Can You Make Money Travel Blogging |BloggersHQ

bloggershq.org/can-you-make-money-travel-blogging

In this article, I am going to detail and respond as best and in as much detail as I can to the often asked question “Can You Make Money Travel Blogging?�. So be prepared for some incredible detail!

Without a single doubt, travel blogging is one of the most fun sectors to be involved in and perhaps one of the easiest to be writing about.

But, is it profitable?

Is it one that you can enter?

It is a very busy niche, and you better believe it!.

Can you cut it as a travel blogger? Is there space for you in this sector?

Keep reading to find out!

7 DAY FREE BLOGGING COURSE Discover All That You Need To Build An Awesome Blog!

Sign up now and get started today with My FREE course!

Can You Make Money Travel Blogging?

The direct one word answer to this is both yes and no.

I'll explain shall I? 1/39

The travel blog-o-sphere is absolutely crowded and huge!...and by huge I mean absolutely massive! freakingly humougously massive! so much so that if you set out to make a general travel blog without being targeted, well sorry to bust your bubble but it is very likely that you won't make a single dime!.

In saying that, If you get targeted and specific, my answer is a resounding HELL YEAH BABY! you most certainly can make money travel blogging..and don't doubt it for a single second!.

BOX OUT: The Absolute Essentials That You Will Need For Starting A Travel Blog Today!

Join my 7 day free courseand discover all that you need to know to build a successful blog!

Sign up for A Free Account With They Guy's that taught me! And Get Full Success Coaching And Assistance from me!.

If you plan on building an email list And Properly Owning Your Traffic, start a free trial of ConvertKit There is one very big caveat...Don't travel blog for money!

Don't make money your goal. If you do, all likely hood is that you will fail.

You are in the information industry, the business of information and helping people. It is the very core of what travel bloggers are about and what is running at the heart of all travel blogs.

I am talking about sharing experiences and information with your audience and readers.

Get My FREE Guide "How To Make Money With A Blog" Here!

Because YOU KNOW You Can Make A Kick Ass Travel Blog! The question is: WILL YOU DO STEP UP AND MAKE IT!?!?

2/39

Share your experiences and thoughts and you could go far with a travel blog.

Analysing The Travel Industry The travel industry is a very large one to be involved with on which is expected and forecast to grow to be worth in excess of 400 Billion US$ per year over the next few years!

An absolute phenomenal amount of money! To earn a living as a travel blogger you just need to go grab a tiny, minuscule fraction of that huge market.

The Massive Travel Industry. Photo courtesy of Statista From the photo above you can see a whopping $186,681 Million USD is expected to be spent on online hotel bookings. That is a mind boggling amount of money $186 Billion+...per year!. And that is only for online hotel bookings!

(Of which there are plenty of affiliate commissions to be made and won!).

It is expected that the market will grow to just over 678 Million users 3/39

Look at how hotel bookings is set to grow. Lovely!

A growing sector is certainly a positive sign of a niche to get involved with.

Do keep in mind that the data that I am presenting to you is only what is directly related to the travel sector. It does not include what is indirectly related. I'm talking accessories, travel gear, cameras, guide books and so on.

The average amount of money spend per person From above we can see that the average amount of money spend per person is set to be around $275 and $887 per package holiday.

The signs and indications are that yes, you can make money travel blogging. However with around 200million travel blogs to stand out from the crowd and all the noise you need to do something that stands out or is completely different from everyone else.

Or just simply "niche down" and get specific and target an exact crowd.

I recommend And Suggest that you bookmark this guide and article (Ctrl +D) so that you can come back to it and start reading where you left off and not miss out on any of the awesome tips and techniques Better still, take a few seconds to sign up for my 7 day 100% Free Ecourse on blogging and you will get absolutely everything you need to succeed delivered via email over the next week!

Finding Your Travel Niche 4/39

Niching down or drilling down and getting more targeted reduces the amount of competition quite considerably and makes it much easier for you to dominate a smaller sector of a huge market place and gain traction, traffic and earnings for your travel blog.

Like any niche that you are entering you do have to have a real passion for what you are doing as this makes your job of creating content much easier.

You will find it easier to flow and find ideas for what to write about.

7 DAY FREE BLOGGING COURSE Discover All That You Need To Build An Awesome Blog!

Sign up now and get started today with My FREE course!

Is there a part of the world that you have a specific love for? a country or region that you are passionate about?

What Kind Of Traveller Are You? A city break kinda gal or guy?

Family traveller?

Disabled?

Retiree?

Beach lover?

Mountain and the great outdoors?

Adventure traveller?

GAP year or some kind of year abroad?

Culture and language exchange?

Off the beaten track?

Weekend travels and getaways!.

Single traveller?

These are all viable sub markets in the travel industry that can be explored.

As can country and region specific.

The travel market is so diverse I have still to mention other ways in which you can niche down on it and be very targeted like a few imaginative, creative and free thinking individuals have!. Maybe you have this in you to approach in this unique kind of angle.

You know like the blonde Abroad, a great travel blog mixing travel and fashion! Or Migrationology that combines foodie Guides and travel. Or the guy that travelled around writing short but excellent and detailed one day guides to each city he visited.

Get My FREE Guide "How To Make Money With A Blog" Here!

Because A Crazy Life Full OF Travel Awaits You!. The question is: WILL YOU GO AND LIVE THAT CRAZY LIFE?!?

