This article is based on a talk I’m giving to a group of London Bloggers this week on the ever popular topic of how Travel Bloggers make money from their blogs. I’m giving an overview of some of the main ways that travel bloggers make money and some examples and links that you can explore more thoroughly at your leisure.
Content comes first
I asked a few experienced bloggers what advice they could give to someone starting out and their answer was not to focus on money but on content. Valuable, relevant and entertaining content is the foundation of your blog on which you can later build your money making ventures and great content will ensure a steady flow of readers and search engine traffic that advertisers will also value.
In my picture above, I’m trying to illustrate that all this content, whether it is in the form of articles, photos, videos or podcast forms a solid foundation and that your efforts are enhanced and magnified by social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Google + and Stumble, where you can share conversations with your audience. Once you have a solid foundation, you can build your money making house and use different methods to make money from your blog. A blog that does not have a solid basis of great content is unlikely to stand the test of time as your readership will lose interest and drift away.
Where should I begin with monetisation?
You may hear about different approaches that other bloggers are using to make money but it can be confusing as some money making approaches are more appropriate depending on how well establighed your blog is. You might think of it like a river which starts with many tiny streams that build into tributaries and in the end make up one mighty river. In the same way, when you’re starting out you need to establish some streams of income that will build up over time and later add other streams until your income becomes a river.
I’ve grouped the different approaches into those that are suitable for beginners who are just starting, perhaps in their first year, the intermediate difficulty methods that depend on more traffic and you can try perhaps after 2-3 years of blogging and the more advanced approaches that depend on a well established blog and readership that are usually employed by those who have been blogging a few years. That’s not to say that with hard work and concentrated effort you can’t compress these timescales, but being realistic, it does take time to build traffic and reputation.
Adopt the Money-making mind set
If you decide that you want to make money from your blog, one thing you will need to succeed in the long term is what I’ve described here as a money-making mindset. When you start out, it’s usually because of your passion for travel and because you want to share your experiences with others. But what you write will be determined initially by your own experiences, the things you did, the people you met, the funny things that happened to you. It’s all about ME. There’s nothing wrong with this and you will attract and entertain like-minded readers who enjoy and identify with what you have to say, but it probably won’t make you much money.
If you want to make money from your blog you need to shift your mind-set from a focus on ME to a focus on your readers. You will make most money if you can identify needs that your readers have, questions they are looking for answers for, problems for which you can offer a solution. This is why travel blogs that are successful in making money have developed pages with travel resources, parts of their site where you can book your hostel or buy your travel insurance and maybe sell you an e-book that will give you travel advice that will address any concerns or fears you have. They are making money through providing solutions to their readers’ problems.
Money making methods for beginner bloggers
Contextual Ads
These are small text adverts that are automatically generated on your blog, in positions that you set up in advance and the most commonly used is Google Adsense. Although contextual ads are a favourite way for bloggers just starting out to try and make some money, I personally wouldn’t advocate using them until your site has built up some traffic and then that you implement them as part of a range on different kinds of advertising.
Adsense used on Travel with Pets website
The downside of Google adsense is that you will get paid tiny amounts while your traffic is growing, as the payment is based on a pay per click model and although amounts vary, I am getting between £0.04 and £0.08 per 1000 impressions which is tiny, tiny money. Another downside is that your site will instantly look more cluttered and commercial which is not the best message to send your readers while you are trying to build up some authority.
Having said that, I know of travel bloggers who are making $400-600 per month from adsense as part of a range of different advertising methods. That’s enough to make me think I might look at it this method again. The key tips I’ve gleaned are;
- Contextual ads work best on sites where there is a large proportion of search engine traffic and not so well on sites that rely more on social media or direct traffic
- Contextual ads work best inside the post rather than in the sidebar – this is because the advert can be more relevant to the content being read as it will pick up on more specific keywords.
- The best placement is higher up rather than lower and to the left rather than the right.
- You need to experiment with the appearance that works best for your blog – it may be better to have colours and text that blend in with the rest of the site or to make them stand out more.
- Testing with different size, placement, colour etc seems to be the key to success
Writing for other websites
This is something I personally did in the early days of my blog, writing posts for sites such as Europe a la Carte, Uptake Lodging Blog and Sunshine blog, but the maximum I was paid was £30 per article. If you are demonstrating your writing abilities on your blog, then it shouldn’t be too difficult to persuade online sites that you can produce some excellent content for them.
Often they are also looking for you to promote the articles through your own online networks, so it pays to be building up your presence on Twitter and Facebook at the same time. This kind of relationship can also be valuable in building links to your site (if you are allowed to include them in your article or bio) and in establishing a reputation as a writer when you are just starting out, even though the revenue isn’t huge.
If writing is your passion then you may move on to more financially viable paid writing assignment which over time could amount to a full time income. For instance, Andy Jarosz is a professional travel writer who produces articles for a number of articles – he has his own non-commercial travel blog at 501 places but also writes online article for a number of client blogs such as Tourdust, Iberostar, Sunvil and Discount London – you can find links from his blog.
