When Jackie Rezk was working for Delta, she was capable of journey the world at no cost, however there was one drawback: she didn’t have anybody to journey with. Uninterested in ready for a associate in crime, she lastly bit the bullet and traveled solo—and she or he was hooked.
That journey modified her endlessly, and the extra she traveled, the extra she was impressed to share her solo journey adventures and the hidden gems she found.
She created her weblog, Jou Jou Travels, and her Instagram account to doc her journeys, and immediately she’s incomes $5k per 30 days from her web site, social media, and blogging-related initiatives.
Hold studying to seek out out:
- Why she created her weblog
- How she leveraged social media to develop her presence
- What she did to maneuver the needle on her weblog’s development
- The place her earnings comes from
- Her high advertising and marketing technique
- How she outranked CNN
- Her ideas on search engine optimisation and topical authority
- Her key phrase analysis method
- How she builds hyperlinks
- The distinctive software she makes use of for content material creation
- Her go-to instruments and sources
- Her greatest problem
- Her most important accomplishment
- Her worst mistake
- Her recommendation for different entrepreneurs
Meet Jackie Rezk
I moved to London from America nearly 6 years in the past and I’m loving each minute of it! I really like experiencing new issues and new cultures.
Touring generally has taught me to embrace the variations on the planet. And transferring overseas has opened me as much as new potentialities and experiences.
I’m initially Egyptian and suppose it’s probably the most unbelievable nation on the planet. I’m somebody who continuously thrives on creativity.
Along with my journey weblog, I additionally make jewellery, and something the place I can create one thing and share it with the world excites me. I’m a foodie, too, and on my travels, I continuously search for the most effective locations to eat.
Why She Created Her Journey Weblog
My obsession with journey began once I labored for Delta Air Traces in 2012. I used to be capable of journey the world at no cost and I had nobody to actually go together with at the moment.
The flights had been standby, so if my pal purchased a ticket, there was no assure I might make the flight. I discovered a co-worker to go together with after which she canceled on me. I puzzled, when will I ever use these advantages?
It was at the moment that I realized tips on how to journey solo. I couldn’t wait for somebody to journey with anymore. I needed to see this stunning world!
So I went to Switzerland for my first solo journey, fully terrified. It endlessly modified me. I gained the arrogance to journey alone and it wasn’t as daunting as I believed.
Once I left that job at Delta, I made it my mission to maneuver overseas and stay near all of the incredible locations in Europe to journey to. I cherished sharing my pictures and suggestions alongside the best way.
Though I shared content material earlier than, it was solely 3 years in the past in the course of the pandemic that I actually began to take my journey Instagram and weblog significantly.
I began my weblog, Jou Jou Travels, and my Instagram in 2018, however each weren’t severe till 2020 in the course of the pandemic. I took a category to develop on IG from Catarina Mello of @professionaltraveler in November 2020.
I shared my tips about discovering the most effective hidden gems and touring the world solo and confidently. On Instagram, I used to be an early adopter of Reels and my movies began to go viral. I grew to 100k followers in simply 3 months.
On the identical time, I used to be working a full-time job in net analytics and was so bored with my company job. I spent all my free time engaged on my weblog to show it right into a profitable enterprise.
I’m a powerful believer in following goals. It was my dream to maneuver to London and I made that occur, and now it’s my dream to work on one thing I’m so keen about and make a residing off it.
I invested in an search engine optimisation course referred to as Running a blog Quick Lane in April 2021 and carried out the whole lot from the course on posts that I had written only for enjoyable and never for search engine optimisation! I at all times loved writing so my weblog was only for enjoyable earlier than and I even wrote cutesy titles like “Hovering by way of Cappadocia,” not realizing that doesn’t actually work for search engine optimisation.
Nicely, as quickly as I took the course and carried out all of the methods I realized I lastly began to see fast development.
search engine optimisation is an extended sport, nevertheless, after fixing outdated posts, I 5xed my visitors in 5 months. And now 2 years later I went from 2000 pageviews to as much as a excessive in July of 50k pageviews.
