The internet has exposed everyone to opportunities that never existed before. One of those is blogging. Specifically, travel blogging. Many successful travel bloggers earn six figures a year. But even then, making $120,000 a year as a travel blogger is something normal people can only dream of.
After all, you are traveling to the most beautiful places on earth while earning money to do it.
More than 600 million active blogs exist on the internet. This makes blogging the biggest use of websites online. From online personal diaries to food blogs, there is something for everyone in the world of blogging. Blogging has taken over the world by providing information on virtually any topic possible.
Many successful and established travel blogs generate a serious amount of revenue that is considerable enough to support a comfortable lifestyle and then some.
For many people, blogging is a way of practicing their passions while helping people at the same time. It also becomes an outlet for some to share their experiences with the world and connect with people on a much more personal level.
If you are a frequent traveler and want to share your experiences with a like-minded audience, keep on reading to find how I make six figures a year and how you can do so as well.
How Much Does a Travel Blogger Make in a Year?
According to ZipRecruiter, travel bloggers are making all the way as low as $16,000 to as high as $126,500.
For the majority of travel bloggers, the average revenue generated is somewhere between $34,500 to $90,500 per year.
As with any other field, there are outliers in travel blogging as well that earn up to – if not more than – $110,500 from their travel blog and related opportunities.
How Do Travel Bloggers Make Money?
Contrary to popular belief, their blog is not the only way that travel bloggers make money.
Travel bloggers usually make money through diversified income sources.
A few of those include:
- Freelancing writing
- Guest posts
- Affiliate marketing
- Ad placements
- Selling their photos
- Sponsorships
And much more.
We will talk about some of these options later on in the article.
Do Travel Bloggers Get Paid to Travel?
One of the perks of being a travel blogger is that when you get an audience and your blog starts to gain attention, you get invited to travel to places for free.
You get paid trips by tourist agencies where you help them reach an audience with the help of your blog. This is one of the biggest motivations behind people starting a travel blog.
However, the key thing to keep in mind here is to first work hard and bring enough traffic to your website. Once that is done, the offers will start rolling in.
How Much Money Do You Need Monthly to Travel as a Travel Blogger?
One of the most crucial pieces of information you should collect as a travel blogger is to learn how to travel for as cheap as possible.
The truth is, you don’t need to be rich to travel to beautiful places. However, you do need to be good with your money so that you can spend it in the right places.
The amount of money you are going to spend each month while travel blogging will largely depend on where you want to travel and how thrifty you can get.
With lower budget places, you can even go as low as $50 a day. But for long-term travel, you should ideally have about $1500 saved per month to travel with a sense of security.
It also depends on how good you can do even with fewer resources. Instead of getting a cab, you can walk or hitch a ride. Instead of staying in a hotel, you can couch surf. Instead of fine dining, you can have street food or eat in small restaurants.
Another factor that will determine how much you spend monthly is what time of year you choose to go to your travel destination. It is best to go at a time when the tourists are going to be minimum and so are the prices.
How to Earn $120,000 a Year as a Travel Blogger
Travel blogging may not seem like a real career to most normal people but they would be wrong. Blogging can bring in considerable revenue for a person if they have the patience to see their blogging efforts through and network the right way.
It is a completely viable way to earn a full-time income and live the life of your dreams by getting paid to visit beautiful places around the world and doing paid press trips.
You can make $120,000 a year through travel blogging by following a few simple tips and tricks and doing them on a consistent basis.
I have listed the easiest and fastest ways to start earning from your travel blog. Some of these will require you to build a bit of an audience first before they can be effectively applied. However, most of these tips can help you make money from your blog even if it is new on the internet-verse.
With that said, here are a few ways you too can make money as a travel blogger-
Focus on Building Traffic
Your blog is going nowhere if there is no traffic coming to it.
Generating traffic is key when it comes to earning money from your travel blog. As the traffic goes up, so do the opportunities you can dabble into and consequently, the money.
But it is not just the quantity of people visiting your travel blog that matters. It is the quality as well.
Instead of trying to please everyone, you should aim at creating a following that is loyal and faithful to you. A following that would willingly invest in something you have to offer. Your ultimate goal is for your followers to become your customers.
You can have millions of followers and still not earn enough to pay simple bills. That’s because your followers are just not investing in your blog.
