How to Start a Travel Blog and

Make Money Plus! How to Get Paid to

Travel Blog for Others

Kirsty Stuart
Copyright © Kirsty Stuart, 2013-2016
All rights reserved.
Contents
Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without one.
~ Chinese Proverb

Introduction: Who Am I and What Do I Know Anyway?

Part One: How to Start a Travel Blog and Make Money
Chapter 1: How to Get Your Travel Blog Up and Running
Chapter 2: Social Media Marketing for Travel Bloggers
Chapter 3: Generating an Income from Information Products
Chapter 4: Making Money from Affiliate Partnering
Chapter 5: Sponsored Posts, Paid Press Trips and More
Chapter 6: Advertising on Your Blog
Part Two: How to Get Paid (Well) to Travel Blog for Others
Chapter 7: How to Pitch for Travel Blogging Work
Chapter 8: How to Make Real Money Travel Blogging for Others
Chapter 9: How to Write the Perfect Travel Blog Post
Chapter 10: Where to Find Blogging Gigs When Work Runs Dry
Chapter 11: The Freelancing Mindset: Don’t Be Afraid
Conclusion: Graduation and Continuous Learning
Gratitude
Introduction: Who Am I and
What Do I Know Anyway?
Your time is limited so don’t waste it living somebody else’s life.
~ Steve Jobs

I’m Kirsty, a freelance writer from London who believes every person
on the planet should have the freedom to do exactly what they please with
their lives. A few years ago I was working for a national newspaper aimed
at the education sector in the UK. I knew deep down that working for
somebody else my entire life was never going to make me happy, but I kept
doing it anyway. I’m not entirely sure why, although I suspected it was
something to do with my own education.

What to expect and what this book covers

Before we go any further let’s look at some of the things you can
expect from me and this book. Firstly, I make no secret of the fact that I’m a
Brit and while I don’t drink tea (I know – I’m a shame to my nation), I’m
not going to pretend otherwise with the language I use. Therefore if you’re
from across the pond you should expect to see more vowels throughout this
book than you’re probably accustomed to, not to mention the letter ‘s’
where you’re expecting the letter ‘z’.
Secondly, because I believe every individual is different – everybody
has different dreams, desires, motivations and circumstances – I’m afraid I
can’t tell you that this book will make you stupendously rich.
It may of course… but equally it may very well not.
 What I can show you is how to make good money from anywhere
doing something you love doing anyway. I do this by breaking the book
down into two parts: Part One – How to Start a Travel Blog and Make
Money This part will teach you how to start a travel blog and make money
from it while you’re on the road. It’s money to live and travel we’ll focus
on primarily in this part. What’s more, you’ll discover how to get free
accommodation and tours while you’re out in the big wide world too.
Contributions from expert travel bloggers see to that. To travel for free is to
get paid to travel after all.
Part Two – How to Get Paid (Well) to Travel Blog for Others You
can do this from anywhere. If you’ve travelled a bit and have returned
‘home’ for a while, I’ll show you how to make lots more money blogging
for other websites while sitting at home in your pajamas. (Of course you
can do this from the road too.) You don’t have to answer to a boss and you
don’t have to keep certain hours. The pay is pretty good too. It’s the perfect
job.

My story and the ‘small percentage’

On leaving university I worked in several offices across London.
During this time I would often look around me and wonder, if everybody
was so different, why were we all acting the same? Why was everybody
seemingly chasing more or less the same thing? Most people I’ve
encountered go to school, dismiss their dreams before they reach full
maturity and swiftly find a job, spouse, car and house to cling to until they
die. Nothing wrong with that of course – if that’s what they want.
 Are we products of our environment, then? If so, it’s interesting that
some people fit in ‘out of the ordinary’ stuff in between all this. These
people choose to leave their environments temporarily in search of
something different by spending a summer in Europe, or a year in Australia
perhaps. They have adventures, feel alive and truly experience the world.
Their lives are momentarily full, rich and varied.
Most of them then return to what’s affectionately referred to as ‘the real
world’ to pick up the job, spouse, car and house scenario where they left
off. However, a small percentage struggle with this transition back to so-
called ‘reality’. This small percentage discover that their personality, along
with their hopes, dreams and passions, match up to a way of life that
doesn’t exactly conform to the one they’ve been led to believe fits
everybody.
Their adventures help them see that taking orders and working to make
somebody else rich for the next forty years or so makes no sense in a life
full of such opportunity and wonder. Being drip-fed a salary that can only
just (or doesn’t quite) sustain the sort of life the media (and everybody else
they encounter) reinforces is normal, makes them feel drained and stifled.
To these people the whole notion of settling down, buying a huge TV or fast
car and mortgaging themselves to breaking point makes them feel
claustrophobic – and in severe cases, like they’re going to drown.
 So what’s the problem? These people should simply go off into the
world to lead a life of permanent travel and leave everybody else alone,
shouldn’t they? Yes maybe some people should, but here’s the thing: Many
who feel this way aren’t ‘far-out’ hippies who want nothing more than to
hole themselves up in a commune in Bhutan without speaking a word to
another soul for the next ten years. These people still care about having
rewarding careers. They care about their families and about their futures.
They still want to be part of a society that accepts them for who they are.
What’s more – and I’d better whisper this – they still want to earn good
money. They just want to do it on their own terms.
I know because I’m one of these people (of course). While some
people think achieving this balance is just too much to ask of the universe, I
know otherwise. My longest trip away so far was fourteen months, in which
I left my typical London office job to travel the world on my own. When I
returned home I picked up another office job – and subsequently the
unfulfilled life – exactly where I had left it. I considered my situation at
length and realised that while I didn’t want to stop seeing and experiencing
the world, I also didn’t want to leave my family and friends for years at a
time. I didn’t want to keep returning home to nothing – no money, no
prospects and (seemingly) no future.
I figured there had to be a better way and what I’ve learned through
some pretty nail-biting, will-I-make-the-rent type of trial and error is that
there is a better way. I soon saw that these seemingly conflicting values can
actually be blended quite seamlessly (and without anybody getting all
worked up and upset).

Groundbreaking revelations
 Although hardly revolutionary, applied to the conflict I was facing on a
personal level, this simple realisation really was a game-changer for me: If
I loved writing and I loved to travel, the best way to fit more of
these into my life was to get paid to do both.
The big revelation for me was just how easily I could do this (and by
‘easy’ I mean it wasn’t a complex process, not that it wasn’t hard work). I
quit my job and began my new education and subsequent career right away.
Where my formal education had taught me to overcomplicate scenarios and
processes, my new approach meant I quickly learned what I needed to know
and could apply it to maximum advantage. I based my new education on
three modest principles:
1. Belief – in myself, and in the validity of my new way of working
2. Rapid and continued learning
3. Considered application of my new knowledge
So I believed and I learned. Then I applied what I’d learned and in the
process began to design my life so it resembled how I wanted it to be – not
how everybody else expected it should be. While it’s true that I’m often on
the road or planning my next big trip (next stop: India, Australia and
Thailand), sometimes I just like to be at home in London. It’s as simple as
that.
I mainly get out into the world over the winter months now. It works
for me and means I can fund my lifestyle doing what I love; writing about
travel (along with other topics). That’s the beauty of making money from
travel blogging – you don’t have to be on the road all the time. In fact, the
whole point is to build something that gives you the freedom to travel when
and where you like, and be at home surrounded by your friends and family
whenever you please too.
So can you really make good money from travel blogging?
This is all well and good (I hear you… think) but how will this book
help you create your ideal travel blogging lifestyle, right? I’m going to
share with you what I’ve learned, but before we go on I need you to do
something important: Forget about the naysayers – your ‘settled’ friends,
your concerned family members (and those comments on that blog
pronouncing there was no money to be made from travel blogging). Instead
hear this: You really can make good money from travel blogging.
I’m going to show you how.
There I said it. Let the floodgates open and the bad reviews about being
idealistic, unrealistic and egotistic gush forth.
I know it’s a bold claim but don’t worry; I really am used to this sort of
thing. I started my website, www.freelancewritersonline.com to show
people that it is possible to make a living from anywhere whilst doing what
you love. I don’t claim to be a millionaire from travel blogging – and I
freely admit I write other stuff for other clients too – but travel blogging
does allow me to go anywhere, anytime and to do the one thing I love more
than writing itself – explore the world. And as the second half of this book
will demonstrate, over time I’ve built up a more than healthy income just
from travel blogging for others.
If you could explore the world and get paid to write about it, would
you? If not, this book is not for you. Do you have the time and inclination
to read this book? If not, you won’t have the time and inclination to start a
travel blog and make money from it or get paid to travel blog for others.
That’s OK. Everybody’s different after all.
I mainly stick to travel blogging for others. Why? Because I live my
life the way I want to live it.
And so can you.
 Part One: How to Start a
Travel Blog and Make Money
Chapter 1
How to Get Your Travel Blog
Up and Running
A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.
~ John A. Shedd

To make money from your own travel blog you need to spend an
incredible amount of time, energy and (in some cases) even a splash of cash
in order to get the sort of following where you can start making a healthy
income from it.
But don’t let that put you off! Having your own travel blog can be
incredibly rewarding – not to mention fun. If making money from your own
travel blog is something you want to do – if you think you have the drive,
passion and patience (as well as an abundance of ideas for content) – then
this chapter will teach you how to do it.
If you’re just thinking, ‘blah, blah, blah – I already have a travel blog
set up and the basics sorted,’ you may want to consider at least skimming
through this chapter as there may be some ideas and advice you haven’t yet
considered. (It might also take you back to when you first began your travel
blogging journey and remind you all over again just why you started it in
the first place.)

What a successful travel blog looks like

 So what makes a successful travel blog? For a great wide-ranging
travel blog that’s doing all the right things, check out The Travel Hack by
top travel blogger, Monica Stott. It looks good, it’s engaging and the quality
and quantity of the content is obvious from the outset. It comes across as
current, lively and interactive – almost like a living, breathing entity. This is
what a travel blog should feel like.
If you have a particular interest in, and enough knowledge on, just one
part of this fascinating planet of ours, you may want to hone your focus on
just that particular area. Check out BreatheDreamGo by Mariellen Ward for
a great example of a thriving and inspiring blog about all things India.
As both these blogs indicate, it’s all about the content – it needs to be
engaging, smart and insightful in order to attract readers. However, running
a successful travel blog is also a lot to do with branding, and your own blog
will need to have a strong and distinct look and feel to it.

