I have been into blogging over the past few years now with probably around three years on a serious level. People often ask me that what is it and how I started, how I got the blog and how we are paid, it is like a dream. And I would just say that yes, it is a dream which came true and it took a lot of mistakes, learning, frustration and hard work. It just gives you experience and not like to make you rich. But, today I am here with all my readers to share about travel blogging. Recently, I received a query about how to become a professional blogger and since I have never been to any places as a travel blogger, I started my research at the same moment. Here I will share what I got to know about it.
Before moving forward, I would like to discuss what a professional travel blogger is. Personally, I do refer Oxford English Dictionary, but unfortunately, this time, the dictionary seems to be little light about what a travel blogger is. But, breaking it down into different pieces or phrases, then I would say that a travel blogger is a person who owns a blog or an online journal which shares about their real-life travel experiences. Since the term professional is connected with travel blogger here, I would say that is about generating income and it is a long term project where you are bound to deliver the professional level services. Different people have different opinions about what a travel blogger is.
Contents
Tips to become a Professional Travel Blogger
Find your Passion: It is really important to find your passion because if you are doing your hard work and getting nothing in return, then do something that interests you. To be honest, maximum blogs available out there won’t able to stand for long because a blog cannot survive on one post per week. It is because people started writing without knowing their passion. The content which you will write shows your passion and thus it must be interesting and engaging for your audience.
Travel blogging is associated with different niches including family, food, adventure, luxury, budget and much more. There are few bloggers who associate travel blogging with photography because that is their passion lies. So, find something interesting which you love that you would continue to do even if you are not rewarded for it. Travel blogging is not for those people who are least interested in self-management, travel, photography and writing.
Write well and regularly: I am far from a grammar expert, but I do put in my best efforts. It is really important to get the basics right if you really want your audience to see you as a trusted expert. It is really important to write regularly and consistently. You really need not worry about the frequency and length of the posts. You just need to remember that you have to write something which interests you and works for you. If you really want to build an audience, then be consistent.
I would personally suggest that don’t commit to posting daily or don’t overstretch. But, yes, you must keep a post to publish fortnight. Most of the successful travel blogs are consistent and tend to have a schedule to come up with the content every week.
It is all about high-quality content: If you want to be a professional and a successful travel blogger, then you need to post the best high-quality content for your readers. It is really important to build your audience through SEO and using social media for driving traffic. Everything is important in one or the other place, but the most important are the content which you deliver. Avoid throwing random posts on your blog or social media because you have the schedule, but deliver the best every time.
You have to remember that you need to put the best quality content for your readers and your audience will stick back to you forever. If your blog will have the poor content, then no one will come back ever. Whatever you post, just make it the best one.
Rock Social Media: If you really want to be a successful professional travel blogger, then it is really important to stay active on various social media platforms which will help you in earning money as well. But, yes, it is a huge time-sucker and thus, avoid wasting must of your time online. You just have to be social on social media, which means to reply to the comments actively and sharing the content posted by other people.
Personal Branding: It is the most important in the success of being a professional travel blogger. Personal branding is all about how you make yourself stand among others. It means that how you manage yourself to focus just on the specific areas of expertise and about your passion. You just have to maintain your identity as a professional travel blogger on all the online channels which will help you in driving your brand. It will help you in steady steaming of the readers.
Do’s and Don’ts of Travel Blogging
- Avoid judging your progress with the success of other travel bloggers. You must only measure your success with yourself and achieve the goals which you have set for yourself. Some people will do much better than you, while some will do worse. When you will enter the social media for your blogging platform, you will get to see a lot of success stories. Just do avoid these things to demotivate or let you down. Just feel pleased and learn from them. Your success will come after your hard work.
- The word “Professional” is included here because if you really want to be a successful travel blogger, then you need to work in a professional manner. If you have set your goals, then work hard and achieve it. Avoid doing those things which you feel are not right for the audience.
- Before entering into travel blogging, you must know that you are nothing without your audience. Just make a trust relationship with your readers. Avoid sharing those things which are not good for your audience.
- It is really important to set a code of ethics and stick to it properly. If you commit to delivering the things within a certain timeframe, then do not break the promise.
