I’ve Quit Teaching! Here’s How I Make Money as a Travel Blogger

Woman sits on rooftop with hot air balloons and sunrise in background

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In 2014, Craig and I, Gemma,  you can read more about us here, started planning an 18-month career break to travel the Americas and Europe. My friend, Andy, suggested I started my own travel blog to share the adventure which was laughable because I am not the most tech-savvy.

For example, I was still using floppy discs at uni when everyone was on to pen drives!

Nonetheless, I started to study other websites and thought, why not? Thus Two Scots Abroad was introduced to the world.

During our career break, I shared our big trip with you guys through our helpful travel guides, our monthly budget breakdowns and stories via social media.

In August 2016, I went back to full-time high school teaching for one year, then I reduced my hours to three days to work on this travel blog and now?

I’ve quit teaching! I’m my own boss, it is make it or break it time.

The first question people ask about blogging?
How to do bloggers make money? Watch this video to find out ↓

So How Do You Make Money From Blogging?

One word – mindset.

Anyone that is self-employed will know that you have to think business for a plan to work; that and multiple income streams!

My income is made up of a variety of sources such as:

  • Adverts on Two Scots Abroad.
  • Affiliate links – a small amount of commission on the products and services we recommend. 
  • Press trips – we don’t do campaigns often because they can be exhausting and entail a lot of active work. I know the thought of travelling the world for free sounds exciting but it doesn’t pay the bills! 
  • Conferences and workshops – I’ve not fully quit teaching, I’ve just switched my audience. I also co-owned a company called Make Traffic Happen which helped bloggers gain more traffic to their websites through e-books and courses. My business partner, Laura Lynch, and I hosted SEO Bootcamp workshops in London and Edinburgh. We also presented at TBEX, Traverse, Edinburgh Blogger Conference and Borderless Live. 

Looking for a speaker with just under ten years of teaching experience to discuss digital content creation, working with bloggers, as I did at the Fife Tourism Conference, anything travel or search engine optimisation related?

Email me at gemma[at]twoscotsabroad[dot]com.

You can read more about our why I don’t work for free here which explains my workflow.

How Can You help?

Usually, the second question after ‘how do you make money’ is, ‘how can we help you’ and I really appreciate that. Obviously continuing to read our articles [with ads] and booking services/buying products we recommend helps but you could also…


 »  share our stuff « 


If you found a travel guide useful, a product review informative or a personal story intriguing share it with your friends and social media followers.

Same goes for our Facebook posts and Tweets. If you like them, help spread the word. This not only gets more eyes on Two Scots Abroad but also tackles the annoying algorithms.

I’m really excited about this change. It is a risk and I would not be able to do it without the support of Craig and you.

So… you can expect an increase in travel inspiration from me!

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Love,
Gemma [+ Craig]

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Any thoughts or questions?
Tell us below.

15 thoughts on “I’ve Quit Teaching! Here’s How I Make Money as a Travel Blogger

    • Gemma I Two Scots Abroad says:

      Cheers Hannah! Currently hating life at Chicago airport waiting on next flight. Been up for 20 hours now. Waaaah!

  1. Rebecca says:

    Gemma, love everything you do! I’ve been following your blog for years, but have loved recently joining MTH and reading all your resources (including the amazing SEO books) and then implementing it all on my own blog. I was curious to know: how did you know that quitting at that time was the right time? Did you have a certain number of pageviews or another metric that helped you to make that decision? Thanks so much!

    • Gemma I Two Scots Abroad says:

      Aw thanks Rebecca! That’s a good question. Two things really – I had to make a decision about going back to teaching potentially full time and there was no way I could do that, Two Scots and Make Traffic Happen. The second aspect was tracking income. I had three months of income that was stable which seemed a good enough backing to take the risk. I know from tracking keywords and affiliates from this time last year that the next two months might be bleak but luckily companies and DMOs are looking to use their budgets up so press trips tend to get heavier around Oct/Nov time so I’m balancing the income with that. Multiple income streams!

      Going back to full time work was the best thing I could have done though. It made me value my time more and say no to the majority of unpaid work. I’m still a sucker for helping businesses/DMOs out but I try to find a way round that by getting paid in some form. This is business, it involves knowing what you can offer, networking and making judgements. Still a massive learning curve but I feel empowered and happy to say no to no/low pay and to gigs that don’t fit our niche.

      Hope this helps!

  2. Vikas Dubey says:

    Hey!

    I am very glad to get you. I reached by the LinkedIn and I have a question, hope you will definitely guide me and me.
    I am an Indian Travel Blogger and same like you, I also want to be my own boss earn by blogging. I have site “travelIndiaguides.com”, Please check it and suggest me your valuable tips.

    Cheers…

    • Gemma I Two Scots Abroad says:

      Lovely to e-meet you! You should check out my Facebook group. It is called Make Traffic Happen. Lots of helpful members there as well as guidance and tips.

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