Blogging 101 – How to make money as a travel blogger

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Do you want to learn how to start a blog? Are you in need of a Blogging 101 lesson?

Want to know how to make money as a travel blogger? 

Have you ever looked at travel bloggers and influencers and wondered how they can possibly afford their lifestyle?

Do you dream of leaving the 9-5 rat race to follow more creative pursuits?

Or maybe you want to have location freedom and be able to travel the world whilst earning an income?

If you answered yes to any of the above then perhaps a career or side hustle as a travel blogger is for you!

Travel blogging is a wonderful way to see the world and feed your wanderlust whilst also making an income. Maybe you’ve been dreaming of it for a while but have no idea how to get started or maybe you already have a blog but haven’t figured out how to monetize it yet, or maybe you didn’t even know that it was possible to make an income with a blog! Either way, this blogging 101 guide will help you to get there.

So be sure to grab a cup of coffee (or a cheeky glass of vino 😉) and a pen and paper to take notes, cus this is going to be very in-depth!

Also, please note that I talk about travel blogging because that is my niche but there are many different niches that can make money and so this guide can apply to any type of blog that you want to write. 

PS. This Blogging 101 guide is also available as a PDF that you can easily print out and refer back to whilst you are building your site. Click here to get it now. 

Right, so let’s get started! 

What is a Blogger?

Ok, so let’s start with the basics… What is a blogger? 

A blogger is someone with a website who writes articles to help their audience. 

And that’s it! 

You don’t need any special skills or qualifications to become a successful blogger. You simply need to work hard and have a willingness to learn. And You don’t have to be very tech-savvy or even an amazing writer because there are plenty of resources out there to help you, you just need to know where to find them (more on that later). 

So what is a travel blogger? 

A travel blogger is a blogger who writes primarily about travel. This may include destination guides, tips on how to plan for travel, info about vegan or vegetarian travel, guides for solo female travel… The possibilities are endless. 

How do travel bloggers make money?

There are tons of ways that a blogger can make money (I even wrote an ebook about 30+ different ways to monetize your blog) but for this guide, I’m going to keep it simple and focus on the 4 best ways for beginners to make money with a blog. 

Advertising

Placing ads on your blog is a great way to get started with monetization. There are various different ad networks that you can apply to. However, each network has different payout rates and not all networks accept new bloggers. Most bloggers start off with Google ads and then apply for a higher paying network such as Mediavine once they have good traffic. You can grab a free copy of my tools and resources guide for bloggers for a list of ad networks and their requirements.

Affiliate marketing

This is where you link to a product or service in a blog post and if your reader clicks the link and makes a purchase then you receive a commission at no extra cost to your reader. Commissions can range from 2% to 70% depending upon the product. This can be an extremely lucrative way to make money and some bloggers make $1000s every month just from affiliate sales. 

If you want to get started with affiliate marketing right away you can join my affiliate programme by clicking here

Sponsored posts

This is where a company pays you to write about their product. You can set your own rates and negotiate with the brand you are promoting. 

Digital products

This is my favourite way to make an income from my blog! There are lots of different products you could sell, depending on your niche and audience. For example, I sell travel Itineraries and my ebook. You could also sell printables, templates and courses. 

I’ll go into each of these four income streams in more detail later on in this guide. 

But, If you want to find out more on how you can monetize your blog then be sure to check out my ebook where I go super in-depth on over 30 different income streams that you can add to your blog. 

If you enjoy this post, please subscribe to Travelacrosstheborderline by email, leave a comment below, and share on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Thanks for visiting!

Why start a blog in 2021?

You may have heard certain naysayers proclaiming that “blogging is dead” or that there is “too much competition”. But this is absolute nonsense. Yes, there are a lot of blogs out there but there is a place for everyone. No two blogs are the same and you have something unique to offer. 

Blogging can be extremely profitable if done right, there are bloggers out there that are making 6 figures every month. That’s the great thing about creating your own income from your blog, your earning potential is uncapped! Believe me, It is more than possible to start a successful and profitable blog in 2021. 

But you might be thinking “we are in the middle of a pandemic, how can I possibly start a travel blog when no one can travel?!” 

