The Mesquita in Cordoba, Spain
Believe it or not, I used to write guest posts for other people's travel websites. My main reason for gifting an article was to obtain access to their subscribers. I counted on these readers to click the link at the bottom of my article which would take them to my books for sale on Amazon. It worked like a charm. Well, at least it worked for my nonfiction books. Being a bit of a travel expert, my expertise on longterm travel and international house sitting attracted a fairly generous niche audience.
I wrote for big travel websites owned by well-known adventurers like Tim Leffel. How to Travel for Less by Bartering
Or articles like House Sitting My Way Around the World for the Retire Early Lifestyles website. It was a win/win tradeoff.
You're probably beginning to realize that I was willing to give away my area of expertise for free. Once I was able to identify the websites that catered to readers who appreciated what I had to offer, I could use my craft — writing — to introduce my books to the world. It was pure marketing.
I also served for a time period as a travel expert for the National Association of Baby Boomer Women. I contributed articles like Living in Ireland/A Nature Lover's Perspective, Is It Safe for Women to Travel Alone, and Is Renting a House Abroad a Good Option? My book links I'm sure reached a lot of people. You can find the rest of the articles that I contributed to the NABBW as the resident travel expert by following this link or selecting individual articles from the list below,
The Rich History of the Mesquita of Cordoba (read it)
An American Snowbird in Southern Spain (this sounds interesting, too)
Pompeii — A History Buff's Travel Dream (My favorite tourist attraction of all times)
Nasty but Necessary Travel Topic —How to Roam Without Bringing Bed Bugs Home (a world problem)
Going International With Airbnb (now very common)
How to Rent an Apartment in Europe for Less (I've rented many)
Five Reason Why Lisbon is on My List of Top Ten European Cities (It's still one of my favorite cities)
10 Reasons to Live in Spain (I keep an apartment in Torre del Mar)
Can Learning a Second Language Save Your Gray Cells?(written for the Malaca Instituto)
I shouldn't forget the articles I wrote for the US Passport Services website. Like this one! Competa, Spain: An International House Sitter's View. Competa, a little whitewashed village high in the Almijara Mountains, was the first place we stayed for 90 days during our very first year abroad. We fell in love with it. It's no surprise that we returned for many years thereafter until we finally moved down to the coast and rented an apartment in the seaside village of Torre del Mar. We still consider that apartment to be our home away from home. The lovely thing about Torre is that when walking the seaside promenade directly across the street from our apartment building, we can see Competa nestled in the mountains above. Many of our friends from Competa drive down the twisting road to do their shopping in Torre. We meet for coffees or take walks along the seaside together.
The beach across the street from our apartment in Torre del Mar
I'm sorry if I overwhelmed you with links. Believe me when I say that this is only a sample of the many published articles during my digital nomad days. Next time, I'll share a few links to interviews that I participated in. Sometimes I was conducting the interview and at other times I was the interviewee. Most were written interviews, but a few were actually video taped or were podcasts.
Can one earn money as a freelance writer? Yes! I did and others do. All of the above were articles that I contributed as a guest writer, however. Marketing is the biggest challenge for an unknown writer. In large part, guest writing paved the road for me to make money from the sales of my first book, Finding the Gypsy in Me: Tales of an International House Sitter.
Writing is not an easy task. For many, it easily falls into the category of top-ten-most-hated exercises. Writing for money is even more challenging. Most writers who do make money, a very small group, aren't getting rich. As you can see, I'm a writer that dabbles in lots of different writing styles. I don't know if that's good or bad. It's just who I am. Based on my experiences, I have found that nonfiction is far easier to market, however. I'm still struggling to find ways to successfully market my fiction books. I'll write another blog post down the road about publishing fiction. It's an entirely different game.
Until next time ...
