More Ways to Make Money
You can create and sell your own products. I wrote two books that are for sale on Amazon. They are printed through Create Space, which is great. All you have to do is upload your manuscript and cover. Create Space does the rest. There’s no inventory for you to manage and you don’t have to deal with customers or returns. Two PDF files loaded together can start generating money for you. It’s the perfect setup for the world traveler. A book in print is just one example, though. You can also write and sell an e-book just as easy.
You can buy and sell products made in the country you are traveling in. I know a guy who sells Buddhist amulets on his blog. He’s constantly traveling around Southeast Asia, so he (like me) has easy access to authentic amulets from the temples. He can carry an inventory of forty or fifty in his bag with no problem because they are lightweight. Whenever he receives an order, he drops an envelope in the mail when he can find a post office. Matter of fact, I might start doing the same thing. Look for authentic Buddhist amulets to be sold on this site in the near future.
Build WordPress Sites for $
Another way you can finance your endless travels around the world is to design and build WordPress sites for others. If you run your own blog, chances are you’ll become a WordPress expert as a side effect. If your travel blog isn’t paying the bills, it’s pretty easy to get a client who needs a website. There are thousands of contract gigs available on sites like Elance.com. Just sign up and start browsing. Elance also advertises jobs for work such as writing blog articles, customer service, translation, and graphic design among other things.
WordPress Design Tips
If you haven’t already guessed, this is not a very technical article. I’m not an IT guy and don’t claim to be. The advice and philosophy should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s just what I’ve observed from my time spent building WordPress sites and reading other people’s blogs. Do as much research as you can on affiliate marketing, WordPress design, and SEO. Learn from multiple sources.
Domain Names
Once you decide on the concept for your travel blog, it’s time to think of a name for it. Then, start researching domain names. Why? Well, once you start checking the availability of domain names, you may find that others have already thought of your great idea. If the domain name is already taken, make sure you visit the site to see what it’s about. The domain name you really want may be up for sale by the owner. Or, it could be a live website. How do you check to see if a domain name is available? Just go to InMotion’s home page and click on domains.
When you settle in on a domain name, it’s best to go ahead and register it before someone else does. It’s an investment of around ten dollars for one year. If you find the right name and are hesitant about investing ten bucks in your new blog, maybe you’re not as serious as you think you are. If your idea isn’t worth the price of a super-sized Big Mac combo, then you should probably re-evaluate your strategy.
Sidebars
Seriously. I think sidebars jumped the shark a long time ago. I view most sidebars as colorful, cluttered, noisy walls. It indicates where the content stops and the bullshit begins.
Either way, a sidebar on a website shouldn’t be cluttered to the extreme.
You definitely don’t need crap such as social media widgets packed in your sidebar. Explain to me the logic in putting a Facebook box there. How does that add value to your page? The answer? It doesn’t. It merely adds kilobytes of data that has to be loaded along with your relevant content. It makes your site slower.
But it shows social proof!
Ok, you’ve got me on that one. But, for $5 dollars on Fiverr anyone can buy 5,000 Facebook Likes or Followers. Does it really show social proof?
“Ain’t nothing real on the internet, homie.” – Quote from a random Tweet I read
As a reader, I’m searching for information. I’m trying to find a solution to my problem. Maybe I just want to be entertained with some unique content. Regardless, I want the information and I want it served fast. I’m not the least bit interested in looking at tiny profile pictures in your Facebook box. I did not come to your site to see who else likes your site. I DON’T CARE.
Besides, do you really want me to click through to Facebook and leave your site? Once a reader gets to Facebook, they’re going to forget all about your article because one of their friends just posted a picture of a mad kitten. If you send them to Facebook, how did you make any money?
Maybe you don’t share the same opinion and are going to fill every square inch of sidebar space with a Facebook box, a Twitter feed that’s two feet long, an Instagram feed, and fourteen banner ads. Good luck. Let me know how that turns out for you. Speaking of banner ads…
Banner Ads
My first few site designs were packed full of banner ads. Why? Well, when you sign up for an affiliate program, they have pretty, ready-made banners waiting on you. All you do is copy and paste the html code into your WordPress site and Voila, the money starts rolling in!
