When A Global Issue Is Dominating Headlines, Should Your Business Blog About It?

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We don’t really need to point out that it’s 11 years this week since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 took place.  Completely changing various aspects about the world we now live in, the coverage of the event at the time was considerable and it continues to be very much like this today.

Particularly at the time of the attacks, most people were talking about it online, whether they had a news-based website / blog or not.  Fast forward 18 months to the start of the Iraq War in 2003 and the same happened again.

In fact, take a look at any major news item that dominates headlines around the world and you’ll be able to find people giving their own views on the subject online.  The economic recession that rocked the world a few years ago is another prime example – wherever you looked, whether it was on an actual news blog or a small business’s blog, you’d be able to find some coverage, views or just general discussions around what was taking place.

But when you’ve got a business blog, as tempting as it may be to give your own take on the topics that are in the news, should you actually do it?

And the answer is it depends.

Do people actually want to hear about it?

The very first point you have to consider is whether your audience wants to hear about what will essentially be a news story – almost regardless of what spin is put on it, the blog post is still going to be somewhat news-based.

In many instances, this could be completely fine.  You might not talk about general news stories on your blog usually, but if you believe your audience are open to various blog post styles and they’ll welcome a slight change from the norm, there could be no reason why you shouldn’t talk about such stories.

Some readers will actually welcome the views.  It shows a human-side to the organisation and can make your readers feel more engaged with both your blog and your business as a whole.

Will it be a distraction?

But what else needs to be taken into consideration is whether or not a blog post around a news headline is going to detract from the normal focus of your content.  Or more importantly, detract in such a way that it impacts negatively upon your audience’s perception of your blog and your company.

Let’s imagine you were a holiday company providing cheap and cheerful breaks.  The highest quality hotels weren’t on offer, but that’s not what’s important – your customers love the fact that for what is a relatively small fee, they can escape the worries of everyday life for a week or two.

In a scenario such as this, it may seem obvious that a blog post around a major news headline would be acceptable.  All of your customers are likely to know about it already, so they’ll be happy to read about your views on it, right?

Well, maybe – but what if they’ve come to your blog to get away from all of the ‘bad’ news?  They choose your holidays to get away from it in the physical world, so do they really want to be greeted with your take on it when they visit your blog (or even your Twitter account or Facebook page)?

People are affected by news whether they like it or not.   When the 7/7 London terrorist attacks took place in 2005, the internet was full of people giving their own views on them.  But if you were reading a post on a garden furniture company’s blog about how London was being targeted by terrorists, would that really have put you in the mood to want to go and buy a number of the company’s items for a summer party?

One point that often isn’t taken fully into consideration is the time factor involved and whether or not the benefits of the blog post will actually make it a worthwhile contribution.

With our business blogging services, we advise our clients to utilise a minimum of two blog posts per week.  If a client asked us to produce a blog post around a global issue that was in the news a lot recently, aside from all of the other factors that need to be considered, it has to be understood that writing this blog post would effectively take up 50% of their weekly blog content.

Now although we’d ensure this blog post was as beneficial as it could possibly be, if it was being written because it was believed the organisation needed to have a view on the matter, it has to be questioned how much value it’s going to have – or conversely, whether the content would be better developed around a topic that we’re certain the target audience would enjoy and benefit from, ultimately being of greater benefit to the organisation.

If we were to generalise, we would say that it’s acceptable and potentially beneficial to write content on a blog around global issues, irrelevant of your blog’s focus or your audience.

But this is just a generalisation and it’s absolutely imperative you don’t assume this type of content is going to be right for your business blog.  You need to look at the content that has been produced to date, analyse your audience’s level of engagement and requirements and move forward from there.

There’s no doubt that talking about certain global news issues can be of benefit to your target audience and your organisation as a whole – it could even help to establish you as a thought leader – but it also must be understood that, simply put, your target audience might not want to hear what you’ve got to say on the matter.

And if this is the case, you really need to consider how worthwhile the content is going to be.

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Can You Publish Bad Content On Your Business Blog?

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Back in November, we published a piece around the ability to write the perfect blog post.  Essentially explaining that whilst a perfect blog post is a possibility, there isn’t one uniformed way – a template, for example – that can be followed to always produce it time and time again.

Although this might be the case and we explained that all perfect blog posts have one common denominator – they are focused on the specific audience – what we didn’t say is that it’s actually a possibility to produce not simply a poor quality blog post, but a blog post that has a negative impact on your business blogging strategy.

