So, you want to be a full-time travel blogger. Or maybe you’re already ready to quit your job and jump in, you fabulous, business-savvy blogger badass, you. But wait – before we hand you an ice-cold drink and a floppy beach hat with an inspirational saying on it (which everyone knows is the official uniform of the Full-Time Travel Blogger, and definitely not sweatpants and stained t-shirts that are still wrinkly from being left in my suitcase for several weeks) … there are a few things you should know.
I’m about to lift the gilded, glittery, frolicking-on-the-beach-with-a-coconut curtain and let you in on a few secrets about what it’s REALLY like to be a full-time travel blogger.
These are a few of the things nobody tells you before you make the insane decision to quit your comfortable, steady job (with its comfortable, steady paycheck … and benefits, oh how I miss the benefits!) and jump head-first into a career that didn’t even exist a few years ago and still begs the question “but how do you actually earn money?”
Whether you’re wondering “WTF do you even DO as a travel blogger?” or just “what will my life be like as a full-time travel blogger?” It’s time to satisfy your morbid curiosity …. and spend the next 20 or so minutes putting off actual work so you can read this post in its entirety.
Oh hey, if you still need something to distract you from reality, why not head over to my Instagram to watch all of my ~~behind the scenes~~ travel blogging Insta Stories? They’re both mildly entertaining AND a fabulous way to put off actual work! Travel blogging 101: always be selling yourself.
Hey, do you need something to distract you and suck you into a (mildly) entertaining reading hole? We’ve got just the thing! Grab a cup of coffee and get ready to blow off whatever you’re supposed to be doing for the next several hours.
- 25 Things Nobody Tells You About Traveling While Fat
- 30 Things Nobody Tells You About Quitting Your Job to Go Travel
- 30 Things Nobody Tells You About Long Term Travel as a Couple
Wait, hang on. Who the F*** am I?
Before we begin, here’s a little context about me. Hi, I’m Lia. I quit my job to take a year-long honeymoon 2 long years ago (holy sh**, time flies), but my blog has only been my primary source of income for the last 6 months. Which means that I’m kinda new to full time travel blogging and still figuring things out.
So, take my advice with that in mind: I’m like, a beginner full-time travel blogger. Travel blogger trail-blazers who have years of experience in this field may have already moved past these baby-blogger moments years ago and will likely scroll through this list eye-rolling and saying things like “oh, how GAUCHE, she has NO idea,” and lean over to their photographer and assistant like “Rogelio, Leilani, you MUST read this. How hysterically pathetic. Let’s VLOG about it from Bali.” Because for some reason I just assume that all successful full-time travel bloggers are perpetually hanging out in Bali making VLOGS together.
Except for me. I’m just in my apartment in Oakland wearing stained sweatpants like “lol I’m a travel blogger wheee!”
Anyway, maybe next year I’ll be douching it up in Bali, too. Who knows? I have no idea what I’ll be doing 6 months or a year from now. But I bet you anything I’ll write a blog post about it once I figure it out.
Still, even if I’m not in the cool-travel-bloggers-in-Bali crowd or whatever, as I’m starting to feel my way around this brand new career like a blind baby badger in a crowded movie theatre (my metaphors are a**, I’m sorry everyone) I’ve been making some observations along the way.
Hopefully some of them ring true for you, and the rest of them make you laugh, and absolutely none of them inspire you to write me a Strongly Worded Comment that starts with “I don’t mean to be rude, but…” That’d be great, thanks.
Psst: Into travel blogging, or just like reading about it? Here are some other posts you might enjoy.
- 30 Things Nobody Tells You About Quitting Your Job to Go Travel
- Travel Blogging Income Report: How I Made $22,000 in my First Full Year
- How I Decided to Become a Full-Time Travel Blogger
Ok, now that that’s all out of the way, here’s all the stuff nobody tells you about being a full time travel blogger.
About sponsored travel…
1. When you fall in love with a place, you’ll do anything to land a sponsored trip there.
You’ll offer three 10,000 word articles, an Instagram video of you juggling knives in the hotel lobby, and an original score composed of the sounds from your squeals of excitement. You’ll add an uncomfortable amount of exclamation marks to your pitch, so that the PR rep reading your email can almost smell your desperation as she deletes your email.
2. Negotiating with a PR firm, tourism board, or media team will feel like you’re trying to speak a language that you never learned.
