Episode 0Dec 25, 2025· 47:14
From Side Hustle to $2K Monthly: A Travel Blogger's Comeback Story
▸ Show notes from the creator
Michelle walked away from her travel blog for years—until a chance conversation convinced her to give it one more shot. Eighteen months later, she's consistently earning $2,000+ per month through ads and affiliate commissions, despite Google's algorithm updates that destroyed many travel sites. She shares how she finally learned SEO properly, which monetization methods work best for travel content, and why posting about the "why" behind travel (not just the "what") completely changed her traffic. Plus, hear about the time she paid $100 to see the Matterhorn and only saw a white blizzard.
About Michelle:
https://www.travelherstory.com/about-me-solo-female-travel-blogger
https://www.instagram.com/travelherstory/
https://www.facebook.com/travelherstory
About this episode
Michelle walked away from her travel blog for years—until a chance conversation convinced her to give it one more shot. Eighteen months later, she's consistently earning $2,000+ per month through ads and affiliate commissions, despite Google's algorithm updates that destroyed many travel sites. She shares how she finally learned SEO properly, which monetization methods work best for travel content, and why posting…
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Full transcript
00:03
The Bloggy Friends Show. What's up, my bloggy friends? Famous Ashley Grant here, and I just want to welcome you to the Bloggy Friends Show. We're so excited to have you join us on this journey of sharing our knowledge and experiences with you. Whether you're a blogger, a content creator, or just someone who's interested in learning more about the digital world, we've got something for you. So grab your notebook and a pen to take some notes, or just sit back and take in all the amazing information and ideas we're about to share with you. Let's get into it. Well, Michelle, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you here. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what it is you do? Yeah, so I'm a travel blogger. that has a blog called Travel Her Story. So I came up the name because it's like history, but it's spelled with her.
01:02
And I love history, but also wanted to tell my journey of traveling. So that's a little mix of both. I was like kind of dual names. That's awesome. When did you start your blog? So I started it like 12 years ago. I was working in TV at the time, but I had a job that basically, unless something broke, I really had nothing to do. And I had a friend back in high school who had started a blog. And she was like, oh, why don't you try this thing? And I had absolutely zero idea what I was doing. I was just like, oh, I write stuff and people will find it. Nope. I know how that works. You know, like I was writing blog posts that were like my fourth day driving across America. And I was like, nobody's Googling that, you know. But it gave me the bug for starting writing, basically. So I started that. But like I said, I had no idea what I was doing. And I also was working a full -time job. And so I would
01:55
travel very intermittently. So it wasn't really great as far as consistency. And I remember I kind of learned some random classes. But they just didn't give me the proper knowledge to actually take this seriously. And then it was about a year and a half ago. I had left my job because it's kind of a toxic situation and was doing like a networking thing. And I met this guy who basically does like a tour groups for, for photographers.
02:26
So he'll take a bunch of photographers to like the Sahara and they'll photograph. And I was like, yeah, I used to have this blog, but like, I don't really do anything with it anymore. And he was like, well, you're spending money having it up there. Are you? And I was like, yeah. And he's like, well, give it a try. Like at least make what you're making, what you're spending on it. So this way it's not lost. And I was like, yeah, he's right. Like I have the time. I don't have a job right now. You know, staring at LinkedIn all day is kind of infuriating. You can only do that before like you lose your marbles. So I was like, I need a hobby anyway right now.
02:58
So I went back in, but then like I actually really started learning about SEO this time rather than just kind of like throwing paint at the wall. It started making money. Like, oh, okay. This is awesome. Who knew? Yeah. Well, I was like, God, I wish I knew this 12 years ago. I was raking it back in for 12 years. But, you know, you can't regret choices. You can only, you know, do what you can. So, yeah, I started making a few hundred, a few hundred. And then I actually saw somebody on Threads post, like, what they were making for the month. And I was like, oh, that would be interesting. Like, let me, like, do the math.
03:35
because we make a little bit here and a little bit here and a little bit here you see it but you don't really like calculate it and then I was like suddenly like oh I'm making like two grand a month like consistently like I was like okay this is like something I should like put more energy in so that's that's how I went from you know very like not knowing what I was doing well to like 11 years later finally figuring out what I was doing Yeah, I'm still trying to figure it out, if I'm honest. I mean, yeah, I will say I have been doing this full time, like actually making full time income as a writer since. Goodness, I went I guess you'd say I went pro in 2011 and I started making full time income into 2014. But but not all of it was under my name. I started doing stuff for like other people's blogs. And so a lot of it was ghostwriting and things like that. What were some of your monetization
04:23
methods for whenever you, I guess, got serious? So mostly where my monetization even today is, is ads and affiliates. Ads is kind of just nice. I kind of view it as backup money because if somebody doesn't buy something, at least they were there and like maybe I made a couple cents off them. But I really push for the affiliates. So hotels, activities, so like selling, you know, winter's coming up. So I did, I went to Finland a couple years ago. And did all the winter activities like reindeer sleigh riding, dog sledding, aurora hunting, things like that. So selling tickets to that where you get commission. And then some product -based stuff. So like Amazon, like I'll promote what my hostel packing list is and, you know, link to there. So if they buy the, you know, towel or whatever it is in there, I get a commission off of that. That's awesome. So in terms of ads, is it Google Ads or Mediavine?
