When Pete Rojwongsuriya completed college, he went straight into the company sector in his native Thailand. However the hours had been lengthy, and the pay was low, so he began dabbling in entrepreneurship.
After promoting an internet site he constructed for five figures, he tried to recreate his success with one other web site. When issues didn’t go as deliberate, he determined to pivot and dedicate himself to his journey web site, BucketListly Weblog.
Ten years later, Pete has constructed his weblog right into a sustainable enterprise, incomes $10k a month.
However what’s much more particular is that, based on Pete, he’s offering a much-needed distinctive perspective in an English-speaking journey running a blog trade that’s predominantly dominated by a Western perspective. And so, he’s serving to encourage non-Western English-speaking individuals to pack their luggage and journey, similar to him.
Preserve studying to seek out out:
- What his first entrepreneurial tasks had been
- What web site he offered for five figures
- How he initially funded journey for his weblog
- The place his earnings comes from
- His primary advertising technique
- The significance of search engine marketing
- His method to key phrase analysis and hyperlink constructing
- How he creates content material
- How he grows his e mail listing
- His favourite sources and instruments
- His biggest problem
- His primary accomplishment
- His greatest mistake
- His recommendation for different entrepreneurs
Meet Pete Rojwongsuriya
Hey, I’m Pete, the founding father of BucketListly Weblog, a journey weblog about solo touring and journey pictures, 2 of my favourite hobbies. I used to be born and raised in Thailand, which isn’t your typical background for journey bloggers, particularly throughout the realm of English-language blogs.
I’ve a background in laptop science and, like most freshly graduated Thais, I went straight to the company world and began working as an internet developer for a global firm in Bangkok.
After working lengthy hours incomes merely $600 USD per 30 days, I made a decision to stop and shifted my profession into the design subject, working at tech startups, earlier than venturing by myself and beginning every kind of companies.
As I used to be working full-time in an internet software company in Bangkok, I dabbled in entrepreneurship just a few instances. My first try was a t-shirt design enterprise that sells distinctive graphics to be screened on t-shirts to design/vogue corporations, however that finally went nowhere and I ended up quitting after a 12 months.
After the t-shirt enterprise, I continued to work full-time on the similar firm, and whereas doing so, I began my second enterprise, MyColorscreen.com, which was a group that permits Android telephone customers to share their dwelling screens with each other.
The web site was gaining loopy traction after 1.5 years of operation and earlier than I knew it, an organization within the US supplied to purchase the web site and I offered it for five figures, which is a reasonably big sum of cash for Thailand.
With the financial savings I acquired after I offered MyColorScreen.com, I made a decision to stop my full-time job and went on to start out my third enterprise, which was an internet design and growth freelancing enterprise. It took me greater than 3 months of working tirelessly earlier than I really landed my first consumer.
I spent weeks and months attempting to market my companies, pitching concepts to corporations, growing Javascript plugins, and sharing them without cost on GitHub and different internet growth blogs, within the hope {that a} potential consumer would see them and call me for work. To my shock, it labored!
My first and solely consumer discovered me on GitHub and he requested me to assist him provide you with new design concepts for his buyer survey sass firm.
I ended up working with him for greater than 6 years as a freelancer, which kickstarted my journey as a digital nomad, because the work gave me the flexibleness to work remotely from wherever, and I ended up touring world wide, beginning my weblog, whereas persevering with to work for him.
With the security web I acquired from the web site gross sales in addition to the continual move of labor from my consumer, I went all in with touring approach again in 2013, and 10 years later, I’m nonetheless on the highway, now, not freelancing however working full-time on my journey weblog.
Why He Created His Web site
The concept of BucketListly really started in 2013 as a social community as I used to be contemporary off from the profitable sale of my earlier web site. I wished to capitalize on it once more and recreate an identical group for prime achievers and vacationers to share their bucket listing concepts and achievements, therefore the identify, BucketListly.
BucketListly Weblog was presupposed to be a enterprise weblog for the social community, a advertising channel for the app to raise my content material advertising technique as I continued to create inspirational articles and journey stories to drive individuals to make use of the app extra.
Sadly, the app enterprise went nowhere and by no means actually gained any vital traction the best way I hoped it will, so I needed to finally shut it down in 2019.
The weblog, however, has gained a lifetime of its personal with a small group of solo vacationers, principally from English-speaking international locations like Singapore and Malaysia, forming round it. I made a decision to go all in with the weblog in 2018, stop freelancing altogether, and switch the weblog from a pastime right into a enterprise.