If you want to make travel writing your main focus for making money, then you’ll also find lots of useful travel writing resources at Matador U resource page and at the Matador Notebook blog - They run a $350 online travel writing programme but there are plenty of useful articles you can read for free.
Affiliate products
Affiliate products are normally digital products or service where you can make a commission for any sales generated from a link on your site. There are normally no barriers to signing up for an affiliate programme and you will be able to generate customised links that send your readers to the product website or pages and make money on any sales that result.
The cookie that tracks these visits and sales normally remains in place for 30 days, meaning that you will receive commission on any sale within this time frame, even if they are on different products than the reader originally looked at. Typical affiliate programmes used by travel bloggers are;
- Amazon – normally paying 5% commission but it could be on any Amazon products
- Travel sites for holidays, hotels or insurance, normally paying up to 5% commission – I use Hostelbooker.com and Hotels Combined.com
- E-books by other authors such as the ones below that I have sold;
-How to create a successful WordPress site by Matt Preston
- The Ultimate tech guide for travelers by Anil Polat
- The Art of Solo Travel by Stephanie Lee
- Other products from sites such as Affiliate Window, Trade Doubler and Commission Junction that have a huge range digital products.
Travel Bloggers I spoke to reported mixed results and although I have put some affiliate links on my site I can’t personally report a huge amount of revenue from this source. The main tips are;
- Alistair MacKenzie of Travel Lists suggests promoting a wide range of different affiliate products that are relevant to what you are writing about – he has around 600 different affiliate products on his site and although each one makes a small amount, it all adds up. (see my podcast about How top travel bloggers monetise their blogs)
- Karen Bryan at Europe a la Carte found that it does not work to add an affiliate banner in the sidebar, but you need to add it as a contextual link in the actual article.
- It’s important to promote affiliate products that you have used yourself or are confident to recommend to your readers
- For digital products it works well to write a review of the product, giving your honest and balanced view of its merits and ensure that your article adds value to the reader, adding additional insights and information of your own.
- Craig Martin at Make money travel blogging suggested in this article that you use redirections for your affiliate links to give you the flexibility to change them in the future and also to make them easier to communicate, for instance if you mention them in a podcast.
- Craig’s also recommended to me the Link Daemon WordPress Plugin (costs $20) which enables you to automatically set up affiliate links throughout your site of specific keywords such as hotels, hostels etc.
Money Making methods for Intermediate Bloggers
Advertising
This is usually the biggest source of revenue for travel bloggers, especially once your website becomes more established.
I’ve written a couple of fairly comprehensive articles about advertising for travel bloggers below, so do take a look at these;
What should I charge for advertising on my blog?
How to set up an advertising page for your blog
The typical kinds of advertising that you may be approached about are;
- Banner advertising – the advertiser provides you with an image in the appropriate size which you set up to link to their website. These will normally appear in the sidebar although you also have the option to place these in the header, at the bottom of all posts, or within individual posts.
- Widgets in the sidebar – these often have a background image but will contain links and the advertiser will normally send you the code which is hosted on their own website.
- Text links – You may be approached to place text links in the sidebar on your home page or within existing posts.
There are a few things that will attract an advertiser to your site;
- Traffic – the traffic as measured by unique visitors and page views is a big factor in how much an advertiser will pay as it will be the biggest indicator of how many clicks they will get through to their site.
- Page Rank – this is the main factor for advertisers looking to place text links as they are less interested in the click through value of the ad than the SEO value that a link from a high Page Rank site will give them in improving their standing in the search engines. The Google Page Rank is the most often used public indicator but there are also many unpublished page rank variables that search engines use to determine page rank value.
- The niche that your site appeals to, if it is closely aligned with the advertiser’s target customers.
If you don’t yet have any advertisers, I’d suggest that you work hard on your content and value to your readers and try to build up some links to your site, perhaps by offering guest posts to other more established bloggers. This will provide the best foundation for your site being perceived as a place worth advertising. Most of the travel bloggers I spoke to found that advertisers came to them, once they had established a certain reputation, page rank and traffic.
However, you can also be prepared for advertisers by having an advertiser’s information page and perhaps adding a few affiliate banners in the sidebar to make it more obvious that you are open for advertising. One tip from Shannon Lane of Traveling Mamas was that when she started she gave away a few free ads in her sidebar for companies she had a relationship with, and within 3 months she was being approached by other advertisers.
You should be aware that Google’s advice if you sell links or advertising banners for advertising is that you should use a ‘no follow’ tag, so that the link will not be used for link benefit although the click through will be the same. There is a risk that if you do not follow this advice, your site may be penalised by Google in some way, but on the other hand you may not find anyone wanting to buy links with a no follow tag, so you will need to personally decide whether this is a risk you want to take.
