A Fast Track Guide To Becoming A Travel Writer

If you’re a travel addict who loves to write, it makes sense that you’d be interested in pursuing a career as a travel writer. It’s the uultimate dream come true, traveling the world and getting paid to write about your experiences and discoveries, am I right?

I’m lucky enough to have made an income by travel writing for my own website (this one) and for other sites. So for anyone that’s looking to do the same, here’s a guide to how you can do the same!

What type of travel writer do you want to become?

First thing’s first, you need to ask yourself what kind of travel writer you want to become. There are a few different ways to make money writing travel articles, and you can do any you set your mind to.

Conventional travel writing

A conventional travel writer writes for another company or publication. In this role, you’ll be given a salary, and possibly even a travel budget. This is probably the most secure type of travel writing income, as you’ll have a contract and a monthly income.

However, it might not be as flexible as travel writing for yourself. You may be required to travel to certain destinations, rather than just anywhere you fancy and deadlines are likely to be strict.

Freelance travel writing

Another way of making an income by travel writing is to write travel articles for different clients as a freelancer. You can sign up to become a freelancer on sites like freelancer.com and upwork.com. With freelancer jobs, you’ll be able to work from anywhere in the world, and set your own rates.

There are a few downsides to freelancing though, one of the main ones being that work isn’t guaranteed. You’ll need to apply for travel writing jobs, so much of your time will be spent sending out applications. And if you’re to be successful, you’ll need to perfect your cover letters.

You’re also unlikely to find jobs that give you the freedom to write about your own travel experiences. There will be some out there, but most of the time, clients will be looking for specific articles, which will require more research than just writing about your own experiences.

Most of the time, you will also be ‘ghost writing’ so you won’t be able to claim credit for the articles you’ve written, which can be gutting, especially if you’re super proud of an article.

Travel blogging

This is my favourite form of travel writing, purely because you can write whatever you like, whenever you like, and when it comes down to it, how much you make is up to you.
Okay, so you probably won’t make any money at first, but as your audience grows, more money-making doors will open.

You could monetize your blog with ads, affiliate links, or even with digital products, like travel guides which you can sell on your site.

The only trouble with this is that it can take a while to build your audience and start making money from your blog. The only thing I can tell you is that if you keep going with it, and keep coming up with new ideas to write about, and new ways to market your blog, it will be a success.

How to fast track your way into travel writing

Start a travel blog

Whether you want to earn money writing for yourself, or you’re hoping to land a high-paying travel writing contract, starting a travel blog is something you just have to do.

If you haven’t blogged before, it can be a little daunting, the thought of putting yourself out there for anyone and everyone to see. But you quickly get used to it, and you could always blog anonymously.

Starting a blog, regardless of what the blog is about, is always useful if you want to go into writing, because by writing regularly, you’ll develop an authentic writing style. Once you’ve developed your style, writing will become ten times easier, and eventually you’ll be able to bang out a top-quality article in no time at all.

If you’re hoping to get a job as a travel writer, having a travel blog up and running will show potential employers that you’re a writer capable of engaging an audience. No one wants to take a risk on a writer without a portfolio, and your blog will quickly become your portfolio.

If you’re hoping to make money writing travel articles for yourself, having a travel blog could be the answer to your dreams. If you post regularly enough, build up a good following and draw a good amount of traffic to your site, there’s nothing stopping you from monetizing your blog.

If you’re hoping to make money writing travel articles as a freelancer, you’ll have a portfolio in place to show potential clients that you specialise in writing about travel. This will help you stand out from other freelance writers who will write about anything and everything.

TRY TO NARROW IT DOWN TO A NICHE

Travel writing is super competitive, so if you want to improve your chances of standing out from the crowd, try narrowing it down from just ‘travel’ to a more specific niche.

There are so many different niches you could explore, here are a few different niche ideas you could try out:

-Travel writing for minority groups
-Travel writing for a specific area (you could literally just write tons of articles about the same city or country)
-Budget traveling
-Luxury traveling
-Specific activities and where to do them (kayaking, cycling, hiking, driving, bungee jumping, paragliding)
-Food travel (you could review food in different countries)
-A type of travel (flying, cruises, driving etc.)

