As a freelance travel writer, you’re a business owner. That means that it’s your responsibility to market yourself — it’s up to you to make sure that you grow your business, land new opportunities and continue to find new markets. Freelancing isn’t a ‘get out of marketing free’ card — but don’t let that scare you. Marketing yourself as a travel writer doesn’t need to be complicated.
Get a website
Purchase a domain name — yourname.com if you can get it — and put up a site. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but since you won’t have a storefront, you’ll need some place to direct editors and other prospective clients to, where you can share information about your writing. Personally, I like using a blog as my main site: visitors get an idea of my writing skills immediately and I don’t have to mess around with anything difficult when I want to edit something on my site.
Many web hosting services can automatically set up WordPress on your site. Blog on a topic relevant to your travel writing — you can even just record your adventures that don’t make it into articles — and set up an about page with links to your clips.
Join social networks
Even if you don’t know what country you’re going to be in next week, you can still connect with people online. You don’t have to sign up for every social networking site under the sun, but at least get profiles up on Facebook and LinkedIn. I like Twitter as well — but what works for me may not be the same thing that works for you. It’s also worth getting involved in more specialized sites, like those that cater to travel writers.
Comment on other sites
Commenting on blog posts, especially those related to your own writing is an absolutely basic online marketing strategy, but it can get your name out there, along with links to your site. It’s important to leave worthwhile comments: your goal is to build up some name recognition. When someone sees your name or website, you want them to think, ‘wow! that’s an awesome idea and this person is a great travel writer.’
Find what works for your niche
Depending on just what kind of travel writing you want to do, your marketing will vary. The tactics you can take to catch the eye of the editor of a family-oriented magazine aren’t going to be the same as the tactics you take to land a ongoing blogging job. That means you’ll need to experiment to find just what will work for you. You may even need to do some research to build a complete marketing plan. But a good plan will pay off again and again in new writing assignments.