Well, 

Think about it this way, international travel is set to resume at some point this year and since everyone has been cooped up for so long it is likely that the tourism industry is going to boom as soon as we are all allowed to travel again. Starting a profitable blog takes time, for example, it takes approx 3 months to start ranking on google search results, so doesn’t it make sense to start your blog now so that you are all set up and ready to reap the benefits once the tourism boom happens? 

Besides, you don’t have to be currently travelling in order to write about travel. You can write about your past travel experiences, guides to virtual travel or even how you are planning your future travels. The sky is the limit, you just need to get creative!

How to start a blog for profit 

Ok so now that you have an understanding of how a blogger makes money and why you should start a blog let’s get into the meat and bones of this guide… How to start a blog step-by-step. 

There are a lot of blog posts out there that promise to teach you “how to start a blog in just 10 mins” or similar. Unfortunately, these are not giving you the full picture. Yes, it may only take you 10 mins to register your domain and set up a WordPress account but that is just a teeny-tiny part of the puzzle.

If you truly want to start a profitable blog that you can earn a real income from then you need to be prepared to put in a lot of work. Blogging requires both passion and patience. It can take a long time to get the ball rolling but once you start to make a profit then those profits will soon start to snowball and before you know it your income will be increasing every month without you having to do much at all.

That’s the beauty of passive income, you put in the hard work once and then reap the benefits for years to come. 

Blogging 101

Blogging 101: Step 1 – Create a solid business plan 

If you want to turn your blog into a full-time income (or even a decent-sized side hustle) then you need to get serious about treating your blog as a business from the very start. 

I suggest that before you even purchase a domain or web hosting, you sit down and begin to construct a business plan.

Your business plan should include the following :

Your brand Messages 

This is your starting point. Think about what you want your personal brand to be all about. What is your blog name? Your niche? What are your core values? Think about your colour scheme, logo, fonts and brand voice. Who do you want to help and how? 

Top tip: I used Creative Market to find unique fonts, graphics and stock photos that suit my brand messages and I used Fiverr to hire someone to design my logo. 

Target Audience

This is probably the most important thing that you will need to get clear on. Who is your audience? Think about their demographics, interests, pain points, needs and goals. Try to be as specific as possible. It can be helpful to create an avatar for your audience and give them a name. Picture talking to this person every time you write a blog post.

Competitor Research 

Take some time to think about who are your competitors. What kind of topics do they write about? How are they monetizing? How can you improve upon what they are already doing? 

Revenue Streams 

Think about how you will monetize your blog not just in the beginning but further along the road too. How will you be monetizing in 1 years time? It pays off to have a strong monetization strategy in place from day 1. Here are some ideas of income streams to get you started: 

• Advertising
• Affiliate marketing – Grab your free copy of my Ultimate tools and resources for bloggers PDF for a list of affiliate networks you can get started with today. 
• Services. E.g. Travel planning, coaching, social media management 
• Digital products. Eg. ebooks, printables, courses, etc.
• Physical products. E.g. t-shirts, travel journals, stickers.
• Sponsored posts and brand collaborations 

For more ideas and in-depth actionable steps check out my ebook

Budget

All legit businesses have to invest money in order to make money. Fortunately, online businesses, like blogs, have relatively low start-up costs compared to more traditional brick and mortar businesses. You can choose to invest as much or as little into your blog as you want, but it’s a good idea to try to have a clear vision of exactly how much you are willing to spend on your blog to get it up and running. When designing a budget try to consider the following:

• Startup Costs – Such as buying your domain name, a hosting plan, theme, premium plug-ins and marketing tools. 

• Projected monthly and yearly costs – are you planning to pay for your hosting annually or monthly? Do you need to budget for monthly costs such as an email provider? 

• Variable costs – These are one-off costs or regular costs that fluctuate from month to month such as advertising costs. You won’t be able to accurately predict these for the whole year but do try to estimate a rough amount. 

• Taxes – As a business, you will have to pay taxes. It’s generally considered good practice to set aside 20% of your gross income for your taxes. You may also want to consider budgeting to hire an accountant if you are not comfortable doing your own taxes. 

• Pricing strategy – once you know how much your blogs expenses will be, you can then come up with a pricing strategy for any digital products or services that you plan to offer. This will ensure that you know how much you need to sell in order to make a profit. 