05:16
What are you using? So I used to be with SheMedia. That's what I was with actually like eight, nine years ago and never made it in my own views. So when I joined back up to like getting serious, I was still with them. So at first I was with them and actually I know a lot of bloggers who like don't like them, but I've never really had any issue with them. I just went switching to Journey because when Journey first launched, which is Journey is like kind of like Mediavine's like little sister where they like let people under 50 ,000 views in or 50 ,000 sessions. So I joined that. And then actually about a month or two ago, I got an email from Mediavine and I hadn't hit 50 ,000 sessions, but they were like, we're going to invite you in. And I was like, oh, okay. And it was actually so new that I posted it in a Facebook group and I was like, is this real? Like I checked the email and it doesn't seem like a scam. Like they didn't ask
06:08
for anything weird, but like it was so, so new. And now they've started inviting more people in their under 50 ,000 sessions. But yeah, at first I was like, oh. I don't know. I get it, man, because there's a lot of scams out there. Like it's it's it's kind of insane how many scams there are. And I've even had the people that will send you a message and they're like, we're going to pay you a thousand dollars. All you got to do is put one post. And it's like, yeah, that looks really shady. I had somebody the other day that said they had like a company name in it because most of the time they don't have a company name. They're like, hi, I'm Tony. And I want to pay you to do this. And you're like, pay me to do what? Like, give me more details.
06:47
Yeah. But this one had a company name and it said, and they were like, oh, we're going to give you like a three night stay and pay for your airfare to use our products. I like looked at the company name and like, then they didn't have any packages for America. Like they're all on like other continents. And I was like, so you're going to pay me to. do something you guys don't offer like so I emailed back basically saying like I don't see any of these things available on your website and then no response oh god you called it out yeah I forgot their plan click google that's funny and then you know that's the important thing though is that you know as bloggers especially today we have got to be you know doing our due diligence and and being careful because there's a lot of bad actors out there Yeah. And like years ago when I, like I said, I was not making money at all. I'd get emails like, hey, we want to promote our product and
07:40
your thing. Can you take guest posts? And if it was like somewhat travel related, like I remember when I was on Dubai or something and I've never been to Dubai. So I was like, sure. It's content on my website. It never ranked. Yeah. Like it was just nonsense. They put together and put a link in it. Like, you know, and I wound up like being like, I can't do these anymore. Like, it's just not worth it. The only times I do that kind of like link stuff is if it's like another blogger that I'm like, oh, OK, you like are actually in the same position as me. You're not just some weird company trying to promote their casino or whatever. Yeah, I have a pretty strict rule.
08:16
No casinos. And the thing is, it's not I'm against gambling. I'm not against gambling. But I don't know, something about just putting a link to a casino, I don't, absolutely not. Yeah, no, no, no. And my other one, there are funny links for me. Yeah, the other one is Bitcoin. I will not promote Bitcoin. And it's not that I think that all of it's a scam, but I mean, you know, a lot of it is. Well, there's a lot of, yeah.
08:42
Yeah. And like, I'm sure you feel similarly. Like, I don't know enough Bitcoin about a Bitcoin. So even if a company would be legit, like, I don't know. I don't want to tell other people it like, you know. Yeah. And just the fact that I know a couple of people, I don't know them personally, but I know friends of friends that have lost significant amounts of money. Like one of the guys that I was talking to. a friend of his lost like $15 ,000 in, in a Bitcoin scam.
09:08
And I'm like, yeah, I'm out. I don't want to, I don't want to play that game. And I know, and I know another one, he made 50 ,000, but it's like, you don't know enough unless you know enough. Yeah. It was the saying, you know, enough to be dangerous or something like that. Yeah. I'm not, I don't know enough to be dangerous. So that's probably a good thing. So we'll stick to, we'll stay in our lanes. So speaking of which, so when did you actually start making money?