How A lot Jackie’s Incomes
I earned as much as $1,300 in weblog earnings in a month, from adverts and affiliates. Though I’m at present with Shemedia, I’ve targets to enter a extra premium advert community like Mediavie to earn extra.
I do know that my advert earnings will quadruple as quickly as I hit the Mediavine necessities, in order that’s my present focus. I’m incomes a good quantity now that I made a decision to give up my job however it’s not on my weblog alone.
I’ve diversified my earnings streams, which I at all times suggest to others. It’s essential to do that as a result of one thing like Instagram, for instance, might disappear at some point.
Along with my weblog, I earn from UGC/social media administration for different manufacturers. I’ve 2 accounts I work with and I’d like to develop that too.
One is a bubble tea store and one other is a London tour firm. I movie movies for them to submit to their channels and assist them develop their accounts. That is cash I can depend on every month.
I even have digital services and products on my web site. I supply Lightroom presets and e-books, in addition to consultancy providers. My consultancy providers embody teaching calls to audit different individuals’s blogs and providing tailor-made tips about tips on how to develop your weblog.
I even have a trip-planning service the place I plan customized journeys for others. My e-books embody a information to transferring to London as a foreigner.
After I had a hugely viral reel (13.5 million views) on how a lot it prices to stay in London versus the US, I provided this product.
As you possibly can see, there are numerous methods to earn!
I additionally work with manufacturers for sponsored content material, which incorporates sponsored weblog posts and adverts on my Instagram account.
For those who embody all my earnings streams, I’m incomes round $5k a month on common, however I’ve hopes to extend this considerably within the subsequent months, particularly after hitting Mediavine.
My earnings breakdown is as follows:
| Sort | Common |
| Model Partnerships | 25% |
| UGC/Social Media Creation | 18% |
| Affiliate | 19% |
| Advertisements on Weblog | 9% |
| Sponsored Weblog Posts | 3% |
| Digital Merchandise | 3% |
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I’m at present getting 31k classes a month on my weblog.
I work on my weblog round 7 hours a day now that I’ve gone full-time. It’s lots of work however I really adore it!
Jackie’s High Advertising Technique
My #1 technique is to write down on matters that provide the most bang in your buck. For me, since I really like hidden gems, that is simple. I write on matters which might be lesser recognized and do a full devoted submit for them.
The primary time I did this was a whole accident. I visited this hidden gem in Italy on the Amalfi Coast referred to as Vietri sul Mare. I cherished this city a lot, it was one among my blissful locations.
I wrote a weblog submit on it earlier than I actually knew search engine optimisation, and once I went in to make some optimizations, I discovered it rating primary on Google, even forward of CNN.
The quantity was actually excessive for this subject and it even regarded like a troublesome rating, however on the identical time, not many journey guide-style posts had been on this city. It’s now one among my most-viewed articles.
With that doing nicely, I at all times try to write down full posts on unknown cities like this. I additionally attempt to make a Google Net Story for my posts as I really feel prefer it offers new posts a lift in views. Net Tales are primarily Google’s model of reels or thought pins on Pinterest.
The Significance of search engine optimisation
search engine optimisation represents the majority of my visitors at 75% so it’s fairly essential for me and I’ve invested lots of time in researching the most effective key phrases to hit my targets.
I usually make sure that I write on matters which have larger quantity and a key phrase problem of 35 and beneath. I additionally write about many matters on the identical space I’ve visited. The extra Google sees you as an authority on one subject, the higher possibilities you may have at rating.
For instance, my Puglia, Italy posts are doing nicely as a result of I’ve 8 posts on the subject. Google is extra more likely to rank me than somebody who wrote one itinerary information on Puglia. I’ve posts on the place to remain in Puglia, devoted posts for every small city in Puglia, and extra.
It additionally encourages a person who discovered you from one submit to click on by way of to many different posts. This can improve engagement and pageviews per go to. The longer somebody is in your website, the extra Google will acknowledge your weblog as high quality.
