73 | Is AI Stealing Your Content – And Can Creators Fight Back?
Travel Matters
What happens when Google and AI companies can answer a travel question using the experiences, photos and expertise of creators – without sending the reader to the creator who did the work? Travel Matters hosts Palle Bo and Rick Calvert sit down with travel creator and former attorney Nate Hake, founder of Travel Lemming, to talk about what he sees as an existential challenge for online creators. Nate argues that the problem isn’t AI itself – it’s how companies are using creators’ work while taking away the traffic that has traditionally allowed publishers to make money. But he also...
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72 | Gary Arndt on Podcasts, Newsletters and the Fight Against AI Content
Travel Matters
What happens when the platforms that built your business suddenly stop sending you traffic – or your entire industry shuts down almost overnight? Gary Arndt knows both scenarios very well. Gary was one of the early stars of travel blogging and an award-winning travel photographer. Then the pandemic wiped out 95% of his income within weeks. Instead of waiting for travel to return, he built something completely different: the daily Everything Everywhere podcast. That decision paid off. Everything Everywhere Daily has since passed 65 million downloads and now averages around 1.5 million...
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71 | Family Travel Doesn’t End When the Kids Grow Up
Travel Matters
What happens to “family travel” when the kids are old enough to order the cocktails? For Margarita Ibbott, it becomes a completely different kind of travel – and an interesting opportunity for destinations and content creators. Margarita started in 2009, originally writing about professional organizing and simplifying life. Over time, the blog evolved with her. Today, her focus is travel for the 50+ audience, including luxury and cultural experiences, girls’ getaways and traveling with adult children. Her philosophy can be summed up in four words: less stuff, more travel. In...
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70 | Slash, Howard Stern and the Business Beyond YouTube – Marty Music (2:2)
Travel Matters
What happens when one of your guitar heroes tells you he has your lessons saved on his computer? In Part 2 of our conversation with Marty Schwartz of Marty Music, we pick up exactly where we left off – with Marty casually revealing that Slash from Guns N’ Roses knows who he is. The story gets even better. On the very same day Marty met Slash, he received an unexpected phone call from Howard Stern, who had become fascinated with learning guitar. Marty also shares some of the other surreal side quests his career has brought him, including teaching Jordan Belfort and action star Jason...
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69 | Five Million Subscribers – and Why YouTube Isn’t Enough – Marty Music (1:2)
Travel Matters
What can a travel creator learn from one of the biggest guitar teachers on YouTube? Quite a lot, as it turns out. Marty Schwartz is the creator of Marty Music, a guitar education brand with close to five million YouTube subscribers and thousands of lessons produced over nearly two decades. Marty joined us at TBEX North America in Richmond, and although he works in a completely different corner of the creator economy, the similarities are striking. In Part 1 of our conversation, Marty talks with Palle Bo and Rick Calvert about growing an audience before anyone really knew what a “YouTuber”...
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69 | Slow Travel, Real Stories and a Blog Built to Last
Travel Matters
With AI producing more content and Google constantly changing the rules, how does a travel creator actually stand out? Josefine and Dom of Red White Adventures have a refreshingly simple answer: be more yourself. The Danish-Canadian couple has travelled together for more than eight years and turned what began as a casual travel blog into a full-time content business focused on outdoor adventures, slow travel, and the digital nomad lifestyle. Recorded at TBEX Europe in San Sebastián, this conversation gets into the reality behind that journey – from learning SEO and affiliate marketing to...
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67 | Will AI Replace Travel Bloggers – or Make Them Better?
Travel Matters
Can AI save travel creators hours of work without removing the personality, experience and human perspective that make people trust them? At TBEX Eau Claire, Palle Bo and Rick Calvert sat down with content entrepreneur and author Julia McCoy, who had recently made a dramatic transition from outspoken AI sceptic to President of Content at Scale (now BrandWell). Julia explains what changed her mind. Early AI writing tools produced generic, unreliable content filled with fluff. Then she discovered technology capable of researching, writing and producing content at a speed that forced her to...
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66 | How Travel Bloggers Can Make Real Money with Affiliate Marketing
Travel Matters
Shelley Marmor turned travel blogging into a multiple-six-figure business within two years. In this episode of Travel Matters, she shares why mindset matters, why SEO comes before monetisation, and how travel creators can use affiliate marketing more strategically instead of simply adding links and hoping for the best. What separates a travel blog that makes a little side income from one that becomes a serious business? In this episode of Travel Matters, Palle Bo and Rick Calvert sit down with Shelley Marmor, founder of TravelMexicoSolo.com, TravelBlogging101.com and several other niche travel...