09:34
I know you said that you started like, you know, finally making a couple hundred and then finally got to two grand, but what was the timeline? What did that look like? So I started ending because I had like a hundred blog posts or nearly a hundred that were like from the olden days and I didn't know what I was doing. in like March of 2024 and then I feel like it was like maybe like September that I was like oh this is like real real money so like six months like you know give or take a little bit that I yeah really started cranking it up and of course like when you when you have almost like no views it just looks like a you know Everest going up basically from the timeline of how many views and then of course at some point it starts like you know tapering off or going down a little bit and stuff and I'm like oh but you know again I went from like almost nothing to like I have 80 posts that
10:23
I've edited and now you know my blog is like oh shit there's stuff to rank on Google so yeah so it was about I would say six months where and that was ending old blog posts which took me like a couple months and then starting to create new stuff OK, well, just hearing 2024 is probably going to excite some of the bloggers that are listening right now, because I know several people that got hit hard by the Google helpful content update, which I call anything but helpful. So I'm curious, like, do you think that the content update helped you or that you just were already doing different things and so it didn't really impact you? So like the I know like they've had like a couple different updates and I think. Because I'm trying to remember, would you know that when they had that like big one that really shook everybody up? It feels like it was 2023. It feels like it was like either 2022 or 2023. So I think I was like on the aftermath
11:22
of that. So I think maybe whatever I was doing, Google's like, oh, this is somebody different. Like we're not going to. And I obviously don't know for sure. I'm just guessing because Google's not going to tell us anything. People constantly ask me, like, how do you rank? And I was like, well, you have these 200 guesses that you make every time. But yeah, so I think maybe I was just, because I honestly, when I started, like, retaking it seriously, I wasn't up. on all the updates and all the changes and everything i was just going one of the big people that i learned a lot from is nina who owns she knows seo who has a facebook group for it was exclusively for travel bloggers pretty much at the time but now it's for like all bloggers and learning a lot from her and so yeah i just i think i wasn't even like kind of aware of it when i was restarting i've obviously become aware since they've done
12:12
other updates and i've definitely seen like get affected from some of them but like luckily it's like it'll like dip for a month and then it will kind of like figure itself back out and I'm not gonna say I've like cracked any code I think it's just dumb luck some part and just continuing to make sure it's actually things I give a hoot about like I said like not posting random like Dubai articles from random guest posts like I don't care about that I've never been there I have no skin in the game But for instance, like one of my top posts is like an anti -theft purse I use all the time. So that's something I'm very passionate about. I know about it. I've used it for years. Like I can talk very personally about it. So if I can't qualify that, then I just don't do it. And I think that kind of at E -E -A -T for Google really likes like, oh, she actually really knows about this and cares about it. So yeah, I know the A stands for authority,
13:07
but I can't help but feel like it should be two A's. authority and authenticity, because that really does matter. I mean, like you, we've talked about the guest posts a couple of times and I do accept guest posts personally on my own website, but I mainly do it from a research perspective. Cause like, I kind of like to see what people do send me so I can see what I want to play with. But, but I have a special category on my website that you would have to know what you're looking for to be able to find it, if that makes sense.
13:32
So like all my guest posts are corralled in one spot. on the site. But I don't know if that's the best way to do it or not, but I'm playing with it and just seeing kind of what happens. But so coming back to the helpful content update and Google and all the things, I'm curious, have you seen any impact because of AI? Because that's a big question that everybody's talking about right now. Yeah, I want to say it was either in June or July this year that they turned on AI overviews for Europe is what I was told. And like my month that month went half the income, like just sliced in half. And I know it was mostly the AI because my impressions were still great.
14:11
So it wasn't like I lost rankings. You know, it wasn't like, oh, Michelle, you lost the post number one spot for this. That's why it changed. my impressions were still pretty much the same as the prior month but like all the click -throughs were like in the toilet you know so like that tells me it's still on google just people have decided not to click it and why have they decided not to click it well they're getting the answer above it you know so yeah so like for a month i like lost and i was like that month i was like oh no what am i gonna do like it's a night thing and then it was like weird like the next month everything went back to normal i'm like knocking on wood right now um because i i I've just been like, OK, I'll take it. So that was the only month that like AA really did me in. I'm sure it's still doing me in in some format. I'm sure people are Googling, you know, things to do in
15:00
Paris rather than clicking on a blog post. But there's some of that I just can't control, you know, like it's going to happen. So it really is. And so with that in mind, you know, one of the things I'm thinking about really heavily right now, and I plan on interviewing a few people to discuss it, is. How are you anticipating that you're going to need to promote your website outside of just trying to rank for SEO? So I do a lot of Pinterest is how I also bring in traffic. So Google and Pinterest are the two main drivers. I know a lot of people as far as like AI are like, oh, I really want to rank in the where they note you as a source. You know, it's like you've said, you know, you're Googling your, you know, thanks to you in Paris. And it has that AI box and you click on it and it says, you know, Susie's blog. But nobody's yet proven to me that that actually gives them any traffic.
15:49
So I've tested with it a little bit and I've actually gotten myself to be sourced, accredited or whatever you want to call it up there. But I've never seen, I mean, I've had like maybe 50 AI views a month. It's according to my Google analytics. So like until somebody's like, oh, I'm getting like 10 ,000 views a month from that. I just don't. And I get it if you're maybe like, I don't know, let's say like a big brand Marriott where like you Google like the best hotels, you know, to stay at and like you want to be Marriott and that you show up in there. But for like me, like unless it's coming, clicking through my blog, I'm like, I don't know, like, why am I going to? I, you know, I can't disagree with that at all because the unfortunate thing is, yeah, if they're getting the answer and not needing to click through, it doesn't do us much good.
16:39
I mean, yes, of course. Everybody wants that, you know, feather in the cap of, oh, I'm showing up all the time. But if no one's clicking through, you're not making money. And so that's kind of one of the things that I've been talking to a lot of people about lately is like, okay, so do we invest in ads? Do we start an email list? Well, if we start an email list, then we have to buy ads to get the people to the email list.
16:58
So it's an interesting game that we're all kind of playing right now. And there's a lot of guessing involved. Would you agree? Oh, yeah, 100 % guessing. And as far as email lists, like I never. I've done email lists for other companies where I've like been the person like hired to do their email list. So it's not that I don't know how to do it, but for me as like a blogger, I just never really invested in it. I have started a little bit to start investing in it, partly because I wrote a book and I want to promote that to people. But also like I've seen people who are like ranking the number one spot where they'll have like a travel guide and they're like, oh, do you don't have enough time? Click this and give me your email and I'll email you the travel guide. So I'm like, okay, like I'll test that out. Has it been super successful so far? No.