However, a more accurate phrase would be quality content is king, as consistently poor content can – perhaps surprisingly to some – have a detrimental effect on your entire digital marketing strategy.

The reason behind this is that both Google and the average consumer can distinguish between content that has been produced to a high standard and that which has been thrown together for the sake of it.

Whilst the first point here is interesting itself – not many people realise that Google is intelligent enough to understand the difference between the content – it’s the second that is of particular interest to many, as a lot of people don’t realise they’re making a decision as to whether they should buy from a certain company because of the content the company produces.

For instance, a standard shopping process could be to search in Google for a product, come across a blog post about it, like what we’ve read, click through to the product page and purchase it.

But would you have clicked through to the product page if the blog post was poorly written, offered no real information than that which you already knew and appeared to be a complete and utter sales pitch?

You might say ‘potentially’ now, but at the time, it’s highly likely your sub-conscience would make other decisions.

And when it comes to content and Google in terms of SEO, there are a whole host of reasons why you really can publish bad content on your blog.

For example, several years ago you could have seen success by publishing content on your blog that was full of keywords and backlinks.  Today, however, creating this type of blog post would see you be penalised heavily – it’s not natural, it’s not organic and it’s content that is likely to make for poor reading, something Google is heavily against.

Whenever we work with clients, we always tell them that they can publish content on their blog alongside that which we publish.  However, we also ensure they are fully aware of the consequences of just publishing content for the sake of it, as although it might take a lot of time to produce a perfect blog post that has a hugely positive impact on your digital marketing strategy, the unfortunate truth is it could take only a fraction of the time to produce one that would have a considerably detrimental impact on it.

5 Things To Ask Yourself If You’re Not Seeing The Results You Expect From Business Blogging

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The benefits of regular business blogging are vast and varied, but it must always be remembered that blogging isn’t a quick fix.  You won’t see huge increases in traffic a day after you publish your first blog post, nor will you rocket up the search engine rankings a week or so later.

Patience is definitely a virtue when it comes to blogging and we always recommended our business blogging services are utilised for a minimum of 12 weeks – this is the amount of time our experience has shown to be the minimum required before you start to see results from blogging.  Of course, you’re likely to see improvements before this, but a three month period allows for the blog to become established, a good amount of content to be produced and a decent, basic presence on social networks to be developed.

If you’re six months into your blogging and social media strategy and you’re not seeing the results you expected, however, it’s time to start asking questions why, with these five being a great place to start.

1.  Are you expecting too much?

One of the most common reasons why you’re strategy isn’t delivering the results you expect is because you’re expecting too much.

At the start of any blogging and social media strategy, we sit down with our clients and talk about their expectations.  We look at what they’re wanting to achieve and give details of how this relates to blogging.  Often we can develop strategies to deliver the results exactly as the client first wishes, but other times we have to tweak the expectations in one way or another.

For example, it wouldn’t be unrealistic to say that a properly maintained business blog could help you see at the very least a 10% increase in website traffic month-on-month, even from the start of the strategy.  However, we’ve seen it be considerably higher than this (over 100%) and always mention this to clients, so to explain the possibilities and potential – yet a lot of clients take these higher figures as standard, when the truth is they are achievable, but only over time through continuous development.

2.  How many blog posts are being produced?

It’s understandable that some clients don’t want to invest heavily in blogging to start with.  It’s still a relatively new resource in the commercial sense and as results often aren’t seen for at least 12 weeks, it doesn’t give an immediate return on investment.

However, generally speaking, the more blog posts that are produced, the quicker the results are going to be seen.

Quality must always come before quantity, but if you’re only publishing one blog post per month, you’re not going to see results in the same timeframe as you are if you’re publishing a weekly blog post, which in turn isn’t going to produce results within the same period as two weekly blog posts.

3.  What’s happening after your blog posts are being published?

If blog posts are published on a blog and simply left, the blog will naturally develop over time.  People will visit, they’ll return time and time again to see what’s new and your blog will be active.

However, by promoting your blog posts in a variety of ways – such as via social media or e-mail – you’ll find that the results appear considerably quicker than if the blog posts were just left on the blog to develop on their own with no assistance.

As with the number of blog posts produced, quality should always come first to quantity, but even a basic amount of social media activity should see your blog posts put in front of an audience that they simply wouldn’t have been if they were just left on the blog without any promotion.

4.  Is social media being properly utilised?

We mentioned above that through social media, you can promote blog posts and raise the awareness of them, driving more visitors to your blog.

The problem that we so often see is that people fail to stick by the quality over quantity rule in various senses.

