7 top tips to running a successful travel blog
I’m often being emailed for tips by people starting out with a travel blog, but replying to those emails can be a little time-consuming. For this reason, I’ve decided to jot down my thoughts in a blog post – this way I can simply refer any future similar enquiries here, and hopefully some aspects of this post may also be useful to already-established travel bloggers.
Running a travel blog sounds quite a glamorous job. You travel the world and write about it… what is there not to like? Of course, the reality is somewhat different. Running a travel blog that’s truly successful – to the point of making it your job – is a much harder proposition and one that only a very, very small minority of travel bloggers ever actually achieve. So, with so many travel blogs out there, how do you go about running a successful one? Here are my 7 top tips to running a successful travel blog.
1. Work first, monetise later
For the first year or two, the likelihood is that your travel blog is going to be nothing more than a labour of love. When you first start your blog, nobody knows about it but you. With time, you’ll no doubt tell your friends, get indexed by Google and – slowly but surely – you’ll get the word out to more and more people. But don’t expect to make money from your blog right away – in fact, don’t even try to. Focus at first my next two tips… finding a niche and content.
2. Find a niche
Don’t just be any old travel blog – focus on a particular niche within travel. That might be a particular geographical region or a particular type of travel. Decide on your niche and stick to it.
3. Write engaging content
It probably goes without saying but write articles that you think your readers will be interested in. Use a title for your blog posts that is ‘catchy’ and stands more chance of being shared and re-tweeted. Don’t be tempted by the option of just re-gurgitating press release after press release – invariably, they’re not very interesting, but rather just thinly-veiled advertisements. Record personal experiences, or interesting events related to your niche.
Maybe even invite guest bloggers on to your site if they have an expertise in your particular field of travel. If you do go down this route, be wary of allowing them to place unnatural links in their posts – this is something we categorically wouldn’t accept as, in so doing, you could risk a Google penalty which would undo a lot of your hard work.
4. Use great – not just good – photography
If there’s one thing a travel blog needs besides great content, it’s great photos. Invest in a good camera, go on a photography course and try hard to hone your skills. If your budget allows, buy photographs in. If it doesn’t, there are resources out there that offer free images but check the smallprint on the exact terms of use.
5. Be active on social media
Engage with people on social media Not in a spammy way, but in a way that enables you to interact with others in the same field, and thus become more widely known. Be nice to people… share their Facebook posts, thank them if they re-tweet you, and so on and so forth. Of course, there are lots of other tools at your disposal besides just Facebook and Twitter – Google Plus, Pinterest, YouTube and more. Find what works for you and use them regularly.
6. Persevere
If you’re going to make money from blogging – to the point of making a living from it – you’re going to need to work hard. Keep posting on your blog… and keep as active as you can on social media. Be hard on yourself and understand that it’s not going to be easy. If you’re away and happen to be without internet access, that’s no excuse. Plan ahead and do some scheduled posts so the blog keeps ticking over even when you’re not at the computer. You don’t want to risk losing that loyal reader that keeps coming back day after day just because you decided to have a week’s break.
Remember, there are probably hundreds of thousands of travel bloggers out there all looking to get noticed. If you give up too soon, you’ll just become yet another travel blog. Blogs need you to post frequently, not only to keep your readers coming back, but also to provide Google with plenty of fresh fodder to index.
7. And finally… monetise, but don’t sell yourself short!
Only when you’ve really become an established travel blogger should you contemplate trying to make money from your blog. There are lots of ways you can go about doing this, be it through affiliate opportunities, advertising (contextual or direct), merchandise and more. But don’t sell yourself short. You should say a resounding “NO!” to anyone wanting to place a link on your site for a measly $10 a month. You haven’t done all this hard work just to be insulted!
Look at other avenue streams away from your own site also. For instance, as a respected member of the travel blogging community, people may want to hire you to write for travel sites besides your own, you may be asked to be a speaker at travel conferences or hired on a consultancy basis due to your particular area of travel expertise.
I’ve just started a travel blog for our website. Thank so much for all the great tips. It’s not the photos I’m mainly worried as we are a virtual tours website but the content as I’m not the best writer in the world.
Solid tips, Paul! In the past couple years, I’ve discovered my favorite blogs via Twitter. It continues to be a powerful platform for bloggers to be seen and heard.
Great tips and thanks for sharing. I will admit, I haven’t been too active with writing our agency’s blog. Thanks for giving me hope and I’ll retweet!
Thanks for these great tips Paul! My problem is sometimes fighting between what I want to write, and what I think our readers want to see! When they both combine, they’re our most popular posts!!
Thanks for sharing! Great tips! I so wish I had read this a couple of years ago, especially the niche thing, it is no important not trying to “cover it all”. I am constantly busy trying to “downgrade” my ambitions.
Thank you for the useful advice Paul, I’ll keep this in mind. Do you have any idea of roughly what a travel blogger can expect to earn in an average month?
If I had to take away one point from this article it’s definitely #6. I’ve read so many stories about bloggers that start and then get discouraged and give up before the world has time to notice them. It’s also important to find encouragement in the small victories. Sometimes we look at large well known blogs with tens of thousand of page views and subscribers and we don’t realize we are looking at years (not weeks or months) of hard work. We’ve been at it for about 5 months with our blog and we’ve seen incremental increases in traffic every month. I can only imagine where we’ll be in a year!
Great tips. Still getting started in the travel blogging world…and you are right…it is totally a labour of love! I have become a fan of the pre-scheduled posts and need to use hootsuite a little more! Have been loving learning so much from more established bloggers and gain so much inspiration from them!
Finding a niche is always a challenge – I have been inflicted with the I want to do it all gene! My travels tend to be so eclectic…from backpack to luxury, cycle or walk across country to stay put and really experience a place! I guess time will tell where my travel style settles! Thanks for the pointers!
