StoryBy says it will pay users for their contributions to the community. Is it worth signing up?

When I was approached by StoryBy to try their platform, I was skeptical. It bills itself as a microblogging platform that pays users for their contributions. I’d heard of social networks that promised to pay their users before and wrote them off without giving them any thought.

And, to be honest, I would have done the same with StoryBy if I’d not been approached by a PR person representing them, who I happen to be friends with, and was offered compensation for writing about it.

Disclaimer: StoryBy paid me to try their platform and write about it. However, according to our agreement, they were buying my time, not my recommendation. Everything I say here is my honest opinion.

One Thing You Should Understand First

Before you read too much into my opinion about this platform, you should understand one thing: I have zero ability to predict social network success.

Really, I’m terrible at it. Although my work requires me to understand social networks in great detail and spend a lot of time on them, I have zero ability to predict how people will react to them.

I’ve always been confounded by the popularity of Twitter. And I don’t understand the attraction of Instagram. Or Snapchat.

Really, SNAPCHAT?

And don’t even get me started on Periscope.

I’ve only ever actually looked at one social network and thought, “Yes, this one looks amazing.”

That was Google +, which was probably the biggest social network failure in history.

Given my abysmal track record at predicting social network success, I’m just not going to say anything at all about whether or not this is likely to be popular.

I’d rather keep my mouth shut and be thought a fool, than open it and remove all doubt.

What Is StoryBy?

StoryBy is a platform for sharing information that borrows heavily from Reddit. In fact, if I had to guess, I’d think that StoryBy was conceived mainly in hopes of siphoning off Reddit’s users by building a similar platform in which users would be rewarded with money, rather than karma points, for their contributions.

Read the full StoryBy FAQ here

StoryBy is more feature-rich than Reddit. Reddit is an ugly, text-based, link and text sharing platform divided by topic into subreddits. StoryBy is a much more visually-rich card-style sharing platform that allows the sharing of links, text, and photos within the platform, as opposed to Reddit where users normally share images on Imgur and then link to them from Reddit.

StoryBy has also implemented Reddit’s defining feature: an up-and-downvoting feature on every post and every comment, so that the most popular posts are the first you find while browsing, and in the ensuing conversation the most popular comments rise to the top as well, making it very easy for users to find great content and discussions. Like Reddit, users also have the option to favorite or share posts.
The similarities between Reddit and StoryBy are so great that it makes me think StoryBy hopes to capitalize on recent unrest in the Reddit community about the poor management of the platform by its parent company, Conde Nast, by offering a financially incentivized option.

If they succeed, it could become an incredibly popular and useful platform where people crowdsource answers to their questions and share recommendations and outstanding content from around the Internet.

I, for one, absolutely love Reddit but have no allegiance to a platform whose owners have shown very little care in how it’s run. If the masses chose to move, I’d have no qualms about following them.

The question is, can StoryBy woo enough users to achieve critical mass?

How StoryBy Pays

StoryBy uses a points system that awards users points based on the popularity of their posts, how much affiliate income their posts earn, how many upvotes their posts receive, and how many times their posts are shared on social media.

Basically, points are awarded to users based on how much they contribute to the growth and earnings of the platform.

Here StoryBy diverges a bit from the Reddit model. Reddit awards users Karma Points not only for popular posts, but for popular comments. That means contributing to the discussion in Reddit is rewarded similarly to posting, although there is no financial incentive.

StoryBy provides no specific information about how its points system works (how many points you earn for upvotes, shares, etc.) and reserves the right to change it anytime.

StoryBy plans to earn money through advertising and affiliate sales. StoryBy will calculate the earnings of each ‘blog’ (which is essentially a topic, or subreddit) and will then pay ⅔ of all revenue to users of that blog based on the points they earned by posting within that blog. And, according to the FAQ, “With the one-third of the revenue StoryBy maintains and further develops the service.”

Sounds pretty fair.

Right now the only payment system is PayPal, and the payee is required to pay the transaction fee.

How StoryBy Can Work For Bloggers

StoryBy has no problem with bloggers syndicating (i.e. cutting-and-pasting) content there. So, in an ideal scenario, it could become an easy revenue stream for bloggers.
I read through the copyright section of the T & C pretty thoroughly. Basically, any content you post to StoryBy can then be reused by StoryBy or any of its users, forever.

