How to Start a Travel Blog and Earn Money in 6 months (Part 1 of 2)
This article is inspired by a lot of our readers and travel coaching clients who have been asking us about how we started Two Monkeys Travel last May 2014 and grew it from there…We don’t claim to be experts, and we know that we have a long way to go, but we’ve come a long way in a short time. This is the first time we have ever written a travel blog and we are learning and growing every day. This is not your typical “How To Do Guide”, but instead our online diary of what we have learned and achieved since May 2014, to rebranding last October 2014 and finally starting to earn our first money from the blog last November 2014.
Blogging is the general term used for someone writing or documenting about things based on his or her own opinion on any topic such as fashion, career, money making, and of course Travel. Travel + Blogging seems to be the perfect combination if you already love writing in your travel journal but to be honest – it’s completely different!
Jon and I only started our Travel Blog last May 2014 after talking to a guy we met in Bodhgaya, India. He mentioned that there was a girl who visited there before from the Philippines funding her travels by travelling! And we were like: “What? How? Is that even possible?” We had been travelling for quite a while by that time (almost one year) and had been paying for all of our expenses and we thought that our volunteering gigs were savings enough! But no, there are travel bloggers out there in the world, travelling for free! To be honest, our initial motivation was just to get discounts on Hotels and tours but the more I learned about this field, the more I realized that it’s not just about getting Free Stuff. It’s actually a respectable career that requires hard work and determination… I highly commend all of the travel bloggers who started this before us and still doing it.
After six months of a love-hate relationship with our blog, we have been able to grow our social media to the next level with great interaction from the right audience. We are relatively new, yet we currently have 90K to 150K Page views every month and are finally earning money by monetizing our blog with Affiliate Marketing. We signed up with Affiliate Window (this is where most of our income are coming from!), Webfluential and Share A Sale, all are FREE to sign up. Basically the Advertisers will pay you commissions when you sell their products on your website – we usually earn from Booking.com, Hostel bookers and other accommodation companies aside from running social media campaigns. I’ll talk more about it in the future!
So here’s the honest step-by-step guide on how we did it – including the mistakes we made and tricks and techniques to grow faster. (Here’s the Part 2: How to Make Money from Travel Blogging)
Table of Contents
Start a Travel Blog – Tip#1: Think of a Blog Name
Jon and I were not writers before we started – when we were travelling on our own before, we both had an account with a free blogging platform but were only able to publish two diary style write-ups, and both of the accounts were just named after us! If you really love your name, then you can name your Travel Blog after you then add some exciting Travel related words – travelling, nomadic, wandering, adventurous, etc. (I’ve read an article that these words are overuse, but it’s up to you)
If you want to be more creative then think of a unique name that people can easily remember you – why not animal names? It doesn’t sound formal, but it’s catchy! It took Jon and me two weeks to choose the blog name, and we came up with the slightly “corny” and catchy name of Two Monkeys Travel – Why you may ask? It’s quite a long story, but the simple version is that Jon is the White Monkey and obviously I’m the Brown Monkey. We also know different travel websites with animal names like – turtle, goat, dinosaur, frog, crab, etc. It’s all up to you!
You can also have a formal blog name that has nothing to do with your name nor the cute animals, but we highly suggest to keep a travel related word on your title so people can easily recognise that you’re indeed a travel blogger (maybe for Google SEO too!)
Start a Travel Blog – Tip#2: Buy that Domain and INVEST in Hosting
Our first article was published on Blogger (www.twomonkeystravel.blogspot.com ) last April 25, 2014- as I’ve mentioned earlier, we didn’t intend to make it big as our initial plan was just to get discounts from Hotels in India – OOPS we were wrong (MISTAKE # 1)! Our first ever article, “Female Backpackers Beware”, was able to get 5,000 views in 1 week, mainly because of our click-bait title (MISTAKE #2) and we were so excited that we decided to write another one – Budget Backpacking in India. It had good views, so Jon and I agreed to buy our domain from GoDaddy and still keep the account with Blogger platform (www.twomonkeystravel.com) (MISTAKE #3) – Don’t use Blogger if you’re serious about your blog!
A good friend of mine taught us how to connect our free Blogger page to our new domain. It was June 2014, just before we flew to South America when we decided to have a giveaway package – Memories of Hanoi Article – which boosted our page views yet again. I was so ecstatic that I was already thinking of redesigning our blog (we initially just had the free themes installed on Blogger). That’s when I learned about self-hosted sites on WordPress.org and the disadvantages of using Blogger as a platform. We were discouraged and weren’t sure if we were even going to continue.
We moved to Peru and had a hiatus from the “not-so-serious” website for about three months, until Rappler Philippines contacted us, saying that they wanted to re-publish our article! Oops, someone noticed and finally believed in us- (Thank you so much Wy!!) I spoke to Jon and we decided that it was about time to take it seriously and have a self-hosted WordPress account – the problem was that we didn’t know how to design, how to install, how to direct our old articles (5 articles and the others are guest post!) etc. We had no idea! So, I read another blog promoting Bluehost as the hosting company which includes the 1-click easy to install WordPress.ORG (Remember: WordPress.com is different from WordPress.Org).As newbies we loved the sound of that, so we invested some money and bought the 3 years hosting plan from Bluehost or Hostgator guess what, it comes with a FREE Domain – Jon and I didn’t know how to redirect our old domain (www.twomonkeystravel.com) so we decided to avail the free domain and purchased http://twomonkeystravelGROUP.com (Will tell you why later!). It’s time to change!
