It is everyone’s dream, right? To spend your days in exotic locations, living the luxury lifestyle, sipping cocktails, toes dipped in the sand, like you are on a permanent vacation. But how often do dreams become reality? Not very often, and not for normal people.
Well, this really could be your lucky day as we just so happen to not believe a word of that naysaying attitude and know for a fact, you can easily and cheaply start running a travel-based business, online and start living and working in places you scarcely dreamed of. How do we know, well a few years we took those exact steps and are now earning our primary incomes, solely from travel blogging? And we want to share with you how we did it and how you can too.
Your Experience
The first starting point is a touch of introspection. Starting your own online Travel business is not an easy prospect. It takes a lot of work and effort and this has to be driven by passion and desire. So unless you are really, really into travel, this is maybe not the best path for you to take.
This does not mean you need to be a grizzled old vagabond, with no ties and wandering the earth for eternity, it just means you need a real passion for getting out there and preferably a little experience of some destinations. It tends to pay to be a destination expert of a particular place or region at least when you are starting out, or even just someone with a unique way of traveling that would interest like-minded people.
You may have extensive local knowledge of a touristy location, you may travel with family, or a disability, or alone. You may just have a deep knowledge of a kind of destination, Ski, City, or Beach destinations, or have traveled extensively to a certain country, Italy, Australia, or Iceland.
The key is to try and narrow the subject down from Travel, as this is too broad, and you narrow it down by focusing on your personal experience. You see most people with the desire to start up a travel business already have a background of travel of some kind, this is your experience and history of traveling, and it’s usually the perfect base to start your business. You are probably already a destination expert and just didn’t know it, now it’s time to share that knowledge and experience with the world.
Start a Travel Blog
The number one way to start earning from your travel TODAY is to start up a Travel Blog. The beauty of this is you can start sure small with almost no outlay and let it grow and grow and grow. You can start today writing about the experiences you have already had. There are millions of like-minded travelers out there wanting to read and learn about the destinations they are headed to, and that you likely already know about.
Think about the trips you have been on. How did you research those? The chances are you ended up on quite a few blogs and websites detailing the locations and activities. Wouldn’t it be nice if one of those blogs was yours?
The big issue with a career change is making the leap. It’s scary to leave the sanctuary of secure employment and take a plunge into the unknown. With a Travel Blog, there is no need to, you can start the blog easily on the side and build it up while still working your current job, giving you the time to hone and perfect it building up to the day you finally hand in your notice and go full time. Trust us, it will be the best day of your life!
There are several ways you can start up a Travel Blog, but we find the best platform is Wealthy Affiliate. This is the Platform we used to launch our blog and 7 years later it is still the place we call home. Wealthy Affiliate gives you all the tools you need to start up your blog, from building out the site, hosting it, letting Google know all about you, Growing your audience, to finding ways to monetize your audience. It’s a one-stop shop for getting started and thriving in the online business world, and it works perfectly for Travel bloggers like us.
You can take a FREE test drive of the platform here, or read our full review here
By utilizing your own knowledge and experience and putting these into a vibrant and engaging travel Website you have already unlocked the key to breaking away from the daily grind. Our blog is the cornerstone of everything we do and the primary driver of 90%+ of our income.
There are other platforms available that provide the basics such as hosting and website builders, but the whole package at Wealthy Affiliate means this can easily be your only expense! For basic hosting, we recommend either Wix or Squarespace. Both offer all you need to get started with a Blog, but there is little to no help in how you will go about monetizing such a blog or really building out your audience in the best way. Wealthy Affiliate covers all that, and provides the tools, along with your website and hosting!
Social Media
Most people see social media as the starting point for their Travel careers. It’s not hard to see why as there are countless Travel influencers out there all peppering their socials with stunning imagery of a lifestyle beyond imagining. The trouble with this you have to build a huge following before you can really make any headway, and this involves producing a huge amount of really engaging content.
While the same is true for a Blog, the trouble with social media channels is this content needs to be in the form of photos or videos and these are more tricky to produce than words. Simply as you need to actually be at the destination to create them. If you have a huge back catalog of awesome photos and videos from your travels then great, starting up your social channels is a fantastic way to start building the business.
But we still recommend using the blog as the bedrock. Social channels are a great way o expand and promote your content as well as the destinations and it all works in perfect harmony, but to solely focus on a Social Media Style business you have to do so much initial legwork to gain your footing it’s almost impossible to break into without spending large amounts on promoting your channel
Video Blogging – YouTube
YouTube is technically a Social Media Platform, but it’s so unique it’s got to be worth a mention on its own. YouTube is a phenomenal way to build up a profitable business in the travel Space. The issue again is that you really need to be recording your videos at the destinations. You will only draw so much of an audience simply talking about a location without actually showing footage of the place you are talking about.
