Launch Your Travel Writing Career

For travel writers in 2019, one key to creating new streams of revenue will be to broaden your market reach.

By diversifying how you package and present travel content, you’ll increase your revenue opportunities and reach new readers in different channels.

Here are nine ways to make money in the 2019 travel marketplace:

1) Affiliate Marketing

A travel writing website makes a great addition to any portfolio (don’t have a site yet? Launch your travel site now!) But you’re leaving money on the table if you’re not optimizing your site to earn additional streams of passive income.

You can easily set up and install Google AdSense on your site for free, but you’ll have to have enough quality content and traffic to best gain the benefits of the program.

With affiliate marketing, you partner with other websites to post links back to their pages, and earn a percentage of any purchases at the side generated from your link.

Affiliate links can be posted in site ads, through contextual links in stories and blog postings, on social media and more. It’s easy to sign up with partners online.

Now affiliate marketing certainly isn’t new to 2019, but the business has matured to the point where its basically a turnkey revenue solution for online entrepreneurs. Many travel-related sites have affiliate marketing programs in place, providing travel writers chances to earn additional revenue:

• Six Flags pays out a 5% commission for sales of daily tickets, season passes and Six Flags merchandise
• Rail Europe works with affiliate program Conversant (formerly Commission Junction), one of main affiliate networks in the travel space
• Amazon Associates has a massive program in place, including many rotating promotional campaign leads and the aStore online shop

The list of potential affiliate partners goes on and on. And here’s the beauty of affiliate marketing:

With many sites, you earn a commission for the total purchases made at the site you linked to, not just a percentage of whichever link was clicked.

In other words, if your reader clicks an affiliate link for Lonely Planet Best in Travel on Amazon, adds it to their cart, and then goes on to shop for a new iPad, vacuum cleaner and a set of drums, you get a percentage of the total purchase price, not just the guidebook.

This is huge! And all the more reason why it’s important to be transparent with your readers that you’re posting an affiliate link, and will earn revenue from purchases clicked through it.

The price to the reader won’t change — you’ll get a cut of the revenue from the merchant, not the purchaser. But you don’t want to seem disingenuous, so be up front with readers that you’ll gain a small commission from affiliate links. Honesty will serve to build trust.

Include brief note (in parentheses) by your links, like “Blog XYZ earns a small commission from these products but only endorses what we love to use ourselves.” That should do the trick.

The best way to ensure readers of your objectivity is by sticking with affiliate links only for brands and partners that you’d use and recommend yourself.

2) Launch an Online Course

Travel writers have subject matter expertise in so many topics, beyond travel itself:

• Managing budgets
• Maximizing rewards programs
• Photography and video
• Language and communications
• Social media and digital marketing
• Saving money
• Juggling multiple assignments on deadline

As experts in travel trends, attractions and activities, travel writers gain a deep knowledge of varying destinations, and are quick to adapt to new approaches for getting their content in the travel marketplace.

All of these skills have an audience that’s eager to learn for themselves.

Udemy provides a platform for experts of all stripes to create courses in their fields of knowledge and earn revenue in the online education marketplace.

Launched in 2010, Udemy now offers more than 22,000 online course, supports 4 million students and draws 4 million monthly unique visitors.

That’s a market opportunity if there ever was one. And some Udemy instructors make bank.

Anyone can sign up to teach a Udemy course. Here’s how it works:

1. Develop a course: Identify your subject, and develop an outline
   
2. Aim for about 1-3 hours of content, with about 60% of the course being video content
3. Udemy provides the online course design tools, handles customer service and billing, and hosts the site
   
4. Start making your course, using Udemy’s course creation best practices, including tips on polishing up your video performance and ensuring courses deliver on promised objectives
5. Instructors set course pricing, with a guideline of about $10-30 per hour of course content. Most courses are priced in the $50-2000 range
6. Once your course is complete, publish it! And promote the heck out of it to your people. Instructors earn 100% of revenue when they bring in students directly
7. After publication, consider signing up for Udemy’s promotions programs, including coupon codes and affiliate marketing. You’ll earn 50% of the course price for students who sign up through these services
8. Watch as students sign up! And once they do, engage with your community of students. If you over-deliver on your interaction with students, you’ll wind up creating a legion of fans who’ll promote you further

For the full skinny, check out Udemy’s FAQ.