After one month of trial and error with different designs – we launched our brand new website on October 24, 2014 – the same time that Rappler Philippines published my first article on their website. We were starting to look slightly professional now! Woot!
Start a Travel Blog – Tip#3: Design your Logo and Invest in Web design
This is the only thing that worried me as your blog design represents who you are before people even look at your write-ups. Our original logo was a hand-drawn design by my sister’s friend (Dr Arbe Serrano) for FREE. Then we purchased a $49 theme from My Theme Shop, but I don’t know how to optimize this awesome responsive creation. So we enlisted the help of my blogging inspiration and good friend, RM Nisperos (not a travel blogger) about how we could optimize it a bit and if he could help us with some redesign and oh it’s FREE, but we ended up paying a new designer to redesign our website, and it cost us $1000 for it.
UPDATE JANUARY 2016: We just changed our website design, and we paid $1000 for this. We’re not yet happy, but I think we’ll invest more money next year to do another re-design!
Our latest brand new design, April 2017. And we updated it again in June 2019.
Start a Travel Blog – Tip#4: Write For Yourself (then later on Tip#7: Write for Others)
This is now the crucial part – What shall we write? What shall we talk about?
Everything that I read online keeps telling me that I should find my “niche”, well, I don’t know! Jon and I don’t write Destination Guides as there are already a lot of established writers doing that during that time. We don’t have great cameras to use to create Photo-journals, so that’s not our niche either. We’ve had early online bashers for writing a ‘Click-bait article’ (which we both agreed to never do it again!). So what should we write about?
That’s when we’ve both agreed that we should just start writing about our life as a traveling couple – not to impress others but just to express ourselves and to show that an alternative way of life is possible. My English is not perfect and Jon has to edit most of my articles before we publish them. One article takes anywhere from 1 day to 1 week to write and we don’t do much photo editing either – we just recently learned that we have to change the file names of our Photos from DCIM, GOPRO111 when we publish them – (MISTAKE #4). Well, we didn’t care but now we’ve decided to finally install Photoshop on our laptop and we’re using PicMonkey.com for editing simple photos and collages for our Facebook posts.
But as a newbie blogger, don’t over-think the technicalities just yet – at this moment, just focus on writing about your experience – Creating interesting, fun, cool content is the most important part of a blog, so just focus on practicing how you express yourself as a writer.
So, I wrote my first 3 articles – Career or Travel, Why Not Both, Why I’m proud of my Philippines passport and 9 Trips to Take in Your 20s – which were published in Rappler PHL, they all went quite viral and Jon finally published his first official article – What I’ve Learned Dating a Filipina which was one of the most read articles last year.
This changed our blogging life!
Start a Travel Blog – Tip # 5: Learn about Social Media
Social Media is not just about Facebook – you also need to use Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Tumbler, Stumble upon, Triberr, Trover, Reddit, Pinterest, Bloglovin and so on! What the heck? Are you kidding me?
As I’ve mentioned earlier, before dating Jon, I had my very own free blog platform with 2 articles so during that time – I created a Facebook page for my Travel Quotes inspiration that was created last April 2013. So when Jon and I decided to have the Two Monkeys Travel Facebook page, I suggested that we use my old page which only had 88 likes and we were able to change the name from “Kach Me!” To “Two Monkeys Travel” last May 2014. Now, we currently have 8000+ Followers with very high engagement rate and reach, all of which are Organic. However, FB does have an option for boosting your post to reach more people to get more engagement – We’ve tried it 5 times on different articles that we think have the chance to go viral! It’s better to use that so you’re still in with the Facebook Algorithm. (After a year of working on our page, we already have more than 50K followers and high engagement)
If you’re a new blogger, don’t be impressed or disheartened with the high numbers of LIKES on other big time blogger’s Facebook pages, you need to look at the interaction (engagement rate) on their posts – that’s when you will know if their LIKES are real. I’m in charge of our Facebook page and I make sure that I reply to every message on our inbox and comments (We love our readers, more on TIP #7). Last November 2014, I finally discovered that you can schedule posts (hahahha!) Since our audience are mostly in Asia which is 12 hours ahead of South America, this is the best option for us! I post 3 to 4 times a day – targeting all of the time zones of our readers – Philippines, USA, Canada, UK, Middle East and Australia. The KEY here: Interact with your Audience.
