Do you want to learn how to turn your passion for travel into a six-figure business? Travel blogging is an exciting and flexible way to earn money while exploring the world. You get to share your experiences, inspire others, and create a business that fits your lifestyle. But how do you go from just writing…
Do you want to learn how to turn your passion for travel into a six-figure business?
Travel blogging is an exciting and flexible way to earn money while exploring the world. You get to share your experiences, inspire others, and create a business that fits your lifestyle. But how do you go from just writing about your trips to actually making $100,000+ per year?
Today, I’m excited to share the story of Jessie Festa, a successful travel blogger who started her blog, Jessie on a Journey, with the goal of helping travelers. Jessie went from earning nothing to building a six-figure travel blogging business.
In this interview, I ask Jessie questions about how to start a travel blogging business, like:
- How much money can a travel blogger realistically earn, and what are the main income streams?
- Is there still room for new travel bloggers to succeed in such a competitive niche?
- Do you need to travel frequently to maintain a successful travel blog, or can you blog about travel without being on the road constantly?
- What tools and equipment are important for running a successful travel blog? Do beginners need to invest a lot to get started?
Plus more!
If you’ve ever wondered how much money travel bloggers really make, how they get paid to travel, or how to start your own travel blog, this interview with Jessie is for you. She’ll break down her journey and share tips on everything from affiliate marketing to working with brands and tourism boards.
And, if you’re ready to turn your love for travel into a thriving business, Travel Blog Prosperity is the perfect resource for you. Created by Jessie, this membership offers 100+ courses and workshops, and a supportive community to help you grow your blog into a profitable venture. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to scale, Travel Blog Prosperity provides the tools and strategies to make it happen.
Technically, the doors are closed, but if you use my affiliate link, you can join right now. You can also use coupon code “MAKINGSENSE9” to get your first month for just $9. After that, it’s $49 per month to stay a member, and you can cancel at any time – even before your trial month is over.
Please click here to learn more about Travel Blog Prosperity.
Let’s dive into how Jessie makes $100,000+ each year as a travel blogger, and how you can get started too.
How I Make Money With A Travel Blog Business
Recommended reading: How To Start a Travel Blog and Make Money
1) Tell me your story. Who are you, and what inspired you to start your travel blog?
Hi, my name is Jessie Festa, a travel blogger, photographer, and blog coach from New York.
I started my first travel blog, Jessie on a Journey, in 2011. At the time, there weren’t many resources online for solo travelers, and after going through the challenging process of planning a 3-month solo backpacking trip through Europe, I wanted to help others more easily plan their own solo trips.
Additionally, I wanted to create a business that would allow me to continue traveling.
I graduated with my BA/MA in Communication during a recession, so jobs were scarce. While it was a scary and uncertain time, it also gave me the space to pursue travel blogging and see where it could lead me.
Within about a year I was able to begin earning a steady income from it, and today it’s my full-time job. Along with Jessie on a Journey, I own the websites Epicure & Culture (sustainable tourism and culture blog) and NYC Photo Journeys (my photo experience site that gets most of its booking through the blog).
2. How much money do you make as a travel blogger?
I’m proud to say I’ve been able to create a 6-figure business for myself through blogging—which I attribute mainly to treating it like a business, which I share more about below in question #5.
I also try to diversify my traffic and revenue streams as much as possible to help protect my business.
Additionally, I monitor what is working—and what isn’t—so I can adjust my strategies accordingly.
Finally, I automate and streamline as much as possible, such as by creating sales funnels to sell my digital products.
3. Why did you decide to become a travel blogger?
Ultimately, it was my love of travel. I was determined to find—or create—a job that would allow me to earn a living from anywhere so that I could keep exploring the world.
Funny enough, I didn’t really know what blogging was before I started mine. Again, this was 2011, and blogging as a career wasn’t common yet. I’d always assumed a blog was just an online journal.
But, I saw other travelers—normal people who weren’t celebrities—doing it and actually making money writing about their travels on their websites. I told myself that if they could do it, so could I. So I did!
4. What do you enjoy most about running a travel blog?
The ability to be my own boss, get paid to be creative, and travel the world.
Running a travel blog means getting to create my own schedule based on goals I’m passionate about and projects I’m excited about. Additionally, I can work from anywhere in the world—or choose to take time off, because I’m the one approving vacation time.