If you go down the road of selling text links then you should;
- Only sell links that are relevant to your blog’s niche e.g. only travel related links on a travel blog
- Make sure your links appear in a natural way and over a period of time, not all at once
- Moderate the amount of links that you add – I’ve seen a suggestion to stick to maximum 4 links per article and no more than 100 external links on a home page including the sidebar.
- It goes without saying that selling links to suspect sites that promote gambling or porn or are generally spanmmy will quickly get your own site downgraded in the search engines.
Sponsored posts
Sponsored posts are articles that you are paid to publish on your blog. It could be an article provided by the sponsor or one that you have written yourself on a pre-agreed theme. In both cases that Sponsored post will normally contain information about the sponsor’s products and services and/or a link to their website or contextual links within the body of the article with links to appropriate pages on their website.
Although a sponsored post has some brand benefit for the advertisers is mainly seen as part of a link building strategy. I have noticed that in recent months sponsored posts are proving more popular than links in the sidebar, as search engines are placing more value on links that are surrounded by relevant text and keywords.
Not all bloggers accept sponsored posts as they feel that it dilutes the integrity of their own voice for their readers. This is a valid concern and I find that while there are some sponsors that provide excellent articles, many more provide very bland or generic material, despite me giving very clear editorial guidelines. If you accept sponsored posts, you will also have to learn to tactfully say no to many poorly written or low value articles.
One way to get around the quality issue is to write articles yourself on a pre-agreed theme that will then contain the links that the advertiser requires. In this case you would normally charge more for the article to reflect your effort in writing it. I do sometimes take this approach but only where I feel able to write an article that draws on a destination I have already visited and does not involve me having to research a place or subject I know little about which can be very time consuming.
To meet with both US and UK advertising guidelines, you should declare any paid relationship in these articles, which most bloggers do by using the words ‘sponsored post’ within the article itself or (rather less transparently) by declaring somewhere on their site that they accept posts that are paid for.
Keith Jenkins of Velvet Escape who I interviewed for my podcast on How Travel Bloggers Monetise their blogs prefers to work with specific advertisers or agencies who can provide high quality articles and also limits the sponsored posts to one per week, with a couple of his own articles in between.
Case Study – Mark from TravelWonders
Mark accepts guest articles from other bloggers, charities and commercial travel businesses but he charges any commercial websites. They provide an article that may contain 2 links to their website and the articles must be travel related, content rich and unique to the web, which he tests by searching for a couple of early sentences in Google. Mark only publishes one sponsored post per week and finds that the article he receives vary in quality to extremely good to mediocre. Mark provides the sponsors with article guidelines and sometimes rejects articles, requesting a re-write if he feels they are not good enough. Mark marks all these articles as ‘guest articles’ and has a disclosure on his blog that some guest posts may be sponsored. Mark generally has a backlog of around four to five guest articles at any time and has a steady supply of sponsors approaching him.
Sell your Travel Expertise
I started my blog talking about my life and adventures with my family in Central America, mainly Costa Rica. As time went by my readers started emailing me about hotel, tours, recommendations etc. This got to be so many that I started contacting the hotels, until I became a travel agent for these areas.If a blog is very niche oriented or the blogger stays in one location long enough and gets similar requests, they can work out with all tourism services ways to make package.
Another blogger who has developed sales of tours to interesting and adventurous destinations is Beth Whitman of Wanderlust and Lipstick who sells women only trips to places like Bhutan, India and Vietnam. You can hear my podcast interview with Beth Whitman about her trip to Papua New Guinea.
Beth Whitman in Papua New Guinea
Money making methods for well established bloggers
Digital Products
Digital Products are something the most bloggers start to explore once their blog is well established and they have build up some reputation in their niche. Although there is more money to be made, this method is also a lot more work and requires you to have built up some trust with your audience. You also need to do some research to ensure that you are providing a product that will provide a solution to problems that your audience are experiencing and that they will be willing to pay for.
Digital products in the travel sector typically sell for $5-30 although in other sectors they sell for much more. If you create an affiliate programme to help sell your e-book or product, you will typically pay 50% commission but will harness a much larger potential audience through tapping in to your affiliate’s communities.
To get a feel for the kind of e-books that other travel bloggers are selling and at what price, take a look at the following travel blogs;
Indie Travel Podcast Books
Nomadic Matt Travel Store
Foxnomad eBooks
Almost Fearless Travel Books
Case study – Anil Polat from Foxnomad
Anil now has two ebooks - The Ultimate Tech guide for Travelers and Overcoming the 7 major obstacles to traveling the world and now he’s working on his third. He found the process of writing the e-books pretty straightforward, writing them himself in a word document and then converting them to PDF format with a photo cover. For the first book which is priced at $8 he did everything himself but for the second, he decided to pay a designer to design the cover. With the second e-book (Ultimate Tech Guide For Travelers) the price was also much higher at $37, but Anil offers an additional bonus of personal support and advice for the first 6 month after purchase. Anil has found that putting his ebooks in the Amazon Kindle store has really boosted his sales and he also sells through Nook books at Barnes and Noble. Anil has an affiliate programme to sell both e-books and uses e-junkie and Commission Junctions to manage affiliate sales, offering the typical 50% commission, although he probably gets more direct leads and has also found that mentions outside the travel blogshere such as by PC World have brought in sales. Anil has has now sold close to 1000 e-books.
