How to Start a Travel Blog (That Makes Money)

Wondering how to start a travel blog and make money? You’re in the right place.

I started my travel blog in 2023, with my goal being to eventually work full-time as a travel writer. It took me about 1 year after starting my travel blog to start earning a full-time, livable income from it.

A lot has changed in the blogging world over the past couple years, especially the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). My blog is still earning me a livable income as of late 2024, so I believe I have some secrets to share.

I will say, earning money from a travel blog is not easy. It’s a lot of work, and in a climate where nothing is ever guaranteed.

However, it is a dream to be running a travel blog for a living, and it’s very much up my alley because of my love for both writing and travelling.

I want to help others who feel drawn to this do the same. Whether you have started a travel blog already, or are thinking of starting one, I’m going to walk you through:

• how I started this profitable travel blog
• how to know if running a travel blog for a living is right for you
• what skills you need to make money from blogging
• whether having a travel blog in this day in age is worth it
• how to start your own blog. (Whether its travel-related, or another niche.)

So, let’s jump in – how to make money from travel blogging!

How To Make Money from Travel Blogging in 3 Steps

There are three basic steps to generating income from your travel blog.

Step # 1: Write enough SEO-optimized, good quality content content to generate lots of traffic to your blog. You need about 10,000 pageviews a month before you can start making any kind of money.

Step # 2: Join lots of affiliate programs for products you want to recommend. Use affiliate links throughout your blog, and earn some affiliate commission

Step # 3: Continue to scale traffic to get 50,000 pageviews per month. Once you hit these kinds of numbers, you can start making thousands of dollars a month from ad revenue, in addition to affiliate commission.

How I Started Generating a Full-Time Income from My Travel Blog

I’ll walk you through how I managed to set up a home-based business as a full-time travel blogger and earn a livable income from it.

Step # 1: I started writing

I dabbled with travel writing before setting up the website. I enjoyed documenting my experiences and sharing tips with others.

This helped me generate content that I eventually used for my blog, and the process of starting the travel blog was much easier given that I already had content to pull from.

Step # 2: I picked a name

Without a name, you can’t start a website or social media pages for your blog. I went back and forth on the name quite a bit, and changed my mind a few times.

Step # 3: I bought a domain and set up social media profiles with my chosen name

Once you’ve decided on a name, I recommend buying the domain name sooner than later, and setting up social media pages for your blog.

Step # 4: I enrolled in a professional travel blogging course.

I knew I wanted to take a travel blogging or SEO-related course, because I wanted to see results as quickly as possible.

I did quite a bit of shopping around, and making pros and cons list about each travel blogging course out there.

Ultimately, I decided on Scale Your Travel Blog, which is probably the most expensive blogging course out there. Read my review of the course here.

Step # 5: I spent a lot of time working on the blog

For the first year, I probably spent 20-30 hours a week working on my blog. I followed all the steps and tips I was taught in SYTB (which I’ll highlight below,) and wrote and published like crazy.

Some of the things I worked on during the first year were:

• Writing and publishing about 3 blog posts per week
• Writing guest posts for other blogs, in order to earn links back to my blog (which helps your blog gain authority and trust with search engines)
• Signing up for affiliate programs, to earn affiliate commission on products, hotels and tours that I recommend

I didn’t do any social media for the first year, as my goal was to establish authority with Google and other search engines, to bring traffic to my site passively.

Step # 6: Got into a good ad network

The ultimate goal for every travel blogger who wants to make money is to get into a really good ad network, that will pay you well for displaying their partner’s ads on their site.

Some people choose to set up Google Analytics immediately, but my blogging coach recommended against this. Those kinds of ads slow down your site (which search engines do not like) and they pay very minimally.

I learned that its more worth it to hold off on ads, until you have a certain traffic threshold to be accepted into a quality ad network.

Once I was receiving a few thousand visitors per month, I partnered with She Media to have ads on my site.

Once I was receiving over 40,000 people a month to my site, I switched to Mediavine (which is the second-best ad network out there.)

Pro Tip: The best ad network is arguably Raptive (also known as Adthrive), which you need 100,000 pageviews a month for. I’m not quite there yet!

Is Blogging Right For You?

