Laying it out there

Blogs like this one are usually all about business. Posts are built to get the most out of the SEO work that goes into them and in turn the blogger hopes to get the most from their affiliate marketing or whatever path they have chosen to monetize their blog.

Well this post is not that. Instead, this is a person being honest with the travel blogging world and with myself. Let’s put the cards on the table, shall we?

Let’s be honest with each other. I’m a normal guy, work a 9-5 job to pay the bills, and do this blogging thing as something that should be fun with the dream of it becoming a small side hustle, but that is as far as I have ever gotten with it.

Over time the “fun of it” has become laborious at times as I struggle to figure out how on earth to both get traffic to the blog and then figure out how to monetize it with that second part (figuring out how to make a profit) being so far away from reality I have honestly put it to the sidelines during the day to day.

I have read so many information blogs, watched endless views, and have been told here and there what to do and not do in order to make a good travel blog. However, over the past few years, it just has not worked for me. I haven’t been consistent with posts and material, but when content has been posted, it has struggled to get any kind of attention.

I’ve tried to work on the SEO side of it and I think I’ve gotten better at it, but the views still haven’t followed. I’ve thought it has been an issue “under the hood”, like metadata or something real technical inside the blog itself, but I haven’t seen an issue. Or it’s just a flooded niche and I’m too small and inconsistent to get those views. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s a combination of everything that has led to the dead end and near zero readership.

To be honest, it’s humbling but also demoralizing when you put in all this effort, time, and thought into a post only to see a handful of views. I just don’t know how anyone does it without a team around them, a bunch of paid add-ons that I’m not going to throw money at, or people are lying about what they are doing with either their readership or money they roll in.

It can’t be impossible right? I mean, I know darn well I’m not going to post a blog, get instant million views overnight and then instantly turn a profit. However, I know the hundreds of posts and videos saying “do this and this and earn your first $1,000” are full of it. What is the actual answer out there? It can’t be impossible if so many others are doing it. I get it, it’s not for everyone, but I should have seen something in the viewership numbers after all this time but yet, I still see nothing.

So let me ask you, HOW DO YOU DO THIS? I MEAN, FROM THE GROUND UP? What tools do you use, what is your viewership, is there anything special you do and be honest, do you turn a profit? We can all agree this blogging thing is almost a second job, if you want to make it look professional and then be monetized in a legit way, so how on earth do you do it?

I’m putting it out there, I am at a lost in this whole endeavor and want to reach out to the travel community to get their honest answers. I barely get views on this blog, I know I’m inconsistent with posting and the content needs a lot of work, but is that all there is to it? I know there isn’t a magical button, but it can’t be impossible like it feels like right now.

If you want to talk, please hit me on Twitter (X) or email me at travelswithmattblog at gmail dot com. I thank you in advance and look forward to what you have to say.