I’ve been out of the office for about five years now, working as a freelancer, free from the 9-to-5 (replaced by a 24-hour workweek). I work on whatever projects make me happy, and my finances remain stable.
And, one way I earn money, besides working hard for a year in Australia on a WHV visa in 2017, is by becoming a full-time travel blogger.
A job that’s very different considering my background, as I’m an Electrical Engineering graduate and worked as a full-time programmer for five years.
While they may seem different, if you look deeper, the two jobs are actually similar. Yes, they both involve creating something! A programmer creates code or software, while a travel blogger creates writing.
What is a travel blogger? And I want to share a little about my experience as a travel blogger.
In the Indonesian job market, perhaps Travel Blogger isn’t even defined as a job. In fact, since I started my career in travel blogging, only one company in Indonesia has listed the job title “Travel Blogger” in its employment contract. Click here to read.
Yes, in 2015, I received a job offer with a contract as a “Travel Blogger.” I had to go to the office, but not in the usual office setting.
I accepted the job, on the condition that I could escape at any time if there was an invitation for a famtrip or traveling trip. The condition was that I would share content with the company that hired me. Fair enough, I could still travel, and I could provide them with good content.
So, I don’t consider it an office anymore. Because there are usually one or two invitations a month. So, I escape more often than I work in the office. The important thing is that my targets are met and my work is done. Are you curious about what my job as a “travel blogger” contracted by the company is?
My job was to develop blog.reservasi.com from scratch, from nothing, with just me on the team, to around 300,000 visitors per month with a team of several people while I was living in Australia (this blog belongs to reservasi.com). So, why did I stay? Because I wanted to go to Australia for a year.
My visa was in hand, so I just had to go. This visa can only be obtained once in a lifetime, before I turn 31. Even though I was forced to become a… head of content There.
But my wild adventures in Australia and New Zealand were much more interesting. I just stayed in that position, and it was already pretty good. At least, I think 300,000 visitors per month isn’t bad.
Moreover, when I first developed blog.reservasi.com, the main website (reservasi.com) wasn’t even built yet, and there was still a tug-of-war with the person who created the main website. So my job at the time was to promote a product that didn’t even exist yet! How did you do that? Well, basically, just get as much traffic as possible!
It was both easy and difficult, because the learning curve was quite steep, and I was still imagining what the product would be like. Luckily, at that time, there weren’t many travel portals, and going viral on Facebook was still very easy because there were still many bugs. Imagine today, when everyone is creating travel portals, fighting for traffic in the “travel niche” from netizens all over Indonesia. It would be incredibly difficult!
Now I Want to Discuss Travel Blogger Competitors
In the digital business, everything is dynamic. So dynamic, in fact, that what’s sky today could be earth in a second. What’s currently up could soon be down.
There are many examples: some that were once widely used, now some have disappeared, some are slowly dying, forgotten by time.
You know Friendster, right? No? Surely you know Path and Snapchat, right? Why not just multiply them? (Oh, now you know what generation they’re from! Hehe!)
Some of the ones I mentioned were once in the clouds, had many loyal users, and earned millions of dollars. But now some are dead, and some are (possibly) about to die slowly. My question is, will travel bloggers suffer a similar fate? Maybe yes, maybe not!
Especially now, there are many new platforms that can function like blogs. Because of that, new terms have started to emerge, including Instagrammers, YouTubers, vloggers, and TikTokers, right? While not direct competitors, they’re slowly taking over the travel blogger market as well.
That’s just competition with other platforms. Similar platforms (websites) also have a lot of competition. You know what travel portals are, right?
As far as I can remember, back in 2015, there weren’t many travel portals. The only ones I remember were Hipwee and a few other smaller travel portals. Hipwee wasn’t serious about developing travel content at the time, either.
Now, it’s so different. From legitimate travel portals (I don’t need to mention them), platforms that annoy me like UC News, to travel portals that target traffic to make money (from AdSense), there are so many.
Like bacteria that can divide every hour. Eh, or maybe like viruses? You know, they’re growing really fast! Not to mention, several mainstream media outlets are also starting to create special travel categories.
Then there’s the thing, giant online travel agents like Traveloka, Tiket, and many others are also starting to create their own blogs. Just because they have a lot of money to burn, they’re targeting keywords one by one in the “travel” niche with high traffic.
It’s complete, the world of travel blogging is getting tougher! The Indonesian market is still big, but it takes more effort to get a piece of that market pie. It’s not like it used to be; it was still really easy!
Frankly, when I was managing… Indonesian travel blog catperku.com Most of it was spent fighting back, grabbing traffic from high-traffic “travel” niche keywords one by one.
Some are still struggling, some are successful, and then they fight back by advertising on Google AdWords. Gosh, if they fight back by burning money on ads, I’ll just wave goodbye~
Bye~ Waiting for investors, huh~
But, that’s the fun part of travel blogging! Because of this, I’ve learned a ton about digital marketing, good writing, and of course, SEO! Competition actually makes me even more excited to learn new things and experiment with new things! So, what other blogger/travel blogger competitors have I missed?
