Get Better Freelance Work Opportunities While You Explore The World
Do you have a passion to see the world? Do you want to go to India, see the royal palace of Spain, swim in the clear blue waters of the Bahamas, or snap lots of photos of giraffes on your next safari in Africa? How about the Eiffel Tower of France, the gondolas in Italy, or the market streets of Mexico? Does this all sound like a wonderful dream to you that just sounds too good to be true? For those who have a passion for writing and journalism, you could totally have this. Traveling freelance work is growing in popularity and the options are endless.
Get Paid to Travel and Write: Calling All Passionate Writers and Travelers!
But how do you go about it? How do you get jobs? What are some tips to stay concentrated on both your travels and writing? Below are some cut to the chase, simple guidelines and suggestions to help the passionate writer kick off their travel writing career with a bang!
Tips for Freelance Work and How to Stay Focused
Sometimes it can be hard to gather your thoughts when you are trying to pack, but focus on your writing! Consider these steps to help your process go smoothly and quickly.
1. Make Sure You Have a Game Plan
Always have a plan! Pulling together a list of deadlines that you need to make is a solid first step. Whether it be appointments on the phone or when your blog needs to be posted, make sure you have a well thought out list of all your deadlines before saying “Adios!”.
If you do not want to pay an arm and a leg for airplane wifi, then prepare a list of offline tasks that you are able to do while traveling. Many times your job will consist of replying to emails, but there is some actual writing that you can do without research and internet. So just be sure to have an idea of that as well. You can also utilize your aircraft time but brainstorming and creating the ideas you may want to write about later on. Either way, a plan is totally essential.
2. Create a Schedule and Stick to It
Make sure you are not just playing around when you travel to other places. You have lots of benefits when traveling and writing, and seeing the sights is a huge part of it. But you need to make sure you get some work done first.
Many writers prefer to answer emails and calls first thing in the morning, get a good dent in their project, and then have the afternoon free to go see the sights. If you are a late night kind of person, then make sure you leave a decent amount of time to work in the evening or late nights. Whatever your preference, you need to have a balance of work and play.
3. Be Cautious
Imagine that huge project that you just spent days working on is lost in cyberspace. It is gone, totally lost, forever. That is why you need to be extra careful when doing your writing and backing things up. Whether it be an extra copy on Microsoft and the majority on your Google Docs, who knows. But every half hour, maybe even every paragraph, you need to be backing up your work. You want to do everything you can to prevent a writer’s tragedy: losing a day’s worth of work because you accidentally clicked “Delete!”.
4. Keep Your Clients Posted
This is ESSENTIAL. If you are planning on going “off the grid” for a serious amount of time, you better let your clients know. Or maybe you want to update them every few days with a chat on the phone or an email thread with the progress you have achieved and what your plans are for the coming days. You always want to keep your client’s best interest in mind, so have their contact information stored away and ready to go in case you need to contact them, and fast.
Want a few more tips on how to actually get started? Click here for some awesome advice.
Who Will Hire Me?
You have got to start somewhere, right? Check out some of these great magazines and companies that will pay their writers to write when traveling:
1. Delta Sky Magazine
They want articles about traveling and the life of business. They want anywhere from 600-2,000 words from their writers, and the payment is different for each client.
2. Sunset Magazine
Sunset Magazine hones in on thirteen different Western states and seeks traveling ideas, as well as travel destinations that are filled with adventure and relaxation. The pay varies.
3. Open Skies
The Emirate’s Airline magazine seeks articles written about lifestyle and travel experiences. The rates differ depending on the article.
4. National Geographic Traveler
This magazine covers five features in each of their issues, and half of those destinations are American based while the other are international. Their goal is to write about places that normal people can afford, not just the rich and famous. National Geographic is very competitive when it comes to pay, and they have a range for words per article that include anywhere from 750 words to 2,500 words.
5. Travel and Leisure Magazine
There are no specific submission rules to follow online, but sources say that ninety-five percent of its writers are freelancers. The pay varies, but many can go up to a dollar a word.
Want to know someone’s personal experiences with travel freelance writing? Click here to check out a fabulous point of view!
Want more resources and listings for jobs? Click here!
Travel Freelance work can be stressful at first and not easy, but seeing the world and writing about your experiences is totally worth all the work in the end. Prepare ahead of time, pack well, get lots of sleep, and see the world!
Author Bio:
Helen Cartwright is a passionate blogger, who excels in the Digital Marketing and Technology niche. When not wired in marketing strategies she ghost-write for a variety of authors who have their work published on leading online media channels such as The Huffington Post and Entrepreneur.com.
