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I took a long and winding road to get to Superstar Blogging's "The Business of Travel Blogging" course.
My first interaction with travel blogging courses began many years ago when a friend opened one of the earliest programs on the topic and I provided feedback as a beta tester. That course later integrated with Travel Blog Success, which became one of the most popular travel courses out there.
I was a member of that course for several years (hooray being grandfathered!) before it was purchased by Nomadic Matt and merged with his blogging course, Superstar Blogging (hooray double grandfathering!).
In fact, when I first heard the news I wasn't super thrilled by it because I loved Travel Blog Success and was sad to hear it was going away. And while I didn't need to go through yet another blogging course, I decided to give Superstar Blogging a shot anyway just to see what it is like and to provide an unbiased opinion in our review.
As it turns out, I was surprised by what I found.
Superstar Blogging Review - An In Depth Guide to Travel Blogging
Superstar Blogging is organized into a ten-week course, with 30 individual lessons/chapters, and offers a step-by-step outline on what you need to do in order to launch your blog.
Each "week" of lessons has corresponding assignments that, while not really useful to us as seasoned bloggers, would go quite the long way for those who are new.
A lot of the tasks that are highlighted focus on minor things you wouldn't think about that are absolutely crucial along the way (setting up SSL at the get go, for example, or basics of html coding for aesthetics and SEO). We picked up many of these tidbits as we went in our 10+ years blogging, and think it is absolutely critical to get many "right" at the start in order to set yourself up for success.
Matt reiterates time and time again that even his blogging empire wasn't built in a day, and yours wont be either. But at the same time, doing best practices from the start will help shorten you take to blogging success.
The chapters themselves are a mix of text and videos, so you'll need to be prepared to listen as well as read (and be ready for the time commitment that goes along with it).
Overall, the ten-week course is just scratching the surface of blogging from a business perspective, but is detailed enough that you will return to this one time and time again as you grow.
Reflect on the Lesson, Then Do What Feels Right
My only complaint is that I do not necessarily agree with the order of operations, as it is recommended to set your site up and then focus on niche building, but we believe this should be done in reverse order- but even here we admit we are being partial to our own experiences.
This highlights an important point with the course in that it may be best to learn some of the lessons from the weeks as they come and digest everything you can before acting. It'll be a longer haul overall, but your site will be better for it as we truly believe doing things right the first time saves headaches later.
The course, while robust on its own from a global perspective, only covers some of the critical details you need to know to get started and at roughly $299 for lifetime access, could be viewed as being a bit much- although the course does appear to offer frequent flash sales to get the cost down considerably. So if you see it discounted heavily for a special promo, you'd do well by jumping on it.
If you want to dive down into more about affiliate marketing, brand partnerships, or how to succeed in a specific social network (for example), you may want to look at a course tailored just to those. (But don't get me wrong, the tips here are excellent from a holistic view.)
Likewise, the course also glosses over a number of ways you can make money and other disclosures that are necessary for comps, affiliate links, etc. So if you are looking at these avenues you'll have to do some supplemental reading (Although we're told updates may be forthcoming to this effect.)
Some of the most important lessons come in the final week when the course dives into how to use your influence, how to pitch effectively, and how to not come off as a horrible person who is just in it for comps.
We agree with many of these, disagree with others, but it is also worth keeping in mind that a lot of business ethics is a grey area where no one opinion is right.
So, Who Should Buy This Course?
Overall, Superstar Blogging's "The Business of Travel Blogging" course takes a robust look at everything new bloggers need to know when getting into this field.
While it is oriented to travel bloggers, it is general enough that most of the tips can be applied to all fields (however some week's lessons will be outside of your scope).
More importantly, it is organized for those who are early in their blogging journey. So if you are absolutely fresh into wanting to get into this whole blogging thing, Superstar Blogging will be a good way to open your eyes to the complexities of a field most view as simple, and is truly anything but.
It may turn you off from blogging, but it may also help you grow. In any case the course says the things that need to be said, and overall does a really nice job at providing direction to those who need it most (even if we may disagree with a few things here or there).
So we have to say that if you've been around for a few years, have 10,000+ monthly page views, a decent social following in the thousands, and need direction for growth you probably can find it elsewhere without spending the fairly large fee. But if you find yourself starting out in your travel blogging journey and have no idea where to begin, a course like this will certainly help give you direction as well.
To purchase Superstar Blogging, click here. In addition to the business of travel blogging, Superstar Blogging offers other courses focused on travel photography, travel writing itself, and filmography for those who want to dive into the weeds of media creation! These are at an additional charge.Looking for more information on how to start a travel blog? Check out our complete 10,000 word guide which contains our own personal tips for launching a blog!
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