For instance, rather than working on developing a fantastic following on one or two popular and industry suitable platforms, they try to have a presence on half a dozen platforms, believing the more channels they can promote their content through, the better.

And yes, this is generally a great idea – but only if you can have a high quality, active presence on each platform.  No one wants to see updates from a company who are just promoting their blog posts and the occasional bit of company news.  They want to see a company who is regularly engaging with others, providing content of all types and interacting with their audience.

When this happens, you develop loyal followers, followers who are waiting for you to talk again, essentially giving you another established audience for your blog post content.

5.  What do your statistics look like to date?

Whilst you should generally see great results from blogging by the six month point, the simple fact is no one can guarantee this.  Just like SEO agencies can’t guarantee they’ll get you in the first position on Google for your chosen keywords, no one can say for definite that after six month’s of blogging, you’ll be seeing an x percent increase in traffic, y amount of top of funnel leads or z new clients – it’s an impossibility.

For some clients, the results of blogging are seen earlier than expected and for others, they take slightly longer.  It really does vary from organisation to organisation and industry to industry and so it’s important that if you’re results aren’t as expected yet, you check your statistics so far to see if you’re heading in the right direction.

Are unique visitor numbers rising?  What about returning visitor numbers?  Does your ‘average time spent on site’ figure look healthy?  Is your bounce rate decreasing?

If things look like they’re moving forward, chances are you’ll start to see the results you expect soon and it’s just been a slow start, as it can be.

Business blogging is still new.  Yes, it’s been around for a few years and blogging itself has been available to utilise for over a decade, but compared to other digital resources, such as search engine optimisation, business blogging is still in its infancy (and there are plenty of people out there who don’t fully understand SEO – it’s just the nature of the resource).

And because of this, we – understandably – see people getting frustrated as the results of their blogging strategy aren’t being seen as quick – or to the extent – that they expected.

If this is the case, it’s important that you don’t simply give up on blogging, but instead take the time to work out why the expected results aren’t showing – there’s a chance it’s because of something to do with the blogging strategy itself, but there’s also every chance that the strategy is working perfectly and you simply need to reevaluate your expectations.

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THINGS TO DO IN AUCKLAND

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Auckland is a metropolitan city in New Zealand and is known to be the most populous city in the entire country. Surrounded by the Hauraki Gulf facing the Pacific Ocean and many mountain ranges, along with a warm climate and various attractions, Auckland has become one of the top tourist destinations in the entire New Zealand. It has many natural attractions as well as man-made ones. Let’s take a look at some of Auckland’s tourist attractions.

Bush and Beach Hobbiton Express

Not many people may know this, but actually New Zealand was the site where the entire Lord of the Rings movie trilogy was shot.  An upcoming film, The Hobbit, was also shot in New Zealand, not too far from Auckland, making for a nice day trip. In the Bush and Beach Hobbiton Express, you get to see the actual set of the film. One will see the actual Hobbit houses and feel as if you are part of the actual film. On top of visiting the set, you get a free souvenir to remind you of your “adventure”. More here.

SkyCity Auckland

SkyCity is another great place to visit when you are in Auckland. This location is famous of the tallest tower in the entire New Zealand measuring up to 1,076 feet. When you get on top of the tower, you get a 360 view of the entire city even up to 80 kilometers away from the base of the tower. There are also many fine dining restaurants in SkyCity that offers delicious gourmet and breathtaking view of the entire city especially during at night.

Zest Food Tours

Food lovers get to treat themselves with the different dishes and meals from different restaurants and food establishments in the city. The food establishments are all are different from each other, thus you get to taste a different menu every time. Beautiful ambience, great views and good service adds up to the beautiful food treat.

Brick Bay Wines and Sculpture Trail

If you want to feel what it’s like to be on the countryside, then this is the perfect place to visit. Few miles away from the city, this spot will surely take you away from the noise and pollution of a busy city. You can visit the vineyard, feel the warm New Zealand sun and get to taste their wine fresh from the vineyard itself. You can also do hiking along the trails if you opt to.

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MONEY-SAVING TRAVEL TIPS

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Here are some tips that will effectively make your trip more affordable; ways in which you can enjoy a vacation without having to spend a lot of money.

