You might be at a stage where you know you want to travel, but you have no idea how you can make an income. You might not even have anything that particularly interests you at this stage. That is fine. Alot of people have been in your position.
So the first thing that I would recommend you doing is starting a travel blog. Ideally, you will be able to develop your travel blog to the point where it earns you an income residually. However, if it isn’t the case, I want you to use your travel blog to learn and develop skills that will allow you to earn an income by applying the skills that you will learn from doing a travel blog.
In this post, I will share the steps that you should take to develop your travel blog.
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Before you do anything…
Promise yourself that you will commit to the development of your lifestyle and that you will figure out how to get it to work for you. There will be times when you will succeed and other times when you will fail. The thing to remember is that you will continue to build an income portfolio that will allow you to earn more than what you need to fulfil your travel dreams.
Start a hosted WordPress site.
This shouldn’t cost you more than $50USD for the year, but it will pay-off for itself in the long-run. You will need to invest in a web host solution that provides a 1-click WordPress install. You can click here to start the process.
An alternative option is to use Hostgator. You can click on this link to get a 30% discount.
Once you have setup your account, you will need to select a web theme design, name and configure the website.
Note: By having your own site, you will develop the following skills.
- WordPress CMS management skills
- Content management skills
- Domain configuration
- Web hosting configuration
- Plugin management
- Onsite SEO
- Content creation
How can you start making an income from your travel blog?
To succeed with making an income, you will need to find an audience that you can monetise.
Here are some ways you can make an income from your travel blog.
Advertising networks.
The easiest way to start making an income is by signing up to advertising networks who will display ads on your website. You will need to upload a code to your site to display the ads. Once this is done, you should receive an income credit for every time the ad is shown. The fee is usually credited as a cost per thousand impressions (Otherwise known as CPMs). You can also get paid with Pay per click ads.
You can start earning an income on your website by partnering with the following advertising networks.
Adsense
https://www.google.com/adsense/
Owned by Google. They allow you to publish ads in the form of display, text and video that blend into your website’s content.
Propeller Ads
You can use Propeller ads to monetise your website. They work in a similar way to Adsense, however they tend to pay on a CPM basis (Cost per thousand impressions), which means you can get everytime someone visits and browses through your website.
Media.net
Owned by Yahoo, it works in a similar way to Adsense. However, the display ads only come in a few colours. When I first started to use it, it would earn a little bit of money, but over time, it hasn’t earned anything. You can try it to see if you will have more success with it. The thing I didn’t like about it was how much it impacted the visual experience of the website.
Sovrn
I used this in the past and even though I have heard about other publishers having success with this ad network, I personally wasn’t a fan because it would never serve the ads. You can try it out and if some ads get served, then you will start to earn an income. But if not, then it will become a real problem.
Affiliate
Affiliate marketing is another easy way to start monetising your audience. Everytime you make a recommendation for a product or service, you can get paid. If you do this for high-ticket items, you can earn a fair amount of income every month.
Below are a few of the affiliate networks that you can sign-up to.
The referral rate starts at 4%, but will increase up to 10% when you make more referral sales.
One of the ‘big 3’ affiliate companies, you can implement start promoting products and getting a referral free for leads and sales.
Commission Junction is the biggest affiliate and they work with major brands. Working with them can be lucrative over the long-run, however it can be challenging to get accepted in their programs.
Another one of the big 3 affiliates, there are several affiliate products that pay high commissions, however many of the products are unknown. You will need to do your research to learn more about what they offer.
Many people have had success with ShareAsale’s affiliate program. They have their own, where you will earn a commission for referring people as leads to their site. But they have several businesses whose products you can promote. It can be an easy way to start generating an online income.
Click here to join the affiliate program now.
Sell your own products
You can create and sell your products online. If you have enough visitors to your site, you can sell products such as your own merchandise or an information course. This is actually a scalable way for you to increase your income and even earn an income residually over the long-term.
Sell your own services.
One of the quickest ways to earn an income is by selling any skills that you can provide. This could be anything. You could start writing, you could manage a website, you could provide voiceovers. It is really up to you. But whatever you decide to sell, make sure that you can do it really well.
You can find jobs for freelancers, digital nomads or remote working opportunities here.
Sponsored blog posts.
This is a big income earner, however there is a catch. There are several businesses (especially SEO companies) that are willing to pay a fee in exchange for getting a post published with a link going back to their client’s website. Many travel bloggers can earn hundreds or thousands of dollars each month with this practice.
BUT, there is a catch.
The reason that this is being done is to manipulate Google’s search engine results. The backlash is that it could affect your website in the future. You should read Google’s Terms of Service to see what they advise when it comes to sponsored posts.
Sell advertising on your website.
If you get enough visitors to your site, you can start to sell ads. Some people earn hundreds or even thousands of dollars every month simply by selling ad space units on their website.
These aren’t the only ways you can make an income through your website, but it should point you in the right direction and hopefully, you will start to make your first dollars to sustain your digital nomad journey and create a ticket for endless travel.
If you have seen some other creative ways for people to start earning an income with their travel blog, then leave a comment in the section below.
Thanks for reading!
Disclaimer – This post contains affiliate links, but the opinions and recommendations are my own.
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