In addition to direct revenue earned from students who enroll in your courses, an Udemy course is a great branding tool that fits snugly into your content portfolio.

3) Self Publishing eBooks

Authoring a travel book is arguably the best way to legitimize your claims of destination expertise.

When you’ve written a travel book, you have instant credibility and a bit of a “wow” factor. Author credits give you some separation from the competition and provide a fantastic answer to any editor’s “why you?” questions.

With sales of eBooks now accounting for roughly 25% of the total U.S. book market, the business case is clear too.

Self-publishing eBooks through platforms like Amazon Kindle and Apple iTunes provides travel writers the ability to create, distribute and promote work directly to consumers, without a traditional publishing company involved.

Be realistic about the workload, though. There’s a lot of leg work involved when taking on the mantle of self-publisher. You assume duties and responsibilities traditionally handled by the publishing house:

• Editing
• Production & Layout
• Proofreading
• Cover Design
• Marketing
• Pricing
• Customer Service

And more all fall squarely in a self-publisher’s wheelhouse.

The payoff can be worth it. You’ll own your own end product, if not products. You’ll take home a higher percentage of the sales price than when working with a traditional publisher (although eBook prices run lower than printed titles.)

Through eBook publishing you can extend your brand and create a new revenue stream that you can stock with additional titles at will. Some of the more successful eBook writers are among the most highly prolific.

If you search Amazon’s Kindle store by topics of interest you’ll find a number of writers with a range of similar titles available. They’ve figured out the formula for publishing multiple, complementary titles.

Here are a few quick guidelines for eBook publishing

• Aim for 10-15,000 words for your first effort
• Use an outline to keep your writing on track
• Don’t hem and haw over your first draft — just write it without an editor’s eye and revise it later. The key is to get the manuscript draft completed
• Get your final version proofread! Nothing like lame typos to wreck your user feedback ratings
• Spend the money for a professional-looking cover, which is your first chance to make an impression on potential purchasers. Don’t skimp here

Finally, when considering titles to self-publish, keep in mind that travel “how-to” eBooks often outperform the more traditional destination-focused ones. But authoring any type of travel book looks great in your portfolio.

At the end of the day, being able to say “I’m the author of ‘Texas A-Z’ or ‘Family Backpacking Planning Tips and Tricks’” will raise eyebrows, lead to conversations and open more doors to opportunity.

4) Sell Stuff Online

Simply put: if you’re not selling a product or service through your website — eBooks, informational webinars, online courses, branded products — you’re missing a huge opportunity to capitalize on a growing consumer trend.

Online microbusinesses have proliferated over the past ten years, and really took off after the Great Recession.

Information publishing in particular has emerged as a viable online revenue opportunity. There’s a market for high-quality informational content on all sorts of travel topics:

• Theme Park Travel: Savings Tips & Tricks
• Improving Your Outdoor Photography
• Airbnb Traveler’s Guide
• 501 Money-Saving Rpund-the-World Travel Tips
• Getting the Most out of Rewards Points

Well-designed PDFs have become an eBook standard. When coupled with a Paypal account and an online shopping cart on your site, these provide an immediate opportunity for income to be deposited directly to your account.

Keep the focus on ways you can help solve problems for travelers, create a robust content offering and overdeliver on your product package. Wow your customers and they’ll become your best advance sales force.

Another way to sell stuff online is by opening an online store.

The rapid proliferation of 3-D printing technology is revolutionizing garage manufacturing, making it easier to create your own soup-to-nuts product supply chain that you can sell through an online store.

Sites like Etsy and Zazzle have created robust new markets for artists and writers to expand their brands. With Shopify, anyone can launch an online store.

Try creating a line of travel-themed accessories, like luggage tags, tote bags, t-shirts or postcards, with your brand iconography.

Brainstorm product tie-ins that match your destinations and activities and tap your creativity further. If you cover southern California, look to leverage its signature images (beaches, movies, convertible cars, etc) in your products and branch out your product line.

5 ) Podcasts & Video

Though they’ve been around for a while, podcasts have spiked in recent popularity with nearly 40 million Americans listening to a podcast each month.

Technology has caught up, and mobile devices have made it a lot easier for listeners to access a range of shows.

Podcasting had its moment in the pop culture zeitgeist with the Serial podcast, and they’re making money too.

Podcasting provides a great point of differentiation for your brand, and allows you to connect a new, loyal market segment. With a podcast you can grow an audience of opted-in fans, who by subscribing create a valuable email distribution list.