I also had my own private Instagram account full of my selfies – and had 100 followers when we both agreed to change it to make our official Two Monkeys Instagram account and changed it to @2mokeystravel as our new username and made it a public account last November 2014. Now, Jonathan is finally getting involved with our Social Media and is handling our Instagram – we’re still growing it and trying to remove my old selfies (LOL!) The technique that he is using now is simple – using more travel related hashtags, liking other people’s pictures, observing what kind of shots are popular and posting three times a day. We don’t have a fancy camera so we’re just using our Samsung Tablet and Jon’s old iPhone4. The Key here: Learn to appreciate other people’s pictures and interact with Instagram community
Neither of us knew how to use this or what the benefits were at the beginning but we said we’d give it a go – we created our own Twitter account (@2monkeystravel) last October 2014, when the Director of SAB asked to tag us on her tweets about our articles in her website. We didn’t touch our Twitter account until we found out about Triberr and FB Groups Twitter thread where bloggers work together to share each other’s tweets – so we joined. I was just posting everything at the same time as I don’t know what this was for. I then had 45 UNFOLLOWS from my 100 followers the same day (MISTAKE #5). So a blogger friend told me about scheduling my tweets on Hootsuite, now whenever I join the Twitter thread and Triberr Tribes, I just post it there on Auto schedule for the whole week! Done! Just this 2nd week of January 2015, I’ve started using the Just Unfollow website to automate who to follow accordingly (however, it was too automated and we decided to stop using it). The Key here: It’s give and take! If you want them to follow you then follow them, if you want them to re-tweet your tweets then re-tweet others tweets! Simple!
Pinterest is already a big hit as another social media platform in the USA and they’re starting to launch it in the Philippines! As a travel blogger, Pinterest can be a great tool for us to share photos of our travels and dream destinations. It’s also a great way to drive traffic to our blog and increase our readers. We’re newbie in this field but still trying our best to improve our Pinterest boards. Pinterest has different boards for different topics and it’s up to you on how you will arrange it, in our case we decided to separate it per continent/ region. Remember, you need to pin photos from your travel blog, re-pin photos of other interesting articles from other websites and follow people who shares the same interest as you! Go check it out and start pinning! Let us know if you want to join our Travel boards too!
YOUTUBE/ VIMEO
Since we don’t have great cameras beside our GoPro and don’t know how to edit videos, we’ve decided just to create our own YouTube channel and upload our raw videos. We have a few views already from sharing the videos on our FB pages. No brilliant ideas here but just for now we’re filling it with some of our interesting, yet unedited GoPro videos. The key here is to do what you can do now – You can add Video Editing to your list of things to learn later. Oh if you want to watch Jonathan’s TAGALOG TIME– then here’s our YouTube Channel (no editing, sorry!)
Google+, Tumbler, Stumbleupon, Trover, Reddit, Bloglovin – We’re just starting to use these social media formats, but the main tip we can give is to connect everything to everything else! Make sure that when you share something on Instagram, that you also share it on every other platform possible, for maximum exposure.
Start a Travel Blog – Tip # 6: Network! Network! Network!
“If you don’t ask, you don’t get it!” – One of my mottos in life which I think is also important in the blogging world.
You need to reach out to some of the more established bloggers to collaborate with, some of them are really nice, and they respond.
I got connected to the rappler PHL’s Lifestyle Editor by pitching an article to one of their employees before and look, we are now regular contributors and most of our articles go viral in the Philippines. So don’t be afraid to pitch your articles to higher ranking websites, there’s no harm in trying and they care about great material, not how famous you are! I’ve tried to reach out to different big time bloggers and editors. Oh we’re also featured in Cosmopolitan Philippines on their February 2015 Issue.
Remember I told you earlier that our first Facebook page started with only 88 Likes? We were able to grow it to 500 LIKES before by joining the Under 1000 Club Facebook Group – it’s a group of newbie bloggers with less than 1K likes on their Facebook page. They exchange liking, commenting and following each other’s Social Media. There are other more awesome FB groups for Travel Bloggers that you should join – We Travel We Blog, Travel Blog Chronicles and The Business of Blogging. The members are really helpful with all of your travel blogging related questions and the best part is that you’ll be able to network with other bloggers – interview, blog exchange etc. But don’t forget to share your knowledge – it’s give and take! If you’re a Filipino travel blogger then you should network so you can join the – Pinoy Travel Bloggers (PTB) group.
If you really don’t know what to do, then you should check out Nomadic Matt’s Travel Course!
Another option is if you’re 100% sure that you want this Travel Blogging life then I also recommend that you join Travel Blog Success – Jon and I agreed to invest $220 for a lifetime membership and to join this exclusive group. It’s a group of big-time, professional bloggers and you won’t believe who you are talking to! They have a secret Facebook group, exclusive deals, and travel blogging lessons on the blog! If you decide to join then wait for their promotion, you’ll be able to save 20%! See you there!
Start a Travel Blog – Tip #7: Understand your Audience – Write For Them
Now that you’ve done most of the things above, for sure you already have some readers. How do you know? On your WordPress.org site, you have the Jetpack application where you can track how many page views you have and you will see which of your posts have gained the most interest from people – then WRITE MORE on topics related to that. If you’re having issues with your grammar then check out Grammarly, a website that could help you proofread your work
How will you know your audience? Go to you Facebook report and check who most of your followers are. You should also install Google Analytics so you know from which countries your readers are from – from both statistics (which are pretty accurate) then you can craft your articles to suit your readers’ interests.
Another thing, write an article answering all of the frequently asked questions of your readers. They will appreciate you even more! Never trick your audience with your writing just for page views; we learned that the hard way and decided that having real readers who know us and consistently reading our articles is better than having more page views and attracting bashers! Just positivity!
Start a Travel Blog – Tip #8: Learn from your earlier Mistakes!
Aside from the grammar, I’ve listed above the common mistakes we made while starting this blog months ago. Try to improve them slowly but surely! Every blogger, even the pros, always have a lot of things to improve on. It will still take time but as long as you recognize your mistakes, ask for advice and learn from it, then you’re on the right track.
