A Travel Blog or a Travel Content Business?

If you're a travel blogger, there's a question you should probably be asking yourself on a regular basis: Are you running a travel blog or are you running a travel content business? If it's a real business, it's probably going to need to extend beyond putting up random articles and hitting "publish," just hoping to see the money roll in.

travel content business

Back in 2013 I spoke at what may have been the real turning point when travel blogging exploded: TBEX Toronto where more than 1,000 people were registered. My talk was titled "Beyond Your Blog: Expanding Your Publishing Empire." Some of the resources and tools I mentioned are no longer around, but it's still quite a good presentation if I may say so myself. You can still see the slide deck here.

That eventually formed the framework for my Travel Writing Overdrive course that I've offered for years now, helping students go from one income source and so-so earnings to multiple streams that add up to real money. The three key themes of that course are three that I've found to be the keys to my success.

1) If you want to earn like a real business does, you have to treat what you're working on as a real business.

People looking in from the outside think that travel writers lead a life of leisure. Instagram doesn't help in that regard. Any of us making a living at this are working as hard as most managers in an office do, however.

This doesn't mean the work is not enjoyable. I never dread Mondays and I'm genuinely happy to sit down at my desk in the morning and get started. I'd rather be in the zone creating something worthwhile that will last instead of frittering away my life watching the latest sub-par show on Netflix. When I'm traveling and doing research, it's downright fun.

Often we have to work hard though, and write when we don't feel like writing, and deal with technical crap that's out of our comfort zone. We have to do accounting and send invoices. Sometimes we have to write the article Google wants or what an editor wants instead of the article that could win awards and really fuel our soul. And yes, sometimes it feels like work.

running a travel content business at the beach

Everyone else is at the beach...

2) Most successful businesses are diversified, with multiple income streams. 

What if Apple only sold one model of phone and nothing else? What if Pepsi only owned one flavor of soft drink?

Unless you love to live on the edge and you're the kind who bets on a single number in roulette, you want to diversify. That's true in investing and it's true in publishing. More diversity is going to smooth out the financial roller coaster and help you sleep better at night. Diversity in where the money is coming from, what drives the income, and if you can, diversity in niches too. If you have one blog and it loses 50% of its traffic in a Google update, you're screwed. If you have a few of them, it's very unlikely that they'll all take a hit at the same time.

Ideally you want to diversify your dependence on search traffic as well, though that's easier said than done. I do that through publishing books, doing a lot of e-mail marketing, and freelancing here and there. Others do it through social media campaigns, coaching, or leading tours. All of these can be an extension of your blog—of your platform—but they're not as dependent on what Big Brother decides to change or not change in its algorithm.

author expert travel blogger

3) You have to show up consistently and do the work.

When I look back at the students who have done well in my Travel Writing Overdrive course and the ones that have just muddled along or give up, it's the ones who persist and stick it out who are the success stories. They're not the best writers, the most original thinkers, or the ones with the most social media followers. Every week they show up, do what they said they were going to do, and hit "publish" over and over.

I know it's going to be trouble when a student pushes back on committing to a set publishing schedule, even one as vague and unambitious as "I'm going to put up a new blog post once every two weeks." They're waiting for the muse to strike so they're going to be toast. I don't need a crystal ball to know they'll fail.

Then the ones that really knock it out of the park are always asking themselves, "What's next? What will take me to the next level?" Often that's outsourcing, or starting a second site, or buying one to rehab and grow. That's thinking like a business owner! It's going from artisan to entrepreneur.

Yes you can do this part-time.

If you have a job you love, one that pays the bills and gives you joy, then there's nothing wrong with being a part-time travel blogger. I know lots of bloggers that are very comfortable earning a few hundred bucks here and there and getting invited on the occasional press trip. For them it's like a hobby that pays them back sometimes and they don't aspire to do more.

For some travel bloggers, their blog is just a way to express themselves and talk about where they've been. For others it's just a path to freebies, a way to get some comped travel and get them out of the house on someone else's dime. There's no shame in that if it's the path you've chosen. If you're stuck on that path despite trying to get out of it though, that's another story. Figure out how to break out of that rut.

Otherwise, keep creating consistently

Ask any of the bloggers that are making a comfortable living, many of whom we've interviewed on this travel writing blog, and they'll tell you they're running a real business. The blog is the anchor, not the be-all end-all. For some, the blog isn't even their main source of income: a side business they started running tours or a podcast or a book publishing enterprise is now bringing in more than the blog itself.

For others the blog, or multiple blogs, will still be the primary income source, but they supplement that with 6, 10, 12 or more other sources. They write books, they lead tours, they write freelance articles, they shoot video, they sell photos, they get hired as speakers. They're regularly asking, "Is there something else I should be doing with this platform?"

travel blogger earnings after years

Sure, you don't want to spread yourself too thin, but that's an overblown fear for most people. You can solve most time management problems through automation and outsourcing. Or by just doing a better job of prioritizing what is actually moving the needle and what's not. When it gets to be too much, you back off of one project or you sell it and take the cash.

Personally, I'm a strong believer in going beyond one blog and that has served me very well over the years. I sold one blog for more money than I've earned in a year sometimes and still had five websites left to work on. This week I just sold a walking tours business I started in Mexico. That resulted in a nice cash-out for a business that I took from $0 income to a sellable asset without spending a dime in advertising along the way.

That's the power of building a real business, one with multiple parts that can be detached, rather than putting all the eggs in one basket. You've got equity that has real value.

It's also important to be humble and recognize good luck when it comes your way—and also to avoid beating yourself up when things take a downturn. We can set up our stretch goals in January and aim to get X visitors per month or Y affiliate sales per quarter, but much of that often ends up being beyond our control. We can't control what Google or Amazon does, for instance, so there's a limit to how much we can move levers and immediately see changes. Sometimes working 80 hours isn't going to accomplish more than working 30 (especially if we're spending a chunk of that time on social media).

What we do have control over is how we spend our time, how we prioritize our tasks, and whether we approach our content creation business as a real business. There will be many, many days of frustration along the way, but if you keep building, keep diversifying, and show up every week, eventually you'll find yourself sitting atop a real business you're running.

P.S. - If you're wondering what that graphic is at the top, that's a collage of earnings reports from my travel content business. Not all of them, of course, because they won't all fit...

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