ABOUT ME

Thanks for visiting my travel blog Journey Era. My name is Jackson Groves and I’m originally from South Australia, Australia. However, I’ve spent the last ten years abroad studying journalism and then exploring the world by creating travel guides. I’ll give you a quick breakdown of how I’ve ended up here, what happened along the way and where this journey will take me next.

At the age of twenty, I left my home in South Australia to pursue a college soccer career while simultaneously studying digital communications and journalism. I first attended Oregon State University for two years. However, it wasn’t till I transferred to Hawaii Pacific for my second two years of university that I took a strong interest in photography and documenting my adventures.

In my last semester of university, I created this travel blog and began documenting all of my adventures in Oahu, Hawaii. I created in-depth guides for specific waterfalls, beaches, and hikes and then carried that on to create larger guides encompassing all of the things to do on the island.

With $4000 in my bank account but a desire to make my blog into a career, I set off to Southeast Asia halfway through 2016. This was four months after starting the blog. At this point, the blog was generating $0 but had almost 15,000 page views rolling in per month. I could see what was possible so stuck to it. For the next 10 months, I would travel, photograph, and write. I solo-backpacked throughout Asia, working my ass off at night in cheap hostels while others partied. I had faith in my project and could see progress.

After fourteen months of blogging, I had more than 100,000 monthly page views coming in from organic searches each month. I had no idea how to monetize but signed up with the Mediavine ad network. I can still remember sitting in a hostel by myself in Guatemala as the first ads graced the site. I wasn’t sure if it would be a success but it changed the course of my life. At that stage, I didn’t have much luck or know-how regarding affiliates. In the first month, I earned almost $1000 from the ad revenue. I knew if I kept writing and creating and those page views continued to grow, I could turn this into a full-time job. I mean, it already was but one that actually paid me like a full-time job. I kept on working hard and enjoying the travels.

Over the next few years, I continued to backpack my way around the world to a variety of countries like Panama, Switzerland, the Philippines, Nepal, and many more. I always chose off-the-beaten-path adventures and started to prioritize hikes above all else. Throughout these times, my blog had many ups and downs but overall the traffic rose consistently to hit a peak of 750,000 monthly views, generating a healthy income and a world of opportunities for myself.

My travel guides have been read by millions and I’m grateful for the opportunity to share some lesser-known spots with a wider audience and promote tourism to adventurous locations around the world. The best part about my job is hearing people using my guides to have an awesome experience in a region they might not have been too sure about before setting off on their adventure. Often we all need a little nudge to get out of our comfort zone so I’m glad I can be part of that motivation for so many travelers.

That’s the short story of how my blog went from a small dream to a reality with a lot of sweat, blood, and tears along the way. Below I’ll share with you a few graphics that display a small media kit. However, whether you are a company that would like to collaborate or a reader with additional questions about a location, please shoot me an email to thejo[email protected] and I’ll do my best to get back to you.