Why I doubt I’ll ever be a professional travel blogger! This is a scary post to write …
I’m a travel blogger, and I’m questioning whether or not I want to be a professional travel blogger (i.e., travel blogging being my only career). Don’t get me wrong, there’s little I love more than blogging, but I’ve been thinking lately about whether I will ever make this a full-time career.
I know, I know, getting paid to travel and write about travel sounds like the dream job! But my question is, do I want to mix traveling with work? Do I want to sacrifice the chilled-out attitude I have on holiday for something that feels less chilled-out and more stressed-out?
These thoughts have been gathering too much space in my head these past few months, so I thought I had better let them all out. So, here’s what’s been keeping me awake at night –
1. Traveling may become a chore
When I’m traveling I want to get up early in the morning because I WANT to watch the sunrise, not because I’m being paid by a Tourism Board to photograph it. Put simply, what I’m saying is that when I’m traveling, I want to spend my time doing things I want to do, not what the hotel or tourism board is telling me to do.
2. It may make travel more stressful
Traveling for me is about switching off from life’s daily stresses, turning off my work emails, and only using my phone once every few days to check in with my family and friends.
If I’m getting a complimentary stay at a hotel or a free meal at a restaurant, the expectation is that I’m “on” all the time. And in that case, I expect most of my time will be spent taking photos and taking notes for the blog post that will inevitably have to follow.
3. You will always be working when traveling
When I travel, I want to ‘travel’ – I want to be able to leave my phone in my room while I go out for dinner. I don’t want to ever have the overwhelming urge (that so many bloggers suffer from) to photograph my dinner. Then, frantically scramble to find a WiFi connection so I can upload the photo to Instagram in all its filtered glory.
4. No more ‘live in the moment’ when traveling
Similarly, I don’t want to freak out if I forget my camera one day. I want to live in the moment when I travel, I want to savor every drop that this place that I’m visiting is giving to me. I want to have more memories stored in my head than I have photographs on my memory card.
5. Sticking to a strict schedule on the road
Maybe I’m wrong, but from what I’ve watched and read, being a blogger seems a little restrictive and a little too scheduled for me. It goes something like this –
6 am: Photoshoot with the Hotel Manager/ Town Mayor/ Local Celebrity.
7 am: Breakfast at the most popular restaurant in town with all of the above.
8 am: Depart for a bus tour of the city with 50 other travel bloggers.
And so on…
6. I prefer independent travel to guided tours
As you can probably tell, I’m not one for guided tours; I’ve never done a Contiki Tour or the like, so that level of structured travel doesn’t appeal to me. But that’s me – I prefer to walk around a city at my own pace and stumble upon a great Cafe or Sandwich Spot.
I kind of like the thrill of arriving in an unknown city with no idea of where I’m going to stay that night. I’d rather have dinner at a roadside stall that’s overflowing with locals rather than the fine dining restaurant that’s been featured in Lonely Planet.
And from what I can see, many professional bloggers favor booking group tours because then they can promote them and earn a commission.
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7. Right now, I enjoy writing
I want to write because I enjoy it and because I’ve come up with a great idea for a post. Not because I feel like I have to update my blog regularly, just because I’m I know all the Professional Bloggers say you should write a post a day when you’re first starting out – but some days, all I wanna do is veg out in front of some trashy TV show instead of spending hours on a blog post.
8. My life right now wouldn’t allow me to blog full-time
I’m currently working two jobs, and some weeks I work 60+ hours. I work these hours so that I have enough money to go on as many vacations as possible. This year I’ve been to 4 new countries, 6 new cities, and plan to visit a few more before the year is out.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that making my blog another form of ‘work’ is just not what I want. I want it to be fun. I want it to be something that I turn to when I feel stressed out, instead of it being the thing that makes me more stressed out.
9. I don’t like the obsession with followers and page views
I started my blog out of a passion for travel and writing, and I have continued on that same path. Travel blogging is not a negative thing, but the general obsession with numbers, be it followers, page views, and whatnot, sucks the fun out of it.
However, I do still LOVE writing, and I do make a small income from this website (which is handy for paying for more vacations).
Here are some tools that help me earn an income as a part-time travel blogger:
- Inserting the Let Me Allez script from Stay 22 on my blog. This AI-powered travel affiliate platform, when installed, changes most of my hotel and tour links to affiliate links so that I can earn commission. You can sign up for Let Me Allez here, and by using this link, it means you’ll get an extra $100 when you get 100 confirmed bookings (which doesn’t take long, believe me)
- Recommending Viator tours on my blogs is actually my biggest earner right now. For example, in my blog post on the ‘Best things to do in Queenstown, New Zealand‘, I recommend a tour to Milford Sound as one of the top things to do here. Then I’ve added a Viator affiliate link to that section, and when people book that tour, I get 8% commission. The Viator link switcher is very easy to use. FYI, Viator isn’t part of Stay 22 – so you will need to sign up separately for this.
- I also have ads on my blog operated by Journey by Mediavine.
Thanks for Reading!
Maybe all this means I’ll never be a professional travel blogger, but that’s okay with me. As long as I still get to travel (obviously)!
Thanks for reading, and as you can tell, most of this post was tongue-in-cheek!
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Last Updated on June 23, 2025 by snaphappytravel
12 thoughts on “Why I Doubt I’ll be a Professional Travel Blogger”
I totally understand that but you make your own choices sometimes. there are other ways you can be a professional blogger.
Totally feel you girl! I have the same problem.
I completely understand how you feel! The best part about travelling is that you feel free and you can do what you want whenever you want, as well as visit places that are not so well known among tourists. And as much as I love writing, I think that you made some pretty good points here! 🙂
I like working too much to ever travel full time, but I do kind of like having travel blogging as a secondary profession. Sure, it adds a bit of “work” to travel, but I try to make it just that – in a work day, you don’t usually spend extra time outside of your work hours doing work. So I’ve found that when traveling, I set my hours – let’s say I want to work for an hour in the morning on the blog and such, and then travel. I do agree with the pressure of getting the perfect photo, but that’s something I do anyway, and something I liked doing before blogging. I think it’s all about finding balance and setting limits!
You resonate what I feel
I feel you! Being a professional travel blogger is tough work and right now, for me, traveling is my way to wind down and experience things on my own. I always say that I want my blog to be carry itself, i.e. fund itself, which would be great for me since I’m only starting out now.
I truly enjoyed this read but one thing inspires me to keeps pushing into the full time travel blog path. I am really unhappy in my current full-time job and all the the issues you wrote in this article is still a lot better than what I am doing.
Again great read and well thought out article.
You have some great points here. And you have captured the pressures that travel bloggers feel perfectly. I enjoyed reading this post.
I agree with every word even as a blog reader. I hate getting to someone promoting a Hotel or a Company (really) I skip it, I don’t read it. Maybe I’m wrong but I want to read real experiences, someone writing this was unexpected and that was just horrible. We love traveling and we’d not to worry about payments & forever travel (at least the idea is appealing) but not at that cost. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for the honesty! One more thing I imagine is not being able to to 100% authenticity if I’ll be paid to ‘enjoy’ something. Well I haven’t get paid to do that yet so we’ll see! But as for now, I agree with you that travel blogging in the current world is damn a lot of tough work and it might take away the fun of actually travelling!
I feel you girl! I love wandering at my own pace and while I love tours, I want to be able to sleep in and do what I feel like on certain days (ie my last trip had to be re planned because it rained for 3 out of the 4 days! I would have been so stressed out if it was paid for and I got 0 shots)
I feel you 😉