Do you love traveling and writing about your experiences?
Want to see the world?
Are you a wander?
Love writing about travel?
Then, why not launch your own travel blog?
Gone are the days when travel blogging was considered a hobby. Now you can earn a decent lifestyle through blogging about travel.
Don’t believe us? Carry on reading this whole article!
This post will provide you with a comprehensive guide on how to identify a travel blogger, steps to becoming one, and strategies for earning money as a travel blogger. If you’re eager to know, let’s get started.
Table of Contents
WHO IS A TRAVEL BLOGGER?
A travel blogger is an individual who writes about their travel experiences and shares them on a blog or social media platform. They provide information on destinations, travel itineraries, travel tips, recommendations, and more. Travel bloggers are usually passionate about traveling and use their platform to inspire and motivate others to travel the world. They may also collaborate with tourism boards, travel companies, and brands for sponsored trips, reviews, and promotions.
No academic qualifications are needed for travel blogging except for passion and love for traveling and writing.
Luxury travels, family travels, post-marriage travels, best places to de-stress, etc are some hot topics covered under this kind of blogging.
Let us give you some examples to help you understand this better. Are you excited? Let’s dig in!
POPULAR TRAVEL BLOGS
EXAMPLE 1 DAN FLYING SOLO
Dan Flying solo is a travel blog that talks about various kinds of travel like solo trips, adventure, festivals and events, wildlife and nature, winter and off-season, city breaks, and many more categories. It also provides tips and reviews on travels and some personal travel stories to connect with the audience.
EXAMPLE 2 – A BROKEN BACKPACK
A Broken Backpack was started by Melissa, a travel enthusiast who talks about various destinations from all over the world. It also gives travel tips to its readers and various travel resources like travel insurance, essentials to carry, accommodations, flight booking portals, transportation, and many other categories.
EXAMPLE 3 – DREW BINSKY
Drew Binsky is a travel blog by Drew who started to travel right after he left college and made blogging his main source of income. He has various courses for readers to travel on a budget and save money, blogs about traveling, an online store to buy his brand products, a separate section dedicated to his public speeches, and a flight booking portal. Do you want to explore more? Click to have a look.
EXAMPLE 4 – TRAVEL BREAK
Travel Break is yet another travel blog that talks about travel, adventure, and a sprinkle of motivation here and there. It also has a travel guide for readers to educate them about travel photography and packing. Moreover, the blog gives some serious travel motivation to all the travel enthusiasts out there.
EXAMPLE 5- NOMADIC BOYS
Nomadic Boys is a unique travel blog started by a Greek Gay couple traveling for over 10 years. This blog talks about various travel destinations in Africa, Asia, Europe, North, and South America, and the Middle East. This also has a travel resource section full of Gay travel trips. Additionally, it has an interview section featuring Gay life and travels.
While there are millions of blogs on the internet, competition can be intense. However, don’t worry as a clear path to success can make the journey easier. With that in mind, we will guide you step-by-step on how to become a travel blogger and monetize your blog.
Are you excited?
Let’s begin!
7 EASY STEPS TO BECOME A TRAVEL BLOGGER ( AND MAKE MONEY )
1. DECIDE YOUR TRAVEL BLOG NICHE
The first and foremost step is to pick a niche for your travel blog and your target audience. Choosing who will you talk to and what will you talk about is really important. There are so many niches to pick from that spoil you with choices but at the same time can be really confusing.
So, here is a list of a few top-performing niches for you to choose from:
- Luxury Travel
- Solo Travel
- Gay Travel
- Couple Travel
- Backpack travel
- Travel with kids
- Travel with Pets
- Traveling Tips
- Specific Area or Country travel
- Road Tripping
- Adventure Travel
- Bleisure (Business and Pleasure Trips)
- Disney Travel
- Themed Cruises
- Wellness Travel (Traveling with a focus on health)
- Urban Hiking
- Family Travels
- Group Travels
- Food Travel (Learning Recipes on the Go)
- Jungle Tourism and many more
While choosing a niche keep a few things in mind:
- Choose a niche that you enjoy. there is no point in picking something rewarding yet boring.
- Do not worry about being different. Being unique can actually be your USP.
- Make sure you are passionate about the niche and can not get bored of it in the long run.
- See if it is trending. Make sure people are wanting to read about it.
- Check if the chosen niche is in line with your target audience
Get a notebook and a pen and write down all the things you are passionate about. This will help you discover a niche that works for you. Since switching niches later is not a wise idea, pick it carefully.
2. SELECT A BLOGGING PLATFORM AND HOSTING
After you have chosen a target audience and a niche for your travel blog. It is time you pick a blogging platform and hosting on your blogging site.
