Rising Stars: Meet Christiane Carney

Today we’d like to introduce you to Christiane Carney.

Hi Christiane, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story? 
For a long time, I have dreamed of reaching a level of financial independence where I no longer have to rely on my traditional 9-5 job. To me, this independence would mean the flexibility to work how I want when I want. This goal could be accomplished a few ways: saving more, reducing expenses, or developing a new income stream through a side hustle. 

I started brainstorming what I am passionate about and how to turn that into a business. Travelling stood out as a clear answer; I travel extensively both for my regular job and for my own vacations. I also love to tell my travel stories and help friends and family plan their own trips. I started to research how to monetize a passion for traveling and decided to start a travel blog. 

I came up with the name “Meticulous Travel Planner” because I truly enjoy extensively planning and researching my destinations before each trip. My idea was to use my blog to share my research with the world, including detailed itineraries and travel reviews. I built my website in June 2023 and officially launched with 5 articles in July 2023. 

Now, in December 2023, I am up to 19 posts and about 700 pageviews per month. I have ideas for many more articles and plan to keep growing the website and working to get more traffic each month. 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
While the Meticulous Travel Planner has been steadily growing, both in terms of content and traffic, the first 6 months of developing my business have been far from easy. I had no experience with several of the essential skills needed to get my business off the ground: building a website, search engine optimization (SEO), and marketing. I spent a lot of time doing research and ultimately decided to dive in and build my expertise as I went. 

For example, building my website was the first task I tackled. I chose a WordPress theme and starting building a website. Partway through, I realized theme I had chosen had some limitations, so I went back the drawing board and re-started from scratch. Eventually, I ended up with a website that certainly isn’t perfect, but it functions and gets the job done. I have a list of enhancements I would love to make, but for now, I decided to move onto the next task and return to optimize later. 

Another major struggle has been monetizing the Meticulous Travel Planner. In the blogging business, monetization is linked to traffic, which takes time to build. Day one that you launch a website, search engines like Google don’t even know that you exist. It takes time to establish your blog and have posts start showing up in searches. Once your blog grows, you can incorporate advertisements onto your website and start earning compensation linked to your website’s traffic. My blog’s traffic is currently too low to make that a viable option. 

Currently, I monetize through affiliate marketing, which involves recommending travel accommodations and activities. If someone clicks on the links I recommend and makes a purchase, I earn a small commission. So far, I have only made about $150 from this approach. As the blog’s traffic grows, presumably, the income will increase as well. But for now, I would categorize the Meticulous Travel Planner as more of a hobby than a business given the limited income thus far. 

Finally, the other big hurdle is finding enough time to dedicate to the business. Finding a balance between my regular job, blogging, traveling (so I have something to blog about!), and just living daily life can be difficult. There have been weeks-long stretches where I have made zero progress on my blog. My research on travel blogging taught me that most new blogs fail in the first year because the writer stops the project. It can be especially discouraging since monetization for blogs is a slow process, so there isn’t a large payoff in the beginning. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The Meticulous Travel Planner is a blog where I share my detailed travel research, itineraries, and tips with the world. When I plan my own vacations, I noticed that I would need to use multiple resources to thoroughly research and plan a trip. I aim to make my blog a one-stop shop where a traveler can plan a great vacation after reading just one article on the destination. I started writing articles about destinations in my home state of Michigan, like Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Mackinac Island, and Charlevoix. Later, I expanded to discuss other destinations in the United States, Caribbean, and Europe, such as St. Lucia, Greece, and Iceland. I have a long list of new articles to write and hope to routinely post new content for readers to enjoy. 

I am most excited by the prospect of helping others plan great trips. I believe in writing honest reviews that discuss both the good and bad aspects of a destination, experience, or accommodation. I was ecstatic the first time a reader booked an experience based on my recommendation. It was a guided tour of the Acropolis in Athens that I had taken and really enjoyed. Based on my review, the thought that someone else could enhance their vacation was very rewarding. 

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
When starting a new business, I think it’s important to know it probably won’t be a get-rich-quick scheme. I recommend establishing leading indicators of success so that you can track your progress towards meaningful goals. For example, for a blog where monetization can take time, measuring success by income coming in would not be appropriate for the first year. Instead, I set attainable goals that will move the business in the right direction. A goal could be getting one article to show up in a Google search. Or building a social media profile. It can certainly feel discouraging when you don’t experience instant success, but I believe perseverance and incremental progress towards goals will pay off in the long run. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://meticuloustravelplanner.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meticuloustravelplanner/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meticuloustravelplanner/