How to make money as a travel writer

Travel writing engages with a broad audience, and can help readers learn about places and experience journeys through someone else’s eyes. This popularity creates many opportunities for travel writers to establish business. 

But it can be tricky to find the right clients and earn money as a travel writer. So how do you start developing your travel writing career and find opportunities for steady earnings? This article will look at how to: 

• Establish presence as a travel writer 
• Find clients as a travel writer  
• Manage your finances

The best ways to establish your professional presence is by growing:

• A social media following
• A blog or website 
• A personal brand and portfolio

Travel writers are often self-employed, with many working as sole traders. This means they have to find their own clients and establish relationships to develop business. Because of this, it’s essential to create a presence and portfolio. This will help market your skills and make potential clients more open to working with you.

It is also important to be easily accessible. Make sure clients can find you online. For example, if a client is searching for travel writers, your profile should come up when they do so. 

Some of the best ways to be accessible are establishing a social media presence and developing a personal blog. Platforms like Twitter and Instagram allow clients to find your credentials and personal brand, including posts relevant to travel writing work. 

For example, clients may be more open to reaching out if you post pictures from your travels on Instagram with excerpts of travel writing as captions. You can also make sure it is easy for clients to reach you by regularly checking direct messages as well as listing your email and phone number in the profile. 

Engaging with other travel writers or travel writing platforms on social media like Twitter allow you to share links to your writing. You can also establish relationships with other writers and clients and come across potential travel writing work opportunities. Other social media platforms such as TikTok, LinkedIn, and Facebook could also help develop a travel writing profile and reach a broad audience.  

It may also be helpful to create a personal blog or website portfolio using website design platforms such as Wix, SquareSpace, or WordPress. This website can hold your travel writing publications, credentials, and regularly updated travel writing content for potential clients to browse. You can also include a bio and contact information to make it easier for clients to reach you. 

You can then link your website to social media pages to develop a stronger presence. Overall, establishing yourself on these platforms will help to create a profile for potential clients and make yourself more marketable. If you create consistent content and engage with the media outlets, solidifying your professional brand, you can find clients that are willing to pay for your work.

Once you’ve established a presence, you’ll want to seek out paying clients to establish business. 

Places to look for clients include:

• Freelance sites 
• Magazines 
• Social media
• Publishers

Some great places to start the search for travel writing opportunities include freelance sites such as Fiverr or UpWork. You can create portfolios on this site and market yourself as a travel writer to find relevant clients. Aside from freelance sites, try searching for paying magazines and literary journals that consider travel writing. 

You can also find opportunities on websites like TheWriteLife, which have lists dedicated to travel writing submissions. In general, looking for magazines, websites, and literary journals specialising in travel writing, including places like Wanderlust, Travel+Leisure, and Lonely Planet, will help you find the right target audience. 

As mentioned before, social media platforms can also be valuable places to find and connect with potential clients. These platforms have a vast network of writers, publishers, and magazines that are open to finding new writers. 

You may be interested in long-form travel writing or travel guides. This would include book-length works of travel writing, travel memoir, or guides of places to visit. In this case, you can contact literary agents by sending them pitches and cover letters. 

After finding an agent, you can aim to work with publishing houses like Penguin or HarperCollins. These publishers may sell your work as e-books or as physical copies in bookstores.

Once you’ve begun establishing a client base, you may want to create standard fees and use your previous jobs to grow your business. In building your portfolio, you can establish lasting relationships with existing clients and prove your abilities to new ones. Over time, you can increase your fees to grow income. 

Being self-employed means that you’ll have to manage your own finances as your business grows and consider your expenses. You will want to register yourself as a sole trader, which you can learn more about here. 

Though writing may not have many start-up costs, besides maybe a laptop and writing software, travel is essential to travel writing and can prove pricey. As you’ve begun to establish paying clients, it is important to keep track of the expenses along the journey. Remember to differentiate between personal and business expenses to organise reimbursements and properly file your taxes.

As you establish income, you’ll need to pay taxes towards those earnings. On top of this, when travelling, you may want to consider travel insurance so as to avoid unexpected expenses. 

Financial management can be stressful and time-consuming when you’re self-employed. That’s why thousands of business owners use the Countingup app to make their financial admin easier. 

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. With features like automatic expense categorisation, invoicing on the go, receipt capture tools, tax estimates, and cash flow insights, you can confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. 

You can also share your bookkeeping with your accountant instantly without worrying about duplication errors, data lags or inaccuracies. Seamless, simple, and straightforward! 

Find out more here.