In this day and age of Creative Commons communities and ubiquitous sharing, I think that’s reasonable.

Can It Earn Money For You?

That’s impossible to say yet. Is the potential there?

Definitely.

The crux of the issue, to me, is whether StoryBy is able to gain critical mass and grow into a popular social network. If it can, then power users will almost certainly earn decent money.

If not, it will end up in the social platform graveyard between Google + and Ello.
But, given my personal record, I’m not willing to hazard a guess of which it will be.

Interested? Take a look for yourself.

The post Is StoryBy A Viable Income Stream for Bloggers? appeared first on XpatMatt.

In this video you’ll learn how to very quickly resize photos in batches on your Mac in seconds using an application called automator.

A .zip file of the Automator app mentioned in the post can be downloaded here.

And the image optimization program, ImageOptim, can be downloaded here.

The post Resize Photos Instantly on Mac Using Automator appeared first on XpatMatt.

Having served on the Professional Travel Bloggers Association for the past year, I knew elections were coming, but I didn’t think I’d be involved because I still had another year remaining in my term. Last week I received an email from Laurence Norah with a PDF attached to it title “PTBA Election List 2015”. I opened the PDF and my jaw dropped.

I was nominated for every single open position on the board.

It was extremely surprised and incredibly flattered.

I spent a few nights lying awake at night, thinking about whether or not I should run. I thought about it a lot. I also thought about how I whether I would benefit the PTBA as President. In the end, I decided I would, and I should.

Please excuse the length of this post, but I thought that this subject, and the PTBA members, deserved a very thorough and detailed explanation of exactly why I want to be President and why I’d do a good job.

Why I’m Running

I hadn’t considered running for President before I received that email. I was content with my position on the board. But after I received it I had just a few days to decide whether I would run or not.

As a blogger, I’m sure you understand how busy I often get trying to make a living in this crazy job. The Presidency of the PTBA is a very demanding position. I’ve never envied the workload Craig and Laurence carry, and I often wonder how they manage to accomplish as much as they do.

Despite this, after careful deliberation, I decided I wanted to run for President. There are a few reasons for this.

1. I have a strong personal attachment to the PTBA. I get along well with most of the members and with Michael Hodson, who started it. I also believe strongly in what the PTBA was created to achieve. The more I thought about it, the more I realized just how much I want the PTBA to succeed.
2. I was overwhelmed by all the nominations I received. Those, combined with the encouragement I received from other board members to stay on the board for a second term (you may drop out after a year if you wish), was a big vote of confidence as well. I felt that if all these people believed in me, I should step up and do my part.
3. Over the past few years I’ve done a lot of work to bridge the gap between bloggers and industry. I’ve helped bloggers find work and helped industry hire bloggers. I’ve developed an intimate understanding of how these relationships work, and I think this gives me a unique ability to help the PTBA succeed in bringing these two groups together.

My Vision for the PTBA

It’s no secret that the PTBA has had some ups and downs.

Some people, like myself, are happy with it.

Some members have felt that the benefits aren’t worth the membership fee.

Some folks downright hate it — but I think most of those people dislike us more for political than practical reasons.

I’d certainly like to mend fences with those who oppose the PTBA, but, the way I see it, my job as President would be first and foremost to create enough value for blogger members that their $75/year membership seems like a steal. Basically, that means finding ways to get industry members to sign up and hire bloggers.

It’s my job to make it rain.

How To Make It Rain

The PTBA is a non-profit organization, but it’s still a business, and that’s been often overlooked in pursuit of the organization’s loftier non-monetary goals.

The truth is, all jobs are easier when you have money. The PTBA can’t effectively serve its members with volunteer workers alone. Sure, we’ve made a lot of progress over the past few years with volunteers and have made great inroads with industry advocating for the effectiveness of working with travel bloggers, but if we want to continue to grow we simply need more hands on deck, and that means hiring help. So, we need more money.

Here are some ways I propose to increase our cash flow.

