Now more than ever, freelancers across the globe are having to come to terms with one simple fact: Nothing is ever guaranteed.
Work streams in and you’re struggling to manage your workload, then all of a sudden it’s a famine and you’re twiddling your thumbs wondering how you’re going to land more jobs.
Right now, travel writers and bloggers are experiencing one of the most extreme workload famines the industry has ever seen.
With everyone hunkered down at home, airlines have been forced to ground their fleets, popular cities are eerily deserted, and the tourism industry has essentially been immobilized, meaning that your career and your day-to-day life have been deeply affected.
Given you’ve probably found yourself with a lot more spare time on your hands these days, here are a few ways I’ve found that you can use to keep improving your blogging services and skill set while you’re stuck in self-quarantine.
Adjust your offerings
You may have seen on your social media feeds that companies are adapting to this situation by offering their customers innovative services like virtual music festivals, online yoga classes, and at-home styling sessions.
While you may not be able to go out and document your worldly travels right now, you can use this time to adjust your offerings and keep your audience engaged while honing in on your existing skills.
As a travel blogger, there are many ways you can continue to create value for your audience from the comfort of your own home.
You could look into creating a downloadable product for your website such as a short e-book, location guide, or other specialized writing materials like an editing checklist or job flow chart.
By offering a free download on your website or blog, you’re not only growing your mailing list but also continuing the flow of traffic onto your site, even when you may not be uploading much fresh content.
With many others around the globe also self-isolating in the safety of their homes and looking for something to keep them entertained, now is the time to focus on having a strong social media presence and offering extra value to your audience. You could think about creating short and engaging videos on your writing processes or techniques, sharing a series of your top 10 travel experiences, or going live on Instagram with a tutorial or Q&A session.
Revamp your website and social media
Let’s face it, first impressions are important. Your online presence can be essential to discovering new clients, landing new jobs and presenting your work to the world, so making sure you’ve perfected it is a must.
If you’ve been putting off updating your website or revamping your social media accounts, now is probably the time to bite the bullet and do so.
Use this time to make sure your website is aesthetically pleasing, optimized for search engines, easy to navigate and up to date with your latest work.
You could schedule a backlog of social media posts, create some new Instagram story highlighting cover photos, update your profile pictures, clean up your direct messages and define your page theme.
If there are any platforms you’ve been thinking of dabbling with, like Pinterest or LinkedIn, create an account and start to grow your audience.
Enhance your skill set
Even if you can’t earn right now, you can still invest in your business by undertaking some personal and professional development.
As a blogger, there’s always room to be learning and improving in your field, and with so many courses and sites that facilitate online learning, there’s no reason why you can’t use this “downtime” to expand your knowledge and skill set.
Sit down and evaluate your current expertise and see if there are any areas you’d like to improve on or extra offerings you’d like to add to your services.
Read a book in your discipline, listen to an educational podcast, watch some good YouTube tutorials, or sign up for an online course.
You’ll come out of your self-quarantine cave with more value to offer.