5/39

Or the girl that created a travel and teaching site detailing her adventures travelling the globe spending each academic term or year in a new country.

Or Alice who is a dive instructor that created and travel and Scuba diving blog. Detailing the dive resorts and locations that she travelled to and worked in and form.

I have also come across a travel blog that detail all the different beauty treatments and regimes from around the world including Japanese and Korean beauty secrets!.

And I have yet to mention the elephant in the room, travel photography and videography!. The diversity is huge. So, much so I believe there is something for everyone in the travel niche.

There is something for everyone in the travel niche - I even forgot to mention caravaning!

Travel Niche Ideas - A Quick Recap!

Can you make money travel blogging?

Absolutely! but you have to niche down and find your target audience.

General Formula For Success In The Travel Niche.

Travel Industry-->Continent-->Country-->Group of People or Specific Interest

6/39

E.g, Travel Industry-->Asia-->Thailand-->Thai food guide, how to cook and eat Thai food, Gap year in Thailand, Luxury Thai Travel, Budget Thai Travel, Thailand Off The Beaten Track, City and Beach guides, Guide To Camping in Thailand, Honeymooning In Thailand!. Fashion in Thailand, Thai beauty.

Volunteering in Thailand*, backpackers guide, adventure holidays in Thailand...you get the idea.

That is a general format and guide and format that can be followed and not necessarily stuck to rigidly and religiously for country to country and continent to continent. *Something I have done! and..wow! Teaching English to monks in a Temple...best job on the planet!.

WARNING! Taking My FREE 7 Day Blogging Course May Very Well Result In You Winning Back Your Financial Freedom, Causing Tremendous Personal Satisfaction & Living Out The Life Of Your Dreams.

If you do have any questions regarding niching down in the travel niche do feel free to ask away or run you ideas past me in the comments section below!

How To Make Money From A Travel Blog Now that you have niched down and found your own sector in the travel industry and are highly motivated to becoming a travel blogger. Lets look at the options that you have for monetizing your blog.

One of the most common and indeed rewarding methods of making some of the green stuff from blogging is by means of affiliate marketing.

Now, before we dive of and start talking about the straight up programs running across your mind just now like agoda, trivago, expedia and the likes let's discuss your opportunities in the less obvious, the ones that are highly trusted and still bring in a lovely and lucrative income.

7 DAY FREE BLOGGING COURSE Discover All That You Need To Build An Awesome Blog!

Sign up now and get started today with My FREE course!

I'm talking physical products of stuff folks need. Travel accessories, travel gear, luggage, backpacks, cameras, wallets and so on. No point leaving money on the table. There is a good opportunity to cash in on travel accessories if you so wish.

7/39

Just pop on over to Amazon and see what is on offer...

Viola Amazon has plenty products, our research is not finished here - far from it!.

Just like when we do our niche research we can niche down on the products that we review, this is the case for all niche markets and get an exact product or products for our readers rather than being generic.

In actual fact, amazon is pretty good for niche site research and done right, reveals some hidden gems of very targeted niche sites. check out this article on how to find your niche using amazon.

As a general rule of thumb on Amazon, for all niche sites that I run I check the Amazon prime box and products rated 4 starts and up.

The reason is that they tend to convert to sales much better.

Drilling down and clicking backpacks you can uncover another sub category, day pack, hiking, laptop backpacks and so on.

Have a good look if there is something that would or could be suitable for your audience, take note of it, you can bookmark it, wish list it or take a screenshot. What ever is most convenient for you. I actually found a good one that would have been rather excellent choice for my old Travel niche.

(Yes, I used to have a travel niche, I'll give you a clue...It had something to do with Backpackers and Thailand). You now know, The proverbial cat is out of the bag!. The very reason that I know that you can make money as travel blogger is because I have made money from and as a travel blogger!.

With the amount of travel that I have done and experienced in my life it would have been a "digital" crime not to!.

8/39

Those two backpacks would have been ideal for the visitors of my old site, which I have since sold. The reason being is that knowing Thailand very well, I lived there for 5 years!.

I knew there was a lot of trekking and a lot of sun. The opportunity to recharge electronic devices and GPS would be highly appreciated and needed.

I sold the site as I no longer had the time to run it nor the passion. It fun and it was profitable and the sale allowed me to make other investments....and things were becoming awkward living under a military coup!. One that has lasted 5 years thus far!.

There is much more products available on Amazon that could be viable for your crowd and Audience of readers. I have used backpacks just as an example. You niche might be more specific or completely different be it luxury travel or beachwear, beauty of fashion related.

Or even sports! Such is the diversity of the Travel niche!

Get My FREE Guide "How To Make Money With A Blog" Here!

Because you are just dieing to travel the world and you know you make an amazing travel blogger! The question is: Will you Get off your A-S-S and make that awesome blog?!?

Travel Products On eBay If becoming an Amazon Associate (affiliate) is not possible in your country or state, not to worry as there are plenty of products on eBay that you could promote, as per Amazon which ones you chose to recommend entirely on your niche and your blog.

9/39

The price in the image below is in Vietnamese Dong, unfortunately I could not change that to a more recognisable or global currency.

The point is to show that there are products available. For what it is worth, 100,000 VND is around $4.50.

an example of just some travel accessories available on eBay. There are also a whole host of independent and brand specific merchants that have their own affiliate programs that you can work with and promote.

Let now talk a little bit about some of....

