Freelancewritingtips.com: Commissions drying up so I started a blog: How we've got on so far

ARE you being told there's no budget for UK travel features? So ran a recent question on the Journobiz forum.

The answer from the forum's resident travel writers was pretty much a resounding "yes."

In February 2008, I reported the following for Press Gazette: What were the chances of building a career in this competitive field for anyone who fancied it?

Author, journalist and trainer Dea Birkett said:

Forget it. The biggest misconception about travel writing is that it’s an easy way to make a living. You have to do other things to pay the mortgage.

Unlike other jobs, you have to be on duty 24/7. It’s exhausting. When you’re white-water rafting up a New Zealand river, you’re also watching yourself do it. In effect, taking notes about yourself. No-one else on the raft – unless it’s jam-packed with travel writers – is doing those two things at once. They’re just holding on.

You might trek around Kenya for a week but then come back to your electricity bill.

It’s a week away. A day or two to organise the trip, then another day to write the feature. That’s about 10 days for maybe £500.

Wannabe travel writers need to be realistic about what lies ahead, added Birkett:

The newspaper and magazine market is shrinking, as more sections rely on ‘readers' recommendations’, for which they pay nothing.

The trend is away from 1,200-word features towards listings, which are compiled in-house. Most people now go to the web for their travel writing. Newspaper websites all pay less than print pages, so again, income is decreasing.

Freelance travel writer and commissioning editor Vicky Baker also urged caution: “You have to remember that the same rules of freelance pitching still apply. It sounds obvious, but, for some reason, people often overlook this in travel.

“Some of the least convincing pitches I’ve seen come from experienced writers – ‘I’ve written for X, Y and Z, and I’m going away to Barcelona. Would you like a piece?’

“You need to offer an angle – preferably involving something new, topical, little-known or an inside perspective.”

William Ham Bevan, now freelance but previously deputy editor at Telegraph Create and a former deputy editor at The Sunday Times travel magazine, said: “it makes sense to keep travel writing as a sideline.

“Perhaps try the odd travel piece for an occasional market – one with long lead times to accommodate inevitable rewrites,” he added.

“Those wanting to get into travel get fixated on the supposed glamour and prestige – one to remember when you’re bored rigid in front of BBC World on hotel cable.

“They forget that they’re likely to be paid on the same linage rate as any other writer. So you might get the same amount for the same number of words as the bloke doing a feature on, say, wall plugs; but your piece necessitated a five-day trip rather than an afternoon of phone interviews and 30 minutes on the cuts file.”

I really didn't like the sound of much of this yet I've always fostered an ambition to do at least some travel writing and to make it worthwhile.

Past jobs have taken me to New York, Spain, Russia and various UK destinations so I do have some experience of travel writing, albeit what seems like a lifetime ago.

I've not pitched travel editors very often at all, have had some very encouraging and polite rejections (mainly due, I was told, to a lack of budget or a lack of interest in UK destinations.)

So, what's the logical answer?

I've started a blog and a built a team with whom to share any benefits.

It's all about family holidays, short breaks and activities.

My recent invite to Disney was also a deciding factor.

Its introduction says the following:

This blog will report on places we have been and things we have seen while out and about with our children, in the hope of helping you decide where would be a lovely place to go.

It's by no means a comprehensive listing of UK or overseas family holiday opportunities, rather a collection of (often favourite) haunts pulled together by a collection of parents.

We'll also include tips from travellers and reports from the travel industry designed to make the most of your precious time away.

This site isn't about spending lots of money (chance would be a fine thing!) and it's not about "things to do in the holidays if you are sick of your kids" - as so many newspaper and magazine reports seem to be.

Instead it's about places we love to visit with the people we love.

We hope you enjoy the ride!

So far, I've sought the support of the UK parent blogging community and they have played a blinder.

I'm particularly pleased to see videos on the site. Mainly because I duck out of the way of a camera when I can, as quickly as you could say: "Who ate all the pies?"

This video from Erica at LittleMummy showed readers the facilities in a posh hotel in Inverness:

Thank you to Potty Mummy, Mom Most Traveled, Englishmum and Littlemummy for being the first guest contributors and joining the team.

Big thanks also to Cartside, Exmoorjane, Laura from Are we nearly there yet Mummy and Dulwich Divorcee for the posts they have lined up. And a massive thanks to Camilla and Keris for all their hard work.

Amid all these kind offers of contributions,* we've also been contacted by various companies pledging their services/products as giveaways to our readers. Not all of these offers are accepted, I hasten to add.

In the next couple of weeks, I will update our 'giveaways' page to include more details and set a deadline of the end of June for this batch of goodies

And so far in our efforts to earn money from the blog, we've:

Set up a Google Adsense account.
Created an online shop.
Started to ask individual companies for sponsorship and flag up opportunities for advertising.
Planned to set up a newsletter, where we also hope to have space for companies who want to connect with our readers.

At the same time, I've sought to engage with the PR community. Hence the freebies

Now, we're right at the start of publicising the blog. I really think it has great potential.

I'll be reading and re-reading this post from Problogger and making sure I check out the sort of advice from Craig McGinty that set me on this path in the first place.

Thank you again to everyone who has been in touch to tell me how much they have enjoyed the blog so far and here's to a lovely time running it!

If anyone has any further tips about monetising a blog, then I'd love to hear them. What has worked best for you?

I hope I can continue to report here about the progress of this blog and what it can bring for its team. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know in the comments.