Real Talk: Is Travel Blogging Worth It?
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Is Travel Blogging Worth It? Or even profitable in 2023?
A little bit of context, I’m an ex-corporate girl who burned out after about a decade of 9 to 5 labor. After going on what turned out to be a two-year sabbatical, I accidentally became a travel blogging entrepreneur and have not looked back since. How the hell?!
As my story goes, I started a travel blog in March of 2022, when I was galavanting around Europe like the gypsy I am. Why? Because I was quickly running out of money. As you may imagine, I had a few goals for this blog:
- To document my cute misadventures – show the unfiltered truth, Anthony Bourdain style.
- To make some passive income so I could continue my travel and leisure lifestyle.
- To live and travel how I wanted and when I wanted – think complete lifestyle freedom.
The problem was I had zero ideas how to start or monetize a blog or even how to make money with my writing.
This post is about what I found to be the secret sauce (Answer: SEO) to making money with travel blogging, plus a few tips here and there – because sharing is caring.
For the late bloomers, SEO is a fancy term for basically getting Google to love your content and rank it at the top of its search results.
So when people search “how can I make money travel blogging“, my article pops to the top of your search results.
FAST FORWARD: One year later, I have 20K people on my website monthly. I am also making $2,000 a month in affiliate marketing revenue.
⭐️ What’s more, I’m on track to make it to 50K monthly visitors to my site a month and earn $5,000 monthly revenue before the end of the year. ⭐️
All of this with zero social media, zero paid advertisements, selling no jewelry or skincare products (because I’m a terrible influencer), and dedicating about 20 hours a week to the blog.
How?! The power of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), baby! And a damn good teacher and coach that taught me everything I needed to know.
➡️ Join the Free Scale Your Travel Blog Info Session ⬅️
This is my coach – her name is Laura, and she’s a boss, earning $20K+ a month with her travel blog!
What is Travel Blogging?
All travel blogging entails is launching a website focused on the niche of traveling – sharing your experience, information, and little-known facts about your travels with the world.
Things like “My 10-Day Adventure in Norway,” or “Is There Uber in Rome?” and “What Travel Insurance Should I Get?“.
TRAVEL BLOG PROCESS
Write content & structure your blog in a way that makes Google happy.
👉 DO FOCUS: Good keywords, writing quality content that is SEO optimized, building your email list.
👉 DON’T FOCUS: Growing your Instagram, learning Pinterest, or working with brands that don’t fit your niche. (I’m a travel blogger, why would I promote jewelry?)
Is Travel Blogging Worth It?
Yes. But it’s only worth it if you want to make money and are willing to learn how to do that. A travel blog is not a diary or journal of your feelings.
To make my little blog profitable, I invested in an SEO Course called Scale Your Travel Blog, which made all the difference because I didn’t have the time or patience to sift through all the misinformation on the internet about what works, what doesn’t, who’s real, who’s relevant, who’s being successful, etc.
Are Travel Blogs Profitable?
Yes. From my experience and research, most travel blogs make from $2,000 to $50,000 a month. A blog makes money 3 main ways:
✅ Advertising
This includes running ads on your website and earning a few cents per view or click. This becomes the base recurring income of a travel blogger.
✅ Affiliate Marketing
This is you promoting products and services they love and making a small commission from those companies when people buy. This is the quickest way a blogger earns money. (Note: there is no added cost to the buyer.)
✅ Digital Products & Services
This means creating digital products like short courses, eBooks, and guides. It can also mean providing coaching or services that are unique to your knowledge. I liken this to consulting, as this is the high-touch, high-value source of income for a blogger.
REAL TALK: While it won’t take forever to make money, a blog (travel, food, lifestyle, etc.) usually takes about 2 years to make decent recurring revenue (think $2K+ a month). And that is IF you are following all the SEO best practices.
Here are some heavy hitters in the industry that publish their earnings:
- Matt Kepnes of Nomadic Matt ($50,000+ per month)
- Johnny Ward of OneStep4Ward ($20,000 – $25,000 per month)
- Dave & Deb of The Planet D ($15,000 – $20,000 per month)
- Earl of WanderingEarl ($12,000 per month)
- Me of Road Trip EuroGuide ($2,000 per month & growing!)
How Can I Make Money Travel Blogging?
So, while writing about your travels, you also build a community around your blog and a structure for making income. Remember that there are many ways to monetize a travel blog.
A few common ways to earn money as a travel blogger include:
✔️ Advertising – Ad revenue is the base of your income and usually goes hand in hand with monthly traffic to your blog. As a reference, 50K people to your website will earn you about $1.5K monthly.
✔️ Affiliate Marketing – This is the fastest way to make money as a blogger. One year into blogging, and I make $1K just from affiliate marketing.
✔️ Sponsorships – when brands gift you gear, housing, and experiences so you would promote their stuff to your audience.
