We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Laura Peters. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Laura below.

Laura, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

In 2014, I had just graduated college with a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota. I was filled with excitement to explore potential career opportunities, but an even stronger enthusiasm took root as I jumped on a plane across the Atlantic to travel the world for the first time. I didn’t know it then, but that backpacking trip to Europe would change the entire trajectory of my life.

Two weeks of exploring Europe felt far too short. Despite my newfound fondness for Spanish tapas, the rugged Dublin coastline, and the majestic mountain peaks of Switzerland, my travel itch remained unsatisfied. I wanted more. The realization that my adventures had barely scratched the surface of travel possibilities sent my imagination into a frenzy. Where else could I travel?

Later that year, I decided to quit my job and move to Thailand to become an English teacher. A friend from college had previously taught English there, and I couldn’t help but get lost in her pictures every time I scrolled through her Facebook updates. Even though I couldn’t realistically travel the world on a full-time basis, I went after the next best thing. I knew if she could teach English in a foreign country, I could, too.

In Thailand, I spent my weekends island hopping, visiting nearby villages, and engaging in Thai festivities. To make sure my trips went off without a hitch, I was all about planning. And what really helped me plan was reading travel blogs. Travel blogs were like treasure troves of advice, tips, and cool ideas for exploring these far-off places.

As I was reading one particular travel blog, I noticed a tab at the top of the post that read, “How to make money travel blogging”.

My first thought was, “Make money travel blogging? Like an influencer?”

But as I read through the article, it became clear that these travel bloggers weren’t influencers at all. Instead, they were relying on Google to attract readers to their websites, without even bothering much with social media.

This sparked my interest immediately.

My journey to become a full-time travel blogger was a very, very bumpy road. Getting to a place where our website could sustain us financially took years of trial and error, lots of tears, and many sleepless nights. And because I struggled so much to grow my travel blog initially, I knew that when I finally became successful, I would show others how to start, grow, and monetize their websites, too.

In 2019-2020, our website started to bring in over $8,000 per month through advertisements and affiliate marketing. That was my cue; our strategies were straightforward and we knew anyone could replicate what we did in far less time. We launched our course and coaching program, Scale Your Travel Blog, in January 2021, approximately six and a half years after I first learned about travel blogging in my apartment in Bangkok, Thailand.

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

My name is Laura Peters Abalos. I’m the owner and author of Mike & Laura Travel. I’m also the CEO of Scale Your Travel Blog and the host of Travel Blogging Summits.

Mike & Laura Travel is our travel blog where we help others travel the world and save money doing it. We write about topics like hiking, backpacking, paradise island getaways, and so much more. With Mike & Laura Travel, we set out to inspire others to step outside their comfort zone and explore the vast world around them. Before our travel blog was fueling our bank accounts, we spent years traveling the world on one $2,300/month income. We wanted to prove to others that they could find the confidence to travel more, too, no matter what their circumstances.

While our travel blog doesn’t have any direct clients, we earn money through advertisements on our website (like Youtubers who make money through ads before their videos) and affiliate marketing.

To explain how affiliate marketing works as a travel blogger, think of it this way: We recommend products or services within our articles to help our reader accomplish their goals or satisfy their needs. For example, I might write a blog post about our French Polynesia itinerary. In this post, I might recommend that our readers stay in a specific hotel. When they click on the hotel we recommend, they will be credited as our referral, and we will make a commission on anything our reader purchases. Our favorite products and affiliate programs include Booking.com, Viator, and REI.

Our second business asset is Scale Your Travel Blog, which is our course and coaching program that helps students start, grow, and scale their travel blogs into full-time incomes. The internet is cluttered with outdated advice that often steers people in the wrong direction. So, our aim was to craft the ultimate go-to resource, leaving no room for uncertainty when it comes to foolproof travel blogging strategies.

Scale Your Travel Blog started as a step-by-step video course. I believed it was everything people needed to succeed with a blog. We covered website setup, SEO, affiliate marketing, and email marketing. The first launch was relatively successful, and we welcomed 13 new students. And while many of them took the bull by the horns, listened to our advice, and grew their websites, a few students fell through the cracks. This bothered me because I knew that with our SEO methods, there was no way they wouldn’t make their blog work for them.

