Travel Blogger or Entrepreneurship?
Currently, following one of my latest articles where I talked about making money with your travel blog. Two choices were offered to me: Make money or blog for pleasure.
Travel blogging for pleasure
When I started blogging, a little less than a year ago now (it will be 1 year in March). I did not know all the possibilities that the web could offer me. At that time, I was ignorant of the world of web marketing (SEO, SEM, etc.). So I was a beginner in this field.
Previously, I had traveled for almost two years as a backpacker where I met hundreds of people and traveled to more than a dozen countries. I told myself that I was going to start a blog for pleasure and maybe try to make money with it or finance my travels after a year. That’s how my blog was born at the end of February after 6 months of reflection and procrastination. I was so enthusiastic at that time that I wrote 100 articles in 100 days where I shared my experiences in America, in Asia and also in Australia. I have really slowed down since then as I am now at 163 articles in 11 months.
The skills and what I wanted to do with my travel blog:
- I am aware of my communication problem (written and oral) in French whereas in English or German, I feel a bit more comfortable since these are not my native languages. My goal was to improve my writing, grammar, and spelling skills. I think with all the articles I have written, I have improved, although I still have progress to make.
- Prepare my next trip around the world by roughly planning my stops and making a name for myself in the travel community.
- Create a project to get sponsorship or/and find the necessary funds to do a trip around the world.
Today, I no longer blog for pleasure; for me, it is a second job. Most other bloggers are as passionate about travel as I am.
From travel blogger to web entrepreneur
Discovering the world of blogging, I discovered social networks, internet SEO, online shops. This blog awakened in me the possibility of entrepreneurship on the web. I thus created a second blog after the fourth month of blogging, then two others after the sixth month (on topics other than travel), and 4 more followed in September. Leading to more than fifteen sites/blogs and an e-commerce since January.
I have had quite a few successes and also failures, but they are less significant than the successes.
Of course, by working more on my other projects, I worked less on this blog, hence a less frequent publication rate of articles on the blog.
Where am I today?
I have a clear goal in my mind. I will do a trip around the world in 2014 that will last between 1 to 3 years. To meet my needs, I have several possibilities:
- Work during my trip.
- Create an online business to be able to work while I am abroad.
The second solution is what I am currently doing. I am creating an environment around several themes with many sites/blogs that will feed my e-commerce (well-being and home sectors). I have been working on this for almost 6 months and I am giving myself another year to succeed in this project. Currently, my web projects bring me more than 1000 euros per month on average (over 11 months for 20 hours of work per week). I do not intend to stop there because I plan to make it my profession if possible, so my goal is to have at least 2500 euros per month.
Here are my current projects.