✔️ Trip Planning – Help build custom travel itineraries for people, especially for niche vacationers who want unique adventures, anniversary trips, honeymoons, etc.
✔️ Freelance Writing / Ghost Writing / Copywriting
✔️ Host Adventure Trips Around the World
✔️ Consulting or Coaching Services
✔️ Selling Online Courses
✔️ Social Media / Influencer stuff
✔️ YouTube Videos
Any blog worth its’ salt will try these approaches in one way or another – some are profitable, and some are not. So what are the profitable blogs doing differently?
They are learning and focusing on SEO. I started my blog journey by earning $26 from someone booking a tour I recommended. Six months after that, I was at $700 a month. Two months later, I was at $2,000 a month.
PRO TIP: Best Travel Blogging Course
❌ Warning! ❌
I will tell you, in my own search for how to get this hustle going the right way, there was a lot of bullshit information on SEO classes out there serving only basic information.
“Scale Your Travel Blog” is the course I bought after many failed attempts to hack it on my own, and it was a game-changer. The value comes in more than just the course sessions, which are in themselves detailed, step-by-step, and easy to follow so you can set everything up the right way up front.
👉 I first attended the Travel Blogging Info Session 👈
To better understand what I was joining and if it was worth it!
The biggest value for me ended up being the very brilliant and active 200+ community of travel bloggers – a think tank of my own, ready and able to answer all of the questions that come up with experience and tested insights.
Then there were the added site audits, the done-for-you keyword research (super time-saving!), and the reviews of your most important posts (plus insights into affiliate strategies) …. things that really put you on the right track.
What’s Included: Scale Your Travel Blog Course
➡️ Cost: $2,497 ⬅️
Note for People with Existing Blogs: A professional site audit (which is included in this price) can cost you upwards of $2,000.
Pros & Cons Of Travel Blogging
While most people only see the glamourous highlight reel of travel blogger Instagram, here are the pros and cons – and the nuance of why I think it’s worth pursuing travel blogging!
Pros of Travel Blogging
There are many positive aspects of travel blogging, including:
✅ Flexibility to Work From Anywhere At Your Own Pace
As long as you have internet access, you can work from anywhere in the world on your travel blog.
In a corporate world trying to reduce remote work yet again, travel blogging allowed me to spread my wings and fly. Even as I write this post, I’ve never been more inspired by an oceanfront view.
✅ Sharing Your Experiences and Building A Community
Travel blogging also allows me to share my travel experiences, misadventures, insights, tips, and recommendations with my family and friends, and my readers. In this way, I build a community of like-minded traveler friends interested in the same things I am.
Moreover, this community offers me support, inspiration, and feedback. They make me want to keep going! I even found some amazing travel girlfriends I would never have otherwise by starting this blog!
✅ Inspiring Others and Surprising Yourself
Your travel blog can inspire others to explore new destinations, try new foods, and experience different cultures. You can encourage people to step outside of their comfort zones and explore the world around them.
I was inspired by a few people when I was younger, including Anthony Bourdain! Watching Parts Unknown had me dreaming of doing the same thing one day – now, here I am.
My blog challenges me to search out the hidden gems and the non-touristy spots and to travel to countries less frequented by the mainstream. And I love that little push.
✅ Learning New Skills as an Entrepreneur
Travel blogging requires a range of skills, from writing and photography to marketing and SEO. It also requires all of the grit and resistance it takes to start any new business. Because it is a more non-traditional path compared to a 9 to 5 job, everything is new!
My blogging journey taught me to develop further and refine my business-strategy skills. And I’m continuously riding the rollercoaster all new business owners and entrepreneurs ride – Will I make it? Or will this be a flop?
✅ Earning money!
As I mentioned, travel blogging is not journaling. It can also be a source of income. You can earn money through sponsored content, affiliate marketing, advertising, and other monetization methods – most of which I learned in the Scale Your Travel Blog Course.
✅ Travel perks.
Many travel bloggers receive perks, such as free accommodation, tours, or experiences, in exchange for promotion on their blog or social media platforms. Do you think we pay our way into luxury suites or first-class airline tickets?
Travel blogging gives you a sharp eye for travel hacking, and with that community of people around you I mentioned above, this job teaches you how to take advantage of the best deals!
All in all, my lessons learned this past year is that travel blogging can be a fulfilling and rewarding experience that offers many benefits beyond just sharing my travel stories.
Cons of Travel Blogging
While travel blogging can be an exciting and rewarding endeavor, there are also some downsides to consider:
❌ It can be time-consuming at times.
Travel bloggers often spend a lot of time researching destinations, planning itineraries, taking photos and videos, editing content, and publishing blog posts. This can be a time-consuming process that takes away from other activities.
