2025 was the year of some major shifts in my business.
I’ve been running my marketing business full-time since 2019, and I haven’t looked back. But alongside that, I’ve always had side projects. Things that fed my creativity in different ways. Dates in the States started as one of those ideas… and in 2025, it officially became a real side hustle.
For those of you who are new here, Dates in the States is my travel blog. It all started in 2014 when my now husband and I traveled for 5 weeks across the United States in my Mustang.
Today I’m sharing exactly how much Dates in the States made in 2025, how it evolved into a tangible product, and what I’m doing to turn this $7,500 side hustle into a $30K business in 2026.
I began my travel blog in 2014 and my marketing business in 2019. Travel and storytelling have always been part of my life, but over time, client work naturally took priority because it was the thing that was making me enough money so I could live and still travel.
By 2023, I wanted a fun side hustle that wasn’t marketing-related, so I started selling houseplants at farmers markets. It was enjoyable, but the income was limited. To be honest, in a good year, that side hustle made around $1,200 total. Which is like pennies looking back at it now.
In 2024, I realized I missed my travel blog more than I thought. I wanted to bring it back, but my marketing business was already using most of my creative energy. That’s when I had a realization:
If I wanted the travel blog to generate income, I needed a tangible product.
That’s when the mystery date books were born.
These books were ideas pulled from my blog. Sharing an entire date idea for someone to explore their city in a fun and unique way. For example, starting with somewhere to go for breakfast, taking a walk at a nearby park, doing a fun activity you may have never thought of and ending with a dinner and a nightcap. I started with very basic, handmade mystery date books. Stapled pages, tied with string, wrapped in paper to feel fun and mysterious. Nothing fancy. Just an idea brought to life.
I sold my very first batch at one of the last farmers markets I attended… and I sold out.
That moment changed everything.
I stopped selling plants, shifted my focus entirely, and decided to see what would happen if I actually committed to this idea.
2025 became the year Dates in the States officially turned into a real side hustle. I finally trade marked my name, made it into an LLC, copyrighted each book by registering it with an ISBN number. That was a learning experience in and of itself.
Instead of farmers markets, I started attending:
- Book fairs
- Vendor markets
- Pop-up booths
- Book signings
I sold out at my first official book fair, which told me I was onto something.
Throughout 2025, I:
- Got my books into local bookstores
- Landed placements in Barnes & Noble
- Partnered with local businesses for sponsorships
- Continued refining the books and the process
While my marketing business remained my full-time income, Dates in the States became my creative and financial side project.
Let’s talk numbers because transparency matters.
By the end of 2025, Dates in the States made $7,500.
To put that in perspective:
- My previous side hustle (selling plants) made about $1,200 in a good year
- This side hustle made over six times that
For something that started as a creative experiment, $7,500 feels like a huge win. And obviously I want to keep growing.
I’ve realized in the past year, that tangible products sell really well especially at in-person events. Finding local partnerships with businesses really helped to fund some of the books to sell at these events, because you have to really buy in bulk. But that’s a lot of information I’ll put into another post.
Now that I’ve worked out the kinks, I finally feel like I have a real game plan.
Here’s exactly how I’m planning to grow Dates in the States in 2026:
1. Affiliate Income
I want to add more affiliate partners tied directly to the dates like restaurants, experiences, travel tools, and local businesses. At the end of 2025, we partnered with a ghost tour company that made us affiliates. We got a lot of our family members to attend this ghost tour with us, so that will be a nice paycheck in the first quarter of 2026. I want to find more of that!
2. Growing My YouTube Channels
YouTube will become a core driver. I have a YouTube channel for Dates in the States and another one for my marketing business. It will be a lot to run two channels but I plan to integrate content when applicable like:
- Sharing behind-the-scenes of building this business like what I’m doing right now!
- Travel and date inspiration
- Linking back to my shop, affiliates, and partners
3. Higher-Paying Sponsorships
In 2025, sponsorships were around $150 per book. In 2026, I’m increasing rates by a few hundred dollars to better reflect reach and value. So even if I find the same amount of partnerships I did in 2025, I will make more money because I’ve raised my rates. I think overall I had 5 sponsorships. I know I can find more now that I have a better system in place.
4. More Wholesale, Less Commission
I’m focusing on getting books into more stores through wholesale purchases, not commission-based setups, which improves cash flow and consistency. In 2025, I was finding whatever I could get, which meant a lot of commission-based setups, which means a lot of my books have been sitting in stores for months without making any money. So it’s been a lot of money up front to order and print those books, time sitting in stores, and then making half the amount I would have if I sold it on my website or in person.
Dates in the States will always be my side hustle, but it’s proof that creative ideas can turn into real income when you treat them like a business.
If you’re sitting on an idea you keep putting off, let this be your sign: start small, test it, and give it room to grow.
You don’t need a massive audience — you need momentum.