17:41
But to your point of like, you just got to guess and hope something works. But as far as like imparting any wisdom on people, yeah, Google and Pinterest are still my main drivers. The only other thing I'm kind of testing out now is definitely like, you know, when you Google something and it'll like show like Instagram videos and TikTok videos and whatever. And I'm not a big video person. I kind of hate editing. As far as somebody who used to work in TV and post -production, it's hilarious that I hate editing, but I do. But I've definitely started to like upload all those like little clips or do like TikTok videos. I do mostly slides where I'll be like, you know, things to do in Paris and I'll do like, you know, 15 slides of different things. Just to see if I start to rank, I have not found myself to start to rank yet. The only thing I've gotten so far is like some YouTube shorts. I've gotten like a thousand views, but
18:27
has that driven anything to my website? I don't think so. Because I think it's similar to TikTok where you just kind of, like, scroll through and you're not really, unless you're, like, really, really interested, you're probably not clicking on that person's profile. So, yeah, it's all just, like, a game of testing different things. I've even started posting my, like, blog posts on LinkedIn. Because somebody was like, oh, you should create, like, a page for your company.
18:47
And I was like, oh, okay. And has that driven anything yet? No. But, you know, it's, like, one of those things where you're like, you got to test it for a few months and see if it works. Yes, that's the facts, man. One of the girls that I interviewed for a podcast on podcasting, she said she gives six months for any test that she does. And, you know, the funny thing is, it's like as bloggers, sometimes it's like, well, six months could mean that, you know, we're having ramen noodle packets instead of an actual meal.
19:14
So it's a weird game. Well, I've definitely I've had friends who are like, oh, I'm going to try blogging now that it's working for you. And I've told them all like. some people are gonna like pitch that it's gonna take like two weeks and you're gonna be making like five thousand dollars a month I was like that was never realistic for me a lot every so often I'll get a blog post that like immediately ranks but more often than not it's six months later that it's ranking on the page you know and I've had blog posts that were like number one and like I had one that like brought me in like five hundred dollars in revenue on just activities Like, I was selling, like, you can get this pass, and you can go to, like, five different attractions. Well, they got rid of that pass. So my blank, since my blog post was focused all on that, my blog post, like, fell off. Which, as far as the Google helpful
20:01
content update, that was actually, I thought it was, like, that's pretty fair. It's no longer available. My post is now out of date. So, of course, I went in and, like, edited it to, like, make it up to date. And that was a couple months ago, and now it's finally on the bottom of page one. But I was like, page one. Yeah, well, it fell off page one for, like, those few months. So, like, I was not making the revenue I was before. All that $500 was, you know, when it was number one on the Google. And I had, like, the number one slot for, like, almost a whole year. I was, like, very proud. I was like, this is great. This is great. And then I got rid of that damn pass. No. But, yeah, blogging is not, like, a short -term, like, I'm going to make a million dollars next week. You know? Like, some people, like, snag. It is such a long game.
20:43
And, you know, that's kind of why I started diversifying myself of of not just focusing on just my own website. I started working for other people. So I I definitely get that it's you never know what's going to happen. So I'm curious, do you find yourself working for other people as well? Or are you really like zeroed in on just working on your own website? I mostly just work for my own. I have done a couple of guest posts for other people. And that was mostly just try to improve my DA, domain authority for anybody who's still learning blogging. But I didn't find it really worked. What I did instead was I found this company called Quoted. So there's Harrow and another company where like journalists will pitch like, I'm looking for somebody who's been to Paris in the fall. I have questions and you can respond and hopefully they pick you. I never really got any responses on Harrow, but quoted,
21:36
you pay a monthly fee and you get access. Like I've gotten features in Travel and Leisure, AOL, Yahoo, I'm trying to remember, HuffPost. So like names we all know. It's not like, you know, Joe's Taco Hut in the side where you're like, I've never heard of Joe's Taco Hut. And that's helped boost my DA a little bit. So I've spent more time doing that than anything. But I have actually gotten like a real, real job from this. weird story like last year I post on LinkedIn my kind of like my blog maintenance and I was kind of hoping like well maybe somebody will see this and they'll hire me you know it was like kind of like I mean brag a little bit you know maybe somebody's like oh she knows what she's talking about they'll hire me and it worked. AAA who does famously like car insurance and things like that for people and you can get your car towed and stuff like that but they also do have travel
22:25
advisors you can go to them and they'll help you book your trip. So they reached out to me and were like, hey, do you want to write some content for us? So I worked for them for a couple months last year. And then they unfortunately laid off all the contractors, which included me. So I was only with them for a couple months. But I actually started up as of last week with them again, writing some more content. So basically writing those, like, things to do in Paris so that you click on that. And then we'll use them for travel advising. So I'm very thankful that, you know, my blogging has led to, like, real full -time money. even if it is just, you know, contractor work. Absolutely. And, you know, the cool thing about it is not only are you, you know, getting income from a client, you're making money on something that you own as well. So it's like an in tandem thing. And I think it's good because it shows, you know, any future employers
23:12
or future clients that you're continuing to put yourself out there and that you actually, like you said, know what you're doing. And it's funny you mentioned quoted because that's how you and I met. I'm looking for podcast guests and I am going to sign up for. In case Alex Sanfilippo is listening, I am still planning on signing up for Podmatch. But yeah, I've been playing with Quoted as well and seeing what kind of things pop from that. And I do have to say, ever since Featured took over Harrow, I'm still getting pretty decent responses. It's not nearly as spammy.