Pat Flynn of the Smart Passive Income blog has a great podcasting tutorial, and Cliff J. Ravenscraft runs the aptly-named Podcast Answer Man site.

If podcasts are a smart way to extend your brand, video is a no-brainer.

A dedicated YouTube Channel adds another way to share your work, and showcase your regional expertise.

Video on your travel site can increase your search engine ranking and appeal among your audience. Having video footage to offer your assigning editors can lead to additional revenue, or be the differentiating factor that lands you a premium placement on their site.

Travel videos can be global or local in focus – just angle your coverage to reinforce the overall brand of you.

The Expert Vagabond has a list of great YouTube travel channels to follow, many of them run by international travelers. Youtube hosts countless local travel guides too.

Here’s a fantastic tutorial on How to Make a Travel Video by my friend and colleague Robert Reid of Reid on Travel.

6 ) Join Fiverr

Building up a portfolio of work takes time. One great way ramp up your clip file while also generating additional revenue is to hang your shingle at Fiverr, the online freelance marketplace.

With Fiverr, you create a job description – or a “gig” – for a service you’ll offer to solve a customer’s content problem. Gigs on offer at Fiverr address the gamut of content and website needs:

• SEO-optimized web article writing
• Proofreading and editing
• Logo design
• Brand development consultations
• Voiceover narration
• eBook covers
• Social marketing
• Reviews writing
• WordPress troubleshooting
• Songwriting

And much, much more.Through FIverr you can offer your creative services, or enlist those of others for reasonable rates, starting at, well, five bucks.

Now, five dollars doesn’t buy what it used to. But keep in mind that $5 is just the entry price point for FIverr gigs.

The key to making decent money on Fiverr is to include a number of upsells that enhance the offer and can generate additional revenue.

For example, your basic Fiverr gig may offer a 400-word article on a topic of the purchasers’ choice. That costs $5.

But, if the customer wants 800 words, that would be $10. Do they want the job delivered more quickly, say in 48 hours? That can be an additional $10. Or if you’d rather the piece written as a press release, that’s an additional $20.

Add these all up, and you’ll start to see those $5 gigs become $25 – $45 ones.

As a content provider, these upsells are a great way to increase your revenue, while also putting yourself in the position to receive great feedback, since your extras are also likely helping out your customer a lot.

From a writer’s perspective, keep in mind that when calculating your return from Fiverr gigs, you *won’t* want to think about per-word rates. That’s a different market. With Fiverr gigs, you’re looking to value your work per hour. Don’t think “I’m only getting 5 cents a word?” Instead, look at Fiverr gigs like you’re getting paid $30-50 an hour.

On the flip side, Fiverr can be a huge help when you’re putting together your own travel site. Aspiring web developers can save a lot of time by outsourcing needed work to Fiverr experts. If you’re a writing wiz without any design experience, Fiverr can help you find a range of designers who’ll help create the right logo for your site.

Clever folks have created quite a few outside-the-box creative gigs on Fiverr too. So if you’re looking to promote your site by writing it’s name in graffiti, carved in a pumpkin or drawn into the sand of a Jamaican beach, you’re in luck!

As a content provider looking to offer your services on Fiverr, the earning potential is legit.

7) Content Marketing

With technological advancements (DVRs, tablets) helping to shift consumer engagement away from traditional advertising methods (commericials, magazine ads, skyscraper banners), marketers have had to adjust.

Brands needed to find new ways to capture the attention of a potential audience, which had many new ways to consume content at its disposal.

Enter content marketing.

As explained at the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is a term used to define the process of creating and distribution original content that’s targeted at a specific interest group, with the goal of converting the content consumer into a paying customer.

This content, when executed correctly, contains information of value and substance to the end user, in the hopes or providing a great experience.

Today’s content marketing efforts are a lot more editorial than the classic “aim to persuade” advertorials of yore. They’re using blogs, video, podcasts, Facebook, Twitter and more to tell stories that appeal to their core target audiences.

By distributing free content that’s objective and of high-quality, brands are investing up-front in audience engagement, and making a smart play for retention and loyalty. They realize that through the Internet and social media, customers can chime in like never before.

Brands understand that providing quality content can turn a loyal audience into a force for brand advocacy.