The Best Travel Affiliate Programs Getting to the meat and bones of a good travel blog is getting right to the heart of what I love doing and that is affiliate marketing by means of blogging.

And that requires an ample market in which plenty of money is moving around, and that we have established at the beginning of this article.

It also requires affiliate programs. Thankfully there are plenty of them in the travel sector. Here is just a selection of what I consider to be the best.

Warning! - F.O.M.O ALERT! Fear Of Missing Out On Taking My FREE 7 Day Blogging Course May Lead To You A Melancholic State Of Infinite Sadness Due To Missing Out On The Opportunity To Change Your Life For Ever And For The Better, Leaving You With The Eternal State Of Mind Thinking "What If I Actually Built That Darn Blog!"

Trip Advisor

10/39

I am willing to bet that when you began your quest to become a travel blogger that you never thought that you could be working with and making money from Trip Advisor!

This is particularly great as many people (myself included) check out reviews on that very website before making a reservation or booking.

Getting accepted onto their affiliate program is pretty awesome as you can then source content from trip advisor and then link your audience back to the original source by means of your very own affiliate tracking link.

Benefits Include: Over half a million cities and hotels to deep link to.

Tiered commission.

Monthly Payout.

50% commission.

The TripAdvisor affiliate program is now managed by CJ Affiliate.

Agoda Agoda is very much the market leader in hotel bookings in Asia, and one in which you simply can't ignore especially with their growing market of well over 2 million properties worldwide and a very nice tiered commission structure where all it takes is 200 bookings and an average spend of $200 per booking in a single month to earn you $2400 in earnings.

That is very achievable income from agoda alone for a blog with reasonable traffic.

And they will pay direct into your bank account.

7 DAY FREE BLOGGING COURSE Discover All That You Need To Build An Awesome Blog!

Sign up now and get started today with My FREE course!

It is mandatory that you have a website or a blog. I joined way back in 2012 and my blog was just up and running. I suspect that they are a bit stricter nowadays. Do have about 15-20 posts written before you apply just to be on the safe site.

Approval takes about 2-3 business days, and is done manually.

Benefits Include: Tiered commission rates.

Being paid direct by bank transfer.

The ability to use their power ads for increased conversions and income 11/39

The ability to integrate an agoda search box directly on your site.

Growing company that is starting to offer more than hotel bookings.

Join The Program Here!

You could certainly been quids in with the travel niche and some good affiliate programs like Agoda!

Booking.Com

Like the aforementioned agoda, Booking is a leader in the online travel industry, particularly as far as making online reservations for hotels goes they are one of the very best and they have a very popular and well managed affiliate program to boot - one which is open to any and everyone that is a webmaster, blogger or the owner of an app.

They are even open to travel agencies.

Working with Booking allows you to offer over 2 million accommodations to offer and recommend to your readers.

Benefits Include: 12/39

Deep linking, search box and the integration of advertising banners.

Good commissions.

Easy process to sign up and get accepted for.

Payment to your Paypal account Min payout of $100 Note: You need to use this free WordPress plugin to fully and properly integrate their official search box.

Sign up for the Booking affiliate program here Get My FREE Guide "How To Make Money With A Blog" Here!

Because There Is A TON OF MONEY In The Travel Niche. The question is: WILL YOU TAKE IT?!?

Skyscanner Now, this is a company and something that I always look for when I am searching for flights. It is not even a question - it is the best out there!. I know, and I am a seasoned traveller!. I have little doubt that others, the general internet savvy public know it also.

If you travel a bit yourself, I am willing to be that you won't regret it!. So if you don't have their app yourself go try it!.

For travel bloggers skyscanner has a variety of options available including a pretty eye catching search box that throws up some pretty attractive cheap flights. It has to be said that it is a viable and good way of monetising your sites traffic but the money gained is very low.

In Skyscanner's favour is their popularity and potential sheer volume of sales that they could generate and a diversified income for your site which is always a good thing. Plus you get paid on everything, flights, hotel bookings and car hire.

#FACT I Absolutely LOVE Helping People, I Reply To All Emails, By Taking My FREE 7 Day Blogging Course You Get My Personal Attention And Coaching. All Your Questions Will Be Answered As Quickly As I Can. I Really Do Want You To Succeed And Win Back Your Freedom And To Live The Life You Have Always Dreamed Of. It Is Time Now To Take Action And Stop Procrastinating!.

If you are an adept programmer or can afford to hire one you can integrate their API onto your site. They also offer white label opportunity, which is something interesting once you are properly established with your own following.

Benefits Include: 13/39

Having a recognised brand's API on your site!

White labelled solutions for more ambitious and busier travel blogs Potential of hotel, flight and car rental bookings.

The potential for flight booking done via a simple widget on your site.

You can join Skyscanner's affiliate program right here!.

An example of an eye catching widget that you could have on your site

Expedia

Yep, you can even affiliate your site with THE leader in the travel industry expedia and potentially say "helloooo" to some lovely commissions!.

Expedia offers you the possibility of up to 11% commissions with an average commission of around $40 per transaction. Offering a top class inventory of flights, hotel bookings, car rentals, cruises, vacation rentals, excursions and just about everything travel related all under one roof!

That is plenty opportunity for generating revenue for your blog.

Benefits Include:​​ Outstanding travel inventory!

A Powerful Brand to be working with!. A great and established brand equates to a high level of trust which in turn helps conversion rates.

Great support system to ensure your success.