Before embarking on a blogging journey (especially one where you hope to generate income), it’s important to know that there are two types of blogging:

A) The first is more of a journal style that is usually just for entertainment, or sharing with family and friends. (This is what many people think of when they hear the word ‘blogging’.)

B) The second type of blogging is professional blogging, which is a more business or commercial style writing. It can earn anywhere from $10 a month to thousands of dollars a month.

The second option, B – is the one that will make you money.

How Long Does It Take to Make Money from Travel Blogging?

It can take several months before the first few dollars from your blog start trickling then, and its very hard to get to the point where you’re making even a few hundred dollars a month.

So to be more specific, this is what I was told by my blogging coach that you could expect to make from a travel blog specifically, and how long it could take:

• first 3 months of blogging: probably earn nothing
• after 3-6 months of blogging: a few hundred dollars per month, up to a max of $1,000 per month
• after 6-12 months of blogging: a few thousand dollars per month
• 12-18 months:

So, as you can see – it definitely takes time to start making money.

I’ll let you in on a secret – most bloggers do not make the amounts displayed above. (I did – but I was also working on it full-time.) If you’re only working on your blog part-time, then it will likely take longer to make these amounts.

Here are some signs that blogging for a living might be right for you:

• ✅ You love to write
• ✅ You’re highly self-motivated
• ✅ You’re passionate about your topic (whether its travel or something else.) You could talk for hours about it
• ✅ You don’t get frustrated when results don’t come right away
• ✅ You aren’t easily discouraged

If these things are true about you, then I think you’d have lots of potential for making money from a travel or other type of blog.

Skills You Need to Start a Successful Blog

Here are the skills to gear up for to help you start a blog that makes money. Doing these skills well is the difference between a diary blog that is lost in the depths of the internet and one that appears on the first page of Google

1. Quality writing

A big part of that is writing and publishing quality content. Writing doesn’t have to be your favourite thing about blogging, but I believe if you really don’t enjoy writing at all, then blogging might not be an enjoyable profession for you.

I am a part of many blogging communities. Some people love to write, and others hardly write at all. (They use a lot of AI, or they hire writers.)

While you can always outsource the writing to others or use AI to generate content, you will feel more job satisfaction if you enjoy many processes of starting a blog.

If I didn’t enjoy writing so much, I wouldn’t have been able to write nearly as much original, quality content as I have – and my earnings would not be the same.

2. Keyword research

‘Keywords’ are words and short phrases and questions typed into search fields.

Here are some examples of keywords:

• kids’ birthday party ideas
• things to do in Los Angeles with kids
• Disney Cruise door decorating ideas

These are things that people might type into search engines, to get ideas, information or inspiration.

One of the most important things you need to get good at to run a blog is keyword research, which means finding out what kinds of keywords are being typed into search engines.

When you know what people are searching for, then it’s possible for:

• you to write good content around keywords
• your blog posts will come up
• people visit your site.

Keyword research can be done using specific tools, or using search engines and forums to give you hints and ideas.

Keyword research tools usually have a free version and a paid one. Usually, the free option is more limiting, but can still do the job just fine.

I personally have not invested in a paid keyword research tool for my blog yet, and have only used free services and techniques- but I’ve still made decent money from my travel blog. So, while paid tools can be very valuable, I don’t believe that you necessarily need them in order to make money from a blog

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Remember we talked about keywords? Using the keywords (and related keywords) throughout blog is what tells Google or other search engines that your blog post is a good match for the people typing those words.

SEO also involves:

• linking internally between your blog posts (which shows Google that you write a lot about similar topics, which builds your authority in those topics.)
• getting backlinks from other websites, which increases your domain authority (DA)
• writing good quality, long-form content using keywords that will bring traffic to your blog

SEO can mean a lot of things, but in a nutshell, it means making sure your blog is search-engine friendly.

Having search engines, like Google, bring thousands of people to your blog each day is what generates a passive income.

How To Start a Travel Blog and Make Money (As Quickly As Possible)

Here’s how to start earning from a travel blog as quickly as possible. Remember, earning money from a travel blog will never be ‘quick’, but the wait is worth it.

1. Target keywords in the right order

When you first start a blog, you want to target keywords that don’t have too much competition.

Keywords that have a high search volume (lots of people searching for them) tend to have lots of bloggers writing about them, because obviously everyone wants to write for the keywords that will bring the most people to their site.