Therefore, focus on building good quality traffic for your travel blog and you won’t need thousands upon thousands of followers to be successful.
Interact With Your Readers
Your audience is going to greatly appreciate it if you engaged with them. After all, they are going to be your blog’s bread and butter.
Connecting with them would let them know that you have their best in mind and that you care about their opinions and thoughts.
It will also serve as a way for you to know what you should post in the future as you will become more familiar with the likes and dislikes of your readers by interacting with them.
Learn About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO may sound complicated to most blogging newbies. However, it is simpler than you think.
There is a lot of free and useful information online available on this topic. Familiarize yourself with it and apply SEO best practices in your blogs.
This is going to help you tremendously in generating traffic for your travel blog.
Affiliate Marketing
Another great passive income source is affiliate marketing. This is one of the most popular income-generating methods that people, especially bloggers and content creators, use regularly.
You can sign up for Amazon Affiliates and link back to products on the Amazon website. Every time someone purchases a product from the link you have provided, you will get a small commission.
What makes affiliate marketing so great is that once it gets going, you don’t have to make any effort. It is probably the best and easiest source of passive income on the internet.
The only catch is that you have to build an audience first. However, you don’t have to have millions of followers to be successful at earning money from affiliate marketing.
All you need is a few hundred or a few thousand followers and you can get started with your affiliate marketing.
Reach Out and Collaborate with Other Travel Bloggers
Instead of thinking of other travel bloggers as your competition, reach out to them and collaborate.
This will let you become a part of a community. You will become a part of the travel blogging industry by engaging with other travel bloggers.
Moreover, you can create better content by collaborating rather than competing.
Do Sponsored Posts with Brands
Sponsored posts can earn you a lot of money for little effort.
Sponsored posts work by brands reaching out to you to promote or review their product on your travel blog. As a result, the brand gets more visibility if your audience buys its product.
Working with brands provides a fun and creative way for you to try out new and innovative products. That too for free. In fact, you get paid to try them.
Not only that, but it is also a great way to increase your own visibility as well because you will likely be featured on the brand’s website or social media platforms.
This option also requires you to build a bit of a following at first. However, again, you don’t need a ton of followers for this. All you need is a decent-sized dedicated audience that trusts the products you promote and is willing to spend their money on your recommendations.
So, not only do you help people by promoting a product or service that may become helpful to them, you do so while increasing your traffic and making money.
Sell Ad Space on Your Travel Blog
Running ads on your website is a convenient way to make passive income from your blog. You can sell ad space on your blog. You will earn money depending on how many views each ad racks up.
To directly advertise on your website, you can use platforms such as Google AdSense. There are other similar services that pay better than Google AdSense. However, I recommend AdSense for beginners since they have no barrier to entry and you do not need a minimum number of followers to get started.
You will earn money while you are chilling on a beach in Thailand with the help of these ads.
Do Freelance Writing Gigs for Other Blogs
Writing for other travel blogs or just other clients, in general, is a fun and creative way to earn some extra cash. It does not require much effort and provides you with multiple benefits, with the most important one being making money while on the move.
Freelance writing allows you to write from the comfort of wherever you are staying. All you need is an internet connection and a laptop and you are good to go.
There are a ton of platforms online that provide you with freelancing opportunities. Choose one that sits well with your specific goals and payment plan and get started.
Not only do you earn some money but writing for another blog boosts your own visibility as well. This increases your travel blog’s traffic, opening new doors of income for you.
Offer Travel Blogging Mentoring and Coaching
With more people wanting to leave the corporate world and dive into independent ventures, there is a huge market for consultation and coaching services when it comes to blogging of any kind.
Think of all the knowledge you have gathered as a traveler and a travel blogger. Many people would not know the things you know due to experience. And many of those people would be willing to pay you good money to guide them through the whole process.
This is because not everyone wants to learn their lessons by going through the pain of trial and error themselves. People want to work smart, not hard.
Therefore, use your knowledge for the benefit of others and help empower people to be independent business owners as well.
You can offer coaching and mentoring services by telling people how to grow on social media, how they can do more sponsored posts, or how their visibility can be improved – all of which will lead to them earning an independent income from blogging.
The Bottom Line
Travel blogging is surely something that can be turned into a viable career. Once it gets going, it is one of the best ways to earn money. I mean getting to visit the most mesmerizing places on earth and getting paid to do it… can it get any better than that?
