Travel Blogging
This is a post I said I’d never do. I like writing about travel and inspiring people to take their kids to new places, and I’ve never wanted to write about blogging. But I get a lot of requests for advice, especially after being featured by several media outlets recently, so this is my attempt to consolidate my blogging thoughts in one place.
I started travel writing/blogging three years ago when I abruptly quit my healthcare career of 18 years. I was in contact with Wendy Perrin after winning Conde Nast Traveler’s Photo of the Year contest, and I called her to talk about possible paths in the travel field. She pointed me to some family travel blogs that she liked, and I thought, I can do that! I didn’t know that I would ever turn blogging into a business, but I loved the idea of inspiring people to travel by writing about the trips I took with my kids.
I started my website in August 2014, loading in a couple of posts that I had done on a blogging platform earlier in the year. Then I wrote whenever I felt like I had something important/unique to say. I slowly built up content, and joined social media sites and Facebook groups. But as I was growing, I never lost sight of my primary goals:
- Inspire people to travel with their kids.
- Keep our own family travel fun.
At the beginning I was excited to get emails from brands wanting to send me free products to place in Instagram posts, and then I was excited to get invitations to press trips. But other than accepting a pair of shoes early on, I started declining everything. Does it help me inspire family travel to leave my family to go on a press trip? Does posting a watch on Instagram help build my brand or have anything at all to do with family travel? And do I even need that watch? I’ve never regretted saying no.
Below is my advice on travel blogging. Feel free to go with all of this, or none of this! Blaze your own path. I’ve made choices along the way that felt right for my site and my brand, like saying no to advertising, sponsored posts, SEO link placements and guest posts, but I’m not judging anyone who accepts those. There’s more than one path to success.
My Advice on Travel Blogging
Have a Niche
What’s your strength? What are you passionate about? What can you offer that no one else can? Why should people read your posts and care what you have to say? And what doesn’t exist right now that you can create in order to fill the void and help others? Figure this out first. It’s a lot easier to get noticed if you’re unique.
Have a Business Plan
I developed a five-year business plan early on, with revenue goals and priorities for each year. Even learning a lot about the industry along the way, I largely stuck to my plan.
Invest
As part of your business plan, realize that you need to invest money in your business. This includes having a good web host, having an attractive website design, paying for advertising to get your accounts and posts noticed, attending conferences, and hiring people to help you along the way. Most importantly though, you need to invest in travel. If you’re not traveling on your own dime, you’re not building your content and your authority.
Have Excellent Photography
Unless someone has been blogging for a long time and has a very loyal following, it’s almost impossible to have a successful website without great photography. And it is impossible to build social media followings and attract the attention of brands without great photography. Check out my post on top Instagram accounts. If you don’t know how to take photos like those 25 people, learn.
And don’t buy someone else’s Lightroom Presets as a shortcut. They won’t do anything for you, and they’ll just delay your own learning curve. The reason that couple’s photos look great on Instagram is because they’re beautiful people in stunning locations, and they’re excellent photographers. Their preset can’t anticipate the scene that you shot or your exact lighting. You’re far better off investing in a photo workshop or a Lightroom course.
Note: I love photography and am sticking with that, even as Instagram is highlighting videos and Reels more and more. If you’re amazing at shooting and editing videos, awesome – go with that. Become huge on Instagram Reels or TikTok or other video platforms. But my initial advice is still relevant: what can you do through video that’s unique?
Network!
Business is all about who you know. Travel blogging is no different. And the nice thing is that most events include both bloggers and brands. ITB (Berlin) and WTM (London) are the big annual events for the travel industry – most hotel chains, cruise lines, destinations, tour companies, airlines and travel companies attend one or both. Go! But when you go, don’t be content to walk from booth to booth talking to companies. Join Facebook groups and post messages seeing who else will be attending. Look into Travel Massive parties. Do everything you can to meet others. When I do paid projects for brands and PR agencies, they often ask me for recommendations for future campaigns. And when I turn down invitations for campaigns and trips, I get asked for suggestions of others who are good to work with. I always recommend people I’ve met in person.
Other worthwhile events are ATWS, TravelCon, the Travel and Adventure Shows, TBC Asia, Book Passage, the SATW annual convention and TBEX. At the bottom of my About Me page I list every travel conference I’ve attended.