An example of a popular keyword is “Things to Do in Paris.”

This is likely a very hard keyword to rank for, as there’s so much written about it already.

So, when you’re first starting a blog, I wouldn’t recommend writing for that keyword that is so popular. However, you may be able to rank for:

• Paris with a baby
• Paris on a budget
• Best vegan restaurants in Paris
• Paris in winter

These keywords have less competition, which means they’re easier for you to rank for.

When you’re starting a new blog, you always want to reach for low-hanging fruit. Keywords that have some volume, but now competition that you can rank for.

When I first started my blog, Tiny Footsteps Travel, I wanted to target keywords like “Florence with Kids” or “Costa Rica with Kids.”

However, with such a new blog with a low domain authority, it looked too difficult to be able to rank for those keywords, (they were already taken by much bigger blogs) so I focused on easier keywords that not too many other people had already written about.

As the months went on, my DA (Domain Authority) improved and Google started trusting me – I then wrote my dream posts with very popular keywords: Costa Rica with Kids, and Florence with Kids.

Both of these posts are now on the first page of Google search results if you were to Google those keywords.

This would not have been possible without targeting the easier keywords first.

Pro Tip: I always use the free version of Semrush to check out how easy a keyword is to rank for. Semrush’s free version allows you to search a keyword, see how many monthly searches there are in your chosen country, and worldwide, and its percentage of difficulty level. As a relatively new blogger (still) I only target keywords with an easiness of 29% or lower. If it’s over 30%, then I believe it will be too hard for me to rank for that keyword.

2. Tell earch engines (and people) why they should trust you

EEAT is very important these days in blogging. It stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.

Recently, Google and other search engines have begun prioritizing EEAT. It’s in their best interest to show content that is credible to their users.

You can show EEAT by:

• Having an ‘About me’ page telling why you’ve started a blog about this topic and what your experience and expertise in it is
  
• Having many related articles, and interlinking between them. If you can link your articles, then that means that they’re about a similar topic. You build authority in that topic by writing a lot of related articles and interlinking them.
  
• Talking throughout your post about your personal experience and expertise. You still your post to be organized, but you want to continuously share your own insight, opinions and experience so that people (and search engines) trust you as an authority on that topic.
  
• Having a LinkedIn profile where you describe yourself as an expert in your field, and list your blog as one of your jobs
  
• Existing on multiple platforms and linking between them (this allows your blog to receive backlinks from these websites)

3. Make page-speed a priority

The number #1 important thing for your blog is page speed. If your website loads slow, then search engines will not want to show it (it also creates bad user experience.)

The best way to prioritize page speed is to:

• choose a simple theme for your blog – I use the Kadence theme by WordPress
• resize your images on canva to keep them small (I do 1200 by 800px for horizontal images, and 1000 by 1500px for vertical)

I check my website speed often to make sure it’s still doing well, you can do that here.

4. Write for US traffic

If you’re starting a travel blog, you can write about any destination in the world, for whatever country you want.

It helps to know though that generally, you are paid higher RPMs for US traffic.

So if you want to make money quickly, then always write about topics that are widely searched in the US. (There are ways of checking this – I check through Semrush.)

I try to focus on keywords that have a high US traffic volume, because I make so much more off of them. Check out my earnings (for the last 30 days) in this graph for how much I made off of visitors from each country:

I make much more money off of traffic coming from the United States than from any other country.

So the dollar amount you see is how much I was paid over the past month for visitors from these countries. As you can see, I make much more off of US traffic than any other country (including Canada, which I have more visitors from.)

I am not saying that writing for other audiences (such as Australian traffic, or Brazilian traffic) is a bad idea for your travel blog at all. I simply want to highlight that ad networks generally pay much more for US traffic. In some cases, you can’t get accepted to top-tier ad networks unless you have a certain amount of US traffic.

5. Hold out for a good ad network

There are lots of ad networks that are willing to pay you for ads on your blog, but some pay much better than others.

The better the ad network, the higher the traffic requirement.

Most bloggers start with a smaller network and apply to one of the better ones once their blog meets the traffic requirements for a better ad network.

At the very beginning, you should hold off on ads, because you wouldn’t have enough traffic to qualify for a ‘good’ ad network. The lower-tier ad networks will slow your site down and affect user experience.

