How To Make Money Travel Blogging

How To Make Money Travel Blogging

One of the best tools for getting paid as a travel blogger is the site Travel Payouts.

My only regret is not signing up for it sooner.

For the last 5 years, I’ve been traveling the world full-time as a travel blogger, tour guide and tour host. And this is the best affiliate program I’ve come across.

Now I am able to make serious money from the platform. And it’s free to sign up and use.

Many major travel businesses like Get Your Guide, Booking.com, Viator, Ticketmaster and VRBO are all partnered with Travel Payouts. It’s a huge time saver since you don’t have to apply to each program individually via email.

So all you have to do is share the link of the hotel, tour, or travel purchase you are recommending.

You could share the link in a blogpost, email, social media bio link, YouTube video description…anywhere! When people book through that link, you will get paid. At no additional cost to the person who shopped via your link. It’s a win-win!

They get a great recommendation at the same price and you get paid for your work!

All these sales are tracked and recorded in a single dashboard on Travel Payouts. So all your affiliate earnings are in one easy spot.

Sign up for Travel Payouts here.

Travel Payouts

If you are new to travel blogging and haven’t begun working with affiliate links, don’t worry!

Travel Payouts has a comprehensive academy with free courses and blog posts to teach you everything you need to know. And it’s really easy to pick up on the platform.

What will you learn?

• The basics of travel affiliate marketing
• How to choose programs on Travelpayouts
• How you can join affiliate programs in a few clicks
• How to use Travelpayouts tools to boost your income
• How to combine categories in the travel affiliate marketing niche
• How to promote affiliate links on YouTube and social media
• How you can promote affiliate links via email marketing
• How to test and gauge the performance of your tools

Read: HOW TO GET FREE TRIPS AS A TRAVEL BLOGGER

More resources from Travel Payouts:

• Widgets: What They Are and Whether It Makes Sense to Start Using Them
• How to Partner With Brands and Earn More as a Travel Blogger

Read: TRAVEL BLOGGING: MY 5 FAVORITE PLUGINS TO INCREASE
TRAFFIC TO YOUR WORDPRESS BLOG

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How To Get Free Trips As A Travel Blogger

How To Get Free Trips As A Travel Blogger

In 2019, I started getting small free trips through my travel blog. The occasional free tour, a scenic train ride through the mountains in Colorado, a stay in a hostel in Jerusalem…

But when 2020 rolled around, the amount of sponsored trips I received exploded. Why? I was quarantined at home like everyone else during the pandemic and used this time to perfect my media kit, my pitch and my blog. I had been neglecting some key components while traveling non-stop.

Have you ever tried writing constant blog posts, editing photos, posting daily on social media and partnering with brands – all while traveling full time in countries with spotty (or zero!) wi-fi? Let me tell you, it’s hard to keep up.

The pandemic provided a much needed break to just stay home and work! I made a lot of changes to my site by adding some useful plugins.

Read: TRAVEL BLOGGING: MY 5 FAVORITE PLUGINS TO INCREASE TRAFFIC

And as soon as things started opening back up, I immediately began pitching brands and landed over a dozen free trips.

Here were a few of my sponsored trips in 2020:

• BINDLESTIFF TOURS: AN EPIC, ALL-INCLUSIVE SOUTHWEST ROAD TRIP
• 3 DAY MINNESOTA NORTH SHORE ITINERARY WITH VOYAGER CAMPERVANS
• DANCING THE LAND FARMSTAY: A STUNNING MINNESOTA GLAMPING EXPERIENCE
• COVINGTON INN: SPEND THE NIGHT ON ST. PAUL’S HISTORIC TOWBOAT TURNED BED & BREAKFAST
• AUTHENTIC ITALIAN GONDOLA RIDES IN STILLWATER, MINNESOTA
• BOOK LOVERS YOU NEED TO STAY AT THIS LITERARY-THEMED BED AND BREAKFAST IN STILLWATER, MINNESOTA
• AURORA STAPLES INN- THE CHARMING BED AND BREAKFAST IN STILLWATER, MINNESOTA
• ZIPLINE IN MINNESOTA: CHECK OUT THE ADVENTUROUS COURSE AT KERFOOT CANOPY TOUR!
• GARDEN OF THE GODS JEEP TOUR WITH ADVENTURES OUT WEST
• GUNFLINT LODGE: YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE ULTIMATE MINNESOTA ADVENTURE

So how can you get these free trips as a travel blogger?? The biggest tip I can give you is that you must provide value.

Provide value

No one is going to send you on a free trip because *you* want to go. Travel blogging is a business and companies need to know what you are going to offer them.

