All Posts in Category: Coaching For Professional Writers
Applications for Our One-on-One Travel Writing Success Coaching Open Next Week
I often get emails from people who are looking for coaching on their travel writing or just want to hop on the phone for an hour and talk about what they should do next. Or perhaps they have a pitch or a piece of writing that they want me to look at and tell them what I think.
One-on-one coaching is how everything we do at Dream of Travel Writing got started. I was attending events as a freelance writer, chatting with other writers, and thought the rates that I was getting paid like $250 a blog post (in 2013) or 50 cents or a dollar a word were what everyone was getting.
I was working part-time, spending half my day exploring new cities, and had a healthy, self-sufficient income I was proud of.
Are You Too Afraid of Writing Round-Ups for Magazines–Or Not Afraid Enough?
When the topic of writing feature-length pieces for magazines in heavily formatted articles like round-ups or guides is broached amount freelance writers who don’t have those clips under their belt (yet), one of two emotions usually comes up:
- abject fear at writing something that long for a magazine (and how long it will take them to do it)
- absolute “I got this,” because you write these exact same types of pieces for blog posts
In case you can already tell where I’m going with this, neither of those is the “right” answer.
Summer Weekend Retreats Are Now Open for Early-Bird Bookings!
With our early bird registration, we offer a chance to get a huge discount (more than 25% off!) for being one of the first to snag a spot in one of our live retreats at our private retreat location in the Catskills.
We’re especially excited to open up this batch of retreats, because they’re one of the sweetest times to be in the Catskills—literally!
Summer retreats get to take the best advantage of our on-site farm, with salads festooned with edible flowers, more than a dozen different types of heirloom tomatoes, and special produce we grow from all around the world.
Are Newspapers Really Dead? (And How Learning to Write for Newspapers Will Actually Help You Write Better Online)
I’m sure you’ve seen or heard it in the news regularly.
Newspapers are dead.
Especially newspaper travel sections, right?
I can count on one hand the number of dedicated, just travel, newspaper editors remaining in the U.S.
Newspapers have taken numerous content turns, from Jeff Besos of Amazon acquiring the Washington Post and bringing his unique business sense to it to the Tribune corporation, known for the Chicago Tribune, which has pioneered a new business model very heavy on centralized content that is syndicated out and, at times, written entirely by machines. Besides Besos, celebrities like Ashton Kutcher are even buying newspapers.
Our Last Holiday Special Offer…An Opportunity to Be the First to Access Our Newest Way to View All Our Resources: Webinars, the Travel Magazine Database, and Our Q&A Library for Coaching Students
Today’s holiday trivia: While king’s cake or Gateau des Rois has becoming associated with North and South American Mardi Gras festivities, it was originally consumed on Twelfth Night, the last day of the 12 days of Christmas. Each cake, or pudding in the case of Britain, had a bean or charm baked in. Whoever found it–assuming they didn’t choke on it–was said to be blessed with good luck for the year ahead.
We’ve let you know for months this was coming, and now it’s finally here!
If your circumstances–time-wise, financial, or just not being ready quite yet to pull the trigger and dive headlong into travel writing–make it so that our coaching programs aren’t the best option for you right now, but you follow our webinars and new magazines in the Travel Magazine Database, we’ve got something that might be just what you need for where you are right now.
Had Your Eye on One of Our Retreats? They’re Now on Sale in Our Holiday Specials!
Please note: this offer is quantity limited.
Today’s holiday trivia: Today’s holiday trivia: Every January in Benin, preparations begin for the celebration on the 10th of the Fête du Vodoun. Ouidah, a small village and former slave port, is the center of the largest celebration, which brings priests and revelries from all corners of the world, particularly France and other former colonies. The festival is not for the feint of heart—the throats of sacrificial animals are ripped out by priests with their teeth and some attendees in a frenzy cut themselves with knives and pour local gin on the wounds—but Zangbeto masquerades, live music, emotional dance performances, and free-flowing local gin are accessible to visitors.
