All Posts Tagged: free stuff
Is Your Style Holding Your Travel Article Pitches Back?
I often find it quite comical that my job is (and was for several years even before I was a freelancer) to be a paid writer in English.
While I am a native English speaker, my degree is in Italian language and literature, and I had originally planned to become an Italian professor, so even when I started writing professionally in my pre-freelance full-time job, I didn’t immerse myself in the tenants of journalism, its writing style, or its specific stylistic rules.
Many of you tell me that you are in similar situations with your own transition to freelance travel writing. Your prior experience is in an area so divergent (science or technical writing, law, engineering and the like come up often) from mainstream journalism that you feel as if you’re coming from another language, even if it is English.
Looking for Travel Writing Jobs? Grab Our Weekly Travel Writing Jobs List!
Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
Every week, we scour the web for every job posting of interest to the travel writers on our email list.
These aren’t always strictly travel (we know you all have many interests and writing subject matter expertise areas, and that’s a great way to diversify your income!), and we always kick in the quirkiest–and simply bad a$$est–jobs we turn up as well.
A Simple Technique to Never Go Home Without the Shots You Need Again
It’s happened to all of us.
You go somewhere a.maze.ing.
You take *tons* of photos.
The light is even fantastic, even though the weather forecast was crap.
All in all you can’t believe your luck (because we all know how easy it is to plan a big day of shooting only to have it foiled by weather, equipment issues, construction, or an entirely unrelated personal emergency), and you are sure you have a memory card full of excellent shots to sell, use on social, and support an epic photo essay on your blog.
Can Five Minutes a Day Really Increase Your Assignment Rate Four Fold?
Wanted to make sure you heard a few quick things about today’s call:
Our webinar will take place today at a very different time than usual as I need to catch a flight to a get down to a writing conference in Nashville before our weeklong boot camp starts on Sunday.
(I’m so excited to see some of you there! We have been working so hard on the outings, set up, and menus for this week to welcome writers coming from as far as Argentina to take their career to an entirely new level! If you’re interest in joining us for next spring’s bootcamp, you can take 25% off now in our summer’s last hurrah sale!)
Our topic for today may literally be the most important thing that we will every cover in a webinar.
Are You Putting Your Best Foot Forward When You Blog for Other Websites?
We all write online, right?
We write social media posts. We write blog posts. We write for other people’s websites (whether for pay or as a guest post).
On our blogs, voice matters. The “product” you’re selling (whether to advertisers, those providing free trips, or other types of sponsors) is often eye balls. And your voice and other unique aspects of your style are what distinguishes you in that race for eyeballs.
On travel company websites, the product is what they’re selling. It’s laid out there in black and white. Tours, safaris, hotel rooms, you name it.
With tourism boards, they’re selling a destination, its hotel rooms, its restaurants and its experiences.
The words are not the product.
How to Sell Your Blogging Services to Tourism Boards and Travel Companies (Even When They Don’t Say They Need Writers)
Almost universally, when people start travel writing, or even considering whether it’s a viable possibility as an actual income-generating career, they google some form of “paying travel websites,” “travel writing jobs,” or “travel magazine pay.”
On a recent coaching call, a writer I had asked to assemble lists of online markets (places to writer for) that interested her around certain themes like running, New York City and the Hudson Valley, and expat life, ran into this issue. Rather than focusing on legitimate markets around her specific areas of expertise, she embarked on some general googling. It wasn’t an inspiring journey, to say the least.
Today Learn to Navigate the Landscape of Travel Content Marketing with our Special Webinar Guest
Photo by Jonathan Pendleton on Unsplash
If you came to travel writing from first writing you own blog, you no doubt ran into a serious internal recalibration the first time you wrote for another website or magazine.
It’s less about the deadline than the readership. When you have you own site, there’s a certain level of confidence that you know what the readers are there for, what interests them.
With a new outlet, especially the first time writing for it, it’s all too easy to question everything you write as to whether it’s”good enough” or “what the editor wants.” Or to have your piece sent back for extensive revisions because what you had in mind for the piece is very different than what the editor understood from you pitch given her background with her own magazine.
In many conversations with readers and workshop attendees, I’ve found that when it comes to content marketing, it’s an entirely different ball game.
Five Magazines Looking for Hotel & Accommodation Profiles
Welcome to the Friday Freebie Five, a new weekly feature on Dream of Travel Writing’s Six Figure Travel Writer blog.
Each week, we comb our Travel Magazine Database to bring you five magazine sections open to freelancers around a theme–front-of-book trend pieces, long-form first-person features, short narrative postcards–to inspire your pitches.
Conde Nast Traveller (India)
“Where to Stay” is made of up about six articles all focusing on hotels and accommodation options. Most of these highlight just-opened hotels which describe the amenities, activities on offer, and the surrounding area. These are usually around 300 words long and can be written in first or second person. There is also a profile of a well-known person which rounds up their five favorite hotels around the world in about 300 words. Examples of people who have been profiled include Ayan Mukerji, film-maker; Shilpa Gupta, artist; and Dia Mirza and Sahil Sangha, an actor and film-maker couple.
Five Magazines Looking for Profiles of Interesting People
Welcome to the Friday Freebie Five, a new weekly feature on Dream of Travel Writing’s Six Figure Travel Writer blog.
Each week, we comb our Travel Magazine Database to bring you five magazine sections open to freelancers around a theme–front-of-book trend pieces, long-form first-person features, short narrative postcards–to inspire your pitches.
SilverKris
“Close-Up” is a 300-to-350-word profile of a remarkable globetrotter. It’s written in third person, and often features a range of explorers, photographers, tech giants, artists, influencers, chefs, and journalists. One recent “Close-Up” caught up with motorcyclist Lois Pryce to learn about her solo travels through Iran, covering what she encountered there, how she navigated the land, and why she chose to embark upon the journey in the first place. Other profiles have covered award-winning underwater photographer Tony Wu, Michelin-star connoisseur Any Hayler, and CNN anchor Richard Quest. These profiles are always written with a travel news peg, whether that be linked to past trips, upcoming trips, a travel book release, or an unbelievable experience endured along the road. Text is accompanied by one central image and no sidebars.
Five Magazines Looking for Wine, Beer & Spirits Articles
Welcome to the Friday Freebie Five, a new weekly feature on Dream of Travel Writing’s Six Figure Travel Writer blog.
Each week, we comb our Travel Magazine Database to bring you five magazine sections open to freelancers around a theme–front-of-book trend pieces, long-form first-person features, short narrative postcards–to inspire your pitches.
Rhapsody
“From the Sideboard” is a drinks-themed section focusing on an area or place that United Airlines fly to. The section is approximately 300-500 words and includes quotes from an interview with a bar manager or vineyard owner, for example. This section is often followed by a short section recommending drinks or a cocktail recipe. Article examples include “Vine of the Times” about wine production in Portugal and “Prix-Fixe Pours.”