Greg Gerber, Editor of Let’s RV, a website catered to all things related to the RV lifestyle, and Publisher for RV Daily Report, sat down with our very own Marshall White to discuss the industry of RV blogging. Greg takes his time searching for articles, blog posts and videos that are of interest to his viewers and then curates them to all be easily found on his website. If you’ve been looking for your go-to RV website, look no further! Below is our Q&A with Greg, enjoy!
Marshall: Who does Let’s RV serve?
Greg: Let’s RV serves not just the full time RV families, but those who have gone ahead and made their RV purchase, as well as those who may not be a previous RV owner. We’re currently serving people who are in that “consideration stage,” those who are trying to figure out how to take advantage of this dream lifestyle like me.
Marshall: When did Let’s RV start and how does it benefit those folks that are in this stage?
Greg: We started about a year and a half ago, because we knew that there was so much quality information being prepared by bloggers. Blogger media outlets about the RV lifestyle, there are so many, so it was really hard to try and find it all, especially the really good stuff. We spend a lot of time going through Google to try and find something that an audience might be interested in.
We aggregate all the content that we could find in a day in the one central place so that people can come to the website and read articles about fun places to go, products that will enhance their RV lifestyle, how to fix things themselves so that they don’t have to go into RV dealership some of the time and things that they can do with their families.
We have highlighted trips that other people have taken, we have highlighted people who are going through the buying process and what they are finding in their quest to get the right RV. We highlight the pros and the cons of various types of RVs, we have highlighted podcasters who are experienced RV owners, talking about their lifestyle and answering peoples’ questions about things that they can do to make their experience even more enjoyable. We highlight beach trip stories about some of the most beautiful parks in the United States, not only National Parks, there are a lot of beautiful county and state parks as well that people can go out and visit.
Marshall: What’s the most popular story that you have published?
Greg: That’s a good question, but I can’t answer that right off the top of my head. I do know that on a weekly basis, when we are publishing our weekly newsletter, which includes the top six stories that we have published, it seems as if it focuses on two main topics that people really like. Simple fixes for their RV that people call “hacks” are popular. It might be installing storage, installing a bed to the RV to enhance whatever the family wants to do, or it’s about someplace to visit. I think people like to read about things they can do with their RVs because while working at the cubicle, life can be really dull. You have to sit at a desk eight hours a day and then drive home in traffic, so they want to get out there and dream about doing something differently and Let’s RV brings those stories to their attention everyday because they might not know where to otherwise look for the information.
People want to know about the RV lifestyle, so what we do as we develop some complex algorithms to allow us to find a website destination (article, etc.) and bring it to our attention, which we then share with our readers. We share posts in a way that just gives our viewers a glimpse, ‘here is a story of what we found, here’s why I think you would enjoy it, here is the link to go to and get the whole story.’ Essentially, we are doing the search for them and letting them know that it’s worth reading.
Marshall: What a great service! How many subscribers do you guys have?
Greg: We have about eighteen hundred right now, and we started almost a year and a half ago, but we have even thousands more viewers coming to our website every week.
Marshall: Is there anything that you would like me to share with our readers about Let’s RV? An elevator pitch of why Let’s RV can meet their needs?
Greg: Like I said, there is so much quality information being produced about the RV lifestyle that people generally aren’t going to be able to see because they don’t know where to find it. They are not going to think to check a newspaper in California or a magazine from New England about the best places to visit in those areas. So what we do is constantly search for quality material and then share it with our readers. We are publishing probably anywhere from 9 to 15 stories a day in Let’s RV. We’ve made it so our viewers can open our website and scan the headline and read a one sentence introduction to see what stories they might be interested in.We save our viewers time in researching and planning their trips, we bring the articles directly to them.
Marshall: That’s nice. What keeps you passionate about doing this, Greg?
Greg: When I see the families out there enjoying and having fun. The other day I was at a camp ground in the excellent Yellowstone National Park. I was waiting for my interview guest to arrive and I was looking out my window watching a dad with two little kids running around the camp site. The kids were around seven to nine years old, so they are going to remember this experience forever. RVs allow them to do this and that’s why I am passionate about it, because it’s something families can do together. It’s wholesome, it’s clean, and it’s affordable. I mean you compare an RV weekend for what the cost of going to a professional sports game and there is really no comparison. It’s far more affordable to go RVing than it is to do many other forms of entertainment and the memories will last forever.
Marshall: And this concludes it, I’d be happy to take any other suggestions or feedback that you have, or my questions okay for you? You answered them very well.
Greg: Yes, I apologize if I came off a bit too negative at the first part of the interview because I was sharing some of the frustrations that I was hearing, and it breaks my heart to hear those kind of things. Like I said, when you look up the cost of renting a hotel room and eating out with two meals, compared to getting an RV and going to a park, just enjoying the outdoors in the company of other adults, knowing that your kids can run free all through the campground and do all the activities…It’s the last of true neighborhood life in America. When families are at home, it seems that the parents are always either making sure that they are not getting into trouble or doing things that they’re not supposed to do, or many times the kids are clustered inside the home looking at their electronics or using their gadgets. RVing allows kids to be kids.
One of my favorite videos that is ever been produced by the RV industry is called Bring Back Wildhood, produced by an association of Canada, that talks about what kids really want to be able to do, which is not programmed activities, they just want to play and so you see this all the time. The kids are on their bikes and they’re running off into the camp group to see what kind of things they can do, they are making new friends, they are having fun and the parents get to relax outdoors and it’s a wonderful lifestyle.
Marshall: It has been very eye opening to me since I’ve learned of RV I read everything every day, I mean I go through the list of all the topics. I don’t read all the stories of course but I see all the titles and it’s just been very eye opening just how much information is available. How many people are living this lifestyle and how much, just how entertaining some of the content is for that matter. Your enthusiasm really rubs off and you’re a great representative for industry. I really thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.
Greg: Yes exactly, we try and focus on the best articles for that particular day and even the videos that we put in there. There are so many videos and articles that are being produced and I’m just here to share them.
Big thank you to Greg for taking the time to interview with us, we hoped you enjoyed his insight.
