I might sound crazy, but airports fascinate me; the sight of planes taking off the ground, the runway lights, and the sound of suitcases dragging against the floor make my heart beat faster. Travelling has always excited me since I was a kid.
Fortunately, I was able to witness the beauty of some parts of Europe, but that wasn’t enough; the idea that there is an entire world waiting to be explored makes me restless.
Unfortunately, for a student, traveling is always heavy on the pocket. However, my passion instigated me to explore my options. I found out that an average blogger can earn up to $30,000/yr and so I decided to start a travel blog that could pay for my traveling expenses.
While setting up a blog is no big deal, it doesn’t start churning out money right away; making it lucrative takes time and effort. If you are as passionate about traveling as I am and want to start blogging, then here are some useful tips that you can follow.
1. Create Useful Content
When you start your blog, many people will advise you to write as much as possible. That’s the biggest mistake you’ll make. Writing just for the sake of it will produce no results, especially for a travel blog.
Hence, you should only write quality content that your readers find interesting and worth sharing. The first step to creating great content is coming up with enticing headlines. 80% of your audience would read only the headline, while only 20% will go through the content. Your first paragraph should be a killer. Use humor, drama or questions to grab attention.
For a travel blog, you need to inspire people with your crazy stories and experiences; show them the world with your eyes. Include as much visual description as you can.
Jenny McIver, a successful travel blogger and someone who has been to 152 countries advices travel bloggers to improve their writing skills. “No one wants to read a boring play-by-play of your trip to Italy. Good writing and interesting destinations keep readers coming back.”
Other than your stories, share some useful tips regarding accommodation, best places to visit, cuisine they must try, etc. Content does not only mean text, but you should also include some pictures that you took while traveling. Also, you can make some interesting infographics about a destination. As per eye-tracking studies, people pay more attention to information-carrying images than plain text.
2. Grow Your Audience
If you think writing good content would suffice, you are mistaken. There are countless blogs out there trying to grab readers’ attention, and you need to snatch a piece of the pie from them. The key to a successful blog is traffic. The first and foremost thing you should do is to understand the basics of SEO. SEO entails creating quality content that includes relevant keywords so that search engines know what your blog is about.
Leverage the power of social media to promote your blog. Your main goal should be to drive traffic back to your site. Facebook is the largest social network and a breeding ground for bloggers. It not only allows you to share your content but also interact with your audience. The best way to gain traction on Facebook is to include pictures because posts with photos garner 120% more engagement than the ones without pictures.
Figure out the right time to share your posts. Research shows that the best time to share posts on Facebook is on the weekend around 1 pm and 3 pm. You can also share live videos while traveling.
Many travel bloggers are also utilizing the photo-sharing platform Instagram to gain followers. A wanderlust couple with 3 million fans makes six-figure salaries by promoting various brands and destinations under their travel blog Do You Travel.
To promote your blog on Instagram, use relevant hashtags so that your content reaches people who avid travelers. Get picked by media outlets such as National Geographic by using their brand hashtags. Also, geotag your posts so that they can be discovered by people looking for that location. Start following influencers and tag them in your best photos to increase your chances of getting reposts.
3. Monetize Your Site
Once you have built the foundation of your blog and have enough followers, you need to select a stream of revenue. You can either go for advertisements, Google ads or affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is helpful when your blog is in the initial stages.
The only thing you need for this strategy is content that matches whatever the affiliate wants to promote. There are several programs such as Affiliate Window or Click bank who have a large number of partners and products that you can promote on your blog.
You can utilize Google ads once you have significant followers. Google ad pays you based on the number of clicks. Once a visitor clicks on an ad on your website, you get a portion of the revenue. A better way to get ad banners is to directly negotiate terms with the advertisers. You can get some pretty decent number of advertisements based on the popularity of your blog.
Selling an e-book is the quickest way to earn money from your blog. You can write a book about a particular destination or about how one can save up for frequent travels and promote it on your blog.
While blogging may seem like an easy way to earn money, it takes a lot of time and effort in establishing a blog that pays you enough. Hence, you need to be patient and consistent in your efforts. Moreover, if you are passionate about something, ultimately you find your way.
Most of the people get excited about the idea of traveling. However, some wait their entire lives and save up to finally visit their dream destination, while others find alternatives. If you belong to the second category, then travel blogging is your cup of tea.
Author Bio:
Ashley Rosa is a freelance writer and blogger. As writing is her passion that why she loves to write articles related to the latest trends in technology and sometimes on health-tech as well. She is crazy about chocolates. You can find her at twitter: @Ashrosa2