This is a slow process and it gives you very little you can build out today. Literally, every Travel Blogger out there should also be shooting YouTube videos but it is something you build out as you visit places in the future. Very few of us have the foresight to record quality videos just on spec while on vacation to a level that could then be used as captivating YouTube Content.
So again this is why the Blog is so vital, it’s something you can start out with today. You can start building, based on your past experiences and knowledge (along with a little bit of online research), and then as you travel more you can start making more use of other social channels and YouTube.
Equipment
As a very minimum you are going to need a $5k Camera, an Ultra High-Res Video Camera costing around $3k, several $400 GoPro’s, a $3k High-end laptop Computer, Expensive Software, and a whole host of ancillary and accessories. Or at least that is what you might feel you need to invest in just to get started. In reality…you could just use your phone!
Honestly with the advancements in camera phones in the last few years especially since 2020, the results you can get simply from carrying your phone are staggering. All four images above are all taken with a Camera Phone (Galaxy S22Ultra), and while there are potential limitations from a photography perspective, they work perfectly for capturing travel information. You always have your phone on you and can grab a shot at a moment’s notice.
You are going to need a laptop of some sort in order to get Blogging properly, but it does not need to be high-end. You could theoretically work from a phone or tablet but a real keyboard is pretty important for accurate and fast typing. A cheaper laptop (it does not need to be a laptop but the portability is perfect for a Tavel Blogger) is fine to get started, you need a bit more power if you are going to be processing HD-Video, but to just process photos and type up blogs a lower budget device is fine.
You may well find you want to start investing in fancier cameras better computers and more complex video platforms, but you should see these as nice extras not barriers to entry. With a Cheap Laptop and a decent Camera Phone, you are ready to go! There are even ways to get most of the photos you need to get going without taking your own pictures at all!
What Are We Selling?
We are all selling something right? And yes We suppose in a way we are, but we really don’t see it like that. What we are offering you, is simply an open door. It is for you to walk through it and start your journey to the life you always dreamed of.
We really do recommend trying out the Wealthy Affiliate Platform as the perfect starting point to build out your business, and keep it running there as we have done for several years now. But if that is not the route you want to take there are other options. We are simply saying you can do this and you absolutely should!
Arent We Too Late?
No one Blogs anymore and the market is saturated, there are too many big players, and getting a foothold is just too hard…probably best to stick to the 9-5!
You are going to hear this over and over, it’s probably already started in your mind. There are so many travel blogs out there and even the biggest media companies are in on the act. Forbes Travel, Conte Naste, and CNN Travel, it’s going to be impossible to compete.
The honest answer is yeah, to start with it is really hard to compete, to get a foot-hold and all you can expect from the first few years is crumbs, but with Google processing, 8.6 billion search queries every day, you can do an awful lot with the crumbs available.
We are also in a world where Travel Bloggers are more in demand than EVER! In this day and age, Travel Agents are in real decline. The industry is really suffering, and that is because we are all our own travel agents these days. The wealth of online tools to book cheap flights, bargain hotels and plan your own itineraries, means we no longer need to go to a Travel Agent to book our trips. However, people still need to get their info from somewhere and this is exactly the service you are offering.
By providing first hand exert knowledge of a place and destination your insights can be of great value to your audience and can be both instructional and entertaining to the readers. The topic of travel is so incredibly broad there are always niches and spaces that are left uncovered and while trying to muscle into really crowded markets (such as Major Cities or Dinsey World), there are always much less covered areas of the world that can be targeted for almost guaranteed traffic.
The simple fact is there is still more than enough scope for any travel blogger out there who is willing to provide up-to-date relevant and engaging content. So many of the big players just spin out articles that are not really helpful to the majority of readers and great cantent always has the chance to oust even th ebiggets players. It’s never to late to get started, and anyone really can change their lives and start earning from travel.
However, the market is only getting more crowded and the best time to get going is right now. Sure, it may have been better 5 years ago, 10 years ago, whatever, but that time has past, today is still ongoing and the future could be yours!
There is also a bit of a boom in travel as people start to get out again after the long Covid shutdowns of the travel sector.
Reality Check
We really hope this article has helped you understand how you can get into traveling for a living. There are many ways to earn a following and then a steady healthy income while traveling to some of the best destinations imaginable. However, we do need to caution, while this is absolutely possible, It’s not easy.