When you are reaching out to a brand, you need to be thinking “how can I provide as much value for this company as possible?”

“Hi, I would love to come stay at your hotel because it looks sooo beautiful” isn’t going to cut it.

Give them a detailed outline of what exactly you can provide whether it’s XX amount of posts for your XX amount of followers or high quality images to be used on their social media and website. Outline a detailed plan. Will you include a Youtube video? How many people read your blog each month? How many Pinterest pins will you make advertising the blog post about their company? The more ways you can provide value to them, the more likely they are to say yes!

Build an audience

There are ways to travel for free if you don’t have or want a big social media following. Check out my ultimate guide to travel jobs around the world.

But if you’re a travel blogger hoping to score free trips, you do need an authentic following. (Brands can see if you’ve bought followers!) I started getting small sponsored things around 5,000 followers. But I didn’t land anything major until I hit 10,000 followers on Instagram. Pay attention to what posts do well and then create more content like that!

Gaining followers on Instagram nowadays is HARD. The travel blogging market is oversaturated and there are already thousands of existing accounts and blogs. The best way you’ll gain a following is to post high quality images so focus on photography!

You’ll also need to be networking and meeting people in person. Be active on the app and strive to provide value for the people following you. Never forget that they are following your account for their own reasons, it’s not really about you. So what can you provide them with so they stick around? Keep giving value.

Think of other skills you can offer if your audience is small

You need an audience if travel blogging is your goal. However, if you are trying to start by earning free trips think about what other skills you can offer!

When I went dog sledding in Sweden, I only had about 5k followers. But I was able to help them set up their Pinterest account, web site and provide photos for them to use on social media.

Is there a hostel you want to stay at that doesn’t have an Instagram yet? Offer to create it for them during your stay and post on it daily through the duration of your visit.

Are you a good writer? You could guest blog for a company in exchange for stay? Companies may need help running their social media, setting up their Pinterest or branching out into other platforms like Tiktok.

Check Workaway for positions that offer free stays for people who can help with web design, social media, photography etc.

Show proof of successful past collaborations

This is the single best thing you can do to secure sponsored trips. Once you have one successful sponsored trip, you need to be tracking your insights. How many impressions did the post get? How many times was the blog post reshared? Are you affiliate for the company? If so, how much money did you earn the brand?

There is no way around it, brands want to talk facts and figures. They want actual proof that you will be able to provide a return on their investment.

Track affiliate links

I did a partnership with TourRadar and they made me an affiliate. This means I get a small percent when people book a trip through my site at no additional cost to the buyer. Since partnering with TourRadar, I have sold nearly $20,000 in trips through my site for them. I am able to take a screenshot of this to provide proof for future brands that partnering with me is profitable. This has opened a lot of doors for me with other collaborations.

Want to get paid as a travel blogger?
Sign up for Travel Payouts and earn money when you refer and recommend hotels, tours etc.

Pitch companies until you get a yes

When you’re small and just starting out, you will need to be reaching out to companies. Some will ignore you. Some will say no. Keep pitching and reaching out!

Let me be clear: I’m not saying to pester or annoy companies but if you think you can realistically offer value to the company it’s worth a try! Start small (like a hostel or a day tour) and work your way up to a multiple day trip.

Big hotels get pitched by hundreds of “influencers” wanting free things. Most people get ignored. Try pitching brands from the angle of how you can help THEM.

Pitch in the off season

Pitching busy or popular places in the off season will greatly increase your chances. If you’re a small time blogger and you’re trying to get a sponsored stay at a hotel in the Florida Keys during March, they aren’t going to honor your request when there are thousands of spring breakers coming to pay full price for their rooms. While it’s great to be passionate and dedicated, don’t have unrealistic expectations about what a brand should give you when you’re starting out.

Do you think that if they invest you in, they will be able to recoup the cost of your trip AND MORE? If the answer is yes, then go ahead and pitch them.

Trying to pitch some place like Venice or Tulum? These destinations are totally oversaturated with bloggers trying to get free stays. The hotels have actual applications you fill out ot help weed out the thousands of requests they get. Start in lesser explored destinations and at lower price points.

You need a media kit

Your media kit is like a resume for a blogger. You can show stats about past partnerships with brands, how many followers you have, your engagement rate and more!

Screenshots of successful collabs are your best friend! After I partnered with Voyager Campervans, I followed up a few months later to check if any bookings had be made with my promo code “emilyrose40” which gives first time travelers $40 off. And sure enough, I had sold several thousand dollars worth with my booking code!

There is no such thing as a free trip, be prepared to work for it!

