Day in the life of
Travel Blogger – Nate Hake
I am the founder of Travel Lemming, an online travel guide where I write detailed posts telling readers everything they need to know about visiting emerging destinations around the world. We try to highlight spots that get less attention than the more popular destinations, as a way of fighting back against over-tourism. I’ve been blogging since 2017, and in that time have visited over 50 countries around the world while working from a laptop.
A lot of people don’t really have a good idea of what being a travel blogger is really like. Here is what a typical “day in the life” looks like:
- Outline and write new content in WordPress. This is the bulk of the work involved and, while exciting at first, can definitely get tedious after you’ve written your umpteenth blog post.
- Promote new content via social media, outreach to related brands and companies, and email marketing. Writing a post is great, but you aren’t going to get any eyeballs on it unless you promote it!
- Review and update past blog posts to have the most current information available. Past posts are often the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to finding growth opportunities for SEO.
- Work on various SEO issues such as site speed, content optimization, and user experience. It’s important to keep the site up to date and serving users quickly.
- Do keyword research for new blog post ideas, which is how we figure out what topic areas to target so that we can have a chance of acquiring new readers.
Those are just some of the more common tasks in the day of a travel blogger, but the work is really varied and depends a lot upon the type of content you are creating.
Pros
I think there are a lot of great benefits to being a travel blogger, some of the best pros being:
- Ability to set your own schedule and have control over your work life balance.
- The wonderful feeling of creating something that actually helps people.
- Learning new skills (blogging is a constantly evolving space, and there is something new to learn always).
Cons
With that said, it’s not without its risks. Some cons of travel blogging include:
- Inconsistent income (especially at the start, when it can take a year or more for a new site to produce income).
- Dependency upon Google and other third-party platforms, which can change their algorithms and tank your entire business in a day.
Overall, I think travel blogging has been an incredible experience that has really helped me to grow as an entrepreneur, though admittedly it isn’t really for everyone. If you are interested in becoming a travel blogger, I would suggest having a solid business plan, really honing in on who your target audience is, and then figuring out the best way to provide value to that audience.