1) Ensure Blogger Memberships Are Worth More Than They Cost

The PTBA has 300 members, give or take, paying $75/year for their PTBA membership. A lot of of those members are likely paying between $100 and $200/year each for premium blogging tools such as Hootsuite, CoSchedule, KingSumo, OptinMonster, and the like.

Premuim apps and plugins are great time savers and productivity boosters. I personally pay at least $300/year in premium app subscriptions, and that’s not including one-off plugin purchases. I pay $10/month for CoScheule, which enables me to schedule multiple social promotions for a blog post on all my social networks for several months into the future in about two minutes, right from my WordPress dashboard, and set them to start the moment my post is published.

I hosted a giveaway last month using the KingSumo plugin ($200 for an individual license) that garnered 12,000 email sign ups for both myself and the sponsor — mostly because of the plugin’s awesome viral sharing function.

I would like to look into purchasing PTBA group licenses for these kinds of apps and plugins. KingSumo is amazing, but at $200 for an individual license, it’s not cheap. The PTBA can buy a developer’s license that includes unlimited websites for $600. If we can spend $600 as an organization to save every member $200, it’s a no-brainer.

If we can find a few different avenues to leverage our bulk-purchasing ability for significant discounts, then the simple dollar value of a PTBA membership will quickly outweigh the cost for members. If the PTBA membership clearly offers more value than it costs, signing up for PTBA would be an obvious investment for bloggers, and we’d likely see more than enough new sign-ups to recover the money spent on group licenses and then some.

In that scenario we would have increased value for members while at the same time earning money that could be put toward further member benefits. This strategy could be executed relatively quickly and without too much work.

2) Create A More Attractive Industry Offer

I’d like to make the PTBA easier and safer for companies to use. Right now we offer a $300/year one-size-fits-all take-it-or-leave-it membership. I hate to say this, I’ve looked at the membership on behalf of clients before and concluded that it wasn’t worth it for them. This membership is totally inflexible and only appeals to a limited number of businesses.

From my perspective, industry members aren’t just a membership fee in the bank. They’re also a value-add for our blogger members because they’ll be offering discounts, freebies, and paying work.

So, I’d like to work on a tiered freemium membership model that would:

1. Increase industry membership
2. Increase our attractiveness to different types of companies
3. Create an email marketing channel to potential paying industry members
4. Increase industry offers to blogger members

3) Begin Offering Services to Members

This idea is a bit more complicated to execute than those above, but I think it’s worth exploring.

I think it would be beneficial for the PTBA to start offering discount services to members. This is most important for industry members.

We’re giving companies the tools to reach out to our blogger members, but that means nothing if they don’t know what to do with it.

I think we should offer reasonably-priced consulting services to help industry members develop good plans for working with our blogger members. This could mean helping them to plan paid blogger campaigns, showing them how to maximize the effectiveness of a blogger press trip, showing them how a Twitter chat works, or helping them develop a strategy for their on-site blog so that they can hire travel bloggers to help fill it.

If we were to offer affordable consultation services to our industry members we’d be able to help teach them how to work with bloggers, employ some of our members, and increase the number of industry offers to blogger members.

I think it would also be excellent to also offer discounted technical and design services to both our blogger and industry members and hire qualified members of the PTBA to deliver those services. This would help our members improve their blogs. By offering limited, blogging-related only, services to our industry members we’ll be creating an incentive for them to build their own blogs and hire our members to help create content for them.

If we were to hire members as on-call freelancers, I would think it fair to solicit member applications and then interview candidates, just as you would like for any job.

These jobs would not pay high rates. The rates would be set to benefit our members, and a small portion would also likely go to the PTBA, so the bloggers working these jobs would be doing so at least partially for the benefit the PTBA.

But, it would be a starting point for our industry members to work with bloggers, it would help get some bloggers paid, and it would incentivize our industry members to work with our members further. The wheels would start turning and relationships would start to be built.

This idea is more complicated and politically difficult to execute than those above because creates issues of hiring, management, and fairness, but I’m confident that those issues could be resolved.

4) Start Employing Members

In the long term, no organization can survive without full-time employees. Every membership-based professional organization has them, and we’re no exception. We need them.

If the PTBA can start to generate a significant and steady income, then that income should be used to hire employees. When possible, I think the PTBA should hire its own members.

