Laura Peters is the owner and author of Mike & Laura Travel, a blog that helps travelers find unique destinations and travel experiences on a budget. She is also the CEO of Scale Your Travel Blog, a coaching program that helps travel bloggers start, grow, and scale their travel blog income. When she isn't writing blog posts about her favorite travel destinations, she is serving her audience through Scale Your Travel Blog and her live/virtual events, Travel Blogging Summit.
Blogging in 2026: A Reality Check
|
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to who still haven’t started their blog because they’re telling themselves, "It's 2026.. it's too late to start blogging." They were saying the same thing in 2022. And 2019. And 2016. Most of the time, it’s not a lack of desire. They want a life that feels more aligned with their goals and dreams, not one where they’re going to a job they only *kind of* like every day. They’re just held back by the fear that there are already too many bloggers, that AI will replace everything, or that no one will care what they have to say. If that sounds like you, consider this your call-out. Not starting a blog because of fear isn’t protecting you, it’s just keeping you stuck right where you are. And my goal with this email is to help you see why waiting is actually the bigger risk. So what can we expect heading into 2026? Let’s jump in. Ready to Stop Doing Everything Yourself on Your Blog? - PAID AD - So… you’ve been thinking about outsourcing, but you’re not sure how it actually works. What to hand over. How to explain things. How to trust someone with your blog. And because it feels unclear, it’s easy to keep putting it off. Meanwhile, you’re doing your best to keep everything moving: writing posts, keeping Pinterest active, updating old content, replying in your FB group, maybe wanting to try something new like Flipboard… That’s exactly why VA Your Blog exists. Our small, trained team of blogging VAs knows the tasks on your plate, and our onboarding is simple and guided by an experienced travel blogger (who’s also a SYTB student). If you’re ready to get started, even slowly, we’ll walk you through every step.
PS: Use code SYTB10 and get 10% off your first 3 months! - END PAID AD - 1. Will AI destroy all blogs? I keep hearing this: “I can’t start a blog now. AI is better than humans. Blogs are basically over.” Full stop with that. AI isn’t killing blogs. Here’s what IS happening in the land of AI: As AI improves, a lot of humans are backing out. Bloggers are quitting. OR they are leaning way too hard on AI and pumping out bland, copy-paste content with no human experience. That has created something called content scarcity (this is very important, you can look it up). Content scarcity doesn’t mean there isn’t enough content online; I think we all know there’s more than ever. It means genuinely original, experience-based, human content is getting harder and harder to find. And people can TELL. YOU can tell, can't you? I know I can 🙋♀️ AI models require fresh, authentic material to "train" from. When that dries up, they start training on recycled AI content instead. And over time, the output becomes low-quality and repetitive. That’s why the content that stands out now (and into the future) is personal and REAL. I know it's hard to believe, but AI is actually doing bloggers a favor and making our voices way more valuable. The gap between generic AI content and genuine human insight is widening fast, and that shift will catch up (quickly). What this means for you: you should be in the blogging game now using your own authentic voice, opinions, ideas, and stories to create content for other humans. (I want to be clear: AI should be a tool you use, but not the voice behind your content. Your experiences and perspective still need to be yours) You will be grateful you did! 2. So how do you capitalize on your blog and human voice in 2026? If authentic, human content is the advantage, what should you be focused on in 2026 to make that work for you?
