There is no exact method of calculating in advance how much money you will earn from your travel website. Some people think they will earn a lot if they have many visitors.
However, it doesn’t work this way; your income depends not only on the amount of traffic you get but also on its quality and your chosen method of monetization.
You can assume that your earnings will be between $3 and $15 for each 1,000 visitors. There is a big difference in income because of the selected features in this business.
Language and the sector will also affect your profits. In addition, Turkey, Brazil, India and other non-English-language markets have local circumstances which also influence a webmaster’s total revenue.
The seasons can also affect your profits. Usually, summer is the high season and you can earn more than at other times. With deep knowledge of an area of your project and a deep understanding of the audience, you can increase your income.
Travel bloggers can use several methods to monetize their projects. CPA (Cost-Per-Action) and CPC (Cost-Per-Click) methods are the most common ways to earn.
The important point is what to choose and how to use it. For example, you can earn more with the CPA method than with the CPC method if you have good-quality traffic or well-prepared content.
- How can I make Money from my Travel Blog?
- How can I Start a Travel Website and make Money?
- How much Money can a Website Owner make?
- Which type of Website is best for Earning?
- How do Travel Bloggers get Paid?
- How do I get Paid to Travel?
How can I make Money from my Travel Blog?
If you already have a travel website or you are planning to start one, the point of getting involved in this venture is to earn revenue. You may have a passion for the industry but at the end of the day if you are devoting time to the start up, you want to see a reward.
Read Also: Earn Easy Income Through Travel Writing Online
Here are 5 real ways one can earn money from running a travel website in 2019:
Google Adsense
Travel Affiliate Programs
Amazon Associates Program
On-Site Advertising
Guest Blog Posts
Detailed descriptions on how to go about monetizing your blog or site can be found below:
1. Google AdSense
This has been around the longest out of any advertising program since the beginning of the internet. Any blog or website can use AdSense to earn pay per click revenue as long as you have approval in their advertising network and follow their guidelines as to not get banned.
Do not click on your own ads, this is a sure way to get shut down fast. Google is smart and monitors clicks. Everyone clicks on ads and majority of sites online are making money using this.
The benefit of running Travel ads is companies are paying hefty fees to advertise their travel company and as a AdSense publisher you can share in this revenue. When anyone clicks on an ad on your website you earn from that referral immediately. You get sent a check with your money upon earnings.
2. Travel Affiliate Programs
Just like any affiliate program, the travel industry offers a variety of reward programs that pay you to promote the travel deals in their database. There are different types of integration options such as banners, text ads, white label, search widgets, and API.
Depending on the type of way you want to showcase deals on your site depends on which integration method you choose to use along with which you are approved to access. It is recommended to use white label or search widgets when possible as this leads to more conversions as the visitor is inclined by a call to action to start interacting with your website.
3. Amazon Associates Program
If you are an investor such as buying a site from Empire Flippers, you will see majority of successful sites are profiting using Amazon Associates Program.
There is a reason Jeff Bezos is one of the richest men in the world and one of the programs he has to thank is the associates program which has people from all over the world promoting Amazon products and they do it because they make money.
There are thousands of travel related products on amazon that you can link with your website and sell directly. With this method you will be helping your visitors and earning commissions in the process.
It is easy to setup and various options are also available such as text links, banners or linking directly to specific products. For best conversion list the product details directly on your site and when visitor is ready to buy they click your associates link to end up on checkout page.
4. On-Site Advertising
You do not need a partner to earn directly from your site. Finding paid advertisers for your site only requires a few customers for you to see consistently monthly rewards.
Show your potential advertisers how much traffic and pageviews your site is receiving on a monthly basis and offer them to run their ad on your site for a monthly rate.
You can choose your pricing based on what is fair for the volume of visitors your site is receiving. For example having 5 paid advertisers at $200/month each brings in $1000/month revenue directly to you without any outgoing expenses.
5. Guest Blog Posts
Does it sound attractive to have other bloggers write content for your blog? This is not only possible, but you can charge them to do it. Once your travel business has obtained some traction and has daily viewership, it becomes attractive for bloggers specifically travel bloggers to post content through your blog to get a backlink and in return they will pay you!
Post a page on your page to describe the details and guidelines, add a contact form and/or a direct payment linked with PayPal, and advertise your page through social media targeted to travel bloggers to start gaining interest.
How can I Start a Travel Website and make Money?
Stuck at home during the pandemic? There’s never been a better time to automate your income through a side (or main) hustle. This can happen with a strategically built website.
From affiliate marketing; offering a digital product; donations; and membership sites, these are all ways to monetize your brand. Here are 6 essential tips from Daniel Todercan, CEO of New Light Digital on how to make money with your new travel website:
1. Affiliate marketing
If you’re an expert within a field, building a website with content based on your expertise can help you make money during the coronavirus. Affiliate marketing helps bloggers and other website owners monetize their website.
