Turning A Vacation Into A Profit Machine

That's an awesome domain name.

I'll be following this, good luck!

Good to see a journey that isn t the normal ogass instabored type, thank you

@Sherbert Hoover You are a money maker beast!!!

If you can make this work , cover costs and then go forward to make even more profit, you could then look to flip the site and take the additional profit and pay for a second holiday to do and relax.

Another idea is, if you're doing the travel blog, then would this not be classed as business expenses ?

A very interesting idea! But seems that you need to write a lot for that!

big sherbert opening a journey, i'm expecting some killer results

MisterF said:

If you can make this work , cover costs and then go forward to make even more profit, you could then look to flip the site and take the additional profit and pay for a second holiday to do and relax.

Another idea is, if you're doing the travel blog, then would this not be classed as business expenses ?

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Had this thought myself, if he was able to make a profit each year, he and his wife could conceivably return to Iceland every year at no cost to themselves.

Brilliant idea really, It's inspired me to consider something similar based upon my own trips around the world, but more of a guide to those who want to repeat what I did, like where to stay, tips and hints on the local areas etc.
The main difference being was that I did a working holiday visa for several years, sharing back what I learnt could go a long way.

Best of luck, I'll be following to see how it goes! (side note - not been Iceland myself, heard nothing but good things. I may end up finding it useful for when I go as its on the bucket list)

I was gonna do this after 2 years. Oh well, this would probably my guide to Iceland. I too am a lover of photography.
Already bookmarked for my personal trip.

There's quite a few podcasts floating around out there featuring guests that created highly targeted travel guides/sites like the one you want to do, with great success, so you probably have a winner here.

My girlfriend and I gave it a shot not too long ago, and what we pulled together ended up being a rough draft of ideas on how to do it better next time.

Aside from some pictures, I'd say the most valuable thing we did was track expenses so others could have an idea on what to budget for a similar trip.

The site we put up gave an idea of what kind of traffic is available. But, in the end it turned out to be more of a Pinterest play than an seo one - which wasn't something I was prepared for, so we took the experience as a lesson for next time.

I'll be following this one!

great idea man! i love it. I am actually going to setup something like to fund a trip for in future!!!

UPDATE

I had a busy week last week, but still wanted to make sure I made some "pre" progress. Here is what I set out to do last week:

• Finalize itinerary for trip
• Contact hotels and such to ensure reservations are set
• Look up some affiliate networks
• Find fast-loading minimalist theme
• Set up plugins and site privatization pre-launch
• Begin drafting out content

Here is what I actually did.

Itinerary somewhat finalized. One of the days we were going to take one of the 4x4 "F roads" to a place called Landmannalaugar. I don't think that is going to happen, as that road is closed off until June most years due to snow and ice. So, need to make some adjustments to stretch our one day in Vik into two.

All hotels, rental car agencies, etc have been contacted and all have responded to ensure that our reservations are set. I also purchased a portable WiFi card for when we arrive so the pictures my wife and I take can be uploaded to the cloud same-night in case something happens to our camera. Better safe than sorry.

Signed up and was accepted for Booking.com and TripAdvisor's affiliate networks. That's a plus. Continuing to look for better opportunities, though.

Went with Leo Babauta's theme: https://zenhabits.net/theme/. I wasn't kidding when I said I wanted a minimalist theme. I also installed WP Smush Pro, WP Hummingbird, and Smart Crawl, activated Akismet, and installed and activated Contact Form 7, Google Analytics for Wordpress, and WP Super Cache.

I didn't draft out any content yet, but I wanted to test the speed of the site itself with some dummy content on it, so I generated 2500 words of Lorem Ipsum text and created some headings as well, then popped those on the home page. Yeah, it's fast.

I also registered http://instagram.com/icelandin8 and confirmed my email, then added my URL, so that's nice and safe. I'll probably pop three images a day from our trip up on it to draw some attention and maybe drive some traffic.

Plans for this upcoming week:

• Really finish the itinerary
• Configure website how I want it to be
• Privatize site for now until the trip is over
• Begin drafting out content so it's plug and play when we get back
• Test image placement options
• Better Instagram configuration (get bio up there that pops)
• Develop an eye-catching yet minimal logo + round version for Instagram
• Start creating a list of guest posting opportunities

Next week's update will have a lot more detail + screenshots as well.

@Sherbert Hoover That's a good post and I'll be following it to know the result of the Journey.

Don't miss to enjoy the vacation.

Cheers!!

Hey man, Happy Journey for your both journeys.
BTW, What should I take it is as Work Goals or Vacation Goals?

Bookedmarked.

But the theme seems kinda plain and makes me not wish to read it further. Wonder if it's too "minimalist"?

