How to Make Money from Travel Blogging
Before I tell you the ‘how’ I want to admit that if you work dedicatedly on your blog, you will start How to Make Money From Travel Blogging in less than a year.
While, of course, the money earned from a blog is often not enough (at least for me!) and most bloggers rely on other sources of income (for example, I initially relied on freelancing and now I organize camping tours to meet my travel needs) if you are someone who can travel on a low budget and need very little money to survive, the money earned from a blog can be enough.
Different travel bloggers use different ways to make money. And before I reveal all the ways I know (or have tried before) I would like to give a warning first…
If your goal of starting a travel blog is to make money, don’t even bother starting one! Because there are much easier ways to make money online. I would recommend travel blogging only if your goal is to travel and you enjoy writing about your travels.
The purpose of travel blogging is more about following your passion for travel than looking for ways to make money.
So, if you still want to become a full-time travel blogger, here is how to make money from travel blogging…
Different ways to make money from blogging
Banner Ads
Putting banner ads on your blog is probably the most traditional and common way to make money from a travel blog. If your travel blog doesn’t have much traffic, this method is also ineffective.
There are many ad networks that pay on the basis of cost per click and cost per impression (which means you get money every time someone clicks on your website or views an ad) but I am personally using Google Adsense and recommend it – How to Make Money From Travel Blogging if you still decided to go for banner ads. Google Adsense is easy to use and trustworthy. And no matter what, Google is not going to shut down tomorrow.
But as I said earlier, if your website has low daily traffic (less than even a few thousand visitors per day) then don’t bother running ads on your travel blog, because, you are not going to get anything from it.
Affiliate Marketing
As I said, there are many ways to make money from a travel blog. Apart from banner ads, affiliate marketing is another way. Affiliate marketing is where you put a special affiliate tracking link on your website to a merchant’s website, and when someone gets redirected from your website and buys a product, you get a commission.
Again, the success of affiliate marketing depends on how much traffic you are getting to the articles containing affiliate links. But how intelligently you have embedded the link can also play a role.
For travel bloggers, websites like Amazon (for products), Booking.com (for hotel suggestions) and Skyscanner (for flight bookings) are the most useful, but please read the terms and conditions before applying for their affiliate program.
I am currently getting the majority of my affiliate revenue from Amazon. How to Make Money From Travel Blogging Here is a good example of one of my pages full of affiliate links
Selling Links
The third way on my list of ways to make money from travel blogging is link-selling.
Also known as text-link advertising, link selling is when companies pay you to place a do-follow backlink to their website in one of your already published posts, or provide a complete pre-written “guest post” with one or two do-follow backlinks.
Why?
Because this helps their website boost its search engine results, which leads to more people coming to their website from search engines and thus growing their business. How to Make Money From Travel Blogging (Tip: Visit Google to learn more about no-follow and do-follow backlinks).
However, this practice is frowned upon and is strictly against Google’s guidelines. And it can backfire if you get caught by Google, so I don’t recommend it.
Influencer Marketing
Now, moving on to our list of how to make money from a travel blog, but apart from that, Influencer Marketing is the most effective way to do this.
Once you get some readers and a good following on social media, you are no longer a storyteller but an influencer whom people want to follow, brands want to hire you to promote their products and services. How to Make Money From Travel Blogging And in the process, you make a little money.
To know in detail about the whole aspect of making money as an influencer, read this other article I wrote on how people get paid to travel as influencers!
Instagram being the most popular influencer platform, most companies want to partner with travel influencers to run marketing campaigns for them on Instagram and only Instagram.
So if you are new to the blogging industry (or in other words, new to the influencer industry) then start investing your time on Instagram from day one.
There are many influencer networks that help influencers find influencer campaigns in different niches How to Make Money From Travel Blogging (like fashion, adventure or travel). Just sign up on them and wait for something to come your way.
Some of the popular influencer networks I use include Influencers.in, Socialbeat, Blogmint, Buzzool and Glamambassador.com.
