All posts by Jason Demant

Varying Word Count — The Key To Reselling Articles

coffee shop writing noodleOne of the keys to being a successful travel writer (i.e. one that actually gets paid) is being able to sell the same article more than once. I’ve often wondered how this is done in practice. I mean, how many places really have the same requirements that enable you to do this?

I recently stumbled across a Devin Galaudet post in which he explains that the key to solving this problem is rewriting the same article in varying word counts. You take your 1000-word article and then make 600 and 800 word articles as well.

Devin adds some important advice on the process:

…writing the same story does not mean writing 1000-word article and then deleting random paragraphs to change the word count. It means revising the story so it becomes a well-told 600-, 800-, or 1000-word story. While this may take more time in the beginning, the action creates templates for future stories and helps speed up future editing processes.

You can read the full article over at Technorati: http://technorati.com/lifestyle/travel/article/step-three-to-travel-writing-varying/

Jason Demant is the co-founder of Unanchor.com, where you can find self-guided tour itineraries for your next trip. For the latest on travel-writing you can follow him on Twitter @Unanchor, or join the I Love Travel Writing Facebook group.

Travel Writing Communities Round-Up

beach_crowd

A great way to get involved and motivated with travel writing is to network. There are numerous online choices to find networks of travel writers.

Nearly every travel writer now has a Twitter account and it’s easy to follow and then start conversations with them.

If you’re looking for a friendly and easier to approach community, today I’ll highlight a few around the web where you can get involved and start talking about travel writing.

Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) – TBEX is a free community with over 4,000 members. Its members are primarily travel bloggers. Discussions range from help setting up a WordPress blog to advice on monetizing your blog. TBEX also puts on an annual conference, held this year in Vancouver.

Travel Writers.com BBS – A reasonably active forum of aspiring and existing travel writers discussing all things relating to the topic.

International Society for Travel Writing – Membership with the ISTW brings you a monthly newsletter as well a subscription to “Studies in Travel Writing”. The ISTW also puts on occasional conferences. Annual dues are $90.

SATW – The Society of American Travel Writers boasts over 1300 members and has been around since 1956. In order to join however you must earn a significant amount of money through your writing. More details on being able to join can be found here: http://bit.ly/fsKdSL. There is a $250 application fee and annual dues are $130.

Getting Serious About Travel Writing – Taking A Course

email on the beach gsallman small

Happy New Year! Is this the year you get serious about travel writing?

If so, consider enrolling in a travel writing class. You may scoff at the idea, but consider the outcome:

  • Paying for a class might be the psychological push you need to get yourself writing and submitting articles. After all, you don’t want to just throw away the money you spent on the course, right?
  • Just like getting an MBA, the network may be more valuable than the classroom material. The instructors are accomplished travel writers that will now have a stake in seeing you succeed. Your classmates are going to be great resources as well.
  • You’ll get honest feedback about your writing. This is definitely not an easy thing to attain.
  • You may end up learning a new style or technique from the classroom material as well.

With that, here are a couple online travel writing classes:

Jason Demant is the co-founder of UnAnchor.com, where you can find self-guided tour itineraries for your next trip. For the latest on travel-writing you can follow him on Twitter @UnAnchor, or join the I Love Travel Writing Facebook group.

Photo Credit: Gary Allman

Travel Writing Advice From Around The Web

sunset on a truckHere’s a quick digest a few great travel writing advice articles I’ve run across lately:

Get Published Now: Be Interesting – Simple travel-writing advice from Devin Galaudet. On writing a good travel story: pretend the reader is your friend. Your friend gets all of the dirt and detail, as should the reader.

Nuggets for New Travel Writers: 6. Sweet Taste Of Rejection – This is a great article that discusses the different types of rejection you’re likely to receive when submitting your travel articles. Allen’s advice is to learn to take rejection as an invitation. “No” does not always mean no.

What is wrong with travel writing – in microcosm – This post comes from the Grumpy Traveler (a great new blog I’ve recently started reading). This rant is a travel-writer blasting travel-writing. Two of my favorites points from the article: travel-writers have an odd obsession with hotels and writers tend to stay at expensive hotels that their readers can’t afford.

100 Favorite Travel WritersTripbase has put together some pretty impressive original content on their blog. If you’re looking for a few (or a hundred) good travel-writers to start reading/following, this is the place to start.