23:41
But the frustrating thing about Harrow is that you still do get a lot of AI -generated bull. So that's a big issue that I'm dealing with. But I'm curious. So you mentioned Pinterest. You mentioned Google. You mentioned that you're putting yourself out there on Quoted. Anything else you're doing to kind of drive people to find out who you are and where you are? Not really. I mean, I really don't love the social media.
24:04
Like I said, I post now on like Instagram and TikTok mostly to see if I can rank on Google. Like I know. I do not have the energy to like create TikTok videos where you're like the hook at the beginning, like find out how I survived this thing. And then it's, you know, a five minute. I just don't have that patience. That's why I'm doing slides like 15 things to do in Paris. And it's just like images and it's like Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe. And I'd rather do it. I'd rather angle myself as like I said on LinkedIn where like I meet with like the AAA or stuff like that.
24:35
And that's part of why I'm like posting my blog posts on there is like hoping that like tourism boards would be like, oh, she really does like know what she's doing. And also like I don't know how long I stay with AAA. Like I said, contractor work, I would love to stay with them. They're a great team. But like maybe I'll go to travel and leisures. Maybe I'll go to somewhere else. Or to your point, it was like tandem work so that. You know, if the blog post isn't ranking for these couple of months, I still don't have to eat ramen noodles. And I've met some lovely people on LinkedIn, a lot of other girls who are writing for like Business Insider and stuff like that, which they paid like a few hundred bucks an article. And I haven't placed any yet.
25:15
I've pitched a few times, like maybe like about half dozen times to different outlets. I've got one no from like Trev from. teen vogue and one other no and i remember like oh man i used to read teen vogue i would have liked them um but you gotta like yeah you gotta keep like finding ways and i'd rather do that than kind of like guest post for you know like a random site where i'm like yeah well you know this is like a 2da site i don't know what those do hey uh i'd rather like you went to like the professional writer side you know where you're like oh i wrote for business insider and travel and leisure and honda nest or whoever is you know uh offering up spots but i think i just got to get better at pitching and i've been told from people who have been pitching for quite a while i'm doing it successfully that's been kind of dry the last couple months so i was like maybe it's not me maybe in the
26:05
new year it will You know, a lot of people, they say past Halloween, people kind of start shutting down for holidays already. So that's what it is. That's kind of true. And then it picks up like, you know, I used to actually, you know, speaking of the ghostwriting that I said that I had done, some of the ghostwriting clients I had were actually travel agents. That's how I began with the ghostwriting side of things is a bunch of travel agents needed content for their websites and they didn't have time to write it. They wanted to just sell their packages.
26:35
So, yeah, I definitely. understand the ebbs and flows of when people are booking trips and things like that. So I'm curious with the affiliate sales that you're doing, how do you find your affiliate partners? So I've signed up for a couple of different ones. I used to, when I first started, again, I had no idea what I was doing. So I'd sign up for like random ones. What I found is most successful is I really love Stay 22. They do hotels. um get your guide activities and they've just started retail so you can like um do i think it's like best buy and nike and target and maybe walmart um nordstrom's i know is one of them so you can basically sell um get commissions through those rams as well um not just the hotels and the activities um but they have some great ai tools where if like somebody's like You know, like I have a bunch of posts on Paris. So if you're on my things to do post, then you're on
27:29
my three days in Paris post. And then you're on my how to be safe in Paris post. It's going to like the AI is going to be like, oh, wow, they're really like keen to go to Paris. And it will kind of shoot you off into some like hotel booking pages. And that's where I get a lot of my bookings is that like it's like, oh, yeah, you might be interested in this. They also have some great AI where it will like find text. Maybe I didn't like highlight. This hotel is near the Eiffel Tower. It will link it automatically for me to an affiliate link. So it takes a lot of the work out that you would normally do. And I'm not saying don't link to anything. Like don't rely on this tool 100 % if you're selling some specific hotel. But it's nice like a backup, right? Because if I like forgot something or they think text could be conversion worthy, I guess I'll call it, it will highlight it for you. So I really like Stay22. Really enjoyed
28:22
working with them. The other one I use is Travel Payouts. They have more variety. So you can do like car rentals. You can divide or trip advisor with them. You can do the hotels. You can do get your guide. They even have, I think, travel insurance. They've got all kinds of stuff on there. That one I just like have never made as much money. I do Omeo with them, which does like a lot of train and bus travel. I've made like a couple bucks on that, I think. I know a lot of some bloggers who really may think with that one, but for me, Stay 22 has been better. And then I'll also like sign up first. I'm part of the Amazon affiliates. So again, like if I do my hostel list and I, you know, do like, you need this padlock and you need this towel and you need these flip -flops or whatever, a link.