You’ll have no idea what to ask for or who to ask it from. You’ll throw out words you’ve heard in passing, like “day rate” and “deliverable fee” and “FAM trip,” hoping these words mean something to everyone else. You’ll spend nights frantically googling how marketing departments work and looking up PR Jobs on Glassdoor like it’s the DaVinci Code and you’re gonna crack it, gosh darn it!
3. Each pitch you send is a labor of love and terror.
You’ll wait for days with no response, growing more and more nervous as time passes. You’ll frantically reread your pitch trying to figure out where you went wrong. Was it the 14 exclamation marks? The usage of “thus?” Did you miscalculate your Instagram % engagement?!
Weeks later, you’ll get a useless response back like “thanks, this is great!” or “OK, we’ll be in touch” which gives you absolutely no closure and spirals you into ever-growing tornado of confusion and self-doubt.
4. While you’re on a FAM trip, you’ll feel like royalty.
Nothing is as exciting and glamorous as a FAM trip. There won’t be a literal red carpet, but you’ll feel like there is. You’ll want to send pictures to your non-travel blogger friends, but then remember that it would probably make them hate you, so you brag on Instagram stories instead.
- FYI, here’s a quick travel blog vocab lesson: A “Press trip” is when you’re invited to visit somewhere along with a group of other bloggers, content creators, and writers. There is typically an itinerary planned out for you. A “FAM” trip is a “familiarization trip.” It’s different in that you get to create your own itinerary and there won’t be a bunch of other people tagging along. Both are typically fully sponsored or paid. Full disclosure: I have done plenty of FAM trips, both paid and unpaid. But I can’t speak to what press trips are like, because I’ve been on exactly 0 press trips. Still waiting for those invites to start rolling in. Annnnyyyyyy day now. *crickets*
5. The minute you return from a FAM trip, you will begin paying for your stay.
You will immediately regret over promising. After your hands are aching from your 6th blog post and you’ve written the word “hidden gem” so many times your eyes are crossing, you’ll start browsing for office jobs on Glassdoor and crying over the salary you’ll never earn as a travel blogger.
6. It will take a few rounds of post-trip-regret to stop over-promising.
After the 4th, 5th, or 6th time you spend frantically catching up on your sponsored posts for months after a trip, you’ll eventually start turning down even some of the most incredible opportunities because they’re just not worth it. You’ll start asking for payment *gasp* and stop throwing in that extra video of you doing cartwheels in the town square.
This is the point when you can finally count yourself in the haggard, jaded travel blogger category. You’ll shock newer, younger, more innocent bloggers by saying things like “I was invited on a press trip to Tulum, but they refused to pay me, so I said no and went to Blahville, Iowa instead.” I KNOW, RIGHT?!
About your day to day tasks…
7. Going full time doesn’t make your to-do list any shorter.
In fact, it makes it longer, because now your stupid, creative brain can spiral into a zillion fun new ideas that you should totally have time to do as a full-time travel blogger, right?
From now on, you’ll be walking around with “create podcast/write book/finish course” hanging over your head as you do all of the necessary little daily tasks like Instagram and email and SEO-optimize old posts which NEVER GO AWAY to allow you time to actually complete your new projects.
The only solution I’ve found is to stop sleeping or socializing so you can spend more time working. Related side note: this is the first blog post I’ve managed to publish in 3 weeks. Ouch.
8. You’ll quickly realize that full-time travel blogging does NOT mean spending all of your time traveling and creating content.
Wait, what? You quit your job, you’re going whole hog on this travel blogging thing, doesn’t that mean you just get to sit in cafes around the world and write witty, clever, hilarious blog posts?
I mean … sure, sometimes.
But the rest of the time you’ll be working on supremely un-glamorous things like financial planning, doing your own taxes, spending hours on social media, trying frantically to figure out email marketing, anxiously pitching and then getting rejected and pitching again, communicating with sponsors who actually MIGHT be willing to pay you, trying to fix technical errors on your site even though you have no idea how to code, watching 7 hour-long tutorials on Youtube to figure out Lightroom/Premiere/Photoshop
…. maybe you’ll be able to squeeze in a day a week to actually, like, write stuff.
