Back to Back Issues Page
Issue #359: Promoting Your Travel Writing Brand
June 14, 2021
Greetings Fellow Travel Writers!

. . . and WELCOME all new subscribers. Thanks for joining us.

Editorial: Promoting Your Travel Writing Brand

Promoting yourself and your freelance writing involves a multitude of marketing tasks — so many it can be daunting.

So much to do, so little time!

When you’re overloaded, you tend to freeze up and not do anything until divine inspiration strikes. This could take a considerable amount of time!

It’s much easier to break your marketing and self-promotion tasks into bite-sized pieces, and do what you can each day.

Here are my suggestions for ten self-promotions you can squeeze into each week. If you do these, you’ll rise above the thousands of others writhing around in that huge travel writer’s mosh pit.

  1. Post your latest travel story on TravMedia.com.
  2. Post a link or PDF of your latest travel story on your Facebook page.
  3. Create a Facebook site for your writing self (versus your personal page).

  4. Update the copy on your writer’s website (You do have a writer’s website, don’t you?)

  5. Send a query letter out to a regional, national, or international magazine.
  6. Pitch or write a guest blog post and send it out to a high profile writing website.

  7. Or, leave well-written, intelligent replies on other travel blogs or websites demonstrating your expertise and sparkling personality.

  8. If you’ve authored a travel book, send it for review to someone who has a relevant website or blog for your review.

  9. Start a biweekly or monthly newsletter with writing tips or travel tips. 
  10. Hand out 3 business cards each day or do 3 email introductions. 
Here’s more on what you can do to build your brand . . .


This Week's Featured Post

Travel Accessories for Travel Writers

Here’s a list of travel accessories I carry with me when I’m away on travel writing assignments. For everything I carry I try to find the smallest, lightest thing available, especially for air travel. 

I rarely travel with anything except the things I know I will use and recommend you do this, too. Travel is fun but carrying too much stuff isn’t much fun at all.

Here's my list of travel accessories . . .


Upcoming Posts

June 21: Travel Gear: Lightweight Luggage, Travel Clothing and Packing Advice for Travel Writers
June 28: Seven Reasons Why Aspiring Novelists Should Write for Magazines
July 5: Writing for Travel Trade Journals


PitchTravelWrite.com Success Stories

Candi Licence: Another Travel Writing Success Story

I fell into travel writing by accident,” writes Candi Licence.

“My husband and I retired at the end of 2013, sold most of our stuff, stored our precious things like art and family heirlooms, and began traveling full time. We’d go to places we always wanted to see, stay for 3 months and then move onto our next adventure. I started a blog to let people know where we were and what we were doing, and I got feedback from people I trusted that they loved my writing. Writing about our adventures was intoxicating and getting complimented was exhilarating.

Fast forward 3 years, and I attended a travel writing workshop to see if it was possible for me to become a travel writer. I drafted an article during the workshop, and it got a great reception from participants and an Editor who was coaching aspiring writers throughout the event. I left the workshop fired up, with stars in my eyes.

Once home, tried to sell the article and learned my first hard lesson. Always pitch first! It’s hard for beginners to place a completed article. The second lesson I learned is that you can’t submit queries to one editor at a time—it’s a complete waste of time. I’d wait a month, get no response and then send my query out to the next editor with the same result. I was spinning my wheels and getting nowhere.

I was frustrated. I thought I had the talent to be a good writer but didn’t know how to break into the field. That’s when I saw Roy Stevenson’s Marketing Master Class for Travel Writers. I signed up, took the workshop, and it changed everything for me.”

Here’s the rest of Candi Licence’s travel writing success story:

Read Candi's Travel Writing Success Story


Pitch Travel Write: Most Requested Links About Researching Your Destinations

Most travel story ideas are worthy of publication somewhere. If you spend some quality time researching your destination you can usually find a marketable story idea or two. 

Sometimes you’ll have to abandon a travel story idea. If it doesn’t have enough “jam” to hook an editor, you won’t be able to sell it.

But it’s more likely that you just need to do a little work to discover what’s so interesting about a place and to clarify your unique story angle.
Travel Story Idea Troubleshooting Guide or "Why Can't I Sell My Articles?"

What does it take to sell your travel articles? 

In simplest terms, my sales process starts with pitching a story idea. Here's my sales process in a little more detail. This process had worked for me over and over again.
My Sales Process

It takes some experience to know what constitutes a viable travel story.  And deciding whether a story idea is a dog or a shooting star is an important first step in the pitching process.

So where, and how, do travel writers start their quest for a salable story? 