Here are some of the ad networks, and how much traffic you need to have in order to get accepted by them:

• Raptive – 100,000 page views per month
• Mediavine – 50,000 sessions per month (50k sessions translates to about 60k views, give or take)
• She Media – 15,000 sessions per month
• Monumetric – 10, 0000 sessions per month
• Journey by Mediavine – 10,000 sessions per month

I signed up with She Media after 4 months and started earning money from them at that point. Once my blog was a year old and getting 50,000 sessions per month, I switched over to Mediavine.

The basic key for making money from travel blogging is:

1. start your blog
2. write about topics that will bring people (ideally US traffic) to your blog
3. sign up for affiliate marketing (which I’ll get into below)
4. get accepted into an ad network after your blog has enough traffic
5. start making ad money

It’s that simple! (Well, sort of – it takes quite a bit of effort.)

6. Sign up to do Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is about earning a small commission through products and services you recommend on your blog. The purchases can be products, hotel stays, tours, or services

I recommend places to stay, tours, and products. When people buy them, or make another purchase after clicking through my links, I earn a commission.

To earn affiliate income, you sign up or apply to be an affiliate with different companies.

The affiliate programs that travel bloggers often go with are:

• Travel Payouts
• Viator
• Amazon
• Stay22
• REI
• Impact

I am signed up as an affiliate with most of the above. Altogether, I pull in a decent amount from affiliate commissions each month, but it varies by month

7. Start doing Sponsorships and Brand Deals

Once your blog gets bigger, you can start working with brands, and getting sponsorship deals.

This can mean:

• Getting free things in exchange for a review or positive recommendation
• Getting something for free in exchange for content produced around that product or service (such as Instagram reels, blog posts, etc)
• Getting paid to produce content around a particular service or product

Personally, I’ve only done the first one of the three. I’ve received many free products from companies hoping to get a positive review on my social media, newsletter or blog.

I’m currently working on growing my social media following, in hopes to work with brands for the second two ways.

Is it Worth it To Start a Travel Blog In This Day in Age?

We live in a rapidly changing world. Does blogging have the same income potential now, as it did a decade ago? Here are my honest thoughts

I’m going to be brutally honest here. Blogging has become a lot more challenging in the past year.

Blogs are receiving less traffic now than they were prior to 2023, because there is more to compete with now and there have been a number of search engine algorithm changes.

On several platforms and in blogging communities that I’m a part of, I see that both new and experienced bloggers are feeling discouraged.

There are two main factors contributing to this loss of traffic for blogs:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI negatively affects blog traffic because:

• Google and other search engine use AI overviews, which scrapes content from websites. People read the overviews without scrolling further, which means less visits to websites
• Mass production of content. Because of AI tools, people have been able to rapidly grow blogs, which means more competition to compete with
• People are often using AI to do their research, rather than reading websites

Algorithm Changes

The blogging world faced it’s first major turning point in September 2023. That was the first time Google rolled out an algorithm update that significantly impacted the traffic that independent bloggers were receiving.

More algorithm updates continued throughout the following year, in March and August 2024.

Some people who weren’t affected by the previous ones ended up being affected by later ones. and sometimes people who’d already lost traffic to an algorithm update lost more with consequent updates.

Do the above things make blogging a scary, and unstable career to embark on? Absolutely. I can never 100% guarantee where my blog will be month after month. This is something to consider when setting expectations for your blog. However, I’m going to give you some tips below that have helped me continue to be successful

Steps to Set up A Successful Montezied Travel Blog That Stays Strong

Ready to start your blog? Follow these steps

1. Consider your niche

It really pays off to have a niche for your blog.

You may think that you’ll just write about ‘general travel, but that’s like someone saying that they wrote a ‘general cookbook.’

When you choose a blogging niche, its important that you choose something that interests you. When I say interests you, I mean that you could talk about it for hours on end without being bored.

If you don’t find your chosen niche interesting, then it won’t be as easy for you to make money from it. How can you get others interested in it, if you aren’t interested yourself?

Your travel tips and experiences are going to be appealing to a certain audience. It could be:

• budget travel
• luxury travel
• family travel (like my blog)
• solo female travel
• foodie
• road trips, TV and van life
• hiking, and much more

The reason I say “consider” and not choose a niche, is because it doesn’t mean that everything you write has to be specifically related to that topic. Even though my niche is family travel, I still have many blog posts that aren’t specifically about travelling with kids.

