Jacob Fu of Local Adventurer.com and his wife Esther move to a new city each year. From Atlanta to LA to Vegas to San Diego and Portland – where they are now –  while curating one of the top 50 travel blogs in the world! They picked one year because it's long enough to find hidden gems but also temporary enough to motivate them to get out there and explore often.

Before the blog, Esther and Jacob had a wedding photography business for 8 years which they have now left behind. The Local Adventure Blog is filled with beautiful photography, travel tips and advice, places to visit, city guides, things to do, plus how to articles on blogging, photography and travel. It really is a gorgeous, easy to navigate, fun site that can easily find you lost and exploring for wayyyy to long!

I'm rapt to have Jacob on to talk about their journey and how photography has led them to where they are now.

It's easy to find inspiration and it’s easy to find beautiful photos but if they [blogs and posts] don't tell you where or help you get there if you want to experience that same thing, that's one of the most frustrating things. – Jacob Fu

A big thanks to The Image Salon for sponsoring this episode of the podcast and making the show possible. If outsourcing your editing is something you're currently doing or considering, please put the guys at The Image Salon to the test… I think you'll be blown away! They service some of the biggest names in the industry including Fer Juaristi, Two Mann Studios, gabe McClintock and Edwina Robertson to name a few.

Here’s some of what we cover:

  • How to generate income from an adventure blog
  • Generating income from sponsored content, affiliate sales and ads
  • Why Jacob limits the ads they place on their website
  • Jacob and Esther's separate roles in their business
  • The types of clients that Jacob and Esther work with
  • A look at Jacob and Esther's wedding photography business
  • Why Jacob and Esther left their wedding photography business
  • How Jacob and Esther transitioned to their travel blog
  • Earning a living from an active YouTube channel and how
  • Effective blog strategies to implement when you are starting out
  • How to develop the perfect branding for your business
  • The process involved when planning what content to publish on your blog
  • How often should you post new content?
  • What kind of content should you be adding?
  • How often do you need to travel to keep fresh content coming?
  • How to enjoy travel moments and being the photographer at the same time
  • Esther’s shooting style
  • How Pinterest can easily generate traffic for travel blogs
  • The secret to generating so much blog content
  • The importance of planning from the start what type of blog content to create for your blog
  • What you need to be setting a goal for every post
  • Why you need to deviate from a salesy style of writing when curating content for your blog
  • How Jacob manages his time to accommodate all the social media posts
  • The importance of building your social media profiles
  • Can you just drop one social media channel in favour of the one that generates more traffic for your website?
  • Should you consider outsourcing content creation for your  blog?
  • How Jacob and Esther find their business contacts
  • The hardest part of finding potential sponsors for your blog
  • How to tailor your pitch to cater to each client
  • Why Jacob focuses more on blog content than social media
  • The need to use social media to interact with followers and readers
  • How much should your readers and followers influence your decisions when writing content for your blog

Esther and Jacob Photography Podcast

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview, I’d love to read your feedback and comments. Was there something from this interview that struck a chord, inspired or motivated you?

Will you take any kind of action after hearing what Jacob had to share?

Yes, it’s about the money and running a successful business but more so about being happy with what we’re doing and if we need to take a step back and take some time off and we’re ok with that, then that’s okay as well. And where we’re always constantly look to see how we need to pivot and how we need to shift – Jacob Fu

Let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below.

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Jacob or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below too.

Esther and Jacob Photography Podcast

The goal of every post is to be informational and to be useful to the reader and honestly I think that's what help the blog grow to what it is now – Jacob Fu

Esther and Jacob Photography Podcast

Anywhere new you go is potentially new content – Jabob Fu

Esther and Jacob Photography Podcast

It was valuable to keep a deep catalog of content – Jacob Fu

Esther and Jacob Photography Podcast

Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:

Local Adventurer Website

Local Adventurer on Facebook

Local Adventurer on Instagram

Local Adventurer on YouTube

Jacob Fu on Instagram

Esther Julee on Instagram

Jacob Fu on Twitter

Esther Julee Wedding Photography Website

Esther and Jacob Photography Podcast

Thank you!

Thanks again for listening to the show and thanks to Jacob for coming on and experimenting with a new and different format for this photography podcast and for sharing his thoughts, views and ideas.

Also, a big thanks to The Image Salon for sponsoring this episode of the podcast and making the show possible. If outsourcing your editing is something you're currently doing or considering, please put the guys at The Image Salon to the test… I think you'll be blown away!

You have to be willing to get a hundred no’s before you get a yes – Jacob Fu

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!

That’s it for me, hope everything is going well for you in life and photography!

Thanks and speak soon

Andrew