The Travelpayouts team returned from TBEX Europe 2025 with fingers aching – there were just so many brilliant insights to type up!
There’s no better way to understand what’s happening in the blogging world than to spend a few days chatting with creators, brands, and experts. So we begged Eugenia, Alexandra, and Lisa to share their top three takeaways from Ireland… and after icing their hands, they agreed to.
#1. AI is changing search, and the time to adapt is NOW
The number-one topic in Letterkenny? AI, definitely.
We were especially struck by the fiery discussion at Nate Hake’s session. Bloggers there said AI overviews are bringing them almost zero traffic, so Google is basically making them give up their content for free. And we can be pretty sure more AI-driven surprises are in store for us.
How can bloggers adapt? Above all, diversify, diversify, diversify. Don’t put all your eggs in the Google basket.
Also check out our blog post to learn how Cloudfare lets you block AI crawlers from scanning your content.
#2. High engagement > lots of traffic
Don’t get us wrong: getting traffic is good. But at TBEX we met plenty of micro creators who still make a nice living from blogging. If you have even a small core of loyal fans, you can earn with community memberships, digital products, and merch in addition to affiliate links.
Jessie “on a Journey” Festa actually wrote about this recently – check out her affiliate strategy, which doesn’t rely on having tons of traffic.
#3. YouTube and Flipboard might be your best moves
When we tell partners to consider using social media to boost their blogs, they usually think of Instagram and Facebook first. But two great sessions in Letterkenny argued for a different approach.
First, Haley Dasovich talked about “Why YouTube is Still the Smartest Platform for Building Your Personal Brand in 2025.” She didn’t sugarcoat it – YouTube is the hardest social-media nut to crack. But it can also be the most rewarding. Here’s why:
- With YouTube, you earn twice as much ad revenue as you’d get with Instagram and TikTok.
- You can build a community that’ll stay with you for years.
- You can land brand collabs with paid travel.
Joanna Nemes, meanwhile, made the case for the social news app Flipboard:
- Unlike Medium, LinkedIn, etc., Flipboard effectively drives traffic to blogs (as several other creators have told us).
- Affiliate links can earn well.
- It can take a few months to get good traffic, but Flipboard doesn’t require as much work as other platforms – definitely less than YouTube.
#4. Bloggers believe Stay22 partners can’t use Travelpayouts. That’s wrong!
Once again… don’t believe everything you read on the internet. Just because you’re a Stay22 partner doesn’t mean you can’t be earning with us, too.
Successful businesses experiment and see what works best. Why not take that approach here? Try each platform separately, then a mix of the two, and see what’s right for you.
💡 We’ve even got a tool that lets you start experimenting in two clicks: LinkSwitcher automatically changes all your affiliate links over to Travelpayouts. And if you decide we aren’t the platform for you, it’s easily reversible.
Hearing from Eugenia, Alexandra, and Lisa has helped the entire Travelpayouts team feel like we’ve got our finger on the pulse of the travel blogging industry. We’re not even sore at not getting sent to TBEX! Ok, maybe a little…