There is a useful free report on making e-books, available at Smart Passive Income – e-books the smart way
If you want to create a book that will be printed (yes, actual paper!) it’s possible to do create self-published books to be printed on demand at Create Space and then sold through Amazon. Thanks to the tip from Lash of Lash World Tour who has self-published her books on hiking and cycling in Bali this way.
Tips for your e-book
- Do some research to make sure that your e-book or digital product will solve a problem that readers will be prepared to pay money for – you could do keyword research or survey your readers
- Build up an e-mail list before you launch your e-book to maximise your sales potential – you could even ask people to sign up to be notified once it is available
- Consider creating a shorter free report first as a trial run, to get used to the process.
- You can write a series of articles on your blog that will form the backbone of your product and then add more detail or information for the final paid product
- Engage fellow bloggers to act as affiliates for you, offer review copies, interviews etc in order to maximise your e-book sales.
- Promote your e-book using all the power of social media, blog posts, guest posts on other blogs.
- Don’t forget to promote your e-book outside the travel blogging community, make sure it is available on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble etc
Multiple sites
Once you’ve got one site established and starting to make money, many travel bloggers who are serious about making money start other blog sites as a spin off from their flagship site.
While it is obviously more work to maintain two or more sites rather than one, and there is a danger that you may end up not doing either site justice, this is an effective way of building up a portfolio of revenue streams.
You may find that you are prepared to be more commercial on your second sites or target niches that are likely to mae you more moeny. You can also provide more leverage for advertisers by putting together advertising packages across multiple sites.
Think of it like a shop that decides to open multiple branches in different towns, or a women’s clothing store that also opens branches for menswear, homeware and menswear that will all appeal to the same customer base.
Once you have been blogging a while you will normally find ideas for other sites, but take care to do some research or be sure that they will be popular niches before you invest a lot of time in starting a new site.
Different types of sites you might start
- In depth site about the place you live
- Sites offering advice for a sub niche of your main blog
- ‘How to’ sites that share your expertise
Examples of Successful Blogs who have started other sites
Karen Bryan from Europe a la Carte started blogging about European travel, but now she also has sites at Top Travel Content Europe and Help me to Save
Anil Polat writes about travelling smarter at Foxnomad but also has sites at How to travel with pets, Travel Blog advice and Tech guide for Travel
Indie Travel Podcast covers travel advice and podcasts and also has sites at Make Money Travel Blogging and Art of Solo Travel
Darren Cronian started a consumer travel blog at Travel Rants and now runs My Life in Leeds
Dave Lee writes for independent budget travellers at Go Backpacking and has also stared Travel Blog Success and Medellin Living
Sponsorship
- The starting point of a sponsorship relationship may be a press trip or other publicity event that you are invited to participate in where you are offered free travel or hotel stays in return for coverage on your blog. While this is not a holiday, but a working trip, and is not typically paid, it may develop longer term into a paid relationship.
- As the relationship develops you may agree a paid relationship for a 6-12 month term to become an ‘ambassador’ for a particular brand, to promote them informally to your community through social media as well as through your blog and perhaps including advertising on your site or in your newsletter.
- Donna Hull at My Itchy Travel Feet, who specialises in Baby Boomer Travel has recently decided to concentrate on working with a smaller number of sponsors rather than selling advertising as has so far signed up two sponsors who appeal to her readership.
- The key to success in this kind of relationship is to stick to products or services you believe in and would probably be using anyway and that appeal to your target market
- To attract quality sponsors you need to be clear about your proposition and provide specific information about what you can offer – take a look at my Press/PR page or create a Media kit like this one from The Planet D or this Press Pack from Mallory on Travel
Shannon Lane created Traveling Mamas as a group travel blog to encourage women to get out and travel, whether with the family, girlfriend getaways or with their partners. She accepts press trips that enable her to write about interesting places on the blog and sometimes works with travel brands for contests and giveaways on her blog. Shannon also works with consumer brands that she believes in and personally uses, based on a contract for a fixed 6-12 month term with a monthly stipend. She will put together a package for the sponsor that may involve articles on the blog, contests, inclusion in her newsletter and banner advertising. The key to this, Shannon believes, is to be very choosy about who you work with, only supporting products you can believe in, and she turns many approaches away on this basis. Shannon even now sometimes gets paid for her appearance at certain events which she will accept if she feels it will make an interesting story for the blog.
