The blog is an abbreviated version of ‘weblog’, which is a term that is used to describe websites that maintain a variety of information.
A blog can range from journal-type commentaries and links to articles on other websites.
They are typically presented as a list of entries in sequential order.
Blogs can range from the personal to the political and even financial.
It can also focus on one particular subject or a wide range of homogeneous/heterogeneous subjects.
There are many blogs that focus on a single topic, such as web design, food, lifestyle, home decor, sports, or technology.
Some of them are more diverse, having the links to all types of other websites.
And others are more like personal diaries, presenting the writer’s daily life and deeply personal thoughts.
Types of Blogs
Some of the major types of blogs are described below.
a. Personal Blog
The personal blog is almost like an ongoing online diary or commentary about one’s thoughts and emotions.
The writer goes through a lot of emotions because of which they write everything down.
This type of blog is mostly written by an individual, rather than an organization.
b. Collaborative Blog
This is the type of blog in which a number of authors write different posts and publish them accordingly.
The majority of high-profile collaborative blogs are based around a single uniting theme, such as politics, technology or advocacy.
c. Corporate and Organizational Blog
In most cases, a blog can be private but it can also be for business or not-for-profit organization.
The blogs that are used internally and only available to employees through the help of an Intranet are known as corporate blogs.
Companies mainly use internal corporate blogs to improve the communication, culture and employee arrangement.\
d. By Genre e.g. Travel Blogs
There are blogs which focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, journalism blogs, or travel blogs (also known as travelogs).
There are also people who work on gardening blogs, house blogs, fashion blogs, beauty blogs, lifestyle blogs or even party blogs.
It all really depends on what genre you’re willing to explore.
e. Media Blog aka Vlogs
A blog consisting of videos with different contents is called a vlog.
The blog with different links is called a linklog.
The website containing a collection of sketches is called a sketchblog and the one including a variety of photos is called a photoblog.
In this article, we mainly focus on building up a travel blog and eventually making money off it.
Travel Blog
You will never be told that being a blogger is an easy work.
It is quite a long and process which requires hard work and patience. The process is filled with doubts such as “is anyone even reading my work?”
However, to those who actually do it, blogging is more of a hobby than a chore.
Although that is not to say it doesn’t occasionally feel like a chore.
The beauty of being a travel blogger is that anyone can easily start off.
Not everyone can travel all over the world but at least they explore their hometown and hopefully travel their home country. That is actually a perfect place to start.
The following steps can be applied if you’re truly willing to start a travel blog.
Choose a name
The most important step before anything else is choosing a name for your blog.
Remember that your name will also be your brand.
This means once your name is chosen, it’ll be really hard to apply changes to it.
You should do some brainstorming and think every possible word related to travel, and the things you like to do while traveling.
Niche
It can be difficult to be decisive about choosing your niche when you start a travel blog.
You should give yourself some quality time to think about the topics you want to write about on your blog.
It’s completely up to you to see what works the best for you. Good luck with that!
Buy Domain and Host
After you have chosen a perfect blog name and the topics you want to write about, you will need to buy a domain (the URL aka the address of your website) and hosting service.
You can easily do it online. Buy a domain and hosting service from the same company, if possible.
Install WordPress
WordPress is an open website building tool that lets you build your own website.
You can customize your website in whatever way you like. You can also add useful plugins to make it easier for you to work on your blog.
At first, it might be a little bit difficult but it’ll get easier with time.
Now that we’ve discussed how to start your own traveling blog, let’s get into some of the benefits of doing so.
Benefits of Starting a Travel Blog
Starting any kind of blog can be fun in general. If you put your heart and soul into it, it can be more of a hobby. It is also a very good learning process.
Some of the major benefits of starting a travel blog are described below.
a. Sharing your experiences with the world
You can write a personal travel diary about your unforgettable experiences or a more practical and informative travel blog.
Either way, you’ll have the benefit of sharing your experiences with the entire world.
It is no surprise that you won’t get heaps of followers right away but it’ll happen soon.
