The Armchair Tourist – Travel Blogging from Home

Circe Surfs the Web, after John William Waterhouse by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.comIf working in comfy clothes is a luxury, then exploring the world in your pajamas is the ultimate indulgence. If traveling usually conjures up images of fatty airplane food, cramped train travel, babies squirming, blisters on your feet, and too-heavy suitcases—travel blogging might be more your cup of tea.

Unless you’re getting paid to travel to exotic locales and write about it, you’re not likely to end up with more money than you started out with when you travel. But the typical travel writer can make money while sitting at the computer at home. You get to stay in the comfort of your own home, dream up exciting adventures, and end up with some extra spending money as well.  Plenty of opportunities are available for selling travel content across the web.  Check out places like textbroker.com and elance.com for writing jobs.Travel blogging is exciting. It gives you the exhilaration of roaming the world without spending the money or dealing with busy airports and lines, and the usual stress. Plus, when you are actually traveling around the world, your journey is only as wide as your wallet, and your trip is limited by time as well.
Blogger after Guy Orlando Rose by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

There are countless ways to research travel blogging destinations. The local library, travel guidebooks, and websites can give you information about places you would like to visit. You can call your destinations to request brochures and other travel information. Researching your ideal locations is much cheaper than booking a flight overseas. You’ll learn about the culture, history and attractions and enjoy fabulous photos; copy and paste them into a scrapbook online, to help you decide when you’re actually ready to take a vacation.

When you work for yourself, you have the flexibility to make your own vacation time. You can even document your vacation and use it as a tax-deductible expense! You’ve done the research and written the preliminary information and now you can document your travel with actual pictures and narratives.  Upon your return, you add life to future articles with personal photographs and anecdotes; readers love it when you get personal.

Blogging Fun by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Busy families are used to making quick decisions on whether to take a beach vacation or a backpacking adventure, a road trip or a luxury resort stay and booking in twenty minutes or less. We settle on the least expensive, best-looking, or most exotic place we can find a few days before leaving—relying on a couple of reviews and some photographs on a website to make our decisions.When you’re travel blogging for a living, you “virtually” travel to a new place every day. While you work, you’re comparing destinations at the same time. That means that when it comes time to book your vacation, you don’t have to do any additional research. You probably just have to check it off your bucket list. As you write and research, you may also decide that places you thought were dreams to fulfill begin to lose their appeal—conversely you’ll find geographical gems that never crossed your mind before.If you have wanderlust but lack the funds to go everywhere you’ve always dreamed of, researching and travel blogging about your ideal destinations can help you earn and learn what you need to make your dreams a reality in the future.About the author