Our target audience

I am all for Myvawny's idea of writing the feature as a kind of 'how to' guide for travellers using online media.

Bibek's idea of the 'top ten' mistake posts also sounds really interesting, and is exactly the kind of thing young travellers are going to want to read about.

Now, onto our target audience. 

Hint - it isn't the woman in red...

Given the 'how to' interactive style of our blog, I think we need to target young people who are clearly interested in travel  - whether they are travellers themselves, or plan to travel in the near future.

While gender won't come into play, I believe we should target our audience as approximately 18 to 30 year olds. This would take into account the age at which young Australians are most likely to travel for the first time, which the ABS has conveniently broken down for us here as those in their mid to late twenties.

This audience is prolific with social media, but may not have such a comprehensive understanding of online travel platforms, and therefore our 'how to' style will be both practical and interesting.

The importance of targeting a niche online audience has been comprehensively explored,but this article by Ember Television gives a good rundown of how more narrowly defined interests will satisfy a smaller, but more likely loyal and economically productive, following online.

This also buys into the Web 2.0 idea that the internet is increasingly becoming based around - and expectant of - highly personalised experiences.

Therefore, for our purposes of satisfying an appropriately niche audience, we would be best served targeting Australian travellers aged 18 to 30. Given our geography, young Australians, unlike those from other parts of the world,  usually have to commit to spending serious dollars to get overseas in the first place and are thus also more likely to also do some serious planning.

Our peripheral audience could be people from outside Australia who are interested in understanding how online travel platforms have changed the way we travel, as well as the 'how to' guides we will provide. Older age groups could also form part of this wider audience.

Like all successful blogs, we will need to make sure our tone and style reflects our target audience. It should be funny, lighthearted and very conversational. It will be vital our blog doesn't take itself too seriously, or risk alienating our target audience.

Some great examples of blogs that use tone and style to connect with their target audiences are author Zoe Foster's very amusing blog and gossip blogger Perez Hilton, who, love him or hate him, has the fifth most popular blog IN THE WORLD.

Check out the top 15 here if you don't believe me. HuffingtonPost came in at number one with approximately 54 million unique visitors every month.

Of course, I have no doubt that A Not So Lonely Planet will soon be in that league.

Sam