5 years later, I now work full-time on BucketListly Weblog and am capable of reside off it with out having to freelance on the aspect like I used to. I’m incomes passive earnings whereas touring world wide, which is a lifelong dream of mine.
How A lot He’s Incomes
As of 2023, I’m incomes round $10,000 USD per 30 days on common by way of 2 primary earnings streams, adverts and associates. I earned about 35% from Mediavine adverts, and 60% from associates, with Amazon, Reserving.com, and Viator, performing persistently effectively, whereas the remaining is from enterprise offers, preset gross sales, content material creation, picture and video licensing, and so on.
Needless to say the earnings typically fluctuates every month relying on the season. The top of the 12 months is at all times a enjoyable time for me because the earnings typically peaks across the vacation season.
For instance, I used to be incomes about $12,000 USD per 30 days on the finish of final 12 months, after which it crashed by virtually 33% in January and continued to climb once more every quarter because the 12 months progressed.
I began BucketListly Weblog as a pastime in 2013 so I used to be incomes completely nothing for the primary 5 years of its existence. It was not till 2018, after I determined to show the weblog right into a enterprise that I began gaining extra traction to use for an advert community like Mediavine and began incomes a dwelling wage.
Technically, my journey took me virtually 10 years by way of trial and error, however in actuality, I might say it took me round 5 years of engaged on the web site full-time (whereas touring the world) to get to the place I’m at present.
In the intervening time, BucketListly Weblog is getting round 164k distinctive guests and round 263k pageviews.
Pete’s High Advertising and marketing Technique
My advertising technique is fairly sporadic to inform you the reality, as I typically attempt to adapt to the forever-changing algorithm of Google, which appears additional relentless these days with its shuffling of search outcomes.
That stated, my primary aim stays the identical: to deal with creating extremely detailed content material for my readers to assist them plan their journey extra successfully, so lots of my articles are long-form with round 3,000 phrases minimal.
My area of interest is all about backpacking and solo touring, with lots of my journey guides written in a approach that folks can simply comply with and adapt to no matter journey type every particular person would possibly favor, all of the whereas, saving a bit of cash right here and there.
I cowl just about any vacation spot on the earth, however throughout Covid, I made a decision to shift my focus a little bit extra in the direction of touring in Thailand. I began overlaying hidden gems and off-the-beaten-path locations {that a} foreigner won’t find out about, which labored out fairly effectively as journey in Thailand rebounded after Covid.
Some articles may be so long as 10,000 phrases relying on how lengthy the journey is, for instance, a 3-month itinerary in Europe or a 6-month itinerary in South America, and so on. My articles are sometimes accompanied by a ton of pictures that assist our readers get the texture of the place earlier than they go there.
My content material often doesn’t promote the romance of touring like most influencers’ content material. I targeted solely on offering sensible info and helpful suggestions to assist make it occur to our readers, and that’s what I typically deal with after I write new content material for BucketListly Weblog.
I don’t outsource any of my writing. I wrote round 99% of the content material on BucketLIstly Weblog with just a few exceptions. I do settle for visitor posts typically, often from the individuals I do know or whom I interacted with on-line earlier than, however that’s about it.
The Significance of search engine marketing
search engine marketing is extraordinarily vital, as 88% of the site visitors coming into BucketListly Weblog is from serps. I principally realized search engine marketing by way of trial and error in addition to studying up on the present developments on web sites like SEOroundtable and the group over at Mediavine’s Fb group.
In terms of search engine marketing technique, I typically swap between enhancing outdated articles and enhancing the consumer expertise and the technical aspect of search engine marketing like web page velocity, picture load velocity, wealthy snippets, and so on. to maintain up with the present search engine marketing development. I might typically do this stuff at the least twice a 12 months and the remaining, I might both spend most of my time touring or writing new content material for the weblog.
I’ve tried just a few instruments to assist with my search engine marketing technique like KeySearch, which helped me out fairly a bit at first as I had no concept how search engine marketing labored.
I’ve additionally tried out Ahrefs and SEMRush, however I’ve but to discover a motive to speculate extra in them as I’ve been doing fairly effectively with out them. Possibly within the close to future, I’d make investments extra in these instruments.