14/39

Private labelling is a possibility for bigger sites.

Get more info about Expedia Affiliate program here!. (Note currently managed by CJ Affiliate).

Get My FREE 7 Day Blogging Course! Discover All You Need To Know To Build That Income Producing Blog That You Have Been Dreaming Of! Enter your name and email below and you'll get instant access to my course and you'll be well on your way to building a sustainable business online - The right way!.

We Respect Your Privacy And Will NEVER Spam you!.

Hotels Combined Another well known player in the travel hotel booking market. They have 1.4 Million hotels on their network. One of the strong points is you can fully integrate their platforms search function onto your site easily.

In fact, hotels combined is much more than a hotel bookings engine, it searches all the hotel booking platforms like some of those mentioned in this article to find the very best deals for the locations and dates selected.

You can easily white label with them and your readership will know no different! - This is exactly what travel supermarket and Best hotel offers do!.

They are not an affiliate program but pay on a "per click generated basis".

This means that each and every single person who clicks on your link will generate you an income, most of which will fall in between half a dollar to $2 per click depending of a number of factors involved.

Benefits Include: A generous $2 per click if you optimise well.

365 day cookie duration!.

White label branding Funky awesome ads that entice clicks!

Established and trusted brand.

You can sign up for their affiliate program here.

STA Travel Leaders and an established brand in the student and teacher travel sector.

Maybe ideal if you are operating a blog catering to this audience, typically aged 18 to 35 years old. Commissions can be gained for Hostels, Hotels, Adventure tours and student ID cards and flights too!.

15/39

They have frequent offers and special deals and monthly promotions with special codes that can help aid your conversion rates.

To top it off they offer the potential of co-branded landing pages.

Benefits Include: Working with a market leader in a specific travel niche.

Tiered commissions for top performing affiliates.

Co-branded landing pages and vanity promotions.

Conversion enhancing monthly promotions.

Converts well with a target market.

STA Travel affiliate program is run by CJ affiliate Check out their affiliate information page here!

16/39

Make money from student and gap year travellers with STA Travel affiliate program

Cruise Direct

An obvious choice to be working with as an affiliate if you have a specialist and niched down and targeted market. If you are going to offer cruises or be in the cruise travel niche in some way it could be a good idea to work with cruise direct.

They offer working with a known and credible brand, 3% commission and a 45 day cookie duration. That is a reasonable cookie duration, in fact I'd say it is pretty good!. A 3% commission might seem on the small side but when you take into consideration the cost of an average 10 or 15 day cruise you and your travel blog are indeed "in the money!".

Benefits Include: Permission to use promotional tools $25 min payout Payment to your Paypal account - always a good thing!

Dedicated affiliate manager to help you when ever you need a helping hand!.

Access to special deals to promote to your audience to aid conversions!.

Growing and established company to be working with.

Get more info about the cruise direct affiliate program is right here.

Get My FREE 7 Day Blogging Course! Discover All You Need To Know To Build That Income Producing Blog That You Have Been Dreaming Of! 17/39

Enter your name and email below and you'll get instant access to my course and you'll be well on your way to building a sustainable business online - The right way!.

We Respect Your Privacy And Will NEVER Spam you!.

Hostelworld Running or thinking about a budget related travel site? The hip and trendy budget backpackers love hostelworld!.

If you think that they deal with only hostels you'd be quite far from the reality. Hostelworld deals with and takes bookings for guest houses, Bed and breakfast places, campsites, apartments and budget hotels.

They also have the ability to take bookings in 26 different languages!.

Benefits Include: Payment upon booked revenue.

Great potential to receive bookings on large group bookings!.

Variety of accommodation types on their database increasing revenue potential.

Easy integration on site.

Known and trusted brand to be working with.

Full details of the Hostelworld Affiliate Program can be found here Get My FREE Guide "How To Make Money With A Blog" Here!

Because You Want To Live A Life Of Endless Travel. The question is: WILL YOU TAKE ACTION?!?

Lonely Planet Famed for their travel guides and are by far the world leaders in the sales of travel books and guides. The are also a big business, a big, big, big business and somewhat of a magnet for the young student backpacker type.

They, in the digital age now offer the ability for you to book flights as well as accommodation and they pay out some very nice commissions too! 12% and 15% respectively for travel guides and digital books respectively.

They offer a fairly standard 30 day cookie and the possibility of being paid into your paypal account.

Benefits Include: Established brand.

Working with a company that is targeted for your audience, particularly when and if you are targeting the budget, student or 18/39

backpacker traveller type.

30 day cookie, payment straight to your Paypal account.

Information about the lonely planet affiliate program you can get by clicking the highlighted text.

AirB&B AirB&B has both an affiliate program and a referral program. The affiliate program is one that is very difficult to get accepted on to as they work only with established brands and travel related sites that get over one million visitors per month.

The referral program is one in which may be of interest to you as a travel blogger. You can earn as much as $90 per person that your refer to AirB&B and a maximum of $5000 per account. You get $73 when they (your referral) host a guest and $17 when they travel.

Every person that you refer get $34 worth of credits making their referral program a very easy one to promote.

Not quite "money" as such that you will be earning but a nice credit towards bookings on AirB&B. Nice way to get free travel or to prolong your trip abroad.

The $5000 limit per account - you can always try making a new one, or switch your link to that of your partners once you max out!.

Benefits Include: Established brand and name in the travel sector to be working with Easy to promote referral link.

