Today we’d like to introduce you to Mikkel And Dan Woodruff
Hi Mikkel and Dan, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Our couples travel blog started back in 2015 when we began to travel the world together. It’s called “Sometimes Home” because we’re usually on the road (whether domestically in the US, as close to home as Raleigh or as far as California, or abroad in Europe or Asia).
In 2020, in the middle of a pandemic and a “no sail order” for cruise lines, we decided to start a niche travel website focused on small-format cruises, another passion of ours. Call us crazy, but we thought, “No risk, no reward!” And that’s how Sometimes Sailing was founded.
We both own our own businesses separately as well as run Sometimes Home and Sometimes Sailing. (Dan’s an Executive Business Coach and owns his own company, called Odin Strategies (odinstrategies.com), and Mikkel’s been a professional photographer for over 16 years, specializing in family sessions and weddings (mikkelpaige.com). We’ve gotten to where we are today – as pro travel writers, content creators, and independent small business owners – through hard work.
Content creation, as a business, is very hard work if you want it to take off. But it’s also very rewarding if you’re willing to put time, money, and energy into it.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s never all sunshine and rainbows! As most small businesses whose website presence is paramount to success will attest, we’re often at the mercy of Google’s algorithms. As such, we were hit with the infamous “Helpful Content Update” (HCU) algorithm changes in the fall of 2024. It was proof for the need to diversify more, so we have things like a river cruise course, webinar, and podcast about small ship cruising in the works for 2025, a plan for increasing our focus on email and video, and ramping up social media.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Mikkel specializes in photography – especially family sessions and lifestyle sessions – and Dan specializes in business coaching. Together, we are experts in travel for our two travel websites: particularly couples travel around the world and small ship cruise vacations. We’re not travel agents. Rather, we create content that helps people plan better vacations.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Luck hasn’t played a role in our businesses. Everything we have has been a result of hard work and dedication.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sometimessailing.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/sometimessailing
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sometimessailing9293
Image Credits
Credit goes to Mikkel Paige Photography
