😲 Found A Thriving Travel Blog

Before we get started today, I want to take the time to acknowledge those of you who were happy to see a few emails with zero ads.

I’ve listened to your feedback. And while the ads aren’t going away completely, I will make it clearer what IS an ad with a colored background so that it stands out more.

The reason the ads aren’t going away completely is my intention is to support local animal rescues this year with the ad monies. I do hope you’ll agree with me that some ads are worth suffering through.

With that out of the way - just one ad today! And then we’ll jump right into today’s topic.

So Rare These Days I Didn’t Believe It

Though I don’t talk about it often…maybe once? I do have my own travel blog.

I think has maybe 15 posts on it? From two or three years ago?

Turns out I love traveling and just don’t take the time to write about it.

The site was started with the intention to fuck SEO writing…even before HCU. I think that’s why it’s never been hit by HCU.

My wife wants to get back to working on the travel site and combine it with this other idea that I’m really excited about.

So, today I decided to see how the old travel blog is doing and if it still has page one rankings. (It does.)

In my investigating, I came across a travel niche site that not only has not been decimated by HCU, but this shitty site is thriving.

This site is mostly full of fake hotel reviews that end with a single CTA - a button to book it on Booking.com.

It’s also running AdSense ads, which is interesting that it’s not using Mediavine or Raptive, right?

There is a Pinterest account but no activity since 3 years ago.

Active Facebook page with one update each day (link to a blog post). Not running ads, so don’t think they’re going for the Facebook bonus program.

It really seems to be mostly an affiliate/display ads site. In 2025. And it’s going well.

wtf?

The Ahrefs free backlink checker doesn’t show an impressive DR for it either -

So, what gives?

I think there’s two interesting things going on here. Maybe three.

#1 - the titles of the blog posts are NOT your typical SEO optimized titles. Instead, they scream first-hand experience.

#2 - they have loads of links from the hotels they write about. Clearly they are contacting a hotel to let them know about the review and then getting one of those “press” page types of links, though sometimes on the homepage. So, the topical relevancy of their links is through the fucking roof.

#3 - It’s all fake. At least the recent posts over the last year that I was checking out. Stock photos from the hotel websites. Writing so fucking terrible and obviously AI. And Google is loving this steaming pile of shit.

It’s fascinating though, right? I’ve got an aged travel domain that I use for testing purposes where I just might try the exact same thing and see what happens.

** I didn’t share the URL for this site because I hate when people out sites. So, please don’t ask me for it.

Thoughts?

Coming up…

More on what I’m working on and how it’s going.

Stay awesome,

Shawna

P.S. If you’re looking for high level discussions or tips on things like local SEO and Rank & Rent, I highly recommend Jacky Chou’s Advise community. I’ve been in it for several months and there’s tons of value in it, including a SOP for local SEO.

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