Thank you everyone for the great feedback.
Philip, I don’t think that’s an easy question to answer – it will depend on so many factors – whether the travel blogger is full time or part time, how established the blog is, what niche it covers, etc. etc. I would suggest a significant number of travel bloggers (though probably a small minority of the total out there) are making $x,xxx a month and a very small minority are making $xx,xxx per month from a single travel blog.
Ergo, most travel bloggers – myself included as I run two travel business (A Luxury Travel Blog being part of one of them) – don’t just run one travel blog. They usually have other interests elsewhere, whether it be another travel-related venture or job that involves doing something altogether different.
Nice tips, thank you very muchs. It really makes me want to start it now. I had one in the past but seems like it did not works well, maybe because I have not read it before :)
Again, thank you very much!
Hey Paul,
Any chance you could give me some tips for my site?
Thanks so much!
Hello Mark… I think the tips that I’ve compiled here could be applied to any travel blog. Are you employing any/all of these suggestions already?
Hello Paul !
I found it very useful ! Thank you for sharering it with the blogger family
Good trips
Thanks, Lorena… glad it was helpful.
Paul
Really good information – especially your point about picking a niche – something I have a tendency to forget about. Good reminder. Thanks.
Yes, the main tips are these 7 tips you mentioned ;) The worst thing is that you gotta work harder than in any other ”job” because you are working for yourself :)
love your blog and thanks for the great tips. You put in a list what i’ve painfully figured out myself. Thanks for your generosity.
Thanks very much. Your article was very interesting. I love your blog and it has given me great inspiration. I am working on a travel blog for South Africa – but as you say perseverance is the key & finding the right niche content to write about.
Great advice, particular #6. Whilst your end goal may be to earn a living from it, it’s important to enjoy the journey along the way. I think it’s important to identify and enjoy small milestones as you reach them – reaching 100 twitter followers, then 200, then 300 etc. The first time someone comments on your post, the first time someone shares your content.
Thanks for the tips!
Thank You for the tips but I’m pondering why I’m not getting the traffic I thought I would after 5 yrs. of blogging. I’ve employed all your tips here except I don’t accept advertising. I’m often sent comments that people like my blog & yet my traffic numbers still stay low. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Hello Terry
I’ve had a look at your website and it is a bit of a mystery as you do indeed seem to be active.
Going through the points I raise, I wouldn’t quite say you are doing them all, particularly when it comes to point 4.
1. you are doing that obviously, if you have not yet accepted any advertising
2. I’m guessing your niche is the cruise industry, although some of your posts seem to be on different areas of travel (I’m guilty of veering away from luxury sometimes myself, so that shouldn’t be an issue)
3. I’m noticing some of the content is duplicated elsewhere. Are you the original source for all your content, or are you getting some of it from other places?
4. This is one of the biggest things I’m noticing. You say you are employing all the techniques listed, but I don’t see any photographs on any the blog posts I’ve looked at. Travel is an extremely visual thing… photographs are critical IMHO.
5. You certainly seem to be active on Twitter. I can see you are on Facebook (from a Facebook search) but didn’t at first notice the link across from your website, as I see you have it under the heading of ‘blogroll’. That could account for why you have just 21 likes, and your Facebook posts are not helped by the fact that again there are no pictures.
6. Can’t fault your perseverence.
7. Obviously you haven’t started this yet, and IMHO are right not to do so until you get more traffic.
So, going through all this, I’d say there are possibly some issues with point 3, and definitely some issues when it comes to 4.
Hope this helps.
Great post! Just started my own blog and it’s great to get some advice from those with a bit more experience. Happy to see I had some of your tips in mind already, but will definitely use this as a resource in future!
Certainly persevere….that is the key to just about any worthwhile endeavor. There are some great quotes from FDR,Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison and more that all point out the need to persevere. How many people have given up just before they might have succeeded?
Excellent tips!
I have been working on my blog for a couple of years and it certainly is a lot of work.
Being active on Social Media Channels and interacting with other members, like-minded people, is vital!
I am working on my style and need to find a specific niche.
I’ve been discouraged some days but something kept telling me to keep going. So glad I listened!
Thank you so much for the great advice ;)
Hi Paul,
Thank you for sharing your years of experience with us. This is a great post because its got real advice, and is encouraging in a practical way.
My little blog is just 6-months old, and mostly a labour of love. I have two other paying jobs, necessary , but not as rewarding. Finding the time to work on Claire From Vancouver is not easy, but it is so rewarding, personally. Every new post feels like a victory. Thank you for reminding me to celebrate the small milestones, and also to take the long view and consider the road to two and three years on. Yes, 2016 will be a good year! Wink!
Claire
Thanks for the very useful info. I started my travel blog 3 years ago.
It was extremely hard to keep it updated and full of fresh ideas.
Above all during very busy seasons.
I have now delegate Italy & Golf blog to a professional writer..
And I am super hyper happy with that.
Keep posting!!
Thanks
T
This is awesome post. My concern is on that point about monetize, that you should not allow $10 for your site be linked. Do you mean I should not allow external links or what? I did not get you there. Thanks
Hi John
There are two points to raise here.
Firstly, if you’ve invested a lot of time and effort into your blog, you are more worth more than $10 a month. So essentially I was just saying you shouldn’t undersell.
Secondly, be very wary about selling text links in any case. Selling anchor-rich dofollow text links (ie. links that pass PageRank and/or are designed to manipulate search results) is an activity that is very frowned upon by Google. This kind of behaviour can result in a Google penalty for you as the publisher (as well as potentially for the advertiser) which is something you want to avoid at all costs.
Hope this helps,
Paul