On this travel blog, we no longer consider accepting sponsored posts. These are posts written by somebody else, or by AI, containing a paid link for SEO purposes. We also do not sell links for SEO purposes. In the 15 or so years that this travel blog has existed, we’ve done it a handful of times, maybe 10 times. Most of those posts and links no longer exist. In every case, that article was aligned with our values, or we were OK with helping that company rise in the search rankings.
Photo: A waterfall near Da Lat Vietnam. Our first trip of 2026 was amazing. We also visited Laos, Malaysia, and Bali. We wrote about them, of course.
We also do not “work with brands” other than very rarely. We’ve reviewed a small handful of hotels; we were never paid to do so. We accepted those offers because we thought the kids would enjoy that experience.
I didn’t get into travel blogging for the “free stuff”. I got into blogging to promote travel, how wonderful the world is, and some of my more off-beat ideas, like homebirth, homeschooling, and not blindly following the system. We called it “Living Differently.”
I get multiple requests for “sponsored posts”, which are basically spam, daily. They offer to pay me, sometimes over $1000 per link, sometimes a laughable $50. From here on in, it’s a flat no, and I try to explain to them why we don’t do that. Maybe they’ll get out of that industry and do something more worthwhile with their days.
We are not a spam site. We are here to genuinely help and connect with our readers, not mislead them.
I’ve also never gone out of my way to actively manufacture links to this site. The link-building industry works both ways and is immoral in my eyes. The vast majority of our links came naturally. There were a handful of link exchanges with friends in the blogging industry. This site rose to around DA 50 without active link building.
Link manipulation is fake, it’s artificial manipulation. You should rise in the search results because people want to see your work, not because you built a load of inks to game the system.
If masses of people don’t want to see it, fair enough. I don’t care any more. The right people will be here if they need to be. This site used to get 10,000 eyeballs on page per day. Today, I don’t even bother checking the data.
So that’s where we are today. This travel blog remains human, it’s going head-to-head with the AI garbage that they’re trying to force on us, and it remains genuine. Maybe we’ll fail, maybe we’ll come out the other side, I don’t know, nobody knows.
I hope you stick with us.
I haven’t been creating much by way of travel content in the last few weeks because I’ve been diving into the more esoteric realms of spirituality and the truth of what’s going on in our world. It’s a fascinating journey. That, plus hanging out in the garden growing food and nurturing my family. Staying home wins over travel right now.
That’s where I’m going. Truth, honesty, being real. You probably know that I’ve already left social media, an apparent suicide for a travel blogger, but honestly, it’s made no difference business-wise and a lot of difference to our quality of life. There is a study here on happiness and social media use, there are loads more.
I feel like I may switch off the display advertising on this site, too. Mediavine makes me a pittance today and it is no longer a major part of how we generate income. I hate seeing ads for pointless things that I wouldn’t buy, so why should I push them on you?
My next post is going to be about Stargates. Because that’s really cool. I’ve written about the 7 Wonders of the World, so why not Stargates? I’ve been to most of them, they are the places that called to me most strongly in the world, long before I’d even heard of the idea of Stargates outside of James Spader.
So stick around, or not. The world is going through changes, and travel isn’t a focus for me right now, but I still think the world is an amazing place, and I love to write about it. I like being a travel blogger, and there aren’t many of us left.
Alyson is a British medical scientist who jumped ship to chase dreams. A former Chief Biomedical Scientist in London hospitals, she started in website creation and travel writing in 2011, becoming a full-time blogger, travel writer and a published author.
A lifetime of wanderlust and over 6 years of full-time travel, plus a separate 12 month gap year, has given Alyson and the family some travel expert smarts to share with you on this world travel site.
Today the family travels extensively to update this site and continue the mission to visit every country, while running a self-sufficient homestead. (https://tropicalfoodgarden.com)