  • Booking airline tickets could be a bit challenging if you’re on a budget, but there are tricks on how you could be ahead of other customers. Most airlines will tell people about their promos by sending emails, so register in the airline of your choice (preferably a budget one) and wait for the announcements in your inbox. This is usually a battle of who can log-in first, so always being online is a plus.
  • Booking during holiday season or in dates where there are famous events happening will result to expensive fares, so you may want to set your next trip in off-peak dates. In terms of flight schedules, booking for a late night trip would be more affordable, as more people want to leave in the morning; and weekend flights are more likely to be pricier because more travelers prefer these days for their trips.
  • There are also promo bundles of airfare and hotels that would be offered in the airline, so don’t ignore these. Compute the money you have to spend on accommodation and see if the airline-hotel joint promotion will save you more cash–sometimes they actually do.
  • When booking for a hotel, it is best if you do it with online booking websites. Sites such as Agoda, Expedia, and BackBid have more affordable rates to offer, so choose this over having a direct transaction with the hotel of your choice. Both budget and luxury accommodations have tie-ins with travel booking websites, so you will be in good hands.
  • Check accommodation status before departure – There have been stories wherein guests would arrive at a hotel and find that it’s fully booked, so after you’ve paid and received confirmation from the booking website (do this a day or two before you arrive), contact the hotel and ask if your reservation has already reached them.
  • Cut down on the beers. This does not mean that you should stay sober the entire time–a drink or two is always good, especially if you’re trying to socialize with new people.  Skipping those two bottles could already give you enough money for a filling lunch, so try to have some self-control and know what to prioritize. Besides, it’s always a better vacation if you can actually remember what happened the night before!
  •  This would make you have an idea of the money you should set aside for food. Look for recommendations and reviews of restaurants, bars, and cafes near where you’re going–you don’t want to end up in a place that would charge you triple the cost.

Apply these steps for you to have a wonderful time in another country and not have to spend all your life’s savings. Preparation is key–if you don’t rush things out and you plan early, you will have a lot of time to do arrangements and research. Good luck, and plan wisely!

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How to buy a printer for your office of home

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Buying a new printer may sound simple, but once you get to the shop, you’ll be faced with so many choices that you may have to go back home and do more research, or worse, spend a longer time at the store while the staff explain lots of complicated stuff to you. Here are some things that will help you narrow things down–tips on how to figure out what printer is best for you.

1. You should be aware of your needs. The two choices that you’ll find are inkjet and laser, and you need to know what type of function your activities require. Here are some of the main functions and advantages of each:

Laser

– Ideal for those who are printing black and white texts–lasers are still unbeatable when it comes to speed.

– There are two types of laser printers: the monochrome laser printer, which will produce excellent text and line graphics; and the color laser printer, which prints fast and print quality color and black and white texts and images.

– Perfect for those who are printing large / high volume print jobs (this is one of the reasons why lasers are common in offices).

Inkjet

– Produces quality images i.e. photographs from your camera, images from the internet, colored charts and graphs for reports, etc.

– More flexible than lasers, because they produce both good images and text.

– Most inkjet printers have smaller sizes, so they’re usually preferred by those living in dorms or apartments.

2. Know where you’re going to put the device. Going home finding that your printer won’t fit in your workspace will just make things hard for you, so before you make the purchase, see to it that you have an idea of how big your printer space should be (providing exact dimensions will  help a lot).

3. Read online reviews.  In order for you to arrive on the best model, you should read reviews of experts or users who have bought the product. A good place to start is pricespy.co.nz or amazon.com (for reviews and comments)

Once you’ve done the finger work. Pop down to your local store such as Noel Leeming or Bond & Bond – speak to their staff about the printer(s) you are interested in buying.
4. Ask about the warranty and service. Know the coverage of repairs, services, part replacements, and the overall warranty that goes with the product. Also think twice before purchasing an extended warranty (especially for the cheaper models, which could expire in a span of just two to three years), because sometimes it will be more economical to buy a new one than have an old model repaired.

5. Last but not least is to know whether the printer will be compatible with the computer you’re using. Take note of your operating system and ask the experts at the shop if your device will have no problems installing the model you want to purchase.

Not having enough knowledge on printers in the market today could lead you to purchasing the wrong product. Take note of these things and do further readings in order for you to find the exact item you’re looking for. Good luck, and choose wisely!

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3 Things You Need To Know When Looking For Blog Post Ideas

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Whenever we start talking to organisations about our business blogging services, we always explain that they can have as much or as little involvement as they wish.  Some prefer to be really hands-on, working closely with us during all parts of the blogging strategy, while others take more of a back seat, providing input only as and when needed.

A lot of our clients naturally tend to sit somewhere in the middle, with one of they key parts they get involved in being the development of blog post ideas.  Something we actively encourage, as alongside our knowledge and experience of blogging, our research team’s work and our client’s understanding of their industry, we are able to develop the most suitable content possible for their audience.

