How To: Become A Travel Writer

I get a lot of messages from people asking me how to make a living as a travel writer. I was recently interviewed about my career by BossBabe. During the interview, I tried to offer some general advice about how to travel for a living and shared my personal journey as an example. 

Sarah Harvey in the Maldives

Every path is different

In addition to what I told BossBabe, everybody's personal journey to working/living overseas will be different. I began working as a journalist more than 10 years ago (as a news reporter in London) and I'm still working in journalism today, as well as doing travel writing and content creation. It's been a pleasure and a privilege to have made 100% of my income from writing for more than a decade (it wasn't easy in such a competitive industry and I've had my fair share of challenges!).

So in my case, I had a solid trade behind me (journalism) before I started out in travel writing. I began freelancing and managed to get my first travel articles published (reviews of The Zetter Restaurant & Rooms in London, a weekend in Hungary and a gastronomic tour of Alentejo, a less well-known part of Portugal. Combined with my background in news reporting, this led to a job offer in the Maldives to work as News Editor of a travel magazine and news website. So my first foray into being a travel writer was a full-time staff role. After a year I built up the confidence to go solo and founded Manta Media, an association of freelance writers, photographers and other creatives based in the Maldives.

I won't go into the long story of everything I've been doing since then, but that is how I got the ball rolling. And like I said, everybody's experience will be different, whether you want to be a travel writer as your profession, or simply do some travel writing while living overseas. But a common theme in my story and other people's stories is having a solid, transferable skill-set behind you and building up contacts, rather than diving right in and expecting work to come to you.

So, it's hard to say 'this is exactly what you should do' - firstly because there's no guarantee of success for everyone, but also, secondly - the harsh truth of it is that not everybody has what it takes to handle life overseas, even if they think they do...

Sarah Harvey in San Francisco

#Harshtruth

This harsh truth is something that many people are too scared to tell you. As I mention in the interview, a lot of people love the idea of travelling and living overseas but then find the reality can be much tougher than what they ever could have imagined. Visiting somewhere on holiday (or even shooting through a destination for a few weeks as a digital nomad) is entirely different to actually living somewhere, in all kinds of unanticipated ways. It's definitely not like 'being on holiday forever'!

For example, your mental health can take a hit due to you being away from your support network/social circle, you might struggle to make new friends, you might have unexepected health problems and find the hospitals aren't equipped to help you...

Or even something seemingly less dramatic, such as you miss all the foods from home too much and can't stand the local food (fine for a week, but punishing after a month), or can't continue with your designer shopping habit because there isn't enough selection in your new destination. These examples sound small, but I've seen people leave countries for all of these reasons, and if you'd have told them how much it would get to them before they left home they'd have sworn it would be impossible.

Ponzi schemes

This is all why I don't agree with writers selling courses and books on 'How to be a digital nomad' or 'How to be a travel writer/blogger/influencer'. There's no precise formula and just because one person succeeded one way is no guarantee that you will too.

I'm not trying to sell you anything which is why I'm telling you this. To be honest, I feel like a lot of people trying to sell these kinds of 'courses' are pretty much facilitating a digital nomad/globo ponzi scheme - 'leave your home, come travel, I'll show you how!' (Clue: Their answer is really 'by writing/selling courses that tell others to leave their homes and travel' - just like them!). Is this kind of constant hustle really the 'freedom' you dreamed of?

This kind of reality check is really lacking from social media. Most writers and bloggers I meet overseas are actually working on side gigs too, or the blogging is the side gig, despite the fact they've got thousands of followers and seem to be pretty successful on the surface.

Blogging reality check

For example, very often they might be working as a teacher and make 10% of their income from blogging, but they introduce themself as a 'blogger'. While they're free to call themselves what they want, it's a little deceptive and personally I find it irresponsible, especially when I get messages from people who believe it's an easy and viable way to make a living and you have to explain all the hard work that will go into it. A lot of people who contact me seem to want an easy answer and are disappointed to hear that there isn't one. But morally, I can't pretend there is.

Of course, there are some bloggers out there who make a living solely from being very clever with their blogs (which requires good skills in engaging with people, negotiating sponsorship deals, PPC ads, etc. and a good dose of luck!) This is the unseen stuff that takes up more time than the actual writing...I'm just not a fan of the ones that pretend they sustain a jetset lifestyle from their blog when they usually make their cash elsewhere.

And I'm not writing this as somebody who wanted to be solely a blogger above anything else; journalism is my trade, I've always loved print media (not to mention it pays better than blogging) and I like the fact that journalists are bound by a Code of Ethics that influencers/bloggers aren't bound by (influencers can say anything they like and there's no obligation for the claim to be founded in reality!).

Sarah Harvey in the Mexican Caribbean

Making it work

However, going back to my main point: I'm not saying you won't find your own way of making it work - lots of people do. Or you could consider being an ESL teacher, web developer, graphic designer, hotel staff, sommelier etc who does writing on the side.

Working full time for a newspaper, magazine or website overseas, or remotely for one or two content creation clients are solid ways of making it work. If you want to work full-time for a foreign company where you can contribute some skills that they need, you'll need to demonstrate you can do something that nobody else can do, in order to get your visa.

Join Facebook groups such as The Copywriter Club, Digital Nomads Around the World and Female Digital Nomads for inspiration. Sign up to newsletters for remote jobs or join websites for ESL work.

Read up and research how other people do it (with a certain dose of cynicism when required); formulate a plan before diving in, and you'll have a much better chance of achieving your dreams.