Do you want to start a blog or did you just started one? Do you want to earn money with your blog? In this blog we share you how to it. It is not that difficult as some people say. In this article we tell you why we (Travel your Memories) started a travel blog and how we earn money with it. Also, we explain how you can start a blog and we give you our personal financial overview. Finally, we tell you our vision for the coming period to meet our goals.
Introduction why we started Travel your Memories
We are Cynthia and Alexander who started Travel your Memories in 2019 with a vision: sharing our travel passion. Each year we travelled during holiday period. This was one of the highlights of the year because it means a lot for us. We love discovering new places and cultures.
We worked for a couple of years where we thought at a certain moment: is this lifestyle they we want. Currently it is “easy” to do what you really want. We started Travel your Memories because we wanted to follow our passion.
In our blog we write articles about each destination we’ve been visited. We share our experiences and give our personal tips to help other travelers.
To decide to start Travel your Memories was not easy. We did a lot of research what kind of business suits us best. Important for us was that we can do the work anywhere. Traveling is our passion the only question was: can we make a living out of it? We believe a travel blog is a good business model. Do you want to read more about Travel your Memories check our about us page for more information.
How to start a travel blog
Before you start you need to think about some aspects, which you read below.
First of all do something you really like. Don’t start something that drain all your energy. If you start a travel blog write only about the things you personally experiences. There are travel bloggers who write about places that they have never been, don’t make this same mistake. Be personal so that you become a trusted writer.
Determine your niche
A very important part before you start is to determine what your niche is. When you build your site you have to take this into account. Our niche is travel. Do research on the internet to determine what kind of blog suites you the best.
Step-by-step plan to start the blog
It is very easy to start a blog. First choose a web host. We use WordPress and recommend this to for bloggers. When choosing your web host check if they have a WordPress ad-on. It is very useful to have all your applications in one location. We recommend HostGator. If you are from the Netherlands, like us, we recommend Hostnet. When you bought the domain and activated WordPress you can start building your site.
You can find a lot of information and videos on how to build a site on the internet. If you do not want / cannot do this, you can also outsource this via Upwork. We recommend to build your site yourself, because this teaches you the whole structure of WordPress and background.
We have used the theme newspaper and built everything with it. After you have set the structure correctly, you can start writing blogs.
How to earn money with a travel blog
It is important with a blog to focus on multiple sources of income. AdSense and affiliate marketing are the most important and easiest sources of income in the beginning.
AdSense works very simple. You sign up with Google AdSense and place advertisements on your website. You receive a commission when a visitor clicks on an ad on your site. In our opinion is affiliate marketing the best way to make money with blogging. You refer visitors to a product and upon purchase you receive a commission. Important is that your site is authentic to make affiliate marketing a success. You have also other earning streams such as selling digital products (course), set up a patron environment or start coaching, but this is not what you should focus on in the beginning.
We currently choose to focus on AdSense and affiliate marketing.
What is essential to know before you start
Be unique, honest and positive. Know how Google works, make sure your site is fast, appeal to target visitors, maximize your AdSense and get a high ranking in Google search queries.
Know how Google works
To have a successful website, you should focus just like us on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Keyword Research (KWR). You can find a lot of information about both topics, we will not discuss this in this blog.
We would like to introduce you to Rankmath, this is an application like Yoast SEO that is used by bloggers to focus on SEO and KWR. We personally like to work with Rankmath, because it is more user-friendly. The most important tip we can give is that before you start writing a blog you already know what your KWR is. Do not go for the difficult KWR in the beginning, because as a new website you are still too small.
To grow your site on Google you need to increase your Domain Authority (DA). In general when you have a high DA you will rank better in Google search queries. To increase your DA you need backlinks. There a lot of tactics how to increase your DA with backlinks. Use Neilpatel or backlinko as information resources.
Have a fast-working site
You need a fast working site to score well on SEO. No one wants to visit a site that is slow. So be careful not to make your site too heavy with, for example, photos. Important to have a good hosting company, because some servers are faster than others. The theme you use is also important for speed. The theme Newspaper is very good and can be easily purchased at themeforest.net
Income is about targeting your visitors
Affiliate marketing is the best way to earn money with blogging. Important that you have considered affiliate links on your site to help your visitors. Don’t put random links on your site, this doesn’t make any sense.
Example: for each destination which we have visited we give a recommendation where to stay. Normally we recommend two, both accommodations have been visited by us. This helps us to know what kind of links we are places and what we recommend to our readers.
Financial Overview
A lot of people are asking for sure: how long does it takes to earn money with blogging. This is difficult to answer because it depends on many factors. At this moment we do not earn any money with blogging, because we just started. At the moment we can’t blog full-time because we both work full-time
Fortunately, running a blog doesn’t cost a lot of money. Below you see an overview of our costs per year for running a blog. In addition, we have also included an optional costs overview.
Hosting domain name: € 18
WordPress via hosting: € 95
Theme (Newspaper): € 55*
*Amounts are one-off expenses
So it costs you € 113 per year to run a blog. You have to pay around € 55 for a theme. It is important to know that there are of course a lot of more things that you need to purchase, but these are very different per person. To give you an insight into what additional costs we’ve had, you can consult the overview below:
Camera + accessory: € 2900*
Drone: € 500*
GoPro: € 450*
Laptop: € 2000*
Travel costs: € 5000
*Amounts are one-off expenses
As you can see, the cost of purchasing products is € 5850. We spend approximately € 5,000 on travel costs per year. So the first year cost us about € 11,000. In addition, we will travel for a few more months for which we have a budget of € 24,000. All in all, starting a travel blog can be very expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. You don’t have to do it like us. You can also start small and local and expand from there.
Expectation
Our goal is to have an income stream of € 1000 to € 2000 in one year. To realize this we need to work hard, travel for a couple of months and quit our job to fully focus on our goals.
Conclusion
If you really want something don’t wait to long. Follow your dream!
Authors
Writers and entrepreneurs, Cynthia and Alexander are inspired to travel the world. ‘Normal’ 9 to 5 jobs was not for them, they decided to follow their dreams and started Travel your memories #1 adventurous travel blog for everyone. This with a vision: sharing their travel passion. They like adventurous and sports. They spend most of their “down-time” out in the wilderness, climbing, hiking, and beyond, and are passionate about travel, sport and health.
Wondering which countries they have visited? Check their destinations page for more information.
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