Yes, it’s true, I can officially say that I’m traveling for a living. I’ve waited quite a while to say that. Mostly because I wanted to make sure I really was making a continuous income from traveling the world. But yup, two years of endless work, non-stop travel, and going beyond broke to get here, and I can finally take a deep breath, smile, and say that I’m traveling for a living.
The big question you probably have right now, is how?
If I had a cookie for every time someone told me I have the “dream job”, or “I’m lucky”, or said “I want to do what you’re doing, can you tell me how to start?” I’d…well, I’d eat a few, and then I’d use the rest of them to spell out the word “WORK” in all capital letters. This life was not handed to me, no one helped me attain it, and I didn’t follow an article or program promising to help teach me “How to Get Paid to Travel”. I created this career completely on my own, and started from absolutely nothing.
My official job title is technically whatever I want it to be, since I created it and all. According to me, I’m the sole investor, CEO, COO, secretary, assistant, creative director, accountant, content writer, photographer, social media manager, and image of the brand ‘My Life’s a Travel Movie’. To everyone else, and in much simpler terms, I’m a travel blogger and social media influencer.
The reason why I broke it down into so many roles though, is to emphasize just how much work goes into being a professional travel blogger/influencer, AKA someone who “travels for a living”. Luck doesn’t just strike down from the universe and hit random people with the “dream job”, and likewise, it’s not as simple as just saying “I’m thinking about starting a travel blog.”
Sure, you can buy or growth hack your way into it, but without actual real influence over your audience, you’ll never end up profiting from it.
It takes about 12+ hours a day of hard work, it takes all of the money you have plus requires more that you need to earn while doing it, and it basically requires you to dedicate your whole life to making it work. Oh, and you need to have REALLY thick skin, because the internet is a breeding place for trolls.
So how did I start with absolutely nothing and turn it into one of the most sought after careers there is today? I’m finally ready to reveal my own personal process:
A Little About Me…
My name is Alyssa Ramos and I’m best known for being a solo adventure travel and social media badass (I swear it’s not just me who says that). I started my blog two years ago with absolutely no idea what I was doing, but a big dream of traveling the world for a living.
I had been working freelance gigs I found online (mostly Craigslist) that I would Google how to do since I had no prior experience in journalism, SEO, or PR, and ended up getting really good at it. I don’t have a degree in writing, but I do have a Bachelor of Science in Biology, which really comes in handy for trivia night.
My niche is solo female travel, which I accidentally attained because the dude I was dating would never travel with me (hence my article “How Traveling Solo Destroyed my Dating Life”). About 20 countries later, and I completely nailed the whole solo travel thing, and capitalized on how to help other people do it too.
I solely funded all of my initial trips; I’ve never had any help from parents (unless it was an emergency), partners, or random people.I also never had a photographer, or Instagram husband, but I did get really really good at using a GoPro on a selfie stick to take my own photos.
OH. And I also never wanted to get judged for obtaining my career goals because of the way I look, so I purposely built my brand by only posting photos of the back of my head (give or take a few).
Ninety percent of my photos, blog posts, and business deals are all done by me, and I work about 12 hours a day, every day. Today I am solely making a living from my blog, social media, and brand. I’ve been to 55 countries, all 7 World Wonders, and have been homeless (AKA traveling full time) since last May.
How I Started a Travel Blog
I signed up on Wordpress, picked a template, and started writing, duh. Just kidding, there’s A LOT more that goes into it than that, but it’s where you have to start. I had already been to a few countries, so I started writing as many articles as I could about them, and trying to figure out what people actually wanted to read.
Social Media and SEO plays the most important role in driving traffic, so I researched and taught myself how to do that, and applied it to my blog. I wrote and posted often, and pushed the posts out as much as humanly possible.
Takeaway: Everyone starts from scratch.
How I Initially Funded My Travels
You don’t just start a blog and Instagram and automatically start getting “free trips”. There’s actually no such thing as a “free trip”, because even if you get one, you’ll still be required to do a ton of work for it. Before I had the audience numbers and expertise to even get those unpaid collaborations, I would work tons and tons of online freelance gigs to make enough money to take trips. I had to spend all of my money on travel in order to get the content, and…well, I really wanted to travel so it worked out anyway.
I made most of my freelance income from Craigslist and eLance back in the day, and now I even teach a course called the Wanderlust Workers to teach people how to do it! I also tried my hand at AirBnB hosting my apartment out, which would literally force me to go travel (even if it was camping for the weekend) just to be able to make enough money to pay rent.
Takeaway: You have to work, A LOT.
