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Many of us dream of leaving the 9-5 and living a life filled with fun and adventure, traveling, and living in exotic locations. But what does it take to achieve this lifestyle and what is it really like?
To find out, Kirsten Lowe had the pleasure of interviewing travel blogger Shelley Marmor. Shelley started her first travel blog Travel Mexico Solo in April 2020 and now has five sites and makes on average $55K/month in 2023 doing what she loves. Read on to learn more about her journey and how she achieved success as a travel blogger.
Table of Contents
- About Shelley Marmor
- Starting a Travel Blog
- Work and Lifestyle of a Travel Blogger
- Skills and Tools Required for Travel Blogging
- How to Make Money With a Travel Blog
- Shelley Marmor’s Success as a Travel Blogger
- Marketing and Promoting Your Travel Blog
- Shelley Marmor’s Future Plans
- Shelley Marmor’s Mexico Travel Recommendations
- Shelley Marmor’s Mexico Travel Blogs
- How to Learn More About Travel Blogging
- Want to be inspired by even more business ideas and founders’ stories?
About Shelley Marmor
Please tell us a bit about you and what you were doing before you started travel blogging
I’m originally from South Florida, and my last “real job” was editor of a Miami travel magazine. In December 2017, my company abruptly closed down after about 55 years in business, which came as a shock to all of us.
I decided I needed a BIG life change, so I sold my home and everything inside it to a nice man, and headed off to travel for a year. I was 36, but this was basically going to be my college gap year! The first place I landed was Mexico City — and I fell in love at first sight. I arrived in April 2018, and as of June 2023, I am still living in Mexico.
Starting a Travel Blog
What inspired you to become a travel blogger?
I was dabbling in starting my own online business, and had a drop-shipping store called Pockets on My Dress. Then Covid hit in early-2020, and everyone stopped buying dresses (even if they had pockets).
I don’t even remember what made me do this, but I ended up joining a few Facebook groups for travel bloggers, and I learned you can actually make money from a travel blog. Since I had been traveling around Mexico by myself for the last two years, I named my blog Travel Mexico Solo.
How did you get started as a travel blogger?
It was pretty straightforward: I just made the blog (I had made a few websites before, so I might have been ahead of the curve here), and then started writing.
I think I was lucky to be in so many Facebook travel blog groups because other bloggers told me I should invest in some blogging courses so I don’t waste years doing things the wrong way (like many of them had), and I took that advice.
I enrolled in my first course only about 3-4 months after starting the blog, and have since spent about $15,000 on courses and coaching. I believe this is the only reason I have a multiple six-figure business only 3 years after starting my very first travel blog, while some bloggers have been at it for 10 years and haven’t cracked six-figures in total income.
Work and Lifestyle of a Travel Blogger
What does travel blogging involve?
With travel blogging, you’re writing about cool places you’ve been, experiences you’ve had, etc… but with the intention of helping a reader visit those places. Some people think blogging is just writing about your personal experiences, but that model has been dead for a long time. Nowadays, readers want to know how your experience can help them.
What’s it like being a travel blogger?
Not to brag, but it’s as amazing as you think it is! The obvious caveat here is that you have to be earning enough to support yourself, and that takes years. While the first two years of blogging were hard, and I struggled financially (like any new business does when starting out), in the end, I live the life of my dreams now.
What does a typical week of a travel blogger look like?
I can’t say there are any typical weeks. Some weeks I work a lot; some weeks I don’t work at all. Sometimes I’m traveling around; sometimes I’m watching a lot of true crime documentaries and don’t get off the couch.
I now have a team (blog manager, 3 writers, editor, VA) that handles a lot of the day to day with the blogs, and I focus more on course creation or doing deep dives into my analytics to make sure all my content keeps bringing in consistent income.
How do you choose your travel destinations and plan your trips?
Honestly, I just go wherever I feel like going. I don’t do any sponsored trips or press trips (there’s lots of reasons for this), so it’s really just about what I want to do.
Do you base yourself in one place and then take weekend (or longer) trips to other places?
I’m different from other travel bloggers in that I live in Mexico and only blog about Mexico. Luckily for me, there are countless places to visit in Mexico, and inter-country travel is pretty inexpensive.
To answer the question directly, I have lived in 4 places in Mexico now (“lived” meaning spent 3+ months in one place), and done trips from there, but I’ve also just done random trips all around the country.
