Jason Moore is the founder of two popular websites and podcasts, Zero to Travel and Location Indie.

He’s an all round great guy, superb interviewee (and interviewer by the way) and has a lot to say about the future of travel and where we can all make a difference.

Jason is passionate about helping people grow businesses online, whether they be travel-related or not, but most of his audience are digital nomads or travel fans. His community is made up of like-minded individuals who all value self-actualisation and freedom over status and money.

🔗 Full Show Notes

•  On authenticity in podcasting and blogging
•  On writing for SEO and keywords or writing to be authentic.
• On why Jason started the Zero To Travel podcast
•  On starting a comminty for location independent entrepreneurs
•  On life-changing decisions and events
• On setting up two companies in two different countries
•  On creating Location Indie with a friend
•  On the term “Location Independent Entrepreneur”
•  On why the lifestyle is not for everyone
•  On learning from other people
•  On social media
•  On starting a podcast
•  On how to know if podcasting is for you

If you've ever wanted to get into the world of travel and adventure tours, this interview will give you some insights into how it's done. If you're interested in visiting emerging destinations but you don't fancy going it alone, check out the fascinating parts of the world that Sam's company, YellowWood Adventures, visits.

Sam talks about staffing, marketing channels, marketing tools, and how the business developed

🔗 Full Show Notes

Nate Hake is the founder of Travel Lemming, a blog about emerging destinations and travel trends. Nate started the blog as a hobby but has since taken it full time and lives as a digital nomad.

🔗 Full Show Notes

The Portugalist is a blog about travel and living in Portugal. James Cave founded the blog in 2016 to create travel content for people interested in visiting the country's many tourist attractions. But over the last few years, there has been a shift towards helping people who want to move to Portugal on a short-term or long-term basis.

🔗 Show Notes

In 2020, with so few tourists visiting the country, James has taken the opportunity to work on an aspect of the blog that he had avoided in the past - advice on moving to and living legally in Portugal.

Brexit, Donald Trump's presidency, and the global pandemic have contributed to an increased demand for information on moving to and living in Portugal, especially by people from the US and UK

Portugal is growing fast as a destination for expats, location independent entrepreneurs, digital nomads, and retirees.

Portugalist Website

Peter Santenello is a YouTube travel video creator. His videos focus on the people that live in less-visited countries. He travels to places that are generally misunderstood in the West and documents the lives of regular people. It's less a travelog and more a way to show the humanity on the streets of countries that are poorly represented around the world.

🔗 Show Notes

Peter's videos are thoughtful, thought-provoking, entertaining and always fascinating. It's one of the few travel vlogs that I subscribe to and I recommend you check it out. 

This podcast interview was recorded back in mid-2020 and circumstances have led to a delay in publishing. But our conversation is still relevant and you will get lots of value from what Peter has to say.

Please excuse the bad audio in places. We had a less-than-perfect connection and I'm still figuring out this podcasting game. 

Peter's YouTube Channel

Peter's Website

Saudi Arabia playlist on YouTube

Ukraine playlist

Video of Peter meeting the family he lived with in rural Ukraine

"The goal is to put the viewer In the driver's seat, and put them into the situations. And I never know how any of these are going to come out. It always matters what experience I get into and who I meet. That's really the ticket."

Meet Nathan Aguilera, a flashpacker, foodie, photographer, and travel blogger. Nathan runs the very popular Foodie Flashpacker website that helps people all over the world find great restaurants and discover new dishes. In this episode, we chat about how the pandemic has affected travel blogs, Nathan's favorite cuisines, how he makes money from his blog, what influencers get paid, how he simplified his business, and the pros and cons of monetizing a blog with ads.

Click here for Full show notes

Links & Resources

• Foodie Flashpacker
• Nathan's Instagram
• The Foodie Flashpacker Facebook page

Places mentioned:

• Sofia, bulgaria - Read Nathan's guide to where to eat in the city
• Varna, Bulgaria
• Spain
• Tbilisi, Georgia
• Bora Bora
• Mexico
• Italy
• Iceland's
• Azores, Portugal
• Madeira, Portugal

Nathan's Top 3 Bulgarian dishes:

• Tarator - Bulgarian Cold Cucumber Soup
• Shopska salad
• Bulgarian Banitsa

Other Links:

• Mediavine Trellis - a fast WordPress theme for food and travel blogs.
• Grow.me - Mediavine's user engagement suite
• Aweber - email marketing software
• A flashpacker definition
• A Digital Nomad definition
• Reddit - One of the internet's most visited websites. Find niche forum discussions on every topic imaginable.
• WordPress themes for Travel blogs
• Travel writing & SEO - an opinion piece
• How to start a travel blog 

Today’s podcast interview is with the founder of Spotted By Locals, Bart van Poll. Learn how Bart took an idea and turned it into a network for local experts to share their best tips. The blog and community Spotted By Locals is a great resource for travelers. Tips in their city guides are written by locals who actually live in these cities. Bart, who is originally from the Netherlands, will explain how he monetized the Spotted By Locals website and made it profitable. For most people, just starting such a website is difficult, but making money from it is even more challenging. Bart succeeded in this.

Full Interview Show Notes

We discuss emerging locations, overtourism, Bart’s favorite destinations, how he travels, and his thoughts on Google getting into the travel space.

It is the future: emerging destinations that have avoided over-tourism. People are looking to finally go do something else and the pandemic has helped in that way.

📍 On focus in the travel industry

“At the moment, we cover 81 cities across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. we write about spots that aren’t super touristic. We focus on cities that are less than touristy, emerging destinations in the last three years only.”

📍On overtourism

“It is the future: emerging destinations that have avoided over-tourism. It’s been a buzzword for a long time and people are looking to finally go do something else. And the pandemic has helped in that way. I think people want to experience less crowded places. I’m happy we made the choice to focus on these destinations”.

📍On little-known, misunderstood Chișinău, Moldova

“The way the YouTuber Bald and Bankrupt talks about Chișinău doesn’t do it justice. I think it’s a pretty lovely city actually with low-rise buildings and really friendly locals. It has a lot of problems everywhere, but it’s a charming place I really try to promote it to friends. But Bald and Bankrupt did get me interested in visiting so maybe the tourist board can be grateful (for the exposure)”

Links & More Information

• Spotted by Locals website
• Spotted by locals Instagram
• Peloponnese, Greece
• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Athens, Greece
• New Zealand
• Yerevan, Armenia
• Tbilisi, Georgia
• Thessaloniki, Greece
• Tashkent, Uzbekistan
• Chișinău, Moldiva
• Nate Hake from Travel Lemming
• Bald and Bankrupt – Video on Chișinău
• Gary Arndt from Everything Everywhere
• DuckDuckGo.com – Google search engine ‘competitor’
• Buffer.com – social media scheduling app
• The Silk Roads – Peter Frankopan
• Sapiens – Noah Yuval Harari