It’s all here!
- Every resource I use to find affordable and sustainable flights and accommodations.
- All of my tips, tricks, and lists for packing, including what’s in my (sustainable!) suitcase.
- I’ve tried pretty much all of the blogging resources and courses out there. If you are blogging and you want to skip all the research, you found the right place!
- All of the resources I use to continue on my healing journey after the death of my fiancé to cancer are here, too.
Booking Travel
Accommodations:
- Start here: Booking
- Filter by sustainable property: apartments, guesthouses, B&Bs
- Compare sites: trivago
- Free: TrustedHousesitters
- Charitable: Kind Traveler
- Shared: Hostelworld
Transportation:
- Start here: Google Flights
- Filter by one-way. View calendar to see best $$
- Watch flight trends: Hopper
- Book direct with airline
- Trains in Europe
- Trains & buses SE Asia
- Cars: Rental Cars or QEEQ or EconomyBookings
Insurance:
- I use World Nomads travel insurance when I travel outside of my home state (yes, even when home in the USA).
- Recently, I needed to find yearlong, worldwide travel insurance for my long-term French visa application. I found it for $500/year.
Tours & Activities:
- GetYourGuide
- Viator
- TripAdvisor
- Try guided Wellness Tours with G Adventures (sustainable)
- Airbnb Experiences
Note: I no longer recommend Airbnb or VRBO accommodations. (Blog post explaining my reasons coming soon.) I still recommend Airbnb Experiences with local tour guides. In fact, it’s one of my recommendations for exploring deeper travel experiences.
Packing
I believe in packing sustainably. Meaning I use travel products that are made by sustainable companies who balance profit and planet.
Download my sustainable packing lists and my packing list for a sustainable festival here. (Note: The difference between the men/women lists is the Kula Cloth and Diva Cup for women.)
Check out these posts to read more about sustainable packing and green living:
Read on for packing for hiking!
One of the hardest trips I’ve ever packed for was a 500-mile walk across Spain on the Camino de Santiago. I lived out of a small backpack for 35 days!
I screwed up my packing job back then, but I’ve got it down now! When I walk again (July 2022), I’ll use my Camino checklist, which is incredibly comprehensive. You can download a printable copy or read about my Camino packing list here.
For shorter hikes, make sure you have a lightweight survival kit. Download it or read about the hiking survival kit here.
Blogging
Website & Tools:
- The key is a good theme! It’s easy to build a beautiful blog with a Kadence theme & pre-designed conversion blocks.
- I spent countless hours on blog development before hiring a cost-effective partner on Fiverr. Narender fixes my site fast whenever I break it!
- That brings me to Fiverr. Need a logo? Graphics? Someone to set up your Google Analytics and Google Ads? Fiverr is my go-to!
Marketing:
- Don’t waste your time writing blog posts that won’t rank. Get Keysearch for keyword research. (Use promo code KSDISC.)
- I love Flodesk for creating easy emails, subscriber forms, and nurturing sequences.
- Schedule your social media posts weeks in advance with Tailwind.
- Tasty Pins make pinning from your site easy.
- If you’re building a YouTube channel, use TubeBuddy to help optimize your videos.
- I use (and love!) Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing and Lightroom for photo editing. Check out the Adobe Creative Cloud Apps here.
Courses & Coaches:
- When I started, I relied on the Travel Blog Prosperity courses by travel blogger Jessie on a Journey.
- Here’s a bundle of the best courses to create passive income in 2022!
- Learn the secrets to productivity through your own Entrepreneurial Design with Mel McSherry.
- Kelley Long teaches financial planning for your business (and life!) dreams.
- I can’t emphasize enough the importance of the game-changing one-on-one coaching from Julie Laundis for both Pinterest and blogging success.
Design & Shortcuts:
- Creating graphics, social media posts, website banners, and so much more is made easy with Canva. They have so many plug-and-play design templates!
- Shorten your website links for social sharing with bitly.
- Securely organize and store all of your passwords with LastPass.
- Build and easily embed beautiful travel guides and itneraries with Wanderlog. Here’s an example.
- Of the many online platforms for selling and creating courses, I chose LearnWorlds for the ability to build an App.
Vlogging
Shooting on the Go:
- The camera around my neck is a Canon E0S 70D. Works for video and still photos.
- This SD card is crucial for shooting video on your DSLR.
- When I have room in my bag, I bring my travel tripod.
- When I need to pack light, I just bring my GoPro Max.