Start a Travel Blog – Tip #9: Interact with Your Readers
Jonathan and I created a Facebook group of Two Monkeys Travel Community readers so we can communicate with our readers directly and it turned out they are all communicating to each other!! We were able to grow it to almost 500 in 4 days but I decided to screen all the members before adding them. I also promised myself that I will reply to all the messages I received and I’m also helping some newbie bloggers like us who reached out to us (you can ask them!)
I’ve read this tip from two of my favorite blogs, Neil Patel and Pat Flynn, that you should make your audience feel that you care – SINCERELY and the only way to do that is to actually care sincerely! If you’re just thinking about yourself and becoming popular then good luck, you won’t go anywhere as your audience will feel that attitude. I’ve met different bloggers too who don’t respond to their readers’ inquiries, I won’t say that they are terrible people, because everyone has their own style. Jon and I are much more into interacting a lot with our readers since most of our new blog improvement ideas are coming from them! It feels great to help too, you know we’re yogis!
Tip #10: Be Inspired To Inspire!
Last but not the least, it is indeed important to keep yourself inspired. In our first 3 months of blogging, we got discouraged – writing an article took longer to finish than expected and we only had a few hundred views on our statistics aside from some bashers at the beginning. Good thing we didn’t lose hope, we continued and rebranded.
Blogging can burn you out, Social Media is really time-consuming and it will take most of the time in your day if you don’t have a time plan for it. I suggest starting your own blogging life schedule so you can balance it with travels. Remember, if you’re a travel blogger then you should be traveling and not just sitting with your laptop the whole day. If you’re a cake blogger, get up and make some cakes! After all, this is where your content comes from, right?
When we rebranded, we were just spending our whole day on the laptops – reading different tips, Facebooking, networking etc. but we decided that our lifestyle was becoming unhealthy. Now, we’re keeping to a 4-hour / day blogging schedule and the most important tip is to set a time limit using Social Media as it will take over and keep you distracted the whole time. My day starts with responding to our emails, inbox messages then drafting articles then the social media! Remember, we’re doing this to improve our lives – Find your balance!
Well, that’s it, I hope you learned something from our personal experience. The most important thing is to SET YOUR GOALS and NEVER LOSE HOPE.
PS Another technique: Do yoga and meditation before you start your day. It’s great for your mind and body!
Do you want to start growing your blog with the Two Monkeys Travel? We are actually accepting coaching clients, so if you want to learn how to improve your Social Media and Travel Blog in a sincere way, then please feel free to contact us at [email protected] or check details here.
Note: You must already know how to use WordPress and Social Media.
Next Topic: How to Monetize your Travel Blog (How to make money from Travel Blogging)Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above are affiliate links.
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Just a quick one. Can one start a travel blog without traveling?. more like a lifestyle kind of blog but about travel tips, for example from researches that conduct online. Pardon my naivety, i am quit new to this.
Yes, you can definitely do that but you call it lifestyle blog instead! =)
Hi Kach,
Thanks for this post it helps me to continue my passion and the love to travel and helping others who will be on the same journey in the future… You and Jon have come so far… God bless
Fun fact: I started my travel blog, Wanderera, after reading your blog and I can’t thank you enough for providing great info for beginners like me. Hope to meet you in one of my travels…someday 😀
This is really helpful. I have just started my blog,. It’s a mommy blog, though. I am still struggling to get traffic. I am trying to reach out to other mommy bloggers, but I am kind of intimidated by them, and they don’t respond. You seem like really nice and genuine people. What groupd can I join to help me connect with other bloggers? Thanks in advance
This blog is a very helpful and informative. I like it. Thanks for sharing.
Hi, how do I become a guest blogger in your blog?
This is VERY INFORMATIVE. I will try every points you have shared. I’m A Filipino travel blogger based in UAE. You just made more excited about finding my right audience. Thank you very much!!!
Interesting to read from this blog, Thanks
It’s our pleasure Alice 🙂
I like it.. I hope to be like you and professional people’s that are already successful in blog
Yay! We still have long way to go and more room for improvements but by the way, thank you Candra 🙂
Blog writing is always an interesting thing. You serve information to readers and they get help with it. All tips mentioned are really worthy and it worked personally for me to increase visitors and traffic. Always engage with audience and target right people.
That’s Rick 🙂 really glad that you find our post very informative 🙂 Hope this will help you very well.
Can i migrate my free blog to new domain ? I have just started a free blog tell me when i have to start a new domain ?
Great article and Inspiring to hopefully someday to pursue both travel and blogging. I have only tried writing a few articles on my friend’s site because of my fear of keepingbup with my website. My friend then offerred that I can post on her site whenever I feel like doing so.
I’ve been into brainstorming with myself on the style and niche I have to do since there’s already lots of travel blogs around.
I have started my fb page which I use to promote my trips where some of which I open for joiners, post short articles and share some travel related articles. And yes, few likes are disheartening and even my posts have no interactions
Hopefully to get started with my own branding and website. And to learn more from the both of you.
Thanks so much for this article.
Hi Kach n Jon !
