REVIEW: Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Course (2024 Update)
Looking for an honest Scale Your Travel Blog review?
As a multiple six-figure, profitable travel blogger — I made $557,902 from my blogging business in 2023 alone — I’m about to tell you how I’ve been able to make six figures blogging with the help of this course.
First off, I made making this money a priority because I want to blog full time and be my own boss. Second, I invested in Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures, a course that changed my life forever.
Right off the bat, you might see where this review is going. I love this course and credit Laura (of the Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures travel blogging course) with pointing me in the right direction for success.
👩💻 For those who would rather go straight to the source, you can sign up for this FREE Webinar with Laura of SYTB.
However, make no mistake, I am successful because I was determined to be successful.
I want to be clear that if you’re not 100% in on travel blogging as a business, you will not have the results I have. If you’re not, do not invest in the Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures blogging course.
For those who ready to blog full time, and make money doing it, I want to share my experience with you. I wrote this article to help you see if this course is right for you.
Each week, Laura hosts a live webinar where she’ll show you what the course is all about. If you want to read my honest review of Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures, let’s dive in.
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
Who Am I? (And Why Should You Care?)
If you don’t care about me or my blogging journey story at all, no hard feelings! You can jump to the Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures course review with this link.
Hi, I’m Shelley, and I’m a travel blogger — as in, I earn a full-time living from this blog.
For reference, I have four travel blogs now, but one of my four brings in the bulk of my income, and is the one I reference throughout this article.
As far as the Why should you care part, hopefully the stats below speak for themselves.
Blogging Income Report & Traffic Stats
Updated: December 2023
- I made $557,902 USD in 2023.
- Of that, $333,619 came from affiliate marketing, $118,230 from ads on my sites, and $106,053 selling my own products — like this Affiliate Marketing course.
- My main website (Travel Mexico Solo) received nearly 2.5 million page views in the 2023 alone.
- Want to know more? Join my email list, where I share weekly tips on how I make such a crazy amount of money after just a few years of blogging.
If you’ve heard blogging is dead, I guess I never got that memo 🤷♀️
However, stats like that don’t come overnight. In fact, my first year blogging I made $0 — and actually spent about $1,500 on the blog. As they say, you gotta spend money to make money.
Note: If you don’t care about me or my story at all, no hard feelings! You can jump to the Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures course review with this link. (If you do care about me ❤️ I’d love to have you on my email list.)
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
Quick history of my blogging journey
I started my first blog ever in April 2020, and like most beginner bloggers, had exactly zero clues about what I was doing.
I flailed around for a bit, consuming as much free content as possible, until I wised up and invested in myself by investing in travel blogging courses (more on that in a minute).
In my (partial) first year blogging, 2020, I made no money at all.
I didn’t have Google Analytics set-up (something you’ll learn about in Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures), so I have no idea how much website traffic I had. I’ll go on a limb here and assume it’s not a number I’d be bragging about!
- In my first full year, I made a total of $8,540 USD, and had 432,139 web page views on my site for the entire year.
- In 2022, my second year as a travel blogger, things have really leveled up. That year, I made $272,569, and had more than 2.6 million page views.
- In 2023, my third year as a travel blogger, I made $557,902.
…so enough about me. Let’s get to this review of Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures.
This is the course I credit with getting to where I am today in my blogging journey, which is earning a FULL TIME INCOME as a blogger!
In fact, I’m making more than I ever have, earning multiple six-figures from blogging.
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures — What an enticing name, right? Do you read that and think No way, not me, I could never 😵
If so, I was right there with you not too long ago.
While I have taken other courses (I’ve spent about $20K+ on courses to date), this is the best course for blogging I’ve done. Here’s why:
Why I loved Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures
It’s the most easy to follow, easy-to-consume course of the 10+ travel blog classes I’ve taken.
While many of the biggest travel bloggers out there today have courses (I’ve done some of them), SYTBTSF is the best blog course because of the 1 on 1 blog coaching, which no others offer.
What I also like about Laura, who runs the course, is that she’s a more recent success story in the travel blogging world.
I found that learning from the big name travel bloggers who “made it big” in 2015 no longer have a clue what it’s like for travel bloggers just starting out today.
As an example, I took Nomadic Matt’s course before Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures.
Matt Kenes (AKA Nomadic Matt) started his very successful travel blog in 2008, and while I found the course content useful, he knew nothing about what it was like for me starting a blog in 2020.
