Last Updated on March 20, 2025
I’ve been an expert journey blogger for 17 years — at this time I’m going to share my secrets and techniques on find out how to change into a profitable journey blogger.
When I first began this weblog in 2008, by no means in one million years might I think about the place it might take me.
It’s introduced me around the globe – throughout 150 international locations and 7 continents – and led to some epic adventures and lifelong experiences. From expedition cruising in Antarctica to seeing the Northern Lights in Lapland, gorilla trekking in Uganda to touring North Korea.
Becoming a journey blogger modified my life — in each sense of the phrase.
Not solely do I now lead a lifetime of journey, however I additionally make a cushty dwelling doing what I really like. I go on task to chill locations for publications like Lonely Planet and I get to work from wherever on the planet. I completely love what I do and I’ve by no means been happier.
In essence, being a journey blogger is a dream job – in any case, I receives a commission to journey the world. For those that have the identical dream as me, here’s a detailed information on find out how to change into a journey blogger.
How to Become a Travel Blogger
Today I’ll be sharing what I’ve discovered about journey running a blog prior to now 17 years – what has labored for me and what hasn’t. I’ll spill all my secret suggestions and every part I do know on find out how to change into a journey blogger like me.
FOR BEGINNERS:
Know Your Purpose
Before you begin a journey weblog, the primary query you could ask your self is: Why do you need to be a journey blogger?
For me, it has all the time been about journey and storytelling. I really began this weblog in 2003 (on blogspot then) as a way to maintain my household and pals up to date about my life overseas. It slowly advanced into greater than a journal. Only in 2008 did I determine to remodel it right into a extra skilled platform to generate some revenue.
If you need to change into a journey blogger for the cash or free journeys, then don’t even hassle. Save your self a while and discover a extra profitable medium as an alternative. It takes years (could also be much less for some) to construct an viewers and readership earlier than the cash begins coming in. So take into consideration what your motive is earlier than you really make the leap.
Find a Niche
What are YOU all about? What really calls to you? I do know you like to journey, however what kind of journey do you do? Budget or luxurious? Epic journey journey or seaside holidays? Do you want gradual journey or brief holidays?
Back within the days once I first began journey running a blog, it was sufficient to concentrate on a basic discipline of journey: finances, luxurious, journey, solo and many others. Nowadays, you’ve bought to be extra inventive and discover a promoting level that makes you totally different from the remaining.
Are you an adventurer who leads overland expeditions of your personal? Or do you want volunteering and have volunteered around the globe? Maybe you want to jot down about household journey?
It took me just a few years of journey running a blog to determine my particular pursuits. So be affected person and take your time to search out out what you’re most keen about and go from there.
Have Personality
Most folks learn blogs as a result of they need to learn tales they will relate to; about people who find themselves regular like everybody else doing unbelievable issues. The one largest factor that differentiates blogs from magazines or newspapers is that this private ingredient.
Always attempt to inject your private opinions and experiences. Be open and clear – and write to them such as you would write to your finest good friend. People learn journey blogs as a result of they need to know your first-hand experiences and the way it was like touring to a sure vacation spot.
Develop your voice and don’t be afraid to let your persona shine in your weblog.
You Need to Love to Travel AND Write
Many folks appear to suppose that every one you could be a profitable journey blogger is to have a ardour for touring.
Yes you do want to like to journey and have some journey experiences (having backpacked southeast Asia as soon as doesn’t make you a seasoned traveler!). But it’s not sufficient to simply have a ardour for journey.
To efficiently change into a journey blogger, you could love BOTH journey and writing.
At the tip of the day, your experience could also be in journey however writing is your craft. If you need to make a profession in journey running a blog final, you could have a love for phrases and all that comes with running a blog (which requires a complete spectrum of expertise from digital advertising and marketing to social media).
During my early years of running a blog, I took a guidebook writing boot camp in Guatemala organised by VIVA Travel Guides — it gave me the inspiration I wanted to be a author, and most of it, it made me realise how a lot I really like writing. Take a journey writing course, do a web-based workshop or learn the entire finest journey books to up your writing expertise.
Make Building an Audience Your Priority
I can not emphasize this sufficient: constructing an viewers must be your prime precedence as a journey blogger, particularly if you’re new to this. Not find out how to monetise your weblog, not pitching firms and getting freebies.
I can not depend the variety of instances I’ve been approached by a brand new journey blogger to share my contacts once they barely have any readers. I’m all the time joyful to share (that is what the neighborhood is about) however I get actually pissed off when folks don’t get their precedence proper.
