David Whitley
Yep - it's definitely a place where you have to actively search for that side of things. But as more and more flights are routed through there, it becomes more difficult to avoid. I'd never pick it as a holiday destination - but as a two or three day stopover? Well, it can be reasonably good fun if you do your research beforehand.
I've said it elsewhere, and I'll say it again here. There's no problem (apart from maybe selection bias) with accepting tourist board support. It's a case of why you're taking it and what you're doing with it.
Fixing up an itinerary focused on story angles you're interested in and the commissions you've been given - great. Turning up because it's free and just writing about whatever you're served up - that's where the problem lies.
There's absolutely nothing wrong without mainstream tourist attractions either - off-the-beaten track adventure in Guyana isn't inherently better than going on a nice boat trip around the Florida Keys. But when it's all gush, and no insight, you're basically writing advertising copy. And that's the problem - too many writers are happy to just trot out whatever keeps the host happy, and too many editors/ publications are happy to let them get away with it.
That Forbes piece is special. So special, it deserves a special category of its own above special.
Stuart covered a lot of it.
I'd add:
Identify a story angle: "I'm going here" is not a story.
Why you, why this story, why this publication and why now? If you can give an editor to these questions, then you've a good chance of getting the commission. Give them a particular reason why they should publish a certain article on a certain date, and it has a far better chance of being commissioned for that date than some random piece that could realistically go in at any time.
Be the person who solves an editor's problems, not creates them. This often means just saying yes and working out how to do it afterwards. It also means little things, like working out whether house style puts www at the front of URLs, and whether they use commas or semi-colons to divide addresses and phone numbers.
Work out the the slots editors need filling (generally, this is regular formats that involve annoying amounts of fiddly research).
Good, reliable and hassle-free will win out over excellent and unpredictable/ high maintenance EVERY TIME.
Your research skills are more valuable than your writing skills.
Keep pitches short. If you can't sum it up in a sentence or two, the editor can't sell it in a sentence or two on the cover/ contents page to his or her readers.
Don't be precious.
Also, the most valuable skill a freelancer can have is being able to bullshit five story ideas on the spot when approached by an editor or responded to by an editor asking if you've any other ideas.
Everyone wants to write op-eds, and consequently there's very little demand for them. I suspect a little branching out from that may be needed.
Why did I start? Because I'd been doing a bit of freelance travel on the side. I then quit my job (backpacker magazine editor), and moved back home to the other side of the world. It was a pragmatic thing more than anything else. I already had a foot in the door, so I thought I'd give it a go for a few months and see if I could make a living from travel writing full time. Somehow, it worked. There was no dream. And the definition of success was making a decent living out freelance writing. The travelling part was essentially a happy bonus - I thought I'd have fallen more into news/ features/ music/ interviewing etc by now, but I've done well enough out of travel to not have to push too firmly in other directions. Unlike most, the travel aspect of it was way down the list of priorities - it just happened to be what I seem to be good at.
The definition of success now has probably changed a bit. I am, by pretty much all my original measurements, successful. Now I want to tweak that a bit - work out how to sustain a comfortable living without working as hard, find time for side-projects (books, websites etc) that could provide a path to go down in future if my situation changes.
As for the blog, it was something I started as I wanted somewhere to write things that wouldn't be commissioned elsewhere. I enjoyed the project aspect of it. I now hardly have time to update - I've got too much work from elsewhere, and a lot of that work is the sort of thing I would have been putting on my blog. If someone's going to pay me for opinion/ anecdotes, I'm not going to save them for my blog.
So the blog is more or less dormant, kept fed by uploading some old articles every now and then. If I ever start to concentrate on my own site again, it'll probably be a different one - and more geared to travel planning than blogging.
I also got seriously tired of the self-styled travel blogging industry/ community. The extreme defensiveness over any criticism of dodgy practices, the deluge of me-me-me permanent nomad blogs and flagrant shilling anything for free stuff just got boring. So I basically stopped getting involved, and that's probably for the best.
Who do I want to work for/ be paid by? I'm not really that bothered, as long as I don't feel like I'm writing advertising brochures. I prefer commissioned work, as it at least means someone else thinks it's worth reading/ publishing/ paying for. I might not be enthralled by every job I do - if I'm honest, there are probably only one or two pieces a month I properly sink my teeth into and get a genuine pride-packed thrill out of - but there's a sense of craftsmanship in being able to research and write to someone else's brief and do it well.
What do I want to end up doing? I genuinely don't know. There could be big life upheavals coming in the next few years, and I'll just have to work things out as I go along. On the whole, though, I want to find a way of not working myself so hard, spend more time at home and work in more opportunities to travel where I really want to go rather than where the money is. None of this requires massive changes - just tweaks here and there. I *know* how I currently do things is not sustainable - but a thoughtfully shaped version of it probably is. More of the fun, challenging pieces, maybe another branch out into books/ trip planning websites, perhaps taking more jobs that don't pay as well but allow me to explore somewhere in more depth. They're not massive changes and, on the whole, I can't think of another way of making a comfortable living that I'd enjoy more.
1) Company X pays Y to write about Z.
Costa Rica DMO pays Sally Blogger to write about national parks in Costa Rica. This is really PR, but, well, all PR is sponsored content.
<Agreed. That's sponsored content>
2) Company X gives Y a free trip with the expectation they'll write about Z.
Costa Rica DMO gives Sally Blogger a free trip to write about national parks in Costa Rica.
<I say that needs disclosing, but isn't sponsored content unless there's no gatekeeper. If there's an editor in the way that the writer has to get this through, it alleviates most of the ethical dubiousness. Without that extra level, it gets a little dodgy.>
3) Hotel A gives X a free room on the expectation of a review.
Costa Rica Excelsior Palace Hotel comps a room to Sally Blogger in return for a review.
The above are all pretty clear cut (to my mind) as there's a direct (theoretical at least) financial benefit for company X or the hotel which has a direct relationship with the writer and there is an expectation they will deliver copy. All require a disclosure (IMO).
<Again, far better with extra layer - the editor - involved. Should have disclosure. Hotel A should be made aware that the review may be negative/ the hotel will be left out of the article should it not be suitable upon first-hand review>
That's said as someone who does accept free stuff, is often disappointed that editors don't print disclosures (I put them at the bottom of submitted copy - they're not always printed, but I feel it's right to do) and doesn't think accepting hosting is altogether wrong if used for the right reasons.
Hi Belinda - it was commissioned as 500 word blog post (hence it's not as in-depth as it could be). And Ellen, yes there's a UK edition - the content's entirely different to the US edition (ie. it's commissioned specifically for the UK mag and the US mag articles don't get printed in it).