Key phrase Analysis
I’ll at all times do key phrase analysis on my first-hand expertise and the fabric I acquired from the place I visited. As soon as I do know what kind of content material I can create from the fabric I acquired, I’ll use instruments like KeySearch and Ahrefs to do a easy key phrase concept technology, after which I begin writing my content material.
Typically, I may even go on Google and easily go searching for related search queries, try the rivals, see what I can do higher, and begin enhancing my content material from there.
Hyperlink Constructing
I do know hyperlink constructing continues to be extraordinarily vital at present, however as a solo entrepreneur and with all of the journey and content material creation I’ve to do, I hardly ever get the time to correctly spend money on hyperlink constructing, so I don’t do as a lot of it.
I’d attain out or reply to very respected shops, however apart from that, I hardly ever ever do hyperlink constructing on my weblog.
Pete’s Content material Creation Course of
In terms of writing for a journey weblog, it’s vital for me to have first-hand expertise with a spot earlier than writing about it. First, I’ve to get to that location, take all of the pictures and notes I’d want for content material creation, after which I brainstorm concepts as I am going.
As soon as the journey is over and I’m again dwelling, I’ll begin doing key phrase analysis and start writing content material.
I typically use Google Duties to maintain monitor of content material concepts and I am going by way of them one after the other after I’m dwelling. In contrast to different bloggers, I work on my own, so all I would like is an easy activity supervisor and I’m all set.
On daily basis, I spend round 3 to five hours writing new content material based mostly on no matter is on the prime of Google Duties and I work my approach down every day till I run out of issues to jot down. As soon as I hit the top, I’ll begin touring once more and the cycle continues.
Once I’m touring, I’ll have these newly created articles scheduled to be posted twice every week (8 articles per 30 days) so I can totally immerse myself in touring with out having to work for just a few months on finish earlier than I come again dwelling and proceed my content material creation’s cycle once more.
Mainly, I’m touring for half a 12 months and dealing one other half, which I believe is the proper work-life stability for me. Typically, I even have months the place I don’t need to work in any respect because of all of the articles I beforehand scheduled.
For instance, as of August 2023, I have already got articles scheduled on my weblog all the best way to subsequent 12 months, so technically, I wouldn’t have to jot down something new for at the least 6 months, which is why I can typically take lengthy journeys like spending 6 months in South America, and so on.
My work hours differ. For the half 12 months of touring, I typically exit early within the morning and are available again late, visiting all of the locations I’ve to jot down about, taking pictures, and capturing movies. I alternate between a full day of doing that and resting days to have a while for me to calm down.
For the opposite half of the 12 months, I might spend round 3 to five hours on content material creation 5 days every week, and the remainder of the day, it’s a little bit arduous to quantify as I might alternate between experimenting with technical search engine marketing, attempting out new instruments, and catching up on search engine marketing information and rivals, all of the whereas enjoyable and having fun with my downtime earlier than my subsequent journey.
In the intervening time, I’ve round 550 articles reside on BucketListly Weblog. When the articles go reside, I typically share them on Fb and X (previously Twitter) and I ship out a publication to all my followers. I don’t do that for each newly revealed article.
I often group them up and ship them out about as soon as a month. It does get some site visitors however nothing in comparison with the site visitors I get from Google.
His E mail Record
I’ve a semi-active e mail listing of round 4,500 subscribers for BucketListly Weblog and I ship out round an e mail a month. I solely develop it through a subscriber kind on the footer of the weblog by offering a free Lightroom preset on sign-ups, and that’s it.
I want I might spend extra time on the e mail listing and rising it, however in the meanwhile, I’m experimenting with enhancing the consumer expertise of my weblog in addition to extra content material creation, so the e-mail listing is taking the backseat for now.
His Favourite Useful resource
YouTube is an infinite wealth of data and you’ll study virtually something on there, from creating journey pictures to growing your individual web site. In actual fact, my weblog is constructed on a CMS written in Ruby on Rails and YouTube is how I realized how you can develop it myself and increase the characteristic I wished.
I don’t have a particular channel, however if you wish to study extra about WordPress growth, journey pictures, and extra, YouTube is the best way to go.
Additionally, in terms of diving deeper into the nitty and gritty of on-line companies, web sites like Area of interest Pursuits have loads of invaluable interviews that make clear how issues actually work within the trade you can study from.
You can too try your favourite bloggers and seek for earnings stories and different self-reflecting articles to study from.