Again, this creates issues of hiring and fairness, but no more than in any other company. I think those issues could be worked out through fair procedures and policies.

5) Other Goals

Above would be my primary goals. If we were to generate enough income to hire employees, I would personally think it would be prudent to have them work on projects such as:

• A research-based industry rates sheet for hiring bloggers so that both bloggers and industry have a common starting point for negotiations
• Best practices and ethics recommendations for both industry and bloggers so that we can eventually build a clear and comprehensive professional ethics code
• Research and studies on the most effective ways industry can work with bloggers to help both bloggers and industry understand how they can create mutually beneficial relationships
• Improvement of communications with members through a quarterly town-hall style meetings on Google+ and Twitter.
• Improvement of board communications with members through a monthly presidential vlog and podcast.

Why I’m Qualified

After a year as a very active and involved board member of the PTBA, I understand how the organization functions very well.

During that time I:

• Organized PTBA-sponsored presentations about working with bloggers, including one at ITB Asia and a series of six sessions & workshops at Arabian Travel Market.
• Represented the PTBA at those events.
• Created promotional materials for the PTBA for TBC Asia.
• Introduced the PTBA to several of my industry clients

Outside the PTBA I also have a strong track record of working for the benefit of bloggers. Over the past couple of years I’ve:

• Publicly and successfully advocated for the fair treatment of bloggers when companies appeared to be trying to take advantage of us.
• Created numerous resources for bloggers, including tutorials, a directory of paying travel publications, and an archive of studies and articles on the benefits of blogging.

• Created an advanced guide for professional travel bloggers, which is being incrementally released in sections this year.

• Helped several companies put together fair and effective blogger outreach programs.
• Spoken about the benefits of working with travel bloggers at Digital Innovation Asia and in front of the Pacific Asia Travel Association.

I’ve been a part of the travel blogging industry for quite a long time. Longer than most. This community was there for me as I lived on three continents, went through three break-ups, and went through several family crises. In a way, the travel blogging community has been one of the most stable parts of my life over the past five years. It’s important to me.

I think that my involvement in the community has shown that I genuinely care about helping to improve and elevate our profession by offering advice to bloggers, finding new and unique ways for bloggers to work with industry, educating both bloggers and industry about ways to effectively work together, and simply helping people out when I can.

A Quick Comparison

In his outline of why he’s running Bret Love made a list of reasons he’s the most qualified candidate. For clarity’s sake, and since Bret and I are the only two candidates running for President, I thought it would be a good idea to compare our experience side by side.

Bret Said

I’ve been managing businesses since I was 18 years old.

Matt Said

I founded a national magazine in Taiwan when I was 26 and managed it until sold it at 29. Since then I’ve managed my own freelance career including some gigs managing other writers.

Bret Said

I became a professional writer while still in college…I’ve supported my family as a full-time writer for 20+ years…Working my way up to Managing Editor…managing dozens of writers.

Matt Said

I studied journalism in one of Canada’s best universities, got an A on my Media Studies thesis, graduated with honors, and have been a professional writer since I was 24 (12 years). I’ve also worked as an editor and managed large numbers of contributors.

Bret Said

At age 46, I’m considerably older than the average travel blogger.

Matt Said

I’m 36.

Bret Said

As a blogger, I’ve been devoted to freely sharing information that can build up our industry from day one.

Matt Said

Bret and I both feel strongly about sharing information and I believe we are both very helpful to new bloggers.

Bret Said

Through Green Travel Media we’ve provided paying work to nearly two dozen bloggers.

Matt Said

Through my work with various travel and online companies I’d estimate that I’ve provided paying work to around 150 bloggers.

Bret Said

We need someone who has extensive contacts in the traditional media world.

Matt Said

I’ve written for lots of newspapers and magazines including AFAR, Up! (the WestJet in flight magazine), and En Voyage (the Eva Air in flight magazine), but not as many as Bret.

Bret Said

We need someone…who can be an outspoken advocate for working with bloggers and exemplify the type of professional blogger they’ll want to work with.

Matt Said

Given our similar work backgrounds, I think it’s fair to say this statement applies equally to Bret and myself.