How to get your travel blog set up and looking good

The first thing you need to do is choose a name for your blog. This
isn’t easy and everybody will have a different opinion about what’s a good
idea and what’s not. While your blog name is important for many reasons,
don’t sweat over it too much. Like most things in life, if it feels right it
probably is.
 If you want to be taken seriously and start making money from your
travel blog, you can’t just rent out webspace – you have to own it. Forget
the free blogging platforms like Blogger and Wordpress.com. While these
are great for start-up bloggers and those blogging for fun, we’re looking to
achieve something more here. Self-hosting your new travel blog with a
company like HostGator on a Wordpress.org platform will give you
maximum flexibility in terms of design, functionality and future earning
capabilities. In other words you can put what you like on your blog without
having to answer to anyone.
If you wanted to answer to anyone I doubt you’d
have picked travel blogging as your chosen
vocation.

If this all sounds like jibberish so far, don’t worry – with HostGator
you can buy your website name and install Wordpress with just a few
clicks. If you’re having trouble with this stage check out this post I wrote
for technophobes for your step-by-step guide: How to Start a WordPress
Blog: A Guide for Professional Idiots. It’s actually a lecture taken from my
freelance writing Udemy course, but it’s perfect for you and your means
too.
Once you’re all set up, you’ll need to choose a theme, which will give
your blog its look and feel. My suggestion? Choose a simple theme over
something that has too much going on. While you want your new blog to
look good, you also want your readers to be absorbed in your content, not
distracted by an all-singing, all-dancing design.

Writing your new blog

 Once you’ve messed around with all the cool features and themes in
your new blog’s dashboard you’re going to need to get writing some
content. But hold on just a second! You should at least have these two pages
set up before you even think about hitting publish on your very first post:
‘About Me’
This is where you really need to shine. Offer a few sentences about
your story, why you love travel and what makes you and your blog unique –
but don’t drone on. The reader needs to understand why you’re writing your
travel blog. (I know you want to make money from it but please, please dig
a little deeper than this.) Keep it brief, fun, friendly and relevant to the
reader. As harsh as it may sound, most people are less interested in you as a
person and more interested in what you can do for them. Make it all about
the reader now, and one day maybe – just maybe – this might all change.
‘Contact Me’
Every blog should have a clear way in which the reader can get hold of
the blogger if they have a question or comment they don’t want to share
publicly in the comments or on social media. All you need is a few words to
introduce the page and a simple contact form.
Respond personally and thoroughly to every reader who takes the time
to contact you via this page. The people who contact you in this way are
interested in your opinion and want to hear more from you. These are
exactly the sort of people you want championing and supporting you as you
travel alone through the unchartered territory of your travel blogging
journey.
 As a bonus, if you respond as thoroughly and thoughtfully to a reader’s
email as you should, you’ll likely find you have a ready-made blog post in
your sent items as a result. For example, a reader might contact you about
finding the best accommodation in Rio for Carnival week because you
wrote a piece on Rio and seem to know your stuff. After you’ve replied, go
to your sent items and copy your reply, tweaking it slightly, before
publishing it on your blog. (By the way, this will likely become the most
popular post on your blog because this is the sort of thing your readers truly
want to read about.)

How to generate unlimited blog post ideas

So a great blog post topic is something your readers are already asking
about, but they’re not going to email you every time you want to publish a
post so you’re going to have to find other ways to generate those ideas.
While you may have a great idea for a post about how a baby koala pooped
on you at Sydney Zoo, you’ll need to find out what readers are actually
interested in.
Now your blog is up and running you’ll need to constantly post fresh
and engaging posts that readers will lap up and want more of. What travel
topics are trending on social media? What phrases are people using to
search for things related to travel? (You can easily look this up by using the
Google Keyword Planner – just enter a search term and see how many
people per month are searching for it.) Check out travel forums – what
questions are people asking? What about in the comments section of other
travel blogs, or on Yahoo Answers? Whatever it takes, find out what travel
lovers want from a blog and deliver it.
 It also helps if you have something new to say. I’ll rephrase that
because you’ll probably find that everything online has already been said at
least a thousand times over; your job is to find a new way to say it. Find
different angles on tired and worn travel destinations. Be brave, be
controversial if that’s what it takes, but make sure you always remain
genuine. There are so many travel blogs out there that people will skim over
yours if it’s not offering something a bit different in a genuine and unique
way.
The best way to be unique is just to be yourself, for
the simple fact you’re the only one who can do that.

Guest blogging
You may be under the impression that all you have to do is set up and
start writing your blog and the magic will start to happen. If you’re really
serious about travel blogging however, you’re going to need to both attract
people over to your patch of the virtual world, and also make it such an
irresistible place to hang out they’ll return again and again. Then tell their
friends.
 One way to get your blog noticed by a larger audience is to guest post
on other people’s travel blogs. This is a two way street – you have a
fantastic idea that is relevant to that blog’s readership, plus you get your
name out there, usually with a link back to your own blog at the end of the
post. There are many resources online to help you work out a ‘guest
blogging strategy’ but actually all you have to do is write a friendly email to
the owner of the travel blog you want to write for. You need to convince
them (in as few words as possible) that the post you have in mind for their
blog is perfect for their readers. Then you need to write the best post you
possibly can and respond to comments when it goes live. It doesn’t get
much simpler than that.
Email subscribers
Getting people to check out your new travel blog is one thing but it’s
the loyal fans that will really get behind it, tell their friends and stick around
when you’re having a bad day. These are the people you need to make your
travel blogging endeavours a success – not to mention more fun and
rewarding. To develop and nurture relationships like these you need a way
to communicate with these readers in a more direct and personal way than
social media or a post on your blog will allow.
You need their permission (and trust) to email them directly.
 You can set up a free email marketing account with companies like
Mailchimp and Aweber. With either of these programs you can easily
design simple signup forms for people to register to receive emails from
you. People are (understandably) reluctant to give their email address out to
just anyone these days, so you really need to be explicit in what you’re
offering and how it will benefit your reader. Will you email them weekly
with travel tips and advice about travelling with kids? Are subscribers to
your newsletter going to receive the odd exclusive, hot off the press travel
deal? You need to think about what it is you can offer people and make it
clear that you won’t bombard them with marketing messages. Then you
need to deliver on your promise, delight and enthrall your readers, and
watch your blog followers grow.
For my freelance writing website, I automatically send out weekly
writing and online marketing tips to all those who subscribe. I also email
my subscribers if I need feedback on certain projects or have writing or
proofreading jobs that needs filling. Many bloggers benefit from a full
‘auto-responder’ campaign, which means a particular series of emails are
sent automatically when somebody first signs up. You can learn how to set
up an auto-responder campaign with whichever email service company you
decide to go with, but it’s probably best not to get too bogged down with
that at the start. At the very least just make sure you start collecting email
subscribers right from the outset and are sending them your blog posts each
time you publish.

So what did we learn on our travels?

Owning and maintaining your own travel blog requires a lot of work, time
and effort. There’s a lot more to it than just setting up and writing what you
want. If you have a seemingly unlimited resource of things to say in a
unique way and are up for all the hard work though, having your own travel
blog can be a rewarding way to get paid to travel. Getting your blog up and
running and chock full of engaging content is a great start, but you also
need to think about how you’re going to attract a steady and loyal stream of
visitors to your blog too. In Chapter Two I’ve pulled in an expert to show
you how to use social media to attract and engage more and more readers.
Chapter 2
Social Media Marketing for
Travel Bloggers
We human beings are social beings….We survive here in dependence on
others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when
we do not benefit from others’ activities. For this reason, it is hardly
surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our
relationships with others.

~ Dalai Lama XIV

If you haven’t done so already I’d suggest you set up a professional

social media profile for your travel blog on Twitter and Facebook. I’d
advise just these two to start with and the rest can come later as you grow.
(I’m a huge fan of Google Plus for instance, and recommend you checking
it out.) To get those all-important visitors flocking to your new travel blog
so you can start to think about making money from it, you’ll need to take a
crash course in social media and online marketing.
Hmm.
 It’s with a collective sigh of relief then that Monica Stott from The
Travel Hack has already spent her own time and money on a degree in
Multimedia Journalism and will share what she’s learned with us at no extra
cost. As well as building her own successful travel blog, Monica has headed
up the social media for some of the largest travel companies in the world,
including big players, Flight Centre and their sister site in the UK, Round
the World Experts.

Cue Monica…
Most people are split into two categories when it comes to social
media. Some people think it’s the best thing since sliced bread and has the
ability to amplify your voice, increase your referral traffic, and enable you
to find information quickly and easily. Other people see social media as a
drain on their time and an annoying complication in their blogging strategy
that actually provides little benefit to their blog.
If you’re the latter, I’m going to tell you what you’re doing wrong. If
you’re the former, I’m going to tell you how to use social media to drive
traffic to your site and how to grow your following.

