Written by Jared, September 17, 2018
Background on Our New Venture
I’ve been torn about which direction to take this site for a long time now. When I originally started the blog (almost 2.5 years ago now), I was excited about a variety of topics and wanted to write about all of them. I thought that it would mostly be friends and family reading and that it would be a good place to keep track of my and Whitney’s adventures to look back on in the future.
Fast forward to today, and the site has become bigger than I ever would have imagined. We’re on track to get 100,000 page views this year which is wonderful! The site is also generating enough income at this point to cover just about all of my expenses while either living in the US or when traveling abroad, which I am thrilled about! The money generated from this site as well as my invested assets are putting me very close to reaching financial independence. This is also causing me to consider what I want my future to look like, as well as how I can give back and educate others interested in pursuing a similar path more effectively.
The main ‘problem’ with my current site is that the audience is divided: roughly one third of the readers come to this blog to learn about travel therapy, another third come to read my articles on investing/personal finance/credit card rewards, and then another third just want to read about our adventures domestically and internationally. I go through spurts where I get excited and write almost exclusively about one of the three above, which obviously alienates a large portion of the audience. This is not a good way to build a consistent base of readers and followers.
Another problem is that the title of the site doesn’t clearly explain what the site is about at all. Originally this was intentional, so that I could write about a variety of topics, and because I thought it was a clever play on words about our lifestyle at the time (working as traveling physical therapists and living in a fifth wheel camper). However, I now see the ambiguity of the site name as a detriment to new readers who have no idea what to expect when they first hear about the site.
My solution to the above problems is to create a new site focused specifically on writing about travel therapy, while continuing to write articles about our personal travels, as well as personal finance and investing on this site. After a lot of deliberation, this seems like the best way to go about writing about all of my passions, while building a following that knows what to expect from the site they’re visiting. Also, now that Whitney and I will only be working a few months per year at most, we have more time to work on other ventures including our blog and the new website.
Introducing: Travel Therapy Mentor
Travel Therapy Mentor is the new site we have created. Our goal for this new site is to become a primary resource for new and prospective travel therapists, including students, new grads, and experienced therapists alike. The site will be not only for PT’s, but for OT’s, SLP’s, PTA’s, and COTA’s as well.
Whitney and I have a strong handle on the travel therapy world, as well as a desire to use the additional income earned from travel therapy to build long term wealth. We hope to be able to share our knowledge and experience with others to help them on their journey into travel therapy.
The name of the new site lets people know exactly what the content will be, and I feel it will be much better for branding and future growth. As for this site, much of my personal finances are intertwined with travel therapy, so there will still be some content related to it. But, we won’t be publishing the more specific posts about travel therapy topics here, as we’ll reserve those for the new site. However, I still welcome questions on this site from anyone interested in traveling, and I will be leaving all of my past travel therapy content on the site for people to find in the future.
Feedback Welcome!
I would love to hear your feedback about all things related to this site and the new site, including our split, the content, the site layouts, or anything else! Please send me a message if you have any comments, questions, suggestions, or concerns!
I first began this site by googling “how to start a blog” and have slowly tried to improve things over the years, so I know there is still a lot of room to make things better!
I appreciate you all for reading and following along, and I hope you continue to gain information and entertainment from both sites in the future!
Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist 