How to Become a Travel Content Creator: Your Step-By-Step Guide

I used to work a 9-5 and it was a disaster. Of course at the time I didn’t know I had ADHD, which was probably a huge part of the problem (😅)… but I also had a dream to travel more and not just on my holidays and vacation days.

I was so tired of dreaming about travel I started writing and posting about it for fun. I loved sharing my travel adventures with you and helping you travel for less. But then I realized I could actually make money from it. When I got my first $5 commission check I was absolutely thrilled.

And eventually I decided I wanted to quit my 9-5 and make travel my career. It changed my life. I became a travel content creator and now it’s my job.

If you’re thinking, “I want that.” Know that you can make it happen. With some work, dedication, and a bit of skill you can do this, too. That’s why I’ve created this helpful guide so you can get started as a travel content creator.

Just a quick note: This page might include affiliate links. If you click and purchase anything from the links I receive a tiny commission to support this website. The good news? I only recommend products I actually use and believe in. So you're getting the best products at a super good price.

How easy is it to start being a travel content creator?

When people ask me about how easy it is to do what I do I like to tell them that being a creator is a lot of skill and a little luck. But it all depends on the direction you decide to take your skills. You actually don’t have to be the face on camera or have a lot of followers to be a successful creator! 

And depending on your choice of income streams you’ll need different skills. If you want to be an influencer you’ll need more luck with Instagram and TikTok algorithms showing your content to people in your niche through quality videos. By contrast, if you decide you want to primarily focus on growing a travel blog you’ll need more skill with SEO and writing.

Either way it’s important to know that most travel content creators start out making close to nothing with it often taking a year, if not many years, to become a sustainable business.

What does a travel content creator actually do?

This largely depends on the direction you decide to take your business. Creators can have a wide variety of ways they make money and often rely on many streams of income. But they choose a main focus as a starting point.

Some types of content you can make:

  • produce UGC videos for other businesses without having to post on a personal social media account
  • or create a blog to show travel destinations through itineraries and tips without ever creating a video
  • or work to grow a social media following to work with brand partnerships
  • or sell your products and courses to a small niche audience

But the truth is that most of us have multiple streams of income and choose one to two pathways in travel content creation to focus on. Some have small social media presences but make tens of thousands of dollars from their blogs while others might have 25k+ followers and aren’t making any money. 

How much does a Travel Content Creator Make?

There is honestly a huge range in income travel content creators make. Many content creators start with this being a part-time business, making maybe a few hundred dollars a month from affiliate marketing and selling their own products.

But trust me when I say I know bloggers making $10k+ a month consistently and Instagrammers with $10k+ brand deals every month. 

Is becoming a travel creator right for you?

If you have a passion for travel and want to share it with others you can totally make travel content creation your dream job. But keep in mind it’s still a job and a lot of work.

It might look like glamorous travel on the outside but we spend 10+ hour days behind a computer developing SEO strategies, email campaigns, video and photo editing, responding to emails, updating websites, and so much more. But the good news is that these are skills anyone can learn.

So if you want to…

  • Be your own boss
  • Have each day look a little different
  • Share travel with the world

You can be a travel creator. You just have to be ready and willing to put in the work and learn the skills. 

Your guide to becoming a travel content creator

Step 1: Develop your Niche

One of the main steps many people fail at on their first attempt at travel content creation is deciding their niche. Think about it this way: you want your audience to connect with you because they have a similar passion or interest and travel isn’t deep enough.

Personally my focus is budget travel hacking, but I’ve seen accounts on traveling through beers, traveling Mexico solo, and solo women traveling together.

The point is you need to offer people a unique perspective. This will help you relate to your audience and give specific information for SEO results, too.

Step 2: Set the mindset that this is a business and not a hobby

A mistake I made for well over a year was that I treated Kendyl Travels like a hobby and not an income-generating business. For a long time it was just my escape from my 9-5.

Treating it like a business from the start will help you look for opportunities to grow instead of feeling satisfied with it as a part-time hobby.

One easy way to ensure you treat it as a business is setting up a separate email address, open a business account, and monitoring your monthly income. Setting up an EIN is also a great idea to easily earn revenue and open business credit cards as needed.

Step 3: Decide what platforms you want to focus on

Oftentimes travel creators choose to have 1-2 platforms they focus on and maybe a 3rd as a growth strategy. 

Personally, my main platforms are this blog and my Instagram. And I’m working on growing a Youtube presence but I don’t rely on it as an income stream and more as a project to eventually produce income.