Bret Said

(I will advocate for bloggers at) Canada Media Marketplace and the New York Travel Festival this month.

Matt Said

I’m leading a six-session series on working with bloggers for the PTBA at Arabian Travel Market in Dubai next month and working on speaking engagements in Bhutan, Thailand, and Sri Lanka after that.

Bret Said

(I will) Improve communications, both among PTBA board members and with PTBA members, via a monthly newsletter.

Matt Said

The PTBA already does this, though not as consistently as we’d like.

Bret Said

(I will) Engage in dialogue with current, past and future PTBA members on how we can make the organization more beneficial to its members.

Matt Said

I’ll do monthly vlog/podcasts and hold quarterly town hall meetings with members.

Bret Said

(I will) Establish a comprehensive resource of educational materials for bloggers.

Matt Said

This is already a PTBA project. I’ve also been doing this independently on my own blog for about a year and will continue doing both with the PTBA and on my own.

Bret Said

(I will) Double the PTBA’s blogger membership.

Matt Said

I think that this is not only possible over the next 3-years (a president is part of the board for 3 years), but that it’s absolutely necessary for the health of the PTBA.

Bret Said

(I will) Strengthen relationships with major travel industry organizations.

Matt Said

I would like to pursue this, but it’s not the top priority for me. I’d rather focus on creating benefits that directly benefit members’ bottom lines.

Bret Said

(I will) Quadruple the PTBA’s industry membership.

Matt Said

I think that this is not only possible over the next 3-years (a president is part of the board for 3 years), but that it’s absolutely necessary for the health of the PTBA.

Bret Said

(I will) Improve transparency in the PTBA’s finances

Matt Said

The PTBA has procedures in place for this, but the execution has not been great due to unique circumstances. This should be an easy problem to solve.

Bret Said

(I will) Encourage growth and innovation

Matt Said

I will focus on finding ways to help members save and make money.

Bret Said

(I will) Nobody will work harder to make this dream a reality than Mary and I.

**Mary withdrew from the nomination for Secretary after Bret made this statement.

Matt Said

I will continue my hard work.

In Conclusion

I’d like to thank everyone who put their faith in me and nominated me for board positions. And thank you to all of the bloggers that I have worked with — and will work with — because without you I wouldn’t be able to have the career that I do.

I hope you’ll elect me president so that I can continue working to find new and creative ways for us all to earn a living while pursuing lives that most people aren’t even imaginative enough to dream of.

The post If I’m Elected President appeared first on XpatMatt.

Below is an embedded Google Drive folder. It has read-only permissions and anyone may can view and download anything from it.

This is a community file and the quality of this resource relies on user contributions.

If you expect to contribute frequently, just drop me a line with the email address that you use to log in to Google, and I’ll add you as an admin.

If you’d just like to contribute a file or two, the you can upload it to the submissions folder here, and I’ll review it for inclusion and file it appropriately.

This folder can also be viewed on Google Drive, if you’d like to add it to your own drive.

The post Travel Blogging Business Resource Archive appeared first on XpatMatt.

Not everyone uses Textedit on Mac, but I know a blog of bloggers that do. The problem is changing Textedit to HTML by pasting it into the WordPress visual editor doesn’t work very well. So, one day I sat down and figured out a super fast way to convert Textedit into clean HTML for WordPress, and, at the same time, to make some fast formatting changes, such as changing all links to open in a new window, and changing bold text into header (h2 or h3).  

Disclaimer: This hack requires a bit of HTML editing. It helps if you know a bit about HTML, but you really don’t need to know anything at all as long you follow my instructions carefully and exactly.

What The Textedit to HTML for WordPress Hack Will Help You Do

This hack enables you to:

1. Remove all redundant HTML a post written in textedit when moving it to WordPress
2. Change all bolded text (which I use for subheadings in textedit) into h2 or h3 tags at the push of a button
3. Change all links in a post to open in a new window/tab at the push of a button (if you have a lot of outbound links).

What You Will Need

1. Textedit and WordPress (obviously)
2. Internet access so you can use the online CKEditor Demo
3. A text search and replace extension for your browser (I use Search and Replace for Chrome)

Hope you find this helpful!