9. People will try to pay you in exposure and waste your time in a zillion different ways.
At first, you’ll be excited every time a new email lands in your inbox asking you to join a new exciting App that’s still in Beta (but will be launching to over 1 million users soon!) or participate in a commission-based program for a product that absolutely nobody has ever heard of.
But soon, that trickle of emails will turn into a stream, and then a river of time-sucking nonsense.
You will spend a metric f**kton of your time responding politely with “at this time we are only accepting paid opportunities” and “no thank you, best of luck” and until one day, enough is enough. You’ll hit DELETE and never look back. FREEDOM!
About your mental state …
10. At some point, you’ll have an existential crisis.
You’ll find yourself up at 2am mulling over questions like “do I have an obligation to maintain the journalistic code of ethics? Where does blogging fall on the spectrum between journalism and marketing? Is my priority to my sponsors, my readers, my values, or somewhere in between?”
You’ll wonder if there’s a “Philosophy & Ethics in Travel Blogging” textbook somewhere that you could read. There isn’t.
11. At some point, you’ll have an ethical crisis.
You’ll find yourself up at 2am mulling over questions like “how will I pay my rent this month? Will my readers notice if I accept that totally off-niche sponsor? Will it be obvious that I couldn’t buy groceries this week if I start hawking sh***y luxury dog collars on my Instagram account?”
You’ll wonder if there’s a “How to Pay Rent as a Travel Blogger (without compromising your standards!)” textbook somewhere that you could read. There isn’t.
12. “Overwhelm” and “Confusion” will become your new BFF’s.
You guys are gonna be spending a LOT of time together, so get real cozy! Just take care not to let them spiral into “anxiety.”
But hey, remember: this is a dream job, right? You’re overwhelmed and confused ON YOUR OWN TERMS, and that feels a LOT better than being overwhelmed and confused and answering to someone else! You’re doing great. No, you’re KILLING IT. Yes, you might find yourself needing a daily pep talk. Yes, they help.
But hey, psst: it’s totally OK to feel overwhelmed and confused, like, all the time. Hello, this job was invented like 10 minutes ago. Nobody has any idea what’s going on, or whether blogging and influencing and content creating are all the same thing or different or what they actually mean or how we should categorize them or …
See? Spiraling confusion. Deep breaths. This is normal. Sit down and get comfortable with your discomfort, cuz it’s not going anywhere.
13. You’ll wish you could take a vacation.
But you can’t. That doesn’t exist anymore, because you’re a full-time travel blogger. Travel is work, remember?
I can hear you shaking your head at me through the computer screen, but trust me on this one. It’s impossible. Even if you try REALLY HARD to tune out and take a non-working vacation, you’ll eventually find yourself reaching for your phone like “just one, for my Instagram story!” and then taking out your camera like “it’s SO pretty, I’ll just take a few …”
And before you know it, you’ve got a whole blog post planned. It’s an addiction.
But let’s put a positive spin on it and say that you LOVE your job, so working 24/7 is a privilege. Right? …. RIGHT!?!??! *sobs*
About your social life ….
14. Your non-travel-blogger friends won’t “get” it.
You’ll sound like you’re bragging just by talking about what you do each day. You’ll elicit no sympathy when you complain about your workload or how tired you are from constantly traveling.
When you share your financial concerns, your friends will be like “yeah, but you get to travel for free.” Sigh.
15. Your non-travel-blogger friends will want to come on trips with you.
They’ll love the sponsored hotel (can I unpack yet?), the comped meals (can I eat yet?) and the comped activities (can’t you stop taking notes and just enjoy yourself?), but they’ll only last about 20 minutes into your first photo shoot of the day before getting antsy.
2 days later, they’ll insist on splitting up if you’re going to spend your whole day taking pictures so they don’t waste their entire vacation.
You’ll find yourself considering drafting a Friend Travel Contract for any future trips that includes a mandatory time minimum for things like “waiting to eat” and “taking street photos” and “re-doing boomerangs for Instagram Stories.”
16. Your non-travel-blogger friends will suddenly start to drop out of your life.
Maybe it starts as a slow trickle – you haven’t talked to so-and-so in a while. Then you realize you didn’t get invited to their birthday party. Was that on purpose, or did they just … forget to include you? Which one of those options would actually be worse?
Oh wait, were you even going to be in town that weekend? Nope, you had a trip scheduled that weekend anyway. I guess that’s not as bad, right?
