Those that are successful - and the yardstick is the number of social media followers and blog hits a blogger can garner – earn most of their income in the form of direct payments from sponsors.
The more high profile travel bloggers generally work with public relations agencies that specialise in social media, and which act as an interface between bloggers and advertisers.
It is the job of the agency to match the travel product that a hotel, an airline, a tour operator or a destination is seeking to promote with the following that a particular blogger might have.
Most travel bloggers are paid for every day they're on the road, and payments vary, anything from a couple of hundred to more than $1000 per day for a blogger with a track record that demonstrates spectacular results from their favourable coverage.
The travel itself, meals, accommodation, tours and many of the other incidentals that a travel blogger might face in the course of their journey, come free of charge.
Combined with advertising on their blog, a blogger with solid credentials might earn anything from about $2000 to $9000 in a month, although only a handful earn regular payments at the top end of that scale.
A lucrative income strand for some of the high flying bloggers is social media consulting, which includes teaching others how become travel bloggers.