Earn good travel credits that can be used on their site.

Get more information about the AirB&B Referral program here.

19/39

AirB&B has a referral program that is well worth considering

Lastminute.com

Another global leader that you have most certainly heard of. They offer a whole host of services from hotel reservations to flights to cruises and package offers and all at pretty bargain prices to boot! - something that always catches the eye and attention of consumers, particularly those seeking a good deal!.

They also have one of the better if not best conversion rates and earning potential in the travel sector. Commissions are $2 for every flight booked.

For hotels its a nice 4% and car rentals are 3% and 2% for all cruises.

Activities and excursions are an easy $5 earned!.

Benefits Include: Wide range of travel products to offer.

Working with an awesome brand!

20/39

Good commission.

Great conversion rates.

Access to updated deals, buttons and a range of marketing materials.

Full details of their affiliate program can be found here.

Are You SERIOUS About Making Money Online?

Grab My 100% FREE Guide For Beginners And Learn How To Build A Sustainable Business On The Internet By Doing It The Right Way!

Travel Affiliate Programs - A Quick Recap As you can see there is a whole host of well known travel companies and global brands from which you could associate your blog with and monetise 21/39

your sites traffic with.

Once you start getting traffic and have a reasonable amount of content on your site you can apply to join any of these programs.

Select the one or ones that are more suitable for your site and your audience and don't just go for the one that offers the highest commission or longest cookie duration or because it offers you an ego massaging boost and kudos to be working with a well know name.

Make a proper business decision for your travel blog and select what is most suited for your readership and what will convert better.

For example, a budget travellers blog about the fabulous South East Asia catering to gap year and students in the 18-25 age range STA travel and Lonely Planet are likely to convert better than say expedia and lastminute.com.

One of the better manners of dealing with booking engines and getting conversions is to not only have the actual booking engine on your travel blog's sidebar. Create content like detailed blog posts about the particular accommodation available in certain locations and talk about your own experiences in those places.

You will tend to convert better, get more clicks and more traffic to your travel blog, very targeted traffic from search engines this way. And it is pretty easy article to create!.

My advice would be to include original photos, of you in the room, and exploring the resort, city or town. While you are there, you can easily make an appointment or just pop in to a few other types of accommodation available to "check them out, check out the room"...and grab some photos!.

Don't forget to offer the possibility of accessories and travel gear, and travel insurance also. This itself can be a nice money earner.

There are other monetisation methods to talk about....

Get My FREE Guide "How To Make Money With A Blog" Here!

Because You Deserve To Travel The Globe Endlessly. The question is: WILL YOU DO SOMETHING To Live The Life That You Deserve?!?

22/39

Can You Make Money Travel Blogging? - Don't you doubt it for a second!.

Creating Your Own Travel Products Besides affiliate marketing, there is a vast opportunity to create your own digital travel products. The obvious choice here is your own series of guide books.

Despite the fact that there are those big clumpy books that are available most folks are just not going to want to travel with them for reasons of convenience, size and weight reasons. Sure there are digital versions available in ebook and kindle version.

To get seen and get your ebook or mini guide in front of the eyes of your readers and potential buyers is to seek a unique angle. Be more detailed and more visual.

You could create mini one day guides or two day guides. NYC in one day..Madrid in 2 days...or weekend guides to..whatever city, town or resort.

What to do in Barcelona, for example...Foodies guide to Thai Street food, for example...

Creating mini guides like this is actually pretty easy. You are only limited by your own imagination, creativity and what is feasibly marketable and what people would buy.

I have seen all sorts of excellent digital travel guides from a specific foodies guide to a certain cuisine in a specific city, guides to street food in say Mumbai.

23/39

A short while ago I even seen a guide detailing the best gyms in Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia!. Particularly aimed at long term travellers and gym enthusiast and not missing out on their all important gym time!.

Some popular off the cuff ones are how to retire in...and I did read a short while back a well written guide to relationships (both romantic and nonromantic) with locals for both men and women readers highlighting cultural differences, ways of thinking, mannerisms meaning of certain gestures.

It was very useful, even when I was seeking and gaining employment in another culture.

Of course you don't need to limit yourself to just creating downloadable books and guides. You can create video guides and courses.

This is particularly great if you have a specialist skill and something that you can teach.

Nomadic Matt, one of the very best travel bloggers out there does exactly that. He has a number of digital courses teaching travel photography, videography and How To Make A Travel blog.

It does n't end there, you can teach about the local food, culture, customs, religion, lifestyle, and the language.

I am willing to bet that there are plenty of people willing to invest in a Thai or Tibetan meditation course. Or a course in Tai Chi or Qi Gong, detailed lessons in Buddhism, its philosophy and practices.

Other monetisation strategies include the acceptance of sponsored posts on your blog. These sponsored posts can be by either other travel bloggers or travel agencies, or product owners.

Do make sure that it is travel related and fully congruent with your site.

24/39

Are You SERIOUS About Making Money Online?

Grab My 100% FREE Guide For Beginners And Learn How To Build A Sustainable Business On The Internet By Doing It The Right Way! My advice is that you fully check and sponsored posts received for original content, no excessive outbound links, poor English, any inaccuracies or anything that could harm your site in terms of your SEO efforts.

Despite the payment, once it goes live you ultimately own and are responsible for that piece of content.

