Want to be location-independent or a digital nomad? Blogging has exploded over the past few years opening the door to endless opportunities. A number of bloggers have been able to launch professional writing careers, quit their desk jobs to travel the world, or prolong that backpacking trip indefinitely. EW caught up with four travelers who manage to keep their blogs flourishing while globetrotting.
The Bloggers
Gary Arndt of Everything Everywhere was blogging before the word was even invented. He went around the world in 1999 and kept a website allowing his company’s employees to follow his travels. He made subsequent trips to Iceland and Argentina, updating his progress on his site. His latest travel blog is thriving as he continues to wander the globe.
Lara Dunston of Granturismo is a professional travel writer who teams with her husband Terry (writer and photographer) to produce countless articles and research for magazines and guidebooks. On the road for the past three years, Lara’s life and work are unique takes on the concept of location-independent.
Christine Gilbert of Almost Fearless left her managerial position at a large Fortune 500 company to be freelance writer who travels the world while working remotely. Her blog follows her day-to-day experiences as she wanders through Mexico and Central America.
Matthew Kepnes of Nomadic Matt has been traveling continuously since finishing his master’s degree and quitting his job in July 2006. a backpacker extraordinaire, Matt has managed to build a network of friends around the world who often house him during his journeys.
Train in Motion
The Challenges
Time is a universal issue for bloggers on the road. Balancing professional duties, traveling and taking care of the inner working of their blogs isn’t easy. Add to that the poor internet connections in a number of countries, and it becomes essential to plan ahead. Christine follows a rigid schedule, allowing time to write, apply for freelance jobs, and handle the social networking aspects of blogging, while Matt sets aside certain days or mornings for the majority of his output.
With a heavy focus on photography, Gary struggles to upload the 50,000 images taken over the last two years. Internet connections in the Middle East have hampered him lately. Of the four bloggers, Lara has the most difficult time keeping up with the blog itself because of her heavy writing and travel schedule. Though her blog is updated regularly, her focus remains on the travel writing that pays the bills. Travel and guidebook writing sound glamorous, but come with a lot of responsibilities in a short amount of time.
Lara explains that we “essentially go to wherever the work is, so when we got an offer to do a book in Amsterdam, we rented an apartment there for about 6-8 weeks. We went to Buenos Aires for two and a half months, renting two different apartments in two different parts of town so we could get to know those places…we were on the road in Italy for 3 months researching books including one month in Milan, and now we’ve been in Australia for a while now — we did a 4-month road trip for two books; this is a huge country!”
Travel Guidebook
The Technology
X (formerly Twitter) has been a tremendous help for Gary. Thousands of people have found his site through the microblogging site allowing him to increase blog traffic while gathering local travel tips for each destination. Christine uses a similar strategy, asking her followers—many of whom are travel experts—about a best plan of attack for each new location. To ensure she can work on her own schedule, Christine always travels with a backup laptop and extra power cord.
For Lara, technology remains a mixed bag. Many countries have slow internet connections, including a reliance on dial-up in certain hotels. Even developed nations like Italy and Australia have woefully slow speeds in many establishments, to say nothing of the complete lack of service in the Australian Outback or smaller country towns. Without the time to seek out internet cafes, Lara must complete the bulk of her work in hotels, which often charge exorbitant rates. Ultimately, she finds it difficult to justify spending more than $20 just to add a single blog post. Because of this, she and her husband prefer destinations like Brussels and UAE, which offer abundant access to free Wi-Fi.
Passport Stamps
The Passion
When asked about delaying or giving up blogging, none of the four were considering it. Each gets a certain joy from sharing their travels with others. Gary finds that, in the big scheme of things blogging, is pretty easy. Both Gary and Christine pondered about the life cycle of a blog, especially after the trip ends. The former found that the problem with many blogs was a lack of updates or a total abandonment, whereas Christine wondered about transforming a blog that focuses on trip reports into other avenues such as multi-author blogs. For Lara and Christine, getting paid for their travel writing has left a sense that no end was near for their travels or blogs. The same is true for Matt, who recently dropped anchor in Taiwan after an extended stay in Thailand.
Though none of the bloggers have been recognized on the road in connection with their blogs, Lara and Terry had a touching moment when several travelers in Dubai recognized their photos from the Lonely Planet guidebooks. In fact, three groups of people in a carpet shop all recognized and approached them. They had all been using their books and loved them, and had great feedback. One woman from Australia was on holiday, another was a Scandinavian girl, and a third was a German girl who had moved to Dubai and was using the books to get to know the city. “That was funny. And sweet. It’s nice to be recognized and nice to hear people appreciate all the hard work we put into writing the books.”
Follow on X
Gary @EverywhereTrip
Lara @laradunston
Christine @almostfearless
Matt @nomadicmatt
Minor updates and edits were made from the original article.
Photos © Gennaro Salamone
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Gennaro Salamone is the founder and editor of Enduring Wanderlust. Please contact him with questions regarding article or photo submissions.