Increasing traffic to your blog using social media

Most of us begin using social media primarily to increase the amount
of visits to our sites, so here are some easy tips to do just that.
 Increase Facebook referral traffic The rules of Facebook change all
the time so it’s important to keep on top of those changes. At the moment,
the posts on Facebook that drive the most referral traffic do not include
photos or post previews. Keep text short (8-20 words) and include a link
with no preview and you’ll see an immediate increase in referral traffic.
These types of posts do little to increase your engagement levels so you
need to provide a mixture of short updates and photos…
Increase Facebook engagement To increase your referral traffic
through Facebook, you need to increase your engagement levels.
Engagement is the amount of people talking about your page and this
increases when you have more interactions on your Facebook page. This
means ‘Likes’, shares and comments. The more you have, the higher your
engagement levels.
A sure way to increase engagement is to get people commenting on
your updates so start asking questions that require short and simple
answers. If at least once a day you’re posting quality content that people
want to share with their friends, your engagement levels will soon shoot up.
Don’t give everything away on Facebook If you’ve written a post
about a weekend in Paris and decide to share a link on Facebook, make sure
you don’t give away all the details straight away. If you summarise
everything that’s already in the post your readers will have no reason to
read it, so keep it short and sweet and entice them to read on. Here’s your
chance to let your creativity shine through. “The unexpected truth about
Paris (link)” or “You’ll never guess what I did in Paris (link)” both work
perfectly as the reader knows nothing but is intrigued enough to read on.
 Know the best time to post on Twitter Do some research about your
audience and explore tools like Buffer and SocialBro to find the best time
for you to post updates on social media. This is so important for Twitter
where messages are lost in seconds so you need to target your audience at
the right time.
Share multiple times on Twitter Share a new post a few times on
Twitter and add relevant hashtags to ensure as many people as possible see
it. Never use more than two hashtags though as it looks spammy and is
actually difficult to read.

Grow your social media following

Now you have a few simple ways to increase referrals to your blog and
encourage engagement on social media. If it’s still only your mum and your
dog following you though, you need an increase in followers – and quickly!
Post more often There is a direct correlation between how much you
update your channels and how many followers you have. Just look at the
likes of @Malloryontravel on Twitter to see what I mean. But remember –
it should still be quality over quantity if you want to attract new followers.
You need to share things that interest people otherwise
your constant stream just becomes annoying. Become a
curator of interesting, engaging and witty updates and you
will gradually see an increase in your following.

Interact with people so you get on their radar and they’ll more likely to
follow you back. It’s no use just following someone, you need to tweet their
content and give them a reason to follow you.
 Use your time wisely If you’re posting frequently across all your
social media channels, Hootsuite will soon become your best friend.
Hootsuite is the best application for scheduling social media and this is
essential for busy travel bloggers. You can’t go quiet for a few days at a
time but I wouldn’t recommend spending hours each day on Twitter either.
It would be easy to spend all day on social media but we all know there’s
much more to blogging.
A lot of people don’t like scheduling because it takes away the
spontaneity and real-life interaction that social media is so good for. I agree
that social media sites are the perfect place to have friendly chats and make
new connections online but there aren’t enough hours in the day to do this
all day every day.
I use Hootsuite to schedule tweets and post Facebook and Google Plus
updates. I even schedule retweets because there is no point retweeting
something immediately after a person initially posts it. With Hootsuite you
can wait a few hours to reach a whole new audience later in the day.
Be natural My final point is that you should be using social media
naturally. Don’t just follow people so they follow you back; follow people
who interest you. Like and comment on Facebook updates because you
genuinely have something to say. Retweet posts because you read the article
and enjoyed it, and only share the best photos on Instagram because you
genuinely think they’re great.
Above all, be genuine, be real and, most importantly, be interesting.

So what did we learn on our travels?

Well, we’ve learned that Monica knows her stuff when it comes to
social media. We’ve also learned that there are plenty of tips and tricks that
really can help you grow your blog via social media. The most important
thing to remember though is that nothing beats conducting yourself online
as you would in your daily life – by being genuine, honest and by having
something interesting to say.
Chapter 3
Generating an Income from
Information Products
Invention breeds invention.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

An information product is anything that can be packaged into a guide,

course or eBook and sold on your website. If you feel you have a lot of
information on a specific aspect of travel, or a broad range of useful
resources and advice for a certain type of traveller, an information product
is a great way to earn some money from your expertise.
The rise of the information product is in direct correlation to the rise of
pro bloggers, and is a great way to monetise your blog without relying on
anybody else. Being totally in control of the content and final outcome of a
product is why I’m such a big fan of the information product. While
affiliate partnering is great (we’ll get to that later), why sell other people’s
products all the time when you could be selling your own? More kudos?
Check. More job satisfaction? Check. A bigger piece of the financial pie?
Check!
But how to begin?

Research
 The subject of your information product should be something you
consider yourself an expert in and enjoy researching and writing about.
Think about what you can offer people who are already interested in
reading your travel posts and test it out on them first. Do people respond
well to the money-saving backpacking tips you offer? Are your readers
more interested in guides to a certain part of the world perhaps?
In this instance it may be necessary to ask your readers directly what
they would actually buy from you. If you already have an email list of
subscribers to your blog, devise a survey with a fun company like
www.surveymonkey.com and ask them to fill it in. Write a blog post about
it and share your survey link across your burgeoning social media networks.
You don’t need a lot of responses to start identifying ideas and patterns
amidst your market and start creating a bundle of highly valuable
information to sell on your blog.
Depending on the results of your research, this may be a guide to
travelling with children in South America or a video series on how to get a
job teaching English in China. The main thing is that you know and love
your niche topic, that people have told you they want more of it from you
and that you create something of real value that they can’t get from anyone
else.

Writing, formatting and design

After you’ve researched enough to find the cross-over between what
people want from you and what you know and love enough to write
expertly about, it’s time to actually sit down write the thing. Even if your
chosen medium is a video course you’ll still need to get a script down, so
this stage cannot be avoided.
 The best way I’ve found to fit in any new project around my other
commitments is to get up an hour earlier and work on it before I start my
day. I’m really, really not a morning person but this way, no matter what
happens throughout the day, the creation stage is happening – bit by bit, day
by day.
Depending on how you like to work you can either set a goal of, say, a
thousand words a day, or set a timer to go off and write as much as you can
in the hour. Either way, write and don’t stop until you have your first draft
completed. Only then should you go back and self-edit. Then proofread.
Then send it off to somebody to do a copy edit. Then get a professional to
give it a final proofread. Phew. I know, right? But this is what it takes. The
point is to put in all the hard work now to enable you to build a residual
income from your information product for many years to come.
The design and creation of your information product can be outsourced
to a professional on a freelancing site like People Per Hour, as can the copy
editing and proofreading stages (which should never be skipped just
because you consider yourself a good writer by the way).
In my experience, and that of most successful bloggers I talk to, it’s
best not to get too bogged down with trying to do absolutely everything.
Write the thing yourself, then outsource the rest of the work to somebody
who excels in the area of expertise you need. Outsourcing the design and
proofreading stages might cost you a few bucks to begin with but being
professional will pay off, plus you can spend the time you save doing what
you do best – travel blogging! You’re a travel blogger so your job is to write
and market your product. Speaking of which…

Marketing
 The main thing you’ll need to focus on after the writing stage is
marketing the heck out of your product. You’ll need to ‘launch’ it properly
and develop a marketing strategy to get your product out there to the
masses.
If you’ve ever heard the phrase, “Build it and they
will come”, bear in mind that marketing your own
information product is more a case of “Build it and
they will ignore you completely. Or at least be
incredibly wary.”

You need to get yourself, your blog and your new product out there and
get people to really sit up and take note of all the amazing benefits it will
bring them.
If you’re already writing an engaging travel blog then you’re half way
there. Consider offering to guest post on more popular blogs where the
readership will benefit from both your post and your information product.
As discussed in Chapter 1, this is a great (and free) way to boost traffic to
your website, and therefore your new information product. Most blog
owners will allow you to include a short author bio at the end of your post
so readers can find out more about you if they wish. Utilise this by
including a link to the page on your blog where you really sell the product’s
benefits to your readers.
Use social media to reach your biggest fans and to create new ones.
Don’t push the thing on people but present it to them in such a way that
they understand all the benefits and amazing value it can provide them with.
Marketing your own product can sometimes feel overwhelming, as it seems
there are so many options to consider.
 To help you out, below are some free ways to market a new product,
guide or eBook:
1. Give away free copies to a certain number of your blog’s email
subscribers before the official launch date and ask them to spread the
word (plus email you with any comments or suggestions for
improvement).
2. Ask anybody who may have contributed to the creation of your
information product to blog and/or post about it on social media.
3. Contact other relevant bloggers and local journalists with a free copy
and ask them to review your product (don’t forget to mention why
your product is so useful and relevant to their readers).
4. Send out press releases, both online and manually, to any relevant
journalists you can get contact details for (the local press tend to pick
up on these things a lot more than the nationals).
5. Email all your friends, your family and your extended network
announcing your new venture and ask them to spread the word by
email, word of mouth and on their social media networks.
6. Ask any readers, friends and family that have pre-launch copies to
send you short reviews and testimonials and include the best of them
on the product sales page of your blog.
7. Use Google Keyword Planner to discover the phrases your target
readers are using to search for related information online. Then write
articles including these phrases and publish them on free but popular
article sites, like Ezine Articles and Hubpages.
8. Create a trailer introducing your new product and upload it to
YouTube.
 These are just the free ideas of course – there’s also Facebook, Google
and other advertising and promotion to think about. That type of marketing
depends on you having a budget though, and this book is about how to
make money from travel blogging – not how to spend it.

So what did we learn on our travels?

The great thing about launching your own information product is that
once all the hard work is done it’s pure profit for you – no middle-man costs
(apart from perhaps PayPal fees). It is a lot of hard work in the initial stages
though, and you’ll need to work hard to establish a large (or at least fiercely
loyal) readership before you can launch an information product and expect
it to sell. In the end though, if you can go on to reap the rewards of all your
hard work in years to come with only the lightest of marketing efforts, it
will all be worthwhile.
Chapter 4
Making Money from Affiliate
Partnering
He should be declared the victor who could first strip a wayfaring man of
his clothes. The North Wind first tried his power and blew with all his
might, but the keener his blasts, the closer the traveller wrapped his cloak
around him... The Sun suddenly shone out with all his warmth. The traveller
no sooner felt his genial rays than he took off one garment after another…
and bathed in a stream that lay in his path.
~ From Aesop's Fables

Affiliate marketing is nothing new in the online world. In fact website

upon website upon website has been set up with the sole intention of
making money through affiliate marketing. You’ve probably clicked on
thousands of affiliate links without even realising, unknowingly lining the
pockets of hundreds of either savvy or unscrupulous affiliate marketers
along the way. If you have no objections we’re going to go down the savvy
affiliate marketing route by looking at a method I call affiliate partnering.