Laura, however, did. She grew her own travel blog to six figures in 2018-2019, so she absolutely knows the struggles of someone like me, who started their blogging journey in 2020.
⚠️ Note: I’m in no way bashing Nomadic Matt’s course; it just wasn’t the right one for me. In fact, I actually just think he’s too successful to run a beginner course, which isn’t a terrible problem to have.
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
1 on 1 Travel blog coaching with Laura
🤔 Why this is better than a course
With every other travel blog course I’ve seen, you just get the course. Courses are great, and I’m a bit of a course junkie — but they are very general.
In any good course, you will see how to succeed using proven techniques, but they may not be the techniques you need for your blog’s success.
Here’s an example: When I signed up for Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures, Laura did a full site audit to locate my blog’s unique strengths and weaknesses.
One of the things she had me do was change my theme. I didn’t think a theme change would make much difference, but she was right. It turned out my theme was slowing my site down a lot.
I changed it in August 2021, and by September 2021, my website traffic doubled.
Yes, you read that right — in one month, making no other changes besides the theme, I went from 27,000 sessions to 47,000.
While a general course might tell you “Some themes are better than others,” it would never have said “Shelley, you need to change your website theme ASAP. It’s taking your site’s traffic.”
That is the power of working with a 1:1 blog coach who’s amazing at what they do, like Laura has proven to be.
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
🎉 Getting accepted into Mediavine
I started working with Laura in mid-July 2021. Three months later, I was accepted to Mediavine on October 21, 2021. For many bloggers, getting on Mediavine is a huge milestone because it’s so lucrative.
I personally make about 30-35% of my total income from Mediavine alone. In 2023, I made $118,230 from Mediavine.
Note: I have three blogs on Mediavine now, and that number reflects what I make from all blogs. One site brings in about 5X what my other site does, so the majority of Mediavine income is from that particular site.
Before getting on Mediavine, I was with SHE Media, another ad management company that places ads on websites. My last month with SHE was October 2021, and I made $866.35.
In my first month with Mediavine, November 2021, I made $4,386.25 from this blog — over 5X more 😳 Note: My results aren’t typical; most people usually make 2X-3X the month they switch to Mediavine.
With the money I made in November 2021 alone, I more than paid for the original investment to join Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures.
Without 1:1 coaching from Laura, I can’t say I’d be on Mediavine today. I also can’t say that I’d be able to blog full time, as I am doing now.
🤔 What is Mediavine?
Mediavine is an ad management company, just like SHE Media, Monumetric, Ezoic and Google AdSense. They all place ads on websites.
Bloggers want to get accepted to Mediavine because they (and Ad Thrive) pay the most — though Mediavine and AdThrive both require a lot of traffic.
You need 50,000 sessions per month (that’s 50K people visiting your site in a 30 day period) to apply for Mediavine, which is a lot. When you first start blogging, 50K sessions seems impossible.
I too thought it was impossible, and hovered around 25,000 sessions for months.
I, like many travel bloggers, just assumed Mediavine was forever out of reach. Fifty thousand might as well have been a million, or so I thought.
Within 3.5 months of working with Laura, I about doubled my traffic from about 27K to 50K, and got on Mediavine 🥳
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
What’s included with Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures?
It’s a seven-module course, with video lessons — which are so much more convenient than written lessons, amirite?!
The modules include how to set up a WordPress blog the correct way, mastering SEO for travel blogs, affiliate marketing, email marketing, sponsored posts and more.
🗣 Private Facebook Group
The Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures private Facebook group is another nice perk.
In here, you can ask Laura questions you have about the course material, and also network with your fellow classmates, who are all be travel bloggers like you.
I am in a few similar groups, and can attest that the quality of information I see shared in the SYTBTSF Facebook group is much better than anything in free public blogging groups.
People also tend to be nicer here, since the teacher’s in the group and no one wants to get in trouble!
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
Is Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures right for you?
Personally, I think it’s for everyone, at any stage — the course modules will show you how to set up your blog the right way, and the 1:1 coaching will help you level up fast and make money.
If you’re struggling with any of the things listed below, sign up for the FREE webinar to learn more.
- Finding the motivation to start your travel blog
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Getting consistent organic traffic to your travel blog
- Earning consistent money with your travel blog
- Getting your blogs on Page 1 of Google
What if I’m not a beginner blogger?
