip. I honestly believe that there’s a secret club and only certain bloggers are allowed to join. 

I say this because I asked some of the most popular bloggers if they’d ever been on a press trip to create content on their blog (some brands don’t like indie bloggers, they prefer to work with major media outlets) and many said yes. Then they expanded stating that every trip they’d be on, the brand rep found them and extended the invite. If that doesn’t sound like a secret club idk what does, little baby. 

Why I plan my own press trips

Instead of waiting around wishing, hoping and praying that I get invited to go on a sponsored press trip, I simply plan my own. This way, I can go on the trip when it works for my schedule and I can work with the sponsors that I want. 

I can also create my own itinerary which gives me the freedom to explore the destination as I want to. As a person with a full time job and two businesses, I literally don’t have time to wait until I am invited by someone to do what I already know what I want to do. Lol, nah little baby. I write my own page. 

How you can plan your own press trips 

In my book, #MakeUrPenLoud: How To Be A Lifestyle Blogger, I talk about planning press trips in Chapter 14. Below, I am going to give you a brief overview of the info included in that chapter. Note, this info will be brief, if you want the full inktips, buy the book or schedule a paid consultation. 

1. Make a list of destinations – Little baby, you can’t go anywhere until you know where you’re going! Write a list of destinations you’d like to visit so you can start planning. 
2. Create a theme – a theme is the focus on your content. It helps streamline your content so all the dots connect. 
3. Collaborate with brands – this is why I LOVE planning my own press trips! You can work with the brands you want when you want. For a Vegan like me this is a Godsend. Instead of dealing with a brand giving me a bowl of lettuce as a “Vegan option”, I can ensure that I get high quality Vegan eats. I’ve worked with some of the best Vegan restaurants in the US and abroad. So anyway, create a list of brands located in the destination you’re visiting and start pitching. 
4. Plan your trip – This is another reason why I love planning my own trips. You can plan your trip when it works for your schedule. So now you can plan a trip when you have PTO, when the kids are out of school for the summer, or on weekends when you’re already off from your 9to5. This is literally the way to go if you still work full time or have personal responsibilities like kids or being married. 

There are more details involved with planning a trip but I am going to stop here. I love yall but the truth is, when I do info content like this, I have to be careful not to overshare. 

What I don’t want is to spend time creating content only to have people read it, get the information they need and leave without buying anything or worse never even coming back to read de la Pen. It happens all the time on the innanet streets and I am not here for it.

If you want to know something, buy the product that will teach you how to do so or have fun figuring how to be a blogger by googling random blog posts written by bloggers you don’t know or really trust. #rantover 

And there it is. de la Pen…All Pen Everything. With us, keeping it real never goes wrong.