How To Quickly Convert TextEdit To HTML For WordPress

If you found this post useful, and would like to receive more tips like this, as well tips about awesome travel jobs and sponsorship opportunities, you really should sign up for my blogger love newsletter.

The post How To Quickly Convert TextEdit To HTML For WordPress appeared first on XpatMatt.

I got started travel blogging differently than most other bloggers I know. Most of the travel bloggers I know loved travel so much that they wanted to find a way to earn a living while traveling.

I arrived in this occupation from a completely different direction. I always wanted to be a writer (you can read more about my writing adventures in my Timeline of My Life As A Writer on this page) and I studied journalism in university.

I was teaching English in Taiwan then I first started pitching magazines, but I wasn’t getting assignments as consistently as I wanted to. I thought that choosing a niche to focus on would help. Since there were few people writing about Taiwan at the time, I decided to become a travel writer.

While writing a column for Transition’s Abroad I did a series of interviews with travel bloggers. Only then did I realize that I could earn money blogging about travel. That was how I fell into this wonderful mess that we call travel blogging.

I continued to freelance while blogging. Over the years I’ve written articles for quite a few magazines and online publishers. I’ve also edited a couple of publication and have probably read thousands of story pitches.

I have always written my pitches following a formula that I learned in university, and have had a relatively high success rate with it. Likewise, when, as an editor, I received pitches that followed this formula, I gave them special consideration.

I must precede the following advice with a disclaimer: travel writing is a sadistically difficult way to earn a living. It is so difficult that, even though I have been relatively successful, I now also offer other travel marketing services to supplement my income.

I know that a lot of people who read my blog aspire to become travel writers. So I thought I’d share this formula that has worked for me.

I learned this formula in university. It’s useful for several reasons. It gives the editor all the information that he or she needs to make a fast decision about the suitability of the article in a concise format. I think this formula is even more useful, though, in that it’s a bit like a secret handshake that says, “I’m a pro. I know what you want and I can deliver.”

The Query Letter Formula

Part 1: The Lede

This is the first one or two sentences of the proposed article that are meant to draw the reader in. It should make the reader feel that the need to read the rest of the article. Based on this part alone, the editor can tell whether the story is interesting and if you are a writer of the calibre they want to work with.

If your article is related to current events, that is often an important part of hooking the reader and should be included here.

This section should be no longer than a few sentences at most. One or two is best. Editors adore brevity.

Part 2: Outline

In this section you give a basic outline of the article and the main points that it will cover. Generally speaking, people like things that are divided into threes, so I try to outline three aspects of the subject that will be discussed.

I would not recommend writing more than three paragraphs for this part of the query. As always, shorter is better.

Part 3: Nuts and Bolts

In this section you tell the editor which section of their magazine or website the article would suit, and you tell them the estimated word count. If your idea is suitable for that section of the publication and the word count is in-line with articles normally published in that section, it will show the editor that you’ve done your homework and know their publication.

Those are great brownie points.

Part 4: Selling Yourself

In this section, you explain why you are the perfect person to write this article. This is where you brag about all the great places you’ve written, causally mention any awards you may have won, and — most importantly — describe any special relationships you have with people related to the story who may be difficult for other writers to reach.

Tell the editor when you could have the story done.

And That’s it. The editor has all the information they need to decide whether or not the story will work for them.

An Example

I don’t pitch a lot these days. Like I mentioned, I do other work and I also have relationships with enough editors to keep the writing work flowing.

But, when I do pitch, I try to make it count. this was the last pitch I sent out earlier this year. The editor did not pick up the story, but his response was a great compliment. This pitch was sent to a very popular regional outdoors sports magazine that circulates in the northwestern US and Canada.

I’ve added titles to each of the sections to help you visually separate them.

Email Subject

War in the Wasatch Pitch | Matt Gibson

Hi Mike,

The Lede

A war is being fought over the fate of snow sports in the Utah’s Wasatch mountain range. Two issues, both related to who is allowed access the “greatest snow on Earth” and how that access is provided, have been starting arguments between bearded men in brewpubs for decades, and this year they came to a head.