Join Travel Organizations
Continuing on the last topic, jump into the industry and make connections. Ones to consider:
- Travel Massive
- Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) (if there’s an adventurous element to your writing)
- The North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA)
- The Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) (there are Australian and British equivalents)
Join Facebook Groups
I’m in a lot of Facebook groups. My favorites:
Get External Validation
You obviously you want people to know that you’re great at writing and photography. The easiest way to do that is to enter contests and get onto lists. Let other people shout your praises! As I wrote above, I started out by entering Conde Nast Traveler’s Photo of the Year contest and winning. There are a lot of contests out there. NATJA and SATW both have annual contests. AAA Westways does as well. As soon as you have awards, make that part of your LinkedIn profile and your social bios. “Award-winning” sets you apart.
My biggest boost was when Forbes said that I was the World’s #4 Most Influential Traveler, and when Fodor’s said that I was the World’s Best Family Traveler. I had nothing to do with either of those…directly. But I had put myself out there. I had been networking like crazy, and attending as many travel events as I could. Through that networking, I got paid campaigns and paid ambassadorships, and I suspect that Forbes and Fodor’s found me via those partnerships. Create your own luck! Travel widely, go to events, meet as many people as possible and support them and good things will come back to you.
Write When You Have Something Important to Say
Don’t create content just to have content. Think about what will make the world a better place, what will inspire people, and/or what will help people when planning a trip or traveling to a destination. Did you find an amazing place or have a great experience that you want to tell the world about? That deserves a post. Are you an expert on packing or traveling with young kids? People need advice. But pure hotel or restaurant reviews? That’s what TripAdvisor is for, unless you have a unique take.
Be Professional and Overdeliver
You are always representing your brand. If you’re on a press trip, show up on time every day. Be awesome to work with. Overdeliver on content. If you go to a conference and there are associated one-day or multi-day fam trips, don’t cancel at the last minute because you feel like sleeping in. If you commit to something, do it. Make every client happy – even the difficult ones – and you’ll get more clients.
Don’t Expect Freebies
On the business side, travel blogging is essentially marketing. Before you contact a hotel or tour company asking for a free stay or tour, make sure you’re offering something of greater value in return. That could be social or blog coverage. It could be photography. Check them out on Instagram and see if they have a good gallery. If not, say that you’d like to provide content for them to post. It only makes sense for a travel company to partner with you if you’re going to get them increased revenue in return. Do everything you can to make that happen.
I should note that I get turned down the majority of time I approach hotel/resorts about media rates, much less free stays. And I have 800k+ followers, am on a lot of top-ten lists, and have documented results. The days of starting a blog and quickly getting free travel perks from it are over.
Be Skeptical of Online Blogging Courses
I hate when I see new bloggers wasting $500, $1,000 or even $1,500 on blogging courses that promise success, free travel, or Instagram growth. I know a lot of highly successful bloggers and they don’t have courses. Why? Because they’re too busy running businesses and making money. It’s largely less-successful bloggers who have courses, because they’ve figured out that they can make more money selling the free travel dream to people than they do blogging. And even if the bloggers selling the courses are successful, the likelihood of you succeeding by following their templates is small. Everyone is unique. They likely started at the right time, or got lucky, or were extremely beautiful, or had other things happen along their blogging path that you can’t duplicate. It’s why I don’t have a course, and why I don’t even speak at conferences. I can give general advice like this, but I can’t promise success.
If you have money to invest, you’re a lot better off spending it on a conference. You’ll get tips from bloggers in person, network at the same time, and ideally go somewhere cool. Or find a blogger who you follow and trust and see if he/she is hosting workshops or retreats. The one-on-one coaching will be far more beneficial than an online course and, again, you’ll be getting a cool trip out of it.
Be Patient
Virtually everyone who’s considered successful in travel blogging / travel writing will tell you that it took them 3-5 years, or even longer, to get there. Work hard, but realize that nothing happens overnight. It takes time to build your authority and brand, and develop your unique voice. Don’t quit your job and become a travel blogger and expect revenue after six months or a year!
Resources
Everything above is simply meant to be my advice to people starting out in travel blogging. If you want a step-by-step guide for how to start a travel blog, how to pitch, etc…, these are great resources:
- Gabi Logan: The Six-Figure Travel Writing Road Map. Gabi is the smartest person I’ve met in the industry.
- Girl vs. Globe: How to Start a Successful Travel Blog. I got a lot of great advice from Sabina as I was starting out. (NOTE: Based on negative feedback from other bloggers, I’d suggest picking a different host than Bluehost.)
- Make Time to See the World: How to Start a Travel Blog and Make Money (ditto on Bluehost)
And I typed up my entire blogging timeline in case you want to see exactly how I got to where I am.