Consultancy
Like sponsorship, consultancy is something that you may develop over time through developing existing advertising or PR relationships. Typically you may work with marketing professionals who seek your advice and then are prepared to pay for your expertise. Different types of condultancy could involve;
- Advising Marketing/PR professionals on specialist aspects of blogging and social media
- Working with local companies who need help promoting themselves in the online world
- Working with companies on the technical aspects of blogging or SEO
- Running company Social Media sites for them, such as their Twitter/Facebook accounts, especially for smaller local businesses who want someone local
- Using your contacts in the blogging world to advise companies who they should work with e.g. selection of bloggers for press trips or speakers for events
- Organising meet-ups of bloggers for specific promotions
- Participation in marketing brainstorming sessions that relate to your target market
- Speaking at travel or blogging conferences and industry events
- Assisting conference organisers to ensure they can meet the needs of blogging delegates
“I’ve been selling freelance online marketing and SEO services. To be fair, I started this activity before I began blogging but the two have definitely positively reinforced each other. Having a well-promoted blog gives you the ideal reference to sell your expertise in SEO, especially to traditional small businesses which are often a bit confused about what they should do”
Membership model
This money making method is for bloggers who are well established in their niche with a strong following and some expertise that readers will be prepared to pay for. Typically the Membership model involves setting up a product or service that is sold on a monthly subscription basis. The advantage is that you may secure an ongoing revenue stream but there is a lot of work required to support this model. Examples may be;
- A Training course that includes ongoing support via a forum or access to the author
- Access to premium content such for a monthly subscription fee
Examples of this kind of model in the Travel Blogsphere include;
Travel Blog Success - an online training course training you how to build and make money through your travel blog
Meet Plan Go – Advice on how to plan your career break and involving local events in the US and online training
This model is not widely used in the travel blogging niche which is still developing but is widely used in the more advanced Internet Marketing niche
There is a useful free report on Membership sites available at Membership Site Mastermind from Yaro Starek
Videos and Podcasts
Both videos and podcasts can be monetised by using and adapting the approaches mentioned above, when they are integrated into a travel blog. However there are a few ways that you can monetise more directly;
Videos
If you have a number of videos on Youtube, you can apply for the Youtube Partner Programme (although you may wait a long, long, long time before you here whether you have been accepted). This will enable you to add Google Adsense to your videos.
Viddler also has a Partner Program for revenue sharing
You can make money directly from your videos if you are expert in this area by making your own films, documentaries or promotional videos for local companies.
For inspiration take a look at Overlander.TV where Mark Shea makes videos for travel sponsors, sells DVDs of his own films and makes money through his Youtube Channel advertising.
Also Jeff Jung at Career Break Secrets has created a Video Travel Advice Series that he sells online.
Podcasts
Most Podcasters use a number of the monetisation methods listed above but once they have a large following, they can get direct sponsors for each episode, who are mentioned during the audio recording.
Some podcast networks such as Blubrry enable you to earn money through advertising.
Below you’ll find the slideshow that I presented for the talk on the subject of How travel bloggers make money from their blogs;
I hope you’ll find all this information useful – please do share any tips for making money that you have had success with in the comments below.
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{ 84 comments… read them below or add one }
Great, comprehensive overview here Heather of how we all make money in the Travel Blogging world. Thanks also for mentioning the Travel Blog Challenge and the survey. While I use a variety of the methods you described above the one that has been the most successful for me (recently) has been the consultancies that have come from my blog. I have used it to first write a hiking guide to southern Kosovo and now am being hired to develop a full blown rural tourism strategy for the area. Granted I was doing development work with the UN etc as well and this gave me the contacts to get this going. But it was only by using the authority I created through my blog that I was able to convince everyone that I was an expert in this area.
I’d also add the long (and painful) road to traditional publishing as a form of monetization for blogs. A lot of people (myself included) are attempting to use our blogs as platforms to attract a publishing deal(s). of course this is usually all dependent on how good the manuscript is
Thanks Todd, I know there are many bloggers who are writers at heart and for them their blog is a showcase and platform to get them writing work.
This is an excellent, thorough round-up. Thank you. A quick tip re: Craig Martin’s automating affiliate links, the WP Keyword Link plug-in does much the same thing and it’s free (I automate any company names – ie. British Airways or Expedia).
One model you’ve perhaps not explored is the shop window approach (although you’ve touched on it with 501places). My blog makes barely any money, but it’s been brilliant for showing I’ve got a distinctive writing voice, and I’ve won a lot of paid writing (not just blogging) work on the back of that. If enough influential people within the travel and media industries are reading, then you find yourself with considerable influence yourself.
Another model (one that I partially work on) is goodwill for more commercial ventures. People who read and enjoy my blog/ Twitter ramblings are far more likely to tolerate me promoting my blatantly commercial ventures (sites such as http://www.best-hotels-in.com and http://www.flightstobarbados.info). These projects will get humoured and perhaps extra promotion in terms of links and Twitter RTs than they perhaps would do from someone else.
