Year: 2020

What Travel Affiliates Pay the Best? Data of Top Performers

Travel affiliate programs are our second highest income stream, just behind CPM advertising with our private ad network Mediavine.

We made roughly $25,000 on travel affiliates in 2023 (or about $8 RPM on page views all-in). This includes on our global travel blog, Living the Dream, our local Pittsburgh blog, Discover the Burgh, and our wine blog with limited wine tourism content, The Grape Pursuit.

In this one, we wanted to share our highest-paying affiliate programs for our travel blogs and take a look into how we use them to make money, how much we make on each network, and what we do to promote them the best. As with everything, odds are good we are not the most optimized even though we have spent months, if not years testing out the placements for these programs.

It is likely you could have a travel blog that is virtually identical to ours and not have the same results (for better or for worse). All this post is meant to be is a collection of best affiliate programs that work for us, and our attempt to highlight why that is.

Read more

YouTube Tips for Bloggers with Arienne Parzei

Arienne Parzei talks about YouTube for Bloggers

One of the larger topics that we've yet to really sink our teeth into as of yet on This Week in Blogging is YouTube for bloggers. Obviously, YouTube is a big part of the puzzle for many creators these days, but often creators have questions about how to get started and, even more so, whether it's too late.

Today, we're incredibly fortunate to be joined by someone whose work in videography has garnered her several awards, and growing and devoted subscriber base on YouTube.

I (Chris here) have personally seen how much effort, thought, and care that Arienne pours into her work, and, as such, it's a real honour to have her here today. She's immensely talented, but also has shown incredible dedication in way she has consistently produced quality work over the years. For those who don't know Arienne as well as we do over her, let us tell you a bit more about her.

Arienne Parzei is a writer, photographer, and award-winning travel videographer. She runs the travel blog and YouTube Channel www.seeyousoon.ca, with a focus on adventure activities and cultural experiences. Her insatiable curiosity for learning about different cultures first-hand has led her to some amazing destinations and experiences, including climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, living in South Korea for two years, and backpacking for eight months through China, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Through her website & YouTube channel, she has worked with a number of brands and tourism boards including Air Canada Vacations, Germany Tourism, Parks Canada, and Honda Canada. She is also an ambassador for Tourism Toronto, working regularly on social media takeovers and video projects.

Without further adieu, let's get to the meat of the conversation on YouTube for bloggers!

Read more

Patreon Tips for Bloggers with Kate McCulley

Talking Patreon for Bloggers with Kate McCulley, also known as Adventurous Kate

At This Week in Blogging, we feel it's our duty to continue to showcase ways that bloggers can do things a little differently. The truth is, what worked five years ago in blogging probably doesn't work now, and what works now probably won't work in five years.

That's the reality of an ever-evolving and changing industry such as blogging.

It's also the case that if we don't keep our eye on what's changing in the industry, we may get left behind, but that's why we're here, and why we feel fortunate to have so many remarkable experts so willing to share what's working for them.

One topic that we haven't tackled yet is Patreon for bloggers or, in other words, how bloggers and content creators can use Patreon to establish a new revenue and reliable revenue stream.

We've got Kate McCulley here to talk from personal experience about how she's harnessed the power of Patreon.

Kate McCulley has been blogging at AdventurousKate.com for the past 10 years, teaching women how to travel solo safely from Colombia to Lebanon to Antarctica. Kate has traveled to 83 countries and Forbes named her one of the Top 10 Travel Influencers in 2017. Her non-travel obsessions include progressive politics, literature, and cured meats. Originally from the Boston area, Kate now lives in Prague and has recently launched a course into all things Patreon called Earn Like an Artist.

Read more

What You Need to Know About Sponsored Content with Bruno Bornsztein

Bruno Bornszstein, Co-founder of Influence Kit.

Understanding how sponsored content can fit into your content strategy is something all bloggers will eventually address, and especially those bloggers who are growing quickly.

After all, our blogs are a medium, and eventually you're going to find people or companies who want to utilize that medium to share their message. However, even thinking of sponsored content as such can be narrow. More broadly, it's a partnership between two parties who often share a similar vision and audience.

Sponsored content, if done correctly, isn't a sales pitch to readers as much as its an answer to a pain point that both the brand and blogger feel can be solved for an audience.

And, it's also definitely not saying yes to those random emails you get where someone basically suggests you should input a link to a casino or something else and effectively tarnish your reputation. With all that said, we do interviews over at This Week in Blogging to give experts a chance to shine, so we'll step back here and let this week's expert do the talking.

Today's expert is Bruno Bornsztein, and he's the Co-founder of InfluenceKit, a tool that helps content creators plan, measure, and grow. Before InfluenceKit, he was the publisher of two blogs, and worked as a blogger full-time for more than 10 years. He's excited to connect with the This Week in Blogging audience and (hopefully) share some helpful tips from my experience.

Read more

Finding Blog Content Ideas with Jeremy Jones

Your Blog Should Age Like a Fine Wine

If there's one thing we don't want to become here at This Week in Blogging, it's predictable. And that's why this week, our expert interview will be conducted by me (Chris), and will actually feature none other than the other half of TWIB, Jeremy Jones.

The two of us were chatting about who we'd like to come on the site and newsletter as it related to talking about finding new blog content ideas, and we realized that Jeremy is uniquely suited to talk about this as he runs five blogs in several niches.

So we went with it, and I'd like to think that this will end up being a very useful article for our readers and subscribers.