With travel specifically, you can choose to monetize your trips, such as by writing blog posts that contain ads and affiliate links or working with sponsors.
Don’t get me wrong, running any type of business, including a blog, is hard work; but, there are a lot of perks too.
5. What are some of your favorite places that you’ve traveled to thanks to your travel blog?
My favorite place is usually wherever I’ve just been! Recently, I visited Kyrgyzstan and Tanzania—both of which were absolutely incredible.
Next week I’ll be heading to Nova Scotia for a partnership, which I’m very excited about.
6. How much money can a travel blogger realistically earn, and what are the main income streams?
I know travel bloggers earning nothing and travel bloggers earning multiple six figures, so it really depends.
In my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes bloggers make is thinking that writing in itself will eventually lead to income.
Yes, your content can—and should—be profitable; but, to really earn a living blogging you need a profit plan. It’s essential to implement revenue streams, set goals, track success, and tweak your strategy as needed.
Building on this, some of the main income streams for travel bloggers include:
- Affiliate marketing
- Running ads (for instance, I’m a Mediavine publisher)
- Launching products and services
- Working with brands and tourism boards on paid campaigns and press trips
- Freelance writing and creating content for brands (whether through UGC collaborations or being a ghost writer/creator for their channels—the latter of which I’ve found pays more)
7. What tools and equipment are essential for running a successful travel blog? Do beginners need to invest a lot to get started?
In the beginning, I’d recommend investing in good hosting with security features and consistent uptime, a lightweight theme with support, and a premium keyword research tool so that you can optimize your website for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
As you grow, you may invest in other tools, as well. It just depends on your strategy.
For instance, I personally pay for Later to schedule my Instagram posts and plan my feed; however, I also know many bloggers who use Instagram’s native scheduler or publish in real-time for free.
Also, many essential tools are free to start. For instance, you’ll definitely want an email marketing platform, like Mailerlite or ConvertKit, which typically offer free plans to get started.
8. What does your typical work schedule look like as a travel blogger? How many hours a week do you dedicate to maintaining your blog?
I like to break up my month into four weekly “sprints”. These include:
- Getting the content and event schedule for my Travel Blog Prosperity membership (one of my main products) ready for the following month
- Creating content and doing outreach to land collaborations and sponsorships
- Creating and scheduling any content necessary for my next upcoming growth project
- I choose one “growth project” per month that is meant to help me grow my traffic and/or income—such as launching a new digital product, co-hosting a webinar with an affiliate, taking part in a bundle or summit, or implementing a new traffic strategy
- Overflow week
Additionally, one of my products is my NYC photo tours and shoots, which I launched after having so many readers asking me to show them around New York. This means there are days when I’m in person with these clients.
When I’m working on the above, my day looks like a pretty typical workday, though I can take a day off if I need, move things around, and work from anywhere.
As a travel blogger I also travel a lot, so some weeks I’m on the road. For instance, I just got back from spending two weeks traveling around Tanzania.
While traveling, I’m not really on my laptop; however, I am taking notes, photos, and video clips to use in future travel content I’ll create once I’m back home.
9. Is there still room for new travel bloggers to succeed in such a competitive niche?
Absolutely, though I’d niche down more than just “travel”. Really aim to build a business that helps a specific audience and in a specific way.
Once you know who you help and how, it’ll be much easier to choose what topics to cover, which affiliates and brands to work with, and which products and services to create—as they will all be an extension of your mission.
10. How has your approach to SEO evolved as Google’s algorithms have changed over the years?
I’m fortunate that I’ve always been focused on growing and nurturing an email list, as I think this is more important than ever. This way, you can turn one-time readers into dedicated community members and capture that traffic on a list you own.
Additionally, I recommend diversifying your traffic sources as well as thinking about your blog as a business (vs simply writing over-optimized posts to try to rank).
11. How do you pitch brands or tourism boards for paid partnerships or press trips? Any tips for beginners?
Don’t overthink pitching. Go into as if you’re having a conversation and sharing an idea for a mutually beneficial partnership (vs asking the brand to give you something).
Before you do this, try to pinpoint what you bring to the table. Maybe it’s influence, a specific audience, a creative content creation style, or something else.