Then one day, you’ll go to type their name into Facebook to see what they’ve been up to, and you’ll realize they unfriended you. You’ll have no idea why and frankly, you’ll probably never find out.
From jealousy to lack of support to slowly dwindling energy for social obligations to “sorry, I’m out of town again :(” to downright anger, travel blogging will bring out the worst in some people that you thought were in your tribe for the long haul. It sucks.
But take deep breaths: you don’t want anyone in your life who doesn’t support you following your dreams and living your best life. Cherish the friends you have who DO support you and lift up your happiness, even if they don’t want to wake up at 4am to take sunrise photos with you.
And don’t forget to prioritize your friends and work on maintaining your friendships! Don’t be the sh**y travel friend who’s always out of town on special occasions. Schedule your trips around birthdays, graduations, performances, weddings, and other momentous occasions.
17. You’ll find a tribe of other travel blogger besties who totally get you.
There are so many amazing travel blogger babes (and dudes) killing it in this scene. You’ll start lurking in Female Travel Bloggers or chatting in your Instagram Pods and before you know it, you’ll be flying across the country to meet up with your new Blogger BFF’s on the kind of whirlwind weekend trips that only travel bloggers do.
Your new blogger BFF’s will cheer on your successes, sympathize with your struggles (instead of making you feel guilty for them), and swap secrets with you that will open your eyes to a whole new world of success. You’ll learn things from them that you didn’t even realize you didn’t know, like how to flip your hair perfectly in a photo and what all those settings in Lightroom that you’re not using actually mean.
Cherish your Blogger BFF’s. They are your co-workers, your support network, your cheerleaders and advocates, and your best resource for learning how the heck this crazy blogging thing actually works. Remember these things when they drag you out of bed at 4:30AM to go on a sunrise hike up a mountain for a photoshoot. Because that’s exactly what travel bloggers do when they hang out.
When you tell someone that you’re a full-time travel blogger, they’ll say…
18. “Wait, you get PAID for that?”
No, silly, I pay my rent in exposure and Instagram likes. It’s like Bitcoin for Millennials.
19. “It must be nice to get all that free travel.”
Sure, I travel for free… if you don’t count the weeks I spent pitching and negotiating for sponsors, 16-hour days on location taking photos and notes, 14 hours creating a blog post, 6 hours editing photos, 3 hours doing keyword research, 4 hours of posting and ~engaging on Instagram, Instagram Stories, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat, and several weeks of marketing my new content.
If you overlook all of that, yeah, I travel for free all the time.
20. “But how do you earn money?”
I actually can’t even be mad about this one, because before I was a full time travel blogger, I had no idea how bloggers earned money, either. Heck, I’m STILL figuring it out. And when I talk to other travel bloggers about monetization, chances are we’ll both learn a new trick or two. This industry is nothing if not confusing and constantly changing.
But lucky for you, I answer this question every month in my income reports!
21. “How MUCH money do you earn, exactly? And what are your monthly expenses? And how much did you file in taxes last year?”
Slow down, Nosy Nancy. Just go read my income reports. That’s literally all I can tell you without my social security number and a W9, too.
22. “That sounds fun! I think I’ll be a travel blogger too. How do you do it?”
I mean, go for it, if that’s your dream. But here’s the thing: it’s SO much work. And it’s WAY less glamorous than you probably think.
Also, it’s going to take you a very long time and a WHOLE LOT of work before you earn any money, and by then, chances are you’ll have lost interest in the whole ordeal.
But hey, if you’re looking for an expensive hobby that sucks up all of your free time, travel blogging is an excellent pastime. Enjoy!
23. “I’d love to treat you to coffee and learn all of your secrets. Is a $4 cappuccino worth several hours of your time?”
…. No.
Seriously, you guys, I love you all, but please stop asking. I can’t. I don’t have the time or the energy.
Also, I charge for consultations, and I’d have to drink 25 cappuccinos just to cover my own hourly fee. And that might actually kill me. Do you want me to die?!! DO YOU!?!
But above all else …
24. You will NEVER want to go back to the job you were doing before travel blogging.
No matter whether you’re nomadic and working from hostel lounges all over the world, or you’re settled with a nice little desk in your apartment (or maybe a couch?) … you will not wish you could go back to work in an office. Or a store. Or a restaurant. Or wherever you were working. Doesn’t matter. And it doesn’t matter that it was great and your coworkers were rad and you were paid an amazing salary… none of that matters.
