New year, new blog

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HELLO ALL! And welcome to my shiny new blog, Young Adventuress 2.0.

Whatcha think? How’d I do? What do you like? What do you not like? Spill. I’ve been meaning to do a redesign on here for years, guys. Literally years. God, what took me so long!? Well, actually the answer is pretty easy. Redesigns are scary. And they are exceptionally scary when you don’t know anything about redesigns. And you have seven years of content to boot.

While I’m all about creativity and innovation, I was seriously dragging my feet on this one and was totally on the whole “don’t fix what ain’t broke” bandwagon. I’ve also always been a big advocate on content is king when it comes to blogging. You can distract people with fancy looking websites (plenty of those out there) but if the message behind them suck, then it’s a fail in my books. I always put content first.

But sometime over a year ago, I was really starting to hate how my blog looked. It was dated, and it was killing me on the inside a little bit every time I looked at it. Web design had changed sooooo much over the years, and I hadn’t kept up. And I don’t like to be behind on anything. It was time for the big redesign.

So I was ready to take the leap into the abyss. Lucky for me, I’ve had the guys of Performance Foundry to help me out and hold me hand the whole way. I met Craig way back when at a conference in 2012 and we stayed friends ever since, especially as he’s a kiwi. They’ve been managing my blog for years (and fixing things when they broke that I couldn’t) and now they host my blog for me too. Though if you are starting out, I definitely recommend hosting with Bluehost to begin.

If you’re like me, and you need a lot of help, they are great and ridiculously patient. So what did I learn during this redesign?

Well, I definitely know a lot more now than I did six months ago. Honestly, it was like pulling teeth with me. I couldn’t make up my mind about anything. But we persevered and came up with something I am in love with! I’m still tweaking lots of stuff, especially my older posts and images, so bear with me. And I’ve got some cool features coming out soon on the blog that aren’t ready to go live just yet. But in the meantime, it’ll be business as usual on my blog.

What’s next?

SO MUCH GUYS! I don’t want to spill too much yet because I am still confirming a lot of things and I don’t want to jinx myself. But trust me when I say 2017 is going to be a year of next level shit. Get excited.

One trip I am super excited about is that I’m taking my parents to Ireland in May. Have any tips for us?

I am trying lots of new things. Apart from being my year where I finally start all of the projects I’ve been meaning to for ages, it’s also going to be the year of me trying all sorts of new creative and challenging adventures. For starters, I’ve already launched my Youtube channel where video will play a big part in what I get up to. And also I am hosting my own tour around New Zealand this year (PS a spot just opened up if someone is keen to come along for the ride).

I’m also up to my eyeballs with my Travel Bootcamp – a conference I co-launched last year in Australia where we teach you how  to make money and build a career in travel through photography, writing, and blogging. We share all the secret stuff no one talks about, like rates and how to pitch. Our 3rd event is in Melbourne on April 29th if you’re in this neck of the woods and tickets are almost gone!

Anywho, this post is basically just a lot of rambling on my end to shout “yay!” and share my new blog redesign with you guys. I’d really love your feedback as it’s a work in progress. Please share what you think in the comments and if you notice something or have any suggestions!

Oh, and thanks for sticking around here for seven years, what what! Legends!