“The way it works is, you link out to products and services from ads or contextual links,” says Todercan. “When someone makes a purchase from those links, you get a commission off the sale.” This is an excellent business model for content marketing.
To be effective, you’ll need to focus on search engine optimization to reach people when they are looking for content related to your topic.
2. Sell ads (i.e., Google Adsense)
Another effective strategy for travel and lifestyle websites that focus on content marketing is to sell ads. You can do this using a service like Google Adsense, or you can manage the ad sales yourself. While managing the ads yourself can mean you have to invest more time, it can also mean more income.
When using a service like Google Adsense, you get paid when someone clicks the ad. For users to click the ad, you’ll need to have content focused on a topic that Google can serve relevant ads for. The more consistent your content, the easier this will be for Google to do well.
3. Offer a digital product
“You can earn money when starting a new travel and lifestyle website by offering a digital product, such as an ebook or online course,” says Todercan. “This is another effective way for experts to monetize their know-how.”
Offering a digital product means developing a strong SEO strategy to bring relevant visitors to your website. Additionally, you’ll want to have a social media management that showcases your expertise and earns your product visibility in your industry.
“People want to buy ebooks and online courses from people who make it evident that they know what they are talking about,” says Todercan. “Showcase that expertise on a blog, social media videos and online interactions.”
4. Enable donations on your website
“When websites have a strong and loyal following, they can ask for donations from their user base to fund their work,” says Todercan. “Wikipedia is an example of this funding model as they seek donations to fund the work that they do.”
One simple way of enabling donations through your website is to place a PayPal or other digital payment option on your website. For this model to be effective, you’ll need to offer content that users can’t find anywhere else for free and prove your value in the marketplace.
5. Build an e-commerce business
Ecommerce websites enable you to sell a product and ship it to your customers. “You can create a product or do drop shipping where you partner with existing product manufacturers as a way to spread the word about their product,” says Todercan.
The key to building a successful e-commerce business is having an effective and custom web design that highlights the benefits of your products. For visitors to feel comfortable making a purchase on your website, it must exude a feeling of legitimacy and security.
6. Create a membership site
A membership site allows you to collect membership fees for individuals to receive exclusive content or access to resources. “If you’ve built a strong following, your membership site could be premium business listings that businesses pay to be a part of,” says Todercan. “Other membership websites find success in offering templates and services through an online membership portal.”
Establishing a membership site can be challenging as it’s a more complicated web development process. Consider working with a digital marketing agency to discuss your goals and business plan to ensure success.
How much Money can a Website Owner make?
According to Business Insider, 800 million active websites crowded the Internet as of March 2019. As the Go-Gulf.com website notes, 70 new domains, each hosting a single or many different websites, are registered every 60 seconds.
Not every newly created website launches to make money for its proprietor or owner, of course, but many of them actually do just that. How much money the average website owner makes from such sites depends on many factors, however.
Websites and Revenue
Whether a website makes its owner any money depends on the purpose of the website and the effort the owner devotes to making it a moneymaker. A website focused strictly on selling merchandise, for example, depends on sales revenues.
Websites properly set up, or optimized, to attract visitors from the Web looking for specific content are different. So-called content websites use several methods to generate revenue, which generally ranges from pennies daily up to thousands of dollars or more monthly.
Websites and Advertisements
To make money from a content website, its owner first must monetize it, or build it to generate income. Typically, noncommercial or nonbusiness websites attempt to generate income from ads posted on their pages.
Whenever Internet users visit a website and click on a posted ad, a small amount of money, usually about 15 cents, goes to the website proprietor from the advertiser or its agent. A website that generates a thousand ad clicks per day would earn its owner $15 daily or $450 monthly.
Website Affiliate Marketing
Content websites can also attract revenue from what’s called affiliate marketing. For example, a website about golfing could include ads from golf equipment makers.
Website-based affiliate marketers try to make money from commissions paid by hosted advertisers when website visitors click on ads and then buy whatever those advertisers are selling.
Owners of websites with affiliate marketing programs can make thousands monthly through earned commissions or even make themselves rich if they work very hard.
Optimizing Your Website
In 2012, 51 million new websites appeared, meaning competition among websites for viewers is strong and becoming stronger. If you hope to make income from a website, ensure potential visitors can find it on the Web through major search engines like Google or Yahoo.
Most website proprietors use a variety of search engine optimization techniques to attract visitors, such as providing fresh, high-quality content that Internet users are looking for. Popular websites usually appear on the first page of search engine results.
Which type of Website is best for Earning?