Slowly but surely, we're building out our base of content with interviews on everything from brand partnerships for bloggers to self-publishing a book. But today, as I alluded to, we're going to dive into ways to brainstorm new content ideas that can take your blogging game to the next level – and we'll also touch a bit upon content strategy to boot.

As always, we hope this will be helpful for you!

Read more

10 Things I Wish I Could’ve Told Myself When I Started Blogging

Baby Jeremy in 2009

In August 2020, I celebrated my 12th anniversary of starting my first professional blog. Sure, I've had hobby blogs and journals since I was a teenager (and have been building websites for fun for 20+ years too), but 2008 was the year I finally decided to do something with a specific focus.

It was a long process full of trial and error, but it took me ten years to the day to turn that blog (plus others) into a proper business that I could rely on for my full-time income. It has been off to the races ever since.

In this one, I wanted to take a moment to reflect and share ten things I wish I could've told myself when I started blogging. Had I incorporated many of the below thoughts into my site(s), I can only imagine what sort of position I'd be in today instead.

Read more

Rank Math vs Yoast – Which SEO Plugin is Best for You?

For many years, I used the Yoast plugin on my sites to help with SEO. The plugin is fairly straight forward, has a number of customization options, and, when it came to the tasks I wanted to accomplish, the plugin works beautifully.

Recently, a new SEO plugin has come out to the scene by the name of Rank Math and has been receiving rave reviews online.

Naturally, I was curious and decided to turn the plugin on for one of my newer blogs to see what it is all about. In this one, I thought it'd be fitting to compare the offerings between Rank Math and Yoast to help you decide if it is worth switching.

Read more

Brand Partnership Best Practices for Bloggers with Bex Shapiro

Bex Shapiro from Intrepid Travel on working with Bloggers

Our interviews have featured a lot of folks from the blogging side of things lately, and so we wanted to turn the tables a little and chat with someone from the brand side. That being said, it'd be a mistake to paint our guest today, Bex Shapiro, with too narrow a brush.

She's currently working for a company/brand, it's true, but she has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to content creation, including an impressive freelance writing repertoire. The other reason it'd be a mistake to simply note that Bex is “from a brand” and plainly leave it at that is because we know few people who are involved with so many different things, while simultaneously pulling it all off so seamlessly.

Bex is a force to be reckoned with in the best possible way, and if we had to place a bet on her likelihood of continued success moving forward, we'd be all in. She's basically a modern day renaissance woman.

With that said, we'll formally welcome Bex, and step back from the flattery for a moment to objectively let you know why she's someone to listen to when it comes to the topic of how content creators and bloggers can think about working with brands.

Bex Shapiro is the Senior Editorial Manager at Intrepid Travel, the world’s largest adventure travel company and industry leader in responsible tourism. In this role she partners with content creators aligned with Intrepid’s passion for travel as a force for good. When she’s not managing blog and social content at work, the Vancouver-based Brit dabbles in communications consultancy, public speaking, and freelance writing. She has been published in The Guardian, VICE, ELLE, and The Huffington Post and is currently undertaking climate activism training through The Climate Reality Project.

Read more

Self-Publishing a Book as a Blogger with Jen Ruiz

Jen Ruiz sits down to talk about self-publishing a book.

It's a real pleasure to be joined today by the prolific Jen Ruiz, a blogger and author who has 4 books under her belt, but is aiming to have 20 or so books when all is said and done.

She's a shining example in the blogging industry of someone who understood exactly what her readership and the public at large was looking for, and then began to fill those needs. That may sound easy enough, but, as many bloggers will know, it can be all too easy to just do what we've always done, and stay in one comfortable lane.

And that's why it's good to have someone like Jen as an example. She decided to simply go for it in terms of self-publishing, and implicitly understood that she'd learn what she needed to on the fly. She's done exactly that, and that's why we're fortunate that she's taking the time to sit down with us and share some of that knowledge.

So what's Jen's story, anyhow?

Jen Ruiz is a lawyer turned travel blogger and author. In 2017, she set out to take 12 trips in 12 months while employed full-time before her 30th birthday. She ended up taking 20 trips, writing a book and stumbling on a new career path. Jen is a #1 Amazon bestseller and Readers' Favorite Award winner. She is also a TEDx speaker and has been featured by The Washington Post, Huffington Post and ABC News. Jen documents her adventures on her website, Jen on a Jet Plane, where she helps young professionals travel for less and experience more. You can find her across all social media at @jenonajetplane.

Alright, let's get to it.

Read more

Podcasting Tips for Bloggers with Danielle Desir

Podcasting tips for bloggers with Danielle Desir

This week, we're thrilled to to welcome the words of Danielle Desir, a blogger who has created and effectively leveraged her podcast in a way that has downright inspired us. We usually write the intro, but this time she's going to take it from here. We're chatting, fittingly, about podcasting tips for bloggers. So, if you've been playing with the idea of starting a podcast, then this one is for you. 

Hey there, I’m Danielle Desir. I’m an author, affordable travel and personal finance blogger and podcaster. Over on The Thought Card, I empower financially savvy travelers to make more informed financial decisions – travel more, pay off debt, and build wealth. 

I am also the founder of WOC (Women of Color) Podcasters – a blog, community and membership dedicated to amplifying the voices of women of color podcasters and audio creators around the world. With over 3,500 members on Facebook, we offer an inclusive space for women of color to connect, learn, and share podcasting resources. 

Read more