So what exactly is affiliate partnering?

Good old Wikipedia defines affiliate marketing as ‘a type of
performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more
affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s own
marketing efforts.’
 I define affiliate partnering as this too – but with a slight twist. In my
definition the same results are had, i.e. you’re rewarded for sending a
customer to a business, but there’s a bit more to it than that. The world of
affiliates is changing for a small but incredibly significant part of the online
world. These people are bloggers, community builders and sometimes
world changers, not to mention vast wells of inspiration to a growing
number of people.
They give away their content for free and nurture the connections and
relationships they make with their peers and readers. They use affiliate
partnering to both earn money and add value to their readers. What’s more
they’ll only recommend a product or service that they love, trust and use
personally themselves.

But what does affiliate partnering literally entail?

Say you sign up to a company’s affiliate program. You will receive a
unique link that you can place either within the natural flow of your blog
posts or in banner advertisements and other images and text across your
site. When a reader clicks on that link and it results in a sale at that partner’s
website, you take a piece of the pie. This piece of pie is usually paid into
your PayPal account or directly into your bank account on a monthly basis,
depending on the company.
So you can see why it’s so important to have a loyal readership for your
blog before you start affiliate partnering on your travel blog. You need to
know your audience inside out –who they are and what their fears, hopes
and dreams are. You need to tap inside their minds and understand what
they desire most from their lives and their travels.
 The new way of affiliate partnering doesn’t use
trickery, or spammy techniques to get people to click
on their links; instead it recognises a deeper
connection – along with research and total
transparency – as the new tools of the trade.

What will my blog readers think?

It turns out most readers don’t actually mind following an affiliate link
to a recommended product if they know the person they trust (i.e. you) will
be making a small profit from it. As long as you’re honest with your readers
and aren’t bombarding them with constant marketing messages, they’re
likely to respect the recommendations you offer them.
If you approach it in the right way there’s no need to feel ashamed
about making a bit of income from affiliate partnering. Instead, embrace it
and keep your readers in the loop about what you’re doing. You’re
constantly giving away mind-blowingly amazing content totally free in the
form of your blog (right?), so you are offering readers something of value.
Plus, if you make genuine recommendations based on your own
experiences of a product or service, you should feel confident that your
readers will also reap the rewards of making the same purchase. That last
bit should make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside – not ashamed at
creating an extra income stream from your travel blog. See the difference?

Who to affiliate partner with

 There are affiliate programs for all sorts of products and services
online, with probably the most famous of all being the Amazon Associates
program. Although the percentage of what you can earn per transaction isn’t
all that high with Amazon, as you’re probably aware, the site does offer a
huge range of products to choose from. What’s more, even if a reader
doesn’t purchase the specific product you link to, if they purchase anything
else in that browsing session, you will still earn the commission.
Depending on the nature of your travel blog you might want to link to
travel guide books, backpacks and other travel essentials. Think about what
your readers are already responding to and go from there (rather than
finding a travel related product and then suddenly deciding to review it).
Don’t forget, the great thing about being a travel blogger is that you can
sign up to the affiliate programs of all the big and well-known travel sites
out there – if it fits in with the nature of your blog and adds value to your
readers. I’m talking about sites like Tripadvisor, Expedia and Travelocity,
to name but a few. These all pay out to affiliates who send potential
customers their way.
There are also whole websites dedicated to managing the process of
affiliate partnering. Commission Junction, ClickBank and ShareASale are
among the big players to choose from. These websites manage the affiliate
relationship from the publisher’s perspective (that’s you) as well as looking
after the various companies hoping to get the word out about their products
and services. The benefit of signing up to one of these websites is that you
have instant access to a whole range of affiliate programs you may not have
considered, but that may be entirely suitable for you, your blog and its
readers.
 For a healthier chunk of the affiliate pie there are independent affiliate
programs out there too. Simply run a Google search for ‘travel (or your
travel niche) affiliate program’ and start scrolling through. It’s not
uncommon to get more than 50% commission from independent affiliate
programs, particularly those offered by quality and value-adding bloggers
(just like you and me).
The important thing to remember with this trust-based affiliate
partnering is not to push a product on your readers – to only link to products
and services you would recommend anyway, with or without the affiliate
link. Some bloggers are so upfront with how they make their money, they
publish their monthly earnings on their blogs so readers can pick through
everything, from affiliate earnings to freelance blogging income.

So what did we learn on our travels?

Some of the old affiliate marketing methods are spammy and most
definitely bordering on seedy. What I like about this new method emerging
is that nobody can really make it work if they don’t have the trust and
respect of the people they’re making recommendations to. This means only
the genuine, honest and hardworking bloggers and online entrepreneurs
succeed and prosper in the long run.
Affiliate partnering is a great way to make money online as a blogger,
particularly if you haven’t quite gotten around to writing that information
product you said you were going to. If you’ve taken the time and care to
build a loyal, engaging audience for your travel blog, your readers will trust
you for all the right reasons and continue to devour your content and click
on your links.
Chapter 5
Sponsored Posts, Paid Press
Trips and More
Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before
breakfast.
~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland Kelly Dunning used to be
just like me. Then one day she quit her day job, started a
freelance writing career and began making money from
blogging while travelling the world.

OK so maybe Kelly Dunning is still a bit like me, but there’s one small
difference; along with her partner Lee, Kelly launched global-goose.com
after meeting in a prison in New Zealand (yep, true story). What started as a
way to document the fun they were having on their travels soon became an
ever-growing and popular travel blog that, in part, now funds their digitally
nomadic lifestyle. In this chapter, Kelly explains how you can use your
travel blog to get free trips and accommodation along with other perks
while you’re out on the open road. She also explains how you can earn
extra money by featuring sponsored posts on your travel blog without
selling out to the corporate devil.

Cue Kelly…
Travelling the world and getting paid to write about it sounds like a
dream, doesn’t it? However, it is a dream that you can make into a reality
with the right strategies and a little bit of hard work.
 Two years ago my partner Lee and I sold all our possessions, packed
our backpacks and became location independent digital nomads. I took my
freelance writing career on the road with us and we built a website called
Global Goose. At first, the travel blog was simply a creative project for us
and a way to share our adventures with the world. However, over time, as it
began to grow and generate more interest and traffic, we began to realise
that the idea of making money from travel blogging could be more than just
a fantasy.
These days, our travel blog has not yet surpassed my main job as a
freelance writer when it comes to earning us an income, but it is a great
little side earner that allows us to get paid to do what we love and follow
our passion.
If you too are passionate about travel and travel blogging, there are a
few extra ways you can get paid to write about your adventures.

Paid Press Trips

Press trips are usually requested by tourism boards, hotel and resort
companies or other tourism organisations who want to get more recognition
for a particular destination, resort or activity.
When you reach a certain level of success in your blogging, you may
be invited on a press trip. This is an all-expenses paid trip to see a
destination. However, this is not just a holiday and you should consider it as
work. You will be expected to cover the trip on your blog, tweet about your
adventures and use all other social media websites to share your travel
adventures with the world. Many press trips will be organised in advance by
the sponsor and will include specific destinations and activities.
 However, it is also possible to arrange your own sponsored travel
individually with resorts, tour providers and other companies. For example,
when Lee and I were in Malaysian Borneo we saw a beautiful lodge in the
jungle where we wanted to stay. We contacted the owner and offered to
write a blog post about our stay in exchange for a few nights of free
accommodation. He said yes and we had an amazing time lounging in the
hammocks, trekking in the jungle and having a huge remote tropical beach
all to ourselves. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there - it really works!

How do you hear about organised press trips?

Take a look at the website of the tourism board for the country,
county, city, province or state that you’re interested in. They will often have
information about their press trips. If n0t, find a contact person and get in
touch to pitch your own.
Become a member of online communities for travel writers, as this
is a great source for finding out information about press trips. For example,
The International Travel Writers Alliance.
Contact other travel bloggers and ask them if they know of any
upcoming press trips. Develop a rapport and a conversation with them on
Twitter and Facebook.

Attend travel conventions and trade shows and visit the booths of
tourism companies to speak with them face to face. Make sure you have
business cards to hand out.
Once you have found out about the press trip, you need to craft a pitch
requesting a spot on it. Find out as much information about the trip as you
can so you will be able to pitch something that suits what the client is
looking for.
 Arranging your first press trip will be the hardest, but when you have
done it once you will be able to show that you are a worthwhile investment
for holiday providers and tourism companies. As soon as you have a track
record, getting invited on more press trips will become a lot easier.

Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts are another way for you to make money from your
travel blogging endeavours. Ideally it should be a win-win situation – you
will be paid money to write a blog post that is interesting and informative to
your readers, and the company will gain exposure and a link back to their
website.
I have written several sponsored posts for Global Goose. For example,
I wrote a feature about Wales with a link to a company that provides
holiday cottage rentals. I also wrote a post about managing your money
while travelling with a link to the website of a banking institution.
Once your travel blog gets to a point where you have a significant
amount of traffic you will usually be contacted by companies who want to
arrange a sponsored post with you. However, you can always pitch
sponsored posts to companies with products relevant to what you are
writing about. Sometimes they will offer to write the post for you, but
usually the posts they send will be generic, badly written, too promotional
or not relevant to your readership. I have found that it is much better to
request that you write the post yourself. That way you can work in their link
in a way that will be helpful and engaging to your readers.
Use your discretion, as you don’t want to be posting too many links on
your blog and inundating your readers with promotional material. It is a
good idea to balance the sponsored posts you publish with other types of
posts, so that everything you publish isn’t purely promotional.
Build your blog then build your income
One of the key things to keep in mind when creating an income
through travel blogging is that you need to build up your blog first before
you can make any money at all. The reason people will want to give you
free press trips or pay you to write sponsored posts is because of the
notoriety, traffic and influence you have in the online travel community.
This equates to blog visits, Twitter followers, Facebook fans and your
overall online presence.

It is important to think about what the client is

getting out of this arrangement – they want to pay
you to recommend their resort, tour company or
product because they think you will inspire others
and generate interest.