When clients want to get involved at the blog post ideas stage, however, we always discuss the process in-depth with them and what we’re looking for as topics.  The reason behind this is our focus for the blog posts can vary widely on the client’s original ideas and we need to ensure that they are as beneficial as they can be when produced for client and customer alike.

Covering a range of different points, these three give you an insight into the things we tell our clients when they’re looking to be actively involved in developing blog post ideas.

1.  You need to think like your readers

It might sound a little cliché (or like an ancient Chinese proverb), but it’s important you look at your blog – and the ideas for the content – as if you were a reader, not the writer.  The blog obviously needs to have a commercial focus, but it generally shouldn’t be in the blog posts themselves, as this is likely to do nothing more than put readers off.

Imagine your blog was attached to your sports equipment website as an example.  Although the footballs you have on sale and the new tennis rackets you’ve just got in are likely to feature on your blog, as a reader, is this really something you’d want to be reading about every day?

You need to be focusing on sports in general, linking back to your website occasionally, such as through an overview of the last cricket match or an insight into the next boxing event.  Remember, blogging is about engaging with your readers and it’s not about selling to them – develop a community feel where readers return regularly and your blog will grow considerably and organically to the extent that when you do publish the occasional piece of sales-type copy, your audience will be more likely to respond to it in a positive way.

2.  Topical pieces often work very well – as long as they offer something different

Some of the most successful blog posts are those that are produced around a topical news item.  As the subject is already being heavily discussed, you can essentially piggy back on its success.  It doesn’t have to be something that’s directly related to your organisation or industry either – however, it has to be understood that you can’t simply replicate it or put your own spin on it.

Think about it logically.  Your readers will no doubt have read all about it on news websites, heard about it on the radio and seen it on TV, so why would they want to read all about it again on your blog?

What you need to do is use the topic in a way that’s going to make the post stand out.  Without doubt link back to the news item, but the piece in general needs to focus on something different.  Something that’s going to make the reader want to get to the end of the piece and believe they’ve just read something from an organisation who aren’t simply churning out the same content as everyone else.

The reason we’re mentioning this is when we get e-mailed a link to a news story from a client, their expectations of the post that’s created around it aren’t usually what we recommend and so it’s important to know why – and understand the impact of not doing so – from the start.

3.  Your business blog isn’t the only one out there

Getting inspiration from other blogs is always a good idea.  Part of our research team’s focus is to look at what a client’s competitors are doing, what worked for them and see if we can develop content that follows the same path in some way.

But what we never do is blatantly copy content, ideas or focus.  Not only does this show a lack of imagination, understanding of your audience and a generally poor business approach, but it just provides the same content to your readers.

What a lot of organisations fail to realise is that even if their blog has hundreds or thousands of regular readers, it’s unlikely to be the only blog those readers visit – and if you therefore don’t provide fresh, unique content, when they visit your blog, they’re going to be quickly put off as they’re just seeing reworked copy from another blog.

The most important aspect of blogging is to provide content that’s fresh and unique.  People don’t want to be seeing content that they’ve read elsewhere, even if you do take a slightly different spin on it.  As we said, getting inspiration from other blogs can be great, but you have to realise that the end product is likely to be vastly different, as that’s exactly what your readers will want.

We always encourage our clients to be as involved as they can be in our business blogging strategies.  We’re more than happy to develop and implement their blogging and social media strategies with only minimal involvement from themselves, but as we always aim to be as transparent as possible with our services, when our clients see exactly what’s happening and how we approach certain aspects, their involvement can not only be beneficial to the strategy, but to their organisation as a whole.

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HOTEL ALL SEASONS AUCKLAND

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Hotel All Seasons Auckland is consciously aging and aging with grace. For some reasons, a lot of its amenities are either defective or under repair.  Because other than those few hitches, All Seasons Hotel Auckland is otherwise a great accommodation with quality service and a cordial and extremely friendly and helpful staff.

 

Perhaps compensating for its obvious problems on physical and sometimes functional aspect, All Seasons Auckland has built up a local/domestic reputation of being superbly friendly to its guests. It has made it a point that guests’ expectations are met and whatever disappointment they may have during their stay shall be covered by a good impression on service.

 But as you climb floors you will not only get the peace you want but also a nice view at the harbor horizons and the city lights at night. All the 141 rooms have different view and environmental relationship to its surrounding environs depending on the angle it affords with respect to the sceneries, the distance from the streets and the functionality of the surrounding amenities.

