So you want to be a travel blogger, fly around the world, be totally awesome and get paid? Or maybe you’re just sitting there wondering how the hell do these people fly around the world, be totally awesome and not be a trust fund baby? Sadly there’s no magical recipe for the success of travel blogging and how we make our money. It’s seemingly every second day I do get asked about how I make money along with the phrase ‘Oh so you make money from travel blogging. Like people actually pay you for this?’
I wanted to avoid a post like this since forever. Mainly because there’s a shit load of information on the internet on how you can make your fortune being a travel blogger. A lot of it is exactly that – shit. The information is abhorrent at best. The thing that is more soul destroying is seeing people sell dodgy guides and courses on how you too can make your millions doing this travel blogging thing. This isn’t one of those posts.
What’s coming up next is a professional yet open and honest discussion on how we make our money. The tips & tricks we use to make the cold hard cash to fund our adventures. There’s no mystery here. Nothing hidden away in the dark. Just our usual sass and honesty.
Can You Actually Make Money Travel Blogging?
Yes you can and yes we do. If you put your mind to it you can make money from just about anything. One thing to do is to change your mindset on how much money you need to live comfortably with.
So This Is The Easiest Job In The World Right?
Ah no. Sadly we don’t get to spend all our days on a beach with a mojito in hand. Except that one time I did get stranded on a press trip on a tropical island in the Philippines. I digress. Being a travel blogger is being a business owner as well as being your own boss. I work long hours, across multiple time zones negotiating, creating content, delivering content and engaging with my audience. I spend more time then I’d care to admit behind my laptop or on my phone. Let’s not forget all the unpaid time spent i getting visas, attending networking events, creating pitches and the many, many hours in the airports.
Being a travel blogger takes a lot of work. It’s a constant learning curve of unpaid professional development.
How We Make All The Monies.
James and I have other jobs.
Shut the front door! Ok now that you’ve picked yourself up off the floor I’m going to let you in on a little secret of ours. James works full time as a bike (mountain bike kinda bikes) mechanic. As well as I work two nights a week pulling beers at a pub in Melbourne Airport. Working from home has some great perks, like not wearing pants, but it is lonely. I did find that I needed some part time work that got me out of the house, had little to no responsibility and was fun. So back to the pub I go! If you’re ever there drop by and say hello! 99% of the time I’m up for a good chat.
Consulting
I do a variety of consulting in administration, human resources, business development, blogger engagement, event management, community management and the like. In a previous life I was an Executive Assistant/Executive Officer.
Some may now classify this as virtual assisting but it’s much more then that. I do physically go into people’s businesses at times, if required. Feel free to Contact Us if you’d like more information on the services provided.
Affiliate Sales
We’re really fussy about what products we recommend and even fussier with what affiliate programs we partake in. Almost daily I get an email asking us to pimp out some new affiliate program that is best fit for your site. *eye roll* Unless we have personally tried the product it does’t make the cut. So you’ll see very few affiliate links on our website but we do have the following three that we use and recommend all the time.
Affiliate sales don’t cost you a single penny more. A very small percentage is paid to the person. Commonly around 5-10% of the total sale price.
Influencer Marketing
Occasionally if the brand is a good fit we’ll do a collaboration with a brand. This can be on our Instagram, Facebook or even here on the blog. We don’t promote any services or items that we haven’t personally tried. Integrity is our number one rule here.
Words For All
I sell my soul in the form of the written word. There are a handful of websites who hire writers and content creators. The work is easy but the payment process is terrible. With some payments taking over 90 days.
Patreon
Want to be kept abreast of our travel tales? Receive a cool post card or even a box of goodies from afar? We run a specialised campaign on Patreon for those who love to see us on the road less travelled. The funds raised are used to help support our travels as well as keep the adventure pups well fed and living the latte life. Supporting us starts from as little as $5/month.
So there you have it. A brief oversight into how we make money to fund our travels. Actually it’s not just how we fund our travels it’s also how we pay rent, put food on the table and generally survive in the world. It’s a fun, challenging and unique way to work. It takes a lot of coffee and a lot of hard work but for now while we’re enjoying this journey we’ll keep on trucking along.
We do on occasion collaborate with brands that align with our values – Eat Well, Travel Often, Drink Coffee. If you’d like more information check out our Work With Us.
Have you got any questions or queries? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll answer them all.
Jeanette
Founder, Principal Blogger & Coffee Drinker
Coffee Lover | Travel Blogger | Horse Rider | Adventure Racer | Donut Dame. Generally nice lady-enjoys wine, indie movies & random dance parties in my tent.
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Travellers are some of the most financially savvy people you will ever meet.
Travellers are some of the most financially savvy people you will ever meet. Have you ever wondered how people afford to travel, invest & drink take away coffee?
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Great Tips, Great Article. In one word its fabulous. Even I write but not started earning anything. But, I’m pretty sure that I will soon.
