How I Grew My Travel Blog to 30,000 Monthly Pageviews Without Selling My Soul

In April 2023, I decided to start a blog about my 10/10 passions—travel and photography in Northern Europe. As you can see below, I surpassed 30,000 views in the 30 days before writing this post. 

To be honest, this number still blows my mind; it’s bigger than many Premier League stadiums. For the first six months, nobody (and I mean literally zero people) read my posts. Adding value to so many like-minded people has been a rewarding experience so far, and I’m happy that I reached this number without selling my soul. 

I always used to read other travel bloggers for inspiration (and still do). Since other aspiring bloggers will likely read my posts, I wanted to share how I reached 30,000 monthly pageviews. Some of my growth contributors are common sense, while others are a little more left-field. 

Let’s Start With the Origin Story…

I’m only just getting started with this blog, but even getting to this point has not been easy. I’ve been trying to create content online in some capacity since 2012, but I’ve never truly stuck with anything until now. 

At university, I had a football blog that was mainly a portfolio for my Sports Journalism degree. It got 10,000 overall views (lifetime, not monthly)—which I thought was a pretty good number at the time. However, I deleted the site after I graduated. 

I also started blogs in other niches, such as business and productivity. On top of that, I’ve tried several YouTube channels. Frankly, I started these because I was avoiding what I really wanted to do—which was this blog on *this* topic. I partly did so because I was scared of failing at something I cared about and because every “expert” parroted the idea that following your passion is bad. Spoiler alert: It isn’t.

Do I regret those experiments? No. Trying different things forced me to confront what I wanted, and after realizing that this was the only project I’d stick to, I went all in. 

The Main Contributors to Growth 

1. Prioritizing the User Experience over Everything Else

This goes against the grain, but… 

I don’t really focus on SEO in the traditional sense. 

While I understand SEO, I don’t pay *that* much attention to it. I couldn’t care less about keyword difficulty, and my research normally focuses on understanding the user intent rather than volume (I use Mangools for this, by the way).

My theory is very simple. I think that my audience will find it useful = it gets published. It’s evidently working if you look at some of my top-ranking keywords (according to Semrush, at least).

Someone will try and get clever by saying “30k isn’t that much”… Sure, but I’ll make a follow-up piece when I inevitably reach 150,000 via this philosophy. 🙂

I need to give a disclaimer here: This is what works for me. Do I think that this would be the case in another industry (e.g. SaaS)? I have no idea, but I’m just following my own intuition. 🤷🏾‍♂️

My Aim Is to Build Something Bigger

I’m creating an ecosystem of valuable resources that interlink and want to go as deep as possible. My aim is for the reader to have as much information as possible once they finish browsing my site. Even if an article doesn’t get thousands of views monthly, it’s an important part of the machine. 

Example #1: 

I wrote two separate guides—my practical Copenhagen travel guide and a piece about things to do in Copenhagen—to simplify user navigation. People who want practical information can go to the first, and those specifically looking for a list of activities can go to the second. 

Within these guides, I’ve provided more depth by creating interconnected pieces. 

• Someone looking for things to do in Copenhagen may want specific activity guides, such as visiting the Church of Our Savior. 
• They might also want advice for specific times of the year, such as visiting Copenhagen in the autumn. 

Example #2: 

Let’s say someone first finds my guide to visiting Iceland in the off-season. Since I want to give as much value as possible, I have written specific destination guides—such as the Westman Islands. 

I’m also producing resources on hikes that they might want to consider (and are accessible outside the summer), such as Svartifoss. My audience is very visual, too, which is why I provided some tips on not destroying their cameras in Iceland (which I learned from accidentally destroying my camera in Iceland 🙂). 

2. I Actually Like Writing (and Photography)

Many people get into blogging (and other creative pursuits like YouTube) because they’re thinking about a big payoff. If this is your approach, one of two things will happen (and I’m telling you this from personal experience): 

1. You will quit because you’re not getting instant external validation. 
2. You’ll persevere and get material success, but you’ll hate what you’ve built and eventually burn out (and probably quit). 

The biggest reason I’ve surpassed 30,000 monthly pageviews (and honestly think that this blog can at least 10x that) is because I really enjoy writing and photography. Writing and photography genuinely feel effortless for me, so I have no problems consistently posting and have now published 100+ articles.

As Tiago Forte once said: 

“You can’t compete with someone who is having fun.” 

This is the game I’ve decided that I want to win, which—in my opinion—is more valuable than any fancy productivity tactic.

3. I Chose a Topic That I Could Talk About All Day 

I have been obsessed with traveling in Northern Europe since my first solo trip to Copenhagen in 2016. I have lived in two Nordic countries: Denmark and Sweden. Before moving to Copenhagen in 2020, I visited the city seven times. 

Before moving to Scandinavia for the first time, I thought about doing so daily (and spent most of my annual leave traveling here). I have traveled to Greenland, Arctic Norway, Iceland, and many other remote parts of the region. Since making this part of the world my home, my passion has grown stronger rather than doing the opposite. 