Again, use all of this advice or none of it – it’s simply what’s worked well for me. Please comment below if you have questions. I’m happy to answer everything once.
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Thanks for your post! As someone who enjoys reading and viewing your photos I think authenticity is SO important. It seems the industry is catching on to Instagram and TripAdvisor as key to their marketing and business. We (family travelers) want true and honest feedback on destinations and hotels, not ‘fake news’ or ‘fake advertisement’ dressed as a blog. I think it’s so important and a fine line/gray area as most travel bloggers probably have to balance this with being sustainable and profitable? Not easy I’m sure…
Yep, and everyone has his/her own line. I like not having affiliate links so that I can honestly review/promote places without profiting from it, but most bloggers are fine with them.
What an awesome post Eric. Your points resonate with the advice I try to give people looking to open up a blog of any type. The rules in the blogging/instagram world sometimes seem to be made up as they go along and having some structure is a god send, especially for those looking to start one.
ps. you should write posts like this more often 🙂
Thanks Georgette! The problem I have with writing posts like this more often is that I’m in the travel inspiration business, not the blogging business. I don’t want my primary audience to be bloggers. Back to 100% travel…
Excellent advice! It has been incredible and a real inspiration to watch your rise to success as one of the top travel bloggers. Thank you for taking the time to share this information, which is sound advice for anyone looking to go into a passion business.
Thanks Piper! Hopefully I can fit in another photo tour – would love to travel with you again.
Hi Eric, wonderful & authentic advice! Very timely for my partner & I as we plan for our future. We have combined photography & content creation skills and are planning on taking our businesses to the next level & on the road in a few years. A travel blog is definitely planned to be in the mix, so really great to get some “do’s” and “don’t do’s” from a veteran! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Eric, thanks for the great advice and resources! It’s amazing how quickly you’ve built your site into one of the top family travel blogs. We’re just getting started but for the same reason you did: to show other families that they CAN travel with their kids, and to help them learn the tricks to make it easier.
So far my biggest mistake was falling for one another travel blogger’s affiliate recommendation and signing up for Bluehost – I’m so irritated by them, but don’t really have the time to devote to switching hosts. That said, I do include affiliate links in some of my posts to products that our family uses and loves.
Since you mention that you don’t do affiliate links, ads, sponsored content or any of those things… do you make money by selling your awesome photography? Or is there another revenue stream for travel bloggers? I’m still just learning the ropes over here!
We’ll be traveling the world for the next year, but hopefully we can meet up at the Family Travel Summit in 2018 🙂
Hi Melissa! Yes, I’m planning on attending the 2018 Family Travel Summit! Not sure if I’ll make it this year – I’m in Argentina right before then and I don’t know if I can get to Orlando in time. Plus I don’t love cruises.
My primary revenue sources are brand ambassador relationships and sponsored travel, where I promote destinations or brands through writing and photography. I’m not opposed to advertising, but I only want to promote places and activities that we’ve personally experienced and found to be extraordinarily kid-friendly. There are a number of hotels/resorts that we haven’t liked, or that just don’t understand families. I wouldn’t want to see any of them on my site through an advertising network.
It sounds like we’re doing similar itineraries! We’ll be in Panama in October and then Chile and Argentina from late October to early December as the first leg of our trip.
Brand ambassador relationships absolutely make sense and I’m thrilled to currently have one long-term partner for our trip. I didn’t realize that you differentiated those from more generic sponsored content (no, I’m not going to post an advertorial for diapers on my family travel site!). Do you find it fruitful (in terms of value-add for your readers AND your work as a blogger) to partner with tour operators for activities while you travel or with manufacturers of high-quality travel products that are useful to families?
We’re loving Panama right now!
As far as partnering, yes to tour operators / activities. I want to find the coolest things to do with kids around the world. If those are paid or sponsored or booked normally, it’s all the same to me – I’ll recommend it if it’s amazing. For products, not really. We travel light. If I’m able to partner with someone that fits into exactly how we pack and travel, great. But I’m not going to force anything, or say we always use travel pillows if we don’t.
I love reading your blog and find it very inspirational. I would love to emulate your model of traveling with just one kid at a time. I would really enjoy reading a blog post about the logistics of leaving the other kids home. Who looks after them? How hard is it for your wife while you’re gone? I’m a stay at home mom with two kids (ages 4 & 6), my husband works full time, and I have no idea how things would work at home if I took off on a trip with just one of the kids. I’m curious if you have any tips for that.
