Working as a digital nomad and traveling the world is a contemporary-day dream job for those with wanderlust, especially if your idea of a travel blogger is someone who spends all day on the beach, interspersing their tanning with a few tweets and sipping piña coladas as the billions roll in.
Let me begin by dispelling a few misconceptions as someone who has been travel blogging for the past four years and has turned her hobby blog into a (small) money-making business. Let me start by debunking a few myths before you embark on your journey to earn money traveling.
Myth 1: You get to go to the beach while you work.
If you want to work on the beach – really on the beach – you should probably stop now. I’ve done it, and I can tell you that it: Doesn’t Work.
You’ll not only lack internet and power, but you’ll also get a headache as you try to fight the sun’s glare on your screen while aggravating the problem by sand in your keyboard.
Sure, you’ll be able to work from far more exotic places than a typical office cubicle every day, but they’ll almost certainly be hotel lobbies, hostel common areas, and cafés.
You must replicate an office-style setting (with fast Wi-Fi and a power connection in cafés and hotel lobbies) to get any real work done.
Myth 2:It is simple to work and travel as a digital nomad.
“Entrepreneurs work 80 hours each week to avoid working 40,” says an article I recently read.Unless you’re Tim Ferriss, the author of The Four Hour Work Week and The Digital Nomad Bible, working and traveling is considerably more time-consuming than most people believe.
Why? Both travel and blogging are full-time occupations.
Among the things on my to-do list: pitching, writing, marketing, tweeting, collecting payments, balancing accounts, maintaining a website, planning itineraries for travel, booking flights, spending 12 hours on a bus traveling through the Andes mountains from one city to another and occasionally… very rarely … visiting a beach and taking in the nightlife.
Give up if you believe that being a digital nomad and travel blogger is going to be an easy life.
Hosting a professional travel blog is not for the faint of heart (unless you’re a genius, in which case you are excused as an exception).
Myth 3: A travel blog will help you finance your Around the World journey.
I read an article last year that contained the most absurd recommendation I’ve ever seen: the author suggested creating a blog to finance your trip. Sure, being able to work as a travel blogger for money is now a real profession, but it isn’t something most people can do and out of for a one-year vacation.Even if you can start a successful travel blog quickly, you’re unlikely to be monetizing for the first six to nine months, and certainly not from day one.
Making money with a travel blog: Most of us try to start a blog at least once in our lives.
Myth 4: All you have to do to earn money is place Google advertising on your site.
Many people believe that the easiest method to profit from a blog is through Google advertisements. Consider this: how frequently do you click on a Google advertising on a website?The typical response, in most cases, is not at all. That’s why, unlike Facebook ads, Google advertising don’t pay off based on the number of people who view your page with the ad. They are mostly paid on a per-click basis.
Google Ads Is Not The Most Profitable Way of Making Money on Your Blog…Unless You Have a Shi!t Tonne of Readers Who Are Extremely Click-Happy.
Myth 5: You may do other things while you wait for the passive income to arrive.
Given the fact that the majority of travel bloggers give up within a year and that it generally takes at least one year to generate any money from a blog, you’ll see that the statistics are against you – unless you’re in it for the long run.
Passive income (such as advertising and affiliate links) only comes when you have a large number of visitors – at least 30,000 page views every month as a rough estimate. If you’re lucky, that’ll just about cover the cost of a few burgers if you’re selling.Even so, generating that traffic and creating a consistent audience takes a significant amount of effort. If you’re expecting to get rich quickly by doing little, give up now. You’ll earn more money working for McDonald’s – they have an application form available here.
Reality: passive income necessitates a decent quantity of traffic, which generally takes time to develop (often more than a year – frequently two or three).
Myth 6: You get a lot of “free stuff”… and that’s plenty.
If you’ve reached the point where enough people are reading your content that companies and places want to collaborate with you, there are several great possibilities for “free stuff” – tours, hotel stays, restaurant visits, and press trips.
But, let’s clear up the “free” part, since you aren’t really getting anything for free. Companies would want something in return for working with you. They want a piece on your blog written about them . They want access to your social media following.They want your time. Those things you get in return for a “free” tour have value to the visitors so you’re not really getting anything for free.
Travel Blogging Reality: As a business, you are trading your time and expertise for trips and travel benefits, so don’t forget to put a price on your time.Is it really worth spending 12 hours writing a post and promoting it on social media for a “free” $50 hotel stay for one night? Breaking it down, that’s $4.16 an hour.
