We were lucky to catch up with Madison Krigbaum recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Madison, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

When I was 19, I boarded my first international flight to Rome for a semester abroad, completely unaware that those four months would change my life. It sounds cliché, but it’s true. That semester was a whirlwind of new experiences—but towards the end, I realized there were still places I wanted to see, and no one else left to travel with. So, for the first time, I set off alone.

Those first solo trips went way better than I expected. I navigated new cities, made spontaneous decisions, and proved to myself that I didn’t need to wait on anyone to travel the world. That realization stuck with me. I went back to the U.S., graduated college, and then immediately moved to Florence, Italy—without knowing a single soul. That leap of faith led to my first big solo trip (Budapest, Hungary), and from there, my love for solo travel grew.

I learned how to budget when there was no one to split costs with, how to stay safe as a solo woman, and how to make friends wherever I went. The more I traveled solo, the more I fell in love with it. When I traveled alone, I got to do everything I wanted without compromise. I never left a destination feeling like I missed out.

But as much as I love solo travel, I know it doesn’t come naturally to everyone. I’ve met so many women who dream of seeing the world but feel held back—by fear, budget constraints, safety concerns, or the worry that they’ll be lonely. I started Madison’s Footsteps to help women overcome those barriers. I want to instill the confidence and skills they need to plan solo trips all over the world, to stop waiting for the “right time” or the “right person” to go with them, and to finally start doing what they’ve always dreamed of.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

You’ve already heard a bit about my semester abroad and the 5 months I spent in Rome falling in love with travel. After my semester in Europe, I headed back home to an unpaid fashion internship in NYC. I thought I wanted to work in fashion, but it turns out I really didn’t want to work in fashion, What I really wanted was to be back in Europe, exploring new places and experiencing different cultures. That’s when the idea of Madison’s Footsteps started taking shape.

For the first few years, my blog was more of a personal diary—a place to document my trips, share simple itineraries, and post photos. No one was reading it except for my friends, family, and, well, me. Then 2020 happened. Like so many others, I lost my job, and with the travel industry in shambles, I had no prospects. So I turned back to my blog and started learning SEO, social media, and digital marketing, trying to see if I could actually turn this into a sustainable career. I wish I could say it was an overnight success, but alas—five years later, and I’m still figuring it out.

Madison’s Footsteps is a solo female travel blog that helps women of all ages, demographics, and nationalities travel the world on their own. My philosophy is simple: if you wait for the perfect timing or the perfect travel buddy, you’ll never go. I provide detailed itineraries, honest destination reviews, and practical solo travel tips to help women feel confident enough to book the trip. I provide safety advice, affordable adventures for solo travelers, and tips for making friends on the road.

My top destinations are Honduras, Italy, Portugal, and Thailand, but I’ve explored 33 countries (and counting). What sets me apart is my honesty—I only recommend places, restaurants, and experiences that I’ve personally tried and loved. I don’t sugarcoat destinations, I don’t promote anything I wouldn’t do myself, and I certainly don’t write positive reviews just because someone paid me to. My goal is to give my readers the tools they need to have an incredible trip without the stress of wondering if a place is actually worth visiting.

It’s been a long road, but Madison’s Footsteps is growing every year. I’m proud of how far I’ve come, and I’m even more excited about where I’m headed!

Have you ever had to pivot?

In 2018, fresh out of college, I moved to Florence, Italy, to work for a company that coordinated trips for study abroad students. For a year and a half, I planned and managed trips to Dublin, Munich, Prague, Perugia, Morocco, and Split, Croatia—living out my dream of working in travel. But in late 2019, I decided to move back to the U.S. and start the next chapter of my career.

After months of job searching, I landed a role in Chicago coordinating alumni trips for seniors. I found an apartment, furnished it, and was ready to start this new phase of my life—only to lose my job three weeks later when the pandemic hit. Suddenly, after just a month in Chicago, I was packing up and moving back home, completely lost.

Travel was the only career I had ever known, and with the industry at a standstill, I had no idea what to do next. Living at home, I threw myself into online courses, learning everything I could about digital marketing. I started by focusing on Instagram growth, but that eventually led me back to my website, Madison’s Footsteps. For the first time, I learned SEO and how to actually drive traffic to my blog. What had started as a personal travel diary became something much bigger, and I realized I had found a second passion—helping other women travel through digital content creation.

But as much as I was learning, I wasn’t driving anywhere near enough traffic to create an income source, which led me to my next pivot—becoming a virtual assistant. A friend tipped me off about a VA course, and after completing it, I landed my first client almost immediately. She had nearly full-time work for me, which led to connections with her clients, and before long, I was working full-time as a digital marketing virtual assistant.

That shift allowed me to become fully remote as a true digital nomad. I spent all of 2021 living on the beach in Roatán, Honduras, while the U.S. was still largely shut down. In 2022, I traveled through Southeast Asia, and 2023 brought me back to Europe—this time to Portugal.

Looking back, it’s crazy to think that something as devastating as losing my job in 2020 ended up pushing me toward exactly where I was meant to be.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Overall, I would say that the most effective strategy I’ve found for increasing my pageviews is search engine optimization (SEO).

When I first started trying to drive traffic to my travel blog back in 2020, SEO felt like this overwhelming, impossible thing. I didn’t understand any of the industry jargon, so every article I read or video I watched just left me more confused than when I started. Honestly, I spent years being intimidated by SEO. Instead, I tried driving traffic through social media and Pinterest, but nothing really moved the needle.

It wasn’t until late 2023 that things finally changed. I invested in a premium SEO course specifically for travel bloggers—an expensive one—but it turned out to be worth every penny. Suddenly, I started seeing real results. Traffic started pouring in, and my blog finally became discoverable to a much larger audience.

Even with all the Google algorithm updates since the end of 2023, SEO remains my most effective strategy for growing my readership and pageviews. Granted, Google search looks a lot different than it did even three years ago, and AI is changing the landscape fast. But if you stick to Google’s best practices, you can still drive significant traffic.

That said, I believe that in 2025, with AI’s increasing presence in search results, it’s more important than ever to diversify traffic sources. Right now, I drive traffic through SEO, Pinterest, and my email newsletter, but this year, I’m doubling down on both SEO and Pinterest to increase my outbound clicks and continue growing my audience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://madisonsfootsteps.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madisonsfootsteps/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madisonsfootsteps/
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/madisonsfootsteps/