Proper now, I’ll proceed specializing in extra Italy content material to observe this technique of writing on one topic. As soon as I’ve constructed up this content material, I’ll shift to different nations. Since Italy is my favourite nation, this gained’t be too unhealthy!
I go to rather a lot, so I’ve lots of content material from there. I nonetheless write on matters aside from Italy, however from now I believe I shall be specializing in Italy content material as my running a blog search engine optimisation course teacher suggested me to do that. He stated I might begin to see a compounding impact if I make sure that to give attention to one subject.
Key phrase Analysis
I exploit KeySearch, which is an inexpensive tool and really simple to make use of for key phrase analysis. I analysis lengthy tail key phrases from locations I’ve traveled to and discover the matters that can drive probably the most visitors.
First, I seek for a time period extra broadly and test the volumes of comparable matters that KeySearch suggests. I then have a look at the individuals rating for that subject and write a weblog submit that’s longer and hits all of the factors. I guarantee my submit is over 1,500 phrases because the longer the submit, the higher the probabilities of rating.
KeySearch tells you what the typical phrase depend is for these rating on the primary web page. I additionally ensure that the primary web page rivals are bloggers and never simply the massive guys like Condé Nast. This can give me a sign of how doubtless I can rank, too.
I normally discover somebody with the same DA to mine and put their URL into the Explorer part of KeySearch. This offers me all the important thing phrases that individual has for the article.
It additionally helps me see if there are higher phrases I can go after with larger volumes that possibly fewer individuals wrote about. Additionally, the explorer tells me the estimated visitors the competitor will get for that individual submit.
It is a great way for me to gauge if it’s price writing in regards to the subject. If they’ve a low visitors quantity right here, I wouldn’t need to waste time writing about it.
Hyperlink Constructing
Hyperlink constructing is essential, however I wouldn’t say it’s the place it is best to spend all of your effort. For those who’re new to running a blog, I might say goal for at the least a DA of 10, after which I might actually simply give attention to content material. It’s essential to create high quality content material, and also you’ll be capable of rank if in case you have that.
I’ve seen individuals with decrease DAs outrank larger ones on a regular basis. I’ve elevated my DA to 37 over time, and I believe it’s positively simpler for me to rank now and it will get me on the primary web page of Google a bit faster, too.
So, first give attention to content material and construct your hyperlinks as you go, is my recommendation. If you wish to push a sure subject, make sure you get hyperlinks for the articles you discover aren’t rating. Additionally, Pinterest is nice for that, too. If persons are re-pinning your submit rather a lot, this may assist.
I’ve been constructing hyperlinks by way of Fb teams and have grown my DA to 37 since I began in April 2021. I even have been featured in Get Your Information and Interrail. which have a stronger DA. So the stronger the DA that hyperlinks to me, the higher my probabilities of rising my DA sooner.
Her Content material Creation Course of
More often than not I’m touring solo since I journey a lot that not everybody can sustain. So my course of generally is a bit tougher with out somebody to assist.
Nonetheless, I’ve mastered the solo photographs and content material creation with my helpful tripod and now my drone. I’ll arrange a tripod, take the pictures, and never care a lot in regards to the staring bystanders!
As for my drone, at first, it was tremendous scary to make use of and now I really feel it may be simpler than organising a tripod! I exploit lively monitor typically, so it follows me whereas I stroll, or I simply use the timed photographs function to shoot pictures of myself solo. I’m completely obsessive about it now and excited as a result of it has made my content material 10x higher.
Then, it’s time to edit the pictures and collate all my suggestions for Instagram and my weblog. I do lots of analysis to seek out the most effective locations to go and at all times make sure that I hit these. I additionally make sure that I discover alternate options to busy locations. That is one thing that has labored tremendous nicely for me.
For instance, I had a reel get 9 million views on Instagram by exhibiting my viewers that as a substitute of paying tons of cash to remain in Positano, they will keep in Scala or Procida for a fraction of the price. These cities are much less touristic and, due to this fact, cheaper.
