Welcome to the TravelPod forums

[whereshegoes]

Yes! It's true! Now TravelPod is helping you get one step closer to your travels by paying you for your writing. Every travel writers dream is to be published and paid for it. Now we are helping you on your way to fame and fortune plus you get the added bonus of helping out your fellow TravelPodders.

We are looking for well written, informative articles about travel, blogging, and everything everything in between. The original article should be a minimum of 2500 words and submitted in a Word document or cut and pasted into an email. Additionally, you may post your article in your TravelPod blog, then submit the link. You may use pictures, graphs, and whatever else will make your article exciting and fun to read. Please submit to whereshegoes@travelpod.com

Be creative, be original, write about what you have learned traveling, write what you wish someone would have told you before you went on your trip, share your knowledge and experience. We want practical information written in an interesting way. What we are really looking for is articles we can learn from.

Only TravelPod members are eligible and must have the Support my Travels feature enabled in order to receive the $25.00 USD payment.

I found some excellent information on this website How to Write a Travel Article.

Good luck and have fun!

[stevejames]

I *LOVE* the sound of this - it will be very popular! Do existing travel posts count, or does it need to be a new or recent travel story?

[whereshegoes]

I *LOVE* the sound of this - it will be very popular! Do existing travel posts count, or does it need to be a new or recent travel story?

It needs to be more of an article than a blog entry. We are looking for knowledge and how to's. That said, you may include examples and experiential stories in your article. I know that when I want to illustrate a point, using my past experience works best.

See some of the other articles:

Photography Tips for Travel Blogging

and

Updating your Travel Blog on the Move

[stevejames]

Thanks for the clarification!

[cobi]

This is good news, but what's the motivation in making people submit it in email as a word document? Surely it would be better if people were posting it in their blog instead, and replying to your post on the forum including a link to their article?

Unless there's some motivation here that's not clear to me?

[Jessica_CDN]

This sounds like fun!

Couple of questions:

Does copyright ownership transfer to Travelpod?
What will the articles be used for?

[whereshegoes]

This is good news, but what's the motivation in making people submit it in email as a word document? Surely it would be better if people were posting it in their blog instead, and replying to your post on the forum including a link to their article?

Unless there's some motivation here that's not clear to me?

Cobi, this is a great idea. I will certainly add that method of submission to the list. Thanks for the suggestion.

[whereshegoes]

This sounds like fun!

Couple of questions:

Does copyright ownership transfer to Travelpod?
What will the articles be used for?

Good questions Jess.

The articles will quoted in the monthly newsletter. They will be placed in our repository of TravelPod Community Articles and linked from the newsletter.

As for the copyright ownership, the article becomes property of TravelPod. Basically, it will be archived for other members in the growing resource library.

Hope that helps!

[cobi]

Hmmm.. interesting. That will count me out for now then. Maintaining ownership of material is a big concern for freelance writers, so this is going to rule out most people making a living from their travel writing and knowledge, given the pay is nothing compared to what people *should* get for handing over copyright.

According to general travelpod terms of use, 'TravelPod does not claim ownership rights to any of the Member Content,' so this is a big departure from just posting on your blog.

Still, I suppose for people just starting out it's better than nothing.

For people genuinely interested in the 'how to' of working freelance, you might like to read this National Union of Journalists guide here:

http://www.londonfreelance.org/c-basics.html

this is for the UK, so you might want to check the laws for whatever country you're based in... I think for most Western countries it's similar, or more geared towards protecting writers.

[whereshegoes]

Thank you for your feedback Cobi. It always good to hear from more experience writers...you have alot of knowledge to impart.

I agree we have some serious talent at the site and I hope one day we will all see the published.

I guess we all have to start from somewhere. And even those famous writers probably remember the day that they got paid for writing.

So basically we just want to ensure that if you were to leave the site, the article stays in the archive to help all future members.

[Jessica_CDN]

Thanks for the answers Carm - sounds interesting!

[whereshegoes]

Indeed...it's a nice direction isn't it?

It's really satisfying to know that we are helping out others with information sharing. To me, that is something that money can't buy.

I just want to clarify: The reward money isn't meant to be a payment but more of a token of appreciation for the effort. We have had several members who have written articles out of the good of their heart and desire to help others. They did not ask for renumeration but just wanted to contribute in some way. Big cheers to these members whose only motivation was wanting to give back to a site that has helped them.

That said, money can often be misunderstood. Perhaps the money is not the best type of thank you gift. We are in the process of reconsidering what to award for the article.

Any suggestions?

What about TravelPod gear from the store?

[ollieholmes]

I would happily write a few articles for this site but i have one issue. The Copyright, i would not be happy to hand over copyright to you guys at the moment. £25 for me is not enough for me to hand over copyright. Plain and simple.
I also dont agree with leaving the article on the site, if i wrote an artice and for whatever reason chose to leave this site then i would whant it removed.

[Jessica_CDN]

Carm,

I think that you're right that money might not be the way to go. With money, a comparison starts with what you "should" be getting for a travel article.....whereas with gear, it's a bit more clear that it's a "thank-you" for the effort.

[ollieholmes]

I think it should be down to the person, some people would prefer money some would prefer a gft.

[laorfamily]

How about if the article could be used by Travelpod in any way as long as it is on the travelpod.com domain, while the writer still maintains copyright for any other medium. The article could be used on other websites with the express written permission of Travelpod.com?

[dani.bora]

the $25.00 USD payment.

Good luck and have fun!

err...25 bucks for a 2,500 article..? that seems a bit under the minimum wage for journalists to me....but i'm sure somebody will be interested...good luck to you!