- I love the El Grande Selfie Stick with my GoPro.
- I also use three-way tripod and handle.
- And the GoPro bite mount.
- My GoPro light works for all cameras when I’m on the go.
- When I’m not on the road, I use a light with a tripod.
- I use this RODE Wireless microphone system.
- I use the DJI Mini Drone.
Post Production:
- I use Adobe Premiere Pro for all of my desktop editing.
- On the road, I use the following apps:
- GoPro Quik
- Splice
- Vismato
- DJI Fly (when I bring the Drone)
- Canva is my go-to for easy, beautiful graphics.
- An Artlist subscription is a must for great royalty-free music.
Staying Charged
- For your phone, the portable charger from Nimble is lightweight and sustainable.
- The GoPro battery stations make charging easy.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing merits its own section in this collection of blogging resources!
Many of the links on this page are affiliate links, meaning I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you. You can do this, too!
The easiest way to start with affiliate marketing is with Skimlinks. If you install the Skimlinks extension on your browser, you can create affiliate links from every website that partners with them – and there are many sites that partner with this powerhouse in the affiliate marketing world!
Then there are affiliate marketing networks. I use all of the following affiliate hubs because I only promote sustainable brands (meaning I have to join all of the different networks with which my sustainable brands are partnered). You can choose one or two and, in combination with Skimlinks and Amazon, you’ll be good to go!
Ranked in order of ease of use:
Affiliate Marketing Networks
- Skimlinks (described above)
- AvantLink (easy interface, extension that works well, good brands, good banner ads)
- ShareASale (easy interface, extension that mostly works, good brands, good banner ads)
- Impact (easy interface, good brands, good ads, no extension)
- Awin (difficult interface, good brands, good ads, no extension)
- CJ (Don’t recommend. Difficult interface, extension rarely works, brands often reject applications, non-existent conversion rate, they deactivate accounts when no conversion, customer service takes weeks to send a dismissive response.)
Of course, there is the behemoth in the room: Amazon. This is a really easy-to-use affiliate platform. I try to partner directly with brands that use sustainable and carbon-offset shipping, but a lot of brands (including sustainable ones) only sell on Amazon.
If you review or write about books, you’ll want to check out Bookshop. They support independent booksellers (and bloggers like you!) You can set up your own online “bookshop”: Here’s my shop!
Affiliate Marketing for Travel Bloggers
For travel-specific affiliate marketing, there are a few really good networks to tap into.
Stay 22 allows you to make maps of available accommodations in the destination area that you’re writing about. You receive a commission for every booking! It draws from Booking.com and Vrbo. See examples at the bottom of this post.
Travelpayouts includes GetYourGuide, TripAdvisor, Vrbo, and many other travel-related affiliate marketing partners.
Affiliate Marketing Bonus Tips:
Jessie on a Journey, the above-mentioned blogger and coach, covers affiliate marketing in her Travel Blog Prosperity course. Start with Jessie’s free blog makeover!
Also, you can organize all of your affiliate partnerships in one dashboard with Affluent Analytics!
Resources on Grieving and Healing
I’m putting together a meditation series for people experiencing grieving or life transitions. It’s coming soon!
Throughout my grieving process and healing journey, I relied on the following resources:
Resources for Grieving
01
Grief Works: An app to guide you through your grief
02
Hot Young Widows Club: Stories of love & loss on Instagram; also a book
03
Modern Loss: Essays & resources to navigate life after death
04
Good Mourning Podcast: Authentic conversations about loss
05
Soaring Spirits: Peer-based support programs for widowed men & women
06
Subscribe to my newsletter for tips on grief & post-traumatic growth
Holistic Healing Bonus Tip:
I’m currently very focused on holistic healing, and my friend Casey Joy at Joyful Balance is helping me with that (that’s her in the picture of Sedona!)
She can help you, too. She will identify the mind-body-soul lifestyle practices that work best for you through one-on-one coaching and healing with a focus on Ayurveda. Take her soulful quiz to discover your unique Mind-Body type:
Book Reviews and Recommendations
10 Life-Changing Books to Change Your Mindset for Good
Have you ever read a book that changed your whole dang life?
7 Memoirs About Losing a Loved One
These books and memoirs about losing a loved one helped me to laugh and cry through my grief. I hope they will help you, too.
7 Reasons To Read Outlander Now!
There are far more than seven reasons you need to read Outlander, but I’ll start with these seven efforts of persuasion.
For All of My Book Reviews:
