It is everyone’s ambition to travel the world. However, many factors shut that dream for many people. For instance, the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic has grounded travel for millions of people globally. However, even as world governments are working day and night to see that the situation normalizes as soon as possible and activities resume, as usual, the future is still very bright for the travel industry. For you to travel the world often, you need to have enough funds to facilitate you. Therefore, this period becomes a perfect opportunity to prepare yourself to travel the world once the world comes back to normal. Now is the time to start planning that next big adventure!
However, you can still take advantage of your business travels and leverage them for pleasure. For example Joel was speaking at a conference in Santiago Chile, and simply added on a trip to see one of his favorite places in the world, Easter island. Well, Joel Oleson is a travel influencer who has traveled over 170 countries and will be hitting the entire UN list in just 24 months. He is the founder and owner of Travelingepic.com as well as collabshow.com. He shares exciting facts on how you can leverage your travels. This article will help you discover five simple ways you can make money while enjoying the world’s beautiful sceneries:
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Content is King
Owning a travel blog will help you gain notoriety, mainly if the site contains useful information and connects with your audience. We live in a world where everyone is seeking for information. It can help those people looking for information about travel. Your content will attract companies who may want you to write about them as well. Creating content for product companies can be a mechanism of monetizing your site. These companies will pay you for creating content for them. This money can help you travel the world and enjoy it.
Joel’s traveling site has great and helpful content about travel. Out of his vast experience and expertise in the travel industry, you will find help with international travel.
Another way you can generate a payment to write for others is when you are handling their social media sites in exchange for cash. Therefore, as a traveler, start your traveling blog. Create a fantastic blog with proper planning. You can seek help from experienced web designers to help you develop a traveling blog that will earn you money.
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Establish Your Travel Goals
“Where there is no vision, people perish.” This saying is true and applies to business too. You need to get clear on your focus and model as well if you are to leverage your travels. Therefore you will have to set your milestones and develop a blueprint on how you will get there.
Some people love museums, others it is the wonders of the world, and to some it’s cruising. To achieve this, write down goals and establish plans for funds you for that next trip. Don’t get overwhelmed with the total cost but instead focus on the next milestone in your travels. Work on freeing up extra funds in your budget, but as well look at friends or groups such as on meetup.com that have similar goals. You can save a lot on traveling with groups getting discounts. These steps of living within your means and having the goal in mind will help you to avoid spending excess money on things that don’t make you as happy. Besides, a good plan will motivate you on how to achieve your monthly goals. Joel has been able to accomplish this strategy effectively and hence enjoys his business travels with adventure and minimal stress from the family.
Keep an eye out for business travels that can be an opportunity to see more. Joel frequently travels domestically, but certain cities will have cheap flights to the caribbean and others are great hubs to Europe or South America. A domestic trip quickly becomes an international trip without much effort or expense. Many see international trips as cost prohibitive, but with planning you’d find the international trips don’t need to be any more expensive than a trip close to home. With a keen eye on deals these visits can turn into a long weekend or a fantastic weeklong get away with a little bit of planning.
If you’re finding funds just aren’t freeing up, look at the side hustle. Joel has found his influencer work delivering webinars, speaking and infographics to help fund the bulk of his travels. It’s more difficult for his wife to get after him when he’s able to clearly say the bills are paid, and this is extra funds that can fund travel. Another strategy he has employed is using frequent flier miles for trips for the family. The family takes turns taking the upgrades with flight status and benefit from the airport lounges.
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Create Deep Customer Relationships
Creating a marketing system is an essential thing for any business to do to thrive and remain relevant in the market. Building relationships with “key clients” of new prospects and customers while building friendships is one way to scale yourself in the industry.
Joel travels the world sharing about technology. Through moving into other countries, he reaches his audience and shares his knowledge about technology. While visiting many cultures in distant lands, Joel has built himself as a solid influencer who delivers and has attracted trust globally to his brand. Consistently he has delivered on readership, viewership, and attendees to his online webinars and events. Loyalty and trust is an essential aspect of a business. It will help your business leads convert easily into sales. More sales mean revenue and increased pleasure. As a traveler this can mean clients that invite you to stay at their resort. Huge bonus and a win win for you and your client.
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Embrace A Vision for Success
Every success starts with you. You, therefore, need to rewire your mindset on combining your passion of travel and joining with business travels. If you want to have success from the travel industry, it starts with having a solid vision in mind. Understand your audience and who you connect with. As you write, connect with your readers. At in person events, connect with the attendees. These are the people that trust you and connect with your message. Loyalty and feedback is what they will bring you. If you treat them well, they will treat you well.
Having a vision on success will help you step out of your comfort zone and work your way to achieving your dreams. It is no doubt that all your goals and hopes lie outside your comfort zone.
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Digital Influencer Marketing
Once your traveling site has a large readership, organizations such as tourism companies may invite you to their tours or resorts to write about your experiences and share photos with your viewers on social media. In the beginning you will likely need to reach out and connect with potential vendors. It can be frustrating finding the right match of deals you are interested in and those looking for influencer services. They are often looking for influencers who can bring them customers. Their aim is usually to introduce your followers and readers to their tour or destination. The easiest and most frequent is focused on food, travel, flights, hotels or entertainment. As your readership grows the value of your services increases as does your capacity to earn more money. This money will facilitate more of your dreams.
Therefore, if you want to become a travel influencer, the above tips will help you leverage your global travels. And if you are a startup, all you need to do is start building your social following and capture your travel stories and photos in a blog, select your travel blog name carefully and run it with discipline. It is possible to leverage your work travels and see the world. It is like having your cake and eating it too.