Thanks for sharing such wonderful article.
Such a fabulously written, honest article with practical tips. It isn’t as ROSY or easy as it seems. Completely agree wth you on so many points. The unpaid hours of waiting at airports, of visa hassles, of events!
So true! You are like a one man army : content creator, social media manager, seo manager, etc!
Great tips! Hope they’ll help me make at least some money as a travel blogger 🙂 Thanks a lot for sharing.
You need to start somewhere
I’m so glad this wasn’t a typical “this is how I make money as a travel blogger” post..I’m getting pretty sick of those. The worst ones are full of affiliate links for a “How To Make Money As A Travel Blogger” e book! It just screams “virtual pyramid scheme”!
I love how honest this post is! Especially that your first post is having another job — this is something a lot of these kinds of posts fail to mention! I work freelance as a translator, proofreader and transcriptionist while I’m travelling, and when I’m home pick up shifts at a restaurant to make ends meet. Of course I also make a tiny bit from my blog, but often people tend to ignore the fact that I sometimes have a working week of 70+ hours just because I’m in a pretty place.
Oh it’s so true!!! I love it but far out some weeks are hard work.
That sounds like a lot to juggle! On the other hand trying to manage a full-time job with travel is proving quite difficult!
I did that for two years. It can be done. Your weekends become invaluable
This is a really helpful guide for how to make money! I appreciate your honesty about having a side job and the fact that, for most people, you’re not necessarily replacing the income from a former corporate job. Still, it’s encouraging to know that there is money to be made out there!
Oh I did have a former corporate job! Which is how I got into consulting
For me, the takeaways were that it’s not easy (it’s still work) and you need multiple revenue streams.
Much life any job in life
That’s indeed an honest, heart felt post! There are numerous number of times I’ve been asked the same question. Sometimes some close relatives go to the extent of not believing and start advising on the need to get a ‘proper’ job!!!
Oh we all get that line!!
I am so glad that some one finally spoke the truth. I appreciate your candour. As a travel blogger (Since 2 years), from India, I faced lot of difficulties initially making money. But now I am getting decent money to see me through monthly expenses.
This is a very true post Jean, and you’re right no mojito on a beach! It’s interesting to see you guys have other jobs too which takes away from the time you can spend on your blog. The affiliates do give very little and most of the time it’s if the referred customer buys something!
Yes, there is a lot more money to be had if you sell your soul. Saying that, my readers would abandon ship pretty quickly if I started touting things that I don’t truly believe in. Thanks for telling it like it is.
My soul comes at a very high price…
Nice article about the struggles of earning Money as a travel blogger. I think many pople really have the wrong view of the job, thinking it is easy, just travelling and hanging at the Beach while spewing out a few post. It is quite the opposite 🙂
Great post, good luck with Your blogging
Thanks! It’s a fun lifestyle but like any work it is a job.
Hi Sorry about that don’t know why I didn’t see this yesterday. Some interesting points. Luckily we are retired and don’t need to make any money blogging, so we just do it for fun. Good luck with your travelling and blogging.
Thank you for an honest post about making money as a travel blogger! I have to confess that when I found this post I thought “here we go again”, the same old speech about chasing your dreams but without revealing the dirty little secrets. And, yet, you surprised me! I think it’s super important to be open and honest about making money in general. You can still talk about making money without disclosing your monthly income, but most travel bloggers choose not to share. I’m guessing it’s because admitting you have to work for an income (even if you have to have a side job beyond travel blogging) is not as catchy as photos on the beach 🙂 (PS – I also wish people would understand that doing the social media thing for us is work, not a distraction…)
Oh so true that it’s not as catchy but the truth never is 😉
This is a very honest article about having a travel blog. Most travel bloggers portray a life of full of adventures and doing it full time. Then, I began to think how do they sustain their lifestyle. Traveling is expensive. There are also a lot of competitions already.
I like that you are fussy about picking which brands that you want to be associated with. It means a lot to your readers. I would want to buy a product which the sponsor is really using everyday.
It’s the tough decisions we make. So many offers. So many terrible products!!
I could really use guidance. I’ve been blogging for fun for 2 years. Many say I have great travel content, but I just have never invested the time to find way to monetize my blog. I don’t have affiliate links…I’d like to know more….where to begin…..
Thank you for your honesty. I agree that there’s a lot of BS out there about how blogging can make you tons of money alone. No one ‘fesses up about their other (sometimes less glamourous) sources of incomes.
Thanks for this post! I’m just starting out as a travel blogger/ writer and have been looking for an overview of ways to make money. This is super helpful! I’m bookmarking this post so I can return to it again!
I blog as a hobby so I can share our adventures and I also find that I spend way too much time on the net!! This little hobby seems to take up more and more time!
Well you can turn it into a little hobby business!