Payment in the region of $90 to $150 is not unheard of and more for well established high DA sites. Imagine that - a clean $300 a month plus free content for accepting sponsored posts. Nice!.

25/39

The Elephant In The Room!

Something I have skirted around! There lies the possibility, once your are a bit more established of monetising your traffic by teaching people how to be a travel blogger by recommending existing travel blogging courses in exchange for a commission.

Once you have your own kick ass blog and really know the skill set and what it takes to be a travel blogger and build a successful blog in the travel niche you can start to create and sell your own travel blogging course.

It only take 1 customer per day to buy your downloadable $100 course for you to earn a very nice $3000 per month and to help you to travel perpetually and comfortably. Even if, and when, you are not interested in making your own travel blog you can recommend website hosting. (now you know why you keep seeing ads for web site hosting on travel blogs - it is not random! It $50 per sign up! Last time I checked selling one hosting per day keeps your travelling and living well in most countries in Asia...and I'd know I've lived in 3 countries in Asia!).

Now you see the power of affiliate marketing and Travel blogging. It is an easy income. But I do warn, the affiliate side of things like any investment takes time and consistency to fully mature and bare fruit.

Affiliate marketing is not a passive income, because you have to initially do the work. But once it is done it pays out over and over.... and over again!.

26/39

Advertising Revenue When it comes to making money from your travel blog advertising revenue is a very semi passive income that can be gained and is a difficult one to be ignored completely.

Most bloggers would call ad programs like google adsense and and Media vine to be a source of "passive income", but I tend to call it "semi passive" as like anything some initial work has to be done in order for you to get the traffic which convert into clicks on the adverts which earns you an income.

And then you have maintain your site with regular fresh content in order to maintain rankings and keep that traffic growing!.

The most popular sources of advertising revenue are those that I just mentioned with media vine being the better quality and better earning one.

Typically you can expect to earn $20 to $30 per 1000 sessions, which is a great additional income for your site given that Media vine requires a minimum of 25,000 monthly sessions meaning you could be looking at an EXTRA $500 to $750 bucks on top of your affiliate earnings and other site income.

Get My FREE Guide "How To Make Money With A Blog" Here!

Because Livin' La Vida Loca Is Your Style!. The question is: What Will You Do To Live That Life?!?

27/39

Worthy of reminding at this juncture is of Hotels Combined and their potential of you earning up to $2 per click on their ads. See their program details above in the Travel Affiliate programs section.

Personally, I fully believe in having a diversified source of income for all blogs. Affiliate sales and ads are that I very much always use.

Naturally speaking, once you have a popular blog with traffic you can sell your own advertising space on your site (and in your email newsletter!) instead of or in combination with Media Vine and Google Adsense.

Yes, You too could make money from ads on your blog!

Getting Inspired!

Inspiration provides motivation! Getting inspired helps to get those ideas and creative juices flowing and maybe just you will have your own "Ideagasm" and a streak of genius for your own travel blog.

What is important is that you do not copy the blogs that I show you for inspiration. You have your very own personality and that is what will draw in your own crowd. Try to be something else, or someone else, something that you are not and it will show.

And there is nothing wrong with checking out a similar site to get some ideas and inspiration from just as long as you don't copy!. Emulation is fine.

Being a copy cat is not!

(Besides, Google will know it..and kick you A-s-s down the search engine rankings!).

Nomadic Matt 28/39

Matt, a New York Times best selling author and travel blogger extraordinaire has very much one of the absolute best and top notch travel blogs and websites out there on the internet. It is probably the most popular too, with over 1 million monthly visitors!.

Seriously! do a 10th or even a 20th of that and you will have good blog that is earning a regular and sustainable income and perpetuating your travels.

Incidentally, he started out his career as a blogger after meeting 5 friends in the Northern Thai city of Chiang Mai - A place I love and lived in for about 5 years!.

Check out Nomadic Matt for inspiration here.

Adventurous Kate This is one of the top travel blogs and is an outstanding example of how to make a travel blog! She lives it!, she loves it and she blogs about it!

And she doesn't half get her fair share of traffic having worked very hard over a number of years to build up an excellent travel site. Her monetisation method is varied using affiliate marketing, display ads, sponsored posts and promotional postings.

This is site is absolutely, in my opinion, the very best single female travel blogs. She is a great writer and no doubt you will find her blog inspiring.

You can find more info about Adventurous Kate here

Amateur Traveller This site is very new on my travel blog radar and is really flashing brightly with all the right signs of what draws readers in and what makes a very successful travel blog.

Although author and owner Chris Christensen doesn't particularly "niche down" and target a particular traveller type, location he does draw in his readership with his omnipresence.

Not only does he produce top quality visual content he produces and runs and award winning podcast.

He also includes Video in the mix or written and audio content. The aim and goal of Chris and his site is to help travellers to make an informed decision for their forth coming travel adventures.

Keep this site bookmarked as they do accept guest posts. Something that, once you are established can increase awareness of your site and aid your traffic and rankings.

Monetisation of this site is by means of media vine ads and affiliate marketing.

29/39

Have a good look at his site right here!

Goats On The Road This is definitely one travel blog that I have heard of and remember due to its rather catchy and memorable name! - Exemplifying the importance of branding and creating your own brand.

I do remember this travel blog from way back in the day and when I was running my own one.