I am presently single and 55 years young, you have inspired me, I love to travel and would like to start a travel blog for whatever’s it’s worth. But the thing is I don’t even know what a WordPress is, if ever I start one, I really would be coming from the cold. Would appreciate it if you can help out my Jurassic state of mind….?
Hello MArlon, I’ll write an article about that soon! I’ll let you know! =)
Awesome! I have learned more about blogging from reading this and I can relate to a lot of beginners dilemma.
These two monkeys were the reason I started a blog. I was on the phone with my British boyfriend (now Fiancé) when he stumbled upon the site and suggested why don’t we make our own since we started travelling together and there could be a lot to talk about interracial relationships. I thought it’ll be “our” blog but eventually he just became a visitor. smh. I started my wordpress blog in July 2016 and has only posted about getting a passport and few of our travel adventures. I wish my blog will be as brilliant as this someday. Thank you for inspiring me Kach & John. Cheers! .:)
Hello! I am very inspired by your story and how you started. More power to the both of you! The fun experience from reading your posts is that there is learning. Thank you for this.
Hihi! Thanks Andi 🙂
Kach, You have done great job by posting such an inspiring article for for traveling blog.
Yay! Thank you so much Mex 🙂
I always wanted to start a travel blog and this article has just summed up everything what I was looking for. I am going to take care of all the tips provided to make my blog a hit. Looking forward to read more blogs from your website.
Thanks Anchal. Really glad to help you and to share my knowledge about blogging 🙂
Hi Kach and Jonathan,
Your website is very inspiring! Our family do really love traveling!
We’ve just move to Manila two weeks ago. We went to some recommended place from your website. It’s really helpful for us ??
Again thanks! Read your website inspired us to write our family journal.
Keep writing ???
Aji n fam
Wow! Thank you so much Puspita 🙂 Yes, we will keep writing to inspire other people to travel the world too 🙂
Hi Kach & Jonathan,
This is a very helpful article. I’ve started blogging since college (2006!) and earning from it was not on my mind. I just love to write and consider it as my diary. I got busy from the corporate life & started to visit my food,personal & travel blog in 2013 (yes I had 3 sites!). But now having a hard time writing as it needs to be very structured (remember, I just consider blog as an online diary) May I ask, should I totally give up my blogspot and re-write everything to WordPress? Sacrifice the little views I had with it for something better in wordpress and potential webhosting? I’m lost!
Hello Dominique, if you’re serious now on making money from your blogs then go invest money on your online business and buy that domain and webhosting! You dont have to delete everything, you can migrate all the content from your blogspot to wordpress! =)
Congrats
This post fuels me up. Thank you for sharing.
The pleasure is ours Ian 🙂
This inspires me to pursue sharing my story, not only my love for travel and adventure but more on how I empowered myself to do the things that I longed to do. Now, I just need to gather more guts and empowerment to finally do this.. So help me God!
Thank you for sharing!
This post is really helpful. Thank you for sharing your blogging tips to new travel bloggers like us. I just started my own travel blog 1 month ago and my hosting provider is also bluehost.
Wow! Really glad that you like this Traveling Dork 🙂 Good luck on your blog 🙂
gusto ko rin gumawa ng blog pero i dont know how to start it
can u send step by step link and also about wordpress and plug ins
i dont know how to start.. thanks for the reply
Thank you TMTG -Kach&Jon for this infos. You guys really nailed it! Thanks for sharing it with us and now I know what to do with my site soon. Salamat!?
YAY! Glad you found it useful, Rhandi! =)
Indeed a great post about making money online.
Nowadays people are getting very much creative and wants to make some extra money from home.
The topic ” Make money from home ” is very much interesting and people get very much excited when they get to know about it. But people should understand, this isn’t that much easy as they are thinking.
According to me, Making money through Blogging and affiliate marketing is the best ways among all others explained here.
But to earn through blogging and affiliate marketing, You must need to work hard with lots of dedication.
You must have to follow these important steps.
1. You have to choose a profitable niche from which you can earn by promoting affiliate products.
2. Build a blog on that niche and provide helpful content to others.
3. Promote your content among potential readers
4. Drive traffic to your site and make money through it.
These are the basic steps you need to take to earn through blogging.
BTW Thanks for sharing such a wonderful post with us. 😀
I’ve been working on my travel blog and from all the articles I’ve read, this has been the most helpful! Thank you!
Wow thank you Janel!! Glad you found it useful! =)
Ive been working on starting my blog and was very pleased with this article. It has definitely provided me with many insightful tips to get things started. Thank you so much!
YAY thanks Elvin! How’s the blogging going?
I just found out this article via Twitter. I am relatively new to this blogging world, so I will try all of your tips. Thank you so much for sharing!! 🙂
yay Arisa! Glad you found it on twitter and hope I was able to answer some of your blogging confusion! Go for it!
Your travel blogging journey has been really fascinating! Your honesty and humility with a twist of wit is inspiring! I applaud your generosity in sharing your expertise and experiences. Cherry-on-top, your love story is worth writing for (it would surely be a best selling book!) Prolly made into a movie too! 🙂
Much gaiety and gratitude for the boost! I’m struggling with consistency with travel blogging. But after reading this, I’m more determined to rise above the state of mediocrity. I hope to be a contributor here someday!
Dreams do come true! You’re the living testimony of it.
