How Much Travel Bloggers Actually Earn (by Years Blogging)
There are a lot of claims out there of travel bloggers making $5k a month, $10k a month, and even more. But are these reports true, and is it actually possible to make a full-time income as a travel blogger?
Based on my own experience of earning $5-15k month steadily from my travel blog, I trust these travel blog income reports are true (or at least achievable). But I wanted to get a more well-rounded idea of how much other bloggers earn, so I surveyed dozens of travel bloggers at different experience levels.
In this article I’m sharing the results of that survey to give you an idea of how much real travel bloggers make, based on how long they’ve been blogging. Analyzing these survey results was really interesting for me—I learned that my travel blog is a bit of an outlier with how quickly I hit some earnings milestones, but also an outlier in how I earn!
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Travel Blogger Earnings by Experience Level
I surveyed dozens of travel bloggers and asked them a variety of questions about their blogging businesses. The results were fascinating! Here are a few interesting takeaways:
- Hotel affiliates rule (maybe?!): Hotel affiliate commissions make up the top income stream for 44% of travel bloggers—but none of these bloggers have achieved more than $2,500/month yet. I believe this is becuase its easy to boost hotel earnings with Stay22 just by installing a script, without any strategy.
- But ads, tour affiliates, and partnerships pay more: Travel bloggers whose top income source is ads, tour affiliates, or brand partnerships tend to earn more than those who earn the most from hotel affiliates. These income sources require more strategy, and once you learn the strategy you can scale.
- TravelPayouts is a no-brainer: Newbie and experience travel bloggers alike seem to prefer using travel affiliates through TravelPayouts (as well as Stay22) rather than direct affiliate partnerships. TravelPayouts is nice because it centralizes dozens of different travel-related affiliates in one place and they will even advocate on your behalf for commission increases!
- Weekly blogging hours do not correlate to earnings: The vast majority of respondents work 5-15 hours a week, but number of hours worked doesn’t seem to correlate with earnings. You can work less and earn more, particularly as you build up a robust collection of income-generating posts.
- Affiliates vs ads: The travel bloggers who have stuck with blogging for over five years have had the highest earning months, but with a great strategy (and maybe a bit of algorithmic luck), you can still hit $5,000-8,000/month in your first two years.
- Digital products don’t get talked about much: Digital products were rarely mentioned throughout the survey. I don’t personally sell any digital products but I get the impression that many other travel bloggers do, so this is interesting to me!
Now let’s look through the findings related to how much money travel bloggers make, based on their years blogging! And after that I’ll share some action items to help you earn more with your travel blog.
Related: How to Ethically Promote Affiliate Links as a Travel Blogger
Travel Bloggers with Less Than a Year of Experience
- Range of highest earning month: $0 → $120
- Most common income source: Hotel affiliates (specifically Stay22)
- Hours of blogger per week: 5-15 for most
What this stage looks like
Your first year of travel blogging is usually filled with trial and error as you learn the ins and outs of everything from actually writing helpful blogs to SEO and affiliate marketing.
It took me a few months of travel blogging before I realized more than half of my posts weren’t even indexed (aka they don’t show up on Google). And it wasn’t until month five that I started integrating affiliate links into my travel content, starting with Amazon and then, Viator.
By the end of my first year, I’d seen some massive growth—from zero pageviews to about 45,000 in a month, and a $1,700 month! I didn’t put ads on my site until the beginning of the second year, but these days, many newer travel bloggers can qualify premium ads with for Journey by Mediavine.
COmmonalities between the top earners
- Affiliates are the most common way to monetize, and most earn the highest from hotel affiliates, followed by tour affiliates
- Google is the most common traffic source
Words of Wisdom
“As a side hustle it takes a while to start getting traffic and earning an income from it. In the beginning you’ll spend almost as much time on it as you do your main income.” – Heidi of Mama’s on Vacation, blogging for 10 months at the time of writing
Travel Bloggers with 1–2 Years of Experience
- Range of highest earning month: $10 → $8,000
- Most common income source: Hotel affiliates (specifically through Stay22 and TravelPayouts)
- Hours of blogger per week: 15-25 hours a week for most
What this stage looks like
Moving into the second year of travel blogging, you understand the basics and have some evidence of what does and doesn’t work. And now you just need time to implement everything you’ve learned!
My second year of travel blogging had high highs and low lows—I got Raptive ads on my site, hit my first $5,000 month, and then watched my traffic tank with one of those pesky Google updates.
What surprises me about the survey responses of other travel bloggers is that hotel affiliates earnings (again) are the top source of income. To this day, my hotel commissions are minimal compared to my Viator earnings. I know I need to invest more into hotel-focused content, but these survey results are a wake-up call for me!
