Are You Too Cheap to Succeed?
If your travel writing or blogging earnings have stalled and you can’t seem to move the needle, you may want to look at your spending.
No, I’m not telling you to be more frugal so you’ll have more cash left over. I’m telling you that if you’re stuck, you probably need to spend more, not less. You need to invest in your business so that you can grow your overall earnings in the future.
I have a regular mastermind group that meets on the phone once a month and on every call at least one person brings up a new investment they’ve made, someone they’ve hired, or some service they’ve signed up for.
These are all people making $100K or more from travel writing but what do they want to discuss? What they’re spending. That’s because they’re not just blowing money on a new toy or pair of shoes that will eventually end up in a garage or attic. They’re spending money to grow their business.
When I look back at the inflection points after I became a full-time travel writer, editor, and blogger, it was the investments that really took me to the next level. Things started to change when I started doing the following:
– Paying assistants to take over low-value tasks
– Paying specialists to do tech work and design
– Hiring freelancers for a new site launch, even when it had zero revenue
– Paying up front to self-publish a book so that my eventual royalties earned would be higher
– Joining organizations and paying to go to conferences
– Paying my expenses to travel strategically for the right content instead of waiting for a press trip
– Paying a sizable commission to a sales rep to pitch and close direct ad deals
– Buying any business book that looked helpful, without internal debate over whether it “was worth it” or not
Often the bloggers who are still struggling after years of plugging away are the ones who haven’t invested in their success. They stay in their bubble, look for answers on Facebook, and keep a tight rein on expenditures. There are full-time freelancers out there who refuse to spend money on editor contact info, even though this could double their targets and save them hours of research each week. There are writers struggling with things they have no business struggling with because they refuse to outsource.
Here’s a challenge for you: find a small budget amount you can part with and spend it without hesitation. Make the most of that investment, then do it again. Once you start seeing results, plow the newfound cash back into the business and go a bit higher. If your experience is like most, you’ll look back in a year or two and be amazed.
Here are a few ideas:
Invest $20 or Less
Hire someone on Fiverr (logo, biz card design, WordPress fix, theme change, social posts, Pin creation, site speed-up, research)
Buy the Kindle edition of Travel Writing 2.0
Get a business book that will change your outlook. (I especially recommend this, this, this, and this new one for our industry.)
Try out the Travel Magazine Database for one month and get loads of editor contacts
Purchase music to use commercially in your videos via AudioJungle or others.
Invest $75 or Less
Join the Professional Travel Bloggers Association
Become a MediaBistro AvantGuild member
Get professional business cards designed and printed
Get a new portfolio site design done
Buy a premium WordPress theme
Invest $150 or Less
Get an early bird registration for a TBEX bloggers convention
Spend a weekend’s expenses researching a local travel story not sponsored by anyone
Use Tailwind Pinterest scheduling app or Buffer scheduling app for one year
Join the Fizzle.co community for three months and take a slew of great courses
Invest $250 or Less
Get a book cover, interior design, and e-book conversion done via jobs on Upwork or Fiverr
Hire a virtual assistant to take care of your low-value tasks so you can write more
Get the self-study version of the Travel Writing Overdrive course
Take a one-day TBEX workshop on travel photography, writing, branding, etc.
Invest $500 or Less
Join the Mastermind level of Travel Writing Overdrive
Buy the Paradise Pack when it comes out each year and gain the kind of expert knowledge that usually takes years to acquire.
Send unlimited professional e-mails to up to 2.5K subscribers per month via Mailchimp, aWeber, Benchmark, etc. for an entire year, with powerful full sales funnel and segmenting functions.
Upgrade your hosting to a plan that’s faster and more reliable.
For that amount you can attend a travel writers or bloggers conference, maybe even pay for lodging (with NATJA and some others it’s included in a blanket rate).
What have you invested money in that has made a big difference in your career or business?
Top “penny wise pound foolish” Flickr cc photo by Eric Sagen.
About Author
Tim
Tim Leffel is the author of Travel Writing 2.0 as well as several other successful books. His work has been recognized by SATW, NATJA, and the Solas Awards. He has contributed to more than 50 publications as a freelancer and is the editor of four websites and blogs, including the "Best online travel magazine" and the popular Cheapest Destinations Blog, established in 2003. He served six years as Conference Director for TBEX and five years as co-chair of the NATJA Advisory board.
I used to do everything on my blog but now I learned how to outsource the tech aspects, like redesign and theme change. Less stress, better results! Next step: hiring assistants to help with other sites. I kept saying I’ll do it myself, but I never found the time. :( It’s been years and I haven’t launched them yet. :'(
As someone who started out as a low-budget backpacker, I really struggle with this. The idea was to do everything as cheaply as possible and not hire anyone unless you couldn’t figure out a wey to do it yourself. I’m realizing this has been holding me back for a very long time. When I ask more successful bloggers how they did this or that on their site, they say, “I paid for it.” Sometimes it is that simple.
I’d never heard of the Travel Writing Database before, great idea, thanks for sharing that!
Quite a good article
I’ve got a friend who has been whining for years about how magazines don’t pay enough and people who work for free are bringing him down and the industry is in decline, etc. It’s never HIS fault even though he’s a total cheapskate who never invests in his tools, his craft, or himself to improve his situation. Lost cause I think.