Virtual toast to an enthralling forever! <3
_~ Lailanie a.k.a. Wanderful Wordsmith (ATTA Calabarzon)
WOW! Thank you so much for this message Lailanie! Positive vibes to you!
I appreciate all the tips being a new travel and food blogger. However, I would like to know if you use any paid services for twitter. I saw that you followed me on twitter a few months back, I followed you back, and a few days later I found that you unfollowed me. Sorry, but I had no choice but to block you (had no idea you were such established travel bloggers then).
Heya Mana, I’m sorry about that! My twitter account was automated and maybe few months ago the app/website we were using Justunfollower was acting up. No bad intentions with that and last year we were on trial and error so really learning how to use different automation websites but recently, we decided to do everything back to being manual. My facebook account will always be personalized though!
Reading this makes me want to travel more and blog about them in the future! Hahahaha it’s scary but the post is positive and enlightening so I will definitely take your points into consideration. Thanks for the inspiration!
yay Danielle, how’s the blogging so far? Keep traveling so you’ll have more stories to share!
Really inspiring. I think everything that I need to know in travelling, blogging and business (monetizing travel blogs) is already here. Another plus factor is a Filipina blogger. It ignites my interest in pursuing blogging, just a hobby for now but soon for business and ofcourse helping by providing information and guidelines to those who will be needing it too. I really got inspired by you and hope to learn more or work (is possible) with you ?
Woohoo! Glad to help, Lette! Go pursue your hobby as a business and it could help you go to different places! =)
Thank you for this post! I just started my travel blog and this tips are a big help. Appreciate it a lot. Continue inspiring and always safe travels to both of you 🙂
We just launched our blog 2 days ago and are finding this post very VERY VERY useful! I cant wait to get more tips.
Do you know of a service, site or app that collects all the blogs you follow into a single page?
Maybe check bloglovin! =)
Hi kach! That was a very long and interesting article your wrote.. I’m so interested in blogging, as I feel that reading and writing are my two great hidden passions. And while I’m working, I basically do not have enough time to start an article. But I gave saved this link and will review whenever I’m free.. I wish to do what you do and earn from inspiring people. I know that at the end of the day, it won’t be about money. It will all be about inspiring people with my insights.
I yet have to learn using the social media, by the way.
Noted on everything. .) Thanks Kach!
Do you guys happen to host a featured blogger program or ad?? I would love to be featured. I love following your blog and hopefully, I too will be making money from it.
We have a blogger to shine series but we have a long list! =)
Hi Two Monkeys Travel, I am so thankful for both of you. From the time I read your article that was posted at Rapplers, Career or Travel, Why Not Both, and the rest of your articles, I immediately thought of writing a travel blog. That is why my Travel blog description says it was inspired by travel bloggers and one of that was both of you. Thank you so much again for this article and it gave me more reason to write and learn on blogging. You are such an inspiration to me. I am following every step you did in starting a travel blog and to those activties you did in order to sustain your travel long term. For now, I am still using a free domain and soon when I have the budget, I will invest on it. I hope I could see both of you here at Dumaguete City “City of Gentle People”. I am working now at the City Tourism Office. You are both welcome here!
Wow thanks for this message Arnel!It might hard at the beginning to start the blog but just keep going! Dont give up! =)
Thanks for this informative article, this will help me better.
You’re welcome Sohel 🙂 Good luck on your blog 🙂
Great topic and great article.
Thanks Ahmed!
Inspirational tips and posts. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Kach and Jon!
You guys mesmerized me. Upon seeing your posts in Rappler where I went on training were greatly inspiring!
I would love to continue blogging although am yet single. Hopefully, I could know better of my adventure style through you.
I am currently posting contents on a free site provided by WordPress called The Little Manilenyo. From there I could really feel the tension on how to start my headline until the last paragraph (which also took me a week to finish).
My local travelling adventure with purposes, I guess, one way to start my story (since my work involves field-related tasks on advocating media literacy).
I really hope I could share some of my travel stories with you.
Informative; reading and more learning to this article. thanks for the email btw.
Thank Jerico!
Hi, i’ve just come across your blog and found this article really helpful. We have a travel blog but it’s still fairly new, going to put some of your tips to the test 🙂
Awesome Gina! Let us know how we could help you grow.. always remember it’s going to be challenging but never give up!
I’ve been blogging for more than a year now and this year, I really consider getting my blog to a whole new level, taking it much more seriously and hopefully earning from it. This article really helped me a lot. Thank you so much for this. Gives me much more hope for 2016.
Wow! most helpful blog i ever read! This is what I really need. Hoping to create my own travel blog soon.
This is definitely one of the most helpful tips for starting a blog. Many other ones that I’ve read all said the same thing about find your “niche” and writing about what others are looking for but that is hard when I do not yet know what my readers are looking for. Thank you so much for the tip!
I just started my blog and cannot wait to get it going.
Happy for you Jojo! You can always message us if you need help! =)
Your story is very interesting and inspiring for an amateur blogger like me. People can really earn from the things they enjoy like traveling and blogging.
Thanks Leo! How was your blogging life so far?
