We still pinch ourselves sometimes to check that we aren’t dreaming but when we look back at the 6 years of hard work we've put in, it all makes sense.
More info: inafarawayland.com
It all started in 2011 when we were both on a backpacking trip around South America. I, Marta Kulesza, had just completed my degree in journalism and advertising and decided that I needed to get away from the education system
Wharariki Beach, New Zealand
Jack Bolshaw, now my future husband, had just finished his degree in Physics and Mathematics and was seeing as much of the world as he could before heading back to the UK to do a masters in mathematical finance
Smutwood Peak, Canada.
Whilst in South America we were doing the usual gringo activities, taking photos, and posting them on our Facebook pages. Like every other backpacker I created a blog to write stories for my friends and family
Our photos, and our writing, kept improving but our readership was pretty much non-existent. So once our funds were depleted we moved to Germany and started saving for our next adventure to New Zealand
The Neck, Bruny Island, Tasmania
After a Newtonian lightbulb moment, we realised that if we wanted to build our audience on our website, we had to write about topics that not only our friends and family were interested in
Baita Segantini, Italy.
We had previously used physical travel guides but we were confident that there was a much more visual/modern way to do things
Ben Lomond, New Zealand
After travelling around New Zealand for a year, we knew what people wanted. It was the same information we were after. We started making in depth road trip guides with photography locations, hiking information and general tourist tips with lots of photos
Coromandel Peak, New Zealand
We decided to provide as much information as possible in our articles. As hiking and photography enthusiasts, we included a lot of helpful hints about exploring the outdoors. Then we started creating road trip itineraries focused around photography
Lago di Misurina, Italy.
Over time, our articles started hitting the top spots of Google and traffic was starting to flow into our site. It was like a dream come true but we were still working regular jobs as the traffic wasn’t creating any income for us
Dettifoss, Iceland
We thought page ads would detract from the user experience so didn't originally include them.
Berg Lake, Canada
The most pivotal moment was when we started learning about affiliate marketing. We were experiencing firsthand the activities, staying in the accommodation, visiting the photography spots and using the rental companies anyway so we thought we might as well include the affiliate links on our site
As the traffic kept growing the affiliate links became well used and our earnings steadily rose. It was in February 2017 that I decided to solely focus on the website and Jack, my first employee, wasn’t too far behind
Jökursárlón, Iceland
We have just released our Canada Travel Guide after researching and traveling in the Canadian Rockies for 14 months. Unlike many other travel writers, we don’t pride ourselves on visiting as many places as possible but on providing the most precise information to our readers
Mount Assiniboine, Canada
We now have 1.5 million annual page visits and we take pride in replying to every question or query personally
We are certainly aren’t rich but our commitment to our website whilst working full time jobs has allowed us now to be self-sufficient. It took over 6 years of practicing writing, learning SEO, researching destinations and plenty of hard work and many moments of frustration. It didn’t happen overnight
If you want to do what we do, just remember that it’s a long process. So be patient and never give up. Take one step each day and eventually you’ll have completed a marathon.
Brandywine Falls, Canada