Do you want to write for a co-operative award-winning travel site where travel writers are seen as — and treated as — the site’s most valuable asset?
Welcome to BucketTripper.
We specialize in authoritative articles by travel writers about doing great things in the world’s most interesting, iconic, and exciting destinations.
We welcome inquiries from professional travel writers. Note: We do not accept “free guest blogs in exchange for links.” We work only with contracted writers.
A Travel Site for Travel Writers and Readers: How we Work
1) We are an independent author-owned site. We consider our fellow writers our partners and investors in this venture, so we are looking for the following:
- Do you write with a professional style and voice? We are looking for diversity, humor, and variety in our author’s sensibilities, but writing SKILL is paramount.
- Do you have an inventory of material or a specialization that would work for us?
- Are you a pro with solid travel writing clips?
- Are you able and willing to learn the WordPress blogging software? You will need to edit, compress, crop, and upload photos, insert live links, upload maps (we provide step-by-step directions), apply basic formatting (bold, heads, bulleted lists), and be able to look at very basic HTML codes to correct common coding glitches.) We can assist to some extent: Some writers, however, with limited skills have had to find local step-by-step help. We’re working in the new digital world, so we do expect authors to have those skills or be willing to acquire them.
- Are you willing to write at least one article a month? It’s not a fixed requirement, but without regular contributions, your participation here benefits no one.
2) Once accepted, you send us quick no-fuss (i.e., one- or two-sentence) queries. Your queries help us avoid duplication and maintain site focus, balance, and integrity.
3) All articles are reviewed and lightly edited prior to publication. However, we expect work to come in “clean.” That’s why we’re only working with pros.
4) You get an author archive immediately to showcase your work here. Your bio box will appear on all your articles, along with links to your website or blog, your FB, Twitter, and Pinterest links, and any other links you want to share.
5) We get ongoing rights to publish the articles you send us on our site. We ask that you modify previously published articles to fit BucketTripper’s format, and that, if you reuse your BucketTripper articles, you alter the format (heads, title, practicalities and “in your bucket” boxes) and change at least some of the text.
6) BucketTripper is a cooperative revenue-share site. We do not pay upfront for articles: We pay a royalty based on advertising income. We deduct 50 percent of site earnings to run the site, and share the rest with our writers (including ourselves) based on how many articles each writer has on the site and how much income the site is generating. Payments are monthly. We’re a new site (we went live in May, 2012): Our metrics are growing, but earnings start low.
How to Apply to Write for Us
If you’re interested, please e-mail us at Authors@BucketTripper.com
Please do not send attachments: All info must be in the body of the e-mail. Also, be brief: Basically, we want to see a) that you’re an experienced travel writer and b) that your style is a good fit.
Send us:
1) A FEW (ie: NOT 10 or 20 or 30 or 40!) links to previously published travel articles, preferably in a style suitable for BucketTripper. (Active, engaged, focusing on an experience, first person). Please read some articles on the site before picking your clips: We call ourselves “Service with a Voice.” We are not interested in encyclopedia-style guidebook writing, nor do we want excessively bloggy essays. We’re looking for the sweet spot in between, with formal narrative structure (not informal journal-type writing). Please SELECT articles that are similar to what we publish: We don’t have time to wade through dozens of articles on a website. Ideally, we’d see some traditionally published work and some work you posted without being edited (on your website, for example).
2) A list of travel writing credentials: Print articles, online work, books you’ve written, organizations you belong to, etc. (Feel free to include a brief bio or resume if you think it’s relevant.)
3) Information about your experience working in WordPress or other blog software. We want to know that you have the basic tech skills to upload your articles with a minimum of trauma.
4) Information about your travel specialties, regional expertise, or special interests. We have an ever-changing “want-list.”
If we think we’re a good fit, we’ll send you our writers’ guidelines, FAQs, and contract. If they are acceptable to you, we can get started.
