Fresh articles from Travel Articles From Articles Abroadhttp://articlesabroad.com/articles/Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:54:29 CDTArticlesAbroad.com http://articlesabroad.com/articles/Art/6774/346/How-to-Earn-Money-Travel-Writing.html
To many the idea of earning money travel writing sounds like a dream job Wandering the world, visiting exotic locales, meeting interesting people, seeing sights and having adventures while friends are chained to their desks back home, working 9-5, sounds great in and of itself But what if you could get paid to write travel articles online? How great would it be to plunk down with your laptop under the shade of a palm tree and earn some bucks to help finance your journeys? This may sound like an impossible dream, but trust me when I tell you it is quite a realistic goal

No longer do legions of travel writers have to fight for one of the rare, but immensely coveted jobs in the industry The immense popularity of the internet as a vacation research tool has opened up a new and glorious opportunity for scribes who want to turn their travel experiences, tips and recommendations into cold, hard cash

One of the simplest ways to start earning money traveling is by creating your own blog and documenting your travels If you've never created your own blog before then a free blogging platform like Google's Blogger is a good choice to get your feet wet However, if you want to eventually make a living at this then I recommend bucking up for your own hosting and domain name, and create your travel blog on the Wordpress platform With an endless number of themes, plugins and widgets to play with you can customize the look and feel of your travel blog until you find the combination that works best for you

Once you've got your blog set up you will need some content Of course, if you are a travel writer this shouldn't be a problem If you are packing a laptop and a digital camera/video camera you can quickly and easily create articles and post them to your blog Be very detailed and descriptive in your post, and try and target topics people will be searching for If you are writing an article on Normandy, try and think of what you searched for when planning your own trip there Tips on best restaurants, hotels, fun activities, historical sites etc are all highly searched and should bring a lot of traffic to your blog Remember to include plenty of pictures and/or video An interactive, visually arresting page will bring more visitors and also attract links from other travel websites

Okay, so you've written some articles, and you've started to get some traffic to your website How do you go about making money with your travel blog?

There are a number of ways to monetize your travel website, and as your website gets bigger and more popular you'll find no shortage of money-making opportunities in this popular niche If you are still a small fish in a big pond I recommend starting with Google Adsense By incorporating Adsense into your website your visitors will be shown relevant, contextually targeted text and image ads that are integrated right into your content If a visitor to your site clicks on one of those ads you will earn money The more visitors you attract the more clicks you get, and the more money you earn You'll be surprised how quickly those pennies can add up, particularly in the lucrative travel niche Best of all if you've taken care to write "evergreen" articles that don't go stale and out of date your old articles will continue to earn for years to come, establishing a nice passive income

A blog is a great way to earn money travel writing and to gain exposure for your work, but it certainly isn't the only way to build an income stream If you don't have the time, inclination, or technical knowledge to start your own blog then there are a number of internet content sites that will pay you directly, or offer you a share in their own Google Adsense revenue, for writing for them This is perfect for technophobes who simply want to write and share their travel experiences without having to worry about the initial expense and the ongoing maintenance of running a website

Associated Content and Bukisa are two good options for writers wanting to earn direct passive income from their work These are huge authority sites that get plenty of traffic, and each visitor to one of your articles will earn you a small royalty The more articles you write and traffic you attract the more money you make Of course, these are broad sites that allow you to write on any topic, so if you've run dry of travel stories you can always throw out an article on another topic like your favorite songs of the 80s, and you can earn money for that too

Other sites like Infobarrel, Hubpages and Xomba operate in a similar fashion to the two mentioned above, but instead of paying you a royalty each time your content is viewed they instead pay you a share of the revenue your article earns There is certainly more potential for profit under this business model, particularly if you are writing in a lucrative niche like travel Again, these are big authority sites so there is a better chance that your articles will attain a high search engine ranking and thus attract more traffic It is a win-win for the publishers and the authors alike The publishers get valuable content that helps build their authority and bring visitors, and the authors get to reap the benefits of extra traffic they would likely never see on their own blogs

As you can see there are plenty of options to earn money travel writing online Grab a laptop, a digital camera and start documenting your vacation experiences Be prolific and passionate and one day you can be living the dream as a full time travel writer


