Samantha Brown - Wikipedia
One of my long-life writing dreams is to be a travel writer. Someone who travels the world like Samantha Brown or Anthony Bordain and learns about cultures. Then puts those experiences in a book or an article that millions of readers view.
Well, that dream has not come true yet. Well, not exactly. I do write travel articles, yes. But, I don’t get paid to travel the world and write the articles, nor do I get millions of readers. I also do not have a cable show sharing my adventures.
However, I still enjoy traveling and I continue to write articles on this topic. I discovered two sites that I can explore my travel writing and they are both completely different: Suite 101 and Trazzler.
Writing for Suite 101
Since 2008, I have been writing travel articles for Suite 101. If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you may be aware of some of my struggles with Suite 101. I have recently decided to resurrect my profile there and began writing more articles. Since I started writing for this site, they have changed a lot of the rules I did not like, so I am much happier writing for them now.
Suite offers a more subjective, magazine-style writing – facts and date. Since the changes, they are more lax on things like writer point of view – thank goodness. You used to have to write only in 3rd person. That was a bit of a pain to be honest. Now, you can use 2nd or even 1st person point of view, but they still expect a more subjective article – not a post about your trip to Disneyworld.
There is also a expected word count of at least 400, SEO knowledge, subheadings, and a required photo.
Trazzler
On the other end of the spectrum is this new site called Trazzler. This site is more of a hip travel site designed around YOUR experiences. Sure, the posts should be helpful, but not necessarily objective. It is more personal in nature – which I LOVE.
The posts are short (60-120 words), creative, and interesting. You do not have to include a photo (they only accept ones you personally took), SEO is optional, and there are no subheadings.
Trazzler expects the posts to be from personal experience, a place you have been. While there is no residual income, or a place to put a backlink to your website, or blog, there are cool contests you can join to get paid. In addition, there is no application process to apply as a writer. But, if they like your work, you could get cool freelance travel gigs. Yep, they will PAY you to go somewhere and write articles about the place. Pretty cool!
While I am sure I will not get paid the big bucks like Samantha Brown or get sent to Borneo to write a piece, I have a chance at going on a real live travel writing assignment. Plus, I get to like about what I want and actually use my creative writing skills. That is the best part of all!
