The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/1149191
@Linguist_CIOL AUGUST/SEPTEMBER The Linguist 21 FEATURES Thebig idea Q What is The Intrepid Guide? A It's a travel and language blog. The idea is to encourage travellers to learn a bit of the local language as a way of enriching their travel experience, as there was nothing that bridged the gap between language and travel. Q How did you come up with the idea? A I'd been sharing my travel photos and anecdotes on Facebook, and my aunty suggested I should do something with all this material. But it wasn't until a couple of years later that a friend mentioned blogging to me. He gave me the basic principles of how it works, I started to do some research and the idea grew from there. Q How did you launch the business? A I bought a mobile-friendly template from Wordpress in 2015 and gave it my own look and feel. The first year was a bit of a learning curve – looking at other blogs, finding out what running a blog involves, following entrepreneurs to learn how to run a business. Q How have you marketed the blog? A There is this whole blogging community and when I started attending conferences I started receiving more attention. I wanted to have a presence on YouTube and every social media channel. I create videos about the places I go and weave in the language aspect. A lot of people find me through Pinterest, where I share my artwork. I didn't have a target audience in mind but I've noticed that it's leaning towards females, aged between 24 and 35, from English-speaking countries. Q What new skills have you had to learn? A I've attended photography workshops, paid for online courses to improve my SEO and watched a lot of videos by entrepreneurs. Q Have you hired people to do any tasks? A Only when I was collaborating with native speakers on my travel phrase guides and on videos explaining idiomatic expressions. Everything else I've done myself: the graphics, artwork, photography, writing, social media and maintaining the website. Q How do you fit the blog around your full- time job as an interaction (web) designer? A Most of the work happens at the weekend when I have more energy. During the week, I work at night on smaller tasks like replying to emails and photo editing. Q How do you earn money from the blog? A The income comes mainly through working with brands, advertising and affiliate links, so if I talk about a product I will link to it and may earn a commission. I speak to companies at conferences, and reach out to brands that I think align well with The Intrepid Guide. Q What changes have you made? A The content has improved: my blog posts are more detailed now and the photography Michele Frolla, founder of The Intrepid Guide, on making a business out of motivating travellers to learn languages is better – I started with iPhone photography and then bought a professional camera. Q What is your languages background? A In Australia, I learned Japanese at primary school, and a bit of Indonesian in high school, but it wasn't until I was an adult that I learnt Italian. That was a personal journey, because I'm named after my Italian grandfather but could never really speak to him and then he passed away. I took evening classes and lived in Italy for three years. I've since learnt French and I'm now learning Norwegian because I love Norway and wanted to take my experience of that country to the next level. Q What's next for The Intrepid Guide? A I'm creating language courses specifically for travellers – a little course they can take with them that's simple enough for people who haven't had any language-learning experience. The platform I've chosen provides tech support, and I learnt to edit video while doing my BA in Multimedia Systems, but I want to work with my Italian teachers on the content. www.theintrepidguide.com