We promised it was on its way, and here it finally is!
If there’s an event you’ve already go your eye on, scroll down and grab it before it fills up. We’ve also got two brand new events available for registration through this deal that haven’t yet opened to the public, the first chance to register for our fall TravelContentCon.
For Today’s Holiday Special, We’ve Put Together a Package of One-of-One Support to Completely Transform You as a Travel Writer in an Incredible One-Time Special
Today’s holiday trivia: It seems like we’ve totally missed the mark on Christmas by running our 12-day special a week late this year, but today is actually the official Christmas Day in more thank 15 countries, including Greece, Egypt, Russia, Ethiopia, Greece, and Bulgaria. These countries follow the Ancient Roman Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar. Russian Christmas is marked with a 12-course dinner centered on fish in honor of the 12 apostles, while Greeks use a sprig of basil rather than the European and American fir tree.
People often ask me which of our retreats is my favorite.
They’re all so different–from the people to the programs–that I say it’s like the favorite child dilemma.
But since our first week-long Freelance Travel Writing Bootcamp, I have to say, there is a certain child that I favor. Having the opportunity to spend a week together digging in and making deep progress throughout the week felt special on its own, but the last 24 hours of the retreat were what sealed it for me.
Last chance to get your roadmap for accomplishing your 2018 travel writing goals workshopped!
It sounds totally counter-intuitive, but we have spent a lot of the past four weeks in our five-week series on reviewing your past year and setting the course for the year ahead talking about why goals don’t work.
I wholeheartedly believe that goals can be a real impediment to moving your travel writing career forward.
Before I reached a point where I had clients I enjoyed working with, enough work (at at least $100/hour) that I didn’t need to do any marketing, and complete control over my schedule, I had a lot of goals for my freelance lifestyle and my writing.
And a lot of the folks that come to me for freelance business coaching have very strongly held goals as well.
In fact, I think it’s one of the things that separates the dreamers from the doers in many ways.
Want to Make 2018 Your Best Year of Freelance Travel Writing Yet?
I’ve been so delighted to hear by email and in the chat rooms of our webinars from many of you how our annual review webinars are making you see where and how you can improve your business in the year ahead.
If you haven’t yet joined the series, here’s what we’ve covered so far:
- What is Standing Between You and Your Travel Writing Goals: As the beginning of our series on working through a comprehensive inventory of your business, where it’s going wrong, and a clear tactical plan that fits with your life to move you through the next year, we devoted a full hour to discussing the most common issues that keep travel writers spinning their weeks and how we will chart a course through them in the coming weeks.
- How to Clearly Catalogue the Work and Opportunities You Have Now to See When Your Need to Go: We dove head first into an honest look at exactly what each of you has in your income, relationship, and opportunity inventory as we continue our series on annual reviews as a travel writer. We not only walked through exactly what data on your business to collect for your review, but also how to draw conclusions from it as to what you need to do differently or more of in the year ahead. *BONUS* This work will also give you a huge leg up on your taxes, in addition to positioning you to be just the helper your favorite editors need this time of year.
Announcing Two New Workshops Saturday, December 9 — Including a Live Online Workshop You Can Join from Anywhere in the World!
Many of you have asked me about or working with me on your writer’s websites, and I know this is a big sticking point for many of you!
We do have a “recipe” for getting your personal writing website (a.k.a. you freelance writer homepage, which should be different than your blog, if you have one) done in one hour, but for those of you that have varied interests, offerings, or travel backgrounds, or have been doing this for a while and simply have a lot to showcase, I know the task seems much more overwhelming.
So we’re going to offer a live, one-off, online workshop (integrating the participation, getting things done, and one-on-one critiques we offer in all of our live events) to make sure your website is ready for the new year: Plan, Perfect, Polish, Publish: Get Your Writer’s Website Done Now.