Looking Back on 2016 – A Year of huge Decisions

The years are flying by, with one memory as well as destination starting to blend into the next. producing messages such as this one enables us to sit back as well as show on all that we’ve accomplished over the year, as well as to truly let the moments sink in! We’ve seen as well as done a great deal this year, as well as made some huge decisions along the method – both in our travels, as well as in our career.

2012 was “A extremely unforgettable Year”

2013 was “A Year of Firsts”

2014 “Started as well as ended With Mexico”

2015 was “A Year of Spontaneity”

I like to phone call 2016 “A Year of huge Decisions”. 

It All started in Barbados…

In January, we were in Barbados home sitting as well as pet sitting two lovable golden Retrievers. The island was beautiful, the beaches were beautiful as well as the people were truly friendly. We were enjoying it, however since we had been in tropical countries for over 2 years, we were prepared for something different.

Let’s go to Eastern Europe!

Even though it would be a shock to our bodies, as well as it was a extremely long distance to travel, we desired a total modification of scenery (and climate), as well as so we made the decision to check out Eastern as well as central Europe.

We visited 13 countries from January 1st – June 10th:

Barbados, Puerto Rico (USA), Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia (FYROM), Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Italy, Malta, Germany as well as Czech Republic.

This trip was amazing as well as although we didn’t see all corners of each country, we were able to focus on a few of the primary cities as well as regions and felt like we got a quite great feel for them. We spent 2 months living in Malta, 10 days road tripping around both Albania as well as Macedonia, as well as 3 weeks in both Italy as well as Croatia.

The lovely seaside town of Split, Croatia where we rented an house for 2 weeks
We spent a week – 10 days in the other places, however would certainly like to return as well as see more. This bit taste of Europe has certainly stimulated our rate of interest in the region as well as we plan to go back some day soon!

Check out our article:

Travelling Eastern & central Europe – Highlights & travel suggestions From 5 amazing Months

Have a look at our video which shows you all of our highlights from 5 months ?

Saying “Yes” to Public Speaking

We got an invitation from the World tourism Forum to speak about blogging as an industry, as well as exactly how blog writers as well as huge brands can work together to benefit one another. This was significant for us! We had never done any type of public speaking before, as well as we were really honoured that us Goats were asked to speak at such a prestigious event.

We decided that even though it would be extremely nerve-racking, we would state “yes” as well as opt for it! We likewise had to choose who would speak on our behalf – Nick or myself. In the end, we selected Nick as well as he did an outstanding job.

Read much more about it here: Speaking at The world tourism Forum in Istanbul

Check out our video!

We return to Grenada… For The Last Time

After an remarkable 5 month trip around Eastern Europe, we were prepared to return to our “home” of Grenada. Over the program of 3 years, this island was our house base for a overall of a year as well as a half (around 6 months per year for 3 years).

But, after this last 5 months spent on the island from June 10th – November 10th, we chose that we will not be returning once again in 2017.

We want 2017 to be a year of freedom. We want it to be broad open, as well as commitment-free as possible. as well as although we like the dogs that we take care of as well as we do delight in home & pet sitting, we want to be able to travel exactly how we want to, without any type of responsibilities. We would likewise like to be offered for any type of work-related trips that may arise.

This decision wasn’t easy. We like Grenada as well as “our” dogs, as well as having “free” lodging is a bonus, however we understand that we’ve made the best choice.

Read much more about our decision here:

It’s Time For Our next Adventure: Leaving Grenada & Upcoming travel Plans

We’re selling Our Drone

This was one of the most significant decisions we made in 2016. While other blog writers as well as on the internet influencers were buying drones, we were trying to offer ours.

Duringour time in Grenada, we had numerous conversations centered around our video camera gear as well as whether or not it was assisting or harming our travel experiences, as well as our business.

We concerned the final thought that having a drone, a motorized gimbal, 2 GoPros, microphones, underwater kits as well as a Sony Nex 6 video camera was just as well much gear to bring around (and to concern about).

Rather than enjoying the moment, we were continuously believing about “getting the very best shot”. As soon as we would show up in a new destination, Nick would be believing about the very best areas as well as times of day to fly the drone.