Now back to reality. Banner ads these days are terrible for conversions. They were great when internet marketing was just getting started. They caught your attention and you just couldn’t resist clicking on them. In the year 2015, people are so accustomed to banner ads that they suffer from what’s called Banner Blindness. Your eyes just automatically pass by anything that resembles a banner ad. Personally, I never click on one unless I’m on a site I know and trust. If a page or post is chock full of banner ads, I leave immediately. It feels crowded, cheap, and questionable as to whether or not it’s trying to attach some good ol’ malware to my computer.
Then how can I make money?
It’s much better to place a few quality advertisements strategically, than to flood the page with noise. If there is just one item in the sidebar, you can’t help but take notice of it. If there are ten items, you are blind to all of them. Try to find a balance.
Recommend something to your readers instead of just blasting them with ads. For example: If you’re looking for a unique travel bag that has “World Traveler” written all over it, check out the leather briefcase I got from Saddleback. The darn thing came with a 100-year warranty. It fits perfectly underneath an airline seat. It wasn’t cheap, but worth every penny.
Wait to Monetize?
Most articles I have read on monetizing a blog say to wait until you get traffic. That just doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s logic that you’re not going to make any money until you have traffic. That’s obvious. But why would you sit back and purposely not add some ways to generate income? If you don’t, you’re missing out on important data from the beginning. It’s the data about what works and what doesn’t. If you create a page and from day one you’re getting click-throughs and conversions, then maybe you should use that page as your template and replicate it. If you write an article that gets no click-throughs or conversions, maybe you need to re-evaluate the content and the layout. So, if you wait to monetize your blog, you’re really just blogging blind.
Sure, you can use Google Analytics to track all sorts of data about your users and their activity. But, that’s not going to tell you what makes them take action and spend some money! My advice is to monetize your site from the beginning. Keep your ads and affiliate links to a minimum so that they seem important and exclusive.
Popup Subscribe Boxes
It seems that the trend these days is to have your subscribe box fire as a popup either when the page first loads, when the reader scrolls down a bit, or when you least expect it. I’m tired of having to click the X to close these pesky subscribe boxes. Instead, I just hit the back button on the browser and escape the madness. Didn’t we get rid of popup ads about ten years ago? What the heck? Why, all of a sudden, have they reappeared as WordPress plugins like they are some new invention?
If someone shoves a popup in my face, I leave immediately. Pissed off. End of my visiting that particular blog. Are subscribe boxes important? Absolutely. Your email list is described as The One Metric That Matters by many writers. I agree that a well-placed, well-designed, aesthetically-pleasing, and engaging subscribe box is a necessity in order to entice your readers to opt in.
So, if you’re sitting there looking at your popup subscribe box options and can’t decide whether you want it to swing in, fade, bounce, etc., you’re wasting your time. You’re just going to piss off the pool of readers that matter. You know, the ones who are actually doing research and have a credit card with some credit on it.
To me, when that box pops up in my face, it’s telling me that I must be too damn stupid to find it in the sidebar or on the home page if I want to get updates. My advice? Put your subscribe box on your home page. Don’t have the darn thing swing in like Tarzan on a vine. Most of us aren’t impressed.
I currently use MailChimp for my subscriber list and email management. However, I’m seriously considering switching over to AWeber.
Google Analytics
You should sign up for Google Analytics while you are still building your site. You have to constantly evaluate the data on what your users are doing, where they are from, and what pages are getting the most traffic. Google Analytics allows you to have visibility on these metrics. There is a learning curve, but the basics are to sign up and create an account, and then link Analytics to your site. This is something that you really need to have.
Logo and Branding
You should probably come up with some type of logo for your site. If you don’t have a lot of money to invest, just go to Graphic River and browse around. For a few dollars, you can download a logo that can be easily customized on PhotoShop. My logo is from the Modern Vintage Badges Collection and only cost $5 dollars! With some basic PhotoShop skills, you can modify the template and create something really nice. If you are not proficient with PhotoShop, ask a friend to help you. Or, go to Fiverr and pay someone from $5 to $20 dollars to design a logo for you.
Here’s a tidbit of advice I learned the hard way. Don’t try to be a graphic designer if you’re not one. Graphic designers are artists. The screen is their canvas. I am quite comfortable admitting that I have no graphic design skills. When I need graphic design work done, I’m more than happy to shell out a few bucks and pay a professional.
Make sure that your logo looks ok on a white background and a black background as well. If you have a dark background for your website, your white logo will look great. But what happens when you want to embed that white logo into the signature block of your email? Email obviously has a white background.
