Myths About Travel Blogging

A digital nomad’s dream is to travel the world and work from anywhere, especially if you believe that a travel blogger spends their days tanning on the beach and tweeting. Let me start by dispelling some myths about travel blogging as someone who has been involved in it for years.

Working on the beach is convenient
Dreaming of working on the beach, I would suggest you drop this idea from your mind now. It may sound very cool but actually, it is not. The two most crucial factors for working are power and Wi-Fi and you lack both of them. As you struggle to fight the glare on the screen, you run the risk of getting sand on your keyboard and ruining your most essential office tool.

If you decide to work from a hotel lobby, hostel common room, or cafe, you are going to get to work from much more exotic locations than the same office cubicle every day.

Traveling and working are easy
In an article I recently read, someone made an excellent point: “entrepreneurs are unwilling to work 40 hours a week in order to avoid working 80.” You spend 12 hours on a bus, pitch, write, market, tweet, chase payments, balance accounts, manage a website, plan routes, book flights, find accommodations, find food, find internet, search for power, air conditioning, spend half a day searching for contact lens’ solution, get sick, sleep poorly on a bus ride, and sometimes…very rarely, we sampled the nightlife and visited beaches.

Giving up is the best thing you can do if you think life as a digital nomad and the lifestyle of a travel blogger is not too easy.

You will be able to fund your trips through travel blogs
You have to be patient as this is a long procedure and involves a lot of time, hard work, and patience, you can’t start earning from day one or after a month. You have to do a lot of hard work, you might fail several times but don’t lose hope and don’t stop working hard towards your goal.

You might have listened to people saying they earn lakhs by travel blogging but the truth is that they have gone through a number of sleepless nights, years of hard work then they had achieved that position and are still working with the same spirit.

You will be able to fund your trips but working extremely hard for a year and you might get a big amount of cash first but you don’t need to upset yourself. This is the harsh truth that I am telling you but that’s what I had learned from my experience.

Your blog can make you money simply by placing Google ads
It is often assumed that the main revenue source for a blog will be Google advertisements. Here’s a question: Do you usually click on Google advertisements? Not very often, is the common answer. Because Google ads payout based on the number of clicks on your page, that fact is crucial, because you will not be paid based just on the number of clicks. Mainly, they charge for clicks on their ads.

Passive income is a way for you to earn income while doing other things
As a travel blogger, you’ll find that the odds are stacked against you if you give up after a year and if you’re not prepared for the long haul.

Adverts and affiliate links (fatter types of passive income) only take off when you have some traffic. You are looking for at least 30,000 page views per month to start with, which will barely generate enough traffic to buy you some hamburgers if you’re lucky. Moreover, it takes a lot of effort to establish a readership and build traffic. I strongly advise you to give up if you expect to gain wealth with little effort.

There are tons of freebies…and that’s sufficient
If you have a large enough following to attract brands and destinations, you may be able to get more “free stuff”, for example, restaurant visits, hotel stays, goodies and hampers or some other expensive items for promotions.

You are not really getting anything for free, so let’s dispel the free part. Working with companies requires a certain amount of compensation. Social media followers are what they want. Your time is valuable to them. Your “free” tour is not free since you have to provide things to get it.

It’s all your call since you’re the boss
Though a job as a travel blogger is a much more flexible one than a cubicle job, don’t fool yourself into thinking you can take a break whenever you want. The process of creating a website is similar to rolling a snowball. You need to roll it every day in the snow in order to ensure it grows continuously. It will totally melt away when you take a month off from writing and your readers will drift to another blog.

You stand a better chance of earning an income from your blog if you treat it as a proper job. If you think of your blog as a hobby, you’ll get the same kind of reward a hobby provides, greater personal satisfaction, and an occasional perk that comes with traveling.

Travel is a great aspect of the job
Those who love travel will find travel blogging a fulfilling career, although running it as a business can be time-consuming and somewhat tedious. Traveling on a press trip or working for a brand means that your vacations become workdays. There’s a good chance you will be able to decide how to spend your time in a city rather than making up your own itinerary, including some activities you may not particularly enjoy. Remember not to just sit back and enjoy your meal – you will need to take notes, snap photos and interview the chef.

It’s enough that you’re a good writer
Even though I love writing, if you’re not a big writer, you can still present the world to your readers with videography and photography, which are equally effective (and at times even more effective) ways. Do not worry if words are not your cup of tea.

Although you may be a great writer, you’ll also need a lot of other skills to run a successful travel blog – from web design to photography to marketing and PR to social media.

It’s not worth trying to travel blog in the crowded space
Travel blogs are constantly being launched due to the fact that the barrier to entry is practically zero. Travel blogging (as a hobby or for a living) was rare four years ago. The number of blogs I encounter has increased to about one in ten after four years.

There’s no denying that travel blogging is a crowded field. I definitely recommend that future bloggers give it a shot if they have a good niche, a commitment to blogging professionally, and a willingness to persist over the long term. Although the hours are long and the pay is poor, it is worth it.

With the right niche and effort, you can succeed in the highly-competitive travel blogging market.