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.