Smart travel writers realize that by building up a portfolio of content marketing projects, or clips specific to certain topics, you’ll expand your future writing opportunities.

For examples of great content marketing, Kapost keeps a list of the Top 50 Content Marketers.

Contently is a good site to for brands and freelancers to connect.

8) Speaking, Teaching & Consulting

Besides writing, you can raise your profile in the travel media by chatting about your experiences on panels and in classes, workshops and lectures.

As a travel writer, you have unique perspectives to share on a range of topics, from living abroad to intercultural communication tips and money-saving advice.

Schools and universities, bookstores, galleries, companies, workshops and conventions all provide opportunities to get up in front of a crowd and share travel knowledge.

You’ll find a receptive audience of travel fans eager to hear your insights, and ask questions. You won’t have to worry about running out of things to talk about.

You can spur the conversations by asking audience members about their upcoming travel plans.

As you gain more examples of your published travel content, you can look into opportunities to teach about travel and writing, in small group classes or in one-on-one tutorials.

Check out Craigslist for ways to offer your writing services, such as working with students on college entrance essays.

You can also take an entrepreneurial approach, by hosting a webinar, leading tours, holding a scavenger hunt or creating your own signature event, like Pop-Up Magazine or The Kinda Late Show with Broke-Ass Stuart.

Networking with the entrepreneurial set can lead to unexpected opportunities, so don’t cast a shallow net.

I know travel writers that market themselves to tech companies in the Bay Area as time management and productivity experts. They use the unique hook of the job to engage their audience, share best practices, and make connections with their clients about how to produce more effectively.

Finally, you can certainly help out colleagues in the travel media space, and help boost your profile too, by offering your services as a destination or topic expert on HARO, or Help a Reporter Out.

By being a resource for other media outlets, you’ll get your name out there further and can also generate valuable traffic for your site.

9) Magazines

Remember these? Despite taking its lumps in the 2000s, the magazine industry remains one of a travel writer’s primary marketplaces.

indeed, 2014 saw 190 new magazine launches in North America, with regional titles leading the way. While this is offset by 99 title closings last year, the industry can claim a 2014 net gain of 91 new openings.

That’s a far cry from the trauma of 2009, when a whopping 428 titles closed shop.

When conceptualizing travel story ideas to magazines, keep in mind several best practices:

• Pitch travel ideas to non-travel titles in parallel markets. Travel as a topic is a conduit to many other genres — food, tech, the outdoors, arts, business, fashion, fitness. Expand your market reach by pitching ideas beyond just the travel vertical.
• Think regionally. Plenty of magazines have strong presences on the local or regional level, even though they may not have national distribution. In the United States, titles such as Arizona Highways, Texas Monthly, Ocean Drive, Sunset, Coastal Living and 5280 all have great reputations in the travel media, and need travel content. City-specific titles like Los Angeles and New York Magazine often have travel annuals that need additional contributors, as well as opportunities to cover local events and attractions in annual “Best Of” issues.
• Aim globally. To state the obvious, don’t focus only on travel markets in your home country! Plenty of travel titles exist globally.
• Reward loyalty. Inflights and loyalty titles like American Express’ Departures may not be available for sale on magazine racks, but they have content needs nonetheless.

Intriguing new travel titles have been announced by industry sources including Airbnb and Skift, which also highlights these 8 Great Indie Travel Magazine Startups.

Innovative new outlets such as The California Sunday Magazine are pushing forward with subscription-centric models and raising cash and awareness through fun ticketed events like Pop-Up Magazine.

Bookmarket has an extensive list of travel (and non-travel) titles, while Mr. Magazine does a fantastic job keeping track of new title launches.

When pitching travel story ideas, aim broadly. Focus on building up a clip file of certain travel subtopics, like business travel or backpacking, and you can grow your reputation as an expert in that space.

Once you have a bit of a portfolio built up, and a site to promote, sign up as a source with Heip a Reporter Out (HARO), Through HARO, you can offer your services as subject matter experts to many journalists on assignment and, often, deadline.

By being a source, you can show your expertise while often getting a link back to your site, which can create a nice traffic bump.

Just like these entrepreneurial efforts are creating new market opportunities, travel writers who take the initiative to reach out to new, and existing, markets create more chances to share their work, and get paid.

In writing and in life, fortune favors the brave. So pitch boldy, pitch broadly, provide outside-the-box content opportunities and set your travel writing sights high!