Want to start to make money travel writing immediately? Share your travel stories with us at GlobeTales.com and start earning revenue today. ]]> http://articlesabroad.com/articles/Art/6774/346/How-to-Earn-Money-Travel-Writing.html http://articlesabroad.com/articles/Art/6241/345/How-to-Build-Backlinks-to-Your-Travel-Website.html
If you have a travel website or blog then you know how difficult it can be to rank in search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing in this incredibly competitive market Huge authority sites like Expedia and Trip Advisor naturally dominate the rankings, and at this point there is probably very little one can do to outrank these industry leaders However, with some diligence you can get your website to outrank many other smaller players in the industry, which will bring you more traffic, and ultimately more customers and more money to your business How can you do this? You need to build backlinks to your travel website

One of the main components Google and other search engines use to determine the importance and thus the ranking of websites is how many other websites are linking to their content The more sites that are linking to your site, the more important your site will be in the eyes of the search engines Now in a perfect world your content would be so exemplary that thousands of sites would link to it automatically However, this is far easier said than done, and ultimately most webmasters will need to do their backlinking manually

So what are some of the best ways to get travel backlinks to your website? I've outlined some strategies below to guide you through this tedious but necessary process of building authority for your travel site:

Social Bookmarking - With the advent of Web 2 0 the net has become an increasingly socially interactive place Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Digg and others have tens of millions of users, and an interesting article or story can spread like wildfire By submitting your site to these social networking sites you will not only gain a direct high page rank backlink, but you may receive hundreds or even thousands of other links from fellow webmasters who found your story interesting enough to link to

Blog Commenting - Careful with this one I'm not suggesting you start spamming every site in the blogosphere Writing nothing more than "nice post" or "thanks" with a link to your site will more than likely get your comment deleted Take the time to actually read the article you are commenting on and then leave a respectful, relevant comment with a link to your site Blog commenting can be a great way of networking, and is also one of the easiest ways to target backlinks in your particular niche

Write Guest Posts - If you have some writing ability then you might want to consider doing some guest posts on travel blogs Bloggers are always hungry for fresh, unique content for their website and will often be more than willing to allow you to tuck in a backlink to your site (with relevant anchor text) in exchange for a guest post

Submit to Video Sharing Sites - When it comes to the travel niche people often want more than just words to help them plan their trip They want to see pictures, and especially video of destination spots they are considering to help them make up their minds If you have some video footage of a recent vacation to a popular holiday destination throw it up on YouTube and other video sharing sites Add a link back to your travel site in the description so visitors can click to see more If you have a bit of technical know-how (and a relatively short URL) you can also watermark the video with your URL to drive traffic to your site

These are just a few ways to build backlinks to your travel website It may sound tedious, but trust me when I say this process is absolutely necessary if you want to increase your search engine rankings, website traffic and ultimately make your business a success


Want to build backlinks to your travel website? Submit your Travel Articles to our travel article directory at GlobeTales.com ]]> http://articlesabroad.com/articles/Art/6241/345/How-to-Build-Backlinks-to-Your-Travel-Website.html http://articlesabroad.com/articles/Art/6235/343/A-Guide-to-Packing-for-Your-Cruise-Vacation.html

A cruise vacation is all about relaxation, luxury and adventure However, before you actually arrive at the ship there are dozens of details to iron out First and foremost you need to decide upon your itinerary Which area of the world do you want to see? Which ports of call will you visit? What shore excursions will you take? Once this has been decided then you need to figure out what cruise line you want to book with With more than 2 dozen major cruise lines worldwide this also be a decision that takes a lot of research And, of course, you cannot forget about setting a budget for your trip The money you have available to you will have a drastic impact on where you go and what you do on your vacation

With all these major considerations, deciding what to pack for a cruise can seem like nothing more than an afterthought However, if you want your cruise to be as stress-free as possible then you need to put some thought into what you are going to bring ahead of time, rather than just cramming everything you own into a suitcase the night before you are supposed to leave