It took me two years to get my first press journey invite and earn a gradual movement of revenue from this weblog. For some, it’s occurred a lot quicker, and for others it’s taken much more time. The essential factor is to know that success doesn’t come in a single day — work onerous at constructing your readership earlier than anticipating to reap any rewards.
Keep Writing and Don’t Give Up
To be an expert journey blogger requires years of onerous work and dedication. Don’t anticipate to generate profits instantly after beginning a journey weblog; if you’re not able to dedicate all of your effort and time to it, then it’s finest to simply deal with it as a passion.
Many bloggers I do know quit after a yr or so as a result of they’d no thought how a lot dedication was required. Besides placing in lengthy hours, you could preserve at it for a very long time (speaking years, not weeks!) earlier than you see any sort of return.
I bear in mind the times once I first determined to take a shot at journey running a blog in 2008: I might rush dwelling after a day of labor at my full-time job and get all excited to work on my weblog. On weekends, I used to be joyful to remain dwelling and write for hours on finish. That’s the sort of dedication you want.
Being a journey blogger is like operating a marathon — you could have stamina, go slowly however steadily and preserve your vitality to final by the race.
TAKING IT A STEP FURTHER:
Take a Blogging Course
Every job requires you to know some expertise — so does being a journey blogger. Besides figuring out find out how to write, you could know search engine optimisation, internet growing, social media administration, graphic design and so forth. It took me years to choose up all that alone and I really feel that I STILL have a lot extra to study.
If you’re critical about making a living from journey running a blog, I like to recommend investing in a running a blog course to study all the talents you want. Nomadic Matt’s Superstar Blogging Academy is effectively price trying out if you happen to’re eager about studying each main side of running a blog.
Their in-depth course covers every part you could know concerning the enterprise of running a blog: from the technicalities of constructing a weblog to what to cost for promoting and find out how to method firms.
The on-line course could be taken at your personal tempo and you may learn the detailed tutorials as many instances as you need. Besides the tutorials, you’ll even have entry to audio interviews and webinars. There are additionally job alternatives on their job boards and discussion board.
Read More concerning the Blogging Course
Learn Photography
Photography is a giant a part of any weblog and nice images are a should for any profitable weblog. You’ll want some fundamental pictures expertise even when your curiosity lies in writing. Moving ahead, videography is the following largest factor so I like to recommend trying into that.
Firstly, get an excellent digicam. Trust me, it’ll be an excellent funding. I used to have a DSLR, particularly a Canon 60D, but it surely was exhausting to lug round such a heavy gear. I not too long ago upgraded to a light-weight mirrorless Olympus E-M10 Mark II and I’ve by no means been happier.
Next, streamline your enhancing and group course of. It takes some time to determine the method that fits you, however after getting it, it’ll be fast and straightforward to add your images every time. Read my article on how I set up my journey images.
I exploit the Lightroom software program program to edit all my images in bulk and add my watermark. I have already got a Lightroom preset in place (you simply want to do that as soon as once you begin) so enhancing simply includes making use of my preset to all my photographs in a folder without delay.
Lastly, use a cloud service to retailer and backup your images. Dropbox for instance is the preferred file storage service. Just pay a charge every month for the superior plan and also you’ll get intensive cupboard space. Plus they’re all mechanically backed up and embrace file restoration and historical past.
Rock Social Media
For bloggers, social media could be an immensely highly effective software that can assist you attain an excellent greater viewers.
I spend an enormous chunk of my time on social media. This is not only as a result of it helps me construct my model however just because I take pleasure in it. Social media lets me join with my viewers extra instantly and permits me to interact with them extra recurrently than on my weblog.
For me, my main channel is Facebook, adopted by Twitter after which Instagram. Again, you could experiment and observe to see which platform works finest for you. Each channel requires a special kind of posting and content material curation. Be certain to verify the analytics for every platform to search out out the most effective time to put up and when to put up.
Here’s my private method to every channel:
1 put up a day, normally extra once I’m on the street. Tag the placement for people who find themselves close by to search out my images. I additionally embrace as much as 10 hashtags for my picture to pop up in searches. I like to recommend taking the time to analysis which hashtags are hottest for a selected vacation spot or exercise. Add me on Instagram!
2-3 posts a day following the rule of thirds. In basic, I all the time attempt to share quite a lot of updates — one-third of them can be private updates that give readers a peek into my life on the street; one-third are questions directed to my followers to create some engagement; and one-third are some fascinating and viral content material from others. Check out my Facebook web page.
