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Lifestyle

31 Best National Park Books for the Avid Park Explorer

January 9, 2023 by Mimi McFadden
Best National Park Books

Thirty-one of the best national park books, including some you didn’t know you needed!

Categories Gear Tags Books, Gift Guide, Lifestyle, National Parks Leave a comment

Best Ziplining in California: 13 Places for Aerial Adventures & Canopy Tours

January 16, 2023December 21, 2022 by Mimi McFadden
Best Ziplining in California

Soar through forests, over vineyards, and into canyons on the best ziplining spots in California.

Categories California Tags Catalina Island, Lifestyle, Northern California, San Luis Obispo County, Southern California Leave a comment

My Honest Solo Stove Review: Are Solo Stoves Actually Worth it?

December 26, 2022November 11, 2022 by Mimi McFadden
Solo Stove Review

Gather ‘round the campfire because it’s time for my detailed and unbiased Solo Stove review!

Categories Gear Tags Camping Gear, Lifestyle Leave a comment

My Honest Cirkul Water Bottle Review [Plus Best Cirkul Flavors]

December 26, 2022November 7, 2022 by Mimi McFadden
cirkul water bottle review

Tired of drinking plain water and looking for a tastier way to hydrate? Read my honest Cirkul water bottle review to see if it’s right for you.

Categories Gear Tags Lifestyle Leave a comment

My Honest Halara Review: Is Halara Clothing Legit?

December 26, 2022November 1, 2022 by Mimi McFadden
Halara Review

Is this online clothing brand worth the hype? I’m here with the answers you’re looking for in this detailed Halara review.

Categories Gear Tags Clothing, Lifestyle Leave a comment

My Honest Emery Rose Review: Is Emery Rose Clothing Legit?

January 3, 2023November 1, 2022 by Mimi McFadden
Emery Rose clothing review

In this honest Emery Rose Review, I look at the popular online clothing company and determine whether it’s worth the hype.

Categories Gear Tags Clothing, Lifestyle Leave a comment

11 Best Campfire Sprays and Colognes to Remind You of Your Last Camping Trip

December 27, 2022August 8, 2022 by Mimi McFadden
best campfire sprays and colognes

Transport your senses to the great outdoors with one of the best campfire sprays to keep you smelling like a crackling campfire.

Categories Gear Tags Camping Gear, Lifestyle Leave a comment

18 Best EDC Backpacks for Every Budget and Lifestyle

May 7, 2022May 7, 2022 by Mimi McFadden
woman sitting with a laptop and backpack

The best everyday carry backpacks for travel, commuting, and running errands!

Categories Gear Tags Lifestyle Leave a comment

My Honest Lume Deodorant Review (Plus, Lume Scents Ranked)

January 24, 2023April 13, 2022 by Mimi McFadden
My Honest Lume Deodorant Review

If you’re curious about trying Lume natural deodorant, first read my in-depth Lume Deodorant review!

Categories Gear Tags Lifestyle 6 Comments
Since it’s that time of year for reflection and Since it’s that time of year for reflection and goals, I just finished tallying up my budgeting spreadsheets. Here’s a look at The Atlas Heart’s growth in the past four years, and our projected growth for 2023. Letzzzz go! 

✨2019✨
Annual revenue = $4,787
Total pageviews = 256,245

✨2020✨
Annual revenue = $12,600 
Total pageviews = 349,658

✨2021✨*started working on TAH full-time 
Annual revenue = $66,797 
Pageviews = 872,919 

✨2022✨
Annual revenue = $194,974
Pageviews = 2,386,618 

✨2023 (Projected)✨
Annual revenue = $470,000 
Pageviews = 3,600,000 

✨Milestone Goal (projected to reach by 2025)✨
Become a million dollar business

💰Breakdown of income💰
Ad revenue = 56.5%
Affiliate revenue = 43.3%
Products = 0.2%
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Happy New Year!! ✨🍾
Even though I’ve been running my website since 2 Even though I’ve been running my website since 2012, it always used to be my passion not my main source of income. 

It was a way of sharing my experiences and perspective about the places I traveled. I never had a business plan or looked all that much into how to make money from it. 

Over the next six years, I went from bartending to running a somewhat successful consulting business as a freelance marketer that still allowed me to travel and work remotely. 

Although I always imagined being able to make a living from my website, it honestly seemed unlikely that I’d be able to make money from something that I enjoyed so much. 

It wasn’t until 2018 that I started teaching myself SEO and invested in numerous courses. 

It took another year after that to start looking into how to monetize my website, and that was only after I lost one of my biggest clients and my monthly income was cut by 80%.

I thought it was as good a time as any to finally give it my best shot to create a successful blog that supported me. 

I started building up a monetization strategy, intertwining my SEO skills to start making a little more money, one month at a time. 

And then seven months later, March 2020 happened. And we all know how that went for the travel industry. 

l was very close to walking away at that point, but I had seen how much growth there was in just seven months before everything came tumbling down. I couldn’t unsee that potential. So, after three months of a lot of languishing,  I kept working on my site, more determined than ever. 

It took another year and two months after that to finally be making just enough to end all my client work and start focusing on my website full time. I wrote an income report a month after that in June of 2021.

It was called “How I made $6,598 from my blog in June 2021.” When I wrote that article, I had big goals to hit 100,000 page views in a month before the end of the year (which I did!) and to make over $6,000 in a month again. 

Secretly, I was hoping to double that amount by the following year, but looking back, I probably should’ve dreamed bigger. 

Continued in the comments below👇
11 fake ring boxes later, @suneelj1 finally gave m 11 fake ring boxes later, @suneelj1 finally gave me the real one today on our favorite hiking trail in Berkeley. 💍❤️
2 years since our first date. ✨❤️ My first i 2 years since our first date. ✨❤️ My first introduction to Suneel was coming across his profile picture on OK Cupid where he was ungracefully balancing an Oreo on his face. He hasn’t stopped making me laugh since.
We’re feeling 22! 💃🏻🎉🎶. . ✅Vaccin We’re feeling 22! 💃🏻🎉🎶. 
.
✅Vaccinated + negative COVID tests for everyone the day of before the party. 
✅ Fancy on top, casual on the bottom.
✅Piñata, beer pong, rage cage, karaoke, confetti party poppers, midnight countdown, and all the food. 
✅ A memorable NYE with some of my favorite people. ❤️
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.
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Happy 2022!! 🎉💃🏻🍾✨
In May 2021, I finally took the leap. I decided to In May 2021, I finally took the leap. I decided to end all client work and start working on my website full time. Since then, it has been a wild ride. It’s mind-boggling to finally see something grow into what you’ve always imagined it could be after 8 years of dreaming about it. 

In 2021, I published 87 posts. I finally learned how to delegate better, hiring one VA and three writers to create a team of brilliant and talented women beside me. Site traffic grew by 149% to around 870,000 page views for the year (averaging around 93,000 per month for Q4). Annual revenue grew by 300% and included hitting a new benchmark - our first five-figure month (with many more to come)! I also explored so many new corners of California in the name of research, including the Channel Islands, Pinnacles National Park, more of Big Sur and the Bay Area, and even tackled my biggest adventure yet - hiking the Trans-Catalina Trail over 5 days. 

My goals for 2022? There are too many to name here, but just know that it will be a year focused on growth and chasing big things. 2021 was a taste of what could be, and this year I finally feel ready to hit those big milestones I used to only dream of (a consistent publishing schedule, six figures, and well over 1M page views before the year is done). 

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!! Let’s go kick some ass in 2022.💃🏻✨
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