Writing Challenges 2008...

If you’re looking for a way of challenging yourself as a freelance writer, then check out this two writing sites.

Inkthinker (aka Kristen King) is offering the 2008 Inkthinker Query Challenge.

What is the Inkthinker Query Challenge ? It’s a place to obtain encouragement, advice, and and hear about success stories from freelance writers just like us. The goal is for each participant to send out 120 query letters in 2008, the theory being that the more you send out, the better you get at writing query letters and the more chance you have of getting some accepted. So if your planning on sending out query letters this year, then it’s worth signing up for the Query Challenge for the support and encouragement that it provides.


All Freelance Writing (aka Jennifer Mattern) is offering monthly writing challenges to help freelance writers improve and grow their writing business. Each month a new writing challenge will begin. Here’s the lineup so far…

January Monthly Challenge - E-book writing.

“…you’ll be challenged to write an e-book in 14 days (the final 14 days of the month). During the first half of the month, I’ll be offering a selection of lead-in articles on topics like e-book pricing, e-book covers, e-book distribution / delivery, e-book formats, and writing a sales page for your e-book.”

February Monthly Challenge - Writer’s Website

“…covering some very basic HTML and CSS that writers really should know these days (especially if you’re a Web writer, where these things can get you gigs), as well as a tutorial or two on editing free or purchased Web templates to make them your own. I’ll also take a look at a few content management systems for those of you wanting to be able to edit and update your websites from anywhere you are, directly online.”

Go for it.

Challenge yourself.

The 2007 Perfomancing Blog Awards...

Performancing.com are holding their first annual Blog Awards. There are 28 categories covering most topics found in the blogosphere. Head on over and nominate your favorite blogs today.

Official Categories For The 2007 Performancing Blog Awards:

The Best Overall Blog
The Most Influential Blogger
The Best Blog Design
The Best Blog Typography
The Best Blog Name
The Best New Blog
The Best Blog Community
The Most Improved Blog of 2007
The Best Blogs You've Never Heard Of
The Best Blog Podcast
The Best Use of a Corporate Blog
The Best Video Blog
The Best Writing/Blogging Blog
The Best Science/Technology Blog
The Most Controversial Blog
The Best SEO Blog
The Best Celeb/Style Blog
The Best Business/Money Blogs
The Best Photo Blog
The Best Sports Blog
The Best Blog WebHost
The Best Family and Parenting Blog
The Best Political Blog
The Best Food/Health Blog
The Funniest Blog
The Best Travel Blog
The Best Education Blog
The Best Entertainment Blog (Music, TV, Movies)

How well do you know the world?

Think you know your world geography?

Up for a challenge?

Then head over the the TravelPod site and play their interactive Traveler IQ Challenge.

I warn you now, it's a time waster.

Travel Blog of the Week...Cool Travel Guide

This weeks ‘Travel Blog of the Week’ is Cool Travel Guide by Lara Dunston, a self confessed perpetual traveler and travel writer. Lara has written over 20 guidebooks and is frequently published in travel magazines around the world.

Read this very first post (Aleppo: no practicalities) of Cool Travel Guide and you’ll immediately see why I love this blog.

"I want to share with you the things I find cool when I travel. The things I can't share with you in the guidebooks I write. Take this scene from the Aleppo souq. It's two in the afternoon and this man's asleep at his shop. It's a cane shop. And they certainly look like nice canes. But that's not the point. I can't write about a cane shop in a guidebook. Who wants to buy canes? Canes don't make great souvenirs. And regardless, including this man's little cane shop would be a headache. It doesn't have a name. There's no phone number. I can't even remember which alley it was on, so how do I answer the editor's query about the practicalities (you know, that practical information in fine print). But what I want to tell you is to make sure you wander the Aleppo souq during siesta when the shopkeepers are taking their naps. You won't be hassled. You won't have to fight your way past boys on donkeys. And you'll witness these moments. A slice of souq life. Of humanity. They're touching. These are the moments that make travel cool for me. Tell me about your cool travel moments."

I was hooked and I’ve been reading the Cool Travel Guide ever since, travelling throughout the world and discovering unique, intriguing, and interesting places hidden in plain sight. Places that you will never discover in a travel guide book.

Cool Travel Guide also maintains a brilliant blogroll of travel related blogs, travel websites, travel media, magazines, and guidebooks -everything an aspiring travel writer needs at her fingertips.

Stop by. Check it out. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

New Travel Writing Contest...

Enter the Where in the World? Travel Contest being held by Spongefish.com and win $200.

All you have to do, according this Vagabondish post is

“…write about any place you’ve visited and convince SpongeFish readers why they should want to go there (or not) too! The story with the most views wins a $200 Visa gift card. C’mon, you’re already blogging about your favorite trips anyway! You might as well put your inner Hemingway to work for you.”