These are just a few travel niche ideas you could try, but there are so many different niches you could try. And the great thing about going for a niche is that many niches are pretty much untouched, so it wouldn’t be too hard for you to establish yourself as an authority.

BUILD YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWING (ESPECIALLY ON INSTAGRAM)

Building your social media following will give you an audience that’s already interested in you and your travels. Whether you plan on monetizing a travel blog, or writing for another publication, you’ll have an audience to share your articles with.

If you’re strapped for time, just focus on Instagram. Travel is a particularly visual industry; people want to see as well as read about adventures. If you post pictures of your adventures on Instagram, you’ll draw people in, and it’s more likely that they’ll be intrigued by your content. They’ll want to know the story behind the pictures.

You’ll also improve your chances of being head-hunted for travel writing roles. If potential employers, or even other blog owners see that you’re already a travel writer with quite the following, they’re more likely to consider asking you to write for them.

CONSIDER STARTING A YOUTUBE CHANNEL

The key to good travel writing is personality. Everyone can write flowery language about a destination if they put their mind to it, but if you really want to keep people interested, you need to weave a little of yourself into each article you write.

People want to get to know the traveller, as well as the destinations they visit. It makes travel stories relatable, and you’ll interest people on a personal level.

One of the best ways to show people your personality is to put yourself out there on YouTube. You could start a travel vlog, and give your audience the opportunity to see your adventures, rather than just read about them.

People will get to know you as a person, and in doing so, they’ll become interested in your articles. So by starting a YouTube channel, you’ll boost audience engagement with your articles, and you could even monetize your channel. You just need to find the confidence to put yourself out there.

(I haven’t yet started a personal YouTube channel, but it’s coming, I promise. For now though, you can check out the Travel Lifestyle YouTube channel.)

TRAVEL!

However you plan on travel writing, if you don’t travel very often, you’re not going to have a lot to write about.

You don’t have to travel full time to be a travel writer, you just need to visit enough places to fuel a few articles.

For example, if for whatever reason you’d rather do weekend city trips every now and then, rather than longer multi-country trips, that’s absolutely fine! As long as you travel at least more than the average joe, you’ll have more than enough to write about.

Plus, if you’re hoping to land a job as a travel writer, the first thing employers will look for is an interest in travel, and what better way to show your interest than to have several trips already under your belt?

FIND TRAVEL WRITING JOBS

If you’re planning on simply travel blogging, this step won’t apply to you. But if you’re hoping to be a freelance travel writer, or a full time travel writer for another publication, this is the final, and possibly the hardest step to achieving your dream job.

Luckily though, if you’ve taken all of the previous steps, you’ll already be the perfect candidate for any travel writing job you go for.

So where can you find these dream jobs? For freelancers you can simply sign up to sites like Upwork or Freelancer, and search for travel writing jobs on those freelancer platforms. Or if you want to extend your reach, you could always try Reddit. There are so many subreddits where you could advertise your travel writing services, or find clients looking for travel writers.

If you want a more permanent travel writing job though, with an established company, take to every job site you know, and apply to as many travel writing jobs as you can. The more you apply for, the more likely it is you’ll land your dream role.

If there’s a specific publication you know you’d like to write for, you can search their website for opportunities, or even send them an email applying for a speculative position. A large percentage of opportunities aren’t actually advertised, so you definitely won’t be wasting your time. And even if they don’t have anything going at the moment, you can ask them to keep your CV on file.

OR…

START MARKETING YOUR BLOG

If you’re hoping to make money as a travel blogger, you’ll need to have a marketing plan in place. It sounds scary, but it can be really simple.

You just need to have a plan for how you’re going to attract more people to your website. You’ll need a little bit of SEO, write a few guest posts for other travel sites to get backlinks, and boost your social media following.

The more people you can attract to your website, the more successful your travel blog will be!