One of my favorite things about being a full-time content creator and travel blogger is the ability to make money online.
This allows me to work from anywhere and travel the world without having a base!
Although this lifestyle is uncommon, it is one that I would not trade for the world. I adore having time freedom, location freedom, and financial freedom.
Curious how to make money online while traveling and sharing what you love?
In this article, we discuss 9 ways you can make money travel blogging!
Getting Started
The first thing to set up for success is you must create a travel blog, which is essentially your own website.
You can read my in-depth tutorial on how to start a travel blog with step-by-step instructions.
Build Your Website
The first thing to start with when launching your travel blog is to develop a professional website.
Your site will be the hub through which you share all your insights, stories, and travel guides with readers.
To set yourself up for success, you must make strategic choices from the beginning:
- Choose a niche. Let’s be honest: there are so many travel blogs out there nowadays, so you must narrow your focus to make your website stand out and really highlight your expertise. You might discuss only budget travel, or you can go very high-end by showcasing luxury experiences. You can write about eco-tourism or only off-the-beaten-path destinations. A niche will help you through the targeted audience and ensure that you have a loyal readership base that aligns with what you’re writing about.
- Conduct competitor research. Have a look at other blogs in your niche. What are they offering? How is their site laid out? What do you like about their blog and what don’t you like? Note their weaknesses and strengths in the process of modeling your approach.
- Define your audience. Pinpoint who you’re writing for. Are you targeting backpackers, families, or digital nomads? Knowing your audience helps you tailor your content to meet their needs and interests.
- Name your blog. It is time to give your blog an attractive yet simple-to-remember name related to your niche. After deciding on a name, get a matching domain so your target audience can find you easily online.
- Buy a domain name. Check to see if the desired name of your domain is available. If possible, buy a .com domain, as it is highly recognized and trusted.
- Choose a hosting site. The most critical decision is to find an appropriate hosting site. Finding one may take time, but you must ensure your site stays fast and safe. Take a closer look at Bluehost, SiteGround, and DreamHost, comparing each to find the one that best suits your needs.
- Create the website. First, create basic pages such as “About” to introduce yourself, “Contact” for inquiries, and blog categories for easy navigation. These core pages give readers an immediate sense of who you are and what to expect from your blog.
A good website with clear branding and architecture and a reliable web host gives you a perfect base upon which your travel blog may be built.
Learn SEO Basics
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a must for any blogger who travels and wants organic traffic. It’s the process of improving your website’s visibility and presence on search engines to end up receiving more readers without having to pay for advertisements.
Keyword research involves searching for words that people use when looking for information. As a travel blogger, some of the target keywords could be “best places to visit,” “solo traveling tips,” or “budget travel tips.” Optimizing your content around these words increases your chances of ranking on Google.
Here are some tips for you:
- Use a keyword grouper tool. A keyword grouper simplifies your keyword research by automatically setting related terms into groups. You can group keywords according to theme, and then building up a logical structure for your blog becomes much easier. Grouped keywords will also help you see the content gaps and develop a long-term SEO strategy.
- Value quality content creation per group of keywords. Make sure that you create comprehensive content for every group of keywords. Google favors pages that fully meet search intent; therefore, you should answer your audience’s questions to the fullest. In other words, a post titled “best travel destinations” should contain many practical tips, local insights, and interesting visuals.
- Optimize on-page SEO. Small things like using keywords naturally in headings, descriptive alt text on images, and crafting meta descriptions can really help your search rankings. With this constant optimization of your posts, your blog will start to come up in searches and be discovered by new readers.
In short, getting an SEO right for your blog helps you gain organic traffic. Thus, visibility through organic search is much more beneficial than paid advertisements.
Publish Your First Post and Be Consistent
Once your website is up and running, it is time to create your first blog post. The introductory blog post is supposed to introduce readers to your travel niche and what to expect from your blog. This introduction is where you need to showcase your personality, style of storytelling, and knowledge.
Consistency is king for growth. Regularly post once a week so that readers know when to find new content. The more you publish, the more keywords your blog can rank for and the more engagement you build with your audience. Regular posting conveys dedication, which will help attract potential sponsors and partners over time.
In the initial period, focus on delivering quality and not quantity. Well-researched, engaging posts that offer valid information will keep the readers returning and build up your loyal audience. Regular quality posting will make your blog a trusted resource, hence leading to a longstanding readership.
After you have created your travel blog site, there are numerous ways to monetize your efforts. Here are 9 ways you can make money by travel blogging.
Ad Revenue
Ad revenue is one of the easiest ways to get paid as a travel blogger. If you have advertisements on your website, you can begin earning passive income from visitor traffic or clicks on each ad.
Ad networks are quite straightforward to set up for beginners and offer a difference in ad placement that’s relevant to your content. Once the blog traffic increases, you might consider higher-paying ad networks like Mediavine.
While ads will not make you rich in one night, they surely can bring in a constant income if your site constantly receives many visitors.
Your main goal needs to be crafting great content that is worthy of the visitor’s traffic since, ultimately, more traffic transfers into more ad views and, consequently, more ad clicks.
Affiliate Marketing
Another popular source of income among travel bloggers is affiliate marketing. When you join the affiliate program, you get a commission whenever your link is clicked and someone buys something.
Popular ones include Amazon Associates, Booking.com, and other travel-specific affiliates like Expedia. These programs make it easier for you to incorporate them seamlessly into your content because their products and services relate directly to travel.
For instance, if your blog has to do with hiking gear, you should include affiliate links to the gear you recommend. Be authentic. Recommend what you believe in and what works for your audience.
