I consider travel blogging as one of the most exciting niches in the blogging world. Why not? Travel blogging will take you to many beautiful places, both locally and internationally. For me, what’s good about travel blogging is that it allows me to do two things that I do love, and that is traveling and writing stories about my adventures.

Admittedly though, travel blogging is one of the most expensive niches to be in. You have to pay for airfare, airport fees, visa application, hotel bookings, tour packages, travel insurance, travel gear and gadgets, and so on.

Of course, there are ways to reduce costs like purchasing your airline tickets during a seat sale, taking advantage of hotel discounts when you pay using a partner credit card, or getting group packages to offset the cost of tours but you’d still have to shell out a considerable sum of money when you travel.

On top of these, you have to get travel insurance although the benefits of getting one are well worth the cost. In fact, you should treat travel insurance differently, because it’s more of an investment than an outright expense.

It’s a good thing that travel health insurance in the Philippines is available in different packages so you can find an option that best suits your needs. This can be further customized based on the length of your trip, your number of trips, and the add-ons that you want to purchase on top of your travel insurance package.

Another great way to recover travel blogging costs is to monetize your blog. What’s good about this route is that you can combine different income streams to ensure that you are earning steadily from your blog.

Here are some ways to earn from travel blogging:

Simply put, affiliate income is revenue gained from selling the products of your affiliate partner. Think of booking sites like Agoda for hotels and resorts or Airbnb for private accommodations. Once an individual books a room though your affiliate link or banner, that’s already income for you.

You can also sign up with Amazon and add affiliate links to travel products like cameras or travel bags. Again, if one of your readers buys through your affiliate links, you will get a commission for it.

Affiliate marketing is big because it can guarantee good returns as long as you can anticipate the buying intent of your readers. That’s why seasonal articles like “Christmas Gift Guide for Travelers” or “Valentine’s Gift Ideas for Your Picky Partner” remain popular.

A familiarization trip is a way for tourism agencies to promote a local destination. When doing a familiarization trip, a tourism operator will organize a tour, invite bloggers and journalists to join them, then take the guests around to the different tourist spots in that particular destination, and have them sample local cuisines.

Bear in mind though that not all familiarization trips are paid but it’s a great way to network with fellow travel bloggers as well as local tourism offices.

Running display ads on your blog is also a popular way to earn money. Depending on how big your monthly traffic is, some popular ad networks and ad managers that you can apply to are Google Adsense, Monumetric, Mediavine, and AdThrive. These companies pay bloggers based on clicks and impressions or views.

In getting direct ads, you don’t have to partner with an ad network to run advertisements on your website. You partner directly with companies or brands in running their ad banners on your website. The cost of direct ads will depend largely on several factors such as your blog traffic, domain authority, where your readers are from, and the location or placement of the ad banner.

Sponsored posts are somehow similar to direct ads but instead of placing ad banners, you will publish brand articles in your blog. For sponsored posts, the cost of the article placement is usually determined by blog traffic and domain authority.

A good way to earn from your articles is to convert them into a book, either a paperback or an eBook, and then sell it. You can sell your book on your website, on Amazon, or on Google Play, just to name some.

I'm currently selling an ebook entitled "Churches of Nueva Ecija (Cabiao, San Isidro, Gapan, and San Antonio)" but you can also get it for free.

You can also convert your blogging tips into a course. For example, you can launch a course called “How to Send a Pitch to Tourism Organizations and Secure Familiarization Trips” to target your readers who are looking at gaining success in working with tourism offices. It can be a module-based online course or you can make a video recording of you talking about your tips in a particular subject.

On top of these, you can set up a travel consultancy service especially if you have gained enough experience in international travel. 

You can offer itinerary planning or visa application services to help travelers navigate their way to different parts of the world. You can do it via email, telephone call, or video conferencing which is very popular nowadays.

If your goal is to monetize your travel blog, there are various ways that you can do it. You can create and sell digital products or launch digital services on top of traditional methods like advertisements and branded articles. You can also do a combination of any of these to ensure that you have stable revenue coming in.

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