Just think that people that searching for travelling tips would wish to see as much photos as possible yes?

bookmarked !
best of luck

I lied about the screenshots. Keeping that shit under wraps until I return from the trip.

UPDATE

The itinerary is… complete! Had to make some major adjustments, but everything is good to go. Going to be seeing quite a bit in these eight days. I changed my plans from a single page design to a multi-page design. There will be one main page for the high level overview of what we did, and then in-text links to sub-pages that will be more detailed information. These sub-pages will link out to affiliate links and such, and will keep the home page from looking too spammy.

I uploaded and activated the WP Maintenance Mode plugin and configured it, so now (except for myself) the site appears under construction… which it is. Then I went in and threw the Lorem Ipsum text up again on the new theme with some images to test more placement options. Things are looking beautiful. I’m very happy with the theme and the layout, as well as the functionality/minimalism balance.

I added a bio to the Instagram account: "The most comprehensive eight-day itinerary to Iceland, with travel tips, tricks, and secrets you won't find anywhere else!” I followed the tips that @IGKing set forth in https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/case-study-how-to-properly-set-up-your-instagram-profile.917639/ valuable thread.

I developed a clean, minimal looking logo blending a silhouette of Iceland with the words Iceland in 8 Days. Not the most incredible thing in the world, but I’m no designer extraordinaire. Here is the logo in all its glory:



Critiques welcome. I then made a readable square/round version of the logo and placed it on the Instagram page. I checked it on my phone and it was readable. Score. That can be viewed on the profile itself https://www.instagram.com/icelandin8/. Give it a follow. Or don’t. You’re not my customer base anyway.

I wanted to start drafting out content, writing and introduction, wire framing out the sections and such. In doing so, I wanted to keep one thing in the forefront of my mind: site visitors aren’t visiting the site to find out about myself or my wife. They are wanting information on our itinerary so they can do something similar to what I did when I was planning our trip.

So I scoped out my competition before I did anything else. Turns out that I may be the first site that is wholly dedicated to an Iceland itinerary. There were several articles that were serious heavyweights and high ranking for a lot of similar search terms to what I was going to target.

I drafted out the first draft of a succinct introduction on the home page. It is hovering at a little over 100 words, and I love it. Then I created day headings, highlights, meals, and lodging bullet points, and placeholders for more information and images. At this point, I was closing in on 500 words, which was what I was hoping for as a target for the wireframe of sections.

And then… I went ahead and created the subpages. They are blank for now. All 82 of them. Site was getting some hits until I put it in maintenance mode.

Plans for the next week:

• Link to sub-pages on home page
• Start drafting out some default content on sub-pages
• Follow some related Instagram accounts
• Find some places for guest posts and comments
• Make a packing list
• Print out all necessary paperwork and download some apps
• Grab affiliate links for the gear we got on Amazon
• Cruise for some more related affiliate networks
• Potentially test out some AdSense options

12 days til the trip.

I'll prolly never make it over to see Iceland in my lifetime so your finished product hopefully will let me see Iceland as if I was actually doing your itenerary. Good luck on both journeys (real and the BHW one). Will be watching this.

Fun little update. Bad news and good news.

BAD NEWS

My web hosting account was compromised and hacked. All 30+ of my project sites 404'ed. Cue panic mode. It's alright though, my web host was able to revert back to all sites from two weeks ago.

Guess what I started two weeks ago? Yeah. So I get to start the site over from scratch. It's alright though, I'll do it better this time around. With a stronger database password.

GOOD NEWS

Instagram account is rocking 139 followers with zero content. Twitter account at 222. All followers are laser targeted. i.e. people who recently followed a similar account. Basically, each one of the followers I currently have have met all of the following criteria:

1) They recently followed an account based on traveling in Iceland
2) They are not bots (I have been hand following to make sure)
3) They are interested in following another account based on traveling in Iceland

I will continue to build the accounts up both before and during the project progression.

T-minus seven days til liftoff (of the trip, not the site).

That's a great idea, I'm sure you could apply it to other destinations as well. Just keep going on vacation and soon enough you'll have a digital empire of "In 8 Days" sites making you $$$.
I find using my in-built voice recorder in my phone is a great way to quickly and discreetly take notes - for those facts or ideas that you know you'll lose or forget but definitely don't want to. Good luck!

Sherbert Hoover said:

My web hosting account was compromised and hacked.

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Moral of the story: Atleast for me - Dont share website address on BHW..

Also, do you use a managed VPS.. I am planning on getting one..

I usually always get DMCA ignored hosting and i think i am gonna be using a managed VPS for this site. It costs a bit more but having to deal with false DMCAs and other shit is probably gonna be taken care of by them..

Mind sharing what was hacked and what steps are you taking to prevent it in the future so that others following this, like me, can do that from the get go ?