I think at the time owners Nick and Dariece had been running their site for less than a year and were going strong and travelling through Thailand, Chiang Mai and the rest of the South East of Asia Gotta say it was a pretty basic site back then, but now, pretty much a decade on they have a kick ass site! a real whoop-ass stunning and highly informative blog that really just shows what you can achieve if - and when you stick at it and pursue your dream!.

Check Out Goats On The Road Here

Migrationology With out a single doubt in my mind this blog is one of the very best, if not the very best and an absolute outstanding example of exactly how to mix foodie blogging and travel blogging!.

A winning combination of two distinct very popular types of blogs. A great idea as food is always something that connects people and cultures. When ever you travel somewhere, one of the very first things that is looked at and for is the local delicacy and when you meet up with locals they are always proud to share their pride for their cuisine with you.

Blog owner Mark Weins excellently monetises his site with an extensive range of detailed foodie guides, advertising and T shirts.

I do wonder if at some point he will offer cooking courses and how to make the local food. Or perhaps as a foodie and travel lover that is something that you can do.

30/39

You check out Migrationology Here

The Blonde Abroad This travel blog, very much like Migrationology combines two pretty awesome niches in their own right to make one heck of a stonking and great approach to both of them in their own unique way..And that the lovely loaded double shot of Travel and Fashion.

Kiersten Rich, from California does it fantastically well..is she a travel blogger..well yeah! she has travelled to over 70 countries..is she a fashion blogger?...You better believe it! Her site advises women on what to wear, when and where!.

Her site is very much focused on the high end of comfort travel.

This site, alongside the aforementioned Migrationology is an excellent example of how two almost unrelated niches can be combined to make a unique and awesome blog in the travel sector.

The Blonde Abroad Blog can be seen right here

Expert Vagabond Pro blogger and Expert Vagabond owner Matthew Karsten, (not to be mistaken with Nomadic Matt). Runs this rather excellent and outstanding travel site where he shares is own experience and advice on solo travelling.

His site has a whole host for making the most out of your travels and saving some bucks on the way. Outstanding Solo Male travel site.

Monetisation is by means of media vine ads and affiliate marketing.

Expert Vagabond Matt and his awesome blog!

Can You Make Money Travel Blogging FAQ Frequently Asked Questions

31/39

It is now time to answer some of the pertaining questions that you may have in your mind in regards to Travel blogging. If you have any questions that you do not see here - do not hesitate to ask in the comments section below.

Can You Make Money Travel Blogging?

Yes, absolutely so!. I do believe that I have answered and proven that to be the case throughout this article.

There is plenty of, in fact a crazy amount of money flowing around in the online travel industry worldwide and a very large amount of which is being spent online booking hotels, cruises, flights and excursions.

There are also a handful of top quality reliable well known brands such as booking.com, agoda, expedia and trip advisor that have well paying affiliate programs from which you can monetise a travel blog from.

Not to mention other avenues such as advertising and the creation of your own travel guides.

Also, as proof of point there are plenty of travel blogs that doing exactly that - making money!. And with a growing industry there is plenty room for more! - especially specialised ones catering to a specific travel type or person or location.

Can I Make a Travel Blog with WordPress?

Yes!. WordPress is the most popular, and in my opinion the very best blogging platform. It is the market leader for a reason!.

Make sure that you chose wordpress.org than wordpress.com the main reason is cutsomisation the the ability to use plugins - and having your own brandable and more respectable domain name. YourTravelSite.com is much more marketable, respected and taken more serious than YourTravelsite.Wordpress.com.

You can also make a travel blog with Squarespace or Wix, but WordPress is by far much better!.

Is Travel Blogging Worth It? If you are the travel type and love travelling then hell yeah!. Travel blogging can be one of the most fun and profitable blogs that you can make.

If you are living the travel life, then stay a few extra days and detail your experiences and when you are out and about having fun pop in to a few hotels take pics of you in the room and start writing and giving reviews and "talk" about where you have been. what you have done. You are really never at a loss as for content and what to write about!.

32/39

Heck! Adventurous Kate, one of the top single female travel bloggers even wrote about getting ship wrecked in Indonesia!. Reliving what must have been quite a traumatic experience and sharing it with her audience must not have been easy!.

Is Travel Blogging Profitable?

Absolutely! if you do it right and see out your project to can be earning enough to cover your travel and living costs and have a few bucks left over to, well, really striking it rich with a six figure yearly (or monthly!) travel blog! and there are plenty of six figure travel bloggers!.

Is Travel Blogging Dead?

Nope! And it never will be, with a growing and ever evolving industry and constantly changing trends it never really will die.

Business's like booking agents and travel agents in the digital world will always need their digital sales team, the best type and most trusted and that is bloggers. People will always want to know and read about experiences in a certain place or their thoughts about a particular accommodation.

It is often forgotten that bloggers are the orginal influencers in the digital age, we have been doing this since long before facebook, instagram and even myspace and friendster came into existance.

How Much Does Travel Blogging Cost?

Financially it costs you very little to get started. All it takes is $15 or so for a domain name plus a few bucks per month for hosting your site on shared hosting, currently around $5 (if even that much!).

Optional, premium theme and a logo but once you get established those are very much a must have!.

Training and learning how to make a blog is important to getting it right.

Personally, I advise on learning how to do for general blogging and not a specialist travel blog simply because the skill set is the same and later if the blogging bug catches you, you can make a blog in a different industry.

The process and the skill set of making another blog Vs a Travel blog is exactly the same. For particular training I recommend this one. You can always sign up to my Email list and get access to my free week long training that will get you into the groove and set you up for online success.