Skills and Tools Required for Travel Blogging
What skills do you need to become a successful travel blogger?
I think the obvious answer is writing and photography skills… but without SEO (or the budget to pay for ads), your blogs will never get seen on a consistent basis.
Personally, I don’t think a big social following means anything for a blogger; I’d consider those people influencers, not bloggers. I always encourage people to make sure they want to be a blogger, and not an influencer, because they are very different things.
More than SEO though, you need to have perseverance if you want to succeed. You need to understand your first few years will be HARD, but you need to persevere through them. When you give up is when you have failed, and not a second before.
What tools or platforms do you use to manage and optimize your travel blog?
I use WordPress, Kadence theme (a free theme), and WP Rocket for speed optimization.
How to Make Money With a Travel Blog
When did you think you could monetize your travel blog?
I treated my blog as a business from Day 1, and since I knew a few people who were making money from their blog, I knew I could too.
How did you learn how to monetize your blog?
Through blogging courses, and though the first 3 courses I took are no longer even open, they helped me springboard immediately. While I made no money in 2020 (my first year blogging), I made $8,490 my second year (2021)… then $272,769 my third year (2022), which was a 3112% increase. (Please know this is not typical in any way.)
What are some effective ways to monetize a travel blog?
I identify 4 common ways to monetize your blog: Affiliate marketing, display ads, selling your own products and sponsored trips/sponsored content, but I think the best business-people also think outside the box and have other income streams.
For affiliate marketing, I always recommend people start with some basic programs like Booking[.]com or Expedia for hotels, and Viator or Get Your Guide for tours, as these are the things travelers are looking for.
For ads, the easiest ad networks to get into are Ezoic and Google AdSense, as they have no traffic requirements. However, if you have no traffic, you won’t make money off ads because if no one sees the ads on your site, you can’t make money from them.
There are high-tier networks, like Mediavine and Raptive (formerly AdThrive), but you need quite a bit of traffic for those. In the mid-tier, there’s Monumetric and SheMedia.
What are your 5 top tips to becoming a successful and monetized travel blogger?
| 1. Don’t compare yourself to others, but do let other people’s success motivate you. |
| 2. Keep going, even when it’s hard. The second you give up is the second you have failed; quitting is the only true failure. |
| 3. Remember that it’s about the reader; not about you. No one cares what you did, they only care how you can help them do it too. |
| 4. Understand that like any business, blogging takes a lot of time before you see success. Embrace the journey! |
| 5. Invest some money in courses because “those who pay, pay attention.” I tell people you can pay with money or you can pay with time… so if you can invest money, do that. If not, you can always “pay” with your time. |
Shelley Marmor’s Success as a Travel Blogger
How long did it take you to monetize your sites and what are some of your results?
I started my blog in April 2020, and the first money I made was in January 2021 — It was $77.10, but it might as well have been a million dollars. I told myself that if I can make $77, I can make $77,000… and I did close out 2022 at $272,769.
Marketing and Promoting Your Travel Blog
Where and how do you promote your sites?
SEO, which stands for “search engine optimization, and essentially means I get free advertising by getting my blogs into the number 1 spot on Google, so people find me for free.
Do you collaborate with brands, tourism boards, or other travel-related businesses or groups?
No. I try to stay away from anything that needs a contract and requires a lot of back and forth negotiations. I think when you enter into corporate partnerships, you give up your creative control, so I have always turned down partnerships of any kind, and I don’t even accept free gifts (because nothing’s really free).
How do you stand out in a crowded travel blogging space?
I only blog about one place, and it’s one place I know very, very well.
Shelley Marmor’s Future Plans
What are your future goals with your travel blogs, and traveling?
Probably not the answer you’re expecting, but I just bought a house in Oaxaca, and I’m looking forward to not traveling! I was nomadic for 5+ years, so I’m looking forward to traveling from my house to the grocery store and back.
Do you see yourself continuing your Mexico travel blogs for a while yet, or are you planning to go to other destinations or back to the States sometime?
I have no plans to give up the travel blogs, but I do spend more of my time with my coaching students and making blogging courses. I can’t see myself ever living in the U.S. again, but who knows!
Shelley Marmor’s Mexico Travel Recommendations
What are your favorite things to do or places to visit in Mexico?