We built up our blog for nearly a year before we started making any
money from it. If you are just starting out, create your travel blog purely for
the joy of writing about your travels. Put your heart and soul into it and take
the time to build up a following and relationships with other bloggers. The
time you invest will mean you can make a profit later, but your blog needs
to grow naturally and organically first.

So what did we learn on our travels?

 Kelly points out a common theme that keeps cropping up throughout
this book so far: It’s imperative that before you start looking for press trips
and pitching for sponsored posts – or anything else – you first need to grow
your blog readership. This is a good time to check in and see how that’s
coming along. If you’re not seeing any growth in email subscribers or
visitor count after the first three to six months of launching your blog then
go back and read Chapter 2 again to relearn how to grow your social media
following. Then write some killer guest posts and pitch them to travel blogs
that are much bigger than yours. Take the list on marketing your
information product from Chapter 3 and apply the relevant methods to
promoting your blog. Finally, look at your blog posts with an honest eye;
are you being entirely genuine and unique?
Whatever it takes to get travel lovers hooked on your blog, do it! Don’t
lose faith. Your blog will surely grow if you don’t give up on it. Give up too
soon and you’ll never know what it might have been.
OK, let’s move on.
Chapter 6
Advertising on Your Blog
The old man: Why do you tend a flock of sheep?
The boy: Because I like to travel.
~ Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

As your travel blog grows, so does the opportunity to make money

from regular advertising. The most obvious and convenient type of
advertising for many blog and website owners is Google AdSense. Many
bloggers find they can quickly turn traffic into money with AdSense and
consider it a bit of a no-brainer. Other bloggers find AdSense on their sites
too brash and even spammy, and instead sell advertising space directly to
travel companies. Here’s the lowdown on both.

Google AdSense
With Google AdSense you don’t have to pitch to companies to
advertise with you, which means you don’t have to convince anybody to
part with ‘X’ amount per month for ads that might not lead to any new
business. AdSense is easy to sign up to (www.google.co.uk/adsense) and
quick to implement, and if you have lots of blog traffic you can perhaps
turn this into quite a nice little earner.
 So what’s the problem? Well, because of the way AdSense works, only
travel related ads should show up on your site. The problem is, you have no
control over the ad content – Google will just use the keywords and phrases
it finds on your blog to generate ads. Say you have a post about India and
mention ‘tours in India’ repeatedly throughout it, Google will generate ads
relating to that topic – whether or not that conflicts with the content of that
blog post or not.
For example, say you’ve created an information product to sell on your
blog, as discussed in Chapter 3. The product is a comprehensive resource
for those backpacking through India independently (as opposed to on a
tour), and you’ve worked long and hard creating and promoting it. You sign
up for a Google AdSense account and suddenly an ad pops up in the side
bar while a reader is learning all the wonderful ways your guide can benefit
them. The ad is for a tour of the part of India the reader is visiting and
suddenly they think they’ll check out that tour instead. They click on the ad
and – whoosh – they’re gone forever. They’re booking their tour now
instead of buying your guide to find out the inside scoop on travelling India
independently.
Although you can veto certain types of ads in your AdSense account
you certainly don’t have as much control as if you sold advertising space
directly to companies. What’s more, you probably won’t get paid as much
either. Another problem with AdSense is that more and more people are
using ‘ad blockers’, like the free plugin from Firefox, so many people aren’t
even seeing ads of this nature in the first place.

Selling advertising space directly

 If you’ve established yourself as a travel blogger with a solid and
specific readership, you can approach travel companies directly to see if
they would like to advertise on your site. Approach small to medium
companies to start with and focus on those that have just launched a new
product, service or tour. Show them your site stats and sell them the
benefits, perhaps suggesting a trial period at a reduced rate to start with.
Pitch well and you might just bag yourself a nice little monthly earner. (See
‘How to Pitch’ in Part Two of this book for tips on the most effective way
to pitch, as the same methods can be used to approach potential advertisers
too.) You may also want to create a press pack to send out to companies – a
document containing your amazing site and social statistics and a profile of
your readership. You can build a profile of your readers using
www.surveymonkey.com to find out your readership demographics and
interests. Send surveys to everyone on your email list and distribute it to
your followers on social media.
I’d suggest approaching potential advertisers on the strength of your
travel blog’s brand and targeted readership and ask for a flat monthly fee
rather than a fee based on performance. Unfortunately I can’t tell you what
that monthly fee should be because it depends on too many different
factors, including the type of travel blog you have, the readership it attracts
and who you’re pitching to. The best I can suggest is to do a bit of research
by contacting other similar bloggers that have static ads on their sites and
trying to scope them out. I find most bloggers are pretty responsive and
willing to part with certain information if you send them a polite and
friendly email.
 In addition to this method, instead of just featuring static ads across
your travel blog, you could speak to travel companies about endorsing
products for them in alternative ways. Natalie Sisson provides a great
example of this. Although her site, Suitcase Entrepreneur isn’t strictly a
travel blog, it is about creating a lifestyle that enables you to travel where
and when you like, and designing a business that can be run from anywhere.
Natalie produces a lot of podcasts and every now and then a travel product
– a cure for jetlag for instance – sponsors a video or podcast where Natalie
will quite openly endorse the product to her audience.

So what did we learn on our travels?

Featuring ads on your blog and endorsing products and services that
are relevant to your readership is a valid way of earning some extra money
from your travel blog. While lots of bloggers are making a tidy little income
using advertising, my advice is to use it sparingly and strategically so as not
to lose potential readers to other websites before they’ve even checked out
anything you may have to offer. If done well though, advertising on your
site can be an effective cog in the great wheel that keeps your travel blog
turning.
Part Two: How to Get Paid
(Well) to Travel Blog for
Others
Chapter 7
How to Pitch for Travel
Blogging Work
Mend your speech a little,
Lest it may mar your fortunes.
~ William Shakespeare, King Lear Pitching is a vital skill if you
want to be a paid travel blogger so I’ve dedicated a whole
chapter on how to pitch for those all-important paid blogging
gigs. We’ll look at both how I successfully pitch for work as
well as what travel editors themselves say they’re looking for.
But first let’s look at what may be holding you back from
pitching to the top travel companies on the web.

The myths about getting paid travel blogging gigs

I bagged myself some free tickets to The Times Travel Show in
London’s Earls Court a while back, where I attended a talk by some of the
UK’s top travel writers and editors. In attendance were Phoebe Smith, the
editor of Wanderlust magazine, along with her boss Lyn Hughes, Paul
Goldstein of Exodus fame, plus Rough Guides writer Matthew Teller.
Despite the fact blogging is mostly deemed wildly different to writing for
magazines and guide books, I knew I’d be able to pick up some tips from
these speakers – and I wasn’t disappointed.
 The first thing that struck me was that none of the speakers had seemed
particularly primed for this sort of career. Not one of them spoke about
getting into travel writing by some unlikely, sudden stroke of luck, or of
having an uncle as the editor of the Sunday Times travel section. They all
just got their heads down, worked hard and looked for travel writing
opportunities that suited them. I picked up some great tips on how to
become a better travel blogger from this talk, but above all else it made me
realise once and for all that this was actually a viable career option. It
dawned on me that most would-be travel bloggers don’t succeed simply
because they don’t consider the profession in these terms – nor do they take
themselves seriously as writers.

Pitching tips
Apart from that startling revelation, the most valuable thing I took
away from the talk was the practical advice about pitching to editors (or
marketing managers, small business owners etc.). So whether you’re
pitching for long term blogging work or looking to sell a particular travel
story idea to an online publication, you won’t go far wrong with the
following advice.
Research the publication
This almost goes without saying but you need to fully research and
understand the website or company you’re pitching to. Look at the type of
blog posts that are already on the company’s website. Is there a particular
style that’s consistent throughout? Are there a few posts that are particularly
popular and have more social shares or comments? Think about the target
readership and then consider this in your pitch.
Write an engaging opener
 Like with the opening sentence of anything you write, the start of your
pitch should pack a punch. Get straight to the point and explain the who,
what, where, why and how of your post(s). Selling the benefits and the
angle of your piece within the first few lines of your pitch will ultimately
give you the best chance of success.
Use the person’s name
Whether you’re pitching to a big travel site or a small travel company,
try to find out the name of the (correct) person you should be speaking to.
There’s just something about the sentence, ‘To whom it may concern’ that
puts people off right from the outset.
Have a good angle
The angle of your proposed blog post should be unique, perhaps a bit
quirky and definitely not clichéd or too well-trodden. This doesn’t mean
you can’t cover something that has already been covered before (you’ll be
hard pressed to find anything – trust me) but it does mean you need to find
a fresh slant from which to approach the topic. Be brave. Be unique. Be
you.
Keep it brief and relevant
Don’t bore the pants off the person you’re pitching to. They’re
undoubtedly busy people and frankly they don’t care about anything other
than making more money or impressing their boss. It may sound crass but it
really is as simple as that. Your job is to subtly convince this person that you
can help them achieve one of these outcomes (preferably both). Increase
your chances of a ‘yes’ by learning how to condense all the crucial elements
and the benefits of your blog post idea(s) into a short, snappy pitch.