At first, I found it difficult to balance travel & adventure time with writing & routine time. I also burned out a few times because I was traveling too much and not getting into the routine of keeping notes and writing. I then went 180 and spent too much time writing and not enough time adventuring – which can also be a churn. This is what I mean about the rollercoaster of starting a new business!
❌ It can be competitive.
The travel blogging industry is highly competitive; there’s no doubt about that. To add to the mix, getting Google to trust your website and SEO abilities can take a year or so of consistency and skillful writing.
The pressure to produce high-quality content and attract readers can be stressful, particularly for bloggers who rely on their blogs as a source of income.
But if you can be diligent and focused on what’s important (SEO) for monetizing your blog for about a year and a half, your blog will generate money, will generate traffic, and will become a lucrative piece of income – it did for me!
❌ It can be isolating.
Travel blogging often involves solo travel, which can sometimes be lonely. I’m not going to lie; when I’m traveling for months at a time, there are occasions when I miss out on birthdays or get-togethers with friends and family back home, or I miss my own bed, or I want to have a movie night with my best friend.
In these moments, I know I need to slow down, get back into my routine, lean on the community of friends I’ve made around me, and maybe take a trip back home!
It is challenging to balance the demands of travel blogging with other responsibilities and commitments – BUT for now, the pros outweigh the cons for me.
FAQs: Travel Blogging
These are a few questions I had before considering if travel blogging was worth it. And more importantly, if it was seriously worth investing in a course.
How much do travel bloggers make?
Bloggers make between $2K to $50K a month from their blogs. There are tons of ways bloggers make money, alot of which is taught in the Scale Your Travel Blog course.
Here are a few:
- Advertising
- Affiliate Marketing
- Sponsorships
- Freelance Writing / Ghost Writing
- Copywriting
- Trip Planning
- Host Adventure Trips Around the World
- Public Speaking or Coaching
- Selling Online Courses
- YouTube Videos
- Social Media / Influencer stuff
Do people still write travel blogs?
Yes, people still write travel blogs. Because people still search Google for information when they plan a trip. And people still put a lot of stock in first-hand experiences of credible travel bloggers to provide boots-on-the-ground insight and inspiration.
Despite the rise of social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube, where people often share their travel experiences in real-time through photos and quick videos, travel blogging remains a popular way for many to share information with a much wider audience – the world wide web of everyone who uses Google.
Is travel blogging hard?
Yes, travel blogging is hard work. Like any other form of blogging, it requires consistent effort and dedication to create high-quality content that engages and informs your audience.
Here are some of the challenges you may face as a travel blogger:
- Planning and organizing your trips: As a travel blogger, you need to plan and organize your trips, research destinations, book accommodations and transportation, and create a detailed itinerary for each trip— all with the mindset of both fun and research for your blog audience.
- Creating high-quality content: To stand out in the crowded travel blogging space, you need to create high-quality content that engages your audience. This can include well-written blog posts, stunning photos, and engaging videos.
- Building an audience: It takes time and effort to build an audience for your travel blog. You need to promote your content through social media, network and collaborate with other bloggers, and leverage everything search engine optimization (SEO) teaches you.
- Monetizing your blog: While travel blogging can be a rewarding hobby, many bloggers, like myself, aim to turn it into a full-time gig. To do this, you need to find ways to monetize your blog, such as through affiliate marketing, advertising, or creating unique digital products and services for your audience.
Overall, travel blogging requires creativity, persistence, and hard work, but it can also be fun and rewarding! I do this to live the travel life I want and be flexible as hell.
If you are a teacher and writer at heart who enjoys a good travel adventure – this is your cup of tea!
Is travel blogging saturated?
No, I don’t think blogging, in general, is saturated. In a world of big companies selling us general information and sometimes misinformation, bloggers provide some real-world unique insights and experiences.
Travel bloggers are people who have been to the places, have done the things, and lived to tell about them. This is the type of human you want to inspire and help you plan your next trip.
Final Thoughts: Is Travel Blogging Worth It?
So, is travel blogging worth it? Whether it’s worth it or not depends on a variety of factors, such as your goals, interests, and resources.
On the one hand, travel blogging can be a great way to share your experiences, connect with like-minded people, and potentially make money. If you enjoy traveling and writing, and are willing to put in the effort to create high-quality content and build a following, then travel blogging can be a rewarding and fulfilling pursuit.
On the other hand, travel blogging can also be a challenging and competitive field. There are many travel blogs out there, and standing out from the crowd can be a churn. Getting your blog to the point of earning a steady income can take a lot of time, effort, and perseverance.
That said, it doesn’t take forever – set your expectations and runway for 1.5 to 2 years before pulling in some money with your blog.
Ultimately, whether travel blogging is worth it depends on your goals and expectations. I will give you some real talk though, if you’re primarily interested in making quick money or becoming famous overnight, then travel blogging is not for you.