That’s even better — I wasn’t a beginner blogger when I started the course either; my blog was 15-months-old, and I averaged about 27,000 monthly page views from Google traffic.
I was, however, someone ready to make my blog my full time job, and earn a full time income from it.
For travel bloggers who are a bit more established and even making some money, I can’t recommend one-on-one blog mentorship enough.This goes beyond a class that will help all bloggers, to a custom-tailored plan of action for you specifically.
⚠️ As a side note, I have recommended this course to a few other “non-beginner” blogger friends, who are all loving the course.
Whether you’re a beginner blogger, or want to level up your blogging game, get over the hump and get onto Mediavine already, I still recommend Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures.
There’s no other way to say it — This is the best travel blogging course I’ve done, and I’ve done seven of them now.
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
How much is Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures?
The course plus private coaching with Laura is $2497 USD, and totally 1000% worth every penny.
As someone who’s done a good amount of courses, private coaching was the ultimate game changer for me — and I know it’s the only reason I made multiple six-figures with my blog in 2022.
Now, there’s likely an amount of sticker shock to that price. I know most travel bloggers start with a budget of $0.
You have to see this as an investment, not a bill you’re dreading. An investment means you temporarily hand over an amount of money for something, knowing it’s 100% coming back to you, usually with interest 😜
Why 1-on-1 blog coaching is better than a travel blogging course
As mentioned, Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures is the best travel blogging course I’ve taken. However, it was the one-on-one coaching that locked everything in for me.
Having a pro like Laura put her eyes directly on my blog to identify my unique struggles is why I have success today. (That, and of course, my hard work and determination.)
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
View this Travel Blogging Course as an Investment
The definition of investment is “the action or process of investing money for profit or material result.” Investing is not the same as buying.
With your investment in Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures, you temporarily exchange money fully knowing you’ll turn that money into even money.
Thanks to investing in myself, by investing in this course, I made more six-figures with my blog in 2022 and 2023 (see my stats above).
Sadly, I know people who started blogs around the same time as mine, who are still making $0 per month, and writing great blog posts no one will ever read.
🤔 How am I doing so much better than so many other bloggers?
I’m not special; I can tell you that much.
I did, however, believe in myself enough to invest in the Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Course, so I could live my dream life as a digital nomad and travel writer.
If you’re ready to do the same, at least attend one of the FREE webinar trainings Laura hosts, and find out how she can help your blog scale to six-figures — just like she did for mine!
If you decide the course isn’t for you, hey, all you lost was one hour of time.
Best Travel Blog Courses: FAQ
Do I need to buy a blogging courses?
No — You are in no way obligated to buy a travel blogging course.
However, if you care about having financial success any time soon, you’ll certainly want to so you can have the travel resources you need for success right at your fingertips.
For me personally, I had a blog for 1.5 years, and it went absolutely nowhere.
The first year I invested in a travel blogging course, I started to get traffic and a bit of income. By year two, I had a multiple six-figure blog. (Still weird to say, btw!)
I’m in several online blogger groups on Facebook, and I see so many people in travel blogging forums online who’ve had blogs for years and still aren’t making money, and have hardly any traffic.
Sadly, no random stranger in a forum or FB group is going to swoop in and save your blog.
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
Are there any good free courses on blogging?
No — At least, not in my opinion. As the old saying goes: You get what you pay for… and as the new saying goes: People who pay, pay attention.
There’s a ton of free content, but it’s up to you to figure out which free content is good free content, all while having to piece together what steps you should do in which order, and then still just hoping for the best.
While free things are great, paying for a course gives you accountability, and since you paid for it, that payment helps motivate you to actually complete it.
Think of the last internet freebie you got — Do you value it as much as something similar you paid for? Do you even use it?
As they say: People who pay, pay attention.
🗺 SEO Roadmap Course by Nina Clapperton
If you have the budget, I can’t recommend Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures enough — especially given these incredible results I’ve had. However, if cost is a concern, I want to offer a alternative.
Nina Clapperton’s SEO Roadmap course is a fraction of the cost of Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures. In it, you’ll learn the single most important thing for blogging: SEO.
In case you’re unfamiliar with SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is essentially how you’ll show up #1 in Google results and get tons of FREE traffic to your website.
Nina is a personal friend and also an SEO guru! I took her course, and even though I’ve been at this blogging thing for a while now, I learned quite a bit from SEO Roadmap.
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
What’s the average travel blogging salary?