Thanks David – I think many bloggers who start second or third sites go for a much more commercial approach which as you say will be more tolerated by your readers if you also have a flagship blog
Really excellent post Heather. Thank you. Lots if brilliant advice here.
There are a couple of good guest posts on my blog about monetization that people might find useful too – particularly in the context of Google Ads, but also ebooks and reviews:
http://www.travelblather.com/2011/05/google-adsense-how-to-make-money-from-travel-content.html
http://www.travelblather.com/2011/06/how-to-make-money-from-travel-content.html
Cheers
Jeremy
Thanks Jeremy and for adding those useful links – I’ll be taking a good look
Darren Cronin not Rowse is the Travel Rants heid honcho
Good piece this Heather. Spot on about valuable, relevant and entertaining (& well-written) content. Cheers
Oops – thanks for pointing that out – I’d better change it quick
It’s Darren Cronian.
Yes I just realised that and corrected it – hopefully before Darren notices
Too late Heather
.. if only I made the same money as Darren Prowse.
Thanks for the mention. I haven’t read all the way through it, but it is worth highlighting that publishing content isn’t a ‘quick rich’ scheme that some people suggest in their e-books…
Very good article Heather. You should have packaged as ebook and sold it!
Thanks Karen, now you mention it, that’s an idea I may develop but I’d want to put a lot more detail in if I was asking people to part with their cash
This must have taken so much time to put together all of this information. Thank you for doing this — what a wealth of information on monetizing. Great job!!
Thanks – it did take a while to write the article but I did it because I was giving the talk to the London Bloggers Group and so wanted to get all my thoughts together so I souldn’t make a complete fool of myself in front of 80 people! Also, of course to give some benefit to those who weren’t at the talk.
Great article, Heather. You’ve been very thorough indeed and covered every angle I can think of.
Heather, great information and advice, no matter at what stage you are in your blogging “career.” I found your article reaffirmed much of what I have learned along the way as well as new information which I will immediately investigate. Thanks!
Thanks Sherry – I thought it was important to point out that there are some approaches that work at different stages of your blog’s development
Outstanding summary in a fine article with lots of excellent information.
Wow! What a resource. We are currently heading down the sponsorship past so really appreciate these links for extra guidance. Checking them out now
Thank you!!
Caz – Glad you find it of use, I think that many companies are starting to realise the value of working on a longer term basis through sponsorship.
Definitely one of your best. Although, I learn from your entire site!!!
I too think you should get an ebook out on all you are writing.
I like a lot of the ideas here, some I never even thought of that would work perfectly for my site.
thanks for doing this!!!
Thanks Marina, everyone has to choose what works best for them
Great post Heather! Banner ads is certainly a good way to earn (especially if you can build a strong readership and a strong following base to your blog”s”). I think this is really a calling for me (saw this post through Women Unlimited’s recent roundup, where my post was also mentioned), I recently decided to try entering the travel industry, not sure why, but I’m certain that I’m up for the challenge
I guess I’ll be checking more of your blog posts here, and perhaps submit a guest post in the coming months (if you’re accepting some).
Thanks Jason – I think to succeed you really do need to have the passions for your subject to carry you through – delighted to consider a guest post from you in the future.
Hey, thanks for the mention Heather! I had no idea I was in your article!
But, yes, I found Create Space a great way to make a real print book. They have excellent, detailed FREE instructions for every step, including all the editing, publishing and proof-reading tasks, so that you turn out a professionally done book. LOTS of work, but very but very interesting and rewarding.
cheers, Lash
Thanks Lash – it sounds like everyone can self publish fairly easily these days – I hope you make some money from your books
Heather, what a rich, useful and generous article. It also looks like a whole lot of hard work. Something to look into when and if I ever reach retirement I think. All power to your elbow.
Barbara, you’re right, there’s plenty of hard work involved, but plenty of fun too if you’re blogging about something you love
The article turned out great Heather! Wish I would have time to participate – but doubt I could have offered anything new! How did your presentation go?
My only major thought is that there are very, very, very few bloggers out there making enough money to live off of from their sites alone. Even the biggest travel bloggers aren’t rolling in the dough. But they get enough perks and revenue to get by.
Thanks Sherry – yes, there’s no pot of gold just there for the taking, but with some hard work and persistance I think it is possible to make a living over time
Excellent summary of the options available to (travel) bloggers today! Since I got started in 2007, I’ve experimented with most everything you mentioned, though I’m just now getting proactive about seeking sponsorships.
Other travelers continue to be as surprised I can make money from my travel blogs today as they were 4 years ago.
And thanks for mentioning Travel Blog Success. I get a real kick out of watching new travel blogs and ideas being born, before the rest of the world learns about them. It can be such a fun and creative process.