I also have just 6 months to prove that I am able to do the same as you guys. Otherwise I will need to return back to my cubicle and 9-5 job 🙁 I hope to be successful as well 🙂
Julius, almost six months now! How is it going with the blog?
really nice post, very
informative… thanks for sharing all the tips.. I’m really glad i read Jon’s
article on Rappler (What I Learned from dating a Filipino Woman), Now I am
hooked to all of your site, blogs and posts.. hehehe!
Hello Fei, thank youuu so much!! I always see you interacting on our facebook page, thank you po!
That’s because I’m a super fan.. hehehe! love your articles and your adventures!
This is amazing. I started a blog just now about the my adventures in the Philippines as a semi-expat (I was born here but grew up elsewhere) with the only intention of sharing. But I’d be happy to get a few discounts here and there too, lol. I love your blog as a traveling couple. I think it’s definitely essential in any relationship to be able to travel together. I think that could even be the breaking point in determining how far the relationship will go. Your posts are great. Keep it up 🙂
Hello dear, sorry just now! Thank youuu so much for reading!!! Would you like to guest post on our blog about your experience being a foreigner/ expat in the Philippines? Like visa, dealing with work and filipinos! Would be happy to promote you too and a backlink! Let me know, send me an email at [email protected] =)
Really nice blog i read the full post i like this its very interesting and you gave nice tips its useful to me.
Thanks for posting keep on sharing !…
Shoba, thank you so much! Hope it helps! I plan to update it! =)
Love, love, love this post! Providing unique value is the crux of establishing a successful business and reaching out and answering your readers queries is a sure fire way to do that. Thank you so much for sharing your valuable tips and advice. Looking forward to the next topic 🙂
Thanks Brigid! We actually checked out your site and we love it! Hope to return to Bolivia too! =)
Hi Kach! Thank you so much for this article. Me and my boyfriend are currently trying to build our website in preparation to our future travels. You and Jon inspired me so much to start this project! I’ve always tried many times to write about my travels from before but it seemed impossible to ‘make it bigger’ back then… but now I am so inspired to start again and be the story teller I once dreamt to be. We are moving to NZ to explore the country after summer, aside from that we also will follow your footsteps around the globe! At the moment, I am trying to gather all stories I long wanted to tell and organize all the photo’s I took that would go well with my tale. I am so excited! Meanwhile, my partner is working on how to get our website. I want it to be as ready as possible therefore we can start sharing wonderful stories to people who loves reading adventurous tales! This is the passion and I love it! Like what you always say on your Facebook page, positive vibes! <3 Evan
Hello Evan, I didnt notice you commented here because we’re already talking via email! haha! <3
Thank you so much for this! I really like how you help your readers. More success to your blog! 😀
HEllo Joann, thank you so much for reading! Wait, you really look familiar! Schoolmates tayo before?
Hi Kach! I don’t think we’re schoolmates unless you studied in Davao? 😉 Marami lang talaga akong kamukha.haha
This post was wonderful. It gave me so much information. I’m considering starting a blog and wonder why you were unhappy with Blogger? It seems the easiest for a beginner like me. I know I need to look more toward the future and take your advice with Blue Host.
Hello Jaynie, when you use blogger it’s definitely easy and the hosting is free but you need to know that there’s no such thing as free lunch! Google owns your content and if they decide that your account is inappropriate they can just delete it in 1 click! WordPress.org is easily customizable and it’s yours! If you want to earn money from your blog then you have to invest on it! YAY! Feel free to message me if you need anything! =)
Thank you so much! I appreciate the advice.
🙂
Thank you for this post. I love traveling and photography and been looking on how to start blogging my adventures
Thank you for reading Melche, please feel free to message me if you need any help! Om and love! =)
Hey guys – great article, with some super tips and a very humble approach! A great motivating read – thank you!
Thank you so much! We plan to publish the Part 2 about how we are monetizing our blog! YAY! =)
would ‘not’ be removing comments
Mike, I dont know what’s wrong. I already sent you a personal message, I hope you’ll respond to it to clear your issues with us. I already sent it the message on how we monetize our blog if that’s the info you needed.
Hello, Kach! Thank you for sharing these tips with everyone. Though I think I’ve read many of these tips in other blogs as well, it’s nice to have one article that compiles all of these tips in a cohesive manner. You’ve done one great thing for me, though: Inspired us to continue our own couple travel blog (with my partner. Our last update was a year ago, and it sort of just lost steam as we got eaten up by our own jobs.
Thanks so much for inspiring us. Please do continue blogging as I love reading your posts.
YAY! Thank you Mai for reading! Appreciate it! Aww, would you like to share some of your stories with your partner? I would love to publish it and link back (FOLLOW link) to your blog! Let me know, here’s my email – [email protected]
Om and love,
Kach
Thanks, Kach! I’m a bit shy to show you my blog; it only has a few entries unworthy of being guest posted, haha. Still, I’ll drop you an email soon.
Huge huge help! Great read.. .Thank you for sharing this.
Hello Kristine, thank you for reading!! <3
I love this post- it definitely helps especially as small time bloggers (also a traveling couple!!). I remember asking a few big time/medium sized bloggers if they would like to participate in a collaboration post and one medium sized blogger was so rude about it asking for compensation if he was featured because we arent a blog that would help him grow! We used to love his blog but his rude answer has put us off completely and truly appreciated all the big bloggers genuine and kind response! The readers are the reason were here so you cant be rude!