But, I have many posts related to family travel and am now seen by search engines as a family travel expert.

There is different information out there about which blogging niches are the most profitable, but either way- as long as you’re targeting the right keywords (which we’ll get into below) then any niche can be profitable.

Pro Tip: Think about which of the ideas above (or another niche) you could talk for hours about without stopping. That’s what your niche should be.

2. Choose a name

You can’t buy a domain or register your domain with a host without first having a name for your travel blog. So, choosing a name is one of the first things you’ll do.

Thinking of your niche first helps you pick a name.

Tip for choosing a travel blog name: If you put your name in your domain (for example, ‘Travel with Kristin’) then keep in mind it could be harder down the line if you ever wanted to sell your blog.

It’s best to choose a name that you can ‘grow’ with – one that will still be as applicable in 10 years from now as it is now.

For example, if you pick a name like “20-Something Traveller”, then that will only be applicable to you for a certain length of time.

Don’t overthink the name. In the grand scheme of things, the name isn’t that important. Like Nike said, just do it!

3. Buy a domain

Once you have a name, you can buy a domain. The domain is the web address for your blog -www.(yourblogname).com.

You can buy your domain from many places, and it doesn’t really matter where you buy it from. They will all tell you whether your name is available or not.

I had to play around with names quite a bit in order to find a domain that wasn’t taken.

4. Choose a host

Once you have your domain, you need a host that will put your site ‘online.’ Once you’ve bought a domain, and registered it with a host, then you’re ready to start setting up your website.

I use A2 as my host. If you type your chosen domain name into “register a domain” then you can

5. Set up Google Search Console at Analytics

Right after you create your website, be sure to index it with Google Search Console. This is what puts your site ‘online’ and tells Google to index your blog posts.

Google Analytics helps you to track the progress of your website, so that is important too.

There are tons of tutorials online teaching you about this step. There is a pretty good guide here.

6. Set up WordPress Properly

Next, you’ll want to set up WordPress. I recommend choosing the Kadence theme because its fast and simple.

Limit the amount of plugsin you have. The more plugins there are, the slower your site will be.

The plugins I have installed for my site are:

• WP Rocket (costs extra)
• Short Pixel
• Yoast SEO

Pro Tip: As I mentioned earlier, speed is very important when it comes to having a blog. Rather than focusing on what looks ‘pretty’ – go with simple. Search engines (and people) like fast websites that load quickly.

7. Get a Canva account

Use Canva to create the cover photo and pillar pages for your blog. Canva is my best friend when it comes to being a travel content creator.

I use canva to:

• edit and resize images for my blog
• create cover photos for my blog posts
• create pins for Pinterest
• create YouTube videos

8. Create ‘pages’ on your website

Pages are like wider topics. For example, you can find all my Canada content on my Canada page.

Which pages will you have? Try to think of what topics you will write about, and what umbrella topics they fit under.

Pro Tip: Interlink between your blog posts as much as possible. Write in bulks about one topic that is related, for example: Vancouver with Kids, Best Restaurants in Vancouver, Where to Stay in Vancouver – and interlink them right away. Interlinking shows search engines that you write a lot about a topic (and therefore that you know a lot about it.)

9. Do Keyword research

Using skills that I will elaborate on below, you need to find keywords to base your blog posts on. Those keywords will need to be used in the title and throughout your blog post several times.

You’ll need to decide on which keywords to target first. Keywords are usually used in the title of your blog post and throughout your blog post.

For example “things to do in Paris” is a keyword. (But a competitive one, that I wouldn’t recommend targeting in the beginning.)

When you’re just starting out, you should find keywords with low competition that you have expert information on.

You need to figure out what kinds of search queries people type into search engines, in order to drive people naturally to your blog.

There are many tools to figure out what the popular search queries are

• The first page of Google (look at the predictive text, and the ‘people also ask’ section. I base all of my blog posts off of this
• Keyword research tools, such as Ahrefs, Keysearch, or Semrush. (There are many more, but these are the most popular from my experience.)

