{"id":16694,"date":"2022-10-17T20:59:52","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T17:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.travelpayouts.com\/blog\/?p=16694"},"modified":"2025-07-23T17:08:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T14:08:04","slug":"oceanwideexplorers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelpayouts.com\/blog\/oceanwideexplorers\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Earn Money and Help Nature with a Travel Blog \u2013 The Story of Oceanwideexplorers.com"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How It All Began<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The entire travel gig has been a relatively new to us. We were always avid travelers, but it never occurred to us to try and start a business related to this passion until we purchased a domain and webspace in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew is originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, while Laura is originally from Cali, Colombia. Currently, we are living in the US Virgin Islands (specifically St. Thomas) as we explore the Caribbean and beyond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Andrew<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Andrew\u2019s passions lie on the water, which is why he currently works as a professional scuba diver and boat captain for a local dive charter on St. Thomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Laura<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Laura grew up in Miami after leaving Colombia as a child. She attended the University of Florida, where she became a scuba instructor and received a Bachelor\u2019s Degree in Marine Science. She\u2019s currently continuing her education at the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Thomas, where she\u2019s pursuing her Master\u2019s Degree in Marine Science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We met while we were both working in the Florida Keys in 2018. Andrew was teaching scuba and sailing programs for the Boy Scouts of America at Florida Sea Base. At the same time, Laura was interning for REEF, a nonprofit marine conservation organization based in Key Largo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After finishing our time in the Keys, our adventures continued as Andrew moved north to Fort Lauderdale and Laura moved back home to Miami. Our weekends were spent scuba diving the wrecks and reefs of South Florida, exploring the Florida Everglades, and sailing Biscayne National Park. We finally tied the knot on August 7th<\/sup>, 2021, one day before moving to the US Virgin Islands on August 8th<\/sup>, 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew\u2019s professional background has evolved over time, as he currently doesn\u2019t use any of his degrees. Instead, after beginning to blog in 2019, Andrew works as a freelance writer, blogger, and boat captain. It\u2019s been a whirlwind of a journey, to say the least!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether it was scuba diving, freediving, kayaking, or hiking, we were always out exploring new adventures on a regular basis. Andrew\u2019s passion has always been finding hidden spots, trails nobody knows about, uncharted dive sites, and obscure paddle routes. It\u2019s thrilling to explore seemingly new territory and off-the-beaten-path adventures in locations that crowds tend to avoid. We are inspired to share those amazing adventures with others who might be interested in discovering them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About OceanWide Explorers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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OceanWide Explorers<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

OceanWide Explorers is an adventure travel blog that inspires people to discover hidden adventures above and below the sea. We provide content on everything with an ocean view, including scuba diving, freediving, snorkeling, hiking, paddling, and sailing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were running two websites at one point, but decided to consolidate them into a single site in order to narrow our focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travel Blogging Journey<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We first purchased our domain name, theme design, and web hosting in 2019. We vividly remember sitting in the public library in Fort Lauderdale, debating whether we should do it or not. After all, it was a lot of money to pay upfront. Looking back, it was one of the best decisions we ever made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One difficulty with starting out is taking that initial jump forward, especially if money is tight. If you see yourself blogging or running a website long-term, don\u2019t go cheap up front. It\u2019s an investment. Purchase reliable hosting, a highly functional theme, and a tailor-made domain name. It\u2019s a lot of money, but it\u2019ll be worth it in the long run.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another difficulty is the initial learning curve. Neither of us had ever done web design, blog writing, or photography. However, since making our initial investment, we learned an immense amount to help design a functional and successful website. We had many aggravating moments where something just wasn\u2019t working out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We recommend simply stepping away to take a breather. Trust us, it\u2019ll be waiting for you when you get back, but taking a break will allow you to tackle the problem with a clear head.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traffic<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Currently, most of our traffic is generated via organic searches on Google. Thus, our current focus is solely sustained growth with organic search traffic. Our website is still in the building phase, so our goal is to rank on Google for enough articles that we will attract many new readers to our website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the audience comes to our website, we want to hook them and keep them coming back by providing useful content. At our current stage, we are solely paying attention to whether or not we are experiencing sustained growth in terms of users over long periods of time. Eventually, we want to see more direct traffic, which signifies dedicated readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are beginning your blogging journey, write articles that are extremely specific. As a new kid on the block, you\u2019ll never compete with established websites for popular search terms within your niche. For example, \u201cThings to Do in New York City\u201d has been written thousands of times and there\u2019s no chance you\u2019ll compete with the likes of Fodor\u2019s or Lonely Planet (not to mention the hundreds of other travel bloggers out there).