Create Your Travel Blog Business Plan [Podcast Ep. 26]
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Want to create your travel blog business plan?
Then you’re in the right place, as that’s exactly what we’ll be covering in this episode of The Profitable Travel Blogger Podcast!
Specifically, you’ll learn:
- What “The Blogger’s Journey” looks like step-by-step
- Actions you can take to see growth at each stage of your blogging business
- How to go from blog setup to making money
- Ideas for monetizing as a travel blogger
- And more!
Basically, if you’re interested in mapping out a blogging business plan for yourself, you won’t want to miss this episode!
Create A Travel Blog Business Plan – Podcast Episode Audio
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Creating A Blogger Business Plan – Episode Transcript
Do you have a travel blog business plan? Is it difficult for you to see the big picture in your blogging business, or to map out a path to get where you want to go? Are you curious about how to start a travel blog and get paid?
If any of these statements resonate with you, then you won’t want to miss this episode of The Profitable Travel Blogger Podcast, as I’ll be breaking down what I like to call The Blogger’s Journey, which is essentially a road map you can follow to create and reach your blogging business goals and grow your blog fast.
Now, keep in mind, everyone’s blog business journey looks different, particularly when you look closely at the details.
Not every blogger creates the same types of content, is active on the same platforms, or monetizes their blog in the same ways; however, what I’m going to share is a general business plan template for bloggers with examples in each section to help give you a serious dose of clarity.
While many business plans are complex and often include things like market highlights and an exit strategy, I’m going to keep things simple.
I’ve broken what I like to call “The Blogger’s Journey” down into five phases. Picture each phase as a layer of a larger structure — let’s use the example of a brick-and-mortar store — with the next phase building on the previous one.
We’ll start off with…
Phase #1: Building Your Foundation.
This phase of The Blogger’s Journey takes place before you publish any content.
Along with getting legally set up and figuring out how to do your accounting and bookkeeping, it’s the time spent mapping out your blog brand. If your blog were that brick-and-mortar, this would be where you set up your store to attract your ideal customers.
Things that take place in this phase include:
- Pinpointing your mission. You can use my favorite template for this. It says: “I help [group of people] do [how you help] so that they can [outcome]” to make your mission clear and concise.
- Defining your target audience
- Deciding on your domain name
- Pinpointing what makes you stand out from others in your niche (hint: you’ll want to understand how to niche down as a blogger)
- Defining the tangible assets of your brand, like the colors and fonts, as well as the intangible assets, like the values
- Setting up important pages like your About Page, Working With Me Page, Privacy Policy and Website Terms
- Mapping out your content strategy and what you’ll write about
- Hint: You might consider breaking your content up into 3-5 buckets or themes to keep content cohesive; for instance, if you have a culinary travel blog your buckets might be restaurant reviews, cultural recipes, and food tours
- Additionally, pinpoint irresistible travel blog post ideas and add them to a blog post planner template
- Tip: Use a tool like Jasper AI, which utilizes artificial intelligence to help you quickly and easily come up with topic ideas, create article outlines, even draft content and write blog articles faster. You can click here for a free trial of Jasper.
- Creating your website — think of this as the actual brick and mortar
Pro tip:
Creating mood boards and collections on social media can be a huge help in defining what you’re attracted to and getting inspiration from that!
Choose your platform — such as Pinterest — and search for fonts, color palettes, imagery, designs, adjectives that you’d like people to associate with your blog, visual assets, and more.
Okay, now let’s chat about…
Phase #2: Attraction, Traffic & Visibility.
Once you have your foundation set, it’s time to start bringing people into your store, aka your blog, and getting people to know you and your blog exist.
In this phase, you’ll do things like:
- Learning how to promote your blog
- Understanding how to come up with blog post ideas people truly want to read; pro tip: here are 120+ travel blog post ideas to get you start
- Creating and promoting SEO-optimized blog content — and I’ve got a free Blog Post From Scratch Template here
- Getting active on social media — and not just posting when you feel like it or when you remember, but actually showing up with a strategy, to serve your audience, and to become visible
- Launching a podcast related to your mission — and you can grab a podcast strategy template here
- Writing guest posts
- Getting media attention by pitching yourself to be on podcasts and in magazines
- Attending in-person and virtual networking events
- Getting active in niche Facebook groups where your audience hangs out
- Creating a Pinterest traffic strategy
Again, your goal is basically to scream from the top of a mountain, “Hey world! I’m here and this is what I’m creating for you!”
Moving on to…
Phase #3: Community-Building.
In this phase, you’re turning viewers into return visitors, or one-time shoppers into regulars.
