Should travel writers also be their own photographers? This is a good question. I believe that the answer to this is an absolute yes. The main reason you are traveling to a destination is observe and report your findings. If you train yourself in how to take better photographs of where you are staying you are so much more likely to be notice the small details that many will overlook.

Working as a freelance travel writer is not going to net you a consistent income right off the bat. However, you can leverage your time and your skills to create a more steady income in the future. With each article you write you are hopefully paid. However, if you should develop a good stock photography business while you are also traveling the world then your passive income from these photos is simply going to help.

There seems to be a great need for high quality and original stock photography from all over the world. You can use this need to help generate a passive income to help pay for the lean times in your career. In fact you can start right away on this and start by using the areas in your home state or country.

It has been said that the best place to start a career in travel writing is in your own backyard. Well the same can be said for travel photography. Perhaps you believe that no one wants to come and visit your State for tourism purposes. Well to be honest I believe you to be dead wrong. Every State seems to have some sort of tourist board sothere must be some interest in generating tourist income.

In order to really leverage this as an income stream I would start by learning all you  can about travel photography. Not just about creating great photos with good composition but what actually sells on these stock photography websites. After all shooting a great photograph that no one wants to actually buy is ultimately not going to help you out.

There are plenty of courses out there that will be able to teach you how to take great photos but ultimately what you need to learn is how to take photos that people actually want to buy. How can you learn this? By actually doing it. You can really only learn from experience.

Sadly the ethics of the business of travel writing is not discussed enough I believe. When building a career in this field it is important to maintain some sort of integrity. However, there are those out there that just want to make a quick buck or use their connections in order to garner free trips around the world. Fortunately these people are vetted out of the system but not before they take away some of the opportunities that could have gone to better writers.

Should you disclose that you were paid or compensated to go on a trip? Well if you have any doubt about this then perhaps this is not the field for you. Of course you should. Not only will this establish your creditability but allow you to write a true opinion of the events that took place. Do we see this happen a lot in the travel articles we read in the newspapers and online? Quite frankly we do not see this type of disclosure in most publications. One does have to wonder why this is the case.

When you run a personal travel blog I believe it is your duty to disclose any and all freebies or compensated trips in either the article itself or in some other form. This allows the readers to form a better and more accurate opinion for themselves as to whether a destination or travel gadget is worth their while.

This is not just my belief but this is the rules set forth by the Federal Trade Commission of the United States. As many of my readers are from the United States I thought you may want to be aware of these guidelines.

Working as a freelance travel writer is hard enough but if you should ruin your reputation by not being wholly ethical and honest then you can pretty much count on your career being killed on the spot.

Well this website is now represented on Facebook.com and I think that is a great way to network with fellow travelers and writers. Having a presence on Facebook is something I believe all writers should consider establishing. Not only can you showcase your work but more importantly you can network with others.

I have heard that many publishers will not even consider looking at your writing without some sort of social media presense. This is probably because of the high cost of advertising and if you can prove you already have a fan base then these publishers are more likely to look at you. It is expensive to publish any book or magazine article and some sort of viral self promotion can go a long way in helping your writing to be known to a wider audience.

If you wish to follow along on Facebook please go to:

http://www.facebook.com/travelwritingrevealed

I hope to see you there and hope you will join me in the discussion.

I know of at least several people on the Internet who harps on and on about “Personal Branding” yourself as a travel writer. But I have to wonder if this is really all that neccessary. In fact I believe that if you produce high quality articles that people actually want to read then you are working on your “Personal Branding.”

I am a firm believer that good results only follows hard work. Therefore I strive to produce the best possible blog posts, articles or even tweets that would add meaning to my audience. I value my audience’s time so therefore I do not want to waste any time promoting anything that I deem to be unworthy.

You establish yourself in this field by every article you publish and every blog post that you submit. With each article and blog post you are establishing yourself and you are starting to work on your reputation. This is your personal brand. Of course you can help this along by having  a twitter, facebook, myspace and various other social media accounts but ultimately it all boils down to the work that you produce. if you produce crap and make yourself widely known then you make yourself famous for producing crap. This is not what you want to do obviously.

This was one of the best questions I have ever been asked by actually someone I can not remember. However, fundamentally this does boil down a fundamental aspact of the field of travel writing. You see there are many people out there who consider themselves to be “travel writers” but what is this exactly? I mean can you really put yourself in that narrow of a category and still consider your work to be any good?  Some of the best writers that have been published had their work published in a variety of publications many of which had nothing to do with travel.

You see I believe myself to be a  writer who travels and will occasionally use the title of Travel Writer when it suits me. I believe that in order to really write high quality articles I must be open to write and be knowledgeable on a vast array of subjects. If I were to write about my travels to Haiti after the earthquake then some medical writing or knowledge would have come in handy in that situation. This knowledge would have made me feel more comfortable talking to the various Doctors and Nurses who were volunteering their time there.

Another example would be the emerging travel market of Northern Iraq. While this is still a very dangerous country to visit had I had some knowledge and writing skill on politics and religious studies I would be able to give my article far more depth then most others. It is the curiosity for knowing about the world that makes a travel writer deliever stellar articles.

So continue to be a travel writer if that is the title you wish to call yourself but try to expand into other areas where you may be able to add depth to your articles.

Should a Travel Writer have a blog? Well if you are writer then you know the answer to this. As any writer you are compelled to write something every day.  A blog that you own is a perfect avenue for you to share this urge on a daily basis and be absolutely sure that you will be published. After all if you are the owner/editor of your own blog then you know your work will be seen by at least someone. But is this a good thing? Do you really want your work to be seen by so many people? Yes you do!

Let me explain why owning a travel blog is ideal for any budding travel writer. First of all this gives you an opportunity to showcase your work to other publishers on a daily basis. This also allows you to come up with your own “voice” that really only develops after some serious writing time. The best way to get good at travel writing or writing in general is to practice this craft every day. Perhaps one day you produce something that you believe to be sub-par to your skills. Then you can use this one example of your writing to help motivate yourself to produce something better. It is the desire to produce high quality work that will drive your success.

In fact just owning one travel blog may not be enough. Perhaps you would prefer to write on a variety of subjects. Is there one country you particularly enjoy visiting? Then pick two or three cities to write about in that country and get to work. This also would allow you to establish relationships with other writers who publish stories on these same cities. After a while you will gain a reputation as being an authority on those cities and recieve the ever so coveted press passes that many of us so desire.

So if you want to be a travel writer or writer at all then get to work WRITING. You will not be able to get a start until you seize the day and take control over what you do everyday.Now is the time to get started!