How I Developed a Niche
As I mentioned before, the lovely guy I was dating could never fit my epic adventures into his busy schedule, so I always went by myself. I got really good at it, and suddenly solo female travel became a thing, and next thing I knew I became obsessed with encouraging other people that they could do it if I could do it. I focused solely on all things related to solo travel, knowing if I tried to squeeze in more topics it may be too broad and I’d just blend in with everyone else.
Even my photography style on Instagram reflects my niche, because every photo is taken by me using a “selfie stick”, or a tripod foot attached to it.
Takeaway: Figure out what you’re an expert at, and OWN IT.
How I Grew an Audience
Authenticity, usefulness, quality, and wow-factor are what I would say went into me gaining the audience that I have today, along with organic exposure. I use social media and SEO techniques to drive traffic to my site, and try to contribute to bigger platforms or do collaborations with other bloggers to reach different audiences.
I actually got my foot in the door by going viral on Huffington Post…maybe you’ve heard of an article called ‘Yes, I’m Pretty and I’m Traveling Alone’?
It was a tounge-in-cheek rant about how I was judged when traveling alone, which apparently a lot of people had been wanting to say for a while because I gained about 20k Instagram followers overnight, and my site crashed from so much traffic. It also got me my first slaughtering of hate comments, none of which, to this day, I have even read.
As for Instagram; I don’t use bots (computer generated comments which are SO ANNOYING and spammy!), and I don’t participate in tons of comment pods (comment for comment/like for like groups on Instagram), and most importantly, I didn’t just start an Instagram to mass-grow it huge and make money. I started it to showcase my travels, help promote my blog, inspire people to travel, and create a solid career.
To get my account noticed, I practiced my photography skills, learned how to edit photos, researched how to use tags, and tried to get featured on bigger accounts. I kept my photos consistent, and only posted the best ones, with captions that were useful and/or witty (according to me anyway). I also engage with my audience a lot. They are what make my entire career, so I love them a lot, and take the time to respond on every post, and comment on their photos.
Takeaway: Stand out, be real, engage, and try to reach as far as possible.
How I Started Making Money From my Blog and Instagram
In a nutshell, the way I make money is by doing paid post promotions for products, hotels, businesses, and destinations, that range from either one blog post or Instagram post, to a full social media exposure package. I didn’t make money at first, but would take free products or trips in order to build my portfolio of collaborations, and make myself seem professional.
Once I got to an audience size that I thought was justifiable to advertise to (I started trying at 20k unique monthly visitors on my blog and 50k followers on Instagram), and was confident I could really sell a product or destination, I began reaching out to brands. Influencer and blogger marketing wasn’t super popular yet, so I really had to sell what I could offer.
I created a Media Deck with all of my audience statistics, credentials, press mentions, and publicity incentives, and would send it with a hand crafted email to brands of products I would actually use, or places I wanted to go to. Most of the time I’d get rejected, but eventually the deals started coming to me.
As I kept growing, I continued to increase my prices (I ask 14% of my engagement rate), and perfected my business model.
Part of my genius business plan included putting my things in storage, giving up my apartment, and traveling full time since I could either get collaborations in most places, was getting requested to go to others, and paying for anything else with the money I was making. Essentially instead of paying rent, I was paying to roam around the world while gaining tons of content, experience, and exposure for my blog and social media.
Takeaway: Aim to prove you’re a good ROI, get business savvy, and invest everything back into your brand.
[Sidenote: Why do brands and destinations pay bloggers and influencers to promote them? Just like commercials advertise during TV shows that are watched by a certain audience, bloggers and influencers reach a specific audience that certain brands and destinations aim to reach. Blogger and influencer marketing is becoming increasingly popular because of the strong advertising results and effectiveness of brand awareness and popularity on social media. Since social media dominates most of our lives, this is an extremely powerful method of advertising.]
How I’m Currently Making a Living from Traveling
Now (two years later) my audience size is almost 100k on Instagram with a 4.5% organic engagement rate, and 55k unique monthly visitors on my blog. Numbers matter, but so does being established as an expert at what you do, and having a solid list of previous clients, and referrals from them if you can.
I no longer have to constantly pitch myself to brands because I’ve created a known brand myself that has proven results, which makes brands approach me. I’ve transitioned from single post deals, to multi-post brand ambassador deals, and have gotten to work with notorious names like GoPro and American Express.
My highest paying projects are from Destination Marketing with tourism boards, which is the ultimate goal for me, and exactly the definition of “Getting Paid to Travel”.
Exactly how much are we talking? It’s only February and I’ve already secured $12k worth of deals from brands and destination marketing, I’ve already been to 6 countries, and have trips planned back to back through May.
Takeaway: Dreams Don’t Work Unless You Do.