Some of the strategies in the previous phase may overlap with this one, but the intention right now is really growing the relationship and turning your blog audience into raving fans.
A few ideas include:
- Hosting a free challenge
- Hosting a helpful webinar (like my free webinar on how to become a travel blogger and make money)
- Creating a helpful blog series
- Creating a complimentary workshop (like my free travel blogging course)
- Creating opt-in freebies and promoting them to your audience to grow your email list as a blogger — a few opt-in freebie ideas include a free template or printable
- Learning how to create a free resource library to use as an opt-in freebie
- Tweaking your social media strategy to include calls to action that grow your relationship, such as joining your email list
- Creating a Facebook group where you can further nurture your audience
- Crafting an automated welcome sequence to nurture new email subscribers right away
- Pinpointing an email marketing strategy that includes regularly sending valuable content
Really think about what your audience wants from you, how you can help them best have a transformation (including on what platforms), and how you can turn them into people who look forward to blog posts, emails, and social media shares.
Keep in mind that this stage also involves building trust.
This can be attained by doing things like staying true to your word, consistently showing up, getting vulnerable from time to time, and “working in public.”
The latter is a phrase I actually learned from ConvertKit, and I love it. It means taking people behind the scenes in your business and your process so they can really learn the how and why about what you’re creating.
By the way, you can click here for a free 30-day trial of ConvertKit’s incredible email marketing software.
On that note, let’s discuss…
Phase #4: Blog monetization.
Alright, so now people know about you. You have a group of people that looks to you as someone whose content has helped make their life better.
Now, you want to further help them through paid blog offerings, like your own products and services that further help them, or by promoting the services of affiliates that would further help them. Having an affiliate marketing for travel bloggers strategy is a great way to start monetizing.
By the way, I’ve got an entire episode on how to monetize your email list using paid offers — either your own or those of affiliate partners. If you’re wondering how to promote affiliate links, your email list can be a great option.
A few ideas for monetizing your blog include:
- Creating an online course or preselling an online course (I use Teachable for mine; that link gets you a two-week free trial, no credit card required!); if you’re looking for digital product ideas this is my personal favorite!
- Implementing a product launch strategy to increase sales
- Launching a profitable tour
- Writing gift guides to promote affiliate and product sales
- Hosting trips and retreats
- Hosting a virtual summit
- Website flipping
- Selling digital assets like stock photos and printables
- Creating a tripwire sales funnel, which tend to convert really well
- Setting up an online store
- Creating an app
- Writing an ebook or physical book
- Starting a conference
- Hosting live paid events
- Starting a Patreon page with premium content
Of course, you can also monetize through display ads, working with brands, creating content for brands, freelance writing, offering your skills as a virtual assistant, and more.
And finally, we’ll end with…
Phase #5: Growing Your Blog & Scaling.
At this point in The Blogger’s Journey, you’re earning a sustainable income, but you want to grow your blog earnings to the next level. A few strategies to consider:
- Hiring help — because there is only so much you can grow when you’re doing everything
- Seeking out those who have already done what you’re trying to achieve to get their advice, and possibly taking on a mentor
- Evergreen webinars — meaning non-live webinars that run continuously and pitch your product at the end
- Building on your current products with another one; it’s helpful if they’re related so you can create bundled products
- Creating a subscription or membership product that allows for recurring revenue
- Using a platform like GoFundMe or Kickstarter to gain the capital necessary to create your vision
In my opinion, what is extremely important here is to have a vision — a clear picture of where you want to go — and to truly believe in your ability to make it happen.
And by the way, if mindset is holding you back at all I have a podcast episode on improving your mindset and clearing limiting beliefs.
Alright, now I hope you enjoyed this episode.
I hope you feel inspired and empowered to go start implementing strategies that can help you grow and move toward the next phase in your journey.
Don’t forget to grab access to my free resource library for bloggers. There are a ton of social media resources in there.
And of course, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes sharing these bite-sized strategies for bloggers who want to turn their blogs into profitable full-time businesses.
Happy blogging!
Related Past Episode
How To Improve Your Mindset In 3 Steps
How To Create A Free Resources Page That Grows Your Affiliate Income
How To Create A Profitable Blog Brand
How To Create An Effective Workflow In 7 Steps
9 Clever Ways To Increase Blog Traffic & Get Blog Followers
How To Map Out (& Crush!) Your Blogging Goals
13 Clever Ways To Boost Your Travel Blogging Income
Monetize Your Email List With 4 Smart Strategies
How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing As A Travel Blogger
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