Pitching for regular work – an example

 The above checklist will help you the most when pitching a particular
story or series of posts, but if you’re pitching for more regular work your
email has cause to be a bit longer and a bit less angle-driven. To show you
what I mean, below you’ll find one of my first successful pitches to a large
travel company back when I first started out. Feel free to adapt this and use
at your leisure – although I wouldn’t include anything inside brackets if I
were you.
Hi (Named Person),
I'm not sure if you'll remember me but I used to work for (Company)
with (Named Person). It was a while ago now but he put me in touch
with you and I submitted a few travel articles to you guys in marketing.
The reason for my email is because I'm now a full-time freelance writer,
helping businesses to promote themselves and their message, mainly via
blogs posts, press releases and other online content. My love for travel
has led me to predominantly help travel companies promote their brand
and services. Please see below for some examples of my work:
(www.examplesofwork.com) I noticed (The Company) doesn't have a
blog and believe that it could very much benefit from one. After all, both
readers and search engines look for original, quality content that is
regularly updated, and so this could dramatically improve SEO as well
as encourage engagement with your customers.
 Because I have only recently begun my career as a freelancer, my rates
are still relatively modest - I charge just £__ per blog post, which means
a 600 word weekly blog post would cost just £__ a month. I have lots of
ideas for posts and know the target audience well so feel I could start a
highly engaging and beneficial blog for (The Company), which will
ultimately bring in more people to the website. I can also contribute
effective press releases on a regular basis, ensuring optimal brand
awareness for (The Company).
It would be great to hear your thoughts on this, and please let me know
if you have any questions.
Best regards,
(Your Name)
With hindsight this was perhaps a bit lengthy for an initial pitch, but it
did the job and I got the gig. The rest, as they say, is history. Sometimes it
can take just one confident yet genuine pitch to springboard you into travel
blogging success.

Who and where to pitch

In my example I knew somebody who knew somebody and although it
was a rather tenuous link, I made it work for me. While it’s great to have a
link to the person you’re pitching to, if you don’t you may be wondering
where on Earth to start.
 If ‘cold-pitching’ seems a bit scary, or if you’re at a loss as to who to
approach, you can always start with travel sites that actually expect and
accept pitches from travel bloggers. Below is a list of travel websites that
will pay you to write travel blog posts for them. Most won’t be as well paid
as if you pitched for work directly, but if you’re still cutting your teeth with
this type of travel blogging it will certainly build up your confidence and
experience. Don’t forget that good old-fashioned, friendly confidence can –
and does – go a long way.
Clicking on the links will take you directly to the submission
guidelines page for each online publication – read these guidelines carefully
before you pitch. Remember to be more specific to sites that accept
submissions than I was in my pitch example – research the websites
thoroughly and then pitch a specific killer idea for a post.
(If you find a link that’s broken or leads to a site that’s no longer
accepting paid submissions, get yourself some free karma by contacting me
so I can update this book for future intrepid travel bloggers.) Viator Travel
Blog $45 per post (looking for regular contributors) GoNomad $25 per post
World Hum Payment negotiated after pitching Gadling (Email
editor@gadling.com) $25 per post The Expeditioner, $30 per article
BoostnAll $30 – $50
New York Times ‘In Transit’ Blog (Email Monica Drake at
modrak@nytimes.com) $50 per 300 word article Transitions Abroad $50
to $150 per piece Matador Network $40 depending on the article

So what did we learn on our travels?

 Making a success of paid travel blogging is, in part, down to how well
you can pitch. If you pitch the right thing to the right person and keep it
brief, relevant, friendly and confident, then you’re already one step ahead of
the competition. Research the site and make sure you’re explicit in what
results you can offer a company or online publication. Human nature
dictates that people always want to know what the benefits of anything are
to them – travel editors, marketing managers and small travel site owners
are no exception.
Chapter 8
How to Make Real Money
Travel Blogging for Others
Too many people spend money they earned to buy things they don't want to
impress people that they don’t like.
~ Will Rogers

There are so many travel companies out there that need quality content
for their blogs. I’m talking travel agencies, tour operators, hotel chains,
travel price comparison sites – if you can think of a travel company you can
be sure they either have a blog or need one. If they already have one, they’ll
always be on the lookout for fresh and engaging posts to fill it, and if they
don’t yet have a blog, you’re the perfect person to help them launch one!
The fact is somebody has to write all that juicy travel content you see
online, and most self-respecting travel companies will pay well for good
quality posts.
If you took the advice in Part One of this book and now boast your
very own travel blog then you’re already in a better position than a lot of
the more traditional travel writers out there. You know how to write an
effective, engaging blog post that drives traffic to a website. This is exactly
what travel companies want, and they’ll pay you directly if you can
convince them you’re the right blogger for the job.
 You don’t particularly need to be out on the road to start writing for
other people’s travel blogs either. If you’ve been to a fair few places and
enjoy the whole process of seeking out new cultures and landscapes then
that should be enough to start writing for some travel publications on the
web. I make no secret of the fact I’ve written some of my best and highest-
paying travel blog posts while sitting at home in my pajamas dunking
biscuits into coffee. Some people call this ‘armchair travel writing’. I call
this ‘living how the hell I want to.’

How to turn travel blogging for others into a lucrative income

So we know that travel companies are crying out for quality blog posts
for their websites. What they’re also looking for though is regular content.
By its very definition, a blog is something that is constantly added to – it’s a
process – so consistency is of utmost importance here. A travel company
can’t start a blog and then drop it after the first three posts. Their readers
(i.e. their customers) and Google would simply walk away, leaving their
reputation in tatters and their profits plummeting.
This is great news for travel bloggers like you and me!
As the professional travel blogger, you are the expert here so when you
pitch for a blogging gig be sure to let the company know how often they
should be posting – particularly if the company doesn’t have a blog to speak
of yet. Then you can tell them you will kindly take care of all their blogging
needs for the reduced price of ‘$X’ per week or per month. No, I’m not
going to tell you exactly what to charge, although I don’t advise you should
be charging any less than $50 per blog post once you’ve proven yourself in
the travel blogging arena.
 Say you pitch to a dozen travel companies and five of them decide to
give you a try, if you write four blog posts per month for $50 each that’s
$200 per client per month. That gives you a nice little earner of $1000 per
month. Granted, writing quality blog posts takes up a fair bit of time but if
you write one a day on each day of the week then it won’t really seem like
all that much.

Increasing your income further

To increase your income from blogging for others exponentially, think
about what else you have to offer. Maybe you can manage your new clients’
Twitter accounts and Facebook pages for instance. With social media tools
like Hootsuite and Twitterfeed you can automate much of this type of work,
enabling you to spend most of your time creating your masterpiece blog
posts. (You can’t build a reputation as an amazing travel blogger who
everybody wants to work with by producing quick, sub-standard blog posts
after all.) This is where all that experience of promoting your own blog on
social media comes in – trust me when I say you’ve picked up more than
you think by running your own travel blog.
Many larger travel companies may already employ a social media
manager to cover this on a full-time basis. If you’re pitching to smaller
companies however, you can offer to manage their social media accounts on
a basic level and bag yourself at least another $300-$600 per month. This
might include straightforward activities like tweeting the blog posts you
write and posting them on Facebook, plus interacting with customers and
sharing other relevant content.
 What you’ve just read is the ‘secret’ as to how I started making good
money travel blogging for others; I got a bit creative with my services and
offered clients other things that could benefit them on top of the blogging
services I provided them with. The possibilities are only limited to what you
believe you’re capable of. I discovered I’m good at writing press releases so
I tagged this on as a service to my travel clients, along with Twitter and
Facebook page management, as described above. I also offered to upload
their posts directly into their Wordpress dashboards and distribute their
press releases online – all for an extra fee.
When all the nine to five naysayers look puzzled (or worse, amused)
because they can’t work out how I earn my living online I look back at
them puzzled (or worse, amused) because they don’t realise I’m running
myself a nice profitable little business here. Because that’s what I consider
myself to be – a small business. Number of employees? One. Running costs
and overheads? Zero (almost). Risk of getting fired? Zero. (There’re always
more clients.) Number of complaints to date? None.
As soon as you start thinking about travel blogging
as a viable and potentially lucrative business you
can start to make some real money from it.
 If you do a great job for your first few clients, you’ll start to build a
reputation as an expert travel blogger and strange things will start to
happen. Strange things like those clients recommending you and sending
new clients and work your way so that you rarely need to pitch anymore.
(Sometimes really strange things can happen – like clients keeping you on
when you decide to up your rates.) If you’re selling extra services as well as
just blogging, clients will be happy to pay more as you’re adding extra
value to their company and brand, while also saving them time. Blog posts
can still be your area of expertise, but that doesn’t mean you can’t offer
anything else. Be bold, be confident – go forth and pitch!

So what did we learn on our travels?

The benefit of combining your own travel blog and blogging for others
is that one often compliments the other, and once you get to a certain point
you can start to reap double the financial rewards. The real money is made
blogging for others when you’re creative about bundling your services
together with other expertise and offerings. Think about how else you can
save your clients time and add value to their brand – then approach them as
the expert you’ve now become.
Chapter 9
How to Write the Perfect
Travel Blog Post
The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.
~ Edwin Schlossberg

So we’ve discovered that pitching is important. I’m sure I don’t need to

tell you though that a great pitch is nothing if you can’t deliver on your
promise. Your promise to a travel company or online publication is to
produce well researched, quality blog posts that draw people in and make
them want to engage with what they have to offer.
We better have a closer look at that then.
I deliberately placed this chapter in Part Two of this book because with
your own travel blog the style and form each post takes is entirely up to
you. It’s your blog after all and it should be full of your own individual
style and flair. On your own blog you can experiment with what works and
what doesn’t over time and respond to your readers accordingly.
When I first started writing for clients’ blogs though, I wished I’d had
somebody to tell me about all the ingredients that make up a successful
travel blog post. The biggest tip here (and it’s worth mentioning again) is to
always research the style and form of travel posts already published by the
company or website you’re blogging for. Think about the website’s
readership – and their customers beyond that if applicable.