Personally, I use Travelpayouts to streamline all my travel affiliate income. They partner with over 100+ travel brands and tracking is streamlined all in one platform.
A properly thought-out affiliate marketing strategy will transform your blog posts into steady income streams, especially when you rank for high-intent keywords that appeal to readers who are ready to buy.
Sell Digital Products
Digital product ideas are a great way to monetize your travel blog by giving your audience very unique resources. You can create digital travel guides to sell, itinerary planners, packing lists, or even eBooks about your experiences.
Because these are downloadable products, there is no inventory to maintain. Hence, this is a low-overhead way to monetize your travel website.
Selling your digital products directly to your audience through platforms like Gumroad or the shop page of your blog will be another step. The point is to design high-quality, useful products that align with your readers’ interests and needs.
By selling these digital products, you give your audience some real value in the form of tools they can use during their travels, which helps build loyalty with them.
✈️ Download The Travel Influencer Handbook
Sell Photos
If you are a travel blogger with good camera skills, then selling your photos is another way to boost the coffers. Plenty of readers and businesses look out for nice travel images so your blog can serve as a portfolio for potential buyers.
You may sell photos directly through your website or on platforms like Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, or SmugMug, which make it very easy to license images to a wide audience.
Then, create a portfolio page on your blog for the best work to which potential clients could be referred. You can also try contacting brands or tourism boards that require original photos.
If your niche covers smaller or more exotic destinations, this would be a very profitable way of selling your photos.
Work With Hotels and Travel Brands
As a travel blogger, social media is important in building your audience and diversifying your income streams. Social networks like Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest have a greater reach and can share stories, photos, and videos about traveling.
By posting regularly, you will keep your audience engaged. This increases your reach, helping boost the traffic of your blog.
You can easily become a travel influencer on social media. Here is what you need to do:
- Add social media links to your website. Link to all your social profiles from your website so that readers can easily find and follow you. You could add icons for different social media in the top menu, sidebar, or footer of your blog and encourage people to connect with you across different platforms.
- Monetize your social media channels. Once you build your social networks, explore ways to monetize them. Instagram allows branded content and shopping links. On a YouTube channel, you can use ad revenue and sponsorships. For bloggers with great engagement from their audience, social media creates its own major revenue stream.
All in all, social media is a great avenue for engaging with your audience, gaining new readers, and opening up new income streams.
✈️ Download The Travel Influencer Handbook
Write Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts are yet another effective way of monetizing your travel blog. Brands typically look for bloggers to collaborate with to promote their products or services.
From creating a blog post about a product to talking about destinations through Instagram stories, everything falls into the category of sponsored content. Payment depends on website traffic, social media followers, and even engagement rates.
To find sponsorships, create a media kit with your blog’s stats and audience demographics and pitch to brands that really resonate with your niche. Always be sure to disclose sponsored content so that you don’t lose your readers’ trust.
Be authentic and make sure you partner only with brands you believe in and that your audience will benefit from or be interested in. In time, sponsored posts could be one of your biggest revenue streams as you build relationships with relevant brands.
Email Advertising
Email advertising is the direct monetization of your blog using your mailing list. This builds up when you capture email subscribers who may be interested in your content, which could be valuable for brands seeking to reach out to similar demographics.
You can sell ad placements within your newsletters, promote products, or even work with affiliates to feature relevant deals.
Here is what you should do:
- Build a quality email list. You could use your blog to compile email subscribers. You can give away a lot of free resources in exchange for their e-mail, maybe even something as simple as a packing list for traveling or some exclusive travel guide. You do this to ensure that your e-mail list comprises people who care about what you write.
- Integrate email marketing tools. Mailchimp and ConvertKit have both made it easy to create and run email marketing campaigns. Besides, you also have the segmentation option through which you can send targeted emails according to readers’ interests.
Email marketing, when done right, can also be very profitable. You should emphasize quality for quantity so you’ll produce a “healthy” email list.
Freelance Writing
As a travel blogger, your writing skill is an asset. Many online and offline publications require writers with on-the-ground travel experiences to write articles, stories, or guides. You could use your blog as a portfolio and create pitches for editors at travel magazines, tourism websites, or other content platforms.
Freelance travel writing can help you earn a regular income and expand your platform as an expert in travel. Create a list of target media, research their content needs, and send targeted pitches with links to your blog. On top of providing added income, freelance work gives you credibility in the niche that brings more readers to your blog.
Create A Subscription
If you have a devoted audience, you could put up a paywall behind which only the truly loyal may pass. With services like Patreon or Ko-fi, one could set up a monthly subscription in which readers pay to keep up with premium content. As an example, travel bloggers can sell:
- Detailed, highly valuable itineraries
- Insider traveling tips
- Live Q&A sessions-only for subscribers
Creating exclusive content does pay in direct revenues, but even more importantly, it deepens the relationship with your audience. They will feel they have insider access, so the value of their experience is much added. Survey your readers to gauge interest in specific offerings they would be willing to pay for, then create those offerings based on needs.
Conclusion
A travel blog requires commitment, creativity, and patience to be profitable. At each step, you’ll be closer to a sustainable income. First of all, you need:
- Set up your website
- Master SEO
- Explore multiple revenue streams
Consistency, authenticity, and a strategic approach to monetization will help you grow not only your audience but also your revenue. You will continue to build a business around your travel passion by continuously creating content that adds value, engaging your audience, and diversifying income channels.
The most successful travel bloggers, after all, shoot not destinations but stories, insights, and guidance that inspire others!
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