Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ashley DeFrees. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Ashley, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
The internet is an everchanging resource for learning. The trouble is distinguishing what is true and what may be a great marketing ploy. Nevertheless, I have taught myself the essentials of SEO and keyword research, which is the central concept needed for blogging; you know, the not-so-fun part of being a travel blogger. If my budget was endless, I could have taken classes from other bloggers who have gone through the wringer and created an accessible format to learn how to set up a WordPress website and start attracting an audience. However, I chose the cheaper, longer, and more complex route to learn the skills, but I am proud of my choice, even if it took me longer to get there. Being a travel blogger isn’t something you can quit your day job for right away. I am a year in and am still waiting to see a penny for the work. That’s not to say others will be in the same boat as me, and I am just going at my own pace. Once I learned the basics of keyword research, I built my website, www.vacationscript.com, based on those principles, so I did it right from the start. And the traffic started to trickle in, which is very rewarding! My first blog post about Hunting Island State Park is my highest-performing post.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am Ashley, a family travel blogger who was thrust into a life of traveling, not by choice. I can thank Covid for this new lifestyle; I wouldn’t change it if I could. I started with a wedding branding business specializing in all wedding paper goods, including calligraphy. I did that for over a decade and was achieving some dreamy goals (like working for Lexus and the Houston Grand Opera) right before 2020. Then some growth decisions like buying real estate for the business landed us in a tricky situation once everyone lost their jobs, and then I was forced to close down. Like all blessings in disguise, there was a silver lining, something I couldn’t have even imagined. My husband joined the US Navy, leading to a life of traveling the world with my family. Now, I am blogging about our travels across Europe from my new home in Sicily, Italy! Now that Covid isn’t running rampant, it seems like everyone is traveling to Europe. I am here helping families navigate traveling with their families because it’s so much different than solo traveling. Let’s be real here; kids can make or break a vacation. With my experiences, I am helping other families make their once-in-a-lifetime vacation a precious memory with their family. I try to set myself apart from other family travel bloggers with my creative sense of photography and video editing. There’s nothing worse than a blog with zero photos or poor-quality photos that involve too much reading. I work to find a way to get straight to the point while also gaining the trust of my readers so they decide to continue reading and bookmark my website for future travels.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I occasionally get flack about why I continue to blog even though I have yet to start making money. Others can see it as a waste of time. I wholeheartedly disagree, so I continue to blog about my experiences on our family travels. It takes time to build a healthy website that Google can get behind. Out of all the types of business, time investment rather than monetary investment is much more family-friendly for us and something I can carve out of my schedule to accommodate. I also see Vacation Script, my travel blog, as an online journal or scrapbook of memories my family can always access. When I was young, I loved watching home videos of Christmases past. What I do is similar in a way that one day when I am not around anymore, my blog will still be there helping other families out, including my own family. They can look back and even show their kids what kind of adventures the DeFrees family was getting into way back in 2023. It’s not only a way to grow a business and help others; it’s so much more.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
It’s so easy to support a blogger since reading posts online is free! To help bloggers thrive in a society where everyone is blogging, find a website that’s on page 5 or more of Google, one that could be a better result, and a website that is of excellent quality and provides helpful information. Bookmark that website so you can return to it as a resource for future communication, subscribe to the email list, and click the links that intrigue you and buy the services that you were already planning to consume in the first place. Bloggers don’t get paid from the reader; they get paid based on how long you spend on their website, how often you show up there to read, and how many video plays they get. Supporting a blogger, you love is easy and free; just be sure to like and subscribe. ;) 
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vacationscript.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vacationscript/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vacationscript
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNYgPpHazWXRQnr1hcCyKNg/featured
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vacationscript
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/vacationscript/