We're celebrating two years of Atlas & Boots

We're celebrating two years of Atlas & Boots

As we reach the two-year mark, we take a moment to take stock, celebrate our successes and look forward to the challenges ahead

When we officially launched Atlas & Boots in August 2014, we agreed it would be a blog for travelers, not a blog for bloggers.

How a website works is certainly of interest to a minority of readers, but we wanted to spend our time talking to travelers rather than looking inward.

With this in mind, the two-year mark seems a good time to take stock, celebrate our successes and look forward to the challenges ahead.

HIGHLIGHTS

Reach 100,000 users per month

We hit 100,000 monthly users for the first time in February of this year (103,143 to be exact) and have done so repeatedly in the months since.

In fact, we managed to reach 180,000 users in July, but since this was due to a single article that went slightly viral, we're counting 100,000 as our base number.

Perhaps the most incredible thing is that there is always someone on our side. At this very second there are 16 visitors from five different countries. The knowledge that at some point in time, somewhere in the world, someone will read something we've written is simply incredible.

Named “Best of Travel Blogs” by National Geographic

In February 2015, National Geographic selected one of our posts for their bi-monthly “Best of the Travel Blogs” feature.

We were thrilled to be chosen by one of the most respected names in travel and adventure.

The post in question, A Return to India, was written by Peter's father and followed his journey back to the country 45 years after his time there as a teacher at VSO. It's a touching tribute to a country he clearly loves and the son who brought him back there.

Collaboration with Lonely Planet

We joined Lonely Planet in 2015 as Pathfinders and have had a fantastic time working with their online and social media teams.

Here's a snippet of everyday life along the #MekongDelta captured by #lpPathfinders member Kia, @atlasandboots, during a recent #MekongRiver cruise with @gadventures! It is a water world that moves to the rhythm of the mighty Mekong, where boats, houses and markets float on the countless rivers, canals and streams that crisscross the landscape like arteries. Here, buffalo wallow in rice paddies, boats laden with coconuts and fruit drift slowly across the muddy brown waters, and exploring the narrow streets on two wheels is richly rewarded with a true taste of rural hospitality (and delicious river fish). To see more of Kia's journey, follow her at @atlasandboots. #travel

A photo posted by Lonely Planet (@lonelyplanet) on Aug 2, 2016 at 9:43am PDT

Lonely Planet shared our posts about Bora Bora and the Grand Canyon, let us take over their Instagram account in Rio and Geneva, shared our recommendations for the best things to do in June, July, and August, invited us to host the #LPChat on Twitter, and let us take control of their Snapchat account for two weeks on a recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia.

There will be more in the coming months and we hope to continue working with them for a long time to come.

Breaking 40,000 shares on a single post

Shortly after leaving roughguides.com, I was amazed to see that a post written by a former colleague had surpassed 10,000 social shares. The number seemed so great, so unattainable.

Fast forward two years and we've surpassed 10,000 shares in multiple posts, and our article on the world's most dangerous countries is currently at 43,600 shares. For us that is an incredible number.

Collaboration with adventure consultants

It was an honor to work with Adventure Consultants on a series of posts including Mountains for Mortals, Mountaineering Calendar and Eight-thousanders: the 14 Highest Peaks in the World.

Peter has been obsessed with mountains for as long as I've known him (and a few years before that), so working with the pioneers of Himalayan guiding blew his mind.

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Working with the pioneers of Himalayan guiding was an extraordinary highlight

We even interviewed Adventure Consultants CEO Guy Cotter for our article on mountain guide etiquette. Guy was heroically portrayed in the 2015 adventure film Everest, one of the best mountaineering films of all time.

Founding our company

I've always had an entrepreneurial streak, so much so that Peter gave me the nickname "Del Boy" early in our relationship ("We'll be millionaires this time next year!").

I like trying different projects and pursuits, but I wasn't sure if we could turn a travel blog into a serious business. However, in April this year we registered Atlas & Boots Ltd with Companies House. We are almost profitable for Ramen and are aiming for more in the coming year.

It took a long time to go from “this is my project” to “this is my business,” but here we are. We are business owners and this is both exciting and terrifying.