Mexico is a huge country, so there are a lot of favorites. I don’t like crowds so that rules out a few places, but here are some places not everyone’s heard of that should be on your travel radar:
- For beaches-Mazunte, La Paz, Isla Holbox & Zihuatanejo
- For big cities-Morelia, Guadalajara & Oaxaca City
- Hidden gems (or hiddenish gems): San Cristóbal de las Casas, Valle de Bravo & Tepoztlan
What makes Mexico so cool or a great place to live?
It’s a slow/peaceful pace of life, people are friendly, there’s amazing history, the weather’s nice, I love the colorful, colonial architecture, it’s very biodiverse with a lot of different nature, the beaches are spectacular, and of course, the food.
© Marcos Elihu Castillo Ramirez via Canva.com
Shelley Marmor’s Mexico Travel Blogs
Where can people read your travel blogs and follow you?
If you want to check out my travel blog, head to Travel Mexico Solo, my main blog, but I also have Travel To Merida, Travel To Oaxaca and Tulum Travel Secrets.
How to Learn More About Travel Blogging
What advice do you have for someone wanting to start a travel blog?
Take some travel blogging courses, and be very ok with the fact that it will be years before you make any money at all… and it will probably be a few more years before you make “quit your day job” money.
Still, those years are going to pass regardless, and in two years, you can either be two in with your blog — or be right where you are now, still thinking about starting it, and two years older. If you want to start a travel blog, then now’s the time.
How can people interested in travel blogging learn more about it?
If you’re not sure you’re ready to commit to starting, don’t invest in anything and just find free content on YouTube or in podcasts. If you’re serious, then invest in courses because blogging is more of a science than an art in a lot of ways.
I think you either know and understand the formula of how to make a successful blog, or you’re just doing what you think is right. For me, I think I “worked smarter” (versus working harder) by investing in courses.
In the last 3 years, I’ve spent more than $15,000 USD on courses, so I’m not just saying this as someone who sells courses… I also buy plenty of them myself.
Though I’m a multi six-figure blogger, I actually just bought a blogging course one week ago because I wanted to learn a new skill, and when I want to learn a new skill, I pay an expert to teach me.
If you’re looking to learn blogging, head to TravelBlogging101.com, and you can download my free video course on the 5 Best Affiliate Programs for Travel Bloggers.
Shelley Marmor’s Beginner and Intermediate Travel Blogging Courses
If you’re like me and want to learn Shelley Marmor’s strategies in greater depth and detail, you can buy one or more of her mini-courses.
(I bought her Affiliate Marketing 101 MasterClass (Beginner) and her How to Find Affiliate Marketing Keywords (Intermediate) courses and I’ve already learned a lot more about her affiliate marketing strategies and how she finds lucrative keywords).
Course students can also join her private Affiliate Marketing for Travel Bloggers Facebook group. This is an active and supportive community with lots of great discussion and questions being asked. Shelley is often on there and responds to a lot of the questions herself which is very helpful.
The four courses available are:
1. Affiliate Marketing 101 MasterClass (Beginner)
2. How to Find Affiliate Marketing Keywords (Intermediate)
3. 10 Ways to Get High-Quality Backlinks to Your Site (Beginner)
4. How to Optimize Your Old Blog Posts (For all Levels)
She also has Done for You Blog Post Template (US $14 at the time of publication) for bloggers who want to learn the exact structure Shelley uses for her affiliate marketing posts that brings in thousands of dollars, month after month.
Shelley also has an Affiliate Tables template if you want to add a nice-looking product comparison table to your article to help drive more clicks and sales conversions.
We’d like to thank Shelley Marmor for her time and for sharing her travel blogging journey and invaluable tips on how to monetize a travel blog with us. Hope you found her story as interesting and inspiring as we did.
Want to be inspired by even more business ideas and founders’ stories?
Then check out Starter Story founded by Pat Walls. It’s a paid subscription-based site with 4418+ detailed business case studies plus revenue info. They cover founders who have monetized publications, media, and blogs, ecommerce and consumer, software and technology, and service based businesses.
I’m a subscriber and have already read a number of their case studies including one on Shelley Marmor. I find the tips and strategies shared by the founders to be very in-depth and helpful, and have given me lots of ideas I can apply to my business.
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