It’s everyone’s dream: travel the world and get paid to do it. But not everyone can make their travel blog profitable! In an increasingly competitive travel blog world, there are a few handy tips and pieces of advice to help you on your way to a self-sustaining, professional and successful travel blog.
1. Make your blog look worth investing in!
People say “looks aren’t everything” – but if you want people to take your travel blog seriously, it’s very important. Use a proper theme for your travel blog to display the content and images in a way that is easy to read, slick and appealing. Make sure your images look professional: use a high-quality digital camera, or learn how to edit your iPhone pictures to make them look professional-grade.
People need to take one look at your travel blog and know instantly that it isn’t the work of an amateur, but a professional who readers should trust and businesses should invest in.
2. And make sure the content is even higher quality
Once you draw users in with the outer appearance of your blog, you have to make sure it’s worth staying. Your content needs to be unique and exceptional: include specific tips for travel, a high level of education about the location, keep it clear, easy to read but also highly informative. Making sure that the information on your blog is true and updating it regularly will also help your readers to trust you as an informational source about a location. Readers who trust the information you post are more likely to trust the services or products you promote, which will also help you make money through affiliate links.
3. Use SEO to boost your travel blog’s visibility
Make sure your travel blog gets seen by using SEO principles. Research the keywords that will boost your travel blog in search engine results pages (SERPs), make sure that they are accurate and specific to the content you include.
Think about how to optimize the structure of your blog for SERPs: include the keywords in headings and use clear, easy to read bullet points. List formats also work well, e.g. “10 most beautiful islands in Thailand” or according to time/season, e.g. “What to see: 36 hours in Barcelona”. Make sure that your blog is what people find when they are looking for info or travel advice on each of your locations.
4. Make money from your travel blog with affiliate marketing
One way of boosting your travel blog income is affiliate marketing, or making money by promoting products and earning money when readers buy those products.
You could include posts on your site promoting travel-related products with affiliate programs, such as luggage, cameras, or hiking gear.
There are also travel companies that offer affiliate programs Especially consider checking out travel companies’ affiliate programs, such as the Skyscanner Affiliate Program, Trivago Affiliate Program and Kayak Affiliate Program.
Check out our blog on affiliate marketing pros and cons for more info!
5. Make money with paid advertising spots
A more direct way of monetizing your travel blog is by offering paid advertising spots, as banner or sidebar ads or using Google Adsense. This is a really quick and easy way to start making an income from your travel blog: all you need to do is join an ad network and insert the code snippet in your site, and soon you’ll be earning 100% passive income. Plus, it means that if one of your blog posts or pieces of content goes viral, you’ll be making tonnes of money from just the ads on that page.
6. Make money from your travel blog and expertise
One way you can monetize your blog is… by not directly monetizing your blog!
The knowledge and expertise you acquire while building your travel blog has value in itself. You can work up to publishing e-books based on travel, even turning posts into longer pieces e.g., “A Complete Guide To Your Trip to India” or “300 Things To Do In Barcelona”. This can earn you money if you sell the book at a price, as well as driving traffic to your blog and providing backlinks.
Plus, you can use the expertise you have built up on your blog to make money by working as a freelancer for other brands. Promote your site by writing travel features for other sites or media outlets, guest blog spots, or by contributing your original photos and videos for a fee. You can also offer courses in travel blogging, guided tours, and more.
7. Social media, social media, social media
Being smart about your social media presence and promotion is essential to making money from your blog. Posting some of the photos from your blog to your Instagram is a great way to boost engagement and drive traffic to the blog. Plus, a higher follower count will make it easier for you to start branching out into sponsored content and brand ambassadorship. This will also put you on track to becoming a fully-fledged social media influencer!
Be patient – you won’t get rich overnight!
Building up an audience takes time, as well as tweaking your blog’s contents and socials to get the maximum reach possible. There are so many different avenues to explore when it comes to making money from your travel blog, though, so keep working and thinking outside the box and you can turn it into a revenue source eventually.
Start earning your affiliate revenues with the GetYourGuide Partner Program by signing up here.