Day in the life of
Travel Blogger – Emily Cuneo
A typical day in my life as a travel blogger involves everything from editing photos, creating videos, writing new articles, improving my site speed, backend coding, and hours on end of research. I always start my days by getting up early, checking my Google Analytics and Google Search Console for website traffic updates, and then getting started on whatever my goal is for that particular day. This could include writing guest posts for other bloggers or doing my own keyword research to create SEO-friendly articles that will rank high on Google.
I aimed to go on at least two, but preferably three trips per year, ranging between 10-14 days each for destinations outside of the U.S. For domestic trips, I also would take about two trips per year ranging between 3-5 days each. On average, I would vacation about 7-8 weeks a year.
When I’m not traveling, I am spending upwards of 12 hours/day working on administrative tasks and writing new content. I arrange for some time to spend on planning my own personal trips and occasionally trips for other people, as well.
Pros
- The best part of my job is I have the freedom to work from anywhere with a strong internet connection and can go on vacation anytime I want.
- I can make myself available for last-minute events or leave my home for weeks at a time without having to use PTO or sick time to do so.
- I get to connect with interesting people from all over the world everyday via social media and other travel blogs.
- I get to learn in-depth about the cultures, cuisines, sites, history, and geographical layouts of foreign countries everyday.
- I am my own boss so I can decide what I work on everyday and can choose to take a day off if I please.
- I can choose to travel with little notice to anywhere in the world as long as there are flights with an empty seat available.
This doesn’t mean blogging is easy, however. In fact, the majority of new bloggers quit after the first year since they see how much effort it takes to run a successful money-making travel blog, and aren’t patient enough for Google to recognize them. Running a travel blog requires a significant amount of dedication and no small amount of writing and researching skills. If you aren’t up-to-date on the latest Google updates or travel industry trends, you will see your blog traffic steadily decrease over time.
Travel bloggers need to be constantly aware of the user experience they provide to readers, create fresh content weekly (at a minimum), and be implementing SEO-based strategies to earn a steady income. In fact, many bloggers believe you need social media to run a successful blog, which is absolutely false. The most successful travel blogs became successful by implementing important SEO strategies and then grew their social media accounts because of their blog, not the other way around. It’s very important to understand where your focus needs to be, especially in the first year.
Cons
- Travel blogging is a 24/7 job which can make it difficult to step away and give yourself personal time to focus on your relationships and other duties
- You have to invest in your travel blog to make it successful. A good self-hosting platform and occasionally investing in a course or two on how to be a successful blogger are important when first starting out
- Starting a travel blog now is vastly different than in the past decade. Now, travel bloggers need to niche down to a specific geographic location or travel style in order to be successful. Otherwise, it will take years to grow a general travel blog that signifies that you are an expert on “all things travel-related across the globe”.
- Travel blogging is a juggling act. You need to be dedicated enough to balance financially responsible creative thinking, writing new content that’s quality enough to beat your competitors, keeping your website fast and user-friendly, staying updated on Google’s Terms of Service and annual updates, and becoming an expert at your travel niche.
Overall, I absolutely love being a travel blogger because even though it takes a lot of hard work and commitment, the rewards well outweigh the cons. I love being my own boss and learning about new places everyday. In fact, I have created several of my own itineraries based on the research I have done for my blog. I have the freedom to plan my work around my life, instead of being stuck at a desk for 8 hours a day with only 2 weeks of time off per year.
