My Life as a Travel Blogger

June 23, 2010

My life as a travel blogger isn’t how I imagined it would be.  It’s much harder than I expected and the skill set required is extensive. But when you meet a stranger this is how the conversation usually goes when it comes around to jobs.

Stranger: What do you do?

Me: I’m a travel blogger.

Stranger: Cool. So what do you do – just like travel all the time? …You’re so lucky.

Me: Actually I work all the time and even more when I travel.

I agree that I am lucky.  And I’ll never complain about my opportunities for travel or the fact that I travel a great deal. But here’s what my day actually looks like.

A Day in the Life of a Travel Blogger – Non Traveling Day

7:30am At my desk with my second cup of coffee. I quickly check emails before I walk the dog.

9:30 am Dog has her legs crossed and gives me the evil eye. After checking emails checked Tweetdeck (see Glossary) Retweeted interesting stuff I found online. Checked Goggle Feedburner and Google Analytics (see Glossary). Got sucked into sites.

10am Dog is happier now. Time to write today’s blog. Thought about blog topic while walking dog. Note to self. Do blogs the night before. Looked for photos to add to blog – my own or via the Apture Plug-in (see Glossary) Resized photos with Gimp (see Glossary). Try to figure out the proper SEO. (see glossary)

12:01 pm Lunch. Finish reading paper. Check stocks. Head into the garden for an hour on a good day.

1 pm Check emails. Check Tweetdeck. Possibly repost blog on twitter via bit.ly (See glossary)

2 pm Begin work on writing guides. Research. Write. Research. Write.

4pm Break. Can’t stand this sitting on my rear end all day long. Clean house.

5pm Think about checking other travel blogs and making comments. Supposed to be good for back links (See glossary) and other stuff I don’t understand.

6pm Make dinner. Enjoy a much needed glass of wine. Ask myself if I’m okay without wine. The answer is yes – just trying to be like the French.

7:30pm Dog is looking at me again. Barking this time. I’ll just take a quick look at Stumble Upon (See Glossary) and see if I can figure it out. Can’t.

10 pm. Where did those 2 1/2 hours go? Shit. It’s dark. Dog’s gone to bed. Wake up dog and do brief walk.

10:30 pm Plop into bed. Read On Writing Well by William Zinsser. Trying to learn to write like 23 year old Candace - which of course will never happen.

11pm Can’t sleep. Thinking about Keith Jenkin’s Velvet Escape blog. He explained in June’s Global Blogging Newsletter that it was possible to embed Apture and sell Amazon products within a post. Dollar signs dance in my head. Could I actually make money doing this?

Next Day

Repeat all of the above. But add – make a to do list.

  • Figure out video. Supposed to be good for SEO.
  • Improve photography. Spend more time taking pictures. Don’t know how I’ll find time.
  • Digg or Reddit? (See glossary) Have no clue about either. But listened to Gary Arndt’s webinar from Everything Everywhere - the #1 Travel Blogger in the WORLD and he says Digg is too much work so if it’s too much work for him I can now cross Digg off my list. Yahoo.
  • Figure out Stumble Upon (SU) for once and for all.
  • Set up Facebook fan page. Actually unload job onto daughter but still have to learn how to use it.
  • Plan future trips. Research.
  • Market. How?
  • Write guest posts. When? I’ve done a few for Traveldudes and one for Velvet Escape but need to do more.
  • Be everywhere as Gary says. How?

A Day in the Life of a Travel Blogger – Traveling Day

6am Get up and immediately check emails and Tweetdeck.

7:30 am Finish showering and head for breakfast. Review what I need to research for guides.

8:30 am Hit the road – hiking, biking or perhaps even driving. Research. Write. Take pictures. Take video. Think – what am I missing? How can I look at this place from another angle?

4:30 pm Arrive at destination. Collapse for 30 minutes.

5 pm Have a glass of wine with husband. Maybe another. Check out immediate area for an hour if possible.

7pm Dinner. Thank God. After a day on the road I’m starved.

8:30 Check emails. Check Tweetdeck. Write blog.