Creating a membership site has gotten a lot easier in the last year with the availability of some nifty new software programs. I use to think the membership site model was better than ebooks, but now I realize they’re simply different. In fact, if you can do both you’ll really be rocking!
Not many people in the travel niche have reached the level of experience to launch a membership site, you really need to have a well established blog and established community I think
Enjoyed this comprehensive guide. You’ve done a great job breaking down the travel blogging secrets to making money. It’s a lot of work and likely won’t buy you a house in the city, but it’s a great way to supplement your income and get a few nice perks along the way!
Gland you enjoyed it Cam – I agree that there’s no path to riches that doesn’t require lots of hard graft
Useful tips on how travel bloggers make money from their blogs
Thank you so much, Heather. This is exactly the information I need about how to make my travel writing pay, clearly and realistically presented.
thanks a lot for very helpful info..
Mus recently posted..Harga Makanan Laut Di Semporna Holiday Resort, Sabah
@Mus – so glad you found the article helpful
Just discovered your site…this post…and the rest of it…is a gold mine!! Thanks so much for such valuable info.
@Dalene – so pleased you’re finding it useful
This is a truly inspiring post Heather, thank you! Tons of good info.
Really informative, my partner and I Eloise are trying to make ends meet while travelling the globe – Going by what you’ve written we’ve got a long way to go!
Any tips on where to start for total newbies?
Stuart Edwards recently posted..Hello world!
I just want to say what an excellent and useful blog post this is. There is almost too much information and I will need a little while to digest it all. In the mean time I am going to recommend it to the readers of my travel blog. They also have travel blogs. Both of them. Haha.
Time to step up my game I think.
Thanks again.
@Nikki Thanks for your comment – the post was really a summary of a talk that I gave in London and I wanted a wider audience to get the benefit of this information
Thank you for the tip such a helpful post
This is an awesome and helpful information.
I think the number of comments pays testimony to the quality of this article! Way too much to take in on one go – I’ll be dipping in and out of this for the next few days at least. Several links to be followed up and so much to think about. I’m 100% with you on the issue of it being easier to ad banners and stuff to subsequent posts. I’ve couldn’t bear the thought of advertising on my ‘baby’ (primary blog) so have started building another one to monetize in due course instead!
Linda recently posted..Where to Fly to – Linz
@Linda Of course you may find that your ‘baby’ is the more established blog and therefore possibly more valuable for advertisers – but if you have the time many established bloggers are starting more than one site to diversify their monetisation opportunities
Awesome article! I completely agree that you’ll start to succeed when you create helpful solutions to your reader’s problems.
Building trust and a relationship with your readers is absolutely crucial, too. People are mostly
smart; they can sense if they’re being sold, or if you really have a genuine interest in helping solve their problems.
@Micki Thanks for your comment, yes I do think you have to alter your perspective a bit if you want to make money – it’s all about providing solutions.
Very through and comprehensive post!
good job success
hi,
this article is so useful to know information money make blogs…..
A lot of excellent info, and not over-hyped as so much regarding monetizing is… the time frames outlined nicely with your graph such as that it takes a couple years before you can move into the ‘intermediate’ ad arena, so true and so important to understand so you don’t get discouraged getting to that point. The free eBook link good as well, from Smart Passive Income, just reading now.
Glad I found you through Global Bloggers Network, look forward to reading more of your posts, Molly
Molly recently posted..Cost of Living in Tarija, Bolivia
@Molly Well I’ve been working on my blog for over 3 years and I don’t make anything near what you could live on, but then I do have a full time job and family. I do believe that in time it is possible to get a full time income from a blog if you work on it full time but you have to be realistic in your expectations.
I GOT A LOT OF GOOD INFO HERE.. THANK YOU FRIEND AND GOOD LUCK..
GLAD I FOUND THIS..
This is an absolutely brilliant round-up of information. Must have taken you ages. Much applause for your well thought-out approach and eat-to-grasp presentation. I’ll be back!
@ Jeremy Thanks, I spent quite a lot of time preparing for a talk I gave to a group of London bloggers and I didn’t want the pearls of wisdom to be wasted so I turned it into a blog post.
Sorry, “easy” to grasp! So much for proof-reading!
Jeremy @ travelFREAK recently posted..Andrew McCarthy Speaks on the Transformational Power of Travel
Wow, this is easily the best, most comprehensive post I’ve ever read on this subject. Monetization processes are such a personal thing for each site, but it’s incredibly enlightening to read case studies of what others have done. We only just monetized Green Global Travel last month, but we skipped straight to the sponsored posts and sponsorships. And you’re right, sponsored posts are all about having the confidence to say no to weak articles that read like blatant ads, and/or writing them yourself to make sure the stories still provide value to readers. Great post!
@Brett If I’d published half of the weak articles I’d been sent or agreed to all the offers of ‘free’ articles, my readers would probably have abandoned my site by now – it pays to hold out for quality, even if it sometimes seems like hard work.