When a platform changes the rules (I'm looking at you Google, Pinterest, Facebook, IG, TikTok, etc), email is what keeps you in touch with the people who already raised their hand for your content. I feel like a broken record but, start an email list. Craft a newsletter that people want to read. Follow other newsletters and see what they're doing. Then figure out how you can mold that into something unique for your audience. Right now, I manage six different newsletters:
And I fully plan to start at least two more newsletters in 2026 (possibly three 😂). In fact, if either of my two new newsletters sound interesting, you can opt in below and I’ll let you know when they’re live! >> Click here if you want to be added to my free newsletter about creating and selling online courses. >> Click here if you want to be added to my free newsletter about moving abroad
Relying on a single platform is the biggest risk you can take as a bloggers. Google, Pinterest, and social can still be very powerful, but none of them should be your only source of traffic. So no, don’t abandon SEO. And if your niche fits, don’t give up on Pinterest either. Just make sure they’re layers in your strategy, not the entire foundation. I like to use what I call the "mood test". Ask yourself, "if one traffic source dropped tomorrow, would it ruin my day?" If the answer is yes, it’s time to diversify. 🚨 Quick reminder: My friend and Scale Your Travel Blog student, Stephanie Rytting, recently launched a blogging course that’s all about diversifying your traffic using the lesser-known news platform, Flipboard. Flipboard is one of the ways Stephanie diversified her traffic, and her blogs now bring in around $8,000/month (that income is from her sites, not from selling this course). If you’ve been wanting a new traffic layer that isn’t Google-only, this is worth checking out.
>> Click here to grab Stephanie's course, Flipboard for Bloggers!
At this point you might be thinking, “Cool, but how am I supposed to be on 10+ platforms when I barely have time for my blog as it is?” Fair. But to be clear, that’s not what I’m suggesting. Repurposing doesn’t mean being everywhere. It means letting one solid piece of content do more than one job. One of the best examples of this is Baby Shark. I call them the repurposing KINGS. I watch Baby Shark on YouTube at least five times a day (I have a 1.5-year-old daughter and she’s obsessed 🥴). Anyway, this started as one simple video until... it exploded into a $400 million dollar business. And the way they did it was genius. They didn’t reinvent the wheel every time, they just reused the same core idea across different formats, platforms, and products. They did more of what was working. That’s exactly how this should look for your blog, too. Your blog post is the main asset. From there, you pull from it:
You’re not trying to be everywhere. You’re building a content flywheel where one post keeps working for you in multiple places without starting from scratch every time. Once I had my content flywheel figured out, I was suddenly doing in two hours what used to take me a full week. No exaggeration. Coming Up Next: Success Stories!
See you next Monday! Laura P.S. If someone sent you this newsletter, and you want to receive more from me, click here to join 30,000+ bloggers already subscribed! Scale Your Travel Blog is currently CLOSED for enrollment until January 2026. To join our waitlist, please click here! |
Laura Peters || Travel Blogging, Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing
Laura Peters is the owner and author of Mike & Laura Travel, a blog that helps travelers find unique destinations and travel experiences on a budget. She is also the CEO of Scale Your Travel Blog, a coaching program that helps travel bloggers start, grow, and scale their travel blog income. When she isn't writing blog posts about her favorite travel destinations, she is serving her audience through Scale Your Travel Blog and her live/virtual events, Travel Blogging Summit.
💡 Travel Blogging Tip of the Week 💡 How Stephanie Turned Flipboard Into 60,000 Monthly Sessions When an algorithm update hits, whether it’s Google, Pinterest, Facebook, or anywhere else, it can feel like someone just pulled the rug out from under your blog.. ..and more importantly your income. And with so many bloggers relying on their blog income to support their lives, it’s crucial to remember how much control these platforms really have. Aside from starting and growing your email list...
💡 Travel Blogging Tip of the Week 💡 The Blogging Mistake I Made in Q4(Learn From My Mistakes) Brought to you by Travelpayouts 2019 was the first year where blogging finally “clicked” for me. Traffic was climbing fast, my income replaced my English-teaching salary, and I remember thinking, “Okay… I can actually do this.” July was incredible. August was solid. September dipped a little, but nothing alarming. Then Q4 hit. And my traffic absolutely tanked. Logically, I should have known that...
💡 Travel Blogging Tip of the Week 💡 The One Blogging Strategy No One Talks About And How It Made Me $200+ With a 10-Minute Video A few years ago, my sister was planning a trip and scrolling through Google looking at pictures of French Polynesia. She stopped, zoomed in on a thumbnail, and screamed: “Wait… is that YOU, Laura??” And sure enough, it was a photo from one of my old Mo'orea blog posts. Then she asked the question every blogger hears at some point: “So if I click on your blog post…...