Top 7 Travel Blogging Monetization Strategies

If you have been following my travel blogging series, you might be wondering about the best monetization strategies for travel bloggers.

I’m glad that’s already on your mind!

Starting a blog with a business mindset from day one is certainly the best approach. Many bloggers’ biggest regret is not thinking about monetizing sooner.

Yes, you’re sharing your travel stories and advice because you love traveling, but I’m pretty sure you’ve dreamed about making a profit from something you love. 

There’s no shame in wanting to make money and sustain your travel this way. 

In fact, it’s a smart move! Blogging can provide you with a comfortable income and allow you to continue to travel long-term.

Today, we’ll look into seven popular travel blogging monetization strategies so that you know about the most common routes bloggers take and can plan to make money blogging sooner.

These are the money-making activities we’ll cover and where most travel bloggers start:

1. Affiliate Marketing
2. Ads
3. Sponsored Content
4. Paid Press Trips
5. E-books and Courses
6. Other Digital Products
7. Services 

7 Ways to Make Money as a Travel Blogger

You can monetize your travel content in many ways, and I’ll tell you about the most popular ones.

If you haven’t started a blog yet, I highly recommend doing so. The initial and ongoing costs of running a website are very low, and there’s no cap on how much you can earn. 

Last week’s article covers the steps you need to take and the elements in which I recommend investing.

Once that’s settled, there are several money-generating activities you can focus on. Let’s see what those are!

1. Affiliate Marketing 

Affiliate marketing is a monetization method in which you promote products and services you use to travel so that your readers can benefit from them, too.

If you already use those products and services, you will likely mention them within your content. So why not join those companies’ affiliate programs and make a commission when someone buys on your recommendation?

Affiliate marketing is one of the best strategies many bloggers use to monetize their content and is a great place to start.

You can begin by checking if your favorite brands already offer a program. They’ll normally link to it on the website’s footer, and you can apply right away.

Most programs don’t require that you have a ton of traffic to get started, and, in fact, I recommend joining affiliate marketing programs earlier rather than later.

Travelpayouts, for instance, is a fantastic affiliate network for travel bloggers that helps you partner with more than 100 different companies in the travel industry. When you join Travelpayouts, you can skip searching for individual programs on every website and simply sign up for all within the same platform.

I have prepared an entire post to help you get started with Travelpayouts, and I have partnered with them to offer you a $25 bonus on top of your first commission payout.

To get the extra cash, create an account with Travelpayouts and use the code BSTHRIVES on the registration screen.

Other affiliate networks you can join include ShareASale, Awin, Mavely, Impact, and Amazon Associates.

As soon as your website is up with all the legal pages in order and a few published articles, you can apply to join these networks and partner with your favorite brands.

Related posts:
→ Travelpayouts Review and Promo Code
→ Getting Started with ShareASale

2. Ads 

Displaying ads on your website is one of the most passive forms of income and a great way to monetize your blog. 

This is a very lucrative option for travel bloggers because ad rates are typically high, and travel is one of the best niches for traffic growth.

Once your blog is established, you can join a premium ad network to help you display ads through your site. Based on your page views, you can expect to earn anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a couple of thousands every month.

Mediavine and Raptive, the most sought-after ad networks, require a minimum of 50,000 sessions and 100,000 pageviews, respectively.

Other options that you can start with earlier on are:

• Journey by Mediavine, for blogs receiving 10,000 monthly sessions, and 
• SHE Media, which requires 20,000 pageviews.

Since ads can negatively impact user experience and website speed, I recommend waiting until you’re ready to join one of these higher-paying ad companies.

3. Sponsored Content

Next up, sponsored content. 

This is a fantastic option that not too many bloggers take advantage of. But I feel that travel creators are more exposed to partnership opportunities from early on, which is great news!

Brands are constantly looking for new ways to put their offers in front of more people and partnering with content creators is super trendy right now.

Ultimately, brands want to increase their revenue. And they are willing to pay creators to share their offers.

Sometimes, brand partnerships will require writing and publishing a blog post. But they may also be looking for a quick mention instead, like adding a reference to one of your existing pieces of content, for example.

When it comes to brand sponsorships, having a social media following helps, as the companies may want to be featured on your Instagram or TikTok page as well. So, the more you’ve got to offer a brand, the more you’ll earn from sponsored posts. 