Quarterly Smart Goals 

“I will launch my blog on [date] and make [X amount] of profit within [timeframe]. I will do this by [methods]”. 

I like to include quarterly goals for my business as it keeps me accountable and gives me a clear measure of my success. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. So rather than simply setting a goal of “I will start a blog and make money” set your goal to be something like this:

Marketing Strategies 

Plan how you are going to bring traffic, and ultimately customers, to your blog. Try to have a strategy in place for how you will handle email marketing, SEO, Pinterest and Social media.

This may seem a little overwhelming at first but you don’t need to have your whole business plan completed and set in stone straight away. You just need to start thinking about these things. I like to think of my business plan as a living document that I am constantly adding to, tweaking and adjusting as I learn and grow. That being said I strongly suggest you have your brand messages, target audience and competitor research all done before you move on to the next step. 

I know that writing a business plan can seem a little intimidating if you have never done one before. But they are so incredibly important when it comes to ensuring that your business is on the right track from the get-go. 

That’s why I have created a business plan workbook that will walk you through all the points above and much more. I have tried to make it as simple as possible whilst still being incredibly thorough; because I want you to succeed! 

You can find the biz plan workbook in my shop OR if you sign up to my email list in the box below (and grab your free list of the best blogging tools and resources) you will be able to purchase the workbook for only £7 for a limited time period. That’s a 75% discount for you as my way of saying thank you 😊

Blogging 101: Step 2 Purchase a domain name 

So now you are clear on how you plan to run your blog as a business, it’s time to get stuck into the tech side of things. 

First things first, you will need to register a domain name. This is simply your website address for example www.mynewblog.com. You can choose various different extensions such as .org or .co.uk, but I recommend going for a .com as that is the default for most people so will help your readers to remember your web address correctly. 

I use GoDaddy to buy and register my domains. They are cheap and have great customer service. Some web hosting plans come with a domain but personally, I think it’s better to purchase your domain separately as it adds an extra layer of protection against hackers. 

Before deciding on your domain name make sure that all associated social media handles are available. You can do this using Namecheckr. It’s best to open an account on all the major social media channels even if you don’t plan on using them, just in case you decide to use them in the future and also to help protect against copycats using your brand name. 

 Blogging 101: Step 3: Choose a self-hosting platform

In order to monetize your blog, you will need to be self-hosted. This means that your blog will be held on your own server rather than on a platform such as Blogger or Wix. There are many benefits to owning a self-hosted blog such as the ability to place ads and affiliate links and you will own the copyright to all your own content. 

The easiest way to start a self-hosted blog is via a third-party hosting service. There are a few different options and I have tried many of them over the years. 

My top 3 hosting options are: 

Siteground – This is the hosting platform that I currently use and is the best in my opinion. Their customer service is better than any other and security is built-in at no extra cost. 

Bluehost – Bluehost is also excellent and is a very close second to Siteground. You can get started with Bluehost for just £2.07 a month.

HostGator – I have also used HostGator in the past and found their price plans to be very reasonable. Their customer service is also awesome. The only reason I switched from Hostgator to Siteground is that I find Siteground’s interface to be a little more user friendly. But that’s just my personal preference and HostGator are still a fantastic hosting platform. 

I recommend having a look at all 3 of the options above and choosing the one that is right for you. 

Top tip: Don’t be tempted to start out on a free platform and switch to self-hosting later on. I made this mistake with my old fashion blog and it was an absolute nightmare! It took 3 days, a lot of tears and a very patient customer service advisor to get everything moved over. Just save yourself the headache and go self-hosted from the start. Trust me! 

Blogging 101: Step 4: Connect your domain and install WordPress 

So now that you have a domain and a web host you will need to connect them together. You can do this via the DNS zone editor in your hosting platform. This is actually a lot easier than it sounds and all 3 of the hosting platforms listed above will have step by step instructions on how to do this. It should only take a few minutes. 

Next, you will need to install WordPress. This is the interface that will make up the ‘back-office’ of your blog. The WordPress dashboard is where you will write your posts and essentially create and manage all elements of your blog. 

