Flashpacker Family turns two years old today!
When I started blogging back in March 2012 I never thought about where this blogging journey would take me. Two years on, I’ve learnt so much about blogging, writing, social media, networking and myself. For me, blogging as a creative outlet, a way to connect with like-minded people world over and a source of inspiration for travel.
The high points of my blogging journey so far:
- Being a finalist in the 2013 Bloggies for “Best Australian or New Zealand Blog”
- Visiting and blogging about six countries with my family in the past two years (New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam)
- Teaming up with brands such as YHA Australia, The Four Seasons and Hotels.com
- Attending the Problogger Conference in September 2013
- Completing my redesign at the start of this year and almost doubling my search traffic as a result
- Creating and communicating with a community of over 1600 travel enthusiasts via my Facebook page – one of my favourite parts of blogging!
- Meeting up with dozens of travel bloggers and travelling families on the road and at home – I would never made the connection with these amazing people had it not been for starting Flashpacker Family
- Getting emails and comments from readers saying they have the courage and skills to travel with their kids thanks to my blog posts
- Transferring skills I’ve learnt from blogging into my own source of location independent income
My top 10 blog posts to date:
I thought I’d dig through my site analytics and find out which of my posts are most popular with readers. Some are pretty obvious, some are surprising!
Based on overall traffic from all sources, these are my ten most popular blog posts of all time:
- 40 Tips to Help You Travel Smarter, Cheaper, Safer, Lighter and, errr… Awesomer!
- Top Ten Things to Do in Las Vegas with Kids
- How a Rainy Day in Yangon Turned Into My Best Ever Travel Moment
- Travel Hacking New Zealand: Finding Cheap Accommodation & Activities
- Top Ten Things To Do In Bangkok With Kids
- Ten Tips for Tackling Jet Lag in Children
- My Love-Hate Relationship with Vietnam
- Is Australia Just Too Darn Expensive?
- Living the Expat Life on Koh Samui
- Why Does Paris Smell Like Pee?
Being number one in Google for “Paris smells like piss” is definitely an achievement to be proud of, right!?
Where next?
My goals for my third year are blogging are pretty simple – grow my traffic on Flashpacker Family, write great content and continue doing what I have been doing, only better. I’ve identified Pinterest as an area I’d like to improve on and recently have been working through updating my more popular posts with great, “pinnable” images. You can follow me on Pinterest here or check out my two favourite boards – “Totally Awesome Travel Tips” and “Things to Do with Kids in…“.
I’ve just purchased a ticket to the Problogger conference in August 2014. I made a lot of positive changes to my blog after attending the 2013 event so this may set me on a new path for the second half of the year.
I also recently started a second blog – Go Click Travel. I plan to focus my travel tips posts on Go Click Travel and keep Flashpacker Family focused on our family’s journey and travel with kids. Go Click is still somewhat a work in progress but do check it out. I plan on sharing these posts on my Flashpacker Family Facebook page too in the future.
Travel-wise, we are awaiting the arrival of our second child in just two weeks and anticipate being back on the road sometime around August/September, depending the nature of our #2! I see a lot of “travel with a baby” and “travel with two young kids” posts in my future.
I hope you join me for another year of blogging!
Leave a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Congratulations Bethenay 🙂 here’s to the future of FPF may it continue to be a fan family travel resource!
I’m about to launch a new design for our site so I hope it has the same impact on my traffic the your revamp did!
All the best for another year in blogging!
Happy second anniversary! (And well done for remembering. I think it was the 6th anniversary that I finally remembered in time for mine. I’m hopeless!)
Really glad to hear you are coming to Problogger, too!
I’m feeling the same about Pinterest and doing the upgrading/updating on some good old posts too, so fingers crossed it works for both of us.
Very exciting times ahead with #2’s arrival, hope it all goes as smoothly as possible! xxx
Congrats on your two year anniversary –
I think its great to take note of these milestones to both acknowledge what you’ve achieved (and gee you’re going great guns!) and to see where you’re heading in the future –
All the best with #2’s arrival as you head into your 3rd year of blogging!:)
Congratulations Bethaney, you are doing such a brilliant job, and I love your thoughtful, and well thought-out posts. Good luck for the birth of No2 and I’m really looking forward to catching up with you again at Problogger.
Congrats and thanks for the great write up about your past two years! Do you think being a Bloggies finalist helped you? If so, how much? I am one this year and just have no idea what to expect for it if anything.
Hey Bethaney, congrats on the anniversary!
Looks like you’ve already ‘evolved’ a lot in those two years. Respect!
I’m at a year and a half at the moment and steel feel like there’s sooo much I need to do.
Stunned to read that your redesign made your traffic go up so much. Did you do a post on that?
I’ll think I’ll do a search right now:D
Congrats on your anniversary! Looking forward to seeing what comes out in 2013.
Congratulations!! Here’s to many more years. I love your site!! 🙂
Congrats on 2 years and to an even better 3rd year!
Fingers crossed everything goes great with the arrival of baby #2! Congrats!!! 🙂
I only started blogging recently, and it’s inspiring to see what you’ve managed to accomplish in only 2 years! (errr, I should probably post more often… hoping that’ll change once things calm down and we’re on the road in July!!) 🙂
Good for you on starting a blog! When I started out, I wrote a few great posts about pasts trips which really helped build my site before we were travelling. 🙂
Thanks Bethaney! 🙂
Awesome job on your two year blogversary. I’ve heard great things about the problogger conference.
Congratulations! Going to check out your other blog right now…
Happy second anniversary! Good luck on the new arrival, and happy blogging in 2014!
Happy blogiversary! You have done so well in only two years-very inspirational! Keep up the good work.
Sorry I’m a bit late but I hope I still have time to send you my Congratulations Bethenay! 🙂
Congratulations Bethenay
Thanks Wesley!
Congratulations Bethaney. I’m enjoying flicking through your posts; you’ve done well!