Matador and its fleet of independent travel writers know how to thrive. In less then 3 years, Matador has grown from a small community of passionate travelers, to a massively popular network of niche travel blogs, reaching over 800,000 unique visitors a month. With its growing popularity, it is turning to its travel writing school, MatadorU, to make the travel writing profession a realistic aspiration.

MatadorU's first course is a 12-week curriculum aimed at travel writers of all levels. I was able to browse the course materials myself, and I have to say that the course is rich and informative, and in many ways itliterally gives away the blueprint used to navigate the continuously evolving world of travel publishing. Each week, students receive online chapters and assignments, with lessons ranging from: ways to improve your storytelling, learning how to organize submissions for publication, to mastering social media, monetization blogs, and negotiating ad contracts.