On the bright side, you will still be able to share your experiences with your friends and family.
b. Meeting other travel bloggers who share the same passion
With the help of social media like Twitter and Facebook, you’ll meet other travel bloggers who are doing the same thing as you are.
There are too many people like you out there that love to travel and choose to travel to faraway places.
These travel bloggers will slowly notice your blog and you’ll begin to develop a relationship with them.
This travel community is quite comforting. It is a good feeling to know that you’re not alone out there who craves wanderlust.
c. Learn from other bloggers
If you have your own travel blog, you’ll certainly be spending much of your time reading other travel blogs.
You could be wasting your time at the office instead you choose not to because you have a travel blog to work on.
You’ll learn things so many things about travel that you won’t learn anywhere else.
d. Being paid to travel
Once you’ve established your travel blog, the travel companies will contact you personally.
They will send you off on trips that they will pay themselves for you.
In return, they will want you to blog about the places they’re sending you to.
By selling the advertising space on your travel blog, you will also be able to earn a few bucks.
e. Gaining experience in different fields
Over time, you will develop a tremendous amount of skills in writing, photography, marketing, etc.
You can use these newly developed skills to start your own business or even turn these skills into your full-time job.
The Internet is a place full of opportunities for people with great skills.
f. Ability to work from anywhere
Whether it’s a coffee shop in Paris or the beach in Brazil, you can work from anywhere.
The benefit of having a travel blog is you can open up your laptop and start typing anywhere at any hour.
You have stepped into the world full of amazing things that many of us dream of.
It’s no surprise that your blog will help you in so many ways.
But if you really want to support yourself economically, that is possible as well.
People do earn quite a handsome amount of money from all sorts of blogs. You just need to be patient and look for the right ways.
Ways to Make Money While Traveling
You have learned about the travel blog and its benefits. Now, let’s know how to make money with a travel blog.
a. Spread your portfolio and explore your earning opportunities
You have to experiment with different monetization techniques before you choose what works best for you and your blog.
These techniques can range from paid partnerships, affiliate links, and promotion of social media to any brand campaigns and sponsorships.
You can create a steady flow of income from your blog by choosing which the most effective technique is.
b. Google Adsense
AdSense is a program that helps active bloggers and website owners to earn money by displaying Google ads.
You’ve probably already come across different the ads in big websites, including in the Google search results.
You need to work on your content before you sign up for an AdSense account.
After the AdSense approves and sees a constant flow of visitors, it’ll give you a code to add to your blog.
You can also choose how your ads look, where they should be placed, and even what kind of ads you want on your blog.
c. Sell products and services that your readers need
If you’ve been traveling a lot and been writing more, you should consider passing down your experiences to aspiring bloggers.
Do consider selling digital marketing training to ambitious and hardworking bloggers.
You can also start consulting online to your blog readers who are interested about what content you add to your blog.
d. Focus on writing good content
You should always plan for the long term.
A good way to do this is to build your blog by coming up with creative content.
You shouldn’t be distracted or go beyond what is needed of you. Add humor along with engaging sentences to attract more readers.
By educating your readers and building a trust between you and them, you will be known among other big travel blogs.
Good content means more visitors. And more visitors mean you’ll have high chances of being able to apply for affiliate programs.
e. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a very useful way to earn some extra bucks if you own a blog or website.
The Amazon affiliate program, also called Amazon Associates, gives you 4 percent or more on purchases made using a special link placed on your blog or website.
It can also place affiliate ads on your blogs. If the ad is relevant to your content, chances are your visitors will click on the ads more.
Other great affiliate programs are Commission Junction, ShareASale, and LinkShare.
All of these programs give great access to different programs.
Choose the programs which are related to your niche because that helps you earn more.
Conclusion
Being able to work and earn from doing what we love is something that we all want.
If you’re passionate about something, why not start writing about it?
It can easily help you get recognized among the same community.
Even though it’s not about money, earning a few bucks won’t do any harm.
It’ll only encourage you to work harder.