Everyone wants an answer to this question to see if they should start a travel blog. I wish there was an “official amount,” but when it comes to making money travel blogging, there’s no average amount or set amount.
Some bloggers have published what they make, like The Blonde Abroad and One Step 4 Ward, both have $1 million+ per year blogs, and Nomadic Matt, who also likely makes over seven figures.
By contrast, some bloggers make $0.
When I got serious about monetizing my blog, I decided I will absolutely hit seven figures one day, and I started taking steps to do so — like investing in Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures.
I know that if The Blonde Abroad can do it, so can I! In fact, my mantra throughout this blogging journey has been If they can, I can.
This is why I even bother sharing my story — to affirm for you that if I can, so can you.
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
What’s the earning potential of travel bloggers?
This really is a better question to ask than How much do travel bloggers make?, or Do bloggers make good money? This blog is my businesses. With your own blog business, the sky’s the limit on how much you earn.
For me, I only want to work 15-20 hours a week. If I were working a full time 40 hour workweek, I could make a lot more money than I am right now.
In short, when you’re a small business owner (yes — bloggers can totally be that) you set your own glass ceiling on earnings.
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
Is it worth starting a travel blog in 2023?
As someone who makes a full-time income from my travel blog, works only about 20 hours per week, from any location on Earth I want to — FU+K YES it is.
However, setting up a WordPress blog and learning how to blog properly takes time. Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint.
I started my first blog ever in April 2020, and it did nothing in my (partial) year one; it was basically a place to hear crickets.
In first full year blogging (2021), I invested in Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures, and in year two (2022), I made $272,569.
In year three (2023), my blogging business made $557,902 🤯
Note: This includes my blogging income and teaching income. From blogging alone, I made $451,849 — of which, $333,619 was from affiliate marketing, and from $118,230 ads.
Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
Does it cost money to start a blog?
Yes — But you decide how much you spend. If you want to own your blog and eventually monetize it, there are ways to start a blog for a few dollars per month.
The cheapest way is to sign up for A2 Hosting, famous for their cheap website hosting, set-up WordPress, and get started blogging. Of course, that’s the simplified version, but do know you can start a blog for cheap.
You can also start a blog for free on Blogger, but it will always be a hobby blog.
Unlike with a website on A2 Hosting, you don’t own your Blogger site (Blogger does), and therefore can’t make money from it.
If you want a blog that’s also your business, you need to own your site. The cheapest hosting that many beginner bloggers start with is the Startup Plan with A2 Hosting, which is just $4.99 per month.
A2 HOST VS BLUEHOST: WHICH IS BETTER?
I used to recommend Bluehost here, but now suggest A2 Hosting which is comparable in price, but so much better overall.
For a few dollars more per month, you get better site speed, performance and customer service.
If you’d like, you can still sign up for Bluehost — famous for their cheap website hosting at just $2.95 per month, though not famous for much else.
Conclusion: Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Review
I want to end this article with a bit of a warning ⚠️ I wasted 1.5 years blogging the wrong way — Please don’t be like me!
I had a non-optimized website, wrote blog posts about my personal experiences with no SEO in mind, and hoped to make money. Spoiler: I 100% did not.
There is a system to travel blogging success, and it’s not common sense. In fact, you either know it, or you don’t.
You’re either writing SEO-optimized content with keywords that will rank on Page 1 of Google, or no one sees your content. In fact, stats say only 25% of users even go to Page 2 of Google.
When I first started, I wrote about my experiences traveling in Mexico, thinking they were so amazing everyone would care. Spoiler: No one cared except my mom (hi mom).
When many hear the word blog, they think of a diary. However, blogging for profit is an entirely different animal, and you have to view your blog as a business.
If you want to be a successful travel blogger, you need to think about your audience. Not yourself.
—LaurA, Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures coach
Through the Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures Blogging Course, I learned I need to write the articles that you and others actually want to read; not just the articles I want to write.
I learned how to get my content on Page 1 of Google with search engine optimization (SEO) — in fact, that’s likely how you found this article.
The way I see it: You can pay with time, or you can pay with money.
You can either spend your time trying to find good free content, which could take years and still not pan out, or you can pay a professional to learn what they’re doing, so you can simply replicate their success.
🤑 If you’re ready to level up with my coach, Laura, attend one of her free webinar trainings here, and find out how she can help your blog scale to six-figures — just like she did with my blog.