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The nice thing about Amazon though is even if they don't buy the thing I'm promoting, let's say like the padlock, but they buy their coffee because they always get their coffee off Amazon. I still get a commission because they hand through my link. So I've seen plenty of that. Oh, yeah. That brings up some good memories for me. I posted my most popular current post as of the time of this recording in November 2025 is I did a recipe for the bonefish Hawaiian orchid martini. That is like the most popular thing I have on my website.
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And I linked to a coconut syrup by Monin. Well, people click that. They don't buy the syrup, but like someone bought an Xbox, someone bought a Dyson hairdryer, someone like all kinds of crazy stuff. And so it's fun that like I'll get $12, which pays for the martini because they clicked the moment. Yeah, no, I've had the same where I've been like, what the hell is my buy today? And then I'll look at it like car parts.
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Yeah. You know, like I'm like, I know car part is like under a hundred bucks. We all know that, you know? So I was like, there was one day that I was like, I made like, like a. a good amount in affiliates. And I was like, what did somebody buy? And it's like, oh, okay. All right. This makes a lot more sense. And that, that nicely picks up around Christmas because obviously everybody's shopping too, because that is one thing I'm like, I, when you asked me, I was earlier working on and I didn't mention is like making my, my blog a little more seasonality proof. So I have one location, Finland that I did in winter. That's like my, you know, winter travel posts, but the rest of them are pretty like. either evergreen or more summery stuff, you know, going to Europe in summer. So that's another thing I'm working on. But yeah, Amazon, like if you're not part of Amazon, I mean, I don't love Jeff Bezos, but
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I do like that. Absolutely. It's such a low barrier to entry. It's just, it's really good. But so it sounds like you need to create a travel gift guide. Yeah, that is definitely one of those things that I'm like, I gotta keep doing this. I keep like, because I've actually, that's how some of the ones I'm quoted, like they've been like, what's the 10 items you want for Christmas? I'll be like, you need these items. So you need to write your own. Absolutely. I need to write my own. That's one of those things that I'm like, I'm working on my pillar post right now. Hence, I've written like 15 posts on Paris. I've written like. 20 some odd on Austria, 20 some odd on Greece. And then anybody who's listening is like, what's a pillar post? Rather than writing one article on a post, you write as much as you can, basically. So whether that's where to stay, the itinerary, travel tips, how to get there, restaurant
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guide, whatever it is, just so that Google's like, oh, they know this thing and they don't just know like one. section of this little thing so that's mostly what i've been working on but yeah no i need to do gift guides because i do very well with products i mean some of my top poster products yeah and those one again like i usually link to an amazon or some kind of other um some of them i partnered with directly so i don't link to amazon i'll link to their their dedicated affiliate program um and still have done well with those so yeah i think Products are easy for me because I like will not write about it unless they like sent it to me. So I have the photos of me with it. I can be like, I use this on X trip wherever I was going and it did X, Y, Z. And I liked X, but I hated Z, you know, whatever it is. So yeah, product posts do very well for me. Those are fun. So I'm curious with, you know, travel, obviously you're doing
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a travel website. How often do you travel? I spent four and a half months in Europe this summer. That was the longest I've been gone. That's awesome. And I went with no return ticket. It was mostly I had like family things that I had to come back for that wouldn't make me come home. I probably would have been still over there because people have been like, how's it being home? And I'm like, yeah. I'll go back. I'll go back. I was running out of Shangri -La. Yeah, as an American, you can have like 90 and 180 day period. And I think I used like 60 curry. So I was like, I'm pushing the limit, you know. But yeah, so like I did four and a half months in Europe.
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Like last year, December to January, I was in Mexico and Bacalar. Before that, I was in, I think, Finland and Sweden. So I'm actually honestly like two to three years behind on posts because I've been doing the pillar posts of destinations I did, you know, a little while back. So people have been like I've met on travels. Like I met people in Poland this year. I met people in Belfast and Budapest and wherever. And they're like, oh, where's the post where I met you? Not there yet. Yeah. I'm working on it. It's in the queue.
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It's in like, it's got all these other posts that I got to do first. Yeah, I get it, man. And it makes me curious though, whenever you're traveling and you're thinking about it in terms of, okay, I'm doing this for content. Does it hurt your travel experience or does it enhance it? I had somebody ask me this recently, and I think because I really only do photos, it doesn't. bug me so much I think if I was sitting like there and like recording videos and was one of those people with the steadicam and making it perfect which their videos look amazing like congrats to them but like I think that would take me out of the experience as somebody who's just doing photos I can like kind of easily snap one and like kind of like mentally go back into being a tourist for a second um I do like take notes like if I'm like oh this thing really sucked like I was telling somebody the other day I did a tour in Turkey And the tour guide, like, lost
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several people. So I'm going to remember that when I write the blog post. Like, we had to go back for them. Like, there was, like, three people they left behind. And I remember he asked me for a review at the end. And I was like, wow, the gall of this. You're like, you don't want a review from me, man. And really, we only went back because somebody else on the bus was like, these people from Saudi Arabia aren't on our bus. Yeah, because we would have kept going.
