How to Make a Travel Blog That Can Monetize Long Term

A large number of people have created a living while traveling around the world and it’s no surprise that many more will want to follow these footsteps. If you have landed on this page, wanting to learn how to make a travel blog, you’ve come to the right place. 

In the next few minutes, I’ll show which platform to use and what needed to be done to generate a long term income.

Blogging Platform – Which One to Use

Even though there are several platforms out there when it comes to serious blogging, there’s only one that I would recommend and that’s WordPress. This software is most suitable for your niche because it’s supported by web professionals, it’s easy to customize, and has way more features that are beneficial for search engine rankings.

Free website builders are nice at first sight, but they often restrict the number of pages or multimedia that can be published. To remove those restrictions, you often need to pay ‘upgrading fees’ which I think is unnecessary since WordPress offers them for free. The more blog that you can create, the better.

How to Launch a WordPress Blog

There are 3 steps involved in launching a WordPress blog.

(1) First, you’ll need to get a domain name that reflects a traveling niche. Again, if you’re serious about online monetization, then it’s always better to buy a custom domain for a stronger branding presence.

(2) Next, connect the purchased domain to a hosting service provider that has a WordPress platform, preferably one that offers a one-click installation – no downloads whatsoever – so that your blog can go live within minutes.

(3) Inside the WordPress dashboard, look for a ‘travel’ based type of theme and pick one that you like, but keep in mind that you are not limited to this selection alone.

With that, your blog is all set to go. The entire process shouldn’t take more than half an hour and if you are looking for a platform to get started, I would recommend using WordPress by SiteRubix as it is easy and reliable.  

Build an Audience Using Targeted Keywords

Here’s the part that many people aren’t aware when it comes to blogging; the audience has to come first before the moneymaking part. Anyone who visits a blog is a source of traffic, but to get people to read what you have to share and subsequently convert them into buyers, you need to offer travel information that is of value TO THEM.

Often, beginners are advised to write what they are passionate about, but here’s the caveat. If the topic isn’t something that the greater audience is interested in, it’s going to be difficult to attract visitors to your site, much less engage with them.

To know which topic to write about, you need to first find out what words people are using to search for information online. These are known as targeted keywords and some tools will differentiate between the ‘good’ and ‘not-so-good’ keyphrases.

Take a look at these two examples;

Famous temples in Bangkok

Top 10 temples to visit in Bangkok

It seems like any common keyphrases that we would type into Google, right? Well, according to Jaaxy Keyword Tool, the second one is more frequently searched. Look at the AVG value (average number of searches the keyword receives per month) below for both.

If you use the first keyphrase as a blog topic, it’s going to take a longer time to attract visitors simply because that term isn’t as popular as you might think. Remember, in the early phase of blogging, you want your content to be visible, not the other way round.

Another factor that influences your blog’s visibility is competition. For every given keyphrase, there are always other sites that will be targeting for the same topic. As a new blogger, it’s wiser to use keywords with lesser competition so that it’s easier to get ranked on the first page of Google where 99% of your audience would spend time browsing.

QSR is the metric that I refer to when using Jaaxy to check for keyword competition. Here are two key phrases that are almost alike, but differs in their QSR values. Which one do you think makes a better-targeted keyword?

The first one as the competition level is only 13 as opposed to 215. Plus, when the keywords are more elaborate, your blog post could also rank for other (shorter) terms within that phrases such as;

Places to visit in Bangkok

Visit Bangkok for shopping

Places in Bangkok for shopping

Bangkok for shopping

That’s how ONE blog post that targets an elaborated low competition keyphrase, attract different readers from the search engines – for free. As more content is created over time, the number of visitors will only build up and so will the size of your audience.

Make Blogging Your Main Focus

There are many ways to make money from a travel blog, but it’s not necessary to implement every single one of them, especially if you haven’t built an audience yet. The easiest way would be to join affiliate programs related to your niche, lead readers to merchant sites, and earn from recurring sales commissions.

Good quality content plays a big role in this conversion hence, publishing articles with targeted keywords AND offering helpful information will bring more readers to the products/services that you are affiliated with. The commission might not seem lucrative at the beginning, but the earning will only grow as your blog continues to mature.  

I hope this article not only shows you how to make a travel blog, but you’ve also learned how to create content that matters. If you like to know more about turning your blog into a successful online business, do check out the training program at Wealthy Affiliate or leave your comments below and I’d be happy to assist.