How to Travel the World and Get Paid for Writing About It

Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? But you can travel the world and get paid for writing about it. In fact thousands and thousands of people do it each and every day.

Even if you only go on holiday once a year and never actually leave the country you can still get paid for writing about it.

And if like me, travel isn’t something you just do to ‘get away from it all’ but more of a lifestyle choice (or you want it to be), then the opportunities to get paid for writing about your travel addiction are even greater.

Below are the two simplest ways you can travel the world and get paid for writing about it in the online world. Pitching to newspapers and magazines is a bit beyond the scope of this particular post so if that interests you, keep a lookout for future tips on that topic.

1. Get paid for writing your own travel blog

Regulars to these pages will know my feelings on having your own blog as a freelance writer. A blog gives you your own platform from which to write from and allows you to explore topics and styles as you see fit. Plus a regular blogging schedule demands something that all writers (and other freelancers) need to develop over time: self-discipline.

Whether you’re on the road right now or at home planning your next trip, there are ways you can get paid for writing your very own travel blog.

The most common way perhaps is from placing adverts on your site (either with programmes like Google Adsense or with affiliate partners like Amazon). You then earn money each time a visitor to your blog either clicks through or buys something via these adverts.

You obviously need to be attracting a fair bit of traffic in order to make this work, but the major plus here for any travel addict is that you can be making money while lazing on the beach on the other side of the world.

The people who name stuff call this generating ‘passive income’ and you’ll need to draw visitors to your site by posting well written, useful posts on a regular basis.

But that was what you were going to do with your travel blog anyway, right?

2. Get paid for writing for a travel company’s blog

This basically boils down to good old-fashioned pitching for writing work (but don’t let that put you off). These days everybody has to be online. Everybody. That includes every single travel company – from tiny tour operators to multinational travel agents.

And guess what all these travel companies need in order to make a good impression online and get visitors coming back time and again? That’s right – a good blog.

Travel companies need well written, engaging content just as much as you need it for your own travel blog.

So what does this mean for you? Well for a start the competition online isn’t as fierce as you might have thought pitching for travel writing work would be. It’s just a matter of choosing a few travel companies and then emailing them to see if they need a blog contributor. You’ll need to convince them that you’re the best person for the job of course. This is where your own travel blog comes in handy as you can use it as a portfolio to showcase to potential new clients.

Not only will you get paid per post but most companies will also include a link from their website back to yours when they publish your piece, so it’s a great way to get additional traffic to your site.

What sort of thing do you pitch to these companies? It can vary. You may have just got back from a trip and have a unique angle on a well-trodden travel path, or you might want to impart your practical travel tips to the blog’s readers.

This type of work suits the intrepid vagabond lifestyle perfectly – a blog post on the best ways to pack for an African safari here, a narrative piece on getting off the beaten track in Mongolia there – a lot of it really is your call as travel companies constantly need fresh and engaging ideas for their ever-evolving blogs.

Sure, the above options both take a bit of work (I never said it would be without hard graft) but if you really want to travel the world and get paid for writing about it then I’m here to tell you that it’s entirely possible. What’s more, by combining the above two strategies you’re more likely to have even greater success.

Want more? Check out my (almost free) Amazon bestselling eBook to take you through all the practical steps of how to make real money travel blogging.

Kirsty Boden-Stuart is a freelance writer who loves travel writing. She started this website years ago. She still drops in now and then to share tips and techniques for writers who want to earn a living from their craft.