Exciting news: today’s the 16-year anniversary of the A Lady in London blog! I can’t believe it’s been so many years since I started the blog back in San Francisco before I moved to the UK. It’s come a long way since then, and I’m excited to celebrate this milestone as much as any other.
16-Year Blog Anniversary
I’m particularly happy the anniversary falls so soon after A Lady in London was once again named one of the top travel blogs in the UK by a trusted industry source. It’s always rewarding to see the hard work I’ve put into the blog paying off.
On top of that, I recently reached 100,000 followers on Facebook and 195,000 on Instagram.
It’s been great to see so many people getting excited about the photos and videos I’ve shared, and so many new blog subscribers (if you haven’t subscribed already, you can do so via email here).
More than that, I’m grateful for all the support you’ve given me over the last 16 years. When I created this blog in 2007 I thought it would just be a casual hobby.
It still amazes me I’ve been blogging full-time for over 13 years now. I couldn’t have done it without you.
In honor of the blog celebrating its Sweet 16, I want to share 16 highlights from my blogging journey. From big milestones to small victories and personal highlights, they’ve been some of the most memorable things that have happened along the way.
1. Starting the Blog
Staring the blog was a big deal for me. I’d been working as an analyst at Goldman Sachs and a hedge fund for three years, and I didn’t know if I had a creative bone left in my body.
I missed having an outlet for my right brain, and when I sat down to start the blog I was overwhelmed with joy at being able to craft something meaningful and make it what I wanted it to be.
2. Being Syndicated on Lonely Planet
A couple years after I started the blog, I applied for the Lonely Planet Blogsherpa program. I was accepted, and all my blog posts were syndicated on the relevant city and country pages of their website.
Being seen in connection with such a strong travel brand was what really garnered attention to the blog and got me a lot of my early followers and subscribers.
3. Getting My First Travel Planning Client
I started working on the blog full-time at the beginning of 2010, and I launched my Travel Planning Services as a way to help people and support my new business.
Getting my first client was exciting, and planning their trip was the start of what has ended up being a big part of the blog. I’ve planned trips for clients all over the world, and I love being able to help people have the best experiences possible.
4. Going on My First Press Trips
Shortly after I started blogging full-time, I was invited on a couple press trips. The first one was to Avignon, where I got to spend a few days exploring the city.
The second was to Paris, where I stayed in a 5-star luxury hotel, took a private after-hours tour of the Louvre, went around the city with a personal shopper, and dined at a 3-Michelin starred restaurant.
I couldn’t believe I was getting invited to do something I loved for work.
5. Getting Involved with the Travel Blogging Community
The travel blogging community was small back when I started. But a few of us in London found each other online and began meeting in person.
Today the community is large and well-established, and I’m grateful to have such an amazing group of friends and peers to spend time with, bounce ideas off, commiserate with, celebrate with, and relate to.
6. Visiting 90 Countries Before My 30th Birthday
I wasn’t exactly looking forward to turning 30, so I decided to distract myself by trying to get my country count up to 90 before my birthday.
I documented the project here on the blog, and I had a fun time visiting all kinds of new places in the run-up to the big day. When I reached San Marino right before the deadline, I had a multi-day celebration with friends.
7. Getting My First Public Speaking Gig
As many of you know, I do a lot of public speaking through my blog. It all started when I was asked to give a talk on “social media in travel” at Social Media Week in London in 2012. I’d never done any public speaking before, but I decided to take a chance.
It paid off, and soon after that I was teaching classes and giving talks at conferences and events all over the world. I never imagined I’d love public speaking, but I’m grateful it’s been such a big part of my blogging journey.
8. Visiting My 100th Country
Another big milestone was the day I visited my 100th country. I landed in the Seychelles and had to pinch myself.
I never thought I’d be able to travel the world and call it my job, and I couldn’t believe my work had taken me to so many places around the globe.
I was so excited to have traveled to 100 sovereign states that I wrote a whole blog post about it. You can read it here if you want to see the list.
9. Landing My First Paid Campaign
Back in the early days of blogging nobody paid bloggers to do our jobs (sadly, most brands still expect us to work for free or for very little).
But around 2014 a few travel companies realized the value of influencer marketing and started working with bloggers on campaigns. I’ll never forget my first one, or how good it felt that the value I offered was finally being recognized.
10. Being Featured in Major Magazines and Newspapers
Once the blog had a serious following, I started getting featured and interviewed in major media outlets.
From my first feature in Esquire to subsequent ones in Harper’s Bazaar, the Mail Online, Stylist, Conde Nast Traveller, Elle, the Evening Standard, and others, I couldn’t believe it.
