3 Common Travel Blogger Mistakes

36 Comments / Blogging Tutorials, Guest Posts / By /

If you are having a tough time gaining traction with your travel blog you may be falling prey to a few common mistakes.

These errors plague most travel bloggers at one time during their careers.

Instead of blaming the competition or bemoaning the fact that there is no money in travel blogging own the mistakes below and change your fortunes by turning course.Common Mistakes Made By Travel Bloggers

Note: these mistakes are common to most bloggers from any niche. Especially error #1. Just because you aren't a travel blogger doesn't mean you can ignore this post.

The Benefits of Correcting these Errors

Expect more:

when you own, address and correct these mistakes.

Do you want to hear something even more sugary sweet? Your bounce rate will drop like a boulder falling off of the Empire State Building if you correct mistake #1. When you address mistake #2 you will see a quick increase in your blogging profits. Take it from a guy who both made and corrected this error.

As for #3, once you turn that one around all aspects of your blogging campaign will move in a positive, prospering and profitable direction.

Own these blogging boo boo's, you aspiring travel bloggers. Watch your fortune turn by correcting what you need to change.

1: Slow Load Time

After spending much of last month reading and commenting on a new collection of travel blogs I decided to write this post. Even well read, established blogs scored poorly in this department with their huge, heavy images and advertising widgets.

Sacrificing load time for posting large, slow loading images hurts your chances at ranking well on Google and boosts your bounce rate. Few readers have the patience to stick around for 5 or 10 seconds for your page to load properly.

Pay for a premium hosting service. Invest in a CDN to speed up your blog.

Feel free to use large, eye-catching images and 1080 p videos but pay for both solid hosting and a CDN to host images offsite for a lightning fast load time.

If you need to change web hosts but feel afraid to make the quantum leap in speed and service read this helpful post on WHSR.com:

How to Switch from One Web Host to Another (Step-by-Step Guide)

2: Over Dependence on Sponsored Post and Advertising Revenue

Travel bloggers tend to rely solely on sponsored post or advertising revenue for their blogging income.

If you have a small readership it will be impossible to earn a dependable income through these 2 streams.

Even if you have a large, targeted following, depending on only 2 income streams is blogging suicide.

Until you grow your blog readership to massive proportions don’t expect to rake in consistent sponsored post or advertising revenue.

Offer consulting services. Coach individuals to build successful blogs. Be a freelance writer.

Create helpful online courses and eBooks.

Build proven, stable active and passive income streams. Add sponsored post and advertising revenue as back up income streams.

If you need a simple guide for how to make money blogging check out this post at ProBlogger.com:

How to Make Money Blogging

3: Starving Artist Syndrome

A high number of travel bloggers play the roll of starving artist.

It is okay to travel on a budget but when you obsess over saving every penny and post a donate widget on your blog it sends off a lower energy, poverty conscious vibe.

I am all for budget travel on some level. I regularly do house sits. But I treat my blog like a business and do not rely on donations to keep the dream alive.

Don’t view yourself as a starving blogging artist, pinching pennies and living off a few bucks a day because you’re relying on donations to further your travels. See yourself as a powerful, successful blogger. Set up multiple streams of income. Drop $50 for the nice hotel room in Thailand once in a while.

Send off an abundant vibe to make more money through your blog.

If you want to study a high earning travel blogging couple that sends out an abundant vibe check out the Goats on the Road:

Goats on the Road

Your Turn

Are you making any of these mistakes?

What mistakes can you add to this list?

36 thoughts on “3 Common Travel Blogger Mistakes”

      1. Anil Agarwal

        Glad to see you around here Ryan.

        I absolutely love your writing and blog posts.

        Travel blogging is not as easy as it seems. But when you have the right strategy, you can use a ton of ways to make money online.

        I too agree with the fact that most people don’t focus too much on improving their site speed. This is a really important ranking factor.

        Moreover, people love to spend time on fast loading sites.

  2. w john

    Thank you so much for this important information, I’ve been thinking long enough to make a travel blog.
    But unfortunately does not get time!
    But if I will ever make my blog in the future, then I will definitely take care of these things!

  3. Freddy Junior

    Hey Ryan!

    I agree with number two!

    New bloggers can easily overlook the fact that it does take a lot of time and effort to actually make a substancial income from blogging.

    i know I did!

    What I have realized is that creating and selling your own digital products to your niche audience is what has the potential to make you a steady income from blogging – as long as you always work on increasing your traffic/revenue consistently.

    Great tips man!

    Thanks for sharing!

