Any trip can be turned into a micro-business possibility, and once this is realized there is no limit to the number of trips you can take because you know they will pay for themselves (eventually).

Yes, this means your travel does become work in a sense, but the work is minimal and as long as you are somewhere of interest to you, the information you gather for publication is information you would gather anyway … only this time you will take a few more steps.

Before the trip
The first step is, before you go and as a part of your pre-trip research, to pick a particular topic of interest and see how much information you can find via Google when it’s connected to the place name. Some examples:

• “San Francisco California wine bars”
• “Miami Florida book stores”
• “New York City dog parks”
• “Cozumel Mexico beaches”

You’re looking for a combination of personal interest for you, a location you are visiting, and general lack of coherent information available on the web. Once you find that combination, you have your focus.

During the trip
On your next trip, carry a moleskine with you, and record the following with minor notes (a few lines of info):

• Every restaurant you eat at
• Every hotel you stay at
• Every airport you travel through
• Every site you visit
• … you get the idea.

And then focus in our your topic and take more extensive notes.

• Names
• Locations
• Personal opinions
• Costs
• … you get the idea
• Dont’ forget to take relevant photos.  Take at least two or three photos of every location relating to what you are going to write about (it’s amazing how often a photo will look good on the little camera screen, but horribly blurry or out of focus once it is blown up).

The key is not to be overwhelmed with taking notes and photos, but instead have this general note taking become a regular part of your travel experiences. It’s a good habit to be in regardless of future plans, for it gives you a great journal of your journeys (and this is something I wish I started doing years ago!).

After the trip

You’ll be assembling this into a workable document in an easy, clean, and clean manner. We’ll be covering that in a future post.