- Avoid believing in the hype because it is not difficult to write positive things about the destination. Things might go wrong and you have to tackle those as a professional. It is really important to write your blog post about the destination with integrity and honesty.
- Get a domain name and a decent, attractive web design. Just avoid creating those travel blog names which looks like you are a hobbyist. If you will have your own blog name and web design, then it would benefit you.
What to do to get your Travel blog noticed?
So, you have written the blog posts and share them on the social media platforms. And if you really don’t want the world to ignore your hard work on the travel blog, then read on further.
- You must learn the SEO techniques which can help in generating great content. People will discover the high quality and great content easily. There are multiple tools for ensuring that the posts will get indexed in Google easily. Just write your blog posts well so that it easy for the readers to understand and read it properly. You can even use Google Webmaster Tools for ensuring your site registration and also you will get the feedback about the areas which need to be improved on. Also, you can use Google Analytics for tracking the stats of your blog.
- You must become part of the community where you can contact people and get support. There are numerous Facebook groups which talk about the travel blogging and photography. Before joining the groups, you must read the rules, check the advice which are given and spread your words among people as much as you can. There are much more communities on Triberr, Google+ which you can join.
- The best option is to attend the travel shows and conferences which are specifically aimed at the travel bloggers. These events help in improving the skill set of a person as well as helps in content creation and social media management too. You can attend TBEX which happens twice a year and offers great networking opportunities for the travel bloggers. There are many more conferences including Social Travel Summit or PTBA Conference and much more.The travel shows are associated with the travel industry are offer the bloggers with impressive opportunities for networking as well as offer them a chance to get their brand in front of all.
How to make money from Travel Blogging
Ah! It seems to be a simple question, but its answer isn’t really simple because it does involve a number of factors which depends on your skills and blog. So, here I have few ideas to share with you all.
On-Site Revenue
Banner Advertising: If you are into blogging then you might have seen the sidebar down on the left or right of the blog and if not, then you can check out this blog. These places are basically for placing the advertisements. Though they don’t help in generating much revenue, yet helps a little. The rates of the banner advertising depend on the traffic. If you are a beginner, then you won’t be able to charge much. The best place to get started is the Google Adwords.
Affiliate Schemes: Affiliate marketing is associated with the recommendation of the products. This significantly means that when your blog reader buys a product, it is you who get the commission. This method works for all the products including the Amazon goods to hotel rooms. The best results for affiliate marketing are achieved from the blogs having full information about the product which interests the reader to buy it instantly. Some of the affiliate programs which work tremendously include Amazon, Agoda, Flipkart and much more.
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Product Partnerships or Placements: Being a travel blogger you can get into partnership with any brand and promote it to the audience. This can be in the form of the blog posts talking about the product and sharing the content related to it on the social media platforms.
Sponsored Posts: Another way of generating income is through the sponsored posts, which is also known as the native advertising. This can be written by the blogger of the hosted blog or by the third party. The first part is not associated with the audience but it is all about gaming Google for improving the Google results and the latter is associated with the blog post which will reach your audience to raise awareness about the product.
Product Creation: This method is for both on and off-site revenue. So, if you are expertise in any area of your interest, then you can create your own product to sell to your blog readers. These products can include physical products like printed books or customized clothing or virtual products like apps or eBooks, and much more.
Off-Site Revenue
Travel blogging is not directly associated with revenue because it is more like an online photo workshop or gallery where the real-life work of a traveler is generated.
Content Creation: You must have a decent idea about the content creation which you will post on your travel blog so as to attract more readers. Whether you post text, video or photography, you must know how to create a quality content because it brings tremendous value to your brand.
Social Media presence: It is really important to adapt to the social media presence which can highly engage the readers. You have to share relevant content on social media and advising the brands to the people will help you in improving your presence.
Among all the blogging niches, travel blogging is the hardest one because you need to be constant in creating interesting and engaging content for your audience. So, a professional travel blogger is the person who brings the business-like and a thorough approach to the blogging world about the travels. Do enjoy and have fun while traveling to different places, but don’t forget that you are a professional blogger and it is your livelihood. In the aspect of your journey, do not neglect your work.