You can find more details here or here.

Weekly Top 4 Blog Posts for Writers...

1. How To Apply What You Learned In 2007 For Continued Success in 2008

2. Top 10 Blog Posts for Writers (The Best From the Best in 2007!)

3. 5 Hard Questions You Should Answer Before Starting a New Project

4. Waiting for Dollars: Pay on Pub vs Pay on Acceptance

It's the day after Christmas here in New Zealand, but for everyone who's in the Christmas zone now...



Hope Santa is delivering everything that you wished for...

2007 Writing Goals...Revisited

With 2008 looming, I figured it was time to dig up my ‘2007 Writing Goals’ and see whether I managed to follow through with any of them.

This is what I wrote on 31 December 2007

Goal #1 - to have one article published in a print magazine each month
Goal #2 - to have at least one article published online each month
Goal #3 - to obtain a paid blogging position
Goal #4 - to create more exposure for myself as a writer
Goal #5 -to become more proficient at networking
Goal #6 - to continue to learn about the business of writing
Goal #7 - to take a vacation and get paid for it
Goal #8 - to buy a new office chair

Wow, I had very high ambitions back then. Actually, I had highly unrealistic ambitions given that I work fulltime. But I always say dream big and good things will follow.

So how did I do ? Let’s see.

Goal #1 and #2 very quickly fell by the wayside as I started to concentrate more on online writing and less of sending out article queries to print magazines and newspapers. In the end, I only managed to get two articles into print magazines. I’ve had a few articles published online but mostly I ended up focusing on blogging.

Goal #3 was my most successful goal. At the beginning of the year I picked up a paid blogging position with b5Media network on Alzheimer’s Notes and then earlier this month I scored another paid position with b5Media on Healthbolt. I also had the Christchurch Tour Guide blog with Home Turf Media until it closed it’s doors last month.

Goal #4 and #5 are ongoing and I feel that I am creating more exposure for my writing. However, my aim of developing as a travel writer is starting to take second place to becoming a health writer. It wasn’t what I’d planned but it makes sense. Health is what I know and health writing, it seems, is what is earning me money at the moment.

Goal # 6 is also ongoing. I am learning a lot about writing by simply maintaining this blogging and in particular by conducting the weekly ‘Interview with a Travel Writer’ series. I’ve also learned a lot by doing the weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers and reading all the other great writing blogs out there.

Goal #7 was partially successful. I had a wonderful month long vacation in Spain and New York City. I didn’t get it paid for but I’m still formulating query letters and aiming to get some articles about Spain and New York published.

Goal #8 was the easiest goal and yet I never got around to it. I’m still sitting in the old chair with the stuffing falling out. But the years not over yet and there are sales coming up so it’s still do-able.

Looking back, I’ve done good. I’m writing more, being paid for my writing, and getting more exposure. I might even be able to drop down a day at work next year….so I can write even more.

Come back next week to find out what my 2008 Writing Goals will be.

Travel Site of the Week...Travercial

Travercial is the place to go for all your travel video viewing. They've traveled through cyberspace finding travel videos from around the world. At last count, they had over 2,500 videos for you to watch - free of charge.

So grab a coffee or wine, sit back and dream a little while you watch some amazing footage from other peoples travels.

Travercial recently announced their selection of the '10 Best Worldwide Travel Videos for 2007'. They are

1 – Return to Tibet
2 – Aurora Australis ((Antarctica)
3 – Botswana Safari
4 – Cairo Time Travel (Egypt)
5 – Helicopter Ride over Angel Falls (Venezuela)
6 – Spiritual Thailand
7 – Maasai Life (Kenya)
8 – The Andes (Equador)
9 – Lapland (Finland)
10 – Panama Canal Time Lapse

My favorite is Massai Life



What's yours?

Weekly Top 5 Posts for Writers...

1. What Henry David Thoreau Taught Me About Travel

2. Rolf's Very Subjective Guide to Bookstores

3.How to Get - and Keep Getting - Paid Online Travel Writing Gigs

4. Mastering Your Market: An Interview With a Niche Dominating Writer

5. Before It Disappears

Interview with a Travel Writer...

The ‘Interview with a Travel Writer’ series has finished for this year. Will be back again in the new year once all the dust from the holidays settle.

Meanwhile, check out this interesting interview with Ross Borden, co-founder of Matador Travel

Authors@Google...the fake Steve Jobs talks.

Fascinating interview with Daniel Lyons, the man who blogged as Steve Jobs...

Travel Related Top Ten Lists…

I was thinking about creating a top ten travel list and then discovered that there were so many out there that another one wasn't really needed.

