How to become a travel blogger and not go broke

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Endless travel, constantly new emotions, and as a bonus - beautiful pictures and thousands of followers demanding more and more colorful posts. Free accommodation in expensive hotels and exciting blog tours along uncharted routes and countries at the expense of advertisers. Being a popular travel blogger is the dream of any Instagram user.

How to start your journey in this direction and how to successfully continue it? We found out the main secrets from popular travel bloggers and share them with you.

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What to shoot with?

This is the most important question to ask before embarking on the path of travel blogging. Bright and unusual shots are the key to success.

Photos should be juicy, breathtaking and inspiring to immediately go to where the shot was taken.

How do you get these photos? Do you have to buy expensive professional equipment and become a certified photographer?

Many travel bloggers are not professional photographers and most often shoot with a mobile phone camera. Firstly, it is convenient, since it is very important to be light when traveling. Secondly, it is cheaper than professional cameras. And thirdly, mobile technologies have long since stepped forward and they have something to offer.

For example, the new flagship Huawei P10 with an improved second-generation Leica built-in camera. The smartphone is equipped with fast lenses, optical image stabilization and many settings for artistic photography. He takes high-quality pictures, including super-selfies in any weather conditions, no worse than professional equipment. Samsung Galaxy S7, Sony Xperia XZ Premium, ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom also take good pictures - be sure to take a closer look at the camera yourself. And the main thing is to be creative and find a winning angle.

How do I process photos?

Any photo, whether taken with a professional camera or a mobile phone, needs to be processed. This is, of course, the easiest to accomplish in a smartphone. You don't have to master Photoshop and Lightroom.

There are many mobile graphics programs with the most diverse and convenient functionality. For example, VSCO will help you to add mood, bright or dark colors, mystery or sunny atmosphere to the image. It should be noted that a standard set of filters is quite enough for decent image processing. There are some good processing options in Afterlight too.

If you want to tweak the contrast, make certain areas of the photo brighter, lighter or darker, then the Snapseed app will help you. It is very easy to work in it, as the controls are completely intuitive.

Great processing apps can also be found in the list of native smartphone apps.

How do you style posts to make them popular?

After we figured out how to create beautiful content, you need to think about promoting your photos and your account as a whole. Travel bloggers do not reveal maps and do not share promotion secrets, but after examining their profiles, one can note the importance of comments, signatures, hashtags, geotags, and tags of third-party accounts.

Before uploading a new photo, you need to think about what you will write about in the post. You don't need to write a lot on Instagram, but useful or inspirational information is helpful. For example, describe in what extreme conditions this or that photo was taken or tell a curious fact from the history of this place. This will revitalize your audience and help you collect more likes and comments.

By the way, about the latter: the number of comments affects the popularity of a photo. The more reviews your followers leave for a photo, the potentially wider coverage of your post will be.

As for hashtags, geotags and mentions of third-party accounts, you will have to work hard and select the appropriate options for each new photo.

For example, you can find dozens of popular accounts that publish beautiful themed pictures for free - just check the box and you can be noticed.

How to travel constantly and not go broke?

The question of beautiful and exciting routes at the initial stage of blog development is always an edge. Firstly, where to find time for constant travel, and secondly, where to find money for them?

First you need to carefully study your hometown. Surely you do not even suspect about many beautiful places. Explore the area and share interesting photos with your subscribers.

If we talk about trips to other cities and countries, a weekend trip is a great budget option. Monitor travel agencies for hot deals, bookmark updates on special offers for low-cost airlines and buses on international routes.

There are excellent promotions from hotels and hostels. And, of course, don't forget to check out the Couchsurfing app. Here you can find not only a great company to explore the area, but also a place where you can stay for free for a couple of days. Sometimes the most interesting travels and, accordingly, photos are obtained thanks to new acquaintances.