We chose to offer whatever as well as thankfully, a extremely good guy in Grenada bought all of our gear from us. We now just have our iPhone, 1 GoPro as well as a new, much smaller Canon camera…and we couldn’t be happier!

Read much more about this decision here:

We offered Our DJI Drone & video camera Gear, Are We Crazy?!

Let’s get a site Redesign

Back in April of this year we asked our visitors to total a survey to discover out what they liked about our website, as well as what we might enhance on. The results were incredible! We learned some methods that we might make our blog much better as well as we truly discovered out what people want to checked out right here on Goats On The Road.

One of the primary gripes that our visitors had was that our site was challenging to navigate – something that we totally agreed with.

Our style was outdated, as well as we were running on a extremely old theme. So, we contacted our trusted site developer, Scott Eldo, as well as over the program of 3 months, we had a new style as well as a totally unique, bespoke theme! We’re extremely delighted with the results.

Since the design, our pages per see has gone up considerably, implying that each visitor is able to get to new material faster, as well as therefor is staying on the site longer. We likewise had an amazing wave of positive comments from all of you, which we truly appreciate!

Read much more about our site redesign here:

We’ve totally Revamped Our Blog! inspect it Out.

Let’s broaden Our Blog

Each year, our site grows as well as expands as we come up with new concepts as well as methods to make money with our blog and offer a much better resource for our readers. We feel extremely fortunate that chances have provided themselves as well as that we’ve complied with them.

This year, we chose to grow in a method that never truly occurred to us in the past. We have hired a team of writers as well as assistants as well as this has assisted us tremendously!

When freelance composing tasks came up, we utilized to do all of the composing ourselves. Every month, we were composing around 30 articles on other websites, plus all of the messages that we needed to compose for Goats On The Road! It was quite difficult to do all of that as well as stay with our 15 hour work week mission.

Needless to say, it was a great deal of work as well as it was extremely challenging to keep up. For many of the brands we were composing for, we were under the “Goats On The Road” authorship, so we just broadened our team, notified the editors of those sites as well as voila, we might totally free up our time for much more projects.

Our new & Improved Team! Click Their pictures To inspect Out Their own Blogs

From delegated right: Kristina & Charlie, James & Sarah, Katherine & Tom, Amanda Gokee

But we didn’t just hire our new writers to assist with our work on other sites, we likewise hired them to produce articles on our own website. In the exact same survey that I discussed above, numerous of our visitors said that they would like to have other voices on our site, as well as that they would like to checked out about other destinations that we haven’t been to yet.

We now have 6 people who consistently compose outstanding material on our site. We’re extremely delighted with their difficult work!

There are likewise various “behind the scenes” things that requirement to be done concerning social network as well as marketing, which we have now passed over to assistants of ours. But, we are still the voice on our Facebook, Twitter as well as Instagram. Our assistants are completing the other tasks like sharing messages as well as taking part in groups, not the actual communication with our followers.

More assist = much more Time For Us
These days, because making the decision to hire a team, we’ve been able to focus on what we like the most: travelling as well as living abroad, as well as composing for our own website.

We’re going to South America!

For whatever reason, when planning our travels in the past, the continent of South America was never a “must-visit” for us. We’ve spent rather a bit of time in Asia, Europe, Africa as well as North America, as well as after 7 years of travelling, we lastly chose to make our method to South America.

From Grenada, we flew to Colombia, which is a country that has been acquiring popularity in the past few years and, after travelling right here for 6 weeks, I can honestly state that this country is one that you ought to certainly visit.

The locals are extremely welcoming, hospitable as well as friendly. And, if you don’t speak Spanish all that well, don’t worry, they’re extremely client people. The landscapes right here are incredibly diverse. You can discover whatever from mountains to sea, to desert as well as jungle. Colombia has it all.

We truly delighted in our time in Colombia. This was an outstanding introduction to South America as well as we can’t wait to see what the other countries on this continent have to offer.

Check out our Colombia articles as well as videos (so far) as well as stay tuned for a round-up of this remarkable destination.

2016 was a excellent travel year full of some remarkable countries as well as experiences as well as we can’t wait to see what 2017 has in store for us ? A huge thank-you to all of our visitors who email us, comment on our posts, share our articles on social media, and those who pass with silently. We appreciate all of your support!

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