There are many easy and legal ways to earn a few bucks on the internet. Here are nine to try:
1. Mechanical Turk
Mechanical Turk is run by Amazon. Anyone can sign up and complete simple tasks — like choosing which of two pictures depicts a bridge — to earn a few cents per task.
With some practice, you can earn a few dollars an hour while just sitting on your couch watching television. And with enough focus, you can earn an amount roughly equal to minimum wage.
2. YouTube
YouTube allows anyone to post nonexplicit videos on pretty much any topic they desire. Recording a video can be as simple as turning on the camera on your computer and hitting the record button.
If you enable advertisements on your videos, you can earn money at a rate of about $1 to $3 per 1,000 video views. The more videos you have, the more views you can accrue, so this option really pays off if you record a lot of videos and build a viewership.
3. eLance
eLance allows people in almost any profession to find freelance work at home in their spare time. While the projects on eLance aren’t going to earn you a ton of money, they do provide a great way to build an independent portfolio to show off your skills while also building a network of clients.
4. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing allows anyone who has written a book on their own to upload it to Amazon to be sold on Amazon Kindle devices. Let’s say you write a novel and want to sell it. If you upload it here and then promote it online through social media or blogs, you can sell copies of your book and earn as much as a 70 percent return on each sale.
5. Fotolia
Fotolia allows you to sell photos you’ve taken for stock photography usage. For example, if a publisher is looking for a picture of a beach and you uploaded such a picture, the publisher can use Fotolia to purchase the rights to use that picture in its publication and you receive a cut of that money. For a photography hobbyist, this is a great way to earn a few dollars for some of your best photos.
6. Swagbucks
Swagbucks is perhaps the most popular — and most legitimate — of the online survey sites. Swagbucks pays you a small amount for participating in a consumer survey, which companies then use to figure out what kinds of products to make and sell. You can participate in several surveys a day, and Swagbucks earnings can be redeemed for gift cards from Amazon,
7. Fiverr
Fiverr is a website where you can make $5 doing almost anything. On the site, people upload jobs that they’re willing to do for $5, like writing Facebook posts for companies. Many of the jobs require creative skills such as graphic design or audio editing, but tasks are things you can easily do on the couch in your spare time.
8. Skillshare
Skillshare is a website where you can teach an online class and get paid for it. You record series of videos on a topic that you know about — popular subjects include crafts, film, fashion, and cooking — and then participate on the Skillshare forums related to your class.
In exchange, you receive a cut of the money from the people who take your class. No teaching degree is necessary to get started, and the site says teachers can earn an average of $3,500 a year.
9. Zirtual
Zirtual is perhaps the most time-consuming, but most rewarding, option. With Zirtual, you sign up to be a Zirtual Assistant to a busy person.
The person will send you things to do such as write emails, research a topic and summarize the findings, or personal tasks such as order flowers, manage a personal calendar, or write handwritten notes. The starting base pay is $11 an hour, and Zirtual Assistants work weekdays full time.
All of these websites offer great opportunities for anyone to earn some extra money online. It all depends on what you want to bring to the table in terms of time, money, and effort.
How do Travel Bloggers get Paid?
Being a professional travel blogger means two things. One, it means this is something that generates an income. Two, it means that you are in this for the long term, and can be expected to deliver a professional level of service to both your readers and any clients that you might have.
There are all sorts of ways to generate an income, and there are hugely varying opinions as to what a travel blogger is, varying from a journalism approach, through to writing more personal stories and tales.
1. Banner advertising
You see the ads in this post? Those are paid for ad placements, one of the most common ways of monetizing a website.
Banner advertising rates tend to be linked to traffic, so when you’re starting out you won’t be able to charge very much. Programs like Google Adwords are likely a good place as any to get started.
2. Product creation
Finally, and this is a way to create money both on and off-site, some bloggers have created products based on their areas of expertise, which they sell to their readers.
These can be virtual products like eBooks, online courses, or apps, or physical products like clothing or printed books. If you’re creative and have a great idea, you might find your audience will love it too!
3. Speaking
Many travel bloggers have spoken at a number of conferences and events, including TravelCon, TBEX, TDB Italy and the Arabian Travel Market, a travel trade show in Dubai.
If speaking publicly is something you are interested in, it is something you can turn into a fee-earner, given sufficient experience and expertise in a subject.
4. Content creation on other sites
If you’re running a blog, chances are you have a decent idea on how to create good content, be that video, photography or text. These services can be of tremendous value to brands, who are always on the lookout for good content for their social media streams or blogs.
If you can set yourself up as a freelance content creator in one or more of these areas, using your blog as your virtual “CV”, then you could start to generate a decent income.
5. Social media leverage and training
Most bloggers, over time, start to become pretty adept at social media. This blog’s Facebook page, for example, has a highly engaged following of over a million fans. That sort of following is of tremendous interest to brands, for two reasons:
- You can share relevant content to your audience
- You can advise brands as to how to improve their own social media presence, based on your experience running your social media accounts
How do I get Paid to Travel?