I also have my own free training to help you out. More info here or just pop your email address in the subscription box at the end of this article.

Get My FREE Guide "How To Make Money With A Blog" Here!

33/39

Because Travelling Is In Your Blood. The question is: Your Passport Ready?!?

Travel Blogging Vs Travel Vlogging This question is not really a Travel Blogging Vs Travel Vlogging kinda question but more of a direct Blogging Vs Vlogging questions.

With a Video Blog, or Vlog, as long as you are only using YouTube you are putting your self at risk long term. Any changes in a policy and your are fully exposed to losing your business. Running your business only on YouTube (or example, I know there are other platforms!) puts your at a risk as you are essentially running your business on rented land.

Much better, is uploading your own videos to your own site. And given that a personal website that contains only video is, and no matter the quality is kinda bland at best. Thus a mix of both written, images and video is much better.

And you have to own that content, this your own site is better. Yes, Travel Blog is better than a YouTube Vlog Channel, but do incorporate video into your travel site.

(And, yes, I have lost entire channels with hundreds of thousands of viewers overnight for policy violations, ones that I did not violate! only to see that similar channels and videos are still there years later! trust me you have zero chance of an appeal with YouTube!.)

Own your content!. Run it from YOUR site and use a Vlog on YouTube for purposes of branding, humanising your brand and for traffic.

Travel Blog Vs Instagram Like wise any social media platform be it facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest or what ever! you are at the realm of NOT owning your content if you are running your business from Instagram.

Own it!.

Lets say you have an awesome travel thing going on on Instagram with a zillion followers and making some nice money to fund your travel lifestyle.

What happens tomorrow, next week, next month or next year even if Instagram (or any other social media platform) puts out a change of policy and blocks your access to it or pulls down your page?

34/39

Are You SERIOUS About Making Money Online?

Grab My 100% FREE Guide For Beginners And Learn How To Build A Sustainable Business On The Internet By Doing It The Right Way! Running your travel blog from your own domain, something that you OWN and nobody can take away from you gives you security from that. And you can still use the social media sites to draw traffic and awareness to your blog.

Social media is something to use in conjunction with your site as a source of traffic.

How Does Travel Blogging Work?

35/39

Travel blogging principally works by means of being in the information business. Provide high quality information that is beautifully presented and people will flock to your site.

As you gain traffic an a following you can earn money by means of affiliate marketing, the creation of your own products and selling of advertising space.

Can You Start A Travel Blog Without Travelling?

Yes!. Gotta start somewhere right?. Everybody is some somewhere are who knows your locality or nearest big city of town better than you, right?.

There are also other near by towns and cities to explore and blog about also.

It may not seem the most exciting place to start from - unless you are from an exotic and amazing place!

Perhaps also you have fond memories of by gone trips from months or years past, or friends that have gone somewhere, ask them about it, take note of details and get blogging!.

Once some extra money is coming in form your blog you can start small with weekend or a week long break away and build up from that as a pretty solid and humble starting point!.

Where To Start A Travel Blog?

You can in reality start a travel from absolutely anywhere in the world! Be it your own home, a hostel, a hotel or a coffee shop!. The best place to start is where you are right now!.

Where To Write A Travel Blog?

You can write your posts about a particular location or experience from absolutely anywhere in the world. Some like to head to a local Starbucks or coffee shop, others in hotel room and some from a common room of a hostel, that is entirely up to you.

Personally, I create all my blog posts from my room as I kinda like to be distraction free. That is my own choice and how I work best. I have blogged and worked from a number of different countries and you can catch me between flights checking my stats on google analytics or webmaster tools somewhere.

When To Start A Travel Blog?

Seriously, now!. Strike while the iron is hot is what I say. You are highly inspired, motivated and raring to go!.

So why wait?

36/39

Go with the flow, while your juices are flowing and plenty of ideas are buzzing around your head and in your mind!.

How To Start A Travel Blog Starting a travel blog is pretty easy. I have outlined and done a lot of the core work for you already in this article by doing the full on niche research, finding viable affiliate programs for you and other ways and manners from which to earn some money from a travel blog.

I have also shown you some of the very best travel blogs for means of inspiration and get some ideal flowing and perhaps something to aspire to and get that inspiration from.

Take Action!

You do have "get some skills" to really learn the "how to" part and turn your dream of being a travel blogger into reality.

Those skills include keyword and competitor research, getting content ideas for what to write about. Creating quality content and fully optimising your site for search engine traffic - the very best source of highly targeted traffic. And owning your traffic! - the very most important singular thing for your new business.

Other skills to learn include the very important aspect of branding your site and optimising your site for conversions - ya know..turning your idea of an awesome travel blog into a proper money making business!

https://youtu.be/XUQSRDeHup0 37/39

All of which is detailed in my free ebook and week long email series. Just enter your email in the form below and get it delivered straight to your inbox!. Do remember to white label us!.

Are You SERIOUS About Making Money Online?

Grab My 100% FREE Guide For Beginners And Learn How To Build A Sustainable Business On The Internet By Doing It The Right Way! I do hope that you have enjoyed this comprehensive Niche Site Research and now fully know the answer to "Can You Make Money Travel Blogging?.

If you have and have any questions, leave a comment in the comment box below, and I will be sure to reply back as rapidly and promptly as I can.

To your success and your blogging best!

38/39

Derek.

39/39