Rooms feature a kitchenette and wash nook, with a simple TV and radio set serving the entertainment requirements of guests. High speed internet connectivity is also available.

Located at a spot that is easy for Auckland adventure travelers and with a price that is most reasonable, Hotel All Star Auckland is right where it should be and with the right upgrade, it has the potential of attracting more guests.

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AUCKLAND HOTELS

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New Zealand is mostly famous for its green pastures and its relatively nature picturesque view of the mountain top. But behind that stunning view lying in the Northern Island are the famous Auckland hotels tourists are tirelessly raving about.

 

The Auckland region, though widely populated, home to almost a million people, still holds intact its rich culture and elaborate harbors made real in the Auckland hotels, particularly the Pullman Auckland Hotel, an upscale hotel made for business and leisure.

Surrounding the said hotel are designer shops, world-class restaurants, extraordinary museums and art galleries, and stylish night clubs made for both looking for a place to relax, enjoy, and most of all, have fun.

The Pullman Auckland Hotel is one of the largest in the Auckland regions located at the very heart, flaunting its flawless style and design.

Although close to keeping intact the culture of New Zealand, it still keeps pace with the scrumptious New York fashion its international restaurant exudes. Located at the hotel’s lobby, you definitely could not miss its memorable décor, more so, the whiff of the cuisines served fresh.

For those who are more active and sports oriented, the hotel also offers a variety of choices you can definitely choose from. From outdoor sports such as swimming, football, quad biking, and horse back riding, and rafting among others to cooling down afterwards, via a dip in the Jacuzzi or spending time at the sauna – is always the best way to end a good workout.

If you’re one who likes to indulge in catching up with the whims of the world, and is still drawn to be updated by your gadgets on hand, the Pullman Auckland Hotel also has Wi-Fi access in the entire vicinity of the hotel.

Though New Zealand may be a big country, the Auckland Hotels she is famous for is one giant in itself as it is one avenue wherein New Zealand is not only able to enrich its culture, it also becomes a haven of a new experiences for people coming in to experience Auckland at its best.

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ADVICE FOR FIRST-TIME FLYERS

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Flying could be complicated if it’s your first time. The processes you’ll have to go through in the airport alone could already be stressful, as you’d have to go through different windows and security stops even before you get to the aircraft.

 

Don’t let these things scare you. With proper preparation, you will be able to get to your destination smoothly. If you’ll be taking your very first airplane ride soon, read on. Here are some tips that will help you  have a trouble-free trip.

1. Research before you leave.

Each airport / airline is different, and you should get to know the rules days before you fly. Go to your airline’s website and look at the rules and regulations. For example, if you are departing from Auckland International Airport, then you should checkout the Airport Information section (of their website). This is where you’ll find the things that you should and shouldn’t bring. Some of the most important details that you have to pay attention to are: luggage requirements and weight limits (how many carry-ons are allowed, how many bags can you check-in without additional charges), and rules on liquids and gels (hair products, perfumes).

2. Make sure you have all the necessary documents for the flight ready (print extras, too).

Aside from your passport, ticket, and itinerary, you should also have at least two I.D.s with you (most check-ins would require identification with photo). Print extras of all your important documents and put them in different bags so you’ll instantly have back-up in case you misplace a set.

3. Wear clothes you are comfortable for your flight 

Most airports will require you to take off your shoes, jacket, and accessories (or other forms of metal such as keys), so dress up in comfy clothes to make the process move faster.

4. Arrive at the airport early.

Frequent travelers would usually be in the airport two hours or less before the flight.  You will most likely ask questions on where to go and what to do when you get there, so you’ll need more time. Here’s the usual process in most airports:

– Show ticket and passport to security at the entrance.

This is also where you’ll be assigned a seat (window, center, or aisle).

– Go to the check-in terminal and go through inspection / scan by security.

– Go to your gate and wait until they call you for boarding (if you’re there early, you can go around the airport, eat, and maybe do some shopping).

5. When you’re already in the plane, put your carry-on in the compartment and take a seat. Listen to the safety video and watch the flight attendants demonstrate all the security measures.

6. It’s normal to be nervous on your first time on an airplane, but try your best to relax. If listening to music, reading a book, or watching a movie will help you ease up, take some with you. Entertainment will be provided in most flights, but it’s better if you bring your own. If you’re feeling uneasy, you can let the flight attendants know that it’s your first time–they would check up on you every once in a while during your flight. Also, do not forget to ask questions. The crew will always be ready to help you out.

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