EP 476: NomadicMatt 1.6M Monthly Views, $400k Travel Insurance Sold Monthly with Matt Kepnes

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Nathan Latka

Ceo, Entrepreneurs, Founders, Software, Business, Entrepreneurship, Saas, Startups

4.6 • 683 Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2016

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Matt Kepnes of NomadicMatt.com, the man who went from everyday worker to travel writer. Matt grew up in Boston and he didn’t take his first trip until he was 23—a cruise to Montreal. After he started a life as a young professional, he decided to travel the world, so he headed to Costa Rica in 2004, Taiwan in 2005, and never looked back. Listen as Matt talks about the success of his blog and how he grew it from a simple online journal.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Influence
What CEO do you follow? – N/A

Favorite online tool? — N/A
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Value eating healthy”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Matt to the show
02:53 – Matt was working in administration
03:16 – Number of unique website users on average per month is 1.2 million
03:27 – Matt started the blog in 2008 after 14 months of traveling
03:50 – Matt built the blog as an online resume
04:17 – Matt is getting more visitors in 2010
04:29 – Matt wanted to write guidebooks so he made his blog a guidebook
04:56 – 2/3 of Matt’s income comes from affiliates
05:30 – Matt’s book is The Ultimate Guide to Travel Hacking
- 05:40 – Matt self-published the book
05:46 – Matt’s book with a publisher is How to Travel the World on $ 50 a Day
- 05:53 – Matt is only getting royalties from the book
- 06:18 – Matt met the publisher in 2012
- 06:40 – How Matt negotiated with the publisher
- 07:51 – Sold around 50,000 to 60,000 copies
- 08:30 – Royalty percentage per book
09:50 – Matt shifted the blog from an online journal to a website generating money
10:44 – The affiliate offer page in the website are in the home page
11:35 – Average percentage people spend on travel insurance
12:10 – Matt sells 400-500 plan policies per month
12:45 – Other affiliates of Matt
13:21 – Matt is already with the affiliate for years
14:18 – Matt spent some of his time guest blogging
- 14:38 – Matt does 2-3 guest blogs per month
15:03 – Matt is always traveling
15:11 – Matt’s email list size
15:54 – Matt has a team in different places
17:00 – Connect with Matt through his website, Twitter and Instagram
19:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Travel not only de-stresses you, it opens your eyes to global opportunities.
Having affiliates is a good way to increase revenue.
Eat healthy. You are what you eat.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
@NomadicMatt – Matt’s Instagram account
@NomadicMatt – Matt’s Twitter handle
NomadicMatt.com – Matt’s website
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of revenue or customer base.
0:09.0	You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers they have.
0:16.0	I'm now at $20,000 per talk.
0:18.0	Five and six million.
0:19.0	He is hell-bent on global domination. We just broke our 100,000 unit sold mark Five and six million. He is hell bent on global domination.
0:21.2	We just broke our 100,000 unit sole mark.
0:23.9	And I'm your host, Nathan Latka.
0:27.6	Okay, Top Tribe.
0:28.6	This week's winner of the hundred bucks is Dustin Goodwin.
0:31.9	He's in the HR industry, specifically in the software of the service space, looking to increase his revenue. So congratulations,
0:40.1	Dustin. For your guys'
0:41.3	chance to win 100 bucks every Monday
0:43.1	on the show to build your idea,
0:45.5	simply subscribe to the podcast on iTunes
0:47.4	now and then
0:49.1	text the word Nathan to 33444.
0:52.6	Again, text the word Nathan to 33444- Again, text the word Nathan to 3344.
0:55.0	Folks, many of you reach out to me and you say, Nathan, so many guests on your show talk about the importance of batching.
1:02.0	But whenever I try and batch, you tell me this, you go, Nathan, they don't book back-to-back times.
1:07.0	So you, or they don't show up after they book.
1:09.0	It's frustrating.
1:10.0	The answer is, is guys you have to
	...

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