So you want to start a travel blog and now you are wondering what should you do next? I must admit, for me, the travel niche has been the hardest. On the other hand, I've been making a decent income from booking affiliate and private tours in the past. Nothing to brag about, but nothing to be ashamed of.
Right now, I'm getting paid for promoting hotels on booking.com and from individually handcrafted tours in Georgia. That's a combination of affiliate marketing and running a private business.
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As recently a blog reader contacted me and asked me about both private tours and booking.com affiliate, I decided to come up with a longer blog post, to help find some answers on How To Start a Travel Blog and Get Paid
For some time I have interest in making my own website to possibly offer private tours, as well as on the same site make a banner from booking.com that I can recommend people to visit and earn commission as affiliate.
So far, so good - private tours and booking.com banner on a website. Personally, I doubt in the success of a banner only, instead I prefer deep linking to hotel pages using a combination of both individual hotels reviews and listing TOP hotels in a blog post. A banner could be added to the website, but I don't think it's the most powerful tool. Use a combination of articles and banners.
Reader continues:
I came across wix and worpress sites, where I can make website free of charge, but if I want special domain then I need to pay 10 $/year. but that is peanuts, compare to hosting and premium plans (ok, some offer special deals for 1 year..)
Is it normal to have 25$/month premium package in wordpress (similar price in wix) for having an option to apply google analytics, place booking.com banner that can generate commissions (even from my own reservation), SEO
As a Drupal developer - I will say, use Drupal, but on the other hand, I understand WordPress is a very popular blogging platform, there are plenty of plugins and a huge community. So if you are deciding between WordPress or Wix - I would say go with WordPress.
Is it normal to have a $25/mo premium package - now - it depends, personally me - I'm spending well above $100/mo just to power my blog. If you are looking for a cheap start think Bluehost (just 3.95 USD/mo) with one click WordPress Installation.
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As your website will grow you will find it ok paying $25, $50 or $100/mo just to power it. Start small - Think BIG.
When website and business is established and running then (25*12=300$ + 10$) ~300$/year could be fine, but for starting that kind of feels a lot and I do not want to rush with expensive decision.
Again, when choosing a hosting from Bluehost, you could be up and running for less than $50 including a free domain name (3.95$*12=$47.4)