Creating a travel blog can be very simple: buy your own domain, write articles, and share your ideas with your users. Then comes the moment that you would like to happen often — you would like to earn money from your site and make it a job, your work.
In this guide, we will show you the best methods to monetize a travel site.
Best methods to Monetize a Travel Blog
Let us see the different ways to monetize a travel blog in this 2018 that can make some bucks for us.
Affiliate Marketing
With affiliate marketing, you are paid every time a user takes action—for example, buying a product on your site. You can give users the opportunity to book flights and hotels on your site, and with every reservation, you will receive a commission.
Who Can Use It?
Affiliate marketing is valid for any project. Many affiliate programs are available, and most are free and accessible to everyone, are easy to integrate on your site, and allow you to create an income in the immediate future.
Pros
- Ease of adhesion
- Excellent revenue potential
- A possibility of recurring income
Cons
- Need to monitor the market
- Not easy to create quality traffic, especially at the beginning
- Wrong product choice, especially one of poor quality, could drive away an audience
How Much Can You Earn?
Depending on the program and the product you choose, you can make a great income with affiliate marketing. Evaluating what to promote becomes essential.
Here are some revenue model examples:
- Percentage of the final price (e.g., 4.8% of a hotel room reservation)
- Percentage of the revenue-sharing share (e.g., 50% of the seller’s income)
- Fixed fee per item sold (e.g., $2.50 per item sold) If you can bring in quality traffic, your revenue will be constant and high.
Contextual Advertising (Google AdSense)
Contextual advertising is a program based on pay-per-click (PPC). The most important program is Google AdSense. Your goal is to get users to click on an ad on your site and generate revenue from your site’s traffic.
Who Can Use It?
The program is freely accessible to anyone, provided you comply with three rules:
- You must have at least 50 visitors per day.
- The content must be made for people.
- Your site does not contain any prohibited content. Overcome moderation, and you can increase Google AdSense revenue from your site.
Keep in mind that you will always have to comply with these rules. Otherwise, Google can disable access at any time.
Pros
- Free membership
- Easy to use and increase on-site
- A possibility of a recurring income
Cons
- Very strict rules
- Must reach at least $100 to withdraw funds
How Much Can You Earn?
Earnings range from $0.01 to $2 per click depending on your site’s niche, language, and region. Here is an example of an American site:
| Estimated Earnings | Page Views | Impressions | Clicks | Page RPM | Impressions |
| US$167.32 | 49,461 | 89,558 | 506 | US$3.38 | US$1.87 |
High traffic can lead to good revenue with AdSense.
Create a Membership Website
Creating a membership website will allow you to earn money by selling the content you offer to registered members only. This method can lead you to fixed revenues and create a base of real users who are ready to buy.
Pros
- Minimal investment
- Ability to create a scalable business
- Decide how much to charge and how to pay
Cons
- Need to hire someone to set it all up perfectly if you don’t have programming knowledge
- Not always easy to sell the creation of real value content
- Must be authoritative to entice purchases from potential customers
How Much Can You Earn?
Your earnings will be proportionate to your commitment, the creation of valuable content, the selling price. You can choose to sell a monthly or annual subscription, and based on the number of subscribers, you could generate significant revenue.
Sell Advertising Space
One of the best ways to monetize your travel blog is to sell advertising space on your site. However, to attract potential investors, the site must be of high quality and have a good number of visitors who follow and interact with the site.
Pros
- No cost
- Personally manage advertisers
- A possibility of excellent earnings
Cons
- Tough to find advertisers willing to invest
- Very unstable income
How Much Can You Earn
It’s you who decides the prices and, consequently, your earnings. The more visibility and users you can bring to your site, the greater your chances of collaboration and earnings from advertisements.
Post Sponsored Content
Allowing for the sponsorship of external content is a widely used method with a good profit margin. The real problem, however, is that Google penalizes the use of DoFollow links, which are often requested by the advertiser, so you risk penalizing your site.
Pros
- High revenues
- Suitable for any site
- Easy to find advertisers
Cons
- Possible Google penalties
- Risk losing credibility with your users
How Much Can You Earn?
The earnings depend on the volume of traffic rather than the content of the articles—this type of agreement is based on site metrics, data taken from Ahrefs, and the SimilarWeb traffic ranking.
You could ask for $10–200 for a post—the price difference is in the total views. Revenue can be very high, but so can the risks.
Sell Your Own Digital Product
Selling your own Amazon- or eBay-style digital product is a great choice. The only limit is your imagination in creating and distributing your product.
Pros
- Freedom to create products
- High earnings
- Control over pricing
Cons
- High competition with famous brands
- High investment
How Much Can You Earn
Your earnings depend on the type of product you are selling and the selling price. However, you must take into account the cost to create the product, any shipping costs, and the cost to promote the sale. Therefore, it is important to consider everything before setting the price in order to have a final gain.
Flip Your Website
It seems like a new fashion, but many people use this method of earning very profitably. Buy an old site or create one from scratch and sell it at the best price possible. Simple? Not always.
Pros
- Earning a lot in a short space of time
- Excellent earnings
Cons
- Ability to optimize the website
- High risk of losing invested money
How Much Can You Earn?
Many advertising networks specialize in selling websites, and the earnings can be very high for quality sites. The greatest difficulty is in creating a high-quality site in a short time. The more time and money you invest in the project, the higher the risk of losing money.
Accept Donations from Visitors
Asking for a donation from your faithful users is very simple and remunerative. In fact, if your visitors follow you and find your articles interesting, asking for a small contribution in return will give you a great sense of satisfaction.
Pros
- Good source of revenue for small blogs
- Shows that you value your content
Cons
- Unstable source of revenue
- Requires a loyal audience
How Much Can You Earn?
It is difficult to estimate because the user can decide whether to contribute or not. However, it is a great way to give value to your website, especially at the beginning, and avoid other more invasive methods such as Google AdSense.
Build an Email List and Do Email Marketing
This method can lead to exciting results by creating a dialogue with your users. You can offer discounts or exclusive content in exchange for email addresses. It is a method that will never go out of fashion, but that must be used with intelligence to avoid the risk of your email ending up in the spam folder.
Pros
- Easy to create
- Create a direct dialogue with users
- Good long-term earnings
Cons
- Little revenue in the short term
- Risk of ending up in the spam folder
How much can you earn
It all depends on the base of users registered to your email list. The higher the number of subscribers, the higher the revenue. Keep in mind that email marketing has a conversion rate of 8–10%.
The Best Way to Monetize a Website in 2019
We have seen the main methods of monetizing a travel website in 2018, but which of these is the best way to make a profit? A winning strategy includes various tests, starting with an email list because of its ease of creation. Create your audience and give them quality content, and then you can integrate other forms of monetization.
Creating immediate profits is not always easy. You have to work on your content and online reputation. Become credible, and your revenue on the site will grow.
What method do you use or plan to increase on your site? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