Free Keyword research tools

• Semrush (10 free searches per day)
• Answer the Public (4 searches per day)

Paid Keyword research tools

• Keysearch
• Ahrefs

*Many of these paid keyword research tools also have a free tool that you can use on a more limited basis.

I have never paid for a keyword research tool; to this day, I only use free resources. My favourite tool is the free version of Semrush, but I’m in the minority. Most travel bloggers prefer Keysearch.

10. Write a blog post, targeting one of your chosen keywords

Choose which one to target first, and write blog post that is somewhere between 1,500 and 4,000 words. (Blog posts can be shorter or longer than that, but that’s the length that most of them tend to be.)

Pro Tip: 2,500 words is seen as the ‘sweet spot.’

Use your keyword in the title, in the first paragraph, the last paragraph. This is part of SEO- telling search engines what your blog post is about.

Pro Tip: Don’t use the keyword too many times, because this is called “keyword stuffing” and isn’t looked upon well by search engines. The number of times you use it depends on how long your blog post is

11. Write for others, not for yourself

They # 1 key for profitable blog is to help others.

Your blog posts still need to be well-structured, and organized so that it is scroll friendly and people can find the information they’re looking for easily.

You can do this by:

• Using headlines for each subtopic
• Ensuring that your blog post is written in a way that is concise and follows a person’s train of thought
• Not taking forever to get to the point (the purpose of your blog post.) This is frustrating for users, and search engines don’t like it either

11. Write more, and more blog posts

I had about 50 blog posts on Tiny Footsteps Travel before I started earning money from the blog.

For my other blog, The Misfit Teacher – it is taking longer to make money so I’ll probably need closer to 100 blog posts before money starts coming in.

The amount of blog posts you need to make money varies by blog, and by niche. But you, can expect that you’ll need to do a lot of writing before the money starts pouring in.

Reminder: As you’re writing blog posts, remember to interlink, interlink, interlink! After I publish a blog post, I immediately go to my older content and link to the new content.

13. Get some backlinks

Backlinks are other websites linking to your websites. It’s apart of what we call “off page SEO,” as being linked to from other websites is a signal to search engines that your site is trustworthy.

You can get backlinks by joining Facebook groups related to backlinks between bloggers. Through these groups, you can find bloggers to write guest posts for in exchange for backlinks, or participate in round-up collabs. This is how I’ve gotten the vast majority of my backlinks.

Some of the Facebook groups related to backlinks that I’m apart of are:

• Travel Blogger Link Building – Link Swap, Guest Posts, Collab Posts
• Link Building + Guest Posts + Collabs (Travel Bloggers)

5. Track analytics, to see what your readers like

Keep an eye on Google Search Console, and Google Analyrics in the process of growing your blog.

It allows you to see:

• Which blog posts are being clicked on
• How long people are spending on your pages

This allows you to write more of what your readers like.

Tips for Succeeding at Travel Blogging in the Current Climate

Even though the threats of AI and algorithm updates make things a bit more uncertain for travel creators, I believe that these tips and principles have allowed my blog to stay strong, and are good advice for any new travel blogger

Write each blog post as if it’s for your best friend.

Would you recommend this product or experience to a close friend, or family member? If not, then think twice about whether it belongs in your blog.

If you were sharing with a close friend, you would tell them your honest opinion and impressions about things – this is what you should do in your blog as well.

Pro Tip: Your own personal expertise and opinion is what sets you apart of anyone else (including artificial intelligence tools)

Stick to topics you’re an expert in

If you have first-hand experience with a place, then you have invaluable insight that can only be unique to you.

This is what AI can’t compete with – a real human insight on the experience of something.

For example, in my post about whether Toronto is worth visiting – I clearly tell the reader (and search engines) in the introduction paragraph why I’m an expert on Toronto and why people should listen to me about Toronto.

You want to always make your experience and expertise very clear in your blog posts.

Provide original insight

Let’s say you want to write a blog post about “Florence in Winter.” Go look at what is already out there. How is your blog post different from others that are already on the first page?

Simply repeating what’s already been said on the topic is a mistake. Make sure that your article is providing more value and insight than what’s already currently out there.

I always ask myself if what I’m writing is providing additional value than what already exists, and I don’t publish my blog posts until I feel it does.

