You might need a cold shower after this one boys… Today we have the gorgeous Alexandra of the aptly named blog Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler. She’s never far away from a bikini and we’re not complaining. Aside from bikini’s she’s built herself a blog with a solid following so we thought we’d ask her how she built her audience…

1.  Could you briefly introduce yourself, your site and your why you wanted to write a travel blog?

I am Alexandra, called by many Saška in Slovakia, Alex abroad and I run the travel blog www.crazysexyfuntraveler.com and now starting with a new one www.wetravelaroundtheworld.com . I used to work as a stewardess and I hated having a boss and that it was not me in charge of my life as much as I wanted, so one of my insomnia nights I googled  ’travel blog’ and the same night bought a domain and started with it.

2.  Who were/are your major influences when decided to create your own blog?

It was Nomadic Matt as his blog turned up when I searched for travel blog keywords. I bought his ebooks about How to make a travel blog and How to earn money with a blog and it worked. So cheers, mate!

3.  How would you describe your writing style? How does it differ?

English is not my mother tongue. I have learned it for many years and even got a master degree in English philology, but still I prefer to write in simple English. My writing style is the same English I use in my real life, the same simple way I speak even in Slovak and Spanish. I have a lot of readers whose English is very poor (from Central Europe or Spanish speaking countries) so I think it is good to approach them with this simple writing style then using oxymorons and metaphors that are not understandable to them. And especially when many visitors to my blog use Google Translator which then translates silly funny things if original English writing is too complicated.

Sometimes I try to write funny things but in person I am way more funnier than on my blog.

4. How would you describe your travel blog audience? Are they hardcore? Do they just come the once? What do you like about having an audience like yours?

Most of my readers come often to both social media and blog. I guess that because of my beach photos it used to be around 75% male readers from 25 to 35 years, now it is more even with the female readers (because of some personal posts recently).

I like to see when they interact with me too, not just me with them. I love to see comments and messages after I publish the posts as it shows they appreciate what I write. Unfortunately, many people send me private messages on facebook instead of commenting on my blog; especially those speaking Slovak and Spanish as they don’t feel comfortable commenting in their language while the travel blog is in English.

5. What is the best way to get a readers attention? How have you managed to stoke your readers interest so frequently?

Depends on your niche, mine is somehow beach/bikini photos so I do that as often as I can. And I also change the topics of what I post on both travel blog and social media. From beach photos, to videos, to adventure, to something nicely said and then finally some landscape/animal photos … you would not like to hear and see always the same stuff, right? So that is my advice.

6. How do you interact with your audience? What tools work best?

For me it is Facebook (www.facebook.com/crazysexyfuntraveler) . I had always been active on Facebook, even before I started with my blog I had thousands of photos there and my friends loved them. I try to post photos my audience could like, and also quotes. It seems they prefer these two things to blog posts, so I do all three of them. Here I try to be more funny, it always works. And recently I started to be more active on Twitter (twitter.com/sexyfuntraveler) too and I see already more visitors coming to my blog from there.

7.  What are your thoughts on networking with other bloggers to grow your audience? How do you do it and how does this help?

I am sure it definitely does help. In the beginning when you just start your blog you have to comment on other blogs to get audience to your blog.

And then not just RT other bloggers’s posts on twitter (I have to get much better with that!), comment on their posts, like photos on their facebook fanpages, answer their questions about travel tips or any blog related. And also try to meet other bloggers in person and then post your pictures together, talk about them on social media or even write a post about meeting them. This is one of the things that works the most for me.

I just met Lola of www.lolastravels.com recently in the US and we had a great time. We chatted about how amazing it is to know exactly what we do and not having to explain it million times over and over to non-bloggers. Half of my best friends are now travel bloggers, I have to admit and with some of them I haven’t even met in person yet.

8.  What is the best thing about having a wide audience? What do you get personally from people sharing in your travels?

I really enjoy the feeling that having wide audience means there is always someone who can help me if I have a problem. And most of all, no mater where in the world I go, there are always some of my readers so kind of it feels like as if we knew each other, almost friends let’s say. It feels great to have “friends‘‘ around the world.

Another thing that makes me personally happy is to see that my posts/tips/photos inspire people and that they really visit those places I speak about asking me for advice.

9.  Tell us about your most popular post.

I think it was the post about how my younger brother committed suicide which was one of the main reasons for me to travel. (http://www.crazysexyfuntraveler.com/my-brother-committed-a-suicide-one-of-the-main-reasons-why-i-travel/).

It was not easy for me to write about it as even many of my good friends who I met after did not know it but I found out that it really helps me to write about personal stuff on my travel blog. And it was what made me start traveling the way I do now anyway … People do love personal posts. I did not like making some of my readers cry, but we bonded a lot because of that post.

10. And lastly, what would be your top 3 tips to a new blogger trying to build an  audience?

Try to be human, nice and funny when posting on Facebook and other social media. Always answer all the comments and say thank you for the likes and any other interaction you get from your audience, including new followers and fans.

Try to comment on other blogs after you see their comment on your posts. Guest posts are very important as well. Once I heard we should write as many guest posts as own posts for our blog, let’s try it (I am way too behind myself too!)

Try all the social media to see what works for you. Like I said, so far for me it has been Facebook, and Twitter is getting there too. Google + and Pinterest have never really worked for me so I hardly ever use those but i tis different for every blog.

Thanks to the lovely Alexandra for a great interview.

To drool over more of her photos go to Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler and stalk her on Twitter. I know you want to.

If you’d like to be interviewed contact us.