Because now, you’re your own boss, and you’re doing what you love, and you have a creative outlet, and a platform, and an audience, and you’re LIVING. YOUR. DREAM.
Even on the worst of days, even when you find yourself surfing Glassdoor and Instagram stalking your old boss wondering whether she’d take you back … deep down, you’ll know that this is you. This is the best version of you.
This is what you’ve always wanted, and even though it’s hard, even though the struggle is insane and exhausting and maddening and insane and confusing … it’s EVERYTHING.
25. You will wake up every day feeling absolutely in awe of your life.
Every day, you’ll wake up like “pinch me, I must be dreaming. Is this real life?!” You don’t have to get up early if you don’t want to. You don’t have to get dressed if you don’t want to. You don’t have to battle traffic or rush-hour train crowds just to sit at your desk and twiddle your thumbs and wait for your next vacation. You don’t have to watch life pass you by. Instead, you’re living exactly the life you want.
You get to call the shots. You get to decide how much you’ll work, and on what, and for who. You’re the BOSS. You’re in charge! You answer to NOBODY.
That said, chances are you’re still going to be working for well over 40+ hours a week and every available weekend. Because if you aren’t a little bit of an obsessive workaholic, how the heck did you become a full-time travel blogger in the first place?! We all live for this hustle.
Making it as a full-time travel blogger is incredibly difficult. It’s a LOT of work.
But even on those days when you feel cranky and exhausted, the fact is … you wouldn’t change it for the world, would you?
Me neither.
Are you a full-time travel blogger? Did any of these ring true for you? Or are you just curious about what it’s like to be a full-time travel blogger? Either way, drop me a comment below!
Psst: Into travel blogging, or just like reading about it? Here are some other posts you might enjoy.
- 30 Things Nobody Tells You About Quitting Your Job to Go Travel
- Travel Blogging Income Report: How I Made $22,000 in my First Full Year
- How I Became a Full-Time Travel Blogger
FOLLOW US!
Hey, did you enjoy this post? Share it on Pinterest! Or Facebook. Or Twitter. Anywhere, really. Anyway, here’s a Pin:
Our Top Travel Tips & Resources
- Booking Flights: To score flight deals, search on Google Flights or Kayak. Money-saving tips: fly mid-week or on the weekend; fly carry-on only on a budget airline; and take red-eyes or early morning flights.
- Accommodations: We usually stay in budget-friendly vacation rentals, boutique hotels or private rooms in hostels. We use Booking.com to book hotels (we love their flexible cancellation policy) and Hostelworld to book hostels (low deposit, easy change/cancellation, and excellent reviews). For vacation rentals, we prefer to book using VRBO because they've got lower fees and better support than Airbnb, and we're not fans of Airbnb's unethical track record. You can also book vacation rentals on Expedia and Hotels.com. We also use TrustedHousesitters as both hosts (for our home and our fur-child) and travelers!
- Travel Insurance: We always, always, ALWAYS buy travel insurance for international trips, and we STRONGLY suggest it - visit our Travel Insurance Guide to find out why. We recommend either World Nomads or SafetyWing for international travel insurance. SafetyWing is one of the few policies that covers Covid-19, and they have excellent monthly policies that are perfect for Digital Nomads and long term travelers!
- Travel Credit Card: We book all of our trips on our favorite travel credit card. Not only do we earn cash back that we can spend on more travel, but the card offers fantastic travel perks like travel insurance, trip delay and cancellation coverage, lost baggage reimbursement, and rental car coverage, which helps protect us on our travels. Learn more here.
- Vaccines & Meds: We use the travel guides on the CDC website to research recommended medications and vaccines for international trips. We always recommend getting every vaccine recommended by the CDC! You can get them at your primary care doctor's office or a walk-in pharmacy.
- Tours: We love booking guided tours, especially food tours and walking tours, to get a local's perspective and a history lesson while sight-seeing! We book our tours using Viator and GetYourGuide.
- Transportation: We use Rome2Rio to figure out how to get from place to place, and book local transportation online using Bookaway wherever we can. When we book a rental car, we use DiscoverCars to compare rental companies and find the best deal.
