Touring Mexico with Zenler 2023 - Part 6 Writing Blogs with Zenler and Oaxaca

In this post follow David across Mexico today we will look at different formulas to writing a Blog Post whilst travelling and continue our journey...

Introduction to this article

This first part will go through the process I am using to write this series of Blog posts whilst travelling in Mexico. We'll then move on to where I am now!

A Blog post for all situations

Everyone is different but writing blogs or keeping your site can be fairly easy if you are on the move. Blogs do not have to be just about travel, they could be about using software or products. If you are doing this check for any affiliate deals with manufacturers or software houses, as links could generate significant money for you.

Other things to consider are to write mini guides, again packed with affiliate links or your own course memberships (add a coupon to entice the buyer). You can offer them for free/ a little charge on Amazon. This is a great way to earn additional revenue and promote your services and offers for a potential fee. Remember if your subject is on course creation Zenler offers a 40% Partner link and a second tier of 10% which is massive!

Writing the blog on the move

For this particular Blog series, I generally start off with a text editor link WordPad or notes. Make sure that it has no fancy editing tools and leave it in plain text as you will format it in Zenler itself! The great thing about this is that you do not need an internet connection.

Organising your Media for your Blog Posts

Next any media I have such as videos or images I organise into a folder with the article. This contains all I need for that post as I am travelling to Mexico I have a root folder called MEXICO BLOGS. And in this, individual folders for each post, because keeping your work organised is key.

For images, I have a premade template in Canva that I use to output Images that are the same size and optimised for the web. For the video, I reproduce it on YouTube and embed it.

For the Blog SEO and Blog Card I have this set up in Canva so that I can duplicate, reword and of course, add new images. This makes it quick to create more articles and I can also share this template with the team. In this case, Liz and Kevin manage the Blog for Zenler, so that if they need to change anything they have access to the source files. This is very important if you work in a team as we do at Zenler.

Once you're organised

Once you have your system in place it should be very easy to add new blogs and keep organised. Remember not to overload your blog posts with too many images and only focus on the key features discussed in your post. With any blog post, there are different approaches. In my case, I am giving a general journey of my Travels across Mexico without going into too much detail, and I'm trying to focus on my working experience in different areas. Another kind of Blog may be informational, such as where to catch busses, key phrases in Spanish, and tips for getting around various places within Mexico. Again there are literally thousands of different formats and monetised options you could go for, so think carefully about this as it will be critical for SEO.

SEO and its importance for all Blogs, courses or pages of your site

Speaking of SEO my Blog posts are general so it mentions phrases such as "Travelling Mexico with Zenler", "Working as a digital nomad", "Mexico City", "Food of Mexico" and "Travel Blog of Mexico". These are general phrases but as the post is really meant for you, our Zenler users, I am not too bothered to do the research, however, I still add the SEO and course card as it's best practice for social sharing!

Easy Blogs with Zenler

Zenler has built in all the tools you will need to write wonderful blog posts, be able to add media and format them so that they look magic.

Set up a Blog really easily!

✅ Simply log in to your Dashboard then go to Site and left to Blogs.

✅ Create a New Blog (Please note if it's the first time it will set up a menu item to the blog and you can delete this if you like).

✅ Write a friendly SEO Title that is descriptive and a short SEO description.

✅ Now simply write your blog and add images and video (by Embedding the code use <>).

✅ Add to Categories if required.

✅ Add your Blog Card and update.

✅ Next write your SEO description and image and update.

✅ Finally preview and publish it. Done!

Hopefully, you found the above information handy. Remember that Kevin has a challenge on our tutorial site that covers setting up and writing a multi-linking blog post. Follow the link to take this amazing resource by our resident Blog expert and Educator Kevin Arrow - Follow here

Date stamp 24th January - Journey to Oaxaca

Continuing our journey through Mexico with Lead Product Educator David.

Leaving 7:30am from the local bus station in a minibus for our 6 to 7-hour journey from Escondido to Oaxaca (pronounced Wahaka). Luckily there was only one other passenger at the start, which meant that we had a lot of room. The minibus is air conditioned as well so it makes it comfortable, at least at the start. Eventually, the bus was full which made it a bit of a chore, but hey ho we were on the road.

The journey cuts through the mountains and has continuous tight turns, if you're travel sick then this is definitely not for you. But at 600 Pasco for two it's a bargain and for us at least it meant no travelling by air back to Mexico City and then connecting for Oaxaca!