So I made a 'Top 10 List of Travel Related Top Ten Lists' to save you from having to find them yourselves...

Travel Books: ten of the best from The Telegraph (UK)

The best travel books of 2007 from Timesonline (UK)

Travel Picks: Top 10 destinations for New Year's Eve from Reuters (UK)

10 best Christmas gifts for business travellers from Timesonline (UK)

10 Travel Gear Gifts for Under $20 from Booklocker

Top 10 travel flicks of the year from MSNBC (USA)


Two for the future…

Top Ten Luxury Travel and Lifestyle Trends for 2008

Top Ten Travel and Tourism Trends for 2007-2008


Two oldies but goodies…

Top 10 Coolest Travel Gadgets

Top 10 Beaches with WiFi internet access


And one that couldn’t stop with just ten…

Top 50 Ecotourism Websites

Travel Blog of the Week...The Travel Photographer

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and no where is this more true that at The Travel Photographer. Maintained by Tewfic El-Sawy, a freelance photographer, this blog is a mixture of photojournalism and travel photography.

The blog highlights photos from around the world, providing information about photographers, links to photo websites worth visiting, information on photo events and gallery shows, and practical information about taking photographs.

Tewific El-Sawy also leds photographic expeditions to remote areas of Asia and India. And after looking at the amazing photo essays and gallery photos on his expedition page, all I can say is sign me up, I really, really, really want to go…

Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers...

1. 12 lessons learned from a life on the road

2. 10 Tax Saving Tips for Writers

3. 11 Tips for Nuking Laziness Without Becoming a Workaholic

4. Six Interviewing Tips (for Writers)

5. 7 Unhealthy Eating Habits of Unproductive Bloggers

Interview with a Travel Writer...Claire Walter

Today we talk with Colorado based travel writer and blogger Claire Walter. A prolific writer, Claire’s writing can be found in many national magazines and newpapers such as Sunset, Budget Travel, Hemispheres, and American Way.

She's the author of over a dozen books on topics as diverse as travel, skiing, fitness, and vacation home buying.

Claire has also been bitten with the blogging bug and currently maintains three great blogs - Travel Babel, Culinary Colorado, and Nordic Walking USA.

Hi Claire and welcome to My Year of Getting Published. Thanks for taking time to talk with us.

1. Did you always want to be a writer? How did you get started in writing?

I was a government major, with ill-formed ambitions to join the Foreign Service for the opportunity to see the world. Then I learned that in order to take the Foreign Service exam, I would need a master's in intl relations. I was really tired of being in school, so I settled on a B.A. and went to NY. My first job was for a now-defunct, brink-of-bankruptcy photographic magazine. Pay was miserable, but promotions and opportunities to edit a lot and write a little came fast. I liked the field and stuck with it on an editing/writing continuum.

2. What do you consider your first "break" as a travel writer?

My last magazine job was as managing editor of SKI magazine. Every editor got the opportunity to write one or two travel features a year. I then worked for a public relations agency handling ski accounts and was subsequently hired by one of my clients (an international airline) as a sales promotion writer. By the time I started freelancing, I had a decent writing portfolio.

3. What advice would you give to someone who wants to break into travel writing?

At this time, I would think about it very carefully. It sounds a lot better, more lucrative and more fun that it is. At this time, I would say: "If you have a strong narrative voice (AND can find editors who wish to use your work), the future can be bright. For the rest of us, travel writing has become a grind. Everyone who has ever taken a vacation seems to think that s/he can be a travel writer or photographer -- and many give their work away or write for a pittance for marginal markets, just so they can travel. That makes freelancing very difficult for the rest of us."

4. What do you see as the future for travel writers in the printed media and online ?

The first person I knew who earned $1/word for magazine pieces was John Jerome back in the 1970s. Then, when myself I started freelancing, many features ran 2,500 words. Now, 1,800 or 1,500 words (sometimes less) is common. Many publications are still paying $1/word. Same per-word rate but fewer words (in most magazines) means that many freelancers now work harder for fewer dollars than a generation ago.

The newspaper travel market used to be decent, especially if a writer cold resell the same story to several non-competing papers. That is no longer the case, as papers fold or at least use more wire service or syndicated material than ever.

Writers' rights have also eroded severely. Many publications now insist on Work for Hire contracts, which force writers to turn over ownership of the creative efforts and intellectual properties to (often) huge corporations. Print journalism is not encouraging.

The future, I believe, lies with new media -- a field that is still evolving. Currently, writing for pay is impacted by all the citizen journalism and writing for free out in the cyberworld, but that will shake out in time as well. My toehold in that realm is blogging. I have three, including a well-received travel blog

5. Which travel writers and/or travel books have influenced you?

Since I didn't set out to become a travel writer, I can't really answer that directly. I was inspired to travel out of plain curiosity and probably by books (fiction or not) set elsewhere and by magazines (Life, National Geographic) that covered a wider world. Traveling, whether seeing new places or revisiting familiar ones, is tonic to me. I want to share my travels and encourage other people to travel as well. One of the hopes for the future of the world lies in seeing how others live, and hopefully, understanding one another too. Writing about it seems natural.