Great article! I just sold my first two sponsored ads over at my travel blog and I’m feeling a bit dirty, like I’ve sold my soul or something. Oh well, it’s money in the bank. Thanks for your help!
@Simon Congratulations, your blog has just become a business – no need to feel dirty about that, we all have to eat and it’s just a small reward for all the hours I’m sure you put in – just make sure that you keep the standards of the sponsored posts high and ensure the links they contain are relevant to your blog.
great blog, i love this. thank you so much!
love know more journey stories….
Hi, thanks for including Indie Travel Guides in your write-up. I just wanted to let you and your readers know we’re in the process of moving that over to the new store at http://books.indietravelpodcast.com.
Cheers, Craig
@Craig Thanks for the update on your new book store
Quite a comprehensive guide on travel site monetization. I would add one more thing… once you have a great blog related to one place you can buy a hotel there or rent your cottage or so… to earn some more money. But this is direct selling with usage your travel blog.
Another tip is to write great articles about some aquaparks, castles, hotels etc, and once those articles get some traffic you can ask owners for some discounts in their services, so you can for example have free entry to their aquapark, castle, museum or spend a holiday at their hotel for free etc… By this you can also save some money which in fact can be counted as earnings.
so nice blog, thank god make me find you.
Very good read, I’m just starting out a some what travel related site(in the tweaking stages right now), I was wondering which do you think is better for targeted ads. Using ad sense and hoping it picks up on your content instead of displaying local sundae shops & debt consolidators, or BSA? I’ve only just started playing with ad sense & some affiliate networks/programs.
@Ryan
I personally wouldn’t put Adsense on my site when I was just starting as you will make only pennies from it unless your site has substantial traffic. I would start with affiliate bro ducts such as e- books and promote them by doing review articles.
Great write up Craig, thanks for the hands-on links and content!
Focus on the content. The more interesting and accurate it is, the more credibility your blog will become. You’ll be successful after that.
Wow Heather.
Good throw down on how to make money with blogging. It is def. a long road. Seems like it is longer these days with more entrants to the market. I am a bit of a skeptic myself http://aroundtheworldin80jobs.com/location-independent-jobs/make-money-travel-blogging/
But nonetheless, I will be returning again to this post if my feeble writing ever get this far along. respect.
Turner
@Turner You’re right about so many new bloggers, I can hardly keep up with all the new travel blogs out there, but even if you’re new, quality content will get noticed in the end. The rewards come to those who stick with it.
So far as I came to know quality content is the best option the same as a popular saying honesty is the best policy to get your travel website on the rank of search. In addition, the information about google algorithm is essential. Finally, ad placement can play vital role to earn money from travel blogging.
Wow! what can i say about this, it took me sometime to read this! quite an extensive article but full of valuable information
Thanks a lot for providing the information as to how travel blogger go for and make money. After reading your post, i want to start off making money like this too….
Thanks a lot for this article. I’m french and we dont have a lot of ressources about “advanced” methods of how to get money from our travel blogs. Some people are selling “lessons”, but it’s quite poor, like “how to install Wordpress”, or “ow to write your first article”, but nothing for pro-bloggers who need new ideas. The idea of membership is very interesting, and “conference / public speaking” is really great too, I’ll think of it. I tried once a membership area on my first website but that was a mess to deal with, and I closed it a few months later. But, still, for a travel blog I dont have ideas about what to offer to the members… not sure they’d be interested by my “exclusive pictures on the beach”
Anyway, thanks a lot for this article ! A great source of inspiration !
Jérémy, french blogger on the road !
PS : sorry for the mistakes, my english is quite poor.
@jeremy Thanks for the comment and pleased to be of use. Your English is pretty good so it might be worth you attending one of the travel blogging conferences in Europe this year such as TBEX or Travel Bloggers Unite as you’ll get loads more useful information
Hi Heather,
Great tips!
We are just starting out..and this article sure helps!
Extremely helpful overview of a complex area – great summary Heather. As you’ve pointed out, there are so many different ways that bloggers can make an income from travel blogging and it works well when combined natural skills and market forces.
I’ve been blogging for about 10 years but only monetizing in past 3 years. I decided to combine previous experience in business training to deliver 1-1 coaching, workshops and group seminars to Travel & Tourism industry. This, combined with occasional speaking engagements and paid posts, is beginning to provide a reasonable income.
Once a blogger starts getting requests from PR companies or travel businesses you know you’re on the radar and can start to really explore options. And finally, the greatest support in this comes from fellow bloggers – a very generous and supportive community. You’re so right about attending blog conferences – great way to learn new skills, network and make friends with like-minded people.
@Zoe Thanks for the comment. As you say different bloggers have different approaches to monetisation, there’s no one size fits all, it’s more of a menu to pick and choose.
I think we all know that there is no get rich quick scheme and the path to successs is paved with hard work and too many hours at the laptop
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