Iβve been recently asked by a friend: can you really make money from a travel blog? Like with many other blog niches, there are many ways to earn from your travel blog. Writing about your travel adventures itself gives you an opportunity to show your skill and your blog will be your best portfolio.
So can you really make money from your travel blog? YES, one can earn from a travel blog in many ways, and weβve gathered some, most are the ways we earn from OurCityTravels.com. If you havenβt yet, you can start learning and incorporating these in your blog while you have a lot of time in your hands (or maybe).
Table of Contents
Having your own Travel Booking Portal
To start off, having a flight booking portal from known airlines as a service to your readers is a convenient click for them if they get compelled to book after reading your account of a city break experience.
You can also have your own booking portal embedded on your travel blog, while this may take a lot more of requirements, you can earn more than when using airline booking.
Collaborations
Bloggers and Influencers have shaped how the public spends, just like how celebrities endorse a product. Thus, many brands reach out to them to be promoted, especially if the blogger has a large following. Below are some of the ways companies collaborate with bloggers.
Sponsored Trips
Sponsored travels happen in two ways: 1. you approach companies/brands and 2. they approach you. The deal is you get a complimentary stay in a hotel in exchange of a review, you get city passes from the tourism board and feature the city on your blog β things like these. Depending on the terms they and you would agree on, this doesnβt have to be paid since the worth of your stay will already be covered. You earn experience, so to say.
Social Media Promotions
This type of collaboration can also fall under the sponsored trip umbrella, however, you donβt need to be in a particular place to do this. Brands can reach out to you and promote their product while you are in the comfort of your home.
Not everyone creates a social media account just for the fun of it, some do to earn, (others becomeΒ accidentally famous), still others are already celebrities in their own right widening out their reach. Take Tiktok celebrity Shayy Irving, she used her creative juices and the time that the pandemic allowed her to have to make spontaneous, funny videos. She takes daily life experiences and make hilarious skits out of them that Gen X can relate to.Β Thus, Shayy is able to work with brands through Tiktok.
Instagram influencer marketing is another way brands utilize marketing strategies. Thus, if you lean on particular niches, your content should have a lot of stuff relating to it, this way, brands could identify with you and approach you to promote them. This includes both instagram posts and stories. Travel-related content will of course get a lot of pitches from travel companies.
Other platforms where brands work with bloggers and influencers are Facebook, Snapchat, Youtube, and other apps where they get exposure from. Find which platforms you are comfortable with and work on them.
Blog Promotion
Written media is not dead, sure itβs easier to watch videos, but traditionally, photos and write ups still comprise a vast percent of internet content! So donβt shut your blog down just because your friend has a million youtube hits. You will still earn money from writing. Brands reach out to blog owners through their contact page so make sure you have one on yours. Otherwise, there are a lot of platforms you can join where brands reach out and pick out blogs they could work with. Hereβs some:
Intellifluence
A marketing platform which makes it easier for companies to collaborate with influencers β join Intellifluence here.
Getblogged
This platform works the other way around, influencers get to apply for collaborations and brands choose from the pool βΒ join GetBlogged here.
Affiliate Marketing
Aside from a flight booking portal, one of the effective ways to earn from your travel blog is becoming a hotel and room booking affiliates. Especially if you feature accommodation on your travel blog. People will find your reviews and photos as authentic and take your word of advice when it comes to booking the best or most practical hotel in a particular city.
You can also sell tours and get a commission from it, sites like getyourguide, booking.com, and tripadvisor are great for this kind of affiliate marketing.
Selling Your Own Products
With in-demand print on order, selling shirts, canvas bags, and other items could easily be done online. You can hire a graphic artist to create designs aligned with your branding to sell on your blog or Etsy. This is also another way of getting your brand out there.
You can also sell your photos on stock photo websites like depositphotos, IStock, getty, and such. While these sites would have different requirements for submitting photos, you would certainly find one you would be compatible to work with. These stock photo sites do not limit submissions to travel photos only, so if you are a photo enthusiast like us, you can pretty much sell a lot of photos you take.
One of the most fun ways to earn money is to print your travel photos as postcards. Itβs satisfying to see your own photo printed as postcard and you also get to earn from it. You can also of course, send those to friends for free. A very personal way to say hello, especially now that we canβt really see much of each other.
Ads
Running ads on your travel blog pages is another route to go. Most bloggers (yes, not all) have automated ads running on their blog. The most common would be google adsense, but the more established blogs tend to go with monumetric and mediavine.
You can also also display ad boards on your sidebar (sell ad space). It is a wise practice to include a policy page, an advertising page, contact page, and a media kit so brands can see your reach and inquire about how they can advertise on your site.
Earn from Your Travel Blog While At Home
With most of the cities entering a second lockdown since this pandemic started, itβs wise to plan the ways you could earn from your travel blog. Yes, there are many ways to earn from your travel blog, but it does take time and effort. Like anything in life, itβs not a quick-rich scheme β you have to build a trust and a following.
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It is awesome to be able to travel and enjoy benefits from a travel blog too. I love writing about travel, but I have so many other things going on on my blog as well.
I could relate, I have other blogs, so this travel one gets updated lessβ¦
Nice tips and I can say that itβs really great to have a chance to travel and earn from its at the same time.
Iβd love to have a blog solely based on travel. I do like to go on little adventures. Itβs great you can find sponsored trips as it can be expensive otherwise.
Traveling alone is already great and to earn from it is whatcha called life. ππ
Sharing your passion for travel and earning from it is such a great thing. I like that you listed exactly how to earn from a travel blog.
Yes, it also goes for other blog nichesβ¦
This is a great look into blogging and ways to make money. I think a lot of people donβt realize how much work it actually is.
Monetizing any blog is a lot of work but definitely possible. Thanks for sharing some great tips here on making it happen.
These are all great ideas, but itβs so hard to get started.
My blog is not focused on travel alone, but I do earn from some of those ways as well. Havenβt tried going on a sponsored trip, though. It would be nice to have one.
I think these are all wonderful ideas. Itβs great to be able to earn from your blog. Iβve been doing it for years and I really enjoy it.
These are really great tips for travel bloggers who want to make some extra money from their blogs. I really like the idea of your own booking portal for the travel blog.
This is such a great and very beneficial blog. I can use some of these ideas and sharewith my friends
My cousin wants to start a travel blog. She will be happy for your tips. Thanks for sharing!
This is all such great advice! Iβve never heard of Getblogged. Thanks for the recommendation!
This is really great advice for young bloggers who are just starting out. Blogging is not an easy job, as many think, but you can be successful. No doubt about it.
Thank you for this! I find this post really helpful, especially as I am a newbie blogger.