Starting out as a freelance writer isn’t easy. The competition is tough, especially for online freelance work. When you start at the bottom, you have little choice but to accept lower rates compared to more accomplished and veteran freelancers. That doesn’t mean you can’t rise up to the top. If you work hard and produce [...]
Travel writers make great novelists. They have all the ingredients – writing ability, courage and the creative fuel of seeing new places. With this in mind, I thought I’d share a few tips about how to write and sell travel fiction. I now write travel fiction for a living, but writing novels and getting paid [...]
Opportunity is a very interesting thing. It’s always there, even when few can see it. On the one hand, travel writers everywhere bemoan the shrinking opportunities to get published in print, as well as the steady decline in pay. And yet others point to growth in online opportunities and the ease with which nearly anyone [...]
The web is a busy place, and as writers, we are in an uphill battle to … …overcome the noise and make our message heard, to highlight the best advice, tips, and stories we have to give, and then hope and pray that the gods of the internet bless us with the traffic our posts [...]
Every writer, whether amateur or pro, has at some point dreamed about the amazing lifestyle of a travel writer. It’s rewarding already just to be able to make your living with your craft, and travel writers get to see some of the most amazing places in the world while doing just that, living what seems [...]
Do you own a travel blog but at the moment you just aren’t traveling? I’ve seen this brought up before and empathized with the rants of frustration and envy. It can leave one full of doubt as you ponder over your latest trip to the local apple orchard. Was the apple orchard news worthy? After [...]
Travel writers can be a restless lot. You have this urge to spend long hours exploring a place, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a new exciting one or a familiar favorite. You just need to go there, take photos, feel the sensation, eat, pray, love, whatever. Then you’ll feel this urge to share what [...]
No one wants to think that their website sucks. And no one wants to admit that it might, even when it does. But what does that even mean? At its core, a website has to do something for you, otherwise what is the point of having one? Just what it “does” for you is, of [...]
The typical freelance writing process involves coming up with an idea and then querying a magazine, ezine or other publication for a one-time working relationship. Sometimes, as you get to know an editor, you establish a rapport that leads to multiple writing assignments. As a freelancer, those are the gigs I like best – the [...]
Sometimes a story gets better the more it’s told. This is especially true if you get paid for each telling. When you write an article and sell it to multiple sources as a syndicated piece, you are seizing the opportunity to tell your story over and over to a larger audience of readers. Travel pieces [...]
It’s a fact. Writers must be good at self-editing to really succeed in print these days. Many print publications – as well as some online news/magazine websites and large e-zines – have downsized their editing staff, and yet still want to maintain their high standard of editorial quality. Thus, when faced with the choice of [...]
Welcome to the first Travel Blog Review in our “Under the Microscope” series! This past week our Travel Writers’ Forum members reviewed Tourfolio.com, a travel blog founded by Bryan Cassidy. The goal of this series of travel blog reviews – handled entirely through our Forum – is to help travel bloggers discover what visitors like, [...]
EDITOR’S NOTE: The links below are now going to a DIFFERENT (but still good) video – the prior program of free videos has NOW CLOSED. You can still watch the new video (it’s about an hour) to get some good information without any obligation to sign up for his course. Every day I get email [...]
It seems like you can’t go anywhere these days without hearing the latest buzz words, “Personal Branding” Seriously, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t mentioned in at least one – if not more – of the freelance writing newsletters you subscribe to. In my email this week I learned that MediaBistro has an online course [...]
Where do you find the time to write? That is a question most writers ask themselves at one time or another, or all of the time. I’ve taken more time management classes than I can count and always pick up a hint or two that I can incorporate. However, I discovered most people taking these [...]
