A: How do travel creators actually make money? This is probably the number one question I get.

The phrase, “I get paid to travel'' is used often by travel creators, but it’s actually a bit misleading for two reasons.

First, being paid to travel can and does happen, but a lot of travel work doesn’t pay because certain types of projects just don’t have the budget to pay creators. They only offer comped travel.

Second, if you’re only generating income from travel, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table! There are so many more streams of income you could be making. Even in non-pandemic times, income from travel only accounts for less than half of our revenue.

In reality, being a travel creator isn’t that different from being any other type of creator. So let’s talk about all of the ways you can get paid:

Many creators call these brand deals, and they’re probably the single most lucrative income stream as a creator. This is where a brand pays you to create content about their products or services. You share this content with your audience on your own social media accounts, and sometimes the brands will also use that content on their own branded social media accounts or even to run ads.

This is the second largest source of revenue for most creators. This is when you get paid directly by the social media platforms themselves. On YouTube, once you get to 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time in the last 12 months, you can run ads on your channel, which brings in money for you. On TikTok, once you hit 1,000 followers and have at least 100,000 video views in the last 30 days, you can apply to join the TikTok Creator Fund. Similarly, if you have a blog or website with high traffic, you can run ads on that.

Social media platforms also sometimes have programs that are more on an invite-only basis. Right now for example, both YouTube and Instagram are paying creators to create short-form video in an effort to compete with TikTok.

You can sign up to be an affiliate for various brands and retailers, and if someone buys something using your link or promo code, you get a small commission. For most creators, this is a fairly small part of their revenue, and in the travel space particularly, the commissions can be laughably small. For certain fields like tech and finance however, this can be a lucrative option.

You can create your own branded products to sell to fans. This can be everything from T-shirts and hoodies, to mugs and hats.

This typically applies more to fashion creators, but many creators will sell bags, clothes and shoes that they don’t need anymore on sites like eBay and Poshmark. Because they have a built-in audience, these items tend to sell faster or for higher prices than if they had listed them anonymously.

Many travel creators sell digital products they have created themselves. The most common product is probably Lightroom presets, which are essentially photo filters that you can use to edit photos with. Many creators are also selling things like e-books and online courses. Lots of travel creators have courses on how to get paid to travel, for example.

Many creators will sell exclusive content that’s available only if you pay for it. This might be done through Patreon or YouTube Memberships, and it’s an ongoing monthly charge. Sometimes creators have virtual tip jars through CashApp or Venmo, where followers can give one-time donations.

Some travel creators will organize group trips where their audience members can actually travel with them. As an audience member, please be cautious about these types of trips as unfortunately, there are some scammers out there. You should always be able to pay using a major credit card so that you have purchase protection. So if the creator is asking you to pay via Zelle, CashApp, or Venmo, consider that to be a red flag. Also, the trip should always be affiliated with an actual travel agency, in addition to the creator themselves, so just be aware.

There are many travel creators that are skilled photographers and videographers, and they will sell their services to travel brands, hotels, destinations, or even Airbnb owners. Some of them started out as professionals that just happened to start traveling, while others started traveling first and developed these skills over time as a creator. So, for example, let’s say a hotel has a need for some new imagery for their website, or for ad campaigns, or for their social media channels. They’ll hire someone to shoot photos and videos for them, and then they’ll cover that person’s travel expenses. The photographer or videographer will not actually be in the images and they will not be expected to post these images on their social media channels. They’re essentially just a camera for hire. The hotel will own these images and use them for their own purposes.

Many travel creators end up becoming licensed travel agents. They do this because they get a small discount when they book their own travel, and also they can get commissions when booking travel for their followers.

Some travel creators will be paid by travel brands to advise them in specific areas like, how to improve their social media, or market more effectively to different types of travelers, like black travelers or LGBTQ+ travelers.

Finally, we get to the actual “paid to travel” part! For certain types of projects, travel brands, hotels, or destinations will invite a creator on a trip and pay them to create content and then share it on their social media accounts.

As you can see, getting "paid to travel" is only one of many different revenue streams you can make as a travel creator! So think bigger, and realize that there are almost endless opportunities available to you.

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Take care,

Carmen Sognonvi

Founder, Top Flight Family