Welcome to the Bonus Day of ‘How to start a travel blog and make money’ FREE email course!
Today is the last day and we’d love to share some additional useful tips that we’ve learned since 2013 when we started running a travel blog.
Network with other bloggers
We always suggest this to newbie bloggers. The travel blogging industry is full of amazing people. In the beginning you might want to attend conferences like TBEX (Travel Blog Exchange), or just spend some time in destinations like Chiang Mai or Bangkok in Thailand, or Oaxaca or Playa del Carmen in Mexico.
Many travel bloggers are also digital nomads, they travel full-time, and often they spend months in some affordable destinations. Living in these cities for a while will bring you lot of friends but also new work opportunities in the industry. If you cannot network in person, at least join some of these Facebook groups and be proactive there:
- We Travel We Blog
- Travel Bloggers
- The Business of Blogging
Write a lot of guest posts
This is something really important to building your audience. Many bloggers accept contributions. So do we. If you want to write and be published on our blog, just send us an email and we will be happy to discuss some ideas for the posts.
Create a professional blog design
You should always try to create a travel blog that looks attractive and catchy. A nice logo, consistent colors throughout the pages, a professional responsive theme and premium plugins. There are many beautiful themes out there. We suggest starting from Theme Forest. It’s our first choice for themes and plugins to buy.
Check the speed of your blog
This is a ranking factor that Google considers to be quite important. Check how fast your blog loads. You can use Pingdom. The faster the better. Ideally you want to aim for a speed lower then 1 second.
Hire a Virtual Assistant (VA)
There are so many things to do when running a travel blog. Eventually you will need some help. You can hire someone to help you out so you can focus on the things you like to do the most. A good place for finding a VA is Upwork.
Learn to do keyword research
Keyword research is essential before writing your article. Ideally you would like to rank in the first page of Google, otherwise nobody will ever read your travel articles and see your stunning photos.
A good tool that we use and recommend is KWFinder. The free version is limited but if you pay for one of their plans, you will be able to do extensive research on competitive keywords, learn how easy is it to rank with them, and what search volume they have.
Don’t compare yourself to other bloggers
It’s normal to see the work of other bloggers and compare yourself, and become frustrated because you don’t see any results of your own.
The truth is, everybody works hard to be where he/she is. An awesome quote from Tim Miller that we like is “Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle, or your middle to someone else’s end.” Just work hard for yourself, and get inspired by others until you’ve create your own successful business.
Don’t undersell sponsored posts
Many marketers will reach you out offering $10 or $20 for a sponsored post with the promise that there will be more coming your way. Don’t believe that. If you accept this ridiculous deal, they will give you one, maybe two posts to publish, and then disappear.
Also, by underselling yourself you ruin other bloggers’ efforts and the travel industry in general. Would you like to work hard on your blog to raise your DA (Domain Authority) and then accept a cheap sponsored post? That wouldn’t make any sense, would it?
Write informative posts
Writing a travel blog is not about writing a diary of your travels. If you want to make money and be successful, you should write informative posts.
Give your readers the information they are looking for, travel guides, tips on things to do, or the best places to visit. Bring your experience to them through your online platform so they can experience the same.
Experiment with affiliates
Don’t just put a bunch of links from the first affiliate program you’ve subscribed to and forget about it. You should always experiment with different companies for different posts. For example Agoda works well for hotels in Asia, while Booking.com is best for Europe.
Remember that ‘deep links’ in your articles convert better than banners on the sidebar. Just test it out and study the reports on the affiliate programs.
These were some of our useful tips for your travel blog. If you are interested in more travel resources like finding the best accommodation, responsible and reliable tour operators, the best photography equipment, or the best tools for travel blogging, we’ve created a comprehensive list of Travel Resources that can help you when planning your trip or assisting you if you’re already on the road.
Well, looks like this is the end of our FREE email course. We hope you’ve enjoyed it, and we hope that you’ve learned something that will help you with your own travel blog.
If you have more questions, or just want to say hi and give us a feedback on the course, please send us a message. We would be happy to hear from you!