If there are any, I’ll add more. If anyone knows, please let me know in the comments section. Now, I want to discuss my predictions for the future of travel blogging.
What Does the Future Hold for Travel Bloggers?
Will it bleak and die like Friendster? Slowly die like Path and Snapchat? Or will it stagnate like Twitter?
As I said above, the digital business is a super dynamic world. Travel bloggers must keep up with the changing times if they want to survive.
You can no longer rely on writing, unless you monetize it using a method called… livestock blog and pursue AdSense revenue. (I won’t discuss this here, as this method isn’t specific to travel blogs, but rather applies to bloggers in general.)
In fact, based on my personal statistics, compared to 2015-2017, in 2018, brands/agencies were less likely to order advertisements or content placements based on written content alone.
Even if they did, the prices were usually below my standards, or the bargaining power made me reluctant to respond. But for big brands, they usually want a package deal with social media like Instagram and Twitter, and often even YouTube videos.
This isn’t surprising, as it seems like brands are currently using Instagram much more for short-term campaigns. Lately, I’ve seen more campaigns on Instagram and Facebook than on blogs. For supporting data, I still need to do more in-depth research on this.
How To Survive Being A Travel Blogger?
I don’t know how long this travel blogging career will last. But one thing’s for sure, I’m a believer in… “don’t put the eggs in one basket”. Which means, I’m not just honing my writing skills, and relying entirely on my travel blog, Catperku, for my main income.
At home in Blitar, I’ve also started learning how to raise fish. Yes, I want to learn to be a real fish farmer, so I don’t just farm blogs. #ehhh! I mean, so I have a little something extra.
Also, I have a long-term project. My goal is to earn USD 2,000 per month from Google AdSense. But I don’t know when that will be, and it’s probably still a long way off! But I’m still trying my best. Haha, there’s a lot of competition! The CPC traffic from Indonesia is also really low!
Also, since the end of 2014, I’ve also started properly maintaining my Instagram account, especially since there aren’t many orders for buzzing on Twitter anymore.
The results were only visible in mid-2017. However, in 2018, income from Instagram has even matched that from blogging, and could soon exceed it.
So, maybe it’s true that advertisers are starting to reduce their blog ads because they’re shifting to Instagram, right? (This needs to be confirmed with further research and data, though).
Also, I’m always monitoring which platforms will boom, and I might jump in. Despite the criticism, TikTok has potential. But since it doesn’t suit my personality, I’d rather focus on developing my YouTube channel.
Subscribe to my channel at youtube.com/catperku
Yes! As of the end of 2017, I’ve started to get serious about creating video content. I’ve also started to become a travel vlogger. Hopefully, in the future, I can become… Indonesian travel vlogger That’s also quite significant. The results for video content aren’t consistent, and my YouTube account hasn’t been monetized yet.
However, I’ve started to receive some offers from advertisers to collaborate on video content. Although not many yet. However, as a beginner travel vlogger, my biggest achievement was being trusted to lead a basic workshop. social media and basic vlogging with Freeport Indonesia. Yes, thanks to starting my travel vlog, I was able to fly to Timika and visit Tembagapura.
Thank God, the client was satisfied with the material I shared there. It turns out there’s no harm in continuing to learn and share knowledge!
So what’s the conclusion?
So… In my opinion, if you really want to be serious and professional in today’s travel blogging world, you can’t just rely on “being good at writing.” You have to be willing to learn other things too. If blogging is just for fun, that’s up to you. It’s free~
Travel blogging has now become an all-rounder. Why is that? Because to survive as a full-time travel blogger today, you have to be able to: write, be a travel photographer, cameraman, photo editor, video editor, SEO specialist, digital marketer, social media specialist, and even the most trivial, you have to be able to do both accounting and finance! Or is there anything I haven’t mentioned here?
And, from my predictions, video content is going to be really booming. That’s why I’ve started enriching my travel blog with some video content. This is also starting to be done by veteran travel bloggers like Wiranurmansyah and Om Bolang Lostpacker.
They have been creating video content for a long time. Because, in the future, the need for video content seems to be increasing. But… that could be true, or it could be no! It’s the digital world. Everything can change in a matter of milliseconds! #exaggeration
That’s it for now! Thank you for reading my rambling post to the end!
So, do you still want to work as a travel blogger? Unless you can enjoy all the benefits and challenges like me, you’d better not! It’s tough, let me do it. It’ll just increase your competition later 😛
Eh, no, in fact, I don’t think there are many new faces emerging in the travel blogging world these days. That’s why every time there’s a famtrip, it’s always you! Usually, in this world, a very strict natural selection process applies. “CONSISTENCY.”
Okay, I hope this article is helpful! Bye bye~ If it’s helpful, don’t forget to share and subscribe to my YouTube account! Bye~
