Is spending oodles of money and mountains of your precious time pumping out travel-related blog content honed to perfection and spiced-up with a few choice photographs you took the time to select out of a pile of 20-plus, then edited to perfection… worth it anymore?
The question isn’t whether it is a ton of fun and a great hobby… it is! The question posed here is: “Is travel blogging a viable profession?”
Can you make money as a travel blogger, have any type/form/semblance of a professional career in the travel writing genre of professional writers?
Better put… ARE you a professional writer? Do you have any talent?
If not, are you willing to work hard and learn, when there may be next-to-nil payoff for you afterwards except possibly a bit of public recognition via the Web and a boost to your self-esteem?
In my humble opinion… these are the types of questions many prospective newbie travel bloggers should be asking themselves before they add yet one more crappy, poorly-designed, 100 pages of ‘I paid for a RTW trip and so that means I can write a bunch of things that of course the world is going to want to read’ type of content.
Ick, yuck and there is a serious over-abundance of them already out there… why would you want to put yourself into that category? Why add to the worn-out travel blogger fray when it is almost certain you are NOT going to stand out.
If you just want to have some fun then go for it but as a career choice the profession itself is becoming less respectable for the majority of folks who are entering it thinking they will become the next travel blogger superstar.
You may… but most likely you will not, and won’t make more than a few hundred bucks – that much if you are lucky.
Want to stand out from the crowd and do something of value with your life as well? Follow your passions, sure.
Another idea? Blaze a new trail (travel writing or other) with your special and unique talents that improve upon what’s already out there, as opposed to becoming yet another blogger-sheep trying desperately to keep up with the flock that has already meandered far ahead.
Do something different for goodness sakes, than add to the endless electronic dribble posted on travel blogs the world over.
Shake it up a bit like only you could. Show the world the ‘you’ that’s meant to be you and forget the ‘Nomadic Tom, Dick, Harry and Sallys’ who’ve already attained success and try to pull you into the closed void of travel blogging simply because it’s their biz, what they do, and how they make a fair amount of cash these days.
Forget them.
Consider them charlatans if you will – not in the real sense that they are phonies and have not achieved real success, but in the sense they are promoting a gig that really is not a viable career option these days.
It’s not that you are not smart, have fun ideas and can take some great photographs… it’s more to the point that the field is over-saturated with folks just like you, who are all doing the same thing.
Want to have a career that is going to pay the rent? How about support a family? It may be best to choose a profession other than travel blogging.
Want to add to the dross on the Web and write yet another few hundred more of the “I’ve been here, done that” type of articles about your travels?
Then go ahead and enjoy it (it is fun!) – but just have a sweet nest egg to fall back on when you’re broke and need to move on to new ventures 🙂
The Blog: “That was kind-of bitchy.”
Me: “Really? I was trying to be realistic and give a ‘this is the real scoop’ alternative to the zillion of promo articles trying to sell folks on a profession that is almost surely going to take a lot of their time, but not give much money (if any) in return. Wouldn’t you want to have that information if it was you?”
The Blog: “Maybe. But it’s not me.”
Me: “And you should be grateful for that.”
The Blog: “I don’t get grateful.”
Me: “Try appreciative.”
The Blog: “See what I mean… b-i-t-c-h-y.”
Me: “I give up. Good thing I wasn’t writing the article for you.”