That said, my blog earnings in my second year were higher than most of the survey respondents, so maybe a lot of folks are underutilizing tour affiliates!
COmmonalities between the top earners
- Again, hotel affiliates through Stay22 and TravelPayouts are the most common ways top earners generate income
- The top earners tend to be on Journey by Mediavine or Raptive, which provides another income source, but also suggests that these bloggers have reached a certain threshold of pageviews
- That said, there are outliers who earn $5,000+/month primarily through brand partnerships rather than ads and affiliates
- Google and Pinterest are top traffic sources, but some top earners also generate most of their traffic from Facebook
- Most top earners have been negatively impacted by Google updates at one point or another
- Top earners advise against spending too much time on social media
Words of Wisdom
“Be careful who you listen to for blogging advice. You don’t know what you don’t know early on, and it’s easy to be persuaded something will work through good marketing tactics. Always wait to purchase a course or membership of any kind until you’re sure it’s the right thing for you.” – Jess and Julia of The Lavender Travelers, blogging for 1.5 years at the time of writing
Travel Bloggers with 3-5 Years of Experience
- Range of highest earning month: $500 → $9,000
- Most common income source: Tour affiliates and ads
- Hours of blogger per week: 5-15 for most
What this stage looks like
By year three you’ve probably solidified your way of travel blogging—writing style, SEO strategy, and so on—you can invest in other areas of your business.
As I enter into my third year of travel blogging, I’m investing more in email marketing, and most importantly, creating a robust brand that I feel proud of!
I have three years worth of articles generating semi-passive income in the background, which frees me up to either work less hours or try new things!
COmmonalities between the top earners
- These older travel bloggers tend to earn from a wider variety of affiliates compared to newer bloggers, including the typical hotel and tour affiliates, plus rental cars, retail, and more
- Unlike the newer bloggers, these more experienced bloggers tend to generate the most affiliate commissions from tour affiliates like Viator and GetYourGuide rather than hotels
- All of the respondents were partnered with an ad network, either Mediavine, Journey by Mediavine, or Raptive
- All respondents had at least 10,000 monthly pageviews, but not necessarily that much higher than the top earners in the 1-2 year range
Words of Wisdom
“Investing in your blog/business is the quickest way to succeed! Learn from someone who’s currently doing what you want to do. Just 2 years after investing in myself, I went from 50 pageviews per month and $0 to nearly 50K with 4-figure months.” – Alexys of Alexys Abroad, travel blogging since 2021
Travel Bloggers with 5+ Years of Experience
- Range of highest earning month: $1,200 → $25,000
- Most common income source: Ads, follow by hotels affiliates
- Hours of blogger per week: Some work as little as 5-15 hours a week, others work over 40 hours a week
What this stage looks like
I have not reached year five year, but I imagine this crowd is a mix of very successful travel bloggers as well as folks who are revitalizing old hobby blogs.
Some 10-year-old blogs are not profitable at all—especially if they’ve been neglected. But others have been steadily building their older blogs, even achieving $25,000 months!
COmmonalities between the top earners
- Most have negotiated affiliate commission increases
- Many do not use social media as much as newer bloggers (besides Pinterest)
- Almost all have seen both traffic drops and increases due to Google updates over the years
- All generate traffic primarly from Google Search, followed by Pinterest
Words of Wisdom
“Focus on creating great content and tasks that move the needle. Courses are great, but at some point you have to stop spending time learning and actual do the work if you want to move your business forward. Social media and Pinterest can be strong support strategies, but nothing beats creating quality content and lots of it.” Gwen of California Family Travel and San Diego Family Travel, travel blogging since 2018
Action Items: How to Increase Your Travel Blog Earnings
The results of this survey make me think you should:
- Automate hotel earnings with Stay22. I took a while to signup for Stay22, but now their ‘pop’ feature earns me a few extra hundred dollars per month on autopilot. I don’t have to do anything once the script is installed!
- But don’t let your affiliate marketing strategy stop there! It’s less about trying to force people to click links and more about guiding readers with a buyer intent to the right type of articles. See my article on ethical affiliate marketing for travel bloggers.
- Though it doesn’t seem to be linked to higher earnings, using TravelPayouts is common amongst top earners. I believe this is becuase it centralized all your affiliates in one place, making it easier to work with a variety of affiliates.
- Ue your time wisely. Working more hours doesn’t necessarily earning more—but you will work many hours in the beginning before you start seeing income.
- Figure out what income streams make most sense for you and hone in your craft. Some bloggers go all in on paid partnerships with hotels and travel brands—and earn thousands a month doing it. Meanwhile, I much prefer earning via affiliate marketing—specifically tours. And others rely heavily on ads.
- Be careful about investing time into building digital products. Find someone who have done it well and learn from them!
