Travel blogging has never been a more popular and practical pursuit. The world is constantly expanding with amazing and unique opportunities to travel and make a living while doing so. WIth the expansion of WiFi nearly anywhere, and the ease with which anyone can start a blog, exploring exotic places, paying for it, and even making back the money you’ve already spent on an excursion, it is all possible. Also, there are businesses and jobs that allow you to trek the globe and experience a variety of cultures while still managing to survive.
Travel Blogging for Money
First, you will need to create a blog by choosing a domain name, host, and adopting a theme or design, or alternatively paying someone to create one for you. Then you will need to create content, which you can do in ways that incorporate writing about your trips as well as your photography or videography. Once you have developed a following, you can monetize your blog in a number of ways. Here are a few tips to boost your success with generating revenue through blogging:
- Implement affiliate advertisements and links. Strategically speaking, advertisers that a related to the travel industry will be the best. You will get paid by these advertisers when someone makes a purchase through your link or ad.
- Preferred partnerships take place when you know your niche and develop ways to work with local companies in a particular area or in a specific tourism focus. Working together on each other’s blogs lets you both refer customers and share advertising space, while at the same time you quickly become branded as an expert on the web.
- Sponsored posts are blogs that are created for a particular company with a specific focus. Write an article on your site incorporating a link back to the sponsor’s site, thus driving up their SEO and yours. Focus on the travel industry, and make sure posts are relevant and up to date. Some sponsors even write their own posts for sponsored links, so you get well-written content as a bonus.
- Develop a paid campaign for a distinct tourism location. While you are visiting an area, talk to tourism boards and specific attractions locally. This is a great way to really delve into the culture and spend time in that area to get into the heart of the customs and events while generating advertising dollars for your site.
- Become a brand ambassador for a company. For example, you may find a company that sells luggage or specific sporting gear that will let you gear and even pay you to put it to the test and promote it to your blog followers. This also applies to other products or services for a particular brand, food product, or even sports drinks..
- Cross market with podcasters. Do your research and find travel podcasts that want to be promoted or that you want to boost, and cross-market each other. You can write about what they are talking about and they can talk about what you’re writing about. This is not always a paying gig, but the exposure you get can be worthwhile.
- Consider turning the blogging gig into a full-on tour guide business. Work with tourism boards, travel agent schools, and other experts to build a business that helps other tourists get to and enjoy areas you have explored.
- Become a social media manager for travel brands. Seek out those in the industry who need someone to coordinate their marketing efforts. As long as you have internet access, you can run a social media campaign from anywhere as an employee or as an independent contractor and make a steady income as you roam.
Using the any of the following suggestions or a combination thereof to build your blog presence and visibility, you can create opportunities for free travel and a strong source of income.
Get A Job
Consider getting a job in an industry that sends you around the world or where you can work remotely. There are several options available to you. For example, you could work as an au pair, importer/exporter, flight attendant, or an English teacher. Granted, these jobs may have you in one location for an extended time period but imagine how deep you could dive into that region before you moved on to another assignment? You can also simply work remotely for one of the several companies that hires everyone from customer service personnel to marketing and writing professionals to fill a variety of positions. Many companies, like Buffer, have entirely remote workforces with no central office anywhere. As long as you get the work done, these companies don’t care where you do it from. Some positions might actually require you to work certain hours. As long as you can deal with different time zones, there are ways to work around those jobs as well. If you are looking for seasonal work and enjoy working with people, consider becoming a surf or ski instructor, cruise ship service employee, tour guide, or docent.
Freelance
Photography or videography is a great way to fund your travels. There are all kinds of sources looking to pay photographers for images: travel related websites, travel agencies, hard copy and online magazines, and tourism boards, to name a few. An experiential travel blog specializes in writing about specifics such as writing reviews for restaurants, hotels/B & B’s, transportation services, and various local attractions or events. Not only can you post your review on your blog, you can post on dedicated review sites like Yelp, Urbanspoon, or Tripadvisor. With a little time and research, you can find all kinds of websites to pay you for freelance-style review content. Freelancing is a great way to make money.
One of the best features of visiting cities around the globe is wandering through the open-air markets. They offer a vast selection of local and cultural favorites – food and clothing being most common. Consider creating and selling your own art, photography, or jewelry that you can offer as a vendor. If the idea of potentially uncertain income makes you uneasy consider becoming an independent contractor with a handful of strong industry leaders looking for web content. Big travel-related companies are looking for content to fill their sites without the hassle of hiring a full-time staff. Whatever method you choose to make money when you travel the globe, you have a ton of options. Use this list to start exploring them, and get traveling and making money today.