Honestly, we shouldn’t even be referring to sponsored trips as “free”. It’s more of a work exchange. You are providing skills and expertise in areas of social media, brand development, photography etc. It will probably take you many hours to write your blog posts, edit the photos, share the posts, reply to all the DMs and comments online about your trip… there is simply no way around it.

Trips are never free. But if you are passionate about the work and genuinely enjoy doing it, then it will be a job you love! (*most of the time … because even travel blogging which seems ultra-glamorous has its downsides)

If the company won’t give you a free trip, try getting a sponsored stay by bringing others

There are a lot of travel companies that will provide a free trip for the person who organizes the group and gets them to go.

If you’re in college and want a free spring break trip, you can get people to sign up for companies like GoBlue or STS Travel. If enough people sign up, your trip is free! Other companies like Stoke Travel offer similar things.

I wanted to go dog sledding in Minnesota. But instead of just pitching them a single trip, I decided to provide a lot of value by pitching them a collaboration to bring a group with me. Not only will I travel free but I’m providing a massive amount of sales to a wonderful local company. (Nearly $40,000 by the time I sold out 3 weekends!!!)

Only accept trips you would be willing to pay full price for and align with your audience

This is where things get tricky. I would never promote a trip I wouldn’t feel comfortable paying full price for myself.

In fact, I once accepted a sponsored tour in Paris and truthfully, the tour was terrible. I could not recommend it to my readers and feel good about it.

Even as you begin to accept sponsored or free trips, your focus must always be on your audience and giving them authentic, genuine reviews for the trips you take. Always let them know when it’s a sponsored trip and stay honest. If I do a trip that is really poorly done, I won’t write a review dragging the company through the mud but I will discuss my reasoning why with the company and respectfully decline to post about it.

Want to get paid as a travel blogger?
Sign up for Travel Payouts and earn money when you refer and recommend hotels, tours etc.

Under promise and over deliver

In a perfect world, a single collab with a brand turns into a longstanding partnership. Do a really good job and it will guarantee you future work. Brands also reach out and talk with one another. I had a really expensive hotel in Stillwater book me for a sponsored trip because they checked with past companies I had collaborated with and they all gave me a glowing review!

Tell the brand you’ll have the post up in a week and do it in 5 days instead. Say you’ll post two times on Instagram and then give them a third for free. End the contract with the brand feeling happy and content with the investment they’ve made. It’s a win/win situation if it goes well for everyone! You get more sponsored trips and they get more guests!

Travel blogging isn’t easy

It may seem like endless sunsets and drinks by the pool but traveling while blogging and traveling for fun are two totally different things. There is legitimate work to do. You may feel like sleeping in on a sponsored trip but the best lighting is at sunrise and you promised X amount of pictures in your contract. So set that alarm and get to work!

You will be hustling, rushing around and spending a lot of time in front of your laptop. That is the side of travel blogging you don’t actually see online.

Want to get paid as a travel blogger?
Sign up for Travel Payouts and earn money when you refer and recommend hotels, tours etc.

If you haven’t already, connect with me on Instagram! I would love to hear from you.
Come say hello or ask me any questions Happy traveling!

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How To Get Free Trips As A Travel Blogger

The post How To Get Free Trips As A Travel Blogger appeared first on The Wanderlust Rose.

9 Lies That Travel Influencers Will Try To Sell You

Don’t get me wrong, I love following travel Instagram accounts. I read many travel blogs and see a great number of travel photos pop up in my social media feeds. Truly, I find it inspiring and it always fills my head with some happy day dream about far off places. I love it, really I do.

But with the curated, edited style of Instagram, it’s important to have a touch of reality thrown back in. At least when it comes to making real life plans. So here’s a little dose of the less sexy, more realistic, totally honest side of traveling. Get ready for 9 lies that travel influencers will try to sell you. Sorry not sorry

1. That The Destination They Are Promoting Is Picture Perfect

Well, welcome to the real world. Even the cutest, most charming, most “instagrammable” places have real world problems like homelessness, stray animals or petty theft.

You might see stunning pictures of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter online but do you know people refer to it as “the pickpocket capital of the world”?

Or you might travel to Rome because you want to experience culture and history but prepare to be harassed by a lot of relentless vendors peddling selfie sticks.

These are the types of things that usually don’t make the inspirational Instagram post!

2. That Traveling Is Glamorous

Cue the mad dash through the airport only to miss the flight by seconds.

Prepare to wait a long time for that bus that didn’t show up.

Remember to pack Imodium to offset the eventual traveler’s diarrhea that thousands experience worldwide.

Get ready to be sweaty, lost, confused by language barriers, frustrated by local public transit and homesick every now and then.