DEFINITION
A blogging platform is an online software or service that enables individuals or groups to create and publish content on the internet. It offers users various tools and features to create and manage a blog, even if they lack technical expertise in web development.
There are two kinds of blogging platforms available online. A self-hosted blogging platform does not provide hosting but a CMS to manage your blogs like WordPress.org. While a hosted open-source blogging platform comes with hosting along with a CMS to manage your blogs like WordPress.com.
DEFINITION
Hosting lets you store all your website content on the internet to makes it accessible for clients.
Given the plethora of blogging platforms available online, we suggest that you opt for a self-hosted WordPress blogging platform. Allow us to share some statistics that support our recommendation:
Here are some statistics to back up our suggestion:
GENERAL WORDPRESS STATISTICS
- WordPress powers almost 40% of sites on the internet
- WordPress commands 64.1% of the CMS market share
- 30.3% of the top 1000 sites use WordPress
- The latest version of WordPress has been downloaded over 54m times
- WordPress was the fastest-growing CMS platform for 11 years in a row
- There are currently 58,644 plugins listed in the WordPress directory
Aren’t these some interesting figures?
For those just starting their blogging journey, it’s recommended to opt for a self-hosted platform, which provides more control over the website and enables easier monetization.
While choosing a hosting consider factors such as uptime and reliability, speed, pricing, scalability, user-friendliness, security, and support.
If WordPress doesn’t meet your requirements, there are other alternatives you can consider, such as:
- Wix
- Tumblr
- Squarespace
- Ghost
- Weebly
- Joomla
- Drupal
- Blogger
- Medium
3. DOMAIN NAME
A blog domain name is a unique address that identifies a blog on the internet. Moreover, it is the domain name that users will type in the browser to get to your website hence selecting a good domain name is imperative.
A great domain name has the following characteristics:
- Unique
- Memorable
- Easy to pronounce
- Not fancy yet trendy
- Short and Sweet
- Reflects your brand
- SEO savvy and contains keywords
- Available
Are you considering a specific domain name? Check its availability by clicking here.
If you’re still uncertain about which domain name to choose, don’t worry – we’ve got you covered.
Click to know 253 Best Travel Blog Names that will Boost Your Success
You can gain some inspiration from your peers by observing what’s already available on the internet, and then considering how you can personalize it. Good luck.
4. BRANDING
There are thousands of travel blogs available online so to stand apart from the crowd you need to have strong branding.
Here is a list of a few tips to help you build your brand:
DECIDE A LOGO
Your logo will represent the face of your brand, do some research before finalizing it. You can use illustrations to connect with the audience and pep it up. Also, choose a font face that looks professional yet shows your brand personality.
PICK A THEME
A travel blog with a theme that features a clean, minimalist design and easy-to-use navigation will make it easier for visitors to find the content they’re interested in and enjoy reading it. On the other hand, a cluttered or confusing theme may turn off visitors and make them leave the site quickly.
The right theme can also enhance the branding of the travel blog and help to establish a unique identity. It should reflect the personality and niche of the blogger, making the site more engaging and attractive to the target audience. Ultimately, choosing the right theme is crucial in creating a successful travel blog.
Click to see popular travel blog themes.
USP
Discover what sets you apart from your competitors and promote it all over your website. People will visit your website if you give them something unique and memorable. It can be anything in your videos, concept, blogging style, or anything unique.
CONSISTENCY
People should be able to recognize your brand on different platforms after reading your posts. Use the same theme, logo, font color, and font style on various platforms.
5. START PREPARING BLOG CONTENT
Once you have taken care of all the technical aspects of setting up your blog, it’s time to focus on being creative. While a great theme and a top-notch blogging platform are important, they won’t be enough if your content is subpar.
As the popular saying goes, “Content is king,” and it truly is. The core of your blog lies in the quality of the content you publish. It must be well-written, engaging, and original. When crafting your content, there are certain things you should keep in mind to make it stand out.
6 ESSENTIAL TIPS TO STRUCTURE YOUR CONTENT
TIP 1: To promote travel to your audience and hence attract more visitors you need to add great visuals in addition to text. Work on adding high-quality photos and videos to make your posts look attractive.
TIP 2: Discover the topics that are trending and create content on them. Use different on-page and off-page tactics to boost its ranking. For Example, adding backlinks to your blogs is a great way to increase your Google score and rank your website.
TIP 3: Follow SEO techniques to optimize content. But, don’t follow it blindly SEO copies can be boring to read. You need to make content for humans and not machines.