First up the life of a Tavel Blogger is not all Rainbows, Sunsets, and Lamborghinis…
I mean it can be a little bit of Rainbows, Sunsets, and Lamborghinis, there is just more to it than that. In the last few years of traveling, we have been to, seen, and experienced the most incredible things, all while turning a profit and living the work-from-anywhere lifestyle, but the focus here needs to be on the word “Work”. Just because you are working from anywhere, it is still work, and it requires a lot of hard work and dedication to get your business up and running and keep it there.
We know a lot of people are looking for a shortcut to an easy life, but we have found there really isn’t one. Looking for quick ways to game the system, making millions, while doing a few hours a week, is an easy path to getting scammed. The method we use is a total lifestyle alteration. We are immersed in our traveling 24-7, if we are not out traveling, we are fixed hard on our laptops working on the travel blog, editing photos, cutting videos, or just researching and planning the next trip. It really is hard work and long hours but when it all revolves around the things you love, it’s an easy sacrifice, and when you know it all leads to more adventures and more life-altering experiences, it’s easy to knuckle down and churn out the content.
We are also doing it for us, not “the man” which again is a huge motivator. But that’s the rub, you do need those motivators as this it is hard work, long hours, and can be really grindy, but then, most jobs are right? It’s where this path leads you and the experiences it allows that make it so worthwhile.
On a final negative note, it does also change the way you travel. We get constant comments from friends and family about our endless vacations…” Oh, another Holiday”, and when you try and explain they are work trips, well don’t expect much sympathy. But the reality is we are being dragged from pillar to post, charging around our destinations trying out best to fit in as much as humanly possible, the more we do, the more we see, the more content we can create, and every piece of content from every trip makes the trip all the more valuable.
When we go away we come back exhausted, seriously we crave the serenity of getting back to the (home) Office and calming down for a few weeks. We regularly say we need a vacation after our trips, and quite often we do actually find ourselves taking real vacations as well as business trips. We would not change our trips for the world we have seen and done things that will live with us forever, it’s just they are pretty grueling at times.
Is It Worth It Then?
Starting up a Travel business has simply been the best thing we ever did. There are endless stresses and complications, when Google updates its algorithm and traffic plunges when global events simply tanked the travel sector for two full years, constant negative thoughts and feelings of it call end tomorrow, along with the hard work and daily grind of keeping the business updated and adding new content consistently. It’s a hard and stressful way to earn a living, but the pay-offs…
If we ignore the financial incentives, the reality that we travel the world experiencing things most people only dream of is something we can never overstate how incredible it is. We literally have to pinch ourselves at times as we head off on another “once-in-a-lifetime adventure”
Over the last few years, we have flown in helicopters over the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, New York, Hawaiian Valleys, and Waterfalls, and even dangled our feet above the Freedom Tower. We have driven through mountains, deserts, forests, jungles, and cities, every imaginable landscape, even up volcanoes! We have seen some fantastic sites such as Blue and Humpback Whales, Giant Sea Otters, Bears, Condors, Dolphins, Kangaroos, and Koalas, We have swum with Turtles, Dived with Sharks, and snorkeled some of the most pristine reefs in the world. We have sipped cocktails in paradise, toasted sunsets on catamarans, taken in mindblowing vistas from rooftop bars, and sampled the best wines on location in stunning wineries.
We have flown First Class, Business Class, and cramped up in economy, We have driven Lanborgini’s, Drop top Muscle Cars, and driven of-road in jeeps. We have cruised the ocean on Catamaran, Cruise Shops, and Dive boats, and rented out our own speedboats. We have hiked mountains, forded rivers, swum in countless oceans, sat back on picture-perfect beaches, bathed under waterfalls, witnessed rainbows, Imensese storms, every imaginable weather, and of course a thousand stunning Sunrises and Sunsets.
We have dined on Lobsters, Steak, Sushi, and Caviar, dined at some of the finest restaurants in the world along with slumming it at all you can eat buffets and dive bars. We have eaten greasy burgers and A5 Waygu Steaks, Fish Tacos, and Bluefin Otoro Shashimi. We have sampled food from varied and expansive cuisines from across the world.
It has been a mindblowing series of journeys and we are just getting started!
They say regret the things you do in life, not the things you don’t do, but we have found a way to just not regret anything! And we would love to help you do the same. So the question is not is it worth it but simply… What are you waiting for?
What Are You Waiting For?
If travel is your passion and you long for the opportunity to live the dream and actually earn a full-time income while actually traveling then you really can take the first steps to realize this dream today. At Wealthy Affiliate, thee is everything you need to get started with your own Web-based business and Travel Website. You will not be directly selling any products, just learning how to create amazing, informative, useful content, to drive traffic to your site and learn what it takes to monetize that traffic and earn a full-time income. Allowing you the time, money, and freedom to travel more and then use those experiences to further build out your website.