How to Fund Your Travels Through High-Paying Writing Gigs

“Normal” Pay Ranges
Don’t settle for less than $50 for a short (200-to-300 word) blog posts or $100 for something longer (up to 1000 words, if you can write it quickly).

These rates ARE out there. Let the people who don’t know better do those gigs.

For magazines, small or regional should give you at least $0.20 or $0.25 per word, otherwise it’s probably not worth your time. Newsstand and other national magazines should pay $1.00 because you need to spend a lot more time going back and forth with the editor.

To Get Your Best Rates
Work with the same editors often, whether companies or magazine editors. Knowing what they’re looking for saves you time writing, and having the relationship saves you time pitching.

If you want to keep your income high, stick with the things you know how to do well. If you’re not great at writing dry, news-y articles, don’t pitch yourself to a website that carries those, even if the hourly rate is good, because it will take you too long to write.

The Three Best-Paying Opportunities for Travel Writers Today:
– gigs from online job boards
– magazine articles
– gigs you pitch yourself

Gigs from online boards have one slot and a lot of people applying, and the pay is low, but they’re easy to find and easy to pitch

Magazine articles have a lot of opportunities but also a lot of people pitching for them, but the pay can be very, very good, and they’re easy to find, and easy to pitch once you get the hang of it.

Gigs you pitch yourself have no competition, because you’re probably the only person offering the business owner that service at a particularly time, but they can be hard to find and hard to pitch until you have a solid pitch letter.

Where to Find Paid Writing Gigs Online
Blogging:
– Problogger
– BloggingJobs
– Bloggerbridge

Magazine Writing:
– Journalism Jobs
– Gorkana
– Media Bistro
– Ed2010 Whisper Jobs

Content Management Agencies:
– Contently
– Skyword
– Newsmodo

Subscription-based sites:
– Freelance Writers Den
– Paid to Blog Jobs
– Matador Marketplace

Industry Job Boards:
– TIES
– YTP
– Good Food Jobs
– Travel Massive
– Travel Age West jobs
– NATJA, IFWTWA, SATW and other association listings

General Boards with Good Opportunities:
– LinkedIn
– Freelance Writing Jobs newsletter

Where to Find Magazines to Pitch
Mediabistro Avant Guild: $55/65 per year https://www.mediabistro.com/
Wooden Horse Magazine Database: day, week, month and year plans. Website seems to be having problems at the moment, but usually available at http://www.woodenhorsepub.com/default.htm
Travel Magazine Database: $5/month basic, $10/month full access. Coming April 1!

Three Ways to Easily Hit Six Figures with Your Travel Writing:
Corporate Writing:
– copywriting project creating web content for a destination or travel company: $4,000
– content management and blog creation for travel-related businesses: $1,500 x 3

Magazine Writing:
– feature/article in glossy newsstand magazine: $3,000 x 1
– department in glossy newsstand magazine: $1,500 each x 2
– newspaper article or travel essay for mainstream pub online: $500 each x 3
– short front-of-book piece in glossy newsstand magazine: $250 each x 4

Mixed:
– content creation tour for a destination or travel company: $3,000
– articles in regional, niche or web publications covering places you’ve taken press trips to: $500 x 7
– creating and populating social media content for destinations or travel companies based on your trips: $1,000 per client x 2

_____________________________________________

Thanks so much for joining me ladies! If you have questions about anything we’ve talked about today—or things we didn’t get to—reach out to me at gabi [at] gabilogan [dot] com or @gabitravels on Twitter.

You can find more travel writing resources from me at:
www.dreamoftravelwriting.com
www.travelmagazinedatabase.com
www.sixfiguretravelwriting.com