How to make your blog posts awesome

 The great Jon Morrow of copyblogger.com fame really nails it when he
talks about what sort of blog posts get readers to sit up and take notice. The
majority of people online want quick fixes – they want information and
inspiration in the quickest and most accessible form possible. This doesn’t
mean all your blog posts should only be ten words long of course. What it
does mean is you need to learn how to draw people in and make them want
to read everything you have to say.
Jon says that the purpose of a headline or blog post title is to get people
to read the first line. The purpose of the first line is to get people to read the
second line, and so on and so forth, until the reader has read the entire post
and is begging for more. From the headline to the final word you need to
ask yourself these questions for every single blog post you write: How can
I get people to stop what they’re doing? If you shouted your headline out
on a busy street, would people stop to listen to what you’ve got to say?
Will this post make people be late for something if needs be? Your
blog post needs to be so useful/inspirational/funny/engaging that the reader
is willing to be late for a meeting or picking the kids up from school.
If the reader’s phone rings half way through your blog post will
they answer it? If you think they’d answer it then your post needs some
work. If you think they’d let it go to voicemail and keep reading, you’re on
to something good.
Is it worthy of a standing ovation? If you read your post out as a
speech on ted.com would people stand to clap at the end or remain in their
seats? Does this seem like a little too much? Well, this is what separates the
average travel bloggers from the people who earn the reputations, the most
money and the freedom to roam as they please – so you need to work on it.
 Will they be desperate for more? Will they sign up to a mailing list,
buy a service, or share your post with their friends? Whatever action the
company you’re writing for wants their readers to take, have you inspired it
with your words?
So how do you achieve all this? If you need a bit of help with
consistently writing blog posts that get people to stand up, be late and
ignore their phone calls, then here are some practical tips from another
blogging expert. (OK, you got me – it’s just me, but this extract has been
lovingly adapted especially for you from my very own blog.)

Practical advice for writing killer blog posts

Fall in love with the full-stop (period) The full-stop (or ‘period’ if
you’re from across the pond) is the King of Grammar when it comes to
writing a blog. I sometimes go back over a post taking out all the commas
and semi-colons and replacing them with full-stops.
While I’m at it I delete words or whole sentences from my blog posts.
Words that meant so much to me as I pitter-pattered them out on the
keyboard often reveal themselves to be completely redundant on a second
reading.
Guess what I’ve learned? Ninety percent of the time a blog post will
read better with more full-stops and less words in it.
Write with the same voice you talk in A blog post should read like
you just opened the door, flagged someone down off the street, invited them
in and started chatting to them over a cup of coffee. The tone of each post
will differ slightly depending on the travel company you’re writing for and
their readership, but using a conversational tone works in blog posts more
than in any other type of writing.
 Shocking reveal for any traditional writers out there: When writing a
blog post you can start a sentence with ‘And’ or ‘But’ if this is how you
would speak the sentences. I know – it’s almost unholy isn’t it?
Write a killer title Like Jon Morrow says, the blog post title really
must draw people in from the street and get them to come and sit with you a
while.
We could go through all the elements that make up a good blog post
title here but Jon kind of steals the limelight with his free Headline Hacks
report. Download and absorb this. It will cover everything you need to
know about writing great blog post headlines that compel people to read on.
Love the white space Probably the most well-known of all the tips on
the list – but the least used for some reason.
Over any other medium, writing a blog demands line breaks and white
space for weary readers’ eyes to rest. Look at it this way: Do you read blog
posts or website content that’s small and all bunched up into just a couple of
paragraphs? Do you enjoy deciphering text that looks like one round blob
of grey ink splattered onto the screen?
Me neither.
Split up your blog posts into manageable chunks.
Even if it makes absolutely no grammatical sense to do so.
Trust me – your readers will thank you for it.
So there you have it. Feel free to break the rules on a regular basis if
you see fit. Some of the greatest blog posts are the ones where the writer
has clearly read the rules, then taken that trusty rule book, torn it into a
thousand pieces and made it into bedding for their pet hamster.

A note on blog post images

 Although not strictly speaking a tip about ‘writing’ the perfect blog
post, knowing where to source appropriate images is often necessary when
writing for others. You may be asked to send ‘creative commons’ images to
compliment your posts, so you need to know what this means and where to
find them.
A creative commons license is simply where the creator of an image
gives their permission for the public to use and share it. As a blogger your
main concern is to find relevant and free images that hold a creative
commons license, and then ensure you cite the source. I personally use
Flickr to find most of my blog post images, where you can filter out
everything that isn’t under a creative commons license. There are many
other sites of course, as demonstrated in this post: 11 Sites Bloggers Can
Get Amazing Creative Commons Images… for Free.

So what did we learn on our travels?

The ‘perfect’ travel blog post is, of course, subjective and there are few
absolute rights and wrongs. What matters is your writing ability, combined
with a unique angle and a tone that will engage readers and compel them to
read on. Always consider who you’re talking to with each blog post and
assume that they’re strapped for time. Open strongly. Close well too. If the
bit in the middle is pretty spectacular then you might just have a half decent
blog post to send off to your lucky new travel client. Your responsibilities
as a travel blogger don’t just stop at writing remarkable blog posts though;
you also need to be able to source appropriate images that are legally
available for public use.
Chapter 10
Where to Find Blogging Gigs
When Work Runs Dry
That he should have procured The Times this morning by the simple
expedient of asking the milkman to request the postmistress to telephone to
Broxford and have it handed to the bus-conductor to be dropped at the post-
office and brought up by the little girl who delivers the telegrams is a
trifling example of his resourceful energy.
~ Dorothy L. Sayers, Busman's Honeymoon The aim of this
book is to provide the practical advice that will help you
develop the confidence and skills to make money from travel
blogging. We’ve already learned that pitching directly to clients
will get you steady, reliable and well-paid travel blogging gigs.

Sometimes, however, pitching directly will get you absolutely nowhere.

You could be the greatest travel blogger with the best ideas and angles
and follow every tip about pitching in this book, yet still you get no work.
So what do you do? First of all, don’t take it personally. Never let a ‘no’
affect a future ‘yes’ by letting it knock your confidence. The truth is,
sometimes certain things are out of your control. For instance, the small
travel company you pitched to employed a full-time blogger last week. Or
the head of marketing at the large travel firm you suggested a series of posts
to has a budding travel blogger brother, so she takes the ideas you pitched
and hires him to write them instead.
 As fate would have it, you’ve run clean out of work. You’re either on
the road without enough money for a roof over your head, or you’re at
home, unable to afford your next pack of biscuits to dunk in your coffee.
But don’t give up! There are still places where people are crying out for
quality content from travel bloggers of your calibre. In fact there are places
you can casually stroll over to (virtually anyway) whenever fate happens to
throw a large rock into your stream of travel blogging work.

Freelance websites and job boards

Bidding or pitching for work on freelancing websites or job boards
means more competition and often – but not always – lower pay. If you
quickly need work as a travel blogger though it’s a great place to seek out
opportunities, and sometimes you can really hit the jackpot. In this chapter
we’ll look at a few of the best places travel bloggers are getting work and
earning real money right now.
 The main thing to remember on sites like these is not to be put off by
the perceived competition. If a site tells you that forty people have applied
for the same job, don’t let this put you off applying. Why? Put bluntly, a
sizable proportion of those people are probably crap writers, terrible at
conveying ideas and possibly have never travelled further than their local
corner shop in their lives. You on the other hand – well, look at you! You’re
only here because the head of marketing at that big company employed her
brother to write those posts you pitched her. (By the way, I’m sure this
doesn’t happen all that often!) In other words, if you’ve come this far you
can legitimately call yourself a travel blogger with your head held high.
You’re already one step ahead of the competition just for having a niche.
(It’s travel by the way.) You wouldn’t dream of firing off blanket emails to
bid for work – and you know how to write great travel posts – so get out
there and starting applying.
Elance.com
Probably the most popular website for freelancers – it seems everybody
has come into contact with Elance at some point or another. There are so
many different freelance writing gigs to choose from on Elance. Just
register, fill out your profile as completely as you can and then search the
site using keyword phrases such as ‘travel blog posts,’ or ‘travel blogger’.
Although not my personal number one choice when looking for work, I do
hear lots of success stories from others in the freelance writing community,
mainly from our friends in America.
ProBlogger Job Board
 Exclusively for bloggers, the ProBlogger Job Board does exactly what
it says on the tin and is updated regularly. I’m often surprised that many
bloggers looking for work haven’t heard of this one, as there are often some
good travel blogging gigs on there. Problogger is straightforward and
simple, so keep checking in for travel blogging gigs on a regular basis.
Having said that, you should check out each job and do your own research
as ProBlogger doesn’t endorse any of the ads personally. That’s pretty
standard stuff though.
People Per Hour
I’m a big fan of People Per Hour. For a start, bidding for writing work
isn’t half as competitive as it is on sites like Elance (although it is getting
more and more popular). I’ve personally found some very lucrative work on
this site. Just do a travel related search under ‘Writing’ and take your pick
of the travel gigs. Or you can enter the term ‘travel’ and search that way.
You can even hone down to just blog posts too, making your search
incredibly specific.
NB: People Per Hour do take a pretty hefty chunk out of your travel
blogging wage, particularly on larger amounts. I’ve had as much as 15%
taken from a £300 deposit before. That’s £45 (over $70 USD) just for
hooking me up with some blogging work! Still, I wouldn’t have found the
work otherwise and they have got a business to run. (I just didn’t want you
to think that it’s all skipping through meadows in People Per Hour land!)
Upwork
 The artist formally known as oDesk. I know freelance writers and
bloggers that regularly get nice little jobs on Upwork. Again, just search
using travel related keywords once you’ve registered and completed your
profile. Like with any site like this, there are some pretty poorly paid jobs
on there (along with people willing to do them) and so it’s a case of sifting
through all the junk to get to the good stuff. It’s worth bearing in mind that
this can actually work for you rather than against you though, as freelance
marketing consultant Diana Marinova points out: “From my experience
with Upwork, it’s somewhat easy in the long run to stand out
from the crowd as the so called competition primarily consists of
not so talented contractors. Once you position yourself right in
the market you can get some regular clients who are looking
specifically for you – or the very least – for quality, which they
often don’t get from the mass freelance contractors on these
sites.”
So what did we learn on our travels?
While I stand by the notion that usually the best and highest paid
blogging work is gained by cutting out the middle man and pitching
directly, there are exceptions to this rule. Every now and then freelancing
websites might just score you some of your biggest and best travel blogging
work yet. Sites like these can also be a great place to build a solid
reputation as an expert in the field of travel blogging, meaning clients will
start making the effort to seek you out. The sooner you can stop sifting
through poorly paid assignments and instead rely on clients to approach
you, the better.
Chapter 11
The Freelancing Mindset:
Don’t Be Afraid
The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the
environment in which you first find yourself.
~ Mark Caine Now you have the practical tools to make a success of travel
blogging I feel it’s important that the final chapter of this book addresses
the psychological hurdles you may have to leap (or drag yourself) over. The
practical advice will help you in your quest for travel blogging success and
freedom, but inevitably your mind will play tricks on you at the most
crucial stages in your journey. After a ‘no’ from a top travel company you
pitched to, your mind might tell you that your chosen vocation is just a
pipe-dream. It will deliver to you in no uncertain terms a full back-catalog
of reasons, based on clear logic, why starting your own travel blog and
blogging for others is not worth pursuing.
Whether you realise it or not, if you’ve followed (or intend to follow)
the advice in Part Two of this book, you’re now in the territory of freelance
writing. This is exactly the sort of territory where some flail and buckle,
leaning back with their full weight into their full-time day jobs, while others
flourish, grow and really come into their own.

