293
9 min 36 sec

Travel Blogger Gets Paid via Pinterest and Guidebooks

A nomadic employee writes a guidebook about Iceland and earns $10,000 after promoting it on Pinterest.
Blog eBook International Passive Income Social Media Writing

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What It's About

A French travel blogger zigzags around Europe documenting her travels and selling guidebooks for passive income.

Business Model
Blog
Skills Required
Writing & Travel Knowledge
Complexity
Low
Profit Potential
Medium

Words of Wisdom

Claire tried to give a lot of information about fewer locations, as opposed to most travel guides that try to give information about hundreds of locations. And she gave very clear directions about how to find the best shot of a particular waterfall, landmark, or landscape.

Her overall objective was to simplify the information being offered on a particular destination so people didn’t have to sift through a lot of extra information to get to the good stuff. She wanted to help with the trip planning overwhelm and lay out the really good options instead of every single option, and this is really good advice for anyone looking to do something similar. Everyone writes general guidebooks—stand out by simplifying your selection and getting specific with your info.

Fun Fact

One of Claire’s customers not only loved her guidebooks but said that it saved her marriage. The customer is also a travel planning addict and generally spends hours trying to find the information for their next trip, which annoys her husband. Thanks to Claire’s guidebook, the customer found all the information she needed, saved a ton of time and didn’t annoy her husband.

Notes from Chris

Episode 293

There are a lot of travel bloggers out there, but the vast majority of them aren't making any money—at least, not anything to write home about. Today's story is a bit different though—it's about a travel enthusiast in France who spends her time road tripping around Europe. The best part? She documents her travels and turns them into guides that earn her an additional $10,000 a year. What a journey!

Today’s side hustle comes from Claire Robinson who is based in France, but travels a lot… so who knows where she is right now. Back in 2013, Claire was a Quality Manager for a medical device company and was lucky enough to travel around the world for her job. Since she was visiting and at times, living, abroad she started blogging about her excursions.

She set up a simple Wordpress website and started sharing specific tips and itineraries from the places she would visit. She named her website ZigZag on Earth: because she zigzags around when she has time before zigzagging back home.

By early 2016, Claire decided to put some sort of strategy in place for her guidebooks. She picked Pinterest as her social media and for her efforts made $4500 in 2016. She continued with her free Pinterest marketing and so far in 2017, her revenue has exceeded $10k. She now has over 4,000 followers on Pinterest and over 46k unique monthly visitors to her website.


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • ZigZag on Earth: Zigzag your way across Europe with some help from Claire. Check out her website!
  • Selz: The ecommerce platform that Claire used to take care of payments and the delivery of the guide book to the buyer
  • Wordpress: Claire used Wordpress to create ZigZag on Earth, and here you can learn how to install your own Wordpress site in 5 minutes!
  • Canva: The free design platform that Claire used to create images for social media
SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter


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Resources

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Quote of the Day
"Don't go into travel blogging just because you love travel. Know that it will completely change your travel experience. My travel days are really long so that I can cover a lot of ground. I do not stop. I take strange pictures of information boards and entrances signs. It’s definitely changed how I travel."
—Claire Robinson #SideHustleSchool

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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau