Last Updated
Get ready as I'm about to drop a truth bomb. This isn't for people that want to “dip their toe” in the world of travel blogging.
There are so many blogs out there on how to become a travel blogger, it's hard to know what really works. Even worse, many of the blogs are outdated, overwritten and have so many steps they leave you feeling completely overwhelmed and ready to give up.
I'm going to get rid of the fluff and give you the top 5 tips that increased our travel blog traffic by 1000% in only 1 year.
These are imperative steps to your travel blogs success. Travel blogging takes hard work, patience, consistency and investment to be successful. Forget buying links, followers or website traffic. Trust me.. I've been there, done that and it doesn't work. Even worse it can hurt your chances of growth in the long run. Know that it's going to take time and keep pressing forward.
The only way to fail as a travel blogger is to give up.
I can without a doubt guarantee that if you follow these 5 secrets consistently your travel blog will be a success.
How to be a Successful Travel Blogger
1. Blog, blog, blog and then blog some more
You think this would go without saying. In order to become a successful travel blogger you actually have to blog consistently. What is consistently? Honestly, a minimum of 3 times a week, every week for at least a year to start earning from your blog. Even if you think you're blogging a lot, blog more. A great number that I keep hearing from other travel bloggers is 100-200 high quality blogs to START earning.
You may find yourself running short on blog topics. I have faced this hurdle many times and it can be challenging to get over writers block. My biggest tip for blog ideas is to pull from personal life experience rather than just regurgitating other people's blogs and information. You will be more passionate about what your writing and give quality advice that people appreciate.
2. Save, Sell, Travel
Warning: massive life changes ahead
This is where we separate those who are serious from those who aren't. Remember this is the FAST way to becoming a successful travel blogger. It's hard to be a travel blogger if you don't actually travel often. If you don't have a lot of money. it's hard to travel. It's a vicious cycle and a common reason for giving up.
Get ready as your life is about to change dramatically to fulfill those wanderlust dreams.
1. Sell Everything – You are going to live your life out of a backpack or suitcase, so get rid of your house or apartment and everything in it. Seriously now go back and read that sentence again. Sell everything. Rent or a mortgage are going to hold you back from traveling. Save the money from everything you sold as it will help fund your travels. Here is a complete guide on getting ready to live as a nomad.
2. Save up $10,000. This is all you will need for one year of budget living abroad. A great example of an inexpensive town is Hoi An, Vietnam. Check out the low cost of living.
If your living paycheck to paycheck you're going to have to take a good look at the lifestyle you live and downsize the heck out of it.
3. Quit your Job – For the next year, all your going to do is write blogs and travel abroad in a cheaper country. The dream life begins but staying dedicated to your blog while traveling will be challenging. Have a strict schedule in place for blogging and stick to it.
3. Don't let social media take over
One of the biggest struggles we've had is balancing social media and blogging. It's important to remember that social media should compliment your blog and drive traffic to it. Your bread and butter will come from your blog and you OWN it! Social media algorithms are forever changing and Influencers have had their reach wiped out overnight.
Taking great travel photos, sharing them with others and interacting is very important to build a following for your travel blog. Keep in mind that the blogging to social media ratio should be 80% blogging, 20% social media.
We found that we were constantly getting sucked down the Instagram worm hole. We were comparing ourselves to others, scrolling the feed and spending way to much time creating Instagram content instead of blog content.
4. Find your travel blog niche
There are many successful general travel bloggers out there. Competing with these bloggers and large companies in the general travel niche will almost be impossible. If you are just starting a new website, it will not have the authority to rank well for competitive search terms. Instead of competing in general travel you will want to find your niche!
Here are just a few examples of travel niches out there
- Solo female travel
- Traveling with disabilities
- Couples without kids travel
- Full time travel
- Traveling with dogs
- Full time RV travel
- Gay Couples travel
- Cruising travel
- Van travel
- Hitchhiking travel
- Road Trip travel
- All Inclusive travel
- Outdoor Adventure travel
Picking a niche and sticking to it will help let Google know you are a guru in a certain area of travel and make it easier for you to rank.
5. You can't do it alone
When my wife Kashlee and I first started travel blogging three years ago, we honestly had no idea what we were doing. We made countless mistakes because we were to proud to learn from the best. We honestly thought we would just figure it all out and learn as we went.
We've realized this slowed down the growth of our travel blog BIG TIME! We could've been much bigger than we are now if we would have invested in ourselves and got some help from the top travel bloggers out there in the beginning! One of the best ones that actually got our asses in gear and grew our blog was Nomadic Matt's The Business of Travel Blogging.
Don't be too proud to get some help along the way. Educating and investing in yourself is the absolute best way to become successful as a travel blogger.
Becoming a successful travel blogger is going to take some time and staying consistent has definitely been the most challenging part for us.
As most travelers are sipping on cold drinks at the beach, we are on our laptops blogging. At the end of the day it has allowed us to travel the world for the last 3 years and we wouldn't trade it for anything.
Aniva Junction Serpong
Thursday 4th of February 2021
In 2021, will I have a blog writing competition, will it still be interesting?
Annika
Friday 10th of July 2020
What an inspirational post! Thank's for sharing!
Rahul Yadav
Sunday 5th of July 2020
Thank you for giving some valuable tips to become a successful blogger.I hope this will help me a lot
Pew Die
Monday 11th of November 2019
I like your information
Fathnan
Tuesday 2nd of July 2019
Nice Info