11:00 Collapse into bed.

 So that’s my life as a travel blogger. I’m working harder than ever, mostly loving it, but also hoping to make a few bucks at it. After you’ve read this article  please be kind enough to leave a comment on my blog or Stumble it. That would definitely make my day!

A Partial Travel Blogger Glossary

  • Apture Plug In - A type of software useful for adding pictures, maps, documents, videos and more
  • Backlinks – Incoming links to a website or a web page. Looking for quality of those links which help with page rank.
  • Bit.ly - A website address shortener useful for twitter when you only have 140 characters to use.
  • Digg - The latest news, headlines and videos . Politics, entertainment and technology get the bulk of Digg’s coverage.
  • Facebook Fan page - It’s supposed to help drive traffic to your website.
  • Gimp – A free download that helps you resize pictures.
  • Google Feedburner – It burns feeds. Obvious isn’t it??
  • Google Analytics - Allows you to track your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly hits and where they are coming from plus various other quite useful statistics.
  • Plug In - Software that you add to your website to increase its functionality.
  • Reddit - User generated news links – not that that description helps me.
  • SEO - Search Engine Optimization. You try to improve the quantity and quality of hits to your website by using SEO.
  • Stumble Upon – Personalized recommendations of websites and an excellent way for your blog to get huge numbers of hits.
  • Tweetdeck - A way of experiencing and managing twitter.
  • Twitter - A social networking tool that gives you immediate information in 140 character bites.

Leigh McAdam

www.hikebiketravel.com

 

 

 

Posted by Hike Bike Travel | Filed Under Other 

Comments

5 Responses to “My Life as a Travel Blogger”

  1. Tweets that mention My Life as a Travel Blogger | HikeBikeTravel, My title -- Topsy.com on June 23rd, 2010 11:51 am

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Liquidtravel, Leigh. Leigh said: HikeBikeTravel: My Life as a Travel Blogger http://bit.ly/bqaSwO [...]
  2. Ant Stone on June 23rd, 2010 5:20 pm

    Ha! Great post. This had me nodding, then laughing, nodding, laughing, nodding. It’s good, honest and straight up and a lot of travel bloggers will relate to this.
  3. Frank - Our Hiking Blog on June 23rd, 2010 6:53 pm

    Ok,
    Where to begin?
    1) First of all, a fascinating read. Blogging is like a job. If you take it seriously (like you obviously do) it is hard yakka. (Aussie term for work)
    2) You create some fantastic content, well researched and written, clapping hands here…
    3) Great glossary – just started using HootSuite for Twitter, like it
    4) FB I find ok, have dabbled but get social media drained after a time and tend to use FB for personal stuff .e. fun
    5) Really trying to work out how you make money (sorry, I know it is personal) The only way I can see is the donate button on your guides.
    6) Stumble Upon – have dabbled but not a convert , yet. Like you will investigate further
    7) GIMP – have used it but struggled now just use Microsoft Picture Manager, so basic and easy even I can use it
    8) Have a couple of pretty handy mini guides written by a mate of mine you may be interested in reading- social media stuff – shoot me an email and I can send them

    Will Tweet this excellent article too.

    Keep up the great work and ENJOY

    Frank
    Frank – Our Hiking Blog´s last blog ..Alaska by two crazy men – a stroll in Denali National Park

  4. Hike Bike Travel on June 24th, 2010 9:37 am

    I had hoped the odd travel blogger might feel as you do. It’s a steep learning curve to get the technological aspects of running the travel blog under one’s belt. I wish I’d taken more courses earlier on in my life – courses on photography, video, typing, marketing, computer…would have been very helpful. Thank heavens for Craig’s List. I’ve found all sorts of people who help me on a once or twice off basis.
  5. My Life as a Travel Blogger | HikeBikeTravel at Time Traveler and Travel Tips Online on June 27th, 2010 8:57 am

    [...] the original post: My Life as a Travel Blogger | HikeBikeTravel adv_username = "titaniumhijau"; adv_gid = "titaniumhijau_default"; adtype = "336×280"; Another [...]

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