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That just transported me back to my honeymoon 20 years ago. I got left behind. I was on an excursion. We went on a cruise for our honeymoon. And we got left behind by the bus in Belize. And it was like a two -hour drive back to the port. And so we're like, okay, what do we do now? We're in a foreign country. Like, what do we do? And it just so happened we got very lucky. A different cruise ship had not left yet. And they let us sit on the stairs of their bus for the two -hour drive back to town. So we got very lucky. Oh, man. Yeah, you really lucked out.
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I was on one in Thailand where we were, like, island hopping to, like, uninhabited islands. It's not like, you know, island hopping where you're like, oh, I'll just go to the nearby resort. Awesome. We left somebody behind, but, like, luckily we drove away. We see him from the shore, like, waving his hands in the air. We went back, but I was just, like, oh, my God. Like, what if he wasn't prompt enough about waving at us?
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I guess he could have gone on one of the other boats that was sitting there, but I was just like that. Like, what if it was the last boat? Like, I don't know. I just like I'm one of those people. I'm like, what if, what if, what if? I was actually telling my friend the other day, he's like, he has kids and he's like, how do you slow to travel? I'm like. I was like, a lot of people will be concerned about, like, speaking the same language. And I'm concerned about being left behind on this whore in our country, okay?
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I always introduce myself to the guide. I remember their names so that this lady, they're like, oh, that blonde girl from America, you know, who asked me my name or was nice to me. Whatever, like, I can get them to hopefully remember me so that they're not like, where is she? Yeah. You just created another blog post you need to write. A what if I'm left behind, this is what you need to do to not get left behind. Well, exactly. That's what my friend said. He's like, well, then you need to write that down. So other people know, like, you know, make sure you're rememberable. So people you're not like ditched behind when they like forget, you know, that's really solid advice. So we've talked about a lot, but one of the things that we also mentioned that I kind of want to circle back to, we talked about AI. I'm curious because everybody's asking about it again. Are you using AI in your writing?
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What are you doing with that? Yeah, I use it for like a lot of like outline creation because I realize it can't replace me. You know, it's not going to. uh be scared in the ATM cave in Belize like I was and talk about how I was excited it was like an Indiana Jones invention that I realized this was an adventure I wasn't prepared for um so just not gonna come up with that stuff it's not gonna be lost on the island in Thailand you know it's not gonna be lost in Belize from the bus you know um but I will use it like I'll be like hey I'm gonna write a post on how to be safe in Paris give you some an outline of like what I should do and like it'll give me you know like you know uh use a money belt or something like that but then I'm going to fill that out with like oh I actually like you know an anti -theft person this is why you know um so I can I think it all can only if you're asking it like what's the weather in Paris in April
37:57
everybody's gonna have the same answer you know that's fine for me um in my opinion at least but yeah if it's something like a little bit and and to the point I said earlier like I rank For the posts I rank, it's usually, like, the very personal posts. So, like, I did the ATM cave in Belize, which there's, like, Maya sacrifices in this. You have to go through, like, this watering cave and climb up into it and whatnot. That was a very personal post for me because I was like, I love Indiana Jones. I thought this was going to be amazing. And then I kind of, like, panicked a little bit because that's very personal. AI is not going to come up with that. Maybe they can guess, like. A lot of people don't do well in this cave. Like, they're not going to have my exact experience. So, yeah, I really just use it. Or I'll use it, like I said, if I'm doing a lot of posts on Paris, I'm doing things to
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do in Paris and, you know, an itinerary post in Paris. And I talk about the Eiffel Tower in both of them because obviously it's, like, the biggest landmark in Paris. I'll have it reword what I've written in the first post just so it's not the exact same words. But I'm feeding it my content and going, hey, can you rewrite this? you know, so that it's angled more to her, you know, how to be safe around the Eiffel Tower in Paris or something like that. So yeah, I don't just go like, go write me a post on how to be safe in Paris and hit publish. I always reread it. It doesn't always sound like you. So, you know, I have like a more like a quirky, I'm very pop culture -y, so I'll like throw in pop culture references that it's just not going to do. So yeah, I don't think it's like generate and publish.
39:28
I think that's not it. Thank God, because I tell you what, that's one of the big things that I've been talking to a lot of people about is if you're going to use AI, that's fine. But don't forget, you still have to be a human. Yeah. Yeah. So one of the things that I'll do is I'll leave in the show notes. I wrote a blog post for GoDaddy about the importance of humanizing whatever it is you're getting from AI. There is a proper way to write a blog post using AI. So it's good to hear that you're doing it that way. Yeah, I think I actually listened to your episode on using AI. And I remember there was like a website you mentioned that you can find out if an article is generated by AI. Yes, I'll have to put that in the show notes as well. Copyscape does it.
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And then I'm actually going to go ahead and pull up the other one. Yeah, because I actually like. Last night I was kind of testing it out because I was like, oh, this is interesting. And I put in some articles that I knew I had used AI for. And it told me 0%. It's probably because you went back and humanized it. Yeah. Well, that's what I'm thinking because I was just like, I definitely know I like put in some prompts, you know, to like get some information. And I like, you know, copy pasted it in there to like see what it would say. And I was expecting it to say like at least like, I don't know, a couple percent, you know, like maybe like 5 % or something like that. Um, cause like I said, so the outline and I was like zero and I was like, oh yeah, I guess me. It matters taking those extra couple steps. I mean, it really does matter. Um, the website that I was, um, that I've been using is writer .com backslash AI content detector.
