When we started our travel blog at the beginning of our year-long journey, the idea of financial independence felt like a distant dream. We weren’t tech people, and we learned the hard way that you don’t need to be an overnight sensation to succeed. You just need to be consistent, honest, and willing to learn. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the very tools we use to make money, share our monetization journey, and give you our best advice on how to start using your blog to fund your own adventures.
Disclaimer: this post contains affiliate links. By purchasing through our links, you can help support us at no additional cost. Thanks for your support! Please see our here for details.
Our Go-To for Travel Affiliate Links: Travelpayouts
Our go to affiliate program: Travel Payouts
One of our main sources of income comes from affiliate marketing through a fantastic platform called Travelpayouts. It’s a single platform that links to many of our favourite travel apps like Trip.com (our favorite), Klook, and Booking.com.
For example Travel Payouts connects seamlessly to Trip.com. Which we used daily while traveling China. So we get to recommend platforms we love while helping readers make their travel easier.
This allows us to recommend the tours, flights, and car rentals we genuinely use and love. When our readers book something, we get a small commission at no extra cost to them. It’s a great way to be rewarded for our work while helping our audience plan their trips.
Make Money with Stay22
A great Travel Payouts alternative: Stay22
We also use Stay22 [your_stay22_affiliate_link], which has been a fantastic “set-it-and-forget-it” tool for our accommodation-based content. We’ve found that using both Travelpayouts and Stay22 allows us to cover all the bases and maximize our earnings. Stay22 specializes in hotel and accommodation links, and its AI technology helps boost conversions by showing readers the booking platform they’re most likely to use. It’s also great for creating interactive maps for a destination, which adds a cool visual element to our posts.
Our Personal Income Stream: Airbnb
Become an Airbnb Host.
Essential Airbnb Smart Pricing Tool: Wheelhouse
Imagine not having to worry about paying for your mortgage while your busy travelling. That’s what setting you home up on Airbnb make possible. Earning thousands all while travelling Cuba, South America and China. Airbnb can make this a reality.
Before we left for our travels, we got a huge head start on our financial freedom by renting out our houses on Airbnb. This allowed us to cover our mortgage repayments while we were on the road, which was a massive relief. It was a core part of our initial strategy and a real-world example of using passive income to support our travels.
Our Blog Host: SiteGround
A reliable host is the foundation of any successful blog. We use SiteGround and we can’t recommend it enough, especially for new bloggers. Its custom control panel is very intuitive, and they offer 24/7 expert customer support, which is invaluable when you’re just starting out and have a question. They also offer excellent performance, with fast speeds powered by Google Cloud, and they take security seriously with features like free SSL certificates and daily backups.
How Can I Make Money from My Travels?
The most common question we get asked is, “How can you travel for so long with no work?” The answer isn’t a single secret—it’s about having multiple income streams and a lot of planning.
Should I Blog About My Favorite Places or Niche Down?
When we started, we made the classic beginner mistake of thinking we should write about every amazing, broad destination—like the Great Wall of China. The truth is, that’s what all the brilliant, long-time bloggers are already doing. The competition is just too high to rank. Our most popular post is about the Wulong Karst, a beautiful and remote location in China that is not as well-known. Because it was a more niche topic, there was less useful content out there, and our post was able to rise to the top of Google searches.
Another of our most popular posts, “How to get from Chongqing to Wulong,” is a great example of this. It’s so successful because it’s a specific, useful article that people are actively searching for. So, our advice is this: don’t be afraid to go after a more targeted niche and add real value.
How Do We Get Our Blog Posts Seen?
You can write the most brilliant content in the world, but if no one sees it, what’s the point? This was the hardest part of our journey. Our main sources of traffic are from Reddit, Pinterest, and Instagram. We’ve found that consistency is key. We saw the biggest change once we started to rank organically on Google. You can literally see the consistency and the traffic increase. More eyeballs on your content means you’re helping more people.
How Can I Blog Consistently While Traveling?
The beauty of being on the road is that you’re not working a typical 9-to-5 day. That gives you a lot of flexibility. Our secret to consistency is to set aside just two hours every day. Whether we’re on a fast train in China with our laptop and a Wi-Fi connection or relaxing in a cafe, dedicating a small amount of time consistently allows us to get a lot of work done. The key is to make your blogging process sustainable and enjoyable. We truly love sharing our story, and that passion comes through in every post.
How Do I Start a Travel Blog Today?
The most important piece of advice we can give you is this: get started now. It’s better to start producing posts and improve as you go along. Don’t be too hard on yourself or compare your beginning to someone else’s middle. There are so many brilliant bloggers out there—like our favorites, The Lovers Passport—but they’ve been doing this for a long time. The best way to make your blog sustainable is to write about things that genuinely interest you. When you insert yourself and your unique story into your posts, readers will love it, and you’ll enjoy sharing your journey even more.
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