Siteground comes with built-in 1 click installation of WordPress which makes everything super easy to get up and running.  I like to keep my blogs set to private or put up a construction page until I am ready to launch. 

Blogging 101: Step 5: Install a premium theme

A theme is the collection of files that work together to create what you see and how your site behaves so basically the design and functionality of your website. WordPress comes with many options for free themes but I advise investing in a premium theme for 3 reasons:

1.To make your site look professional and unique – To succeed in business you need to stand out from your competitors and the look of your blog is a huge part of this. Think of it as the welcome mat to your whole business. You want to make a good first impression! 

2. To be mobile responsive – This is a big deal, guys! In order for your site to rank well on google and to enhance user experience, your theme needs to be mobile responsive. This means that the layout works not only on desktops but on laptops, mobile devices and tablets too. 

3. To gain enhanced features – Premium themes can come with features that the standard free themes don’t. For example, I knew that I wanted to have a shop page on this blog so I chose a theme that came pre-designed with a shop page and already included Woocommerce functionality. 

I bought my theme from Little Theme Shop on Creative Market. Creative Market is a great place to find themes made by talented web designers. Check out all the options here.

Installing a theme on your WordPress site is super easy. When you buy your theme you will be given specific instructions and you will be able to get it installed in no time. 

Blogging 101: Step 6. – Set up your blog for success 

Now that your theme is set up you could be forgiven for thinking that your blog is fully set up and ready for you to start writing posts. 

Well, not quite yet! 

First, there are a few things you need to do in order to ensure that your blog is set up correctly and will work well for you. 

Set up your permalink structure

Go to your WordPress dashboard, click on settings and then permalinks. Ensure that your permalinks are set to Post name (see screenshot below). This will stop your hyperlinks from looking like a spammy mess with just a bunch of numbers. 

It is crucial that you set your permalink structure BEFORE you publish any blog posts to your site. Changing the permalinks once you already have posts live will result in broken links and will seriously piss off google and lose your rankings. 

Get an SSL certificate

If your users input their private information (such as names and email addresses) on your blog, then you need an SSL certificate for security. An SSL encrypts and secures any data that passes through its connection. This helps to prevent any data theft or hacking. Plus, if any data is stolen from then it’ll be impossible to decipher since it’s encrypted. Siteground, Bluehost and Hostgator all offer free SSL certificates with their hosting packages and you can easily set it up with the tools on your hosting platform dashboard. 

Set up security for your blog

I recommend using CloudFlare or the Sucuri plugin to protect your site from malicious attacks 

Set up a branded email address

You will want to project a professional image of yourself and your business by creating an email address that matches your site’s domain name. This will make your blog and business seem more reliable, trustworthy, and easier to remember. Again, setting this up is easier than it sounds. Your host should offer at least 1 free email address that matches your domain name. There will be step by step instructions on how to set this up on your hosting platform dashboard.  

Install Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an invaluable tool that you will need to use in order to track and analyse your site traffic. To get started go to https://analytics.google.com/ and set up a free account. It will give you a piece of code to paste into your blogs header code. To do this go to your WordPress dashboard click on appearance then theme editor. If you are not confident about adding in code then I recommend the plugin ‘insert headers and footers’ which makes it super easy for you.

Install some plugins

A WordPress plugin is basically a bit of code that adds new functionality to your WordPress site. There are loads of super helpful plug-ins that will help you to run your blog. Grab a free copy of my ultimate list of tools and resources for bloggers for a comprehensive list of plug-ins to get you started. 

To install a plugin simply Go to your dashboard click Plugins then click Add New. Now you will be able to browse, search for or upload any plugins that you may want. 

Blogging 101: Step 7. – Set up your Essential pages and Menus 

Next, it is time to set up some essential pages on your blog. Pages are different from posts in that they are static and timeless. 

Some essential pages you need to set up on your blog are:

About page – Let your audience know who you are and what your blog is about 

Contact – include your email and set up a contact form for your readers to reach out to you. It is also required in the terms & conditions of some ad networks that you have a contact page, so this is important for monetization!