6. As a writer and traveler, what are the biggest challenges you face on the road ?

I don't get paid to travel, only to write, so balancing those is difficult. I now always travel with a laptop and spend at least 2 hours a day on writing and E-mails so as not to get too far behind.

7. Finally, what is your favorite place and why ?

Where? Wherever I happen to be at the moment. In October, it was England, the Isle of Man, Portugal and Spain. Last weekend, it was Whistler, BC, and this weekend it will be Colorado's Vail Valley. Why? Because I prefer to live in the moment rather than dwell on the past are look too far ahead into the future.

Healthbolt.net has New Bloggers.

Well, the contracts all signed and sealed so I can now spill the beans on my new paid blogging position.

I'll be co-blogging over at Healthbolt.net.

I'm really excited about this as not only does it pay but it also means quite a lot of exposure for my writing.

Seems that when it comes to writing about travel or about health, health is winning. Guess that old saying 'write about what you know' is true.

But that doesn't mean that I'll be giving up on travel writing - that is still my dream. It just means that I'll be able to afford more travel...

Come on over to Healthbolt and say hi. You might even find you quite like it there. It's not your run of the mile health site, sprouting forth on how to stay healthy. It's more about discussing unique health related topics.

And it's fun - just check out my recent post "Nine Christmas Gifts for the Hypochondriac in Your Life."

Free E-Book: Time Management for Creative People…

I’ve just been reading Time Management for Creative People by Mark McGuinness and I have to say it’s full of helpful ideas for anyone having time management issues.

I’ve already implemented some of the tips in Chapter 5 ‘Get Things Done By Putting Them Off Until Tomorrow’. I now have a cleared email inbox… and hopefully will be able to keep it that way if I follow Mark’s advice.

Of, course, I’ll still need to work through the Backlog folder that I created until it too is gone away.

Download your copy of Time Management for Creative People here.

Travel Blog of the Week.... Nerd's Eye View

Last month I interviewed Pam for the ‘Interview with a Travel Writer’ series. At the time, Pam was off to Hawaii to do research for a guidebook about...Hawaii.

Since then I’ve been avidly reading her blog Nerd’s Eye View and following her trip around the Hawaiian Islands, vicariously living the life of travel writer through her writings.

Anyone considering the life of travel writer should read this blog. Apparently researching a guidebook is not all a bed of roses. Not even if the place you’re researching is Hawaii. For example…

‘Yesterday I sat down and scribbled the most absurd email ever. I had to cancel our reservation for a (free) 3.5 hour back country by 4WD tour of the waterfalls of the Kohala Coast. I felt, as you might imagine, like a complete idiot, even though there’s a perfectly logical reason for the cancellation. It’s this: I don’t have enough time.’ (Tropical Frustration)


You can read all Pam’s posts about Hawaii by clicking on the Aloha Oy in the Categories section.

Posts I’d highly recommend:

Playing for the house - about the fine line on comps and freebies

For Travel Writers: Seven Lessons from the Road

For Travel Writers: Seven Successes from the Road

But it’s not only about travel. It’s also about food (Fish Wednesday),
Ukulele’s, and Seattle .

Nerd’s Eye View is definitely worth a visit…especially on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

New travel article at SeniorDiscounts.co.uk...

I've got a new article online over at SeniorDiscounts.co.uk ...

Seeing Madrid by Segway

I'll be writing one travel and one health article for Senior Discounts each month from now on.

And (drum roll here please) I have some really exciting news to share...

I've got a new paid blogging position on a high profile blog. Check back next week when I spill all...

Weekly Top 5 Blog Posts for Writers...

1. 7 Warning Signs That You’re Drunk on Your Own Words

2. How Do You Know When You’re Ready to Move to the Next Level?

3. How to Become an Online Celebrity by Emulating Jay Leno

4. A Guide to Better Travel Writing (Part 3): Insight and Inspiration from the Pros

5. A Complete Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images

Plus One:

20 Tax Deductions for Freelancers

Authors@Google Interview with Anthony Bourdain

Quote of the Week...

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

- Mark Twain

How Much is Your Blog Worth?

Want to know how much your blog is worth ? Then head over to Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities blog. I don’t know the accuracy of it, but it’s sure fun to try.

According to his calculator, this blog is worth ...

My blog is worth $37,824.18.
How much is your blog worth?

Amazing!!!

Calculate your blog's worth now...