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Vacations are exciting and many individuals love to travel in their free time. Carmen Edelson turned her love of travel into a thriving travel blog, Carmen’s Luxury Travel. On her blog, Carmen shares reviews of travel destinations.
Carmen’s Luxury Travel stands apart from other travel blogs. Unlike other blogs that focus on budget-friendly trips for younger audiences, Carmen tailors her reviews to fit her older audience. She curates five-star travel experiences for successful business people and well-to-do retirees.
Carmen’s First Taste of International Travel
Carmen’s parents moved from Cuba to the United States in the late 1960s, where Carmen’s Cuban-American family settled in New Jersey. Although Carmen’s parents worked hard to provide for her family, they didn’t have enough money to travel. Because of this, travel wasn’t a part of Carmen’s childhood.
When she was in her early thirties, Carmen had the opportunity to go to Spain. She made the last-minute decision to take her first international trip. After visiting Spain, Carmen knew she had to travel more.
From Hobby to Successful Business
When Carmen returned from Spain, she knew she wanted to start making plans for her next international trip. As she visited more luxury vacation destinations, she started her blog, CarmensLuxuryTravel.com. On this blog, she shared reviews of vacation destinations and accommodations.
Over time, this hobby blossomed into something more. In 2013, she began her brand, Carmen’s Luxury Travel. With over 250,000 followers, her social media pages and blog are helping individuals around the world make travel plans.
Many travel blogs focus on young adults, but Carmen’s blog focuses primarily on people over the age of 35. Her reviews are written with hardworking professionally and financially well-to-do retirees in mind. Instead of looking for cheap vacation spots, Carmen helps readers plan a five-star travel experience.
Challenges with Social Media
Although Carmen’s blog has become a source of full-time income, she is always learning and always searching for ways to improve her brand. Social media and its ever-changing landscape are major challenges.
Carmen feels like she has become pretty comfortable creating content for Instagram. However, TikTok and Instagram Reels pose new challenges. She is learning to create compelling videos for social media, although her full plate makes this a real challenge.
As she creates content, Carmen is always looking for hidden gems, unique activities, and options that allow her readers to get the most for their money. Because her audience is often well-traveled, she puts extra effort into finding new locations and experiences for them.
Carmen’s Luxury Travel Today
From the beginning, Carmen has shared reviews of hotels, destinations, cruises, restaurants, and other vacation experiences. As she’s built up an audience on social media, she has broken into social media content creation.
She uses her Instagram profile to share her travel experiences in real-time. Pictures and short videos are uploaded to Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels, giving readers a glimpse into her travel experience.
As much as Carmen loves creating content for social media, she doesn’t let it distract from her blog’s content. Carmen views her social media posts as the headline and her blog as the full-length article. Although readers can get a feel for her experience with her posts on social media, the in-depth reviews on her website continue to draw readers.
Because of her success, Carmen has had the opportunity to partner with various travel brands. These tourism boards, cruise companies, and hotels provide vacation packages in exchange for her in-depth reviews.
Since Carmen’s readers trust her recommendations, they also trust her feedback on sponsored posts. Both readers and sponsors know that Carmen only recommends quality experiences, sponsored or not.
Future Plans for Carmen’s Luxury Travel
When the pandemic hit in 2020, international travel came to a standstill. During restricted international travel, Carmen promoted domestic travel for tourists within the United States. She hopes to return to international travel experiences soon as restrictions are lifted.
Carmen is confident that there will be a travel boom in the near future. As people have resumed vacations and partaken in domestic travel, she has seen a small preview of the boom that is to come.
Despite the setbacks of the pandemic, Carmen was able to grow her team to include two full-time employees. As travel opens up and her business grows, Carmen hopes to add more people to her team. With the extra help, Carmen hopes to find more time to dedicate to creating video content.
Carmen advises passionate entrepreneurs to invest in themselves, follow their passion, and invest their energy on strengths instead of weaknesses. Instead of using your energy on things you aren’t good at, Carmen suggests hiring people to help manage these tasks. If you’re constantly stretching yourself beyond your limits, you’ll quickly burn out.
With Carmen’s sage advice in mind, maybe you can find a way to make your passion into a full-time income!
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