There are several ways you can monetize your blog and create a secondary and possibly primary source of income. If you’ve decided to start a travel blog, there are things you should do to ensure your blog is successful – and attracts the attention of brands, sponsors, travel journalists and PR companies.
Step 1: Start your research
Before you start writing any content or even choosing a name for your travel blog, you need to invest some time in research. The best place to start is to check out the most popular travel blogs right now. Pay special attention to travel bloggers who have achieved long-term success, as well as newer travel bloggers who are gaining momentum quickly. Take notes to highlight what high-ranking travel blogs have in common and how they differ.
Step 2: Choose a niche
One thing you’ll notice when researching the most popular travel blogs is that they all have a niche they cater to. Sometimes the niche is obvious, like an adventure travel blog or a budget travel blog, but sometimes it will be understated. Choosing a niche is essential for everything from keywords to URLs, writing style and how to incorporate images.
Step 3: Choose a URL and create your website
Before you start writing a travel blog, you first need to choose a URL and create a website. It’s not as easy as it sounds! It’s getting harder and harder to find good URLs that are short, catchy, and contain keywords relevant to your target audience. A clever and unforgettable arrangement of two to four words is about right. Chances are you’ll need to choose a more unique combination and maybe even include your name in the URL.
Step 4: Start networking in the travel industry
Once your travel blog is up and running and you’ve published your first few posts, it’s time to start networking. The primary places you want to focus your networking efforts are your target audience and travel professionals.
Travel brands and professionals
Start by researching the most relevant brands, sponsors, journalists and PR companies in your travel area. Try to get specific names and contact information for the travel experts you find – and reach out to them via email or social media DMs to introduce yourself.
Travel bloggers
While you should connect with other travel bloggers on different social media platforms, also look for opportunities to engage with them in person and build F2F relationships. This is beneficial in terms of guest blogging opportunities and referrals for travelers outside of their niche, and they may even be willing to provide some invaluable tips and tricks.
Social media
Social media will play a vital role in both marketing your travel blog to readers and networking with others within the travel community. Friend and follow as many travel professionals as you can find, and post regularly to gain more followers in your niche – and to show travel professionals your level of commitment and attention-grabbing ability.
Step 5: Continue to travel, journal and post regularly
A critical component of writing a travel blog is to travel often enough to have something new to blog about. So that you can fully enjoy your travels and have new material for your blog, keep a travel journal that you can refer back to when writing your blog posts when you get home.
Step 6: Cultivate engaging posts
Writing a travel blog will require you to do more than just share general travel information or post about your daily itinerary. In order for readers to find your blog valuable and keep coming back, it needs to be informative and engaging and bring a perspective that is fresh, unique or otherwise different from all the other travel blogs out there. Here are some tips to make your blog more engaging.
Writing style
Writing a travel blog is a personal experience, so you have a lot of freedom when it comes to the tone of your writing. Write in a way that reflects your authentic voice and point of view.
Pictures and video
The goal of your blog is to inspire your readers and get them excited about travel – images and videos are a must to achieve this. Consider investing in a high-quality camera or make sure your smartphone has a blog-worthy camera.
Step 7: Explore several strategies for monetizing your blog
The last few steps have focused on ways you can make your blog stand out by being engaging and visually appealing, which translates into more new traffic and more repeat traffic. The more traffic to your blog, the more opportunities for monetization. While your number one target audience for monetization should be travel professionals.
