When you’re writing about a topic you are genuinely passionate about, blogging can account for some endless hours of fun. There is literally an endless stream of topics you can write about and you could even find yourself at a stage in your life where you eat, think and breathe your blog. Even when you sleep, you dream about it and you wake up each morning with a new and exciting angle on a new or existing topic to discuss.
If you ever find yourself dreading the addition of another post, your blog simply isn’t focussed on the right topic. On the other hand, if your blog is like one of those friends with whom you can discuss the many dynamics of a particular topic, there’s just no way you could run out of things to say and that is an indication of having chosen the perfect topic. With travel bloggers this is almost always the case. Travel bloggers are extremely passionate about just the idea of travelling alone and if they’re lucky enough to be able to explore the world, they have even more to write about.
Even if you haven’t begun to cover the smallest fraction of the places you’d like to visit, there is always something interesting to blog about. You could blog about some online money-generation techniques you’re trying out so that you can kick-start your travels, you could feature content from other travellers and guest bloggers, and you could even just write about all the places you’d love to visit. At some point along the way however, you might want all the effort which goes into putting your travel blog together to start generating some monetary returns. In your justified quest to monetise your travel blog, you’ll have to do it in a very subtle manner so as to maintain the integrity of your content. Here’s how:
Be SEO-Smart
Being smart with your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) means you’re not only trying to optimise your blog so that you can get some organic traffic, but also putting measures in place to avoid getting penalised by the major search engines. DIY SEO will almost always lead to the latter as bloggers can unknowingly try to implement SEO tactics which are no longer effective and have now become cases for penalisation. For example, too many back-links from an article directly will now get you penalised, whereas not too long ago, you could never have had enough back-links from an article directory. Rather make use of the services of a specialist SEO Company and if you can narrow it down to a set of region-specific SEO companies for your content, you’ll get better results.
Be Discreet with Your Revenue Streams
Once you’ve laid the groundwork for all the traffic you expect to roll in, in various ways (including), the monetisation channels you integrate into your travel blog shouldn’t be shoved right in the faces of your readers. Any links to affiliate sales offers should be integrated as naturally as possible and any adverts (like banners or text ads) you place should only be related to the topic (travel). If you must deviate then only go as far as those ads which complement the main topic of travel, like passive income generation methods as this is almost always synonymous with the desire to travel.
Keep your content genuine and interesting so that any monetisation channels aren’t overbearing.