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Getting press

It feels decidedly un-British to say we were happy with the press, but let's face it: attention is important for any young business.

Over the past year we have appeared on TV, radio, online and in print. We were approached by Business Insider about a syndication deal and are currently working with Matador Network. This isn't as exciting as the other highlights on the list, but we were still satisfied.

Interview with mountaineering greats

In addition to working with adventure consultants, we interviewed record-breaking mountaineers such as Edurne Pasaban (the first woman to climb all 14 eight-thousanders) and Eric Larsen (the first person to complete a summer expedition to the North Pole, where the Arctic ice is thinnest). That these great explorers deigned to speak to us was incredibly encouraging.

Receive reader mail

Between Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, email and onsite comments, we have hundreds of interactions with readers every week. However, every now and then we receive news that really makes the effort worthwhile.

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Our budget guide to the Galapagos Islands has helped readers reach this remote corner of the world

There was the reader who managed to take his new wife to the Galápagos because of our in-depth post on how to visit the Galápagos on a budget.

There was the nervous diver who completed her diving qualification with our step-by-step guide to passing the PADI Open Water Diver course, and also the excited couple who sent us a picture of Nevis Peak after climbing with our guide.

Introduction of our first products

Our post on how to pass the PADI Open Water Diver course has been read by over 30,000 people since publication.

Earlier this year we compiled the post along with our other diving resources into an Open Water Diver Course Ebook and sold a few hundred copies and counting. It's not a big number in the grand scheme of things, but it gives us a thrill every time we sell one.

Edit September 16thWe just released Don’t Offer Papaya: 101 Tips for Your First Time Around the World and are excited to hear reader feedback, so drop us a line if you purchase a copy!

CHALLENGES

Scale pages stably

As the site grew, we noticed that our server was failing several times within a week. When we contacted our hosting company, they told us that we were running out of threads and needed to upgrade to a more powerful package. We soon outgrew this level and had to upgrade again.

Additionally, we had security issues with bots trying to access our dashboard by submitting the login page thousands of times with different passwords, just in case they got the right one. We installed WP Cerber and haven't had any problems since (fingers crossed).

Say no to lucrative link exchanges

At first, requesting a link exchange gave us a feeling of validation. When PR agents pushed us to get their clients on our website, we certainly had a certain amount of gravitas.

We said yes to a few links in the early days—after all, it takes all of two minutes to add a link and you get $200 for it—but we soon realized that they were damaging our brand and being dishonest to readers. Since then, we have declined all requests to exchange links, tempting as they are.

Growing our social stats

Social media was a bit of a slog. We have over 20,000 total followers on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, which is...okay.

We are growing every month, but not as fast as we would like. Part of the problem is that we are not natural super users of social media. We don't live and breathe Twitter and we're not compelled to share everything on Instagram. We want to improve, but we still have a long way to go.

Monetization of the website

This is the biggest bugbear of all content sites. We have a fair income from advertising, sponsorships, affiliates and product sales, but there is a lot of room for improvement. The dream is that our travels would carry us comfortably, and we're not quite there yet.

Recognize that this can work!

As mentioned above, it took a long time to go from “this is my project” to “this is my business”. Blogging was booming in the '90s and early 2000s and we thought we missed the boat by a few years, but we managed to amass a decent following through consistency and honesty. Perhaps the biggest challenge was realizing that this could work!

THE FUTURE

At the moment we are taking a number of short trips - namely to TurkeyVietnam and Cambodia - while we plan our next long-term trip to Africa.

We just released a new e-book, Don’t Offer Papaya: 101 Tips for Your First Time Around the World, and are excited to see how it’s received. The biggest challenge in the next two years will be monetization (but we promise not to plaster the site with ads).

One of my goals as an editor is to publish in-depth, well-researched articles with direct quotes from experts. We've created a number of research-intensive articles like our mountaineering calendar and expert tips for learning multiple languages, and we'd like to follow suit. It will be difficult to find the resources but anything worth doing.

In the meantime, we would like to thank everyone who shared or liked our content, subscribed to our newsletter, followed us on social media, left a comment on the site, saved an article in Pocket, emailed a link to a friend or sent us an encouraging message. Keep us updated and we hope to see you out there!
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