Traveling looks glamorous on Instagram but often that couldn’t be further from the truth! Learn to love the struggle and the messy, chaotic bits as well.

3. That Traveling Is Easy

Think you can maintain your lifestyle from at home when you’re on the road? I have found things like skincare and a regular workout routine to be very difficult things to stick to consistently at all while traveling.

Of course we share our highlight moments. But the realest moments I have while traveling have been pretty difficult. Things like being hospitalized in Venice or getting myself foolishly lost in Cairo, Egypt.

Yet I’m incredibly thankful for these moments because they taught me a lot about responsibility and self growth.

While a lot of people might see traveling as “vacation” and an escape from life’s responsibilities, I’ve found I’ve done the most growing when I cut off my support system and was looking after myself abroad.

At home it’s easy to ask for my parent’s help doing something or figuring something out. But when I was abroad if I messed up, I literally had no one else there to “fix” things. And as the youngest sibling and baby of the family, this was a new role I had to learn for myself- total independence and 100% caretaker of myself.

Read: EGYPT- 18 THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

4. That Meeting New People Is Always Fun

Alright to be fair, it usually is fun. But it’s also followed by a lot of goodbyes. The most difficult part of getting paid to guide road trips was getting so close to my passengers over the course of a month then saying goodbye. And only a few days later, I’d be starting a new trip and returning to those same places sometimes filled with memories of other people.

A constant swing of new faces and having to start over with the inside jokes left me feeling lonely every once in awhile.

Read: LESSONS LEARNED AFTER 365 DAYS ABROAD: GOODBYES AND WHAT THEY TEACH US

5. That Travel Blogging Is Easy
(And If You Like Traveling, You Would Automatically Enjoy Blogging About It)

If you think travel blogging is easy money, I hate to be the one to tell you that couldn’t be further from the truth.

You see people with thousands of followers on Instagram getting paid to travel and you think to yourself: “All they do is take a picture everyday, post it and rake in the easy money- I could do that!”

Well any travel blogger will tell you how they spent months (usually years) growing an audience, investing in photography equipment, spending all their money on travel, learning everything they could about SEO & website design and countless hours behind a computer before they ever saw a penny.

If you go into travel blogging you will need to learn:

• How to build a website
• How to write engaging content
• SEO strategies
• Branding & marketing
• Pinterest marketing
• Pitching brands
• Photography & Editing….

The list goes on and on and on… it’s about so much more than traveling and just taking a nice picture.

Read: TRAVEL BLOGGING: MY 5 FAVORITE PLUGINS TO INCREASE TRAFFIC TO YOUR WORDPRESS BLOG

6. That Their Instagram Shot Was Candid Instead Of Staged

Now I say this totally tongue in cheek because of course I have posed for a great many of photos of my Instagram.

My favorite shots on my feed are the candid ones usually snapped by my long time travel buddy, Morgan. But often, you need pictures for a blog post so that means learning how to take pictures of yourself with a tripod so you can have photos even when traveling solo.

Read: HOW TO GET EPIC SOLO TRAVEL PHOTOS

7. That There Will Be No One Else At The Monument/ Landmark

I’m definitely guilty of this. I have solo shots in front of the Eiffel Tower, Pyramids of Egypt, Colosseum in Rome, the Taj Mahal and so on…. But if you travel during the busy season and visit during the afternoon like all the other tourists- don’t expect to have the Taj Mahal to yourself. It will be you+ thousands of other people. Did you know- on a peak day, the Taj Mahal will recieve 60,000 visitors?! IN A SINGLE DAY.

We woke up at 3am to drive to the Taj Mahal to be the first in line to enter so we could take in the beauty and get a photo alone in front of the great iconic landmark. The early bird really does get the worm here.

But alas, if you’re not waking up early to sight-see before the crowds arrive, you may be one of many.

Depending on the destination, even one of hundreds. Or possibly thousands. So while you might see a photo of a beautiful girl standing alone in front of an iconic landmark on Instagram, remember to manage your expectations about the crowds. Or else be prepared to set your alarm clock nice and early!

Read: HOW TO GET A PHOTO ALONE AT THE TAJ MAHAL

8. That Your Life Is Less Cool Than Theirs

This might be unintentional on their behalf. I don’t share photos and hope it makes you feel “not cool enough”. I hope it makes you feel inspired. And that we can connect over traveling.

But I promise you, if you’re living in gratitude and not taking the people and things in your life for granted, then you are living a life that is equally as fulfilling

So this goes out to anyone who ever let Instagram make them feel less about themselves at some point (so erm, that means everyone right? We’ve all felt it!)