Her E mail Checklist
I’ve over 3k email subscribers on my checklist. I’ve grown it by way of embeds and pop-ups on my websites. I’ve a few freebies together with a solo journey e-book and an IG Reels subject thought freebie.
I normally ship out emails with attention-grabbing journey suggestions and at all times hyperlink again to my weblog to encourage them to learn extra. Nonetheless, I haven’t had the time to dedicate to this as a lot as I’d like, and am specializing in hitting visitors targets to achieve Mediavine within the meantime.
Her Favourite Assets
I like to recommend becoming a member of Fb teams with different bloggers in the same area of interest. Right here you possibly can ask questions and join with these with the same mindset.
I additionally suggest investing in a course. It actually helped me and I noticed an instantaneous impression after implementing what I realized. The course I took was Running a blog Fastlane and it was 100% well worth the cash. I additionally realized rather a lot from Anna on the She Strategy. She has a e-newsletter the place she shares lots of running a blog suggestions.
Her Go-To Instruments
My favourite instruments are as follows:
KeySearch: I exploit this keyword research tool every single day so I can guarantee I’ve completed the right analysis and take advantage of out of my posts.
Travelpayouts: This user-friendly software aggregates all of the affiliate applications I need to use in a single. I’m lately switching extra of my affiliate hyperlinks to Travelpayouts because it makes it a lot simpler. I receives a commission multi functional place and don’t have to enroll individually anymore to every associates program.
Google Analytics: My profession earlier than was all of the numbers and analyzing information by way of instruments like Google Analytics. I actually love my very own progress and insights.
It’s the most effective software on the market for understanding the way you’re doing. It permits me to see what content material works, what doesn’t, and what enhancements I could make to drive extra visitors. I might say that is probably the most highly effective software!
Her Largest Problem
My most important problem is having the time to juggle all of it with a full-time 9-to-5 job. Now that I’ve give up, I’ve extra time to give attention to it.
Even now, I try to be extra organized so I can make sure that I’m productive. Not having a set schedule every day could be difficult.
Her Biggest Accomplishment
I’m very happy with constructing an viewers in beneath 2 years on each my weblog and Instagram by sharing my travel tips on my blog. Once I truly get messages from individuals saying they adopted my suggestions or I impressed them to journey solo, that makes me extremely blissful.
Particularly once I see that I’ve inspired somebody to not look forward to others to journey the world! It was one thing I used to be scared to do as nicely and I’m so glad I did. It actually modified who I’m.
I’m stronger and extra open-minded. The truth that I can now make cash on-line pursuing these goals is unbelievable.
What She Needs She Knew When She Began
I want I had began with search engine optimisation in thoughts from the start. I had to return and alter lots of issues. That took time, so I like to recommend studying tips on how to do it from the beginning the fitting manner.
I additionally strived for perfection an excessive amount of on my Instagram particularly.
Individuals are extra within the content material and worth fairly than perfection. Don’t let perfection cease you from creating content material.
In fact, make sure that it’s top quality, however we are able to’t at all times be good.
Her Essential Mistake
My greatest mistake is letting the considered failure cease me from pursuing my goals. I lastly made the leap to give up my job and never hearken to any of the haters or my smaller inside voice asking, “What if I fail?”
I believe the most effective factor to do is go for it. Now I’ve the time to focus my consideration on this and get additional forward.
Her Recommendation for Different Entrepreneurs
Simply get began. Don’t let concern cease you from pursuing your ardour.
Additionally, don’t let being older cease you too! All of us begin someplace, and it’s by no means too late to get began. It’s an extended sport, so don’t quit earlier than you see outcomes. search engine optimisation takes months, even years.
Don’t examine your self to others and get discouraged. You by no means know the way a lot effort goes behind this stuff as all you see is the top outcome.
It may be difficult and entails lengthy hours and dedication. Running a blog isn’t for everybody both. You actually have to like what you’re doing and stay agile.