You mind is not your own

 It’s important to realise that most of what your mind will offer you
when the doubts start to kick in is based on what you’ve heard from other
people – or perhaps more recently what you’ve read online. The problem I
have with almost everything I’ve heard or read about the ‘realities’ of
becoming a freelancer is that the downsides are overstated, deeply
depressing and completely off-putting if taken at face value. I’m not
suggesting the ‘realities’ these people feel compelled to comment on do not
exist – or even that they are not valid. I just don’t much like the reaction
they provoke in the talented, hardworking folk that are scared off from a
fulfilling freelancing life they may have been perfectly suited to.
I didn’t much like my own reaction to the blog posts and articles I read
when I was first starting out on this path. So eventually I stopped reading
them. But many that could make a success of their work and their lives by
freelancing gradually decide not to pursue it because of the perceived risks
involved. Interestingly, people rarely balance the argument by putting forth
the ‘harsh realities’ of people stewing in their own contempt in a full-time
day job their entire lives.
So here it is.
Scare tactic #1: You have to have the self-motivation of an angry
mule to be a successful freelancer Yes, you have to be self-disciplined at
times and conjure up elements of self-motivation to get the work done, but
no more than the average day job worker has to conjure up the will to get
out of bed each morning and sit at their desks for eight hours a day. The
scaremongers (for whatever reason) make out that if you had nobody to
answer to but yourself you’d spiral into a dangerous world where you’d
never see the light of day, nor complete any of the work you’ve spent so
much time and effort to get.
 In fact as a freelancer you do have people to answer to – your clients –
it’s just they don’t breathe down your neck all day, telling you what to wear
and what time to take your lunch. As long as you regularly pitch for work,
complete it to a high standard and deliver it on time, you don’t have to have
any more self-discipline than your average worker. As a freelancer, you’re
not constantly testing the boundaries of your self-discipline and struggling
daily to become motivated, you’re simply getting on with the job – just like
everybody else.
Scare tactic #2 “Don’t Quit Your Day Job”
If there’s a phrase in the English language that annoys me the most
(when said without irony) it’s this: “Don’t quit your day job.” I feel like
saying to the (likely well-meaning) individuals that utter this to me, “No,
you don’t quit your day job – I’m making money in other, more satisfying
and lucrative ways now.” Yes, some people do wish to stay in their day jobs
alongside their travel blogging endeavours, but many others are only there
because they’re too scared not to be.
Naturally it would be unwise of me to suggest that once you decide
you’re going to make a living from travel blogging, you should quit your
job the very next day, but does this really need to be pointed out? People
should give those that express the courage and commitment to become
freelancers the credit they deserve. Yes, it takes time to build a reputation
and therefore it takes time to build a full-time income – but you knew that
already, didn’t you?
Scare tactic #3 In this economic climate it’s risky to be a freelancer
In this economic climate it’s risky to rely on just one source of income for
your entire living costs and financial future. In this economic climate it’s far
riskier to rely on anybody but yourself to provide you with an income.
 If a particular client drops you, you can find other clients who will
appreciate your travel blogging talents. If you need more money for an
unexpected expense, you can offer another service to existing clients or
look for extra opportunities on freelancing sites. If all the travel blogs in the
entire world cease to exist? Well then that puts your own travel blog in a
seriously good position! The point is, implementing different income
streams is a far less risky option in this, or any other, economic climate.

So what did we learn on our travels?

If you want to be a full-time freelance travel blogger you can make
good money from it, as long as you’re smart and learn how to get good
clients that pay well. Ensure you market yourself and your services
effectively and always be on the lookout for opportunities. Your mind (and
the people around you) will make you doubt your abilities at times, but if
you do the work well and deliver it on time you will slowly build a
reputation as an expert travel blogger. Then you’ll never have to worry
about all the scary things you heard about that very nearly put you off this
rewarding vocation in the first place.
Conclusion: Graduation and
Continuous Learning
Don't let schooling interfere with your education.
~Mark Twain I saw a slogan on a t-shirt not so long ago. You may have
seen it somewhere too. It simply said: ANOTHER DAY HAS PASSED
AND I HAVEN’T USED ALGEBRA ONCE
It made me smile at first but it also made me sad, because I realised
that this is what’s happening to most of the kids going through our
education systems all over the world. Much of what they learn is redundant
– completely inadaptable to the careers or jobs they’ll go on to have. This
isn’t true of everybody of course; scientists will use their experiments for
vital research, mathematicians and economists the formulas they’ve studied
to keep the economy ticking over (hopefully).
We need these people. Of course we do.
But what about everybody else? What about the creative folk and the
practical people? What about those who don’t want an academic career,
whether they’re qualified for it or not? The simple fact is, for the majority
of those churned through our education systems, not much is really gained
that’s of any real use.
 In the interests of balance I should share what I have learned from my
formal education. Thanks to the basic foundations of my elementary
education, I’ve found I have the tools to study, learn and become proficient
in something that is useful to me. As it turns out, self-learning is one of the
most rewarding ways to gain practical skills I have ever come across. I
learned more in six months of intensive self-learning than at any other time
in my life – including three years at one of the UK’s largest universities. I
then adapted my abilities into useful skills that could be applied in the real
world. I chose to use these super-powers for good instead of evil by earning
a living doing what I love, while hanging onto my soul and helping others
to realise they can do the same – should they want to enough.
That’s where the practical advice in this book, along with your
continuous learning and self-belief comes in.
Some people are perfectly designed for a life of routine and security, of
a drip-fed salary and working more than forty hours a week in the same
building while living in the same house their whole lives. It stands to reason
then that some people want the exact opposite and spend their entire lives
constantly seeking out new experiences, tirelessly challenging conventions
and perhaps being away from the people they love in their quest for true
freedom.
It can only stand to reason then that some people respond best to a life
that fits somewhere in between the shadowed coolness of home and the
bright and searing heat of the road less travelled.
Some people are at their happiest when planning for
their futures, while focusing on and enjoying the
present moment.
 If you’ve got this far I’m pretty sure you’ll be just fine stomping out
your own path towards travel blogging success (plus anything else you may
set your sights on in the future). My advice? Continue to believe, continue
to learn, and continue to apply yourself and your skills in the right direction
for you and your path. If you need further guidance from me, you can sign
up to get my free weekly writing tips blog posts. (You’ll also get a free
eBook on how to start a writing portfolio.) Feel free to hit reply when you
get an email from me – I’m always happy to hear from ‘the small
percentage.’
I wrote How to Start a Travel Blog and Make Money to give the people
that want it, the practical advice and tools to start making an income from
travel blogging. I also wrote it to give people like me the confidence and
belief that it can be done and to provide proof that ‘the real world’
naysayers were wrong about us.
Turns out they were just different.
Or scared.
Probably a bit of both.
Wherever your path leads you, know that you have the freedom to do
whatever you want with your life. Use that freedom. So you want to be a
travel blogger and make good money from it? You now have the belief, the
skills and the knowledge to do just that – so go out and do it.
I know, I know – life just isn’t that simple is it?
Well it should be.
Gratitude
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not
giving it.
~ William Arthur Ward

Thanks to the contributors that have made this book better than I could
on my own – Monica Stott of The Travel Hack and Kelly Dunning from
Global Goose. Both are doing great things in the travel blogging world and
are a joy to work with.
Special thanks to my wonderful copy editor and proofreader, Karen
Banes (www.karenbanes.com), who arguably did more for this book by
taking words away than I did by adding them! I’m extremely grateful to
Karen for going above and beyond the call of duty because of her passion
for the subject matter, and I look forward to working with her again.
Big thanks to all my blog readers – whether you read in silence or
comment and share – you’ve all supported me in the creation of this book,
and in many more ways than you could possibly know. Particular thanks to
Diana Marinova, who leaves such wonderful comments that I felt
compelled to include one of them in this book.
Thanks to all the digital nomads and those in the ‘small percentage’
who I continuously learn from and admire. Chris Guillebeau first made me
realise I didn’t have to be an angry activist or Buddhist monk to want to
embrace non-conformity and live a fulfilling life on my own terms.
I almost certainly won’t live long enough to express the gratitude due
to my ‘inner circle’ for supporting and believing in me when others only
raise their eyebrows. Particular thanks to my mother, Elaine, for having
faith in me despite the mounting evidence against this all working out on
occasion. When I momentarily lose faith in myself, I remember yours and it
keeps me going.
Thank you to all the readers who bought this book and are living the
travel blogging life or preparing for it. I hope I have helped you in some
small way to see that you truly can live the life you want to. If you too feel
gratitude please share this book on your favourite social media site and
spread the word. I really would appreciate it.
While you’re there, look me up! I can’t wait to learn about where your
travel blogging journey takes you.
Take your pick:
Tweet me: @kirstythewriter
Like and share with me: facebook.com/kirstythewriter
Circle me: gplus.to/kirstythewriter
Act professional with me: uk.linkedin.com/in/kirstyfreelancecopywriter
Pin and be pinned: pinterest.com/kirstythewriter
Websites:
Become a (better) freelance writer: www.freelancewritersonline.com
Hire a freelance writer: www.kirstystuart.com
*
To get free writing and online marketing tips by email, sign up to my
weekly blog posts here: Free eBook and writing advice.
I hope our paths will cross again soon…