A Couple of close calls to throwing up for sure as it was three hours of tight turns along treacherous cliff edge drops. And the myriad of potholes did not help, after 8 hours we arrived in one piece just about!

Although it appeared that we were just round the corner from our hotel, and my wife was keen to walk, I opted to hail a Taxi as I just could not be bothered. Rightly so 250 meters down the road was our hotel, you have got to laugh!

The Hotel Trebol is situated in the main central area, it is a lovely spacious hotel and could not be better positioned.

The staff and breakfasts are amazing with free coffee on tap. The wifi like the whole of Mexico even in a hotel can be flaky and certainly not super fast ever.

My initial thought was that Oaxaca is a bit like Mexico City but less busy and more brightly coloured. The street layout follows the same gridded system making it hard to get lost.

Date stamp 25th January - Oaxaca City
Loving the Spanish and French influences of this town lots of amazing artwork and brightly coloured buildings the streets are amazingly clean especially as there appear to be no rubbish bins around at all.

Again there is very little English spoken but we get by. We have been helped by many Canadian and Americans who seem to speak Spanish, but then again it's next to them. Note to self learn Spanish on my return to the UK!

In the centre of Oaxaca, there are a lot of Churches and historical buildings and we have a tour booked for later in the week, tomorrow we head out for an epic 12-hour tour around a few attractions, including the following:

1. Mitla - Historical Sepulchre site dates 800 years old
2. Fabrica de Mezcal - Hand weaving and colouring artisans
3. El Tule - Famous for the oldest tree in Mexico at over 2000 years old
4. Teotitlan del Valle - Mezcal factory
5. Cascades de Hierve el Agua - Natural water ponds

I will chat about these after the tour...

In the afternoon we decided to go on a bus tour of the town, it was all in Spanish but fun to see all the central areas of Oaxaca and randomly take pictures and videos of the centre. What made it more fun was we had to continue ducking to avoid being hit by branches of low-hanging branches as it was an open-top bus! I did a little video speeded up for your viewing pleasure...

Date stamp 26th January - The Naturals Tour

Pick up from the hotel at 8:00 first stop is El Tule famous for its historically old tree dated between 15:00 to 20:00 years old, it was huge not sure the pictures do it justice.

Next stop 2. Fabrica de Mezcal - Hand weaving and colouring artisans this was interesting to see how the wool is spun and also how and what they use to create the coloured dyes. The huge amount of hours means the price is very expensive and depends on the colour, blue being the most expensive, the complexity and the size. Just to produce 1.5 metres by 2 cm takes around 8 hours to weave to give you an idea. What was interesting was that the colours orange to purple a fungus that grows on a cactus leaf is used when mixed with water it turns red and when smaller or larger amounts of lemon juice are added it turns purple!

Off to Cascades de Hierve el Agua - Natural water ponds for our next stop, these pools form high up and are pretty cold as it was a scorching day it was refreshing to take a dip and see the panorama.

Last stop of the tour and 6 hours later we arrived at the Mezcal factory. Mezcal is made using the same process as Tequila but with the exception that Mezcal uses a wider variety of Agave Plants. These are like cacti, it was great to try these out and see the fermentation process which has not changed apart from the introduction of copper for thousands of years. And we bought a few tasters for later.

It was a long day but very interesting, tomorrow we have a home cookery class pickup at 8:45am.

Date stamp 27th January - Mexican cookery class

Our Chef's name was Geraldo and we were very fortunate that it was just me and my wife booked for that day Geraldo normally does between 5 to 10 at a time.

Today we will be cooking two main dishes a soup using rotten corn! It's a delicacy in Mexico and dates back to Aztec times, I know what you're thinking yuck! So did I until I tried it!

The next dish is Chocolate Mole with a shredded chicken mix that's normally served with tacos and guacamole.
So our first stop is the most famous market in Oaxaca, forgive me for not remembering the name, but it was amazing such a variety of colours and ingredients.

We spent a good hour here it is massive and our senses were a bit overexcited at times.

Geraldo's place is epic two big dining areas and hot plates everywhere, the place is in the centre of Oaxaca but in a quiet road, pretty amazing.

After we had prepared and cooked the food back at Geraldo's we gorged ourselves and finished it off with three different Mezcals.

Date stamp 28th January - Last day in Oaxaca

For our last day, we walked the city one last time, we both loved Oaxaca, and experienced amazing things but we are ready for the next stage we are travelling further inland for more culture, waterfalls and temples stay tuned...

Categories: : Zenler Digital Nomad/Stories