- Luggage Storage: Whenever we're checking out early or taking advantage of a long layover, we use LuggageHero to safely store our luggage while we're running around. Use the code PRACTICALW for 2 hours of free luggage storage on us.
- VPN Service: A VPN keeps your digital information (like website login details, bank info, etc) safe, even when you're connected to an unsecured network while traveling. Plus, it lets you use Netflix & other streaming sites abroad! We use NordVPN. Use the code WANDERLUSTPROMO when you sign up!
- What to Pack: Here are the travel essentials that we bring on every trip. We also have packing lists for hot weather, cold weather, and many more. Take a look at all of our packing guides!
Amanda says
Lia, thank you for this insightful and witty post. I enjoyed every minute of reading it and I LOVE your work and writing. I started doing this in 2017 as a hobby, but rarely had time for it. I started doing it in full time in recent months and appreciate your tips – only hope to kill it as much as you are! xo
Alix says
I love everything about this post. It’s so true, there is nothing like working for yourself – and getting to combine passion and work is everything.
The Solo Traveler 50 says
I am at an age that I do want a change in my life. More mature now, but still full of energy. I appreciate you spelling it out on the work behind the glamour of travel blogging. Does give me lots to think about as I have been contemplating this very thing. Do I “hit the road” and never look back? A question I know only I can answer, but reading and researching prior to packing up all my belongings is very valuable and most helpful. Thank you for sharing your honest “beginner blogging” experience. Truly appreciated. Maybe, if, or possibly when I do this thing, we will cross paths.
Lia Garcia says
I’m glad this post was helpful!
Sakibul islam says
Yay, so exciting Helen! Great post and good to lay out everything on your mind so when you look back in a year with a few successful trips and tours under your belt you can wonder what you were so worried about. Sounds like you guys had a great time in Scotland – loving your singing :).
My tip is to get up as early as you can. Those first few hours of action set the intention for the day – so make sure they’re productive
sonam says
A great blog that does justice to what it says. It’s true that no other travel blooger disclose everything that you did in this post. You have brought the actual facts about being a travel blooger. Thanks for such a straight forward view and to the point post.
Travel Blogger says
Love this list! I hope this is something I will fully understand someday! <3
Dominika says
Absolutely love this post and your writing style! It made me laugh quite a few times
I’ve only recently started my side hustle travel blog (end of February of this year) and I’m loving it so far! Even though it’s WAY more work that I could have ever imagine (having a full time job and doing a part time masters degree doesn’t help ). I’ve always loved writing, I love sharing with people my travels and all that my home city has to offer. Oh and I’m absolutely loving the blogger community, I’ve already made a few good friends and I can’t wait to make more
Shaina Mortenson says
I love the way you approach this topic! So many behind the scenes things that you learn as you go but I find that those are the challenges that keep me coming back. I’m super new to blogging but so inspired (by blogs like yours) Keep up the great work and looking forward to seeing more from you!
Gemma says
Newbie full-time blogger here too (10 months in) and DID YOU READ MY MIND?!! I’m a little creeped out because it feels almost feels like I wrote this, that is, if I had a writing style just as awesome as yours. I needed this! Thank you!
Lia Garcia says
Hahaha you’re so sweet, Gemma! Maybe I DID read your mind 😮 *cue Twilight Zone music*
Cindy deRosier says
This is AWESOME. I’ve been blogging for 7 years (primarily about kids’ crafts) and only started blogging about travel a year ago. There’s so much to learn and it is SO different than craft blogging, but I love it.
Lia Garcia says
I’m so glad you found it helpful! I would LOVE to have a craft blog one of these days 😛 But of course to do that I’d have to travel less and spend more time actually using my little craft corner …
Michelle Marcos says
I’m obsessed with the way you write Lia. OBSESSED. lol And I absolutely love the last 2! I’m not a full-time travel blogger yetttt (hopefully by the end of this year – fingers crossed) but it’s literally my dream job. And even though it’s annoying and hard and I literally learn something new every day that has me redoing a thousand things for little pay, I would never change it. It’s exactly like you said. I will never go back to working in an office. Nope. Never. lol I will make this happen for me. Thanks for the motivation girl!
Lia Garcia says
You’re so sweet, Michelle! Your blog is amazing and you’re killing it – keep working hard and hustling and you’ll meet that goal you’ve set for yourself 🙂 I believe in you!