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And then the other one that I have been using has been, um, like I said, copy scape and, um, That one's a little bit more sensitive. So like if you're trying to get the actual passages highlighted that may be most likely to be AI, it'll tell you which ones flag the system. But yeah, there's something to be said for if you're going to use a tool like an AI generator, at least please go back and fix it. Yeah, yeah. Make sure it sounds like you. Make sure it has your personal experience. Because again, you know, it's not going to be scared in Belize in the cave. It's not going to be lost in Paris. It's not going to be. I'm behind by the tour bus, you know?
41:39
Yeah. And those are the posts I think that people mostly enjoy reading. I mean, I can still think of blog posts that I really enjoyed reading. One reason I went on that cable is because, you know, other people's blog posts. Because they don't let you take your camera in, so you kind of just have to imagine what it looked like. Oh, man. Yeah. You know, I think that we're going to see that a lot more, that people are going to be looking more for that human connection, that human element of, OK, yeah, everybody can have the same top 10 post, but there's nothing quite like saying this is how I felt in that moment. And if you want to feel this, this is what you need to do. Yeah. Yeah, and I love writing those posts rather than anything else. I was telling my friend the other day, I was like, we went to Disneyland and there's a Disney around the Matterhorn. Well, I went to go see the real Matterhorn this summer, but apparently I went
42:27
too early. All I saw was whiteout. There was a blizzard up top. So I joked I've spent less money going to Disneyland and seeing the Matterhorn. That's awesome. Now that's going to be a blowout for somebody else that's right. Unless they just happened to go in April to the Matterhorn and seen the Blizzard 2. But you know what I'm saying? It's not going to be like, you know, they're like, oh, by the way, go to Disneyland for treatment.
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I only have a picture of me just in like white sky behind. That's supposed to be like 27 or 29 peaks there. I saw nothing. What are the odds? Oh, man. It just sounds like a very entertaining blog post. Oh, yeah. It's going to be like this. I was so excited going up the cogwheel train. I paid over $100 to go on this train. And guess what? Nothing. I saw nothing. All I could do was laugh with everybody else up top. Well, you know what? I got to say, at least she walked away with a story and a laugh. Yeah. Yeah. You know, at least that's one of those things not to do post. Don't go in April. Yeah, that's kind of it reminds me of what happened whenever I went to Paris. I wanted to see the gardens in Paris. And of course, when we went, none of the damn flowers had bloomed, but we just so happened it was about a week before Notre Dame burned.
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And so so we went to Notre Dame and as we're in customs in London, it's all over the news that it's burning. And I'm like. But we were just there. Yeah, it's wild, wild stuff. So I love the fact that you are sharing your travel experiences. And so if people want to read your travel experiences, where can they find you online? So it's travelherstory .com. And again, her story like isn't like history, but with her at the front of it. So is there anywhere else you want to direct people to that they can find you? All of my social medias are pretty much Travel Her Story, except for I think TikTok is Travel Her Story blog. So yeah, I think the rest of them like threads, Instagram, Pinterest are all just Travel Her Story. Well, we'll share that all in the show notes. But before I let you go, you did mention that you wrote a book. What was the book? Yeah. So again, I'm a big Indiana Jones fan and I kept wanting books like that. And there's
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a couple of Indiana Jones books, so I'm not trying to hate on them or anything, but I wanted more, you know, like there's just not enough action adventure in my opinion. And so I wrote one that's very kind of Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones. I'm trying to get it published. I have an agent who wants me to resubmit January. So now I just have to wait two months to January, which is a painful wait. But yeah, it was basically this woman who reclaims art and artifacts that are stolen. And she winds up, of course, getting, you know, kidnapped or somebody who's after the same artifact. And that leads to this whole, whole big, you know, search for this Mayan artifact that she joins up with a ragtag team to kind of get there first.
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So it's a fan fiction. I love it. Yeah, kind of, yeah, a little bit like the original character. So I'm not using Indiana or Lara Croft, but very much in that vein. So if you like one of those two or kind of Jumanji or any of those kind of action -adventure -y things, it should be up your alley. So fun flavor. I love it. That just sounds fantastic. Well, I wish you much success. I hope that it gets published. And if nothing else, at least self -publish it because it sounds like that story needs to be out in the universe.
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Thank you. That's awesome. Well, Michelle, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today. And yeah, is there anything else that you want to share that I haven't thought to ask you yet? I don't think so. But if anybody has any questions, they're welcome to reach out. I usually answer a lot of questions on threads. So that's why I do my monthly posts of how much I make. So if you're like, hey, how'd she do this? And feel free to reach out or I can answer emails as well, too. But threads is usually where other people ask them questions. So maybe sometimes you'll be inspired for another question. So, well, that's fantastic for accountability, at least. Yeah, trust me. I will sit there and be like, oh, no, this month is doing either great or terrible. You know what they say, what gets measured gets improved. That's true. That's very true. And thank you so much for having me, Ashley.
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It was very enjoyable talking to you. I enjoyed it, too. It was a good time. And bloggy friends, until next time, may your page views be high and your bounce rates be low.