Here are 6 tips to help you.
6 Tips for Dreaming Up Better Story Ideas that Sell


Inspirational Travel Quote



RESOURCES FOR TRAVEL WRITERS

Featured Bundle of the Month: TRAVEL WRITING CREATIVE PACK


Our Creative Pack provides the first pieces of the travel writing puzzle. These three eBooks give the starting point for every travel writer: dreaming up unique story ideas, finding the best writing niches for your interests, passions and experience, and the art & craft of travel writing. 

When you buy the bundle you automatically save 10% off the regular price of the books. You can get an additional $5 off the price of the bundle if you use promo code JN5 at checkout:

BUY THE BUNDLE

Here's how these reference guides will help you.

The Art & Craft of Travel Writing is a handy reference guide to make your travel stories sparkle and help you become a more successful writer.  

The tips and techniques packed into the 170-page book will help you develop your craft, hone your skills, and work smarter.

In Find Your Niche you'll learn why it’s important to write in a variety of genres.  It explores the multitude of opportunities available to travel writers and other freelance writers.  

You'll learn to identify the niches that are most interesting and meaningful to you. And you’ll find out how to hone in on the most profitable niches.

Full of  tips, advice and inspiration, this 85-page book will help you find your niche!

Story Ideas that Sell guides you along the highly creative path of inventing and discovering potential travel stories to pitch and sell to travel magazines. Conjuring up viable story ideas are the very bedrock of every successful travel writer today.  

In this 76-page book you'll learn my winning system to generate story ideas that sell. Master this first step - and combine it with a great pitch - and you’ll soon find yourself immersed in exciting experiences with fascinating people.

Learn more and buy the bundle
Don't forget to use promo code JN5 at checkout.


Group Coaching Mastermind Community

Our first Group Coaching Mastermind Community kicked off in October, 2020, and we’ve got a global group with members living in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Vietnam and the U.S. We're very excited about this group of writers and our new community! We added new members to our community in early January and they're getting to know the group and participate in writing activities.

If you missed out on the opportunity to join this session, you can get on the waiting list for the next session starting in the fall:

Learn more and get on the waiting list


Live Workshops

People have been asking when our 2022 workshops in New Orleans, Louisiana are scheduled.

Here are the 2022 dates:
June 17-20, 2022, Travel Writing & Photography Retreat
June 22-24, 2022, Marketing Master Class for Travel Writers

We've had lots of interest already. You can sign up for our no-obligation interest list for these workshops and receive our substantial early bird discounts when we open registration:

GET ON THE 2022 LIVE WORKSHOP NO-OBLIGATION INTEREST LIST HERE


Did You Know . . .

Our Complete Marketing Master Class for Travel Writers is ranked #1 on TravelWritersExchange.com’s Top Ten Travel Writing Workshops.

You can access the list of the top ten travel writing workshops at the link below:

Travel Writers Exchange workshop list: #1 Marketing Master Class

Online Travel Writing & Marketing Master Class

Now, you can study our Marketing Master Class for Travel Writers online for only a fraction of the price of the live class! We recorded it LIVE in Seattle, for aspiring travel writers who weren’t able to attend in person.

    Who's it for?

  • If you’re a novice travel writer, or you haven’t had much luck selling your articles to print magazines, this Online Travel Writing & Marketing Workshop is for you.
  • If you weren’t able to travel to our Live Master Class, here’s the opportunity to attend anyway - without any travel costs and at a substantially reduced cost!
  • If you work a full-time job and can’t get time off to attend the live class – you can still attend on your own schedule after working hours.
  • If you’ve wanted to attend our Live Marketing Master Class but can’t get your schedule to fit with the dates it’s offered – here’s your opportunity to attend at your own convenience.

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER


At Your Service

Coaching and Consulting
Online Courses
Vietnam 1-1 Retreat & Consulting
Expat Consulting

email: pitchtravelwrite@gmail.com

If you know someone who will enjoy this newsletter,
please forward or sign up

HERE.


PitchTravelWrite.com, is our information-packed website for travel writers. This e-zine, a series of travel writing books and reference guides, coaching programs, and our workshops all work together to give you guidance in this field.

Our aim is to provide you with practical, nitty gritty information to help you gain entry into the travel writing realm and all the enjoyment that comes with it. 




We're thrilled to announce that www.PitchTravelWrite.com is once again on The Write Life’s list of 100 BEST WEBSITES FOR WRITERS! 

You can see the entire list by visiting their website - click on the graphic to view the list now.





Friend me on Facebook

My Facebook page is about freelance travel writing. I frequently post about:
• links to other well produced travel websites and blogs
• links to my travel articles
• magazine cover stories and back stories
• links to resource pages
• links to coaching and mentoring resources
. . .and plenty of other useful information to get you up to speed

Link to Roy's Personal Facebook page




That's all for now. Until next week - just keep pitching! Roy

Roy Stevenson
Pitch Travel Write
www.pitchtravelwrite.com






Back to Back Issues Page