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65 | Free Trips, Fair Pay – Know Your Value as a Creator
Travel Matters
Should travel creators ever work for free? And is a free trip fair compensation – or simply unpaid labour with a nicer view? Travel Matters is back, and our first conversation of the new season brings together two longtime members of the TBEX community: Jen Ruiz, the travel writer, author and entrepreneur behind Jen on a Jet Plane, and Melvin Boecher, founder of Travel Dudes. Jen believes that when a creator is brought in to produce work for a campaign, money should always be part of the agreement. Melvin agrees that professional creators need to be paid – but argues that collaborations,...
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64 | From Ground to Sky: Unleashing the Power of Drones with the Drone Queen
Travel Matters
In this electrifying episode of Travel Matters, Palle Bo and Rick Calvert sit down with Christine Lozada, famously known as the Drone Queen. Dive into the world of drone photography and videography as Christine shares her journey from a newbie to a renowned drone expert. Discover the secrets behind capturing breathtaking aerial shots, navigating legalities, and utilizing drones to land incredible travel partnerships. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just curious about drone technology, this episode is packed with insights and tips that will elevate your travel content creation to new...
info_outlineWe have missed you!
Listen to this episode of Travel Matters, and read the newsletter from Rick below:
We hope you have been safe and healthy throughout the last year and are looking forward to traveling again soon. We are very optimistic about the future of travel and TBEX events. This is going to be a long one but there is good news so please stay with me.
The last several months the vaccine distribution here in the US has been going very well. At our peak, we were vaccinating as many as three million people per day! All signs and trends point to domestic US travel being the first sector to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic along with all related travel restrictions and safety protocols. Based on the status of Covid 19 pandemic right now, here are our current plans:
TBEX Tri-Cities Washington, October 12-14, 2021 is ON!
If you would like to join us in Tri-Cities, please register HERE
If you registered for TBEX Lafayette in 2020, you should have already received an email from us offering to transfer your ticket over to the Tri-Cities event or to Lafayette in 2022. If you have already replied we have noted your request and made those changes. If you missed that email please reply directly to me here rick@tbexcon.com
About a month ago we emailed everyone who had registered for TBEX North America 2021 in Tri-Cities and everyone who had registered for TBEX North America 2020 in Lafayette and let them know we were considering new dates for TBEX Tri-Cities. We asked them if they could attend Tri-Cities in October and if they would feel safe and comfortable doing so.
70% replied yes they definitely plan to attend. 20% told us they needed to wait a bit longer to make sure conditions are safe. Another 10% said it would still be some time before they were making plans to travel or meet with large groups.
Thank you to everyone who responded. Your feedback was critical in helping us finalize our decision to confirm our new dates for TBEX Tri-Cities October 12 to 14 of this year.
I was in Tri-Cities for a site visit last week and the Tri-Cities team is working hard to put together an amazing program for all of us. It is going to be GREAT! Being able to share our love of travel and see each other again will bring out lots of emotions.
Stay tuned for lots of updates coming the next couple of weeks TBEX North America in Tri-Cities with speaker announcements, evening events, Pre-Bex and post TBEX FAM Trips.
TBEX Europe 2021 in Catania Italy has been postponed.
Our host partners in Catania really wanted to reschedule TBEX Europe for this November, but as you may have seen or as some of you are living through it; Europe is experiencing another wave right now. Vaccine distribution there is ramping up quickly and things should be improving soon. Because of the current conditions, we have notified our friends in Catania that we cannot produce TBEX Europe in 2021. We are working on new future dates with them now.
There will be TBEX Europe in 2022!
We will have an update for you with dates for TBEX Europe 2022 very very soon… Keep your eyes and ears on Travel Matters and get the news here first!
TBEX Asia Phuket, Thailand has been postponed to 2022.
We have agreed with our partners in Thailand that the best course is to postpone until 2022. We are coordinating new dates with them right now and are planning to announce those new dates any day now. If you registered for 2021 Thailand, your registration will be automatically transferred to 2022.
TBEX North America, Layfette, Louisiana October 14-16, 2022 is ON!
You can register for TBEX North America 2022 HERE.
We know this global crisis is over just yet. We will suffer more setbacks and losses before it completely ends, but for the first time in a long time, there is real hope. I am so looking forward to seeing you all again in the not-so-distant future and celebrating our life of travel again.
As we begin to roam the world again we will find the TBEX experience shaped and changed by this pandemic -- We cannot wait to learn, grow, and socialize safely together with all of you while we help our beloved travel industry rebuild.
See more on TBEXcon.com
Travel Matters is hosted by The Radio Vagabond, Palle Bo and TBEX CEO, Rick Calbert, and produced by RadioGuru.
If you have questions about any of our events and current plans or need anything please email Rick Calvert directly rick@tbexcon.com