First of all, you want to make sure your travel documentation is in order Gather your cruise line tickets, airline tickets, passports, medical prescriptions, insurance papers, and any other pertinent documents together and make multiple photocopies of them You should leave a copy at home with a friend or relative, so they can fax them to you if necessary Also, make sure you have a photocopied set in both your carry-on and your stowed luggage With these backups in place you should be covered in the event something is lost or stolen

Secondly, you'll want to plan your wardrobe ahead of time What kind of cruise are you going on? Is it highly luxurious, where every dinner is a formal affair? You'll need suits and ties for the gentlemen and evening gowns for the ladies However, if it is more fun and adventure than stuffy formality then you can obviously get away with more casual clothing Destination and time of year will play a large role as well Obviously a winter cruise in the Baltic Sea will require a much different wardrobe than a summer voyage in the Mediterranean Even if you are traveling in summer though, be sure to take at least one set of warm clothes There is always the possibility of bad weather and wet and shivering is no way to spend your luxury vacation

Most importantly, make sure to avoid overpacking Airlines have strict restrictions on extra or overweight bags, and you can find yourself paying a stiff premium if you don't stay within their limits Bring outfits that you can mix and match You can wear the same blouse or shirt with a different skirt or pants Bring lightweight scarves or jewelry to accessorize By providing yourself some flexibility you can significantly reduce the amount of clothing you need to bring with you Don't forget too that most cruise lines offer a laundry service, so you don't have to worry about running out of clean clothes


Want to share your own travel stories? Submit your Travel Articles to our travel article directory at GlobeTales.com ]]> http://articlesabroad.com/articles/Art/6235/343/A-Guide-to-Packing-for-Your-Cruise-Vacation.html http://articlesabroad.com/articles/Art/5030/343/How-to-Pack-for-a-Cruise-Vacation.html

A cruise vacation is all about relaxation, luxury and adventure However, before you actually arrive at the ship there are dozens of details to iron out First and foremost you need to decide upon your itinerary Which area of the world do you want to see? Which ports of call will you visit? What shore excursions will you take? Once this has been decided then you need to figure out what cruise line you want to book with With more than 2 dozen major cruise lines worldwide this also be a decision that takes a lot of research And, of course, you cannot forget about setting a budget for your trip The money you have available to you will have a drastic impact on where you go and what you do on your vacation

With all these major considerations, deciding what to pack for a cruise can seem like nothing more than an afterthought However, if you want your cruise to be as stress-free as possible then you need to put some thought into what you are going to bring ahead of time, rather than just cramming everything you own into a suitcase the night before you are supposed to leave

First of all, you want to make sure your travel documentation is in order Gather your cruise line tickets, airline tickets, passports, medical prescriptions, insurance papers, and any other pertinent documents together and make multiple photocopies of them You should leave a copy at home with a friend or relative, so they can fax them to you if necessary Also, make sure you have a photocopied set in both your carry-on and your stowed luggage With these backups in place you should be covered in the event something is lost or stolen

Secondly, you'll want to plan your wardrobe ahead of time What kind of cruise are you going on? Is it highly luxurious, where every dinner is a formal affair? You'll need suits and ties for the gentlemen and evening gowns for the ladies However, if it is more fun and adventure than stuffy formality then you can obviously get away with more casual clothing Destination and time of year will play a large role as well Obviously a winter cruise in the Baltic Sea will require a much different wardrobe than a summer voyage in the Mediterranean Even if you are traveling in summer though, be sure to take at least one set of warm clothes There is always the possibility of bad weather and wet and shivering is no way to spend your luxury vacation

Most importantly, make sure to avoid overpacking Airlines have strict restrictions on extra or overweight bags, and you can find yourself paying a stiff premium if you don't stay within their limits Bring outfits that you can mix and match You can wear the same blouse or shirt with a different skirt or pants Bring lightweight scarves or jewelry to accessorize By providing yourself some flexibility you can significantly reduce the amount of clothing you need to bring with you Don't forget too that most cruise lines offer a laundry service, so you don't have to worry about running out of clean clothes


For more cruise information, advice, reviews and recommendations please visit us at European Cruises. ]]> http://articlesabroad.com/articles/Art/5030/343/How-to-Pack-for-a-Cruise-Vacation.html