Jason Demant is the founder of UnAnchor.com, where you can find detailed self-guided tour itineraries for your next trip. For the latest on travel-writing you can follow him on Twitter @UnAnchor, or join the I Love Travel Writing Facebook group.

Five Awesome Travel Bloggers

your_new_office2

One of my favorite forms of travel-writing is travel-blogging. It’s fun to vicariously live through other people’s travels. Here are five of my favorite travel bloggers (in alphabetical order).

  1. FoXnoMad – Anil’s travel blog focuses less on his own travels and more on educating his readers. His posts help you choose the right laptop as a traveler, teach you how to travel with pets and he has numerous posts on various destinations around the world.
  2. Nerdy Nomad – Kirsty’s travel blog is quite a bit different than the others on this list. She’s an Internet marketer who often puts everything aside to volunteer and help people in need. She has volunteered in Indonesia after last years massive earthquake and in Haiti after their devastating earthquake this year.
  3. Nomadic Matt – One of the most popular travel blogger’s. Like Anil from Foxnomad, Matt is living the travel blogger dream. He started his blog as a way to keep in touch with friends and family and now makes enough money from his blog to travel full-time.
  4. The Professional Hobo – Just like the title of her blog, she’s a professional traveler and writer. She has a great bi-weekly series called “Week in the life” where travelers give the details of their weeks.
  5. Wandering Earl – Ex-cruise ship worker, now full-time traveler. He’s a great writer and currently having quite an adventure visiting countries like Lebanon and Syria in the middle east.

Jason Demant is the founder of UnAnchor.com, where you can find detailed do-it-yourself tour itineraries for your next trip. For the latest on travel-writing you can follow him on Twitter @UnAnchor, or join the I Love Travel Writing Facebook group.

Five Gift Ideas for Travelers

It’s that time of year again – the holidays! This past year I’ve had plenty of opportunities to try out various travel gizmos and gadgets — some were awesome, others not so much. Today, I’ll recommend 5 of the awesome ones as potential gift ideas for the holiday season:

SteripenSteripen (link)

Whenever I talk about my Steripen I feel like I’m pitching it on an infomercial, but I honestly could not be happier with the product. If you’re in a country where the tap water is not potable, this is the perfect solution. It’s fast, easy and small to carry. You simply put the pen in your water, stir for about a minute and then your water is safe to drink. It saves you money by not having to buy bottled water and it’s great for the environment because you don’t have all of those plastic water bottles to put into land fills. Mine uses 4 AA batteries, so I use rechargeable batteries and carry my small recharger.

before_and_after_compression_bagsSMTravel Roll bags (link)

When I saw how cheap these were on Amazon, I thought there was no way they were going to be good quality, and even if they were, they wouldn’t last. I was wrong. These things are awesome, durable and have lasted about a year with almost daily usage. I’m able to fit all of my clothes in 3 of these bags. So when I unpack I simply pull the 3 bags out and I’m done. They’re easy to repack and after you roll the air out and they pack very small.

small_backpackSmall backpack (link)

I had a tough time finding a good daypack. I wanted something that could hold a good amount of stuff, but not be a pain when I had my main backpack (or suitcase). Eventually I found these great nylon backpacks. When empty they can easily be folded and stored in my main bag. As a daypack, it’s plenty big to fit a couple water bottles, a guide book and some snacks. (Note: This picture isn’t exactly what I purchased, but was the closest one I could find on Amazon. Here’s a real picture.)

gorillapodGorilla pod (link)

It’s difficult taking pictures with you in it. The Gorilla Pod makes it really easy. The flexible legs allow you to put the camera practically anywhere. (Tip: Look on eBay for a knock-off. They’re basically the exact same thing, but a quarter of the price.)

pedometerPedometer (link)

This one may seem a little strange, but it’s a lot of fun seeing how many steps you take in one day of sightseeing. On any given day, you’re supposed to get in at least 10,000 steps a day — which is actually pretty difficult if you’re sitting on your computer all day long. But in a solid day of sightseeing it’s possible to do 30,000 steps if not more.

Jason Demant is the founder of UnAnchor.com, where you can find detailed do-it-yourself travel itineraries for your next trip. For the latest on travel-writing you can follow him on Twitter @UnAnchor, or join the I Love Travel Writing Facebook group.

Full Disclosure: All links to Amazon are affiliate links and by using them you support my travel habit. You’re awesome!