While I have a logo, I haven’t actually used it that much. The reason is that the title of my blog is my name. Therefore, I’m really branding myself. Any picture of me is my brand. That’s the way I look at it. But, if you’re blog is some catchy name or phrase, I think you need a logo to go with it. I’m not a marketing expert, so do your own research on this topic.
How to Choose Your Content
After you’ve built your site, how do you decide what you’re going to write about?
First, let me back up a bit. Every article I’ve read says that you have to pick a niche for your blog. But what exactly is a niche?
Niche: a distinct segment of a market. – dictionary.com
To just say that you’re starting a travel blog is very general. It doesn’t tell me much at all. If you tell me that you’re starting a blog about the cheapest hostels in Southeast Asia, I’d consider that a niche. The best dive spots in the Philippines would be a niche. If you can narrow it down to a very specific area of interest and become the expert about it, you have a better chance of being successful. To just start writing about your travels around the world is a gamble. Why? Because everyone else and their brother, friend, cousin, etc. are already doing that. Google “travel blog” and see how many hits you get. I just Google’d it and got 1.1 million hits.
Pick a niche that you have some expertise or interest in. Don’t try to write about subjects in which you have no previous experience.
Does your site have a niche?
Not Really. Ok, no, it doesn’t. I’m still trying to figure that out. I’m working on it. My two books are in two totally different areas of interest, so it’s impossible to mold the blog around that particular content.
I like to travel, drink, and write. That’s very general, I know. Maybe I should narrow it down a bit. How about this:
I like to travel to hidden beaches in Southeast Asia, drink cold Singha beer with the locals, and write philosophy while drunk as a zebra.
Ok, I’ve finally settled on this instead:
Sharing coconut rum philosophy & travel stories from my hideaway in Southeast Asia.
It’s not really a niche, but it does tell you more about what I’m into rather than saying “Welcome to my Travel Blog”.
One of the things that I’ve noticed about most articles on travel blogs is that they are very BORING. They read like a Wikipedia article and merely regurgitate information that’s widely available on a million other sites. What sets them apart? Nothing. They won’t make it. Write your articles with personal flair. Include what you think, feel, smell, like, and don’t like. Tell your adventure as it happened, hopefully with some comedy. You can always include the data (ferry schedules, prices, museum hours, etc.) but make the post personal. If you don’t make the post entertaining, then why would I want to visit your site? I can just go to the museum’s website if I want to know the hours of operation and the ticket prices. I can go to the larger travel sites to read quick reviews. Give me a reason to keep reading your post.
If you can provide information that solves someone’s problem or provides them with an education about a topic, you’ll probably get some traffic.
Create Headings Then Content
Can’t think of what to write about? Start by doing what you did as a child in school. Brainstorm and come up with your main idea. I usually begin a page or post with the title. Then, I move on down to the Yoast SEO box and fine tune the description. After that, I add three or four paragraph titles. Then, I add content, paragraph by paragraph, not always in any particular order. As the article begins to take shape, I work out the introduction and ending. At this point, the article can probably be published after some editing. I add,change, and delete content to my pages and posts as time passes, so they’re never really finished. But, a short article published is better than the best article waiting in draft status.
Done is better than perfect
As a matter of fact, this page is a work in progress but it’s good enough to post right now…
Top 6 Things Readers Hate
I asked a few people about what they hate most about websites. Six topics came up for discussion.
#1. Popups
Those danged-old pop ups. You don’t do anything and they just show up. The damn X is too small to click to get rid of it. When you do get rid of it, the thing keeps coming back for some reason. I hate that. I get the heck out of the site right then.
#2. Slow
If the site takes too long to load, I find something else.
#3. More Fluff than Stuff
Sites where there’s a little bit of information and a whole lot of filler. The site feels muddy and cloudy.
#4. Don’t Like Boring
#5. Text Too Small to Read
#6. Ads
Comments From Women
I was having a conversation with some ladies about their opinions on web design. None of them are web designers, nor are they in marketing. I decided to include a few points they brought up:
If they had to choose between a pretty site that was slightly slower, or a plain site that was slightly faster, they would be willing to wait a little longer for the pretty site to load. In comparison, they would rather read a pretty magazine rather than a plain newspaper. That’s obvious, I would think, but worth mentioning, nonetheless. That basic psychology should be factored into a website’s design and layout, especially if women are your primary audience.
If I’m looking for a recipe on how to bake a cake, I don’t want you to tell me about the farmer who delivered the eggs. I want the info on point, up front. I go to a site with the expectation it will solve my problem.