4-5 posts a day with hyperlinks to my weblog posts. Images create extra engagement, so I all the time attempt to embrace images in my posts. Tag related profiles and embrace hashtags each time doable. Click to see my Twitter profile.
Join a Blogging Community
In all honesty, I owe a lot of my success as a journey blogger to my pals within the running a blog neighborhood.
Back once I first began journey running a blog, the neighborhood was a comparatively small and tight-knit group. I made shut pals proper from the beginning and we frequently helped one another out, providing help and recommendation each time wanted.
These days, the journey running a blog neighborhood is a reasonably sizable one, and it may be fairly overwhelming to make real connections within the crowd. Thankfully, there are many Facebook teams created to debate particular features of journey running a blog.
Here are some nice Facebook teams:
Before becoming a member of every group, please learn the foundations or pointers first. Feel free to ask questions and reply when somebody presents you recommendation. Always take the recommendation with a pinch of salt, as one thing that has labored for others may not give you the results you want.
Attend Conferences and Workshops
Conferences and workshops could be a particularly helpful solution to join with different journey bloggers, in addition to potential purchasers and companions. These instructional workshops normally cater extra to these new to the running a blog world, however the superior blogger can nonetheless discover inspiration in such a setting.
While it’s straightforward to make contact with folks on-line, nothing beats assembly in particular person. These conferences present a chance so that you can community with manufacturers and corporations, creating the primary bridge to future partnerships.
I’ve personally attended a number of conferences and even spoken at just a few (TBEX and WTM) and undoubtedly suggest attending particularly if you’re a brand new journey blogger. Here are a few of them:
Be Creative and Versatile
A profitable journey blogger is one who is aware of find out how to diversify his/her revenue stream. They should be consistently arising with new methods to generate new revenue.
In the primary two years, I made most of my revenue from online advertising within the type of banner adverts and sponsored advertorials. I attempted various things to see what would work for me. Alberto even stop his job to work on this weblog with me and we launched a digital journal as one other revenue stream. While it didn’t work out for us, we did study so much from this expertise.
Eventually, I branched out to additionally do sponsored campaigns for firms, model ambassadorship, and social media consulting work for firms. I additionally generate a small passive revenue from my ebook, The Adventure Traveler’s Handbook. I began operating WildJunket Tours in 2017 they usually’ve been a superb solution to generate further revenue and join carefully with my readers.
Freelance writing has all the time been my largest love. Even although it isn’t fairly a worthwhile stream I nonetheless do it due to my love for journal writing. I at present write for Lonely Planet, BBC Travel, Today and plenty of extra.
Here’s an in depth have a look at how I receives a commission to journey, together with my numerous revenue streams and their sources.
Some of the methods we journey bloggers generate revenue:
- Advertising: placement of show adverts on web site
- Sponsored Advertorials: publishing sponsored posts written both by your self or the advertiser
- Affiliate Marketing: incomes fee from recommending merchandise in your web site
- Brand Ambassadorship: representing a model and changing into their spokesperson of kinds
- Freelance Writing: contributing to journey magazines or web sites
- Creating Products: promoting your personal merchandise (ebooks, programs, art work and many others)
- Consultancy Work: providing recommendation to firms on find out how to handle their weblog or social media
- Designing Trips: planning journeys for different vacationers primarily based in your experience on particular locations
- Leading Tours or Workshops: operating excursions utilizing your data on sure places
Set Goals and Work Towards Them
When I first began to change into a journey blogger, I might set month-to-month objectives for myself and all the time attempt to work in direction of them. My objectives have been something from rising my distinctive month-to-month guests to rising my Facebook followers to getting an article printed in a preferred journal.
Having objectives stored me motivated and pushed me to work tougher than ever.
I bear in mind how joyful I used to be to satisfy the milestone of reaching 20,000 distinctive month-to-month views. And once I bought my article printed in a neighborhood newspaper. Oh and that point I signed my first contract as a model ambassador.
A weblog is a enterprise — you could be critical and deal with it as a enterprise if you wish to carve a profession out of it. At the tip of the day, the important thing to change into a journey blogger is writing compelling tales and capturing locations with good pictures. Focus all of your efforts on writing effectively and also you’ll be on the street to success.
Good luck!
Any questions for me on find out how to change into a journey blogger? Feel free to go away a remark under!
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