Many persons dream of travelling the world, while there are ways to do it cheaper and safer than ever with sharing platforms like Airbnb and Couchsurfing, and more information on budget backpacker travel than could fit an encyclopedia, the cost is still out of reach for most.
But what if you could travel and not spend a dime? What if you could even get paid?
Many would jump at the opportunity to experience new cultures, traverse through beautiful landscapes, and satisfy their insatiable wanderlust.
Luckily there are more ways than ever to travel and get paid. They aren’t easy, most are a lot of work, but the opportunities are out there if you want it bad enough.
We’ve compiled 6 ways for just about anyone to get their golden ticket to spending weeks, or years, in exotic lands while earning some cash.
1. Teach English
If you’re looking for adventure in a foreign land, one of the most accessible and lucrative ways to get there is by taking up a job teaching English. Jobs in Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America are abundant, and most of them do not require that you speak the native language.
Schools are looking for native English speakers with bachelor degrees who can teach the “direct method,” by which students learn through concepts, pantomiming, and the target language exclusively.
While not all schools require it, a certification for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) can make you a more desirable candidate. Salaries can be as high as $A46,000 a year in Japan or $A58,000 in the United Arab Emirates.
2. Research for a travel guidebook
There aren’t many professions as romanticized and misunderstood as researching and writing for travel guidebooks such as Lonely Planet and Fodor’s. While the job is exhilarating – jetting you off to hundreds of places to try the local culture, food, and hotels – the reality of the work is a grind.
Most guidebook researchers and writers report having to meet unrealistic deadlines that require them to work 12-to-14-hour days. In addition, seeing the sights is a small part of the job. Researchers and writers must crank out reports and articles, make maps of the areas they visit, and engage in extensive, tedious data entry.
Because of tightening budgets and an abundance of 20-somethings willing to do the job for next to nothing, guide writing is hardly a lucrative profession. But you can earn enough to make a living.
In an illuminating New York Times’ feature about the lives of guidebook writers, Warren St. John reveals the cardinal tenet of the job: “Most who do it quickly learn the one hard-and-fast rule of the trade: travel-guide writing is no vacation.”
3. Become an Instagram influencer
Instagram is flooded with “influencers” trying to grow their reach on the platform, but if you are one of the few lucky enough to build a sizeable following, there are opportunities to turn it into serious income.
Twentysomething travel ‘grammers Jack Morris and Lauren Bullen currently parlay the more than 3 million Instagram followers under the names of their successful travel blogs into travel around the world and a six-figure salary.
Morris told Cosmopolitan last year he once earned $A11,000 for a single post on Instagram, while Bullen has received $A9,600 for one photo. Typically he and Bullen are paid to promote various brands and locations through their feeds.
Even smaller accounts can get some benefits. David Guenther, who runs the Great North Collective(@greatnorthco), told Rangefinder Magazine in 2014 he received a free press trip to Alberta, Canada provided that he post photographs on Instagram.
Of course, most travel Instagrammers end up stuck at a few thousands followers and burning through their savings before they ever cash a check. Best to start building that following before you leave.
4. Become a flight attendant
If you don’t mind taking your travel with a side of 9-to-5, a great option could be applying to become a flight attendant. Flight attendants make between $A58,000 and $A128,000 a year, and they get free travel benefits for not just themselves but also their families.
The pay isn’t bad, but consider that the average schedule has attendants working 80 hours a month.
5. Apply for the New York Times’ 52 Places to Go job
Travelling the world and getting to write for one of the most prestigious publications in the world sounds too good to be true right? Wrong.
In October, the New York Times announced the creation of a travel correspondent position for the newspaper’s annual 52 Places to Go feature. The correspondent was to spend a week in each place and write about life on the road.
Read Also: Making Money as a Travel Writer
By the time the application deadline for the 2018 post closed, the job had received over 13,000 applicants from all walks of life. The New York Times eventually chose Jada Yuan, a veteran New York magazine editor.
Assuming the experiment goes well, one would think they will hire someone new for 2019. Better start working on that application.
6. Trade specialty, foreign goods
Looking to travel and have a little capital to start with? Consider getting in the import-export trade and head out to exotic countries to find local, specialty, and handmade goods that will appeal to travel-hungry consumers back home.
Pick up goods that areas are known for (examples include Italian leather, Mexican hammocks, and Turkish ceramics) as well as one-of-a-kind pieces that can’t be purchased by the truck full. Once you are back in the U.S., sell them to stores, collectors, or on e-retailers like eBay and Amazon for a handsome profit.
You’ll have to figure out how to navigate customs regulations, but when you can sell goods for many times their original worth, the hassle pays for itself.