It;s the same experience with this “famous blogger”, I even helped him with some contacts during his trip, that was before we started blogging and some info in Peru but that’s life, we’ll always learn lessons! yay! Thanks for reading guys, would you like to collaborate? Yay!! Om and love to both of you!! <3
To every negative there is a positive, haha and Yes omg we would love to collaborate! We love your blog greatly (especially because you remind us a bit of ourselves, an Aus and an American traveling together hah) and you truly inspire us!
YAY! If you can shoot me an email that would be great, do you do guest posting? Would love to feature you and the social media!! <3 Here's my email – [email protected]
This is a great post with lots of great information. The title is a bit misleading though – I didn’t see anywhere that it said how you are ‘earning’ money. Sure, you mention that you are writing for bigger blogs, but that isn’t very helpful yet. Are they paying you? Do they give affiliate money? how much, etc? I really liked your emphasis on focusing on your community and interacting with them.
Hello Mike, I dont think it’s misleading cuz our title is more about How To start a travel blog and with these steps we did we were able to earn money within 6 months. We have an upcoming article on how to monetize a blog but I’m still thinking if I’m gonna publish it or not =)
no – it is definitely misleading. you say ‘how to earn money in 6 months’ — it would be better titled ‘how to start a blog and create a following’. it is great you want to publish a second article, but this article says absolutely zero about earning money. you don’t say how much money, you actually omit all steps to do with earning money. And your defense of it makes it seem like you made a clickbait title on purpose.
Hello Mike, then you can stop reading our blog if you decide not to like it. I’ve written there HOW TO START A TRAVEL BLOG AND EARN MONEY IN 6 MONTHS – IT’S DIFFERENT FROM HOW TO EARN MONEY IN 6 MONTHS. Or maybe you dont understand my Filipino English so I apologize for that.
I’ve just written on how we started and with these steps we were able to earn money by networking and at the end of the article I’ve written that our next article is on how we monetize our blog. So sorry if I disappoint you, you can stop reading my articles if it makes you upset!
Positive vibes to you! <3
Nice and a very useful post Kach! I am learning more and more!
I am still struggling between time to write and do design! But for sure i will try to blog frequently!
Thank you for sharing! 🙂
Hello Marina, welcome! Oh, we’re not good in designing and technical stuff too so I think you can start focusing on building your social media and write more!! <3
Will do Kach!! Keep inspiring tho! If you need any help or suggestion, let me know! 🙂
Very useful post! Checking out PicMonkey and Googling about how to create a blog logo now. Will follow your Twitter account. 🙂 Thanks for the tips!
Welcome Patricia! I just replied to your email!!! =)
Great post! There are lots of similar articles with basically the same tips, but they are very general. You guys gave it a personal touch and shared your own experience, which is makes it much more helpful 🙂 Thank you 🙂
Aww, thank you so much! Glad you appreciate it! Sharing is caring, we just want to be honest on what we did! Some bloggers wont share it to you as they are too afraid- never compete! Competition will drain you! Just happiness!! <3
Gah, this reminds me that I have to get on with my blog now. These are really helpful tips! Thanks!
Go for it! Message me if you need any help! Not expert but will help you with what I know! <3
It’s much easier to unntesradd when you put it that way!
Hey there! This is type of off idea but I necessity most assist from an established blog. Is it difficult to set up the own blog? I’m not quite techincal but I can figure points out very fast. I’m thinking about creating my own but I’m not sure the place to start. Do you possess any guidelines or suggestions? With appreciate
These tips are all helpful! Both of you inspire me and Gian to do better with blogging. True, it’s not that easy, but one thing is for sure, we do love what we are doing. 🙂
Continue to be an inspiration! Happy travels!
Hello lovely couple!! Thank you so much for reading! Glad you’re inspired! Feel free to message me if you need any help! <3
Hi Kach
Incredibly valuable and easy to follow advice. I especially appreciate you sharing the hard-times, and how you persevered.
Thanks Two Monkeys!
Hello Casey, thank you so much!! =)
Kach,I dunno what to say, you just nailed it! I think the really important thing in the article is the INTERACTION with the READERS, I don’t know any bloggers that reply, shout back and greet like you do…It’s one of your SPECIAL THING, It’s a BIG DEAL interacting with US coz that’s what this is all about, HELPING and INSPIRING each other, sometimes people forget what TRAVELLING is all about anymore…sometimes they put fame and money first and forgetting what’s really important,anyway,Keep it up as your Community grows, and we’ll be here reading more from you guys!
As always, I’m happy to see your feedback Erwin!! I will always be interacting, I was a reader for such a long time and I know how it feels! We will never change but hopefully we will travel luxurious next time instead of backpacking. want to experience it together with Jon! hehe
I was hoping to read a part of the article where you discuss the “How you monetize” the blog. Great read for starters in blogging in general and building a blog. – Rey
Thanks Rey, I think I already mentioned some on How we monetize it, we write for bigger websites! and the other stuff, I will write in another article. =)
so are you saying bigger websites pay you? or are you saying because of that you get ad dollars? how exactly do you earn money??
the more I read this article, the more I am disappointed by it and it feels like it taints my entire view of your blog now.
Way to go, Ate Kach! :3
Thank you so much for reading, Karla!! =) Let me know if in any case you need my help! <3