Slightly different post than usual, but today I would like to talk about something that was bothering me a lot recently and decided to share these thoughts with you. If you’re planning to become a travel-blogger this post will definitely help you to understand how it all works and make you more aware about how it all looks like and what to expect. As you already know, I have quitted my full-time Social Media career last year in June. It’s been almost a year of working as a full-time blogger and decided to share my thoughts and feelings.

Where to I start? Well, first of all I would like to say how extremely difficult this whole year was. It was very exciting and beautiful too, but apart from all these incredible travels, trips, all the wonderful people I’ve met and things I’ve experienced ( I am forever grateful for all the opportunities and will never ever take it for granted!) I’ve also experienced many unpleasant situations and this is the topic I’d like to touch today.

First of all- jealousy. Since I’ve left my full-time job I have experienced a lot of that. I had people questioning me and my earnings wherever I said what my job was. Even people I used to really like in the past, were talking behind my back and were trying to find out how much money I make, how can I afford living in London from “just a blog”, how can I travel so much if I “don’t work”. There were comments back home that I must be a prostitute in London, because “how can she afford places like Dubai, Seychelles and Maldives”. Then my favourite- “she must have a rich boyfriend”. Well, here I would like to add- my goal was never to find a rich boyfriend to rely on. I am probably one of the most independent girl on Earth and it would never cross my mind, no matter how hard the life is, if you need to build everything on your own from the scratch. I’ve always wanted a man who would love me, respect me and support me. A man who would be right next to me and help me fight for my dreams and be ready to work hard to build the empire together. And here we are- myself and Salvatore, fighting for our dreams, working on our careers and building this dream life since we’ve met in our early twenties and both came to London with nothing but a dream. So just to make it clear -he is not my sugar daddy ( I wish, HAHA,ok I am kidding!)

I am also not a rich kid, who was given everything from the parents. As I have already mentioned in the past, I came to London 6 years ago with £600 in my pocket, that I have saved while working all summer as an animator in Kos Island, Greece. So nope, nothing came easy and nothing was given to me- it was all determination, patience and hard work. If you’re planning to be a full-time Influencer/ blogger you need to be prepared for this sort of comments and I want you to be aware of that. To people who don’t understand this industry, it will look like we don’t actually have a job and we’re always on holidays. With the time you’ll learn to ignore these inappropriate comments and continue doing your thing anyway.

Second thing I would like to talk about are press trips as I get a lot of questions about them too. It’s truth, that we do get a lot of opportunities. We get paid to travel, create content (photography + blog advertising). Especially when you build the relationships with PR’s and travel agencies, you’re more likely to get more opportunities – if they were happy with all the deliveries before of course! However, do I only go on press trips and accept every single proposition? Of course not! I wish I could tell you how many I decline every month!

The truth is, running a travel blog full time is a constant and never-ending investment, no matter how “big” you are on Social Media. No matter how many invites come though my email, I only accept projects, destinations and hotels, that both – myself and my audience will benefit from. Also I always have my own bucket list of places I’d like to visit and blog about anyway, so I will always invest my own money in plane tickets, hotels and restaurants – NO, THEY ARE NOT ALL SPONSORED. Sometimes I even prefer to pay for a hotel, to have more time shooting content outdoors, exploring the place, rather than being kind of “stuck” shooting the hotel. I love beautiful hotels stays- don’t get me wrong, but I always try to find time for exploring the places to be able to really write about them. Not everything I do is “for the gram”. I am always trying to travel the way that I’m able to really recommend stays ( luxury and affordable luxury) places to drink, eat and things to do- and yes I do pay for all that to be able to really call myself a “blogger”and have something to say about the place rather than just write a hotel review and come back home. I don’t go to places just because the trip is sponsored. I am trying to always fit the destination into my brand and I analyse if it will be worth it for days before I say “Yes”. As you have also probably noticed, I often ask you, where’d you like me to travel next and I always keep your answers in mind, while planning my trips, to make sure I deliver to both- my audience and my clients.

So if you’re planning to become a travel blogger as you think that this way you can travel for free, as everything is sponsored – you’re wrong and this is not what you should think of when planning to turn your blog into a full-time business and a long-term career. You need to be prepared, it will always be an investment- no matter how many followers you have and how long you’ve been doing it for. Personally I’m investing almost all the money I make into next destinations and content to make sure my business keep rolling.

Next thing which is super hard in this industry- a lot of brands will ask you to work for free. I find it upsetting sometimes, as being a blogger really means being a photographer, graphic designer, Social Media and Marketing expert, video editor, a model, a creative director- all I one person. I don’t think it’s fair to be asked to work for free. It’s a job like any other. Creating content end editing takes me days and building this blog and other Social Media channels took me years. Also it was (and still is!) a huge time and money investment, so I now simply refuse working for free. However, if you’re only starting to build it, you need to be prepared, that you may be asked to work for free or in exchange for a product and I think it’s ok at the beginning as you’re starting to build relationships with brands and PR’s, but you need to learn and understand your value so you’ll know when to start charging for your work and services offered. After all, it’s hard to pay the rent with free make up and clothes 🙂

I hope this article helped you to understand how the “behind the scenes” looks like and what you need to be aware of when thinking to go blogging full-time.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Travel in TheBlondeFlamingo style