Show your experience and authority across all channels

Ok, so you know by now that its important to show in your blog why you’re an expert

These days, it also really pays off to show that across the whole internet too. It may sound a little creepy, but search engines likely have a profile on you and recognize you across all channels.

So, be sure to:

• Create social media profiles for your blog and link to your website from those channels (this offers a backlink to your blog as well)
• Have an About Me page clearly stating why you’re an expert in your niche

Keep up with the trends in blogging

Entering the blogging world is entering the technology world, where everything is constantly changing.

What is true at one point may not be true a few months, or years later. It’s important to keep up to date with what is currently happening in blogging so that you know what the current advice is, and can make adjustments to what you’re doing, if necessary.

Put yourself out there

Go public with your blog, and add a link to your blog from all channels (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) For me, this was the scariest part of starting a travel blog.

I’m shy, and battle with insecurities and lots of self-doubt. But, being brave and building a brand for myself is one of the many ways my blog will be set apart from generic AI answers.

Don’t be afraid to:

• SHARE your blog posts on your Facebook, and on LinkedIn.
• Tell people about your blog.

How to Learn to Blog

There are many courses out there that will teach you how to start and run a profitable blog that could potentially earn you a full-time income. There are both free resources, and paid ones.

I am going to share with you what some of the main paid courses ones are, and the one I chose after hours of research – and why I chose it.

• Stupid Simple SEO
• Scale Your Travel Blog
• She Knows SEO
• Goats on the Road

I decided to take Scale Your Travel Blog, which was by far, one of the most expensive from the list above.

I chose Scale Your Travel Blog because

• There were additional services offered in her course that the others didn’t have.
• Of all the comments I read online (and I dug pretty deep) I couldn’t find anyone who spoke negatively about it or regretted taking it
• Laura has worked with many of the above bloggers, and was even the teacher of Nina Clapperton, who teachers She Knows SEO
• My gut told me it was the course I should take

Based on that experience, and many others since then, I knew what I was looking for in a course. I wanted a course with a more involved, rather than someone I never have a chance of interacting or communicating with.

Scale Your Travel Blog came with a price tag, but something deep inside told me it was the right choice. Everything felt right, and somehow I knew deep down that I could trust Laura and her expertise.

My travel blog grew from 0 visitors a month to 1,000 visitors per month a month in. Several months later, I was receiving over 1,000 visitors a day. You can read more about how I achieved that here.

If you’re serious about making money from blogging (it doesn’t have to be a travel blog) then I would definitely recommend Scale Your Travel Blog.

Laura offers free live training so that you can see what Laura’s teaching style is like and get a Scale Your Travel Blog is the right course to help you achieve the goals you want.

Starting a Travel Blog that Earns Money FAQ

Here are the most commonly asked questions about starting a travel blog that generates an income

How much money can you make from a travel blog?

How much you can make from a travel blog varies quite a bit, depending on your niche, how much time you’re putting into it, and the quality of your content. Most travel bloggers are earning something between a few hundred dollars and a few thousand per month. It is possible to make more, or less than that though.

How long does it take to make $1000 per month blogging?

It can take several months before you start making $1,000 per month from a blog. In my case, it took me 9 months to make $1,000 per month. And, it only went up from there.

How much does it cost to start a travel blog?

The costs for starting a travel blog are pretty minimal – all you need is your domain name and host, (a total of $200, give or take) and you’re good to go. There could be additional hidden expenses assocatiated with starting a travel blog, such as SEO courses,

Is travel blogging worth it?

Travel blogging is worth it if you are passionate about writing and sharing honest information about your experience with others. If you’re willing to put hours and hours of hard work into your blog, then it can definitely pay off financially.

Final Thoughts on How to Start a Travel Blog and Make Money

I hope that this article has filled you with a wealth of knowledge and insight on how to start a travel blog and make money.

It is a gift to be making money from this, nevermind enough to live off of – and I truly want to help others do the same if they’re interested in it to.

I am now a full-time blogger with two different blogs (plus more ideas up my sleeve for others I’d like to start) from which I earn a passive income.

What I love best about blogging is that it doesn’t feel like work. I’ve always loved writing, and I love gathering information and presenting it in a useful way. From my experience, the hard work is worth it.

I love blogging for a living, and I feel that I’m using a lot of the skills that I’m naturally good at and enjoy. I hope that I’ve gotten you started on the right path!