Direct Selling
Another suggestion in my list of different ways to make money from travel blogging is the indirect way of direct selling. Does it sound confusing? Well, it’s easier than you think…
Some bloggers also act as intermediaries to connect travelers with hotels and tour operators and earn commissions in the meantime. How to Make Money From Travel Blogging The idea is simple – you write an article about a unique place and tell where you stayed.
Now people read your article and come to you to ask for contact details about the property (provided they aren’t smart enough to find it online). Now, you connect the two parties and earn commissions in between. This is how you can make money from travel blogging without selling anything directly on your blog.
I tried to make money this way during my first six months of blogging, but the problem is that it takes a lot of time to convert leads and you only end up making a little money – usually less than 20% of the total sellouts.I now offer travel bloggers and tour leaders the opportunity to earn money by bringing people to my campsite How to Make Money From Travel Blogging.
For example, I charge Rs 1500 per person per night for my full board plan. If a person approaches me on his own behalf (as a travel agent), I pay him Rs 200 as agent commission. Check out my business Instagram page: instagram.com/footloosecamps, and if you are planning to bring a group camping, reach out to me!
Stock photography
If you are a good photographer, consider investing some time and building a portfolio on various stock-image websites.
Websites like 500px, Shutterstock, Alamy and Getty Images (there are more than a dozen others) allow photographers to list their photos, bid on them and earn money based on the sale How to Make Money From Travel Blogging.
Paid FAM Trips
While most FAM trips (or introductory/media trips) only cover your travel, experience and stay expenses, some of them also involve payment – depending on your market credibility as a travel journalist or the publications you write for.
Since I started travel blogging, I have joined around 50 FAM trips till date and have been paid only twice, and that happened recently when my blog was published in two leading national newspapers of India, The Economic Times and The Statesman in August 2017 How to Make Money From Travel Blogging.
Moreover, besides increasing the number of blog readers, I now have more than 10,000 fans on various social media networks – which definitely serves as another motivating factor for sponsors to take me on paid FAM trips.
FAM trips are mostly organized by tourism boards. Read: How to contact tourism boards
Teaching your fans about the art of travel blogging and charging for it is another way to earn money – and many successful travel bloggers do this, although some do it by organizing events and giving in person (as I do) while others create online courses and sell them.
Freelancing
Last but not the least, our list of different ways to make money from travel blogging also includes freelancing.
Freelancing is by far the most common way that most bloggers rely on for an additional source of income – including me. And I believe this is because once you start blogging and gain a little experience in writing, How to Make Money From Travel Blogging it becomes quite easy to write for other publications and win their trust as a freelance writer.
In my initial days of blogging, I relied on freelancing platforms like Upwork and Freelancer to get work related to travel writing or photography
Q1. Travel bloggers generate income from the various sources such as advertising content, sponsored campaigns, affiliate partnerships and digital product sales and brand sponsorships.
Travel bloggers generate revenue by displaying ads while they receive compensation for sponsored content in addition to earning money through affiliate marketing and selling digital products and engaging in brand collaboration deals How to Make Money From Travel Blogging.
Q2. Travel beginners need to know which revenue streams will be most effective for their blogging activities.
New bloggers should begin their revenue generation through display advertising services such as Google AdSense and Mediavine along with affiliate marketing programs and sponsored promotional posts which accumulate an audience base.
Q3. Travel bloggers receive varying amounts of income based on their professional activities.
Bloggers experience widely different earnings levels where newbies might receive $200-$300 per month yet high-end professionals bring in six-figure annual success through varied income streams.
Q4. Earning revenue from your travel blog remains possible even if you do not use YouTube.
Yes! A blog functions as its own income source by collecting revenue from advertisements together with affiliate programs and guidebook sales in combination with travel counseling services.
Q5. Building income from a travel blog normally requires an unspecified amount of time to develop.
A travel blog generates income based on ongoing work and proper SEO strategies and developing an audience; however bloggers typically start making money between 6 to 12 months but reach substantial earnings over several years How to Make Money From Travel Blogging.
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