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How to Build Your Freelance Blogging Career While Traveling the World

How to Build Your Freelance Blogging Career While Traveling the World

One of the biggest benefits to working as a freelance blogger is flexibility.

You can work when you want and where you want. But how often do you actually take advantage of this location independence?

My guess: not enough. Many freelance bloggers want to travel more — but they don’t know where to start.

How will you communicate with clients? How will you get your writing done? How will you do all the little things it takes to keep your business running, while traveling at the same time?

As a travel blogger and freelance writer, these are problems I have definitely struggled with. And though it’s often been a challenge, I can say without a doubt it’s also been worth it.

If you’d like to start traveling more, here are 12 tips for keeping your freelance blogging business thriving from the road: 

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Why “No” Is the Most Powerful Word in a Freelancer’s Vocabulary

Why “No” Is the Most Powerful Word in a Freelancer’s Vocabulary

It’s short. It only has two letters and one syllable.

You’d imagine the word “no” would be easy to say. After all, it’s the 56th most common word in English.

However, the difficulty isn’t in its pronunciation but in the emotional charge it holds. Most people think it’s a negative word.

I’ve discovered that saying “no” can have a positive impact on your career as a freelance blogger.

Unfortunately, the word “freelance” often comes with misconceptions attached, too.

To some clients, “freelance” means you don’t have set working hours, so you can be at their beck and call 24 hours a day. To others, it means you work for yourself, so you’ll be glad for the money and take on any old gig they send your way.

Until recently, I would’ve been anyone and done anything a client wanted, simply for the sake of avoiding upset. But saying “no” makes better business sense.

Here’s why: 

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5 Ways To Showcase Your Testimonials and Wow New Clients

5 Ways To Showcase Your Testimonials and Wow New Clients

As a freelance blogger, it feels so good to know you’ve made a client happy.

You wish you could capture the joy of the client at that moment, frame it, and display for all to see. But it’s sometimes difficult to get recommendations or testimonials from clients, because they’re too busy or too distracted.

In a survey by Dimensional Research, results showed about 90% of customers were influenced by online reviews to make a purchase. People put a lot of trust in feedback given online, hence the need for freelancers to collect glowing testimonials.

Without testimonials, it’s that little bit harder to get the gigs you want at the rate you deserve.

No problem. There are several options you can explore to capture the feelings of your happy clients. 

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Behold! Proof That Freelance Blogging is a Valid [And Lucrative] Career Choice

Behold! Proof That Freelance Blogging is a Valid [And Lucrative] Career Choice

You know that cringe-worthy moment when someone asks you what you do for a living, and then they say…

“You’re a freelance blogger? That must be fun, but it’s not exactly a job, is it?”

Take heart — next time that happens you’ll have all the evidence you need to show them blogging isn’t only a hobby. In fact, you can prove it’s a bona fide, lucrative career choice.

If you’re a freelance blogger ready to join the big time, you need to treat blogging like a business and get your knowledge and tactics ready. Studying the business case for freelance blogging won’t only build your confidence in dinner party conversations; it’ll make you better at understanding and negotiating with clients, too. 

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Blogger Warning: Don’t Let Your Job Be the Death of You!

Blogger Warning: Don’t Let Your Job Be the Death of You!

Blogging is killing you.

I don’t mean the stress of cranking out deathless prose or even the coffee you gulp by the gallon.

Blogging is killing you because you sit hunched over your laptop. All day long.

Science has spoken: Sitting will be the death of you — and me.

None of this is news, of course. We’ve known for a while that even if you faithfully get to the gym, all that sitting wipes out any benefit from the measly few minutes you spend huffing and puffing on the elliptical.

Dr. David Agus puts it bluntly:

[Sitting for more than 5 hours a day is] equivalent on a health basis to smoking a pack and a quarter of cigarettes.

Yowza.

Chair time is associated with all the heavy hitters: heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, and obesity. (That’s because sitting doesn’t make you less hungry. Darn.) This 2012 report on inactivity from the National Center for Biotechnology Information makes for especially gloomy reading.

I don’t know about you, but my first reaction was a kind of paralysis. (Ironic, right?)

Move? When I’m under deadline? Sure, those are those rare times I get out of my chair to go to the bathroom or get more coffee. But how can I move more when I earn a living hunched over a keyboard? (We’ll talk about your posture another time…)

It’s not just a 9-to-5 problem; after sitting at work, most of us rush home (or in our case, step away from our laptops) to plop down on the couch in front of a screen of one size or another. Not exactly helpful.

Being a writer, I decided to research my options before having a coffin fitting. 

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