One of the biggest industries affected by Covid-19 is surely the travel industry. Not only was it not a good idea to risk infection by traveling, but many countries closed their borders. And now that many nations are coming out of the woods when it comes to the contagion, many people simply don’t have the money to travel.
The industry has been hit on all fronts and is certainly a challenge for anybody in the industry. So, where does this leave travel bloggers? After all, they likely don’t have any employees or physical business that they are in danger of losing.
The issue is this: Will there be anybody who wants to read your blog or watch your vlog? It bears repeating that even with countries opening up their economies to tourists, there likely will be far fewer travelers than ever before.
Clearly this means that you should forget your plans to be a travel blogger. Or, does it? If you are dead set on becoming one, or are already a travel blogger wondering how to come out of this mess and continue to do what you do, then you need to understand some things.
In this article, I will go over several tips on how you might be able to be successful as a travel blogger in a post Covid world.
Travel as cheaply as possible
This tip is not entirely new as all travel bloggers were trying to get deals to fly cheaply even well before the coronavirus. Now, though it takes on increased importance as the returns you’ll likely get for your efforts are going to be a lot lower.
Since advertising on travel blogs and Youtube channels are at an all time low, you’ll need to cut your operating costs. So, not only should you be looking for cheap flights and flying off season, you should also be doing things like looking at how to earn miles rather than interest when opening a bank account. Savings accounts pay such low interest that there is no reason to not do this anyway.
Become an expert in one location
If you are choosing to be a travel blogger because it seems like it is a fun way to make money and you want to see the world, then you’re going to have a bad time. These days, it is going to be very difficult to make money as a general travel blogger.
Instead, approach this like you would as a teacher. You want to teach people about travel to a specific location and want to help them with their travel questions. Instead of globe hopping, become an expert in one location. This could mean simply making a travel blog about where you live. You may not think it’s very interesting, but some travelers will be looking for some offbeat places to go to and that may include your hometown.
Or, you could set up in one location as a permanent, or at least long term, move. Immerse yourself in one place that people want to travel to and become the person that is known for their informative blog about it. You’ll definitely get more traction this way as local sponsors will see the value in paying you to attract tourists to the area since you are making a connection with the people who would want to come there.
Find your niche
Kind of in the same vein as picking a location, you should also pick a type of travel to focus on. Some people call this narrowly focused topic a niche.
General travel is not going to work well in the new normal of travel blogs. In fact, they were already phasing out as people were less likely to follow a blogger looking to simply make professional looking photos of places where most people are never going to travel to.
If you focus on a certain type of travel then you will become the expert in that field. Think of things like ski travel where you focus on the best ski destinations. Or, it could be a travel blog for handicapped people if you have a disability. Maybe even a travel blog made for people looking to connect with indiginous people.
The possibilities are endless and the more niche you go the better as it will help you stand out.
Be patient
It takes quite a long time to grow any online business and being a travel blogger is no different. From when you start it may take several years before you can make a living at it anyway.
Take advantage of this as people are not looking to travel at the moment. By the time people are ready to travel again as the pandemic retreats, then you will be well positioned to come up first in many searches. Especially if you are going to take the advice to focus on one area.
Try to be ahead of the curve of any travel trends that are looking to happen as a result of the coronavirus. People will be changing the way that they travel and you can make sure that they find you as you are focused on their needs. Since SEO can take a long time and building an audience is a years long process, then by the time the travel bug hits people, you can start making money.
Conclusion
Even if you follow the advice in this article, it is not going to be easy. It takes years of dedication and focus to be successful as a travel blogger even in the best of times. With the new challenges you’re going to face because of the pandemic, you will need to make sure that you have all of your efforts focused in the right places to make it.
Don’t approach this as an adventure and use the world as your playground because that is likely to fall flat with many audiences. Information is what people are looking for, so make sure you provide it in the best way possible.