    Cheers! 🙂

  4. maxwell ivey

    HI Ryan; I have struggled most with number 3. I have had to accept that spending money is proof that I believe more will be coming and and that it will show up at the right time. Just like hanging on to it too tightly sends the signal that whatever i have is all there will ever be. and I had to relearn the hard lesson this week. I’m talking about not letting your pride keep you from accepting money or keeping it. I returned a loan when I really didn’t have the money to do so. My pride said Max you need to pay him right this minute. My finances only improved when I honestly shared my situation and made a potential client a special offer. He surprised me and said max the deal we have now is great. so instead of you giving me a discount to get money in now how abut I just give you a retainer. yes big light bulb moment. why didn’t I ask for one in the first place. things are still tight, but I’m in a much more positive place and felt I needed to share. I’m in florida now visiting with my brother michael who i haven’t seen in several years. I am figuring out my next move. Figured you read these before you get anything else. so no worries buddy I’m safe Max

    1. Ryan Biddulph

      Same experience Max. I always had money probs when I resisted spending money, online and offline, and saw greater profits when I loosened the purse strings. Thanks buddy!

      Ryan

  5. Guy R Cook

    #1 about load time, I used the extension for AMP and get very good results, as for hosting, yes that’s a part of it, and cleaning up code is the other. Using the AMP URL makes for A grades on GTMETRIX performance these days does need to be listed, and #1 is a good starting place. Thanks for taking the time.

  6. Shantanu Sinha

    Hello Ileane and Ryan,

    Great tip here for everyone who all are struggling with their blogs apart from the one who are writing
    for travel blogs.
    I am totally agreed with the number #2 as many bloggers neglect the facts that blogging is a long process
    and lot of effort is being required for getting a satisfied income from our blogs.

    The main source of income for the bloggers is to generate the niche what their customers want from them.
    and hitting the desired audiences from their blogs.

    Thanks for the share.
    Shantanu.

  7. John

    Hey Ryan,
    You are describing geniune problems that can face from a blogger.
    Thanks for sharing

  8. Fabrizio Marciano

    Hi Ryan and Ileane,

    The problems you addressed in this post, Ryan, are very much real for all bloggers. The first one, however, is a huge one.

    Slow running blogs is a show stopper, and not for good cause either. If your website or blog loads slowly then it’s a conversion killer right there, and I’ve visited many blogs that seem to take a month of Sundays to load, some popular ones too.

    I strongly agree with what you said, coupled with an unreliable web host, large images that haven’t been optimized for faster loading and hosted HD videos can play a massive role in degrading website or blog performance.

    This is a good reminder of how bloggers need to take all three of these elements seriously by addressing and fixing them before it’s too late.

    Have a great weekend my friend, and you too Ileane.

    Fabrizio.

  10. Cori Ramos

    Hi Ms. Ileane, Hi Ryan,

    Great to see you here on Ms. Ileane’s blog. 🙂

    I’m not a travel blogger but if I were I would definitely follow any advise you have to share because you are living proof that making a living as a travel blogger can be done – provided it’s done right.

    Already passed this along! Hope you both are having a great day.

    Cori

    1. Ileane

      Hi Cori! Thanks so much for stopping by. I totally agree with you, Ryan’s blogging tips are always the best. Chat soon!

  11. AMAR KANT SRIVASTAVA

    i am working on my tech blog but after read your informative blog article i will surely follow your guideline

  12. Noelle Addison

    Slow load time is a big turn off for many readers. As a blogger, we need to keep in mind that online audience have a very short attention span and we have to make sure that we catch their interest as they land in our page.

  13. rahul pandey

    Hi lleane,
    these 3 Mistakes are very common even I was face them. By reading this article I will try to overcome these mistakes. do you also face these mistakes?

  14. Amanet AutoKredit

    These are problems that most bloggers hit and is very hard to fix them, it can take years …

    Thank you very much for your information

  15. Manish Kumar

    Hi Ryan,

    Great Post!

    Slow load time is a big issue with travel blogs. Travel blog can’t be plain text, it must contain high quality images which slows the load time. Optimizing images, compressing techniques may be helpful.

    Switching from one host provider to another requires technical knowledge. Link provided by you “How to Switch from One Web Host to Another (Step-by-Step Guide)” is helpful.

    Other common mistakes are not having a logo, not being more assertive with payment policies and not going to a travel conference earlier.

    I will tweet your post.

    Thanks a lot for sharing.

  16. Sandeep Chatterjee

    Hi Ryan and Ileane,

    These 3 mistakes are very common among all bloggers who are writing for different niche.So this article is very helpful for bloggers

    Thanks a lot for sharing the post

  17. Emma

    ! & 2 make a lot of sense…3 seems a bit subjective? I think most travel bloggers some off poor because they are!

    1. Ryan Biddulph

      Which is the exact reason why it is a mistake Emma 🙂 The deal is: if you are temporarily broke, don’t let that energy leak into your blog. Because you will struggle forever, because that broke energy scares off money, opportunity, all that success most travel bloggers I speak to yearn for. Do uncomfortable, prospering, bold things so you can stop being broke. Not you Emma LOL 😉 Just struggling travel bloggers in general.

      Travel bloggers break the cycle of their struggles by doing successful things with a prospering energy. Highly uncomfortable to do? Heck yeah sometimes. But it beats being a starving blogging artist.

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