You can watch a recent YouTube video I shared for an actual pitch template that I go over step-by-step below:
12. Can you outline the steps someone should take to start a travel blog and turn it into a profitable business?
I’d recommend new bloggers first pinpoint their mission (ie who you help and how).
Once you’ve defined this, break your mission up into 2-3 main topics—often called “content pillars” —that you’ll create content around. This will help you keep your content cohesive and build topical authority. You might even go hard on one content pillar to start to grow quicker.
From there, create content that fits within your content pillars. Ideally, you’ll first create your foundational posts—those posts that readers will expect to be on your blog—and then you’ll do keyword research to find low-competition keywords (ie search queries) you can create content around and rank for. Below is a helpful video I made:
While optimizing your website and content for SEO is important, I recommend implementing a few other traffic strategies—like Pinterest, Facebook, and Flipboard—and building an email list to capture your traffic and turn one-time visitors into repeat readers.
Your email list can help you grow both your traffic and income, as you can share your free content (like blog posts and YouTube videos) with subscribers as well as paid products and affiliate links (with disclosure).
Which brings me to an important piece of the strategy: monetization.
As mentioned above, it’s important to implement and grow revenue streams. Then, you can use your content to grow your traffic to grow your income.
For instance, you can monetize content directly through affiliate links and ads. Or, if you have your own product, you can create content that would attract your ideal buyers and get that product in front of them.
13. Do you need to travel frequently to maintain a successful travel blog, or can you blog about travel without being on the road constantly?
It depends on your specific niche. For instance, if you run a blog about Paris travel and you live in Paris, you won’t need to travel at all.
However, if you cover many destinations you’ll want to make sure you’re either traveling regularly or you contract or hire writers who can help create content.
14. What are some common mistakes new travel bloggers make, and how can they avoid them?
The most common mistake new bloggers make is not thinking about their blog as a business.
Many bloggers simply think they’ll optimize their content for keywords, grow their traffic, and monetize with ads and affiliate links.
To really build something sustainable and long-lasting, I recommend thinking about your blog as an actual business—including having your own products/services—and your content as a tool for growing the business.
15. What are the challenges of running a travel blog, and how do you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges for travel bloggers is keeping up with changing algorithms.
For instance, in the last year, we’ve seen a number of big Google algorithm updates that have completely shifted what shows up in Google search results.
While some blogs grew from this, others lost some—or even all—of their traffic. Also, some who lost traffic in the first update bounced back in the third update.
And it’s not just Google. Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms regularly change the way their algorithms work.
Because of this, it’s important to:
- Keep up with changes and be adaptable
- Diversify your traffic and revenue streams
- Have an email list, which you own (vs your social media followers, which you don’t)
16. Can you tell me about Travel Blog Prosperity? How many members do you have? How can it help travel bloggers? Is this for new bloggers?
Travel Blog Prosperity is an online membership dedicated to helping travel and lifestyle bloggers grow their traffic and income through a mix of education, collaboration, and community support.
Once you login, you’ll have immediate access to 100+ courses and workshops. This includes the Core Curriculum, which takes you from setup to salary and teaches you how to get setup for traffic and income success.
From there, you can use the included Blogging Strategy Roadmap to bring everything together and create a business plan for yourself.
To help you build this out, there are additional workshops and trainings that teach strategies related to branding your blog, growing your traffic, increasing your email subscribers, launching and marketing products and services, growing your affiliate income, working with brands and tourism boards, freelance writing, seeing success on social media, scaling with ads, creating workflows, improving productivity and mindset, and more.
Plus, there is at least one new live workshop taught every single month—replay included.
Other perks include a 15-minute onboarding call to help you create an action plan, monthly live coaching calls and bonus events with guest experts, weekly paid opportunities sent to your inbox, over $2k worth of included bonuses, and more.
We currently have over 200 members. It’s a really supportive and nurturing community that would love to welcome you!
Bonus: As a Making Sense of Cents reader, I’ve got a special coupon code for you to try Travel Blog Prosperity out for just $9 for your first month.
Click here and use code “MAKINGSENSE9” at checkout to snag the deal.
Just note that the coupon is valid for new members only. After your trial month is over it’s $49/month to stay a member and you can cancel at any time—even before your discounted month is over!
You can click here to learn more about Travel Blog Prosperity.
Are you interested in starting a travel blog?
Recommended reading:
