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Want to make money while travelling? Start a travel blog!

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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.

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

https://propellerads.com/

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

http://www.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.

Amazon Partners

The referral rate starts at 4%, but will increase up to 10% when you make more referral sales.

Affiliate Window

One of the ‘big 3’ affiliate companies, you can implement start promoting products and getting a referral free for leads and sales.

Commission Junction

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.

Clickbank

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.

ShareAsale

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. 

What is a digital nomad? And how can I become one?

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“I work as a digital nomad, travelling the world while working on my laptop.” Is usually the best answer that I try to give whenever someone asks me what I do. I try to elaborate and say, “I earn an income online from my web business.” And then it starts to make a little bit of sense, but for the majority of people, they won’t have a clue and will smile and nod politely.

The ones that do get what I do often jump in and start telling me how much they would love to be able to do that. The thought of travelling to the beaches of Thailand and working from the bar overlooking the sand and the beach is attractive. But when I actually tell them that they can actually do it, people start to pull back and make excuses like, “I’ve got a mortgage, I’m too settled or what if I don’t make enough money?” These are all valid reasons and I would never encourage someone to do something that they never wanted to do.

BUT…

If this is sounds like a lifestyle that you would enjoy, then read on my friend. Because I am going to tell you about the digital nomad lifestyle.

What is a digital nomad?

A digital nomad is a person that earns an income online while travelling. Usually, the work involves being connected to the internet and conducting services or commerce in exchange for an income. As long as they have a connection to Wi-fi, they will be able to work and earn an income, regardless of their location.

How can I make money online as a digital nomad?

Many people think that earning an income online is difficult, but it isn’t if you know how to find the right opportunities that suit your skill set. People earn an online income from activities such as:

  • Freelancing
  • Running a business
  • Blogging
  • Selling

You can check this list of digital nomad job sites to find examples of the type of work that is on offer.

The amount of money that you can make differs based on the type of work that you do. For example, you might do a data entry job that pays $7 an hour. Alternatively, you might be a computer programmer that charges $50 an hour for a job. Your earning potential will also impact the quality of life that you can expect to have as a digital nomad. But as a rule of thumb, the minimum income you should aim for is $2000 USD per month.

What can I expect as a digital nomad?

Living as cheaply as possible will allow you to easily fulfil your dream as a digital nomad. However, different people have different expectations when it comes to lifestyle. A person that chooses to live on the cheap in a shared dormitory isn’t the same as the person that wants to live in nice hotels. So before you start your adventure as a digital nomad, you need to know what kind of lifestyle you want to live.

What are some of the advantages of being a digital nomad?

One of the best things about travelling as a digital nomad is being able to do long-stay travel. If you have ever wanted to travel through a country and take in the culture or stay long enough to learn the local language, then a digital nomad lifestyle will provide you with the opportunity to do so.

You will get to take advantage of cheaper travel options.

Typically, long-stay travel allows you to take advantage of economies of scale pricing and cheaper travel options. For example, you will only need to purchase a one-way plane ticket from your country to the country that you are visiting. You can then take advantage of local bus, train, boat or airline travel, which is usually much cheaper to purchase and will allow you to do more travel.

You can click here to start comparing one-way ticket travel destinations. 

Accommodation rates tend to be cheaper.

Additionally, you can take advantage of long-stay rental rates. Instead of paying expensive hotel rates every night, you can rent a room, apartment or house and take advantage of discounted long-stay rates. You might even find opportunities for housesitting where you can get accommodation for free!

You can get around cheaply with local taxis, Uber or your own private transport.

There are some clever ways to minimize your travel costs in a city. You might decide to get around by walking or cycling if you live close to the main facilities. Alternatively, you could rent or purchase a car or scooter to use for the duration of your stay. If you purchase a vehicle, you can always sell it at the end of your stay and get your money back (or maybe more!)

Should you quit your job to travel and work anywhere in the world?

If this is what you want to do, then I believe that you should go for it. But I think you should have a plan of attack for achieving your digital nomad travel goals rather than jumping straight into the deep end of the water and being in a sink or swim scenario.

Develop a skill, product or service that you can sell to earn an income that will allow you to live as a digital nomad and become location-independent. I’d recommend getting something up and running before you head abroad, but people have succeeded when they have jumped into the deep end.

You can get some guidance by signing up to the Lollivia newsletter or register for one of our future courses or ebooks. What I would say is quit only when you feel ready (your gut feeling should tell you this) and then start your next adventure.
Click here to learn more about becoming a digital nomad.