The Outline

Four snowboarders have taken Alta—one of the last skier-only resorts in the country—to court to repeal the resort’s ban on snowboarders, which they see as discriminatory, while environmentalists and backcountry-lovers are infuriated by One Wasatch, the latest in a long series plans to link all seven of the Wasatch resorts with ski lifts.

The two issues are connected by Alta, one of the oldest and most famous ski resorts in the United States, which would be a crucial corridor for skiers and snowboarders traveling between resorts, meaning that if the plan were to move ahead Alta would have little choice but to repeal its ban on snowboarders to the dismay of it’s skiing-purist clientele.

The passion of Wasatchians on both sides of these issues is best and most briefly illustrated by the video Shit Alta Skiers Say About Snowboarders and the comments on this recent article about the One Wasatch project from the Salt Lake City Tribune.

Nuts and Bolts

Would Kootenay Mountain Culture be interested in a 1500—2000-word feature that discusses the history of these decades-old mountain-sports conflicts and how they evolved into the current ongoing legal and pubic relations battles?

Selling Myself

I’m a Salt Lake City-based outdoors and travel writer and photographer. My writing and photos have been published by Kootenay Mountain Culture (see Custom to the Core), Action Asia, En Voyage, Up! Magazine, and I am the author of the About.com Snowboarding Guide  More information about my writing and photography can be found in my online portfolio.

I am well connected in the Utah mountain sports scene, and have access to Ski Utah President Nathan Rafferty, who is the driving force behind the One Wasatch project.

I’m sure this story could be researched and completed easily in 6-8 weeks, or within 4 weeks if rushed.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Best,

Matt

The Editor’s Response

Thanks Matt! I’ll talk it over with the editorial staff and let you know ASAP. We’d have to move fast if this were to happen, and I think we might be full for winter. But I’m on it.

Thanks for the well thought out pitch. You’d be blown away how rare this is.

Mike

A Note

I’m sure there are others who pitch successfully using other methods, but this has always worked for me. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t hear back from an editor. That’s pretty normal. It doesn’t necessarily mean your pitch or story is bad. It could mean it’s just not what they have in mind right now.

Like the editor I pitched said, he liked my idea. But, in the end they didn’t take the story. It just wasn’t right for the issue they were putting together, which was already nearly full.

I was flattered by the fact that the editor even took the time to respond because most don’t.

If this has inspired you to go out and do some pitching, you should head over to my Directory of Paying Travel Publications and see if you can find a good one to try this technique out on. 

I hope you found this useful. If you have any more questions about freelance writing or writing pitches, please leave them in the comments!

The post How To Write An Article Pitch That Sells appeared first on XpatMatt.

The longer I blog (I’ve been doing it for a while now) the more I feel the need to increase my daily productivity. I mean, who doesn’t? Fortunately, app developers have recognized this widespread need and have been creating efficiency apps to help people like us increase our productivity. I’ve already written a couple of tutorials about improving efficiency (How to Edit Photos at Lightspeed in Photoshop and How to Use Asana to Stay Organized).

Here are a few of the apps that I use to get more done in a day, and why I like them.

CoSchedule

Type: Web-based / WP Plugin

This is a wonderful app that basically combines the social post scheduling functions of apps like Hootsuite with the blog post scheduling functionality of a WordPress editorial calendar plugin.

So, it’s a single application that enables you to keep track of scheduled blog posts and to schedule social posts (whether for that blog post or not) right from within the calendar.

And it integrates into WordPress, so within WordPress you have the option of viewing and working on all of your scheduled blog and social posts in a drag-and-drop calendar view or, after you’ve finished writing a post, you can scroll down to the CoSchedule box and schedule social posts to promote the blog post right there. Or, you perform all of the same functions through your account on the CoSchedule website.

Brilliant.

This is a paid app, but at $10/month it’s totally worth it. And you can try it out for two weeks for free.

Self Control

Type: Mac

This simple free app helps with a problem everyone who works online has: staying focussed on the task at hand. Self Control allows you to create a blacklist of websites that distract you while you’re working. Then, all you do is start the app, set the amount of time you want those websites blocked, and hit start.

Once you block the websites there is no way to access them (on that computer) until the time is up. A little timer will appear to let you know how much time you have left, which is also handy for keeping track of how much time you’re spending on a task. For example, I know that this blog post has taken me around two hours to write and post.