Privacy policy – More about this below 

Some optional pages that you may want to include on your blog: 

Work with me – Let Brands and advertisers know that you are open to collaborations and what you offer 

Shop – Sell your products and promote your affiliate products 

Resources – Create a handy resource page for your readers. This can be a great place to add affiliate links 

Silo pages – Silo pages are those that group categories of blog posts together and link out to those related posts. For example, if you are a travel blogger you could have a ‘destinations’ page that groups blog posts together by country. 

Blogging 101: Step 8. – Legal compliance 

There are several laws and regulations that you will need to adhere to as a blogger. I wrote a detailed post about how to blog legally that you can check out. Basically, there are a few things you will need in order to run your blog legally:

Privacy policy

Disclosure

Disclaimer

Terms & conditions

At least a basic understanding of GDPR 

Blogging 101: Step 9. – Create strategies 

By this point, your blog will be starting to look good, so now is the time to head back to your business plan and start creating some strategies. 

You could have the most amazing blog in the world but without planning your strategies for monetization, traffic acquisition and marketing you will be left hearing crickets when you launch. 

Back in step 1, you thought about how you want to monetize your blog so now you need to think about how are you going to get people onto your blog and then turn them into customers. You need to create sales funnels. Think about every step of your users’ journey, from how they will find your blog to how they will end up clicking your affiliate link or buying your product.

Take some time to think about and write down a strategy for the following:

Content strategy

Think about what kind of content you will produce for your blog. Each blog post should have value for the reader and solve a problem or answer a question they may have. Think about your target audience, what are their pain points? How can you include affiliate links and products in your posts that will help them?

Traffic acquisition

How are you going to bring traffic to your blog? Pinterest and SEO (search engine optimization) are two of the best ways to get traffic so I recommend you start by focusing on them. So think about how you are going to promote your Pinterest pins. How often will you add pins to Pinterest? How many pins do you need for each post? And when it comes to SEO, how are you going to optimise your posts for google? 

Tailwind is a fantastic tool for Pinterest marketing. You can use it to schedule your pins for months in advance and get your pins seen and shared by more people through the Tailwind communities feature. To learn more about how to explode your blog traffic using tailwind then I recommend checking out this ebook. 

Social media marketing

Perhaps you want to use social media to drive traffic to your blog. Well, this requires a whole content strategy of its own. Make a plan of what kind of content you will post and how often and think about how you will encourage your social media followers to click your links to your blog. 

It’s best to focus on just 1 or 2 social media platforms when you first start out. You can add more later if need be. For now, it is better to do one platform really well than to be spreading yourself thin across multiple platforms. 

Email marketing

Email marketing is the best way to build an army of loyal readers who will click your affiliate links and buy your products. So it makes sense to start building an email list from day one. Choose an email service provider, I recommend Convertkit as they are the best option out there. Then think about how you are going to get subscribers. Offering freebies and opt-ins are a great idea. Think about what you could offer to solve your readers’ problems. Next, think about what you will send to your email subscribers. Come up with a content strategy for your newsletters. 

Scaling

Think about how you will scale and grow your blog and business. What products and services will you add later down the line? Will you need to hire an assistant once your blog reaches a certain point? Try to plan ahead. 

Thinking about all these strategies BEFORE you start writing your first post is how you will make sure that your posts are fully optimised to bring in the most traffic and the most money. In other words, if you have everything figured out now you will hit the ground running! Use the list of tools and resources below to help you plan and implement these strategies. 

Blogging 101: Step 10.  Get organised by creating systems and processes 

As well as strategies, in order for your blog to succeed, you will also need systems and processes in place.  A system is a core element that helps your business run and

processes are all the things you do in order to make your systems work most efficiently. 

Some common systems that you may need are: 

• Accounting
• Batch content creation
• Cloud Storage
• Course hosting
• Editorial calendar
• eCommerce
• Email Marketing
• Graphic Design
• Password Storage
• Social Media Scheduling
• Spreadsheets

Think about how you can automate these systems to be as streamlined and efficient as possible. Take some time to research what tools and software you will need to implement these systems. 

Here are some of my favourite tools to get you started:

Convertkit – This is the email service provider I use to run my email list

Tailwind – Scheduling tool for Pinterest with tons of handy features that will help make your pins go viral. This is my number 1 way to drive traffic to my blog 

Leadpages – I use Leadpages to easily create stunning landing pages for my products and opt-ins. I also used it to create the results pages for my quiz.