TIP 4: Lengthy paragraphs can be off-putting to readers. Improve the readability of your blog by limiting paragraphs to 5-6 lines. Use transition words, avoid repetition, and use simple language. Additionally, break up your content with subheadings to make it easier to skim.
TIP 5:It’s important to plan your content around your readers’ needs. Conduct research on platforms like Quora and Facebook to better understand your target audience. Once you have gathered data, structure your content accordingly.
TIP 6: Plagiarism is a strict NO-NO. Google penalizes copied content, you cannot just copy-paste somebody’s content and publish it under your label. It is no less than theft. Don’t be lazy, take time to structure fresh, memorable, and unique content.
Use these tips to make striking content for your website and we are sure you will get amazing results.
6. PROMOTE YOUR CONTENT
By now you are all set to show your blogs to the world. Get. Set. Promoting 😀
Promotion is important to attract visitors to your blogs and hence generate revenue afterward. If you do not promote your content all your handwork will go in vain.
Below are 4 easy tips for you to promote your blog:
TIP 1: FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Promote your blogs on your personal groups on WhatsApp, Instagram, or Facebook, and ask them to forward them to their network. Friends and family are the ones who truly want you to grow in your career and hence this method of promotion never fails.
TIP 2: SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media is a lucrative channel to promote your blogs with millions of users on it. You can use Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels to promote your blogs. We recommend you create an account on all the possible social media platforms and see what works best for you.
TIP 3: EMAIL
- Build an email list: Create a list of subscribers who are interested in your travel blog. You can use a subscription form on your website to gather email addresses.
- Create engaging content: Write engaging content that your subscribers will find useful and interesting. This could be a roundup of your latest travel adventures, a review of a hotel or restaurant, or tips on how to save money while traveling.
- Personalize your emails: Address your subscribers by name and use their past interactions with your blog to personalize your email content.
- Use eye-catching subject lines: Your subject line is the first thing your subscribers will see, so make it compelling and relevant to the content of your email.
- Include links to your blog: Include links to your latest blog posts and encourage subscribers to visit your website to read more.
- Use images: Use high-quality images in your emails to make them visually appealing and capture your subscribers’ attention.
- Call to action: Always include a call to action at the end of your email, whether it’s to visit your blog, subscribe to your newsletter, or follow you on social media.
- Send emails consistently: Send regular emails to your subscribers to keep them engaged and interested in your travel blog. However, be mindful not to send too many emails, as this can lead to unsubscribes.
TIP 4: ADD INTERNAL LINKS
Adding links to relevant blogs written by you in all your blogs is a great way of promoting. This not only structures your website content and makes it more understandable but also boosts user on-page time.
Your main aim should be not to let go of your readers, and make them navigate from one of your posts to another.
7. START MAKING MONEY
Are you taking up blogging as the main source of income? if yes, then earning money through it might be one of your aims.
According to Goats on the Road, once established, your travel blog itself may earn $3,000 – $10,000 / month, but if you’ve broadened your horizons and started working on other income streams like freelance writing, content creation, social media management, and consulting services, you can double or triple this figure.
Isn’t it interesting?
There are several interesting ways to earn money through a travel blog. Here are a few examples:
- Affiliate marketing: Recommend travel-related products or services to your readers and earn a commission on any resulting sales.
- Sponsored content: Partner with brands or tourism boards to create sponsored posts or social media content.
- Advertising: Display ads on your website or social media accounts, and earn money based on clicks or impressions.
- Selling products: Create and sell your own travel-related products, such as travel guides, photography prints, or merchandise.
- Offering services: Use your blog as a platform to offer services such as travel planning, photography or writing.
- Influencer marketing: Partner with brands to promote their products or services to your audience on social media, and earn a fee or commission.
- Writing for other publications: Use your blog as a portfolio to pitch travel writing assignments to other publications and websites.
- Speaking engagements: Use your blog to establish yourself as an expert in travel, and seek out speaking opportunities at conferences or events.
- Membership or subscription model: Offer premium content, courses or exclusive travel deals to your readers for a fee.
These are just a few examples – there are many creative ways to monetize a travel blog depending on your audience, niche, and interests.
CONCLUSION
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Launching a travel blog can be a life-altering decision that enables you to explore the world while sharing your experiences with others. By adhering to the suggestions and steps mentioned in this article, you can establish a prosperous travel blog that connects with readers and motivates them to travel more. Remember to be genuine, offer valuable insights, and remain committed to your writing. Whether you’re sharing tips on budget travel or reviews of luxury hotels, your travel blog can serve as a platform for sharing your passion for travel with the globe. So, begin your travel blog today and start sharing your journeys with the world! Who knows, you may inspire someone else to embark on their next adventure.