However, regardless of how big or small your audience is, you can start collaborating with companies at any time. There are influencer networks that will help you find the right opportunities, and you can join those from early on.

Some great networks for travel content creators are Blog Meets Brand, Hello Social Co., Linqia, Valued Voice, Izea, and Acorn, to name a few.

Also, I recently finished a course that teaches bloggers everything about sponsored work. I highly recommend looking at it if this is a monetization strategy you want to learn more about.

4. Paid Press Trips

As a travel blogger, you’ll likely be approached by tourism boards, hotel companies, and other travel-related brands at some point. 

These companies will invite you to join press trips (or fam trips) to experience their services first-hand and then share about them with your readers.

This is a great way to not only travel the world for free and networking with others in your niche, but also to get paid to travel. 

In addition to covering all of your expenses, you often get paid on top. The payout can vary significantly depending on your reach, but it will increase as your blogging business grows.

You will agree on a set of deliverables for each trip, such as blog articles, social media posts, photographs, and more. You are already doing these things anyway, so why not join these activities when the opportunities arise and get paid to do what you love?

Of course, it is essential that you create the best content possible for every opportunity. This will open doors to future partnerships with the same companies and also offer you exposure to book with new brands. 

As you start taking advantage of this monetization strategy, even if you don’t make much initially, you’ll establish yourself and get noticed by others for future collaborations.

5. E-books and Courses

Creating an e-book or a course to offer your audience will build trust and establish your blog as an authority in the travel niche.

Many travel content creators choose to take this approach because it can also be highly profitable. And, although you need to put an effort into producing these types of resources, they can bring you a semi-passive income for a long time.

When it comes to actually selling and delivering your book or course, there are different ways in which you can do that professionally. 

Some bloggers opt to publish books on Amazon, which helps them introduce their offers to millions of buyers. The only downside is that the royalties they earn as authors are small. But if their book sells well, this can be a big advantage and bring exposure to their blog.

Other bloggers sell directly on their websites. While this can somewhat limit the number of people who find your offers online, the profit margin is bigger, so you can potentially make more of it. 

A couple of trusted platforms you can use to accept payments and deliver e-books to buyers are ThriveCart (which is what I use on Blogging She Thrives) and SendOwl (get 3 months free here).

When it comes to online courses, the revenue is typically higher because courses tend to be perceived as more expensive resources. Depending on the topics you want to cover, it can be worth considering creating a course rather than choosing the e-book format. 

ThriveCart Learn (which is included with the lifetime plan of ThriveCart) is an easy tool that you can use for your students to purchase and access the course you’ve created. 

Teachable is another tool that I love using as a student, although it does have a monthly cost.

6. Other Digital Products

Apart from e-books and online courses, there are other digital products that you can create and sell, too. Smaller digital products can be a great source of passive income and add to the bulk of your blogging earnings.

Many travel bloggers sell printables, planners, workbooks, and more. You could sell these directly from your website using the same tools I mentioned above (ThriveCart, SendOwl, or Teachable). 

Or you could create a seller account on marketplaces like Etsy, Creative Market, Creative Fabrica, and Design Bundles. 

There are plenty of option to choose from so, in fact, why not join them all? The more you diversify and the more people you reach, the higher your chances of making an income quickly.

7. Services 

Offering services is another popular way for a travel blogger to make money online. 

This does require more of your time and careful planning, though. 

When you’re selling services, you are trading your time for money, so you need to consider that you won’t be able to travel as freely as you would otherwise.

However, this is a highly profitable way to earn money from your travel blog. And it usually doesn’t require a huge investment to get started, depending on the types of services you choose to offer.

Here are some ideas:

• Organize your own group tours,
• Become a freelance writer (or editor),
• Offer VA services (from social media management to web design, for example),
• Teach English online or wherever you go.

Do you have other skills that you learned in school or practiced through your previous day job? Think of ways in which you can offer the same types of services in a freelance capacity. 

If it’s something you can do remotely from your computer, it’s usually a no-brainer to do it while traveling, regardless of where you go.

Related post: Best Online Courses for Travel Bloggers

Wrapping Up

When it comes to travel blogging, there isn’t a single approach to monetization.

You can—and should!—take advantage of multiple income streams. This will bring you security, and the possibilities are endless. Plus, there’s no cap on how much you can earn from your online business.