Travelling the world while writing about your adventures seems like a pipe dream to many stuck in the 9-5 grind. Living your dreams while getting paid to share your experiences with the rest of the world?
Can’t be true. However, unbeknownst to many, this is exactly what some people are doing, and it’s a rather successful business model which is being cloned by hundreds of people every year. So how you go about starting your own travel blog? Well, before you go handing in your notice, here are a few tips you need to know before you pack your bags for a journey of a lifetime.
Get Ready to Work Harder Than You Ever Have Before
Ask any travel blogger what their best tip is to start a travel blog is and they’ll all tell you the same thing. You are about to work harder than you ever have before. Blogging is hard work, even if you’re only blogging part-time while you’re at home after your shift ends. Travel blogging is another story. Don’t post for a couple of days because you’re out enjoying the sunshine? You’re not going to get paid, and you’re going to lose a lot of followers. If you’re just starting out, you’ll lose the ones you have. Once your blog has gone live, you’re going to have to give it everything you have to ensure its success.
Judgement Day
One of the most common problems that any kind of blogger’s faces, particularly a travel blogger, is self-doubt. You may have spent hours, even days, writing up your latest post but as soon as you go to hit the ‘publish’ button, many bloggers freeze. Are you communicating the right message? Could you offend people with what you’re saying? You know you’ve checked your article over a thousand times, but if someone finds a mistake in what you’re saying and voices it, you could lose a whole load of credibility. Taking the risk of posting and realising that your writing won’t suit everyone is one of the biggest obstacles you’ll have to face.
Be Prepared to Change
Unfortunately, you may have this image in your head of you laying on a beach which your sunglasses on while you tap away about how amazing the place is. However, how many beaches do you know that have Wi-Fi? Furthermore, how many little villages in the middle of India even have any kind of Internet connection whatsoever? The life of a travel blogger isn’t all fancy hotels and breathtaking excursions. Look forward to a lot of drama and potentially some of the worst situations you’ll ever find yourself in. We’re not trying to put you off. It’s how you deal with these situations that will make you a success.
Monetizing Your Blog
Simply writing about your adventures and having people sat at home reading them isn’t enough to pay for your travels. You need to view your blog as a gateway or a foundation for creating money that will fund your trips. If you provide your readers with high-quality writing, they will automatically flock to your blog. Once on your site, you’ll need to find products or services that you can sell to them. This means partnering up with businesses as well finding affiliate connections. Better yet, create your own products, such as e-books, to sell to your readers!
Creating an Email List
No matter how many readers you have on your blog, you haven’t done your job if they won’t come back again. This means you need email addresses to contact people to remind them that you’re still active and still creating posts that they’ll want to read. Creating an email list is one of the first things you should do. With a dedicated list of followers, you’re much more likely to get endorsements from tourist boards and press releases.
Jennifer Scott works as online editor at Best Australian Writers (http://bestaustralianwriters.