Latest Posts on This Week in Blogging

GeneratePress Review – The Only WordPress Theme You Need

Published by Jeremy. Last Updated on October 23, 2020.

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I've worked on a half-dozen or so themes in my decade-plus blogging career, and I've finally settled on the one I'll be sticking with for the long run. This theme, the one you're seeing, is GeneratePress– one of the most customizable and fastest WordPress themes on the market today.

As I'm always seeking speed improvements for SEO goals, and I am just generally a nerd when it comes to optimization, it didn't take much more beyond hearing a few thumbs up from colleagues that GeneratePress is the way to go.

I bought access to the premium features, started a site design, and was blown away by both the functionality and the speed (and to be honest, I'm probably not even taking advantage of all the features, either!).

As such, I have a feeling I'll be sticking to this one for quite some time.

What Travel Affiliates Pay the Best? Data of Top Performers

Published by Jeremy. Last Updated on January 16, 2024.

Disclaimer: This Week in Blogging uses demographic data, email opt-ins, and affiliate links to operate this site. Please review our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

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.

YouTube Tips for Bloggers with Arienne Parzei

Published by Chris. Last Updated on October 20, 2020.

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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!

Patreon Tips for Bloggers with Kate McCulley

Published by Chris. Last Updated on September 28, 2020.

Disclaimer: This Week in Blogging uses demographic data, email opt-ins, and affiliate links to operate this site. Please review our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

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.

What You Need to Know About Sponsored Content with Bruno Bornsztein

Published by Chris. Last Updated on March 27, 2023.

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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.