When I reflect on my trip, it’s not only the photos that jumpstart the memories, it’s also the accompanying words that take me back to a city or location. The journal entries may not seem like much individually, because they aren’t, but the accumulation of these entries over time was the ultimate travel gift to myself. If you want to travel full time, you need to turn the gift into a business. You need to step up your blogging game.
While planning your trip, if you believe there’s a chance that your around the world trip could turn into a lifestyle choice, then you should save more money and purchase higher end electronics prior to leaving. The quality of your photos and videos along with the subsequent editing need to be at a higher level to monetize your travel blogging. You should start a YouTube channel at the beginning of your trip. You should spend more time editing your content even if that means less time visiting new sights. You should be preparing for the permanent travel lifestyle while you are traveling to evaluate how you are transitioning from a hobby to a business. If six months into your trip you only have 500 followers on Instagram, you need to increase your social media savviness.
The simplest approach to sharing your adventures is to write an article or guide that you would want to read. Trying to be the next Anthony Bourdain is hard. The next Paul Theroux is even harder. Post photos that you like to view and bring back memories. There’s 1,000s of Instagram accounts with 1,000s of followers and 1,000s of likes on every photo. There are bloggers with 1,000s of readers subscribed to their emails. I have no idea, nor does anyone else, understand how one Instagram post of Big Ben, posted from an otherwise anonymous unknown, receives 1,000s of likes compared to superior photographs. There must be some financial and search algorithmic chicanery that takes place behind the scenes. There are connections people don’t disclose. Sometimes it’s just luck.
When I started traveling around the world, I followed other travelers. I read their trip reports and tips. I tried to understand what content was being published and what the content aggregators considered in a submission. At the time of my travels, the Matador Network, was posting entry after entry under a theme “Reasons Why You Shouldn’t…” which would start with a heading like, “20 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Go To Paris”, then provide backhanded comments that were actually reasons to travel to Paris. The first reason would be you shouldn’t go to Paris because there’s too much culture to experience. Oh, so clever Matador Network. You could write a similar article, have no one read it, then look back in five years and wonder “why did I write garbage to maybe have it posted on the Matador Network?” Rather than stress over receiving likes from others, write and take photos of what interests you. Don’t force your writing to meet what you think the market wants. You can’t control how many people read your blogs, so you should ultimately write something you will want to read 10, 15, 20 years from now.
Writing for your website and organizing your photos takes time. In the first month or two your writing entries are slow to compile, and the entries aren’t…what’s the word…good. But if you stay on top of your writing and frequently add pages to your website, the pages and entries will start to accumulate. A new webpage, an Instagram and/or Facebook post, a snarky Twitter comment per day adds up over two months of travel…over three months of travel…over a year of travel. If someone stumbles upon your website, they will be more inclined to return if they know you update and post new content on a frequent basis. As a business, your website update frequency needs to be at a minimum three to four times a week. Not once a month. Or once a year.
In 2020, videos are as important, if not more important, in attracting visitors to a website as writing and photos. New apps have made it easier to edit video. If all you have is a netbook, WeVideo gets the editing job done, barely, but if you are trying to enter the professional blogger space you need to upgrade to Final Cut or a similar, higher quality, more functionality video editor.
Photos require editing too—editing a photo is no different than proofreading a blog entry. Many of the really, really good photos are heavily, heavily photoshopped in Adobe. If you want to start a distinct blog or Instagram account, post photos of the heavily photoshopped images versus how the attraction appears in real life. Crush people’s expectations before they arrive at Angkor Wat.
Whether you are writing for yourself or trying to attract a broader audience, refine as you go. Be honest with yourself and try to improve your writing from entry to entry. The first entries don’t need to be perfect. No entry needs to be perfect. It’s better to post an unfinished product that you can edit later than never posting. I consulted other websites, not to copy writing styles, but to compare the quality of my writing to others.
If your website receives a high volume of traffic, consider monetizing the site with advertisements. Don’t go down this monetization route at first—the only thing more annoying than a bad website, is a bad website with advertisements. When you receive enough traffic to monetize your site with advertisements, website building applications have drag and drop ads that are easy to incorporate into existing pages. Then you can sit back and watch the tens of dollars roll in.