Pete’s Go-To Instruments
My indispensable instruments are:
Google Merchandise: Gmail for communication, Google Duties for to-do lists, Google Preserve for note-taking, Google Drive for doc sharing, and Google Photographs for pictures backups
Grammarly: I take advantage of Grammarly to assist repair grammatical errors, which occur extra typically than I’d prefer to admit
Adobe merchandise: Can’t reside with out it. All of the journey pictures on my weblog have been edited with Adobe Lightroom.
His Greatest Problem
After all, as a journey blogger, surviving Covid was one of many greatest challenges my enterprise has ever confronted as web site site visitors and earnings had been obliterated in a single day. I earned lower than the minimal wage in Thailand, which is extraordinarily low, the primary month after Covid.
Fortunately, the best way I reside my life, working on my own, having no debt, and making savvy enterprise selections, I used to be capable of experience the Covid wave out with out having a lot affect on me besides mentally. I’m spending lower than $30 per 30 days to take care of my weblog even now, for instance.
Lastly, Covid is over and BucketListly Weblog is now performing higher than ever earlier than. There have been just a few hiccups right here and there on the finish of the primary quarter of 2023, because of the AI revolution and the most recent foray of Google core updates, however no matter comes my approach, I must adapt to it, as all companies do.
His Best Accomplishment
My biggest accomplishment is having the ability to create a like-minded group of individuals on BucketListly Weblog who get pleasure from an identical approach of journey, exploration, and a lifestyle that doesn’t deal with extra and narcissism however, relatively, on immersing oneself within the tradition and place, and serving to one another alongside the best way.
I at all times respect when individuals come as much as me and inform me that they get pleasure from the kind of content material I do, specializing in exhibiting the place as a substitute of constructing all of it about me. That at all times warms my coronary heart every time somebody says that and I think about that my biggest accomplishment.
One of many first articles that went viral on Reddit and acquired my weblog observed was the Touring the World as a Third-World Passport Holder article, which make clear how tough it’s to journey the world in case you are not from the Western international locations.
It resonated with many individuals who, like me, wished to journey the world, however discovered it tough and unfair that we needed to undergo all of the processes to get to Western international locations and but, once they need to go to our nation, they will simply hop on a flight and off they go.
One other article that I’m extraordinarily pleased with is On My Method to Everest, one of many longest articles I’ve ever written, with over 15,000 phrases, documenting my expertise trekking to Everest Base Camp in Nepal independently for 15 days, each step of the best way.
It doesn’t get a lot site visitors and I doubt individuals really learn your entire factor however I can at all times look again at it, and be pleased with my accomplishment, each bodily and digitally. Hopefully, the article will encourage somebody to do the identical.
What He Needs He Knew When He Began
I want I might return in time and inform my youthful self about all of the search engine marketing information I’ve acquired over time by way of trial and error.
Issues just like the significance of a well-structured weblog, inner linking, utilizing the appropriate wealthy snippets, how you can write well-crafted affiliate content material, how you can enhance web page velocity and picture load velocity, how you can write for the readers, not for myself, and a lot extra.
Mainly, I went by way of hell earlier than I acquired myself right here and I want there had been somebody round for me to seek the advice of about this technical stuff.
Regionally, it was unimaginable, particularly in 2013, because the tech trade was nonetheless in its infancy in Thailand again then, and on-line content material wasn’t available like it’s now.
His Primary Mistake
I want I had targeted on constructing a enterprise with my journey weblog proper out of the gate, approach again in 2013. I might have been capable of develop my weblog sooner than I do now.
I used to be working as a freelancer again then so I didn’t actually really feel the necessity to work on my weblog. Now that I’m working full-time, I’ve so many elderly articles that I’ve to repair as they weren’t as much as my commonplace and should not offering any helpful info to our readers.
If I might begin over, I might have began writing for the aim of serving to different individuals relatively than simply writing for myself.
His Recommendation for Different Entrepreneurs
Trial and error is inevitable, and so the sooner you begin experimenting, the sooner you will notice outcomes. If you’re planning to construct a web based enterprise like a weblog, arrange a WordPress weblog immediately, begin writing content material that can assist somebody, go reside, and take a look at the water.
You’ll by no means understand the true potential of what you are promoting till you go reside and see how your viewers interacts, and from there, you may alter and refine whereas persevering with so as to add newer and higher content material.
It might probably take years earlier than Google begins sending common site visitors to your web site and begins incomes earnings. Don’t anticipate the celebs to align, begin now, study, and develop from it.
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