Can Travel Writing Be Profitable?

You've seen articles in travel magazines and you've read books full of travel tips and ideas, so you know someone is out there making money writing about their vacation adventures, right? The truth is, though, most writers have a hard time breaking into the market. Even experienced writers with a portfolio of published work can have a hard time getting picked up for new assignments. Maybe you've even submitted an article to a magazine yourself and been chagrined to have it come back rejected.

The good news is, you can make good money with travel writing, and thanks to the Internet it's easier than ever.

Writing for others:

While there are a limited number of travel magazines you can submit your work to, there are thousands (if not more) of website owners who need articles and blog posts to help bring visitors to their sites. The search engines love sites that regularly publish fresh content, but not everyone likes to write, so they hire others to create their articles. And travel is a lucrative field on the Internet, so you'll find lots of people looking for original articles.

You can browse the job listings on sites such as Rentacoder and Elance, or you can also visit forums where webmasters hang out. For example, Digitalpoint.com has a big forum that has a whole section devoted to buying and selling content. Make a log-in ID for yourself and post what you're interested in writing on.

Note, it's a good idea to have a portfolio, or at least a few sample articles, that you can show to perspective employers.

Writing for yourself:

I'm a big fan of writing for yourself and publishing your articles to your own websites or blog. Once you get a decent amount of information up on your site, and you're getting a couple hundred visitors a day, then you can make pretty good money selling advertising (such as with Google Adsense).

If your site is brand new, it takes a while to start making money, however, so if you're feeling the money crunch, you might want to start out writing for others. (Or, better yet, do both at the same time.)

If you decide to start a blog, pick a specific niche to get into. Travel, for example, is pretty broad, and there's a lot of competition. Instead, focus on a topic that is broad enough that you'll have plenty to write about but that is small enough that you can rise to the top as the expert in that particular area. You could focus on traveling in a certain country or even a region of a country, or you could focus on a specific mode of travel (i.e. traveling by train, or cruise vacations).

Once you are getting a lot of visitors, the money will start coming in, and your reputation will grow. Do a good job covering your travel niche, and people will start to regard you as the authority for that topic. Also, at that point, you may want to write a book on your niche. You'll have all the folks who are visiting your blog regularly (and who have become fans) ready to buy. Authors who create a fan base before publishing a book make a lot more sales when their work does come go print.

Eventually, you'll find that those magazines that rejected your articles may just come back to you and ask you if you want to write for them. Of course, that'll all be up to you as to whether to accept, because you'll be a big name by now!