So…do I believe there are people traveling around the world full time only on a blogger’s salary? Sure. All you need to earn as a blogger is $30 a day. That equates to $1,000 a month, which is all you need to live in Southeast Asia. Could anyone create a blog that earns $30 a day? Sure. Do you want to live off $30 a day? Probably not, therefore you will need to find additional revenue streams to supplement your blogging income.
The simplest approach to sharing your adventures is to write an article or guide that you would want to read. Trying to be the next Anthony Bourdain is hard. The next Paul Theroux is even harder. Post photos that you like to view and bring back memories. There’s 1,000s of Instagram accounts with 1,000s of followers and 1,000s of likes on every photo. There are bloggers with 1,000s of readers subscribed to their emails. I have no idea, nor does anyone else, understand how one Instagram post of Big Ben, posted from an otherwise anonymous unknown, receives 1,000s of likes compared to superior photographs. There must be some financial and search algorithmic chicanery that takes place behind the scenes. There are connections people don’t disclose. Sometimes it’s just luck.
When I started traveling around the world, I followed other travelers. I read their trip reports and tips. I tried to understand what content was being published and what the content aggregators considered in a submission. At the time of my travels, the Matador Network, was posting entry after entry under a theme “Reasons Why You Shouldn’t…” which would start with a heading like, “20 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Go To Paris”, then provide backhanded comments that were actually reasons to travel to Paris. The first reason would be you shouldn’t go to Paris because there’s too much culture to experience. Oh, so clever Matador Network. You could write a similar article, have no one read it, then look back in five years and wonder “why did I write garbage to maybe have it posted on the Matador Network?” Rather than stress over receiving likes from others, write and take photos of what interests you. Don’t force your writing to meet what you think the market wants. You can’t control how many people read your blogs, so you should ultimately write something you will want to read 10, 15, 20 years from now.
Writing for your website and organizing your photos takes time. In the first month or two your writing entries are slow to compile, and the entries aren’t…what’s the word…good. But if you stay on top of your writing and frequently add pages to your website, the pages and entries will start to accumulate. A new webpage, an Instagram and/or Facebook post, a snarky Twitter comment per day adds up over two months of travel…over three months of travel…over a year of travel. If someone stumbles upon your website, they will be more inclined to return if they know you update and post new content on a frequent basis. As a business, your website update frequency needs to be at a minimum three to four times a week. Not once a month. Or once a year.
In 2020, videos are as important, if not more important, in attracting visitors to a website as writing and photos. New apps have made it easier to edit video. If all you have is a netbook, WeVideo gets the editing job done, barely, but if you are trying to enter the professional blogger space you need to upgrade to Final Cut or a similar, higher quality, more functionality video editor.
Photos require editing too—editing a photo is no different than proofreading a blog entry. Many of the really, really good photos are heavily, heavily photoshopped in Adobe. If you want to start a distinct blog or Instagram account, post photos of the heavily photoshopped images versus how the attraction appears in real life. Crush people’s expectations before they arrive at Angkor Wat.
Whether you are writing for yourself or trying to attract a broader audience, refine as you go. Be honest with yourself and try to improve your writing from entry to entry. The first entries don’t need to be perfect. No entry needs to be perfect. It’s better to post an unfinished product that you can edit later than never posting. I consulted other websites, not to copy writing styles, but to compare the quality of my writing to others.
If your website receives a high volume of traffic, consider monetizing the site with advertisements. Don’t go down this monetization route at first—the only thing more annoying than a bad website, is a bad website with advertisements. When you receive enough traffic to monetize your site with advertisements, website building applications have drag and drop ads that are easy to incorporate into existing pages. Then you can sit back and watch the tens of dollars roll in.
So…do I believe there are people traveling around the world full time only on a blogger’s salary? Sure. All you need to earn as a blogger is $30 a day. That equates to $1,000 a month, which is all you need to live in Southeast Asia. Could anyone create a blog that earns $30 a day? Sure. Do you want to live off $30 a day? Probably not, therefore you will need to find additional revenue streams to supplement your blogging income.