She Took the Scenic Route , Now Her Travel Blog Makes $2K/Month

If she took scenic route is on your radar, this short guide cuts through the noise. Here is what is worth knowing, and how to put it to work today.

Key Takeaways

• She Took the Scenic Route , Now Her Travel Blog Makes $2K/Month One post, some persistence, and a smart pivot , what travel bloggers are doi...
• Written by Ben Huber Last Updated: May 28, 2025 Home Side Hustles Side Hustle News When Madison Krigbaum launched her travel blog in 2017, s...
• 📌 Side Hustle: Travel blogging 💰 Revenue: $2,000/month 🗓️ Started: 2017 Featured Quote: “It’s not flashy.

She Took the Scenic Route , Now Her Travel Blog Makes $2K/Month

One post, some persistence, and a smart pivot , what travel bloggers are doing differently in 2025.

Written by Ben Huber Last Updated: May 28, 2025

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When Madison Krigbaum launched her travel blog in 2017, she had no strategy, no audience , and no plans to quit her job and travel full-time.

📌 Side Hustle: Travel blogging

💰 Revenue: $2,000/month

🗓️ Started: 2017

Featured Quote:

“It’s not flashy. It’s not fast. But it’s mine. And that makes all the difference.”

“I just knew I loved to write , and I missed traveling so badly after studying abroad,” she said. “The blog started as a creative outlet. Nothing more.”

For years, that’s exactly what it was. She wrote posts no one read, made almost no money, and tried to grow on social media , until she realized she didn’t enjoy any of it.

She didn’t build a massive Instagram following. She didn’t quit her job to backpack full-time.

She just kept publishing , and eventually figured out how to make her blog work for her.

Fast forward to 2025: Madison’s blog, Madison’s Footsteps, now brings in up to $2,000/month. Her secret? It wasn’t a viral moment. It was learning SEO, sticking with it, and publishing the kind of content that people are actually searching for.

In a digital world chasing shortcuts and short-form content, Madison’s story is proof that long-form, long-game blogging still has a place , and can still pay.

Here’s how she did it , and what she’d focus on if she had to start all over today.

I Thought I Wanted to Work in Fashion

Madison learned how to start a blog in the summer of 2017, fresh off a semester abroad in Rome and knee-deep in a brutally unpaid internship in New York City. Her days were long, her bank account was empty, and her mind was still wandering the sun-soaked trattorias and cobblestone streets of Europe.

“I was miserable,” she says. “I spent the whole summer daydreaming about the trips I had taken , and wishing I was anywhere else.”

So she started writing. The blog was called Broke, Wild & Traveling, and at first, it was more diary than digital business. There was no keyword strategy. No SEO plan. “Honestly, I think the only people reading it were me and maybe my mom.”

The first photo Madison ever shared on Instagram , from the early, unpolished days of Broke, Wild & Traveling.

Still, something about it clicked. Madison had always loved to write, and travel gave her something she wanted to write about. Even though she wasn’t making money , and wouldn’t for years , she kept going.

“I definitely dreamed of monetizing it eventually,” she says. “But I had no idea what that actually meant. You need readers to make money. And I had… none.”

I Blogged for Years With Nothing to Show for It

For a long time, Madison’s Footsteps looked like a lot of other blogs: part-time, passion-fueled, and mostly invisible.

From 2017 through early 2024, she kept posting, experimenting, and hoping something would click. Most months, she earned nothing. Occasionally, she’d make $30. “It wasn’t a business. It was just something I did because I liked it.”

She tried growing on Instagram. That didn’t stick. “I realized I didn’t actually enjoy social media,” she says. “Trying to be an influencer felt fake. It became a chore.”

Having tried the influencer playbook, she now just shares the moments that matter most to her.

She also didn’t fully understand SEO , not yet. “I’d taken some courses, but the strategies never really clicked. I was still mostly writing what I felt like writing, without thinking about whether people were actually searching for it.”

The turning point came when she finally invested in a course , one of several blogging courses she’d explored , that taught her how to research keywords, structure her posts, and write content that served both her audience and the algorithm.

But more importantly, she changed her mindset.

“I stopped writing only what I wanted to say, and started focusing on what people were Googling. That’s when things started to shift.”

Related: The Simple Blueprint I’d Use to Make My First $1K Blogging

Why One Excellent Post Still Beats Going Viral

In January 2025, Madison hit her highest-earning month yet: just under $2K from her blog.

Roughly 80% of that came from affiliate income , mostly through hotel bookings (via Stay22) and tours (via Viator). The rest came from display ads. And while she’s recently started testing digital products and trip consultations, most of her revenue still comes from just a handful of well-performing blog posts.

Her top earner? A guide to traditional Portuguese foods.

“It’s not flashy or viral,” she says. “But it ranks well, gets consistent traffic, and fits perfectly with my affiliate links. That one post brings in more than any other , just because it solves a specific question that a lot of people are searching for.”

What makes that post so effective? It answers a niche question, includes original photos and firsthand insights, and seamlessly links to helpful booking tools. It’s exactly the kind of post Google loves , and readers stick around for.

Other top performers? A 4-day Ireland itinerary featuring a Viator tour to the Cliffs of Moher, and multi-day guides for Lisbon and Dubrovnik , all structured with SEO and affiliate placement in mind.

Madison isn’t chasing dozens of platforms or trying to publish every week. Instead, she’s focused on creating high-leverage content that works long after it’s published.

“One excellent post, if it ranks well and converts, can earn more than 20 average ones,” she says. “So I stopped trying to post constantly and started trying to post smarter.”

Related: How This RN Turned a Blog into a $2 Million Side Hustle

Travel Blogging in 2025 Is a Whole New Game

Ask anyone in the blogging world and they’ll tell you: things changed in 2023.

Google’s Helpful Content Update , and the wave of algorithm tweaks that followed , decimated traffic for thousands of sites. Entire income streams disappeared overnight. And even now, numerous bloggers are still trying to recover.

Madison, somehow, wasn’t one of them.

“I knock on wood every time I say this,” she laughs, “but I wasn’t hit that hard. I think it’s because my blog has always been first-person, story-based, and genuinely helpful. I write from my own experience, and I think that’s what Google is prioritizing more now.”

Today, Madison creates content that’s personal, story-driven, and rooted in lived experience (the kind Google favors).

Still, the update was a wake-up call. She no longer believes SEO is enough.

“These days, I’m focused on diversification,” she says. “Pinterest brings in some traffic. Flipboard does, too. I’m building my newsletter list. Because if Google pulls the plug tomorrow, I don’t want to lose everything.”

She’s also more intentional about where she doesn’t spend time. Like Instagram.

“I used to force myself to post. But I didn’t enjoy it, it didn’t bring in traffic, and it just stressed me out. So I stopped.”

Her focus now is simple: Write useful content. Root it in lived experience. And never rely on platforms you can’t control.

So what would she do differently if she had to start all over today? Here’s her no-fluff blueprint for building a profitable blog in 2025.

💡 If I Were Starting a Blog in 2025, Here’s Exactly What I’d Do

• Pick a niche , and stick to it. Don’t start a general travel blog. Focus on one audience and build content silos around their specific search needs.
• Learn SEO before publishing a single post. Understanding search intent from day one will save you years of backtracking.
• Final Thoughts

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  Originally published at dollarsprout.com.