With that as motivation, I completely reworked our course. Scale Your Travel Blog quickly became a package deal; students were no longer allowed to purchase the course by itself because I knew they needed that extra support to see the results. We added monthly group coaching, biweekly Q&As, done-for-you keywords, done-for-you outlines, blog post reviews, and even a community coffee hour where we get together via Zoom to network and chat about our lives.

We also added extra support to our Facebook community, allowing our students to participate in job boards and gain more exposure.

Because of this shift, we saw our student success rate skyrocket. Not only did our students greatly benefit from this change, but marketing our program became easy. Yes, even for a $2,500 program.

Thanks to the detail and care we’ve put into our coaching program, our students see the results and they love to tell others about it. It’s not typical to find courses that offer this kind of hands-on support.

Our final business asset is Travel Blogging Summits, which are conferences we host all over the world. Since our primary audience is travel bloggers, we decided to bring everyone together to learn from the very best. Our summits feature presentations from today’s top bloggers and marketers.

The first summit we hosted was in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, one of the most underrated countries in the world. We had 15 bloggers join us for 3 days of blogging and 7 days of exploration. When this event was a success, we made the decision to host Travel Blogging Summit Denver in September 2022. This event reached nearly 200 travel bloggers both in-person and virtual.

Our summit this year will be held in Nashville, Tennessee at the end of September. There are a few other travel blogging events, but our event is the only in-person and virtual event that caters to intermediate and advanced travel bloggers. As with Scale Your Travel Blog, our goal with our events is to bring new information to our audience so they can grow and expand their reach.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

My favorite part about our business is that we started it for less than $70.

When I first set up my website, I was living in Bangkok, Thailand. I was making $725 per month as an English teacher there, which was “living large” in Southeast Asia, but it barely covered the few bills I had back home in the USA. Therefore, spending $70 to set up my website was terrifying for me. But that first investment in myself and my future business set off a chain reaction. In fact, in 2023 alone, our business will earn approximately $1.1 million in revenue.

I believe the measly startup investment sets our business apart from many small businesses.

That said, I do think that if I had been willing to invest more in my business initially, it wouldn’t have taken as long as it did for us to turn a profit. My best piece of advice for anyone looking to start or scale their business is: don’t be afraid to invest in the right things for your company. Whether it’s outsourcing your least favorite tasks or hiring a coach, putting money back into your business fuels the fire.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

Talking about our “near death” moments for our business is tough. In fact, I’m welling up with tears thinking about some of our close calls.

You just read all about the triumphs we’ve had in our business, and while they are the pillars that hold our business together, our darkest moments have shaped our business more than anything.

A memory that haunts me to this day is when the company we hired to run our Facebook ads campaigns overspent our budget by more than $8,000. At the time, our business was in the early stages, and cash flow was often an issue. We had several contractors working alongside us, and paying them was never a problem. In fact, I was so proud of being an easy-going and approachable boss.

This incident occurred when we were abroad hosting a few travelers. I woke up in the middle of the night to my phone dinging: “Your account overdraft: $318.” Another message: “Your account overdraft: $465”. And another. And another.

What was I reading? How is our bank account overdrafting? We just had a $27k+ launch!

As I logged into my computer, I quickly saw that our Facebook ad spend had increased to nearly $14,000 per month without a proper sales funnel set up. And since we hadn’t had wifi in days, my heart sank. I knew things were out of control and I didn’t know how to recover from this.

Frantically, I emailed the ad management company and told them about their mistake. They told me that they were sorry, but there was nothing they could do. I cried to Mike night after night as the emails and text messages continued to mock my pain: Overdraft. Overdraft. Overdraft.

I asked our contractors if we could wait until we returned to the USA to pay them, and thankfully they all agreed. For the next 48 hours, I racked my brain trying to think of the best solution to this terrible hole we found ourselves in.

Just days later, I created and launched a new product that went on to sell nearly $5,000 in 72 hours. And although this story may seem like a success to many, it still feels like the black plague. This memory has stuck with me throughout the past few years, and although it taught me a very valuable lesson, it has also negatively shaped the way I approach my business, too. I am often afraid of investing more in my business because of this situation. It’s one thing I still beat myself up for, but I’m working to let it go day by day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mikeandlauratravel.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/mikeandlauratravelblog
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/mikeandlauratravel
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-peters-12b416159/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/mikeandlauratravel
• Other: Scale Your Travel Blog (mikeandlauratravel.com/blogger)

Image Credits
For the photo where I’m holding the golden eagle, the photo credit is Halle Riveness from LullePhoto (https://lullephoto.com/)