9. That If You’re Unhappy Now, You’ll Magically Be Happy When You Start Traveling

Wherever you go, your problems will go with you.

If you’re ungrateful and in a negative headspace at home, you’ll still be in a negative head space when traveling. Eventually these thoughts and negative patterns will crop back up into your life no matter where you go or what you do.

**However, I do think that solo travel can provide the necessary self-growth and time to self-reflect in order to improve your life.

But traveling isn’t a bandaid for happiness. You won’t suddenly be happy on the road if you aren’t happy at home.

So if you’re unhappy, you’ll still have to do the work within yourself to find gratitude.

Read: 10 THINGS TRAVELING SOLO HAS TAUGHT ME

I only share this post to help demystify the Instagram perpertued idea that your life isn’t “cool” enough if you didn’t quit your job to travel the world.

I’m obsessed with traveling. I will continue to travel and share photos online. But I bet your life is also pretty cool as well

Let me know your thoughts in the comments about “9 Lies That Travel Influencers Will Try To Sell You”!

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Blogger travel blogging wordpress plugins.

Travel Blogging: WordPress Plugins To Increase Traffic To Your Site

If you follow and read my blog, you’ll know I talk a lot about travel jobs around the world and how YOU can get paid to travel. I give that information freely and genuinely love receiving all the messages I get about wonderful experiences people have had abroad with tips or suggestions from my site. But until now, I haven’t shared anything on my site about travel blogging itself as a job.

Want to get paid as a travel blogger?
Sign up for Travel Payouts and earn money when you refer and recommend hotels, tours etc.

Recently, I shared some of my favorite plugins on my Instagram to increase traffic to your travel blog and received a lot of positive response so I wanted to expand and elaborate further through a full blog post. I hope you find this helpful

My Top 5 WordPress Plugins To Increase Traffic To Your Blog

1. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is an absolute must for WordPress bloggers. This is how you will rank higher on Google. It will give you an easy to follow checklist showing how SEO friendly your article is or isn’t.

This analysis will tell you exactly what to fix. You might be missing outbound links or internal links. Or maybe you haven’t included your keyword or phrase enough times. Maybe your blog post isn’t the minimum 300 words and you need to write more.

Whatever it is, Yoast SEO will tell you exactly what to fix with it’s easy to use analysis.

2. Smash Balloon – Instagram Feed

This WordPress plugin is great for obvious reasons. If someone finds your blog through Google or Pinterest and clicks away without saving your post, they might not come across your content again. Ideally, you want to convert them into a reader who sticks around for more than just one blog post. If they connect with you on Instagram, you’ll be able to share blog updates on your social media and hopefully keep them coming back in the future

There are a number of plugins that will display your Instagram account but I like the plugin Smash Balloon because it’s free and very easy to use. You can decide how many photos to show from your account. Then simply copy and paste the generated code wherever you’d like to display it on your site.

If you click the feed below, you’ll see it’s interactive and takes you right to my Instagram page. This makes it very easy for readers to follow you!

3. Author Bio Box

Similar to Instagram Feed, this WordPress plugin will help connect first time readers to the name and the story behind the blog. If someone randomly searches “how to do Oktoberfest on a budget” on Google and comes across my site, they won’t have any idea who is writing the article.

It’s best if you can show your readers the face behind the screen so they can connect with you personally.

Seeing who you are in the author box can lead them to finding out more about your story. So now, at the bottom of each post, my author bio box is always displayed.

4. Social Warfare

Social Warfare is a game changer for a WordPress blog. As you can see in the image from my site below, there are three easy tabs that pop up on my site- the Facebook icon, the Pinterest icon and the Twitter icon! With just a quick click, readers can share you posts to their social media.

This does wonders for your traffic and page views. It also gives your site credibility and helps it rank higher if Google sees it’s been shared a lot online.

Lots of social shares= a healthy, high ranking site!

5. Interactive Geo Maps PRO

If you’re a travel blogger using WordPress, you will most likely want to invest in an interactive map at some point. The previous plugins I listed are all free. But for a good map, you will need to pay a little.

I happened to buy mine when Interactive Geo Maps PRO was having a sale so it was a very minimal expense.

Just click the countries below to see the articles I’ve written about each destination!

Let me know if you have any questions about travel blogging. Best of luck in your blogging endeavors

Pro tip: One of the best things you can do as a blogger is learn about SEO! There is plenty of free information online like this article. Happy learning!

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Want to get paid as a travel blogger?
Sign up for Travel Payouts and earn money when you refer and recommend hotels, tours etc.

Follow Along On The Adventure…

travel blogging wordpress plugins

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