There are many sacrifices and rewards of blogging. You will only stick with it if you see the rewards as being big enough to counteract the sacrifices.
Travel blogging
I am going to share with you what I have found to be the good and bad of blogging, starting with the nasty stuff first so you can finish with a positive boost to know just why travel blogging is such a rewarding thing to do.
Blogging Sacrifices
Sanity
Yes. There are going to be times you lose your mind. It can often be a wicked roller coaster ride of emotions that, at times, has had me questioning whether I was slinking into mild bi-polar.
This is all part of your journey into entrepreneurialism , as it will be filled with ups and downs, successes and failures. You are going to become so involved in your work that you will at times have to sacrifice your sanity. The peaceful side of it at least.
Counteract this with lots of meditation and frequents breaks.
Time
Say goodbye to time spent lazing around doing nothing. Blogging is going to take up a large amount of your time and steal lots of sleep away from you. Lucky the introduction into motherhood got me used to this.
Even though you will be now sacrificing all that time you use to spend lazing around reading magazines, and watching television, it won’t seem like such a major sacrifice as you will love what you are doing; at least I hope you are. Bad news for you if you don’t.
I know that so much time goes into blogging, I can’t even imagine what I used to do with it before, and I must have been such a time waster.
Counteract this by loving what you do, then it doesn’t seem so much like you are sacrificing time, but just living the dream.
Money
The great news about blogging is that it is pretty inexpensive to get started and to run your business. However, the bigger you grow, the more you’ll want to invest into it. This is just part of business.
With travel blogging there comes the added expense of the travel part.
This can be a hard sacrifice to make, especially when, for the first couple of years, you won’t see much reward in return.
Counteract this by reducing spending in other areas and do as much of the work as you can youself. Any money you make re-invest it into your business.
Relationships
Friendships will be lost along the way, or your time spent with friends will be greatly reduced. This cannot be avoided if you are serious about making a business out of your blogging. You just won’t have the time to socialize as much as what you used to.
You will also have many friends and family members who will not understand what you are doing and so will seem unsupportive. Be patient with them and involve them as much as you can.
Counteract this by letting the important people in your life know how important blogging is to you and why it has suddenly become a priority. Don’t cut your friends out completely; make time for them as much as you can.
Comfort and Security
Are you ready to get uncomfortable and to become a good friend of fear?
It is terrifying putting yourself out there to become successful at blogging. Look at all these sacrifices you are making and there is always the chance that it won’t work.
You have got to be strong in the mind to withstand the pressure and not give in to the fear and discomfort. Growth cannot happen without stretching these boundaries and swallowing your fear.
Nothing will be secure for you ever again. You may make a decent income one month and the next nothing comes in.
Counteract this by remembering that everything takes time. You cannot make money overnight. You have to be in it for the long haul. The only way you can fail is if you quit.
Perfection
Give up the need to be perfect, because you will never get anywhere. Lucky for me I have never been struck by this affliction.
You have to make mistakes. It’s the only way you learn and grow. You can’t wait until you know everything or the timing is right. It never will be. You just have to jump in there, get dirty and start.
Life is so much easier when you give yourself permission to make mistakes and be really imperfect.
Travel Blogging Rewards
Living your Purpose
Most people start blogging because they feel they have something to share.
I felt there was something dying inside of me waiting to be born. Our blog allows us to live out our purpose. It allows us to do what we want to do and what we are good at, and it is all on our terms. This, and the last reward, freedom, are the biggest prizes you will ever get from blogging. Nothing else will ever come as close.
When you live out your purpose you can handle any challenge and you exude warmth and happiness. This should be the goal for every person; after all it is why we all were born.
New Friends
You will make new friends along the way. We have made an incredible amount of new friends through blogging who have the same passions and interests as us.
It is so exciting knowing that we always have a friend to turn to online and then meet up with in person offline.
New Influential Connections
Alongside of the new friendships, will be new connections you will make. Some of these with highly influential and successful people. You want to make these connections as they will help you grow to a new level.
Just this past year we have met and chatted with:
- Jeremy Stoppleman, founder of Yelp.com
- Matt Shirvington, Australian Olympic Athlete
- Darren Rowse, from Problogger.net one of the best Probloggers in the world.
- We’ve worked with big brands and formed working relationships with Ogilvy Public Relations, Qantas and many more.
When I look at my widening rolodex and how far we have come in just 18 months it blows my mind and makes all the sacrifices worth it.
An Evolved you
Yes, the sacrifices are hard, but out of the chaos all great things come. You will learn and grow into an more evolved you; the person you were born to me.
Four years ago, I brushed this dream that we have created here aside, as I believed my writing was crap and no one would ever read it. Look at how far we have come now.
We have changed an unbelievable amount and we just keep growing. Growth is so rewarding and so powerful.
Success
It is up to you how you define success.
For us it is making a difference and creating a positive, friendly community around what we do.
I love hearing from our readers who say what we do on our blogs have inspired them to travel and live their dreams. That is all we want as we know that the more people doing what they love the more our world will turn into a positive, happy place.
Be the change.
We love the community we have built up here and on facebook . Everyone is welcome and we just have fun together.
It makes all our hard work worthwhile.
New opportunities
Blogging can lead to so many new opportunities. Once you have built up your brand and established credibility and authority with what you do many doors will open up.
We have had freelance writing opportunities, speaking at conferences, Official correspondents for big campaigns , photography gigs at music festivals , and now we are exploring consulting opportunities.
Money
Ugh! So many people originally start blogging because they think it is going to make them wealthy.
It’s not, but it can also.
This is the most challenging part of blogging, but one that is possible. You can make money from your blog, but it is not easy. You have to build presence, traffic and credibility before decent money making opportunities will come to you.
Be patient.
With blogging, you have to consider multiple streams of income. Trust me, when you make your first money off your hard work, even if it is $5, it will feel like you have just won the lotto.
You are not just working hard for the money, you are creating it. And that is ten times harder than working for it, but ten times more rewarding. Talk about blood, sweat and tears.
Your blog and the skills you learn can be a platform to launch into other areas and open new doors.
Travel
All travel bloggers are going to get excited about the travel part.
As you move through your blogging journey, more opportunities will present themselves to you for travel.
We have had some great experiences this year and have attended several press trips. Click to read how to make press trips valuable for all people involved
Freedom
The Ultimate goal and reward.
When I achieve it you will hear my sobs of joy and relief from all corners of the globe. I won’t give up until I make it my reality.
This is why I do it. Not so I don’t ever have to work again, but so I can spend my days doing what I love and have complete control over the decisions that I make.
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So you can see that the rewards far out weight the sacrifices, which is why we are still here blogging and loving it.
What do you see as being some of the rewards and sacrifices of travel blogging?
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