Focus Booster

Type: Mac or PC

Focus Booster is a tool based on the pomodoro productivity technique. Basically, the idea is that you can be more productive if you work in short sprints with little breaks in between. A common split is 30 minutes working and 5 minutes of break time.

Focus Booster is a free simple desktop app that allows you to set your work and break times. You also have the option of hearing the clock tick (maybe that’s motivational for some, but it annoys the hell out of me) and having an alarm go off when each period of time ends. So, it’s basically an alarm clock to keep you on your pomodoro schedule which I’ve found not only to help me stay focussed, but also to track the amount of time I’m spending on tasks, which is essential to increasing productivity.

Asana

Type: Web-based, Android, and IOS

Asana is a free web-based project management application that also has IOS and Android apps. It’s incredibly powerful. It’s basically a glorified to-do list that offers enough organizational features to satisfy even the most OCD person.

Your can create numerous projects, each of which has a to-do list. Each item on the list can have sub-items to break the task down into steps. Each item can also have other people added to it, who will be updated every time progress is made on the task. Files, Dropbox items, or Google Docs can all be attached. Deadlines can be set and viewed on a calendar.

Asana is good to use alone, but is amazing when you’re collaborating with others.

To learn more, check out my introduction to Asana tutorial here.

Photoshop

Type: Mac, PC, or Web-based

Photoshop is not just a photo editing software. It’s an enormously powerful tool for creating workflows that can save hours of time. Unfortunately for most people, only advanced users ever really learn how to make Photoshop do the work for them.

That’s why I created this tutorial, which explains how you can set up and execute a workflow that I often use, which enables you to literally edit a dozen photos in just a few minutes.

If you don’t have Photoshop, worry not. The tutorial includes a link to an older, free version of Photoshop. Also, the cloud-based version has become quite affordable (right now it’s only $9.99/month), and is well worth checking out.

I hope you found this helpful! If you have a question, or if there’s anything you’d like to see me write about in the future, please just leave it in the comments below!

The post 5 Productivity Tools To Help You Blog Better Right Now appeared first on XpatMatt.

I hope you find this tutorial useful. If you have any questions, please post them in the comments below. I will either answer them there, or if there are enough questions, I’ll make another video to answer them.

The post Asana Project Management Tutorial appeared first on XpatMatt.

This is a crowdsourced travel publisher directory including rates of pay for writing and photography and contact information.

A submission form is at the bottom of the page. Please contribute what you know if you plan to use the contributions of others. It literally only takes about two minutes.

For now, this directory is made from a Google Spreadsheet embedded in a blog post. That means the directory will not display well on mobile devices. It is best viewed on large screen using Google Chrome. I am working on a better format for the future and appreciate your patience.

If you find faulty information in this spreadsheet, please comment, contact me here, or email me at xpatmatt (at) gmail (dot) com.

**There is more information than you can see in this table. Scroll right to see more columns, such as the source of the information.

Submit A Listing

The post Directory of Travel Publication Pay Rates for Writing and Photography appeared first on XpatMatt.

Photo editing can be time consuming and onerous — especially when you’re in a rush to produce a large amount of content. But, there are some tricks you can use to automate most of the process.

I had a friend in Taiwan who was a club photographer. He’d have to shoot until 3 or 4am and then go home and edit 50 photos and send them to the client before morning, so he had to create an extremely efficient workflow. In this tutorial I will show you how he did it, and how I edit photos when I’m in a rush.

This process uses the Photoshop ‘batch’ and ‘action’ automation tools, as well as several automatic image correction tools. It isn’t perfect. It works better for some photos than for others, but it will improve the vast majority of photos extremely quickly and will also resize the photos to fit your blog perfectly.

If you don’t have Photoshop and can’t afford to sign up for the current version, you can download a free old version that Photoshop released with serial numbers last year.

**The install for Mac is actually for Power PC devices, so you’ll need Mac OS X v.10.2.8–v.10.3.8 or Rosetta to get it working.

Last, there is one caveat to the tutorial below: you must straighten and crop all photos before following the steps below for best results.

The post How to Edit Photos For Your Blog at Light Speed appeared first on XpatMatt.