Canva Pro – Canva is probably my favourite tool ever! It allows you to create beautiful graphics even if you have absolutely no design experience. I use Canva to design products such as my travel itineraries and to design Pinterest pins and social media promotional content. I highly recommend upgrading to Canva Pro as it allows you to upload your brand colours and therefore makes it super easy to keep your branding consistent across all your designs. It also has an absolute tonne of other amazing features that will make your life as a blogger so much easier. Do be sure to check it out.

Keysearch – I use Keysearch to find the best keywords to use in my blog posts. It helps me to rank on Google and drive more traffic to my blog 

I like to create workflows for the tasks that I have to do over and over again such as blog post creation and SEO optimizing. See the screenshots below for an example of how I do this.

You can Create workflow checklists for things like:

• Blog post creation
• Social media scheduling
• Email marketing 
• New product launches
• Freebie creation

I use a free project management software called Trello to help create my systems and processes and to generally keep my blog and business on track. To get started with using Trello for your blog, I highly recommend checking out this Trello bundle. 

Blogging 101: Step 11. Write some killer content 

You’ve come so far! Give yourself a pat on the back! 

Now for the part you have been waiting for, It’s finally time to start writing your blog posts! 

Before you dive into your content plan take some time to plan an editorial calendar. I like to plan 3 months worth of content in advance and use this editorial calendar template for Trello. 

Blogging 101: Step 12. Test your site and check the speed

Now you have built your site, got your business plan organised and written some killer content, it is almost time to launch. But first, take some time to do a final check of your site. It’s a good idea to get a friend or family member to act as a website beta-tester and to go through your site as a user and let you know of any problems they encounter. They will be able to spot things that you have missed because you are too close to the project. 

You can check your site speed by using Cloudflare’s free site speed tool. 

Blogging 101: Step 13. Launch! 

You made it! 

It’s finally time to launch your blog to the world. Set your blog to public or take down that under-construction page and start raking in the rewards for all your hard work.

Don’t forget to do your happy dance!

Use social media to create some hype for your big launch and use Tailwind to schedule pins that lead traffic to your blog posts. 

Blogging 101: Step 14. Extra steps 

Now that you have launched there are just a few more things you need to do in order to guarantee success.

Put your strategies into action.

You spent all that time planning so now is the time to implement those plans. Stick to your content calendar and post regularly, consistently add pins to Pinterest and email your subscribers regularly. Consistency is key to growing your blog and business. 

Continue to educate yourself.

There is always so much to learn when it comes to blogging. I have been blogging for 10 years and I’m still learning new things all the time.

Some courses and ebooks that are well worth investing in are:

Explode traffic with tailwind tribes

Scheduling shortcuts (This is legit THE BEST Pinterest course out there!)

Amazon affiliates ebook 

Sales with Ell 

My ebook (Learn 30 strategies to monetize your blog & social media influence)

Boosting your blog traffic ebook 

The email marketing fairy 

Give yourself time to grow 

Blogging is not a get rich quick scheme it takes time to grow and gain traffic but once the ball gets rolling it snowballs and your traffic and income will continue to increase. As long as you put in the work, continue to learn and tweak your strategies and have some patience you are almost guaranteed to be successful. Just remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint. 

Summary of Blogging 101

If you are still with me and have made it through this mammoth blogging 101 guide, then I salute you! Seriously, give yourself a pat on the back because I know it’s been a lot of info. 

Ok, I know this guide has been thorough and I really hope it hasn’t been too intimidating but the truth is that I really want you to succeed. So many ‘how to start a blog’ guides simply tell you how to set up WordPress and then leave you wondering “what’s next?”  I want your business to be successful from day 1 so that is why I have tried to give you as much guidance as possible. 

I do hope it has been helpful. 

If you have any further questions drop them in the comments below and I will do my best to answer them. And don’t forget to grab your FREE list of over 100 essential tools and resources for bloggers!

Happy blogging! xo

PS. This Blogging 101 guide is also available as a PDF that you can easily print out and refer back to whilst you are building your site. Click here to get it now.