Hi Jody – thanks for the comment. I haven’t written about the logistics at home because everyone has a different situation so I can’t really give advice. My wife doesn’t work outside of the home, so it’s fairly easy for her to be with the non-traveling kids when I’m away. Well, I say easy, but I know balancing everything is harder when I’m gone. She’s amazing though. I have friends who are in a similar situation to you, leaving often either solo or just with one kid, and I know it involves a lot of coordination and help from friends to make it work – kid pickups after school, etc…
Eric,
I just found your blog a few months ago and I love it. I can’t believe that you have only been at this for 3 years. What an inspiration. Your posts on trips are stunning and have so much useful information.
What are you future travel plans? Would you ever just spend a year or more traveling the world with your family?
You guys are just living the dream life. Congrats. Keep traveling and inspiring me to travel with my 5 kids.
Thanks Ebene! Nope, we have no plans to travel for a year. We like traveling, but we always like coming back home. It would be tough to just go and go and not have a home base. We can get almost everywhere in the world in a day from LAX, so we’ll keep fully-utilizing school breaks and seeing one place at a time.
We actually have very little planned for 2018, but I’d like to get to the Galapagos. No idea where the kids will pick for their next trips.
Thank you for the advice. I am just starting on my family travel blog and would like to continue to develop and create my blog. I find writing to be very therapeutic and a nice break from my daily grind. You have provided a lot of information that I did not realize was out there. It’s a great start and I look forward to diving in and continuing to travel, explore and write.
Thank you for your honest post. I am fairly newer at travel blogging and sometimes it gets so overwhelming. I’ve been following you and love your photographs and I agree photographs are huge on Instagram. I just enrolled in Nomadic Matt’s photography class to learn how to make mine better. Your post is just what I needed to read today, so I just wanted to comment with a simple Thank you.
Thanks so much for the comment Bonnie! Are you going to Nomadic Matt’s conference in September?
The devil is in the details – “Have a Business Plan.” With revenue goals. Oh ok. So what does that look like? Any helpful links? While other tips are more applicable, vague and highly generalized tips like this are utterly useless. Too often with “travel blogging advice” all the hard parts are conveniently left out. That is the inner sanctum, the Oz-behind-the-curtains knowledge that NO ONE is going to truly help you with. Sure, I can buy the right camera, and get my site up. But most blog advice conveniently leaves out the hard part – like how to monetize. Or how to grow your audience, with actual, specific and actionable steps. “Meet people” is not useful advice. Everyone seems to leave out the parts that you will really need help with. But if you want general and rather vague pointers that are not unique at all, this is pretty good. My 2 cents.
Hi Chris. What you are looking for DOES NOT EXIST. The reason? You are you. No one else is you. You have your own strengths. You know if you’re a great writer, or a great marketer, or a great photographer. You know how you like to travel and where you like to travel. You have your own preferences about advertising and affiliate links and sponsored posts, and whether you’re willing to accept $25 to promote a place you’ve never been on an Instagram story. You know if your goal is an ambassadorship with a shoe company, or passive revenue, or a lifelong career in travel writing, or the cover of National Geographic.
If your goal is simply to make money by traveling, you’ll likely fail. I’ve met hundreds of people who started travel blogging who weren’t willing to give it 4-5 years and never found their unique voices, but mostly they never developed their authority – the reason for others to follow them and listen to them. That’s something that you need to figure out on your own. If I spent months writing up everything that I’ve done, and everything in my business plan, and put forward a 200-step process for copying me, and you paid me $10,000 for that, you would still fail. Because you aren’t me. I can only give general advice. Every other blogger can only give general advice. Everyone who’s successful has had a unique path. You need to figure out the devilish details yourself. There is no Oz. There’s no one who can tell you how to do it. I mean, you can buy a “how to blog” course or a “quit your job and travel” course, but only do it to get a pointer or two, or maybe help point you on your path. It’s not going to help you with the hard parts. That’s all you.
And yes, “meet people” is helpful. Go to every conference and event you can. You’ll learn something from every conversation you have. Maybe it’s something that you don’t need. But maybe it’s something that helps you get to the next level.
This is a saturated industry. Instagram doesn’t need another bikini blogger posing with the same breakfast in the same pool in Bali. Most of them won’t make more than $5,000/year. They’re not unique. Who are you? What makes you unique? When you know that, everything else falls into place.
Although this post was written in 2017, it resonated quite well with where my blog is at this time.
Thanks for the good advice. It’s going to be quite helpful as I seek to rebuild my blog. (Stopped writing for a while).
Finally if possible check us out your advice and feedback would be highly appreciated.
Emily