Advice for Travel Bloggers Looking to Monetize Their Content

If you are ready to work from anywhere and love to travel, starting a travel blog is a good way to build a revenue stream. Be aware that building this revenue stream will take some work and the income may take time to grow, so it would be a good idea to have savings or another source of income at the start. However, once you get going, your travel blog income will be passive income, flowing to you from previously written projects each time someone reads your posts.

Monetization Basics

Many bloggers use their websites to sell products or courses. While this is e-commerce, it is not technically monetization. To successfully monetize your travel blog, you will need to add features to your blog that link readers to sellers and stores that you inherently recommend. There is risk in monetization, as it can start to read like hucksterism. Make sure that your blog content is worth reading and build a following first, then start adding monetization features that will bring in money.

Monetization Tools

To invite your readers into your travel experience, you may want to introduce them to the products that work best. You might also want to recommend the places and services that served you especially well. To link readers to those items, places and people, you can use any of the following methods:
Affiliate Advertising

If you are going camping in Louisiana state parks and find the best screen tent on the market or a terrific pair of binoculars to check out all the birds along the water, you can list them on your site and get paid when people click on your link. Be honest, but do not over promote.

Pay Per Click

You create a partnership with advertising networks and put a banner on your blogging website. When folks click on the advert link, you get paid. Make sure that

• the ads on the banner will appeal to your readers
• you do not add too many ads to your blog
• you have enough traffic to justify a banner

Sponsored Post Creation

A sponsored post is a promotional piece. For those who love to hike, finding killer walking poles can excite you so much that you contact the company directly to offer to write a sponsored post. If you have enough of a following, you can ask for more money than you would get just for linking to their sales page. Be very upfront about this. Let your readers know that this post is sponsored and that you may be talking about hiking, but you are also talking up a particular set of hiking poles.

Open and Promote Your Own Store

Many travel bloggers actually live a rather spartan life. Being constantly on the road means that you might actually have a very limited number of possessions, but each is exactly right for what you need. This gives you an experience and expertise that others are yearning for, so go ahead and build a single store for all of these items. For example, if you are a travel blogger and skilled photographer, your store can feature

• camera gear
• rain gear
• great walking shoes and hiking boots
• bags to protect fragile electronics
• tripods

and other items that you, as a traveler who has figured out what does not work, can promote in confidence. Many e-store platforms offer a very simple structure that you can quickly load with the gear that makes your life easier. Instead of writing blog posts that link to other stores, you can link to your own store.

Start a Podcast

Having readable content is one way to get your message out there. A podcast is a way to get your words onto the airwaves for those who choose not to read. Look for podcasters in the region you are traveling to next to see if they will host you. This will give you the chance to see if you are interested in this branch of information sharing.

To successfully monetize your blog, you need to start with high-quality, readable content. Start there, and when you get a following going, share the gear and services that make your traveling life more enjoyable.