Some of the main platforms you can choose to focus on include:

  • Blog | These long-form content platforms are great if you like to produce informative content. They require skill in photo editing, SEO, and writing and do require more time to create the content than some of the other options on the list. Oftentimes you make money through affiliate marketing, ads, and sponsored posts with smaller blogs relying more heavily on affiliate marketing.
  • Youtube | If you enjoy telling stories through video Youtube is a great platform to create content for. (Though it can take years to see real income.) Youtube is usually an added platform for more travel creators since it takes a lot of time to create quality content and your income is usually fairly low from ad revenue once you are monetized. 
  • Instagram | As a visual platform, Instagram has always been an important part of any travel content creator’s strategy. Focusing on short-form videos and stories you can engage your audience through storytelling in a simplified way. Most creators make money through selling their own products, affiliate marketing, and sponsored posts on Instagram. 
  • TikTok | More brands are focusing on putting their revenue into TikTok and it’s a great platform to add to your Instagram strategy since you can post your video content in two places. Audiences on TikTok tend to be younger which seems to help work for some creators and not others.

Creators might also have accounts on Facebook, X, Pinterest, and Threads.

Step 4: Develop your skills + learn the ones you need to

At the core travel content creators are marketers. But we are also editors, writers, SEO strategists, tech support, and so much more. And though you certainly learn on the job it’s important to have a foundation to grow upon.

I used Skillshare to help me learn how to create a website, SEO writing, and editing photos with Lightroom. And all my creator friends can also attest that when they invested into programs and courses is when they started seeing results, too.

All to say, the more time you invest into learning the skills upfront the more time and money you’ll save later on.

A few courses and masterclasses I recommend:

Step 5: Choose and create your identity + website

By now you’ve decided on your niche, chosen your platforms and developed your skills. The next step is to develop your brand identity.

Key tips: 

  • I recommend using BlueHost as your hosting platform to run through Wordpress when developing your website
  • You can start with a free Wordpress theme, but I recommend downloading the KadenceWP theme since it’s made for bloggers with a fast interface and easy-to-use design elements.
  • Get your brand name rights for all social platforms, even the ones you don’t plan on using
  • I hired a designer on Fiverr to create my logo and brand kit and it was a tremendous help for creating my content.

Step 6: Build your platforms + grow

First, I always recommend starting by owning all your socials and website URL just in case you want to use them later. This includes Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, TikTok, Pinterest, and X. And be sure to also purchase your URL, even if you don’t plan to create a website right away.

By now you should have all the skills you need to be successful. You’ve taken the courses, learned the tools, and created a brand identity. But I’m not going to lie, implementation can be the hardest and most frustrating step.

For a few success comes quickly but for most it’s certainly a grind to grow. On social media your first 1,000 followers are the hardest. Or, if you choose to blog your first 1k monthly readers might take many, many months to get to. Stick with it and adapt as needed but just keep creating content.

Tip! Do not forget to create an email lead magnet and email list. I recommend using Convertkit, which is free for your first 500 subscribers! You can also create your own products through Convertkit. 

Step 7: Monetize your content

We’re all here to make money, right? Your final step in becoming a travel content creator is finding out how you plan to make this a career. 

There are many ways you can monetize your content, so let’s briefly look at them.

Affiliate Marketing

Probably the most common first step is getting yourself some affiliate links. Affiliate marketing is basically getting a small commission for referring others to your favorite products and services. 

Amazon is the most popular first affiliate program for content creators because they accept pretty much anyone. TravelPayouts is also a great choice for easy affiliate links in one place for popular travel brands like Viator and Booking.com.

Tip! Be sure you have a clear affiliate statement on your blog, emails, etc. This is important because you are legally required to disclose this information.

Personal Products and Services

Another easy way to start earning money is charging for products and services that offer value to your audience. Things like ebooks, coaching calls, masterclasses, itineraries, courses, etc. are great products.

Think of your products as the avenue to solving their problem with your content showing them how you do it. You might show them how you saved $5,000 on your hotel rooms but your $4.99 product is a complete e-book to how to get hotel rooms for $0 every time.

Brand Deals

Brand deals are another way to earn money as a travel content creator. Oftentimes brands first want to do gifted campaigns instead of paid collaborations, especially if you’re a small account. But even with 5,000 followers you can find brands willing to work with you.

Press/FAM Trips

Like brand deals you can get paid to work with tourism boards around the world. (I recently did this with my hometown, who sponsored this blog!) These trips can either be paid collaborations or unpaid but free trips, which help you produce content without paying to visit the destination.

Run ads on your website

MediaVine is the premier ad service for blogs but requires a hefty 50,000 monthly page views to qualify. SheMedia is a great alternative for smaller blogs to start running ads on their website.

Some creators don’t even run ads on their website until they hit the 50k threshold and instead fully rely on affiliate revenue and affiliate marketing to keep their website cleaner in design.

Host group trips

A newer and growing way to earn money as a creator is hosting group trips and retreats. This is especially a good revenue stream if you have an engaged audience interested in traveling with you. If you have the right personality and enjoy spending time with your community this is a fun approach to travel creation.

I host my trips through Intrepid but many smaller creators choose to use TrovaTrip since it’s easy with high earnings. I personally choose Intrepid because I think their prices and customization is much better for my audience, even if I’m earning considerably less.

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