Kimmie Conner says
Oh my goddddd this had me snorting in my hostel common room. I LOVE THIS and I NEEDED THIS right now… my eyes are about to start bleeding from staring at a computer screen for 1700 hours and I needed a bit of a lol at looking at my exact life at this moment. youre the best!
Lia Garcia says
That’s what I’m here for girl 😉
Sally E says
THIS WAS SO RELATABLE OMG. I was nodding along the whole time. Lmao glad I’m not the only one having an existential crisis every so often :p
Lia Garcia says
SOOO often!
Nicole says
You’re inspiring me. I’ve been designing and building websites for clients for years and finally started my own blog in January. If Practical Wanderlust is a baby, I’m still in the “hey, wanna get a drink?” stage. I know how much work it is. Your honest accounts are SO effing refreshing. Thank you. I’m rooting for you and enjoying your writing and adventures as I work to find my own travel blogger’s voice and get the blog into a state where I even want to tell anyone it exists.
Lia Garcia says
You’re so sweet, Nicole! Thank you! I can already tell by this comment that you’re gonna go far. It’s not easy to make a blog comment interesting and entertaining, and you did it. I’m serious, that’s a legit skill! Humorous, quality writing is probably the only reason I am where I am today, because let’s face it, my photos aren’t great 😛 I’m rooting for you, too!
Kat (Wandering Bird) says
I love this! So many of them ring true. I quit my job in February (whoooop!) and I am working SO MUCH HARDER now. Like seriously, every single hour. And yet I still wouldn’t go back to my crazy well-paying job. Having said that, I haven’t monetized my blog yet (yep, I’m doing your course 🙂 ) so I hope I can figure it out & keep travelling!!
Loving your blog- thanks for sharing.
Lia Garcia says
OMG, CONGRATULATIONS on quitting!!! It’s crazy how much harder you can work when you’re your own boss and just not even mind it. Like, it’s stressful, but it feels so much more fulfilling than working that much for someone else! I hope my email course is helpful to get you started!
Eileen says
GIRL. I have read a f*ckton of these types of articles. Been full-time blogging for 3-4 years now. And for real, this mad me laugh, cry and just feel all the feels. I effing love it. I’ve been feeling ridiculous lately (like how can I even call myself a travel blogger because I haven’t even BEEN to Bali?! I’m a fraaaaud) and this just made my whole damn week so much better. Love it. Can’t wait for more.
Lia Garcia says
You’re so kind! I’m so glad you liked it!
Also PS we totally bought tickets to Bali YESTERDAY so I can now officially call myself a travel blogger. Can’t wait to step off of the plane and immediately meet every other full time travel blogger I’ve ever idolized 😛
Jessica says
Haha oh my God I loved this. I began traveling full time as of 5 whole days ago and I created a fresh newbie travel blog to go along with it. I take pictures everyday and I’m sitting here editing them thinking to myself “this is my life now…wheee… *going cross eyed*”
I can see how this can get exhausting. I’m not trying to monetize my blog, not for another few years, but your post definitely made me giggle because I can already picture half of this happening and I’m fresh in the blogging scene.
Keep up the quality work! Loved it
Lia Garcia says
Ooooh that’s actually exactly how I got started, too! I started Practical Wanderlust during our year-long honeymoon, never even dreaming of monetizing it (because I had no idea that was a thing) but I had so much time to work on it and it just sucked me in and I fell in love with it and well, here we are. So in a year or so you might just find yourself in my shoes like “how the hell did this even happen?” 😀
Katie says
I love this blog post. You made me chuckle at points, love your writing style. I’ve done lots of traveling and I have a blog I started may be a year ago with the thought of making it a way to travel and earn but I don’t think it’s for me. I’ve always worked outside and I quickly realised how much I would have to stare at my laptop to make it work. I love how honest and funny this post is! !
Lia Garcia says
Thank you, Katie! Yep you’re so right – for every minute you get to spend outside traveling and exploring the world, you have to spend an hour on your laptop editing photos, writing captions, creating blog posts, etc. I mean, you could take your laptop OUTSIDE to work, I guess 😀
Ferny says
I love it! so true. I’m new with my blog, but I’ve been traveling for many years. I didn’t monetize my blog yet but I hope to do it in the next month. I’m so happy to read of people who understands how much we love to travel and how tired we are sometimes.