I used to make money writing. How can I do that again?

April 12, 2015 7:49 PM

I like to travel. I also like to make money. I have always heard about the internet being a great tool these days for doing both. A very long time ago, I made money doing journalism writing for legit media outlets. I don't have a degree, just a natural talent. For the better part of the past decade, I have focused on screenwriting and have even optioned a script but other than that I haven't made any serious traction. What resources exist for doing this remotely and where should I look? What would I need to do get started? I do still have articles from my journalism days that I could provide as samples. I would also be open to other forms of writing/online work if it was easy to pick up on. Thanks!
posted by signondiego to Writing & Language (3 answers total)

Have you considered travel blogging? I went to a workshop a few months ago hosted by Alex of Alex In Wanderland. By keeping her overhead low and slowing building up a following over several years, she now makes enough to support herself through writing and photography. Her main revenue streams are affiliate marketing, sponsored content, guest writing on other blogs, and doing social media promotions. She uses her blog, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as her primary media channels.

Here's her story of how it works.
posted by ananci at 8:56 PM on April 12, 2015

I think this class looks pretty good. In general, though, journalism is a tough work world right now. With the collapse of newspapers there are a lot of seasoned old journalists out of work, and a lot of people working on the internet for peanuts.

When you say "What resources exist for doing this remotely and where should I look?" what kind of resources are you talking about?
posted by feets at 2:31 AM on April 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

I don't do travel writing so I can't offer much specific advice on that. But as a general thought, based purely on my own experience... For all the hype over online writing, I have had better luck approaching traditional print outlets. In particular, I emailed queries to specific magazines that I thought would be interested in the specific topic I wanted to write about.

I found that making an initial sale to an editor was tough. However, once I broke through with an editor, I found it much easier to make subsequent sales to them. It turns out that if you hand in clean, accurate copy, on time, you will stand out from other freelancers.
posted by yankeefog at 2:41 AM on April 13, 2015 [1 favorite]