Interviews in the Metro and The New York Times followed, and publications like the Financial Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and Eater commissioned or licensed my photos.
I still sometimes look at the About page of my blog and wonder if it’s actually about me. It’s hard to believe my little hobby turned into something so much bigger than I ever dreamed of.
11. Being Featured on Instagram’s Suggested Users List
I woke up one morning in 2015 to find that I’d gotten 50,000 new Instagram followers overnight.
At first I thought it was an error, but then I checked my email and saw that Instagram had added me to its Suggested Users list. Whenever someone crated a new account, I was one of the people Instagram recommended they follow.
It was great to see all the hard work I’d put into my account paying off, and amazing to be able to share my love of London and travel with so many more people.
Two years later, I was featured in a book called Read This if You Want to Be Instagram Famous. It was surreal to see myself featured, not least because I didn’t feel like I was actually famous.
12. Doing a Partnership with BBC Travel
Not long after the Instagram Suggested Users list, I was approached by BBC Travel to do a partnership where they paid me to share my photos on their Instagram and Twitter accounts each week.
I was honored that such a big brand wanted to work with me, and I enjoyed sharing my photography with their audience for the duration of the partnership.
13. Getting My First Hotel Booking
Whatever stories you may have heard about bloggers and influencers earning millions, the reality is that making a living from a travel blog is hard at the best of times.
Which is why it was so exciting the first time someone booked a hotel stay through my blog and earned me a commission (at no cost to them, of course).
Today the blog is supported by hotel bookings, Amazon sales, tour bookings, and other revenue streams, and it still means a lot to me every time you support the blog by booking or buying something through it.
14. Publishing My First Self-Guided London Walk
In 2016 I was approached by a large global publisher to write a book about London. They asked me to meet with them and told me all about how they thought I’d be the perfect person to do a book about the city.
I went home and spent ages working on the book idea we’d discussed. My proposal included neighborhood guides, photos, and self-guided walks. I sent it to them and held my breath.
For some reason I’ll never understand, the publisher changed their tune and told me there were way too many London books on the market and they weren’t interested. It was as if they’d forgotten they’d approached me and not the other way around.
Devastated that they’d wasted so much of my time and cost me the income I could have earned if I’d worked on something else instead, I tried to salvage some of the proposal by turning it into blog posts.
I had no idea if anyone would be interested in the self-guided walks I’d written, but I thought I’d publish them on the blog just in case.
It ended up being one of the best things I’ve ever done. My London walking tours are now some of the most popular posts on my blog, and people from all over the world have come to the city and done one or more.
It means a lot to me that my idea has been validated, my time has been salvaged, and my walks have allowed so many people to see the parts of London that make me love the city so much.
15. Launching My First Tote Bag
In 2019 I was approached by a company about making an A Lady in London tote bag. At first I thought it was too good to be true. But after meeting with the founder at her office in Camden Market, we designed and launched it.
Since then we’ve created an entire A Lady in London collection. One of the mugs is even for sale in World Duty Free shops in and around the city, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Windsor, and St Pancras International.
It still puts a smile on my face to see my bags, mugs, tea towels, coasters, and art prints for sale in shops and online.
16. Surviving 2020. And 2021. And A Lot of 2022.
I know, I know. Nobody wants to think about 2020, let alone talk about it, so I’ll be brief. Making a living from a travel blog during that time was terrifying. I lost 90% of my income overnight, and I had no idea if I would still have a business at the end of it all.
But I was surprised how resilient both my blog and I were, and we came out of it okay. Since then growth has rebounded and my business is doing better than ever. Now I know that if we can survive 2020, we can survive anything.
BONUS: Launching the California Wayfaring Blog
After 15 years of running the A Lady in London blog, I launched the California Wayfaring blog a year ago today. I’d always wanted to share more about my home state, and it’s been an amazing challenge to start something new after all this time.
I’ve worked myself to the bone and landed myself in a lot of doctor’s offices and physical therapy rooms from too much time in front of screens (I now know the inside of an MRI machine better than the inside of my flat), but it’s hard to stop when I’m doing something I love.
Future of the A Lady in London Blog
Speaking of which, I’ve loved taking a trip down memory lane to write this Sweet 16 blog post. I hope you’ve enjoyed coming along for the ride, whether you’ve been reading the blog from the beginning or you just found it today.
The past 16 years have been a great adventure, and I’m looking forward to what the upcoming one brings. I’m sure there will be lots more to celebrate on the next A Lady in London blog anniversary!
I have you to thank for helping me get to where I am today, and I’m grateful. Here’s to another exciting 16 years!
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