All Posts Tagged: income
Never Write the Story First (In Case You Didn’t Know)
When I go to conferences and talk to people who would like to publish travel articles, online or in print, one of the most frequent questions I get is:
But I should write the article before I pitch, right?
Or something like that. Some variation on the crazy, horrifying spread of misinformation out there that makes people think they should work many hours for peanuts to be published on some random travel website.
3 Ways (You Probably Haven’t Thought of) to Land Your Next Gig at a Conference
Whatever the business occasion, I am all about looking at outside of the box ways to rock it.
- Travel media conference? Get an AirBnB and host a dinner party the day after the conference wraps where people can keep talking to their favorite new people—or finally meet the ones they didn’t get a chance to talk to.
- Trade show rife with tour companies hawking their wares to travel agents? Scout their storytelling, website and other marketing channels and pitch them on how they can improve it to close more deals by next year’s conference even for a fraction of the cost of being an exhibitor.
- Press trip? Chat with, sincerely thank, get business cards from and follow up with the owners of each business exhibited on the trip rather than just snapping photos, eating their food and trusting (or not caring if?) the CVB takes care of those things.
How Many Opportunities Do You Have With Your Travel Writing?
There have been times when I have attended, back-to-back-to-back, a number of writing conferences either as a speaker, a sponsor, or a normal attendee.
With that kind of pace, it can be hard to reflect, to pull out the big picture that emerges when the puzzle pieces of many sessions, conversations, and observations are assembled into a view of what is going on with the industry.
One thing that is always exceeding clear to me, even before getting out there and doing all of the mingling.
The redux version: in terms of opportunities, it’s an incredibly exciting time to be a travel writer.
But there is something deeper that I’ve noticed, a thread underpinning so many conversations I’ve seen and conference sessions I’ve attended.
It is so easy to be held back by the ceiling you are told exists on the number of types of opportunities for travel writers.
What You Do 60% of the Time is What You Do
No, I am not rephrasing the Pareto Principle.
You know, the one that says that 20% of the work you do yields 80% of the results. Though if we apply that here, it’s even more telling.
I’m talking about how you spend your time—your work time specifically—and what that says about you.
Plan to Get Serious About Your Business Right Now with Your $100 Coupon
When I first started freelance travel writing, there were no websites dedicated to the business side of the travel writer’s life.
And there were only a handful of solid sources on creating a stable income as a freelance writer.
Most people simply thought it couldn’t be done, and the ones out there doing it were too busy working for their clients and living awesome freelance lives to tell the rest of us how to do it!
People Die of Exposure – Why Give Away Your Work For It?
I will never stop being surprised that brand new websites and magazines continue to post ads on Craigslist, BloggingPro, ProBlogger and other writing job sites asking people to write for them for free in exchange for “writing exposure.”
Having started websites myself and consulted for many others, I promise you that any website so new that it is hiring people to write its content doesn’t have any more readers for you to be “exposed” to than you would if you just went and started your own blog.
You’d probably have more eyeballs on your own, actually.
Join Us for Free Travel Writing Lessons on Types of Articles You Should Be Writing and Our Interview Series
In the two years since we began running regular one-hour travel writing classes, we’ve covered more than 80 topics, including:
- how to land free trips
- how to get paid really, really well for your writing
- how to get on magazine editors’ good sides
- how to navigate every step of the process to land travel content marketing work, including phone calls and proposals
- how to keep your hourly rate down so your bank account goes up
- how to get work done on the road
- how to write, step-by-step, 15 different types of travel articles
- how to land guidebook and other traditional publishing deals
You can grab access to all of our past webinars (and a ton of other resources you can’t find anywhere else) with a subscription to our Dream Buffet or grab them one-by-one when you need them in our On-Demand Webinar Library for a set with the video, audio, transcript, and slides.
But we also air a free replay of one of our travel writing classes each and every weekday.
Join Us for Free Travel Writing Lessons on Annual Review
In the two years since we began running regular one-hour travel writing classes, we’ve covered more than 80 topics, including:
- how to land free trips
- how to get paid really, really well for your writing
- how to get on magazine editors’ good sides
- how to navigate every step of the process to land travel content marketing work, including phone calls and proposals
- how to keep your hourly rate down so your bank account goes up
- how to get work done on the road
- how to write, step-by-step, 15 different types of travel articles
- how to land guidebook and other traditional publishing deals
You can grab access to all of our past webinars (and a ton of other resources you can’t find anywhere else) with a subscription to our Dream Buffet or grab them one-by-one when you need them in our On-Demand Webinar Library for a set with the video, audio, transcript, and slides.
But we also air a free replay of one of our travel writing classes each and every weekday.
Join Us for Free Travel Writing Lessons on Successful Interviews for Your Travel Articles
In the two years since we began running regular one-hour travel writing classes, we’ve covered more than 80 topics, including:
- how to land free trips
- how to get paid really, really well for your writing
- how to get on magazine editors’ good sides
- how to navigate every step of the process to land travel content marketing work, including phone calls and proposals
- how to keep your hourly rate down so your bank account goes up
- how to get work done on the road
- how to write, step-by-step, 15 different types of travel articles
- how to land guidebook and other traditional publishing deals
You can grab access to all of our past webinars (and a ton of other resources you can’t find anywhere else) with a subscription to our Dream Buffet or grab them one-by-one when you need them in our On-Demand Webinar Library for a set with the video, audio, transcript, and slides.
But we also air a free replay of one of our travel writing classes each and every weekday.
Join Us for Free Travel Writing Lessons on Taking Control of Your Freelance Travel Writing Business
In the two years since we began running regular one-hour travel writing classes, we’ve covered more than 80 topics, including:
- how to land free trips
- how to get paid really, really well for your writing
- how to get on magazine editors’ good sides
- how to navigate every step of the process to land travel content marketing work, including phone calls and proposals
- how to keep your hourly rate down so your bank account goes up
- how to get work done on the road
- how to write, step-by-step, 15 different types of travel articles
- how to land guidebook and other traditional publishing deals
You can grab access to all of our past webinars (and a ton of other resources you can’t find anywhere else) with a subscription to our Dream Buffet or grab them one-by-one when you need them in our On-Demand Webinar Library for a set with the video, audio, transcript, and slides.
But we also air a free replay of one of our travel writing classes each and every weekday.