So basically, I know more about travel, photography, and living in Northern Europe than virtually anyone else on the planet. Even if I had unlimited money and never had to work again, running this blog is *exactly* how I would spend my time.

Building a blog by combining subject matter knowledge with passion was always going to be a hit when I think about it. I entered the “innovation” stage long ago, and developing original ideas—such as my photography guide to Nyhavn—is easy. At any given time, I have 100+ ideas in my backlog.

I stopped subscribing to the “highest-paying niche” a while back, and I cringe each time I see people preaching the same advice. You only become successful when you become an expert, and if you don’t want to hate your life, you must be intrinsically motivated to learn more. 

4. Ignoring the Non-Essential Tasks 

Most tasks do not move the needle and should either be minimized or avoided. This goes for virtually every business and creative pursuit. One of the easiest ways that I’ve protected my energy is by focusing only on the most essential tasks: 

• Writing 
• Taking and editing photos 
• Improving my blog performance and speed 
• Sharing posts on Pinterest 

I see far too many new bloggers obsess over tasks that have a minimal impact, at best, on their website traffic.

• I don’t spend all day asking for backlinks via LinkedIn and email. 
• I don’t post daily Reels.
• I don’t post comments on other creators’ Instagram posts hoping that I’ll get a few followers from the people that see me.
• I don’t spend all day talking about doing the thing rather than actually doing the work. 
• I don’t change my logo and bio every week. 

I briefly used Instagram, but I see it as a branding tool and don’t have a strict posting schedule. However, I deactivated my account because it actually led to less creativity and more distractions, while also making almost no difference on my traffic.

You need momentum in the early days, and if you do not focus on the essential tasks, you will slow your progress.

5. Original Photos

Maybe I’m being a bit of a purist here, but I get annoyed each time I see travel blogs using stock images. When I started this website, I made a pact with myself that every image on here would be original—and that is something I continue to stand by. 

Publishing original pictures has ensured that my blog is unique, and I do think that this has contributed to my growth. I personally would rather see someone’s pictures on their blog, even if they were taken with a 10-year-old smartphone, than for them to use something from a stock image site. 

While I now have a full-frame camera and used a mirrorless one for a few years, I don’t think these are necessary. In fact, I have used my smartphone camera in plenty of posts on this website. 

6. Taking My Blog Seriously 

I made a pact with myself that if I was going to start this blog, I was going to take it seriously and build the best possible resource. I have invested a lot of my own money into this website, including courses in blogging and copywriting. While I could “find everything for free”, I’d rather have someone aggregate the information I need and save me hours of searching. 

Even when nobody read my blog, I acted like I already had 100,000 monthly pageviews. Moreover, I put the necessary systems in place. For example, I signed up for affiliate programs for products I already used and thought would be valuable to my audience. 

Treating my blog like a business from the start has also meant that I’ve created an audience of people who actually like me and value the hours of effort I put into creating truly unique blog posts. I have no problem deterring those who think that creators making money is a bad thing.

Setting My Website up for Success

To really set myself up for success, I’ve worked relentlessly to create the best possible website experience. This is an ongoing process, but I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job so far. 

1. Buying a Premium WordPress Theme

I made several changes to improve my site speed, such as buying a premium theme. For the first 20 months, I used Ashe Pro—but while it was fine, I felt like I needed something more substantial. 

After upgrading to Kadence Pro, my mobile speed in particular improved significantly. Moreover, I could better customize my pages and create the website look I truly wanted. My traffic increased from 7,000 pageviews in November 2024 to 14,000 in December; while Google’s Core Update probably played a role, I do think that changing my theme and enhancing website speed also contributed. 

2. Changing My Hosting Provider 

I used Bluehost for the first eight months of this blog, and while it was okay as a beginner, I felt like it slowed down my website too much. I also didn’t like their customer service. 

After realizing I wanted to grow my passion into something bigger, I switched to Siteground. I have been with them for over a year now, and so far, I’m happy with my experience. They were also really helpful with migrating my website… I initially tried doing it myself and thought that I deleted everything 🥲. 

Siteground’s customer support has always been helpful when I’ve needed it. While a subscription is a bit more expensive than some alternatives, I think it’s worth the money. You can sign up here.

This Is Just the Start 

At 30,000+ monthly pageviews, I started Googling to see if I had proof of concept. If you’re even doing that, it’s pretty obvious that you know the answer.

I’m excited to see where I can take this blog, and I wrote this article as inspiration for anyone thinking of starting a creative pursuit of their own.  I also wrote it so that you can see that the “blogging is dead” crowd are liars… sure, blogging is dead if you’re going to write low-effort posts about topics you know nothing about. For everyone else, though, I don’t think that’s true.

Above all else, I’ve learned to trust my own intuition. We often think that the answer is in the next article, podcast, or video, but we often have the answer within us.