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, what you might be able to rank for is an article about a specific park or your experiences at a small museum in New York City (whatever your niche might be). There are plenty of people starving for specific information and you can easily get them to your website by providing it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These principles played out on our website as well. For example, most of Andrew\u2019s experience was in scuba diving; however, our new website could never rank for \u201cscuba diving\u201d. So, we narrowed our focus to specific dive sites in Fort Lauderdale and wrote about shipwrecks, beach dives, and coral reef dives around the city. After accumulating a small library, we wrote an article titled \u201c10 Must-See Dive Sites in Fort Lauderdale<\/a>\u201d, which was internally linked to all of our very specific articles. Today, this article is one of the first results on Google when searching for \u201cscuba diving in Fort Lauderdale\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Google SERP (as of October 15)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve used social networks in the past, but have since shifted our focus to producing content we own first. Once we\u2019ve established a vast library of interlinking articles that funnel readers to affiliate marketing links, we will once again spend time and energy driving traffic via social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do get some traffic from backlinks on other websites that Andrew does freelance writing for. If a reader enjoys his stuff on a certain website, oftentimes, they\u2019ll find their way to OceanWide Explorers for more. Backlinks are a fantastic source of traffic and one that Google seems to heavily weigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\nHow to Start a Successful Blog in the Post-COVID Era<\/span>\n
\nSarah and Matt, the creators behind twooutliers.com also received a significant amount of traffic from links on other websites. They shared their blogging journey and gave practical tips on how to make money on tours and activities affiliate programs.\n<\/div>\n\nRead the story<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\"Sarah\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Content<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We create the content ourselves. Andrew creates most of the content for our website. Laura helps with ideas, editing, videos and photos, and behind-the-scenes action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We produce content that we are interested in. As an adventure and travel blog, most of our articles are related to outdoor activities in various destinations. It\u2019s about us doing stuff. So, whatever we feel like doing is what we end up writing about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you don\u2019t enjoy the content you\u2019re producing, you\u2019ll never be able to produce sustainably. If it\u2019s not fun, then why do it? Travel blogging is about being able to live out your dreams and enjoy yourself while doing it!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we first started creating content, we faced a few challenges:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. We were producing content that was too broad for a new website. For example, we were writing about topics that were going to be forever buried in Google searches and never see the light of day.<\/li>
  2. In the same breath, we wrote articles that nobody was searching for. Just because you\u2019re interested in a topic, doesn\u2019t mean that other people are.<\/li>
  3. Finally, we approached content production with a debilitating level of perfectionism. Obviously, it\u2019s important to have high standards, but we recently heard this bit of wisdom: perfectionism is procrastination masquerading as quality control. It\u2019s okay to make mistakes.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    A successful content creator is persistent, willing to make mistakes, and approaches the entire process with a desire to learn. Most importantly, they understand that creating a successful website is a long, difficult process.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Build first your content and add affiliate links later. When you first start your content creation journey, you\u2019ll be tempted to use affiliate links wherever possible. However, those links won\u2019t do you any good and may even end up hurting you if placed unskillfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Provide quality content first, and then, once you have a steady flow of readers, go back and add affiliate links where appropriate. It won\u2019t be long until you begin to see consistent results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Monetization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Our primary source of monetization is affiliate marketing. Our website focuses on outdoor adventures, so it\u2019s been a smooth implementation to discuss gear recommendations, guided tours, and transportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Additionally, we utilize contextual ads in most articles (although the revenue we receive from them is a small fraction of what we earn via affiliate links). Currently, our RPM is between $40 and $50.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One other major source of monetization that was a direct result of starting our website is freelance writing. We\u2019ve had many paid opportunities open up to us by applying and sharing content from our blog as \u201cclips\u201d. As two people with no formal writing education and no prior published work, our blog was the only outlet we had to garner any experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Affiliate Marketing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    One of the most difficult challenges is getting accepted to affiliate programs as you start your website. Many affiliates won\u2019t accept you without adequate traffic. However, if you keep producing content, you\u2019ll eventually get enough traction and start getting accepted into various affiliate programs to begin your monetization goals.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Currently, we are connected to plenty of travel affiliate programs<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n