Trisha Velarmino Edits Her Evergreen Travel Blog Content to Fit Pandemic World

Entrepreneur: Trisha Velarmino

Biz: P.S. I’m On My Way 

Tilt: Immersive travel as experienced by a Filipino woman

Primary Channel: Blog (100K+ monthly visitors)

Other Primary Channels: Email (13K), Instagram (57.4K) Pinterest (2.2K) YouTube (11.1K)

Time to First Dollar: 2 years

Rev Streams: Blog ads, YouTube, travel consulting, group trips, affiliate marketing 

Our Favorite Actionable Advice:

• Create evergreen content: When some countries closed their borders to visitors, Trisha edited and promoted her evergreen content from countries where people could travel to.
• Read the comments: Read their feedback, see the questions they ask, and use that to inform future content.
• Understand audience differences: Trisha has learned which channel’s audiences are more likely to buy, making them more attractive for brand deals.

The Story

Trisha Velarmino has been a digital nomad – someone who works remotely from anywhere in the world – since 2012. Born and raised in the Philippines, she studied in Italy before traveling and blogging full time. 

“I’m not from a traveling country. Girls from my country aren’t typically encouraged to travel. We’re not encouraged to study abroad. But I did it anyway. I didn’t want to go back to a lifestyle where things were imposed on me,” Trisha says. 

After her studies in Italy, she backpacked around Europe. In 2012, she started her blog in South America, writing as she would in her journal. It wasn’t until 2013, when Rappler, a major newspaper in the Philipines, interviewed her that she realized she might make a living from her content. “That’s when my blog exploded. People from my country were reading my blog,” Trisha says. 

Planning her content

Given Trisha’s blog business model includes advertising revenue, the number of views is particularly important, so she publishes content that people more frequently search and talk about. (She earns an average of $80 a day for blog ads.)

During the pandemic, she found herself having to adjust her content. She had a lot of travel guides for countries that most people haven’t been able to visit in almost two years. “I lived in Israel and Jordan, and that content used to rank all the time. But now that those countries are closed, people aren’t looking for that content,” Trisha explains.

She shifted and edited her evergreen blog posts with more relevant and relatable COVID-19 content. “It’s easier for me because before (the pandemic), people were asking about Spain, Portugal, Thailand, and so many other countries,” Trisha says. Now, she focuses her content on Latin America, which is open to travelers, and hasn’t updated her content about countries that have shut their borders to Americans (who make up 49% of her readers.)

Using feedback and SEO research

Trisha creates or edits her blog articles based on questions readers ask in the comments as well as consumer search behavior. By packing that value in an authentic way in her travel content, Trisha’s content is likely to rank high on Google.

A self-taught photographer, videographer, writer, and every creator skill in between, Trisha also learns from fellow influencers and bloggers when they come together for travel junkets. “Most of the things I know are from other bloggers because we all have different systems and can learn from one another,” she says.

Working on other channels

Trisha hasn’t relied on social channels for her primary content business income. Most of her followers on Instagram are from the Philippines, but the audience isn’t consumer-oriented. “Even though I have a lot of Instagram followers, my customers are not buying the brand products I promote, and brands won’t want to work with me because of that,” she explains.

Trisha also has an email list with 13K subscribers that she uses to market her group-led trips. (Trisha also earns $300 an hour for travel consulting.)

Starting a YouTube channel

Trisha’s goal for 2022 is to produce more YouTube content. She started the channel in March 2021 but hasn’t posted in four months. “Even though I’m not very serious on YouTube right now, I have over 11K followers,” she says.  Still, she earns about $300 a month from ads on the existing content.

About the author

Bonnie Azoulay

Bonnie owns Word of Mouth, a content agency specializing in social media, content marketing, and editorial writing. She's written for Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Coveteur, Man Repeller, Health.com, and more. She loves wearing fanny packs and laying in the fetal position.