When most people think of blogging they don’t think of actually making money. Most travelers or RVers who start blogs do so because they want to keep a digital record of their travels around the country. It’s not “a normal thing” for blogging to generate a full-time income, none the less as much as my friend Michelle is making as she travels around in her RV.
Last month full-time RVer Michelle from makingsenseofcents.com made $25,000 while driving her RV around places like the Teton Mountains and exploring other part of Wyoming. She made it all from her blog.
Being fascinated by her story, I reached out to her to ask her how she learned to make so much money from her website. As a fellow RV blogger, I wanted to learn how I could also earn some money from my website. Isn’t that the dream, to make money and travel? I vote yes.
Anyway, Michelle had some really great advice on how to start a successful blog that I want to pass along to you.
Tips on how to launch a successful blog:
- Start a blog before you hit the road, because if you start during your travels it can be a bit hectic. By starting before you can work out all the kinks and not have to juggle full-time travel.
- Publish consistently on your blog when you launch it. A good amount is at least 3 times per week.
- ** Most important: Provide value for your readers. There are literally thousands of travel blogs out there. What makes yours different? How are you helping other travelers? How are you entertaining them differently than other people? The goal is to provide as much value for the people reading your blog as possible.
- Build trust with your readers. Be honest, authentic and transparent about who you are and what you are about. This helps build a foundation for cultivating great relationships online.
- Connect with other travel/like minded bloggers to learn from them and be a part of their community.
(If you want to read more tips from Michelle, you can see a full interview I did with her here)
If you can execute the above steps, then you are off to a great start. Most people try to skip all of those tips and try to place ads on a website and that just doesn’t work. Michelle makes a significant amount of her income off what’s called affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing, if you don’t know, is when you recommend a product or service you are currently using, link to a website where someone can purchase that product or service, and then you receive a commission from that sale. It’s pretty straight forward.
For example, the service Boondockerswelcome.com allows you to park for free on fellow RVers land while you’re traveling around. It saves you a bunch of money and a ton of people use it. If you like their service, you could create an affiliate account with them and post it on your website. When people sign up after clicking on your link, then you’ll receive 10% of that sale. You can read more about it here on their website. This is one of many RV related websites that offer affiliate coupons.
The purpose in sharing a bit of Michelle’s story today is to encourage you to realize that it’s possible to earn an income while traveling the country. You can make money from a blog or even renting out your RV on RVShare while you’re not using it. There are SO many ways to make money while full-time RVing.
Are you earning money on the road? If so, what are you doing for work? Leave a comment below I’d love to hear!
