Get paid for your travel writing! Fund your adventure, literally, writing about what you love doing the most. If you are already a travel blogger, you’ll be used to writing just for the fun of it. We do it because we love blogging, creating content, and every blog post we write can support a career we believe in.
So, why not do all of that, and get paid for it? Unless an article is perfectly aligned for your blog, like this one, it’s worth checking with a small collection of editors in case they want to publish your work for cash-money.
Here are 10 publications that will pay you for your travel writing:
All email addresses have been edited to protect the editors’ privacy from spam bots!
1. Great Escape Publishing
Great Escape Publishing focus on working while you travel, so if you like my blog, you’ll probably like these guys. Sign up to their newsletter to familiarise yourself with the style they publish.
They also have a host of previous articles you can read for inspiration surrounding the topics of import/export, travel blogging, photography, creating tours and many more.
Payment: $50-$75 for a request to the website. $100-$150 for interviews and personal stories. $150-$200 for specific income advice.
Instructions: Email lori(@)greatescapepublishing(dot)com and make sure to include your full name, address and telephone number. Submissions should be in a .doc or .docx format. You can find more instructions here.
2. Verge Magazine
Verge magazine is a small, Canadian digital-only publication.
Verge specifically looks for articles “with purpose”. This can be in the form of working, volunteering, studying or any other purposeful reasons for travelling.
Their audience consists mainly of socially aware individuals who want to make a difference. They are not looking for people focussed on one particular organisation or self-promotion, but more about a general issue or theme.
Payment: A small flat fee for contributions
Instructions: You can send all submissions and enquiries to contributing(at)vergemagazine(dot)com. Verge has a few themes you can write for, or you can try to submit your work as a featured article.
3. Horizon Guides
Horizon Guides is a publisher of special interest travel guides, covering niche subjects from fishing in Ontario to photography in Burma, and pretty much everything in between.
For destination experts to create in-depth downloadable travel guides. You’re credited as the author with a bio, links to your social media and your website.
Payment: They pay competitive rates for researchers and contributors, with a starting rate of £400 per assignment.
Instructions: Join their contributor network to receive details of relevant assignments.
4. Go World Travel
Go World Travel consider writers from all ends of the spectrum, as long as you write well and set yourself apart from the standard “how to get there” articles. The style of writing should be around a destination or place. They are looking for descriptive, straightforward writers who encourage people to go and see the place for themselves.
Anecdotes, curiosity about the place and a detailed insight into your personal feelings towards it, are all things they are after.
Payment: $30-$40 per article (up to 1600 words)
Instructions: Submit your articles to submissions(at)goworldtravel(dot)com. Include the story title and destination in the subject line. More instructions here.
5. Tales to Go
You can write for one of the Tales to Go issues that are available on their website or as a subscription service. Read some of their previous issues to get an idea of the style of writing and types of stories they are after.
Payment: $50 per submission (1000-3000 words submissions have a better chance of being accepted)
Instructions: Previously published stories are welcome, as long as you retain the copyright! They also consider material for books so have a look at their guidelines for more information.
6. Matador Network
Matador Network work with thousands of writers, photographers, and filmmakers. “From industry-leading voices to young creatives published for the first time.”
Matador’s ‘Creators Community’ is one of the best resources out there for beginner travel writers. MatadorU allows you to hunt for opportunities with specific calls for submissions and market leads posted regularly by their editorial team.
Payment: $40+ for short commissioned articles
Instructions: Sign up to their Creators Community on MatadorU and set up a profile. After completing your profile, click the “U” logo to access the user dashboard and market leads.
Here’s one of my articles published by the Matador Network; “Stop waiting to be picked, choose yourself”.
7. Listverse
Listverse are looking for writers who can write a distinctive and interesting listicle (list-articles). They want authors to think outside of the box with an alternative perspective, hidden knowledge or some unique facts on a given subject area.
The list should be no shorter than 10 items and be all of your own work, no copying someone else’s ideas. Sound simple? Give it a go!
Payment: $100 per submission. You must have (or be able to create) a PayPal account.
Instructions: Lists should be 1 or 2 paragraphs per point with a minimum of 10 items in a list. Submissions can be filled in here.
8. Fund Your Life Overseas & Incomes Abroad
Similar to Great Escape Publishing, Find Your Life Overseas & Incomes Abroad focusses on making money while you travel or expats living abroad. They want stories about somebody you know or if you yourself are living on a portable income.
They are always looking for new and unique stories of people earning a living abroad. If you have a story to tell, then get in touch!
Payment: $75 per article for Fund Your Life Overseas e-newsletter. $400 for your story in Incomes Abroad.
Instructions: Email submissions to sormond(at)internationalliving(dot)com for Fund Your Life Overseas. Or email submissions to Cleomurphy(at)internationalliving(dot)com for Incomes Abroad. Read their instructions and examples here.
9. Viator Blog
If you have expertise or insights into specific destinations, then Viator could be looking for you! They ideally want individuals with a lot of experience and knowledge of numerous destinations or an entire region.
Authors should know the ins and the outs of a few destinations and can confidently write short articles, frequently. These can be 300-400 words about navigating the area, things to do, popular festivals or even hidden gems.
Payment: $45 for writing and publishing each post. This will be created ‘in WordPress, including sourcing photos, and adding links, tags, and categories.’
10. Wanderlust Travel Magazine
Wanderlust Travel Magazine writes just 10 issues are year, so getting published is tough! If you are a first-time writer they suggest you try and aim for the shorter slots.
Overall, they are looking for individuals with a talent for writing in a professional manner. They really want the “crème de la crème” for writing, photography and ‘the most authoritative facts.’ It is definitely one to aim for if you are hoping to develop your travel writing skills.
Payment: It would be best to contact Wanderlust directly regarding rates as they vary from type of post, to length of article. Generally they offer £220 per 1,000 published words and £90 for fact pages (approx. 750 words).
Instructions: For the print magazine, email submissions(at)wanderlust(dot)co(dot)uk. For the website, email website(at)wanderlust(dot)co(dot)uk.
BONUS TIP: Most publications will ask you for photography to accompany your words. This can bring in some extra dollar, or at the very least, win over a few editors. Invest in a DSLR or the latest smartphone and brush up on your photography skillz.
Join my Facebook Group for “Travel Bloggers & Online Entrepreneurs” and talk with me about how to make money while you travel!
18 thoughts on “10 Publications That Will Pay You for Travel Writing”
Thank you for sharing these resources.
Thanks for reading, I hope they help!
Wow how cool. I am going to start scoping some of these out. I will be traveling soon and having to take time off from bartending, so I definitely need to make more writing.
Good luck, and please let me know if they help!
excellent
Great post, a lot of useful information, I’ve pinned it for later since I still need to build up some courage to start approaching sites since I am only at the beginning and in the “learning” phase 🙂
Go for it Ingrid! 😀 Matador Network is a nice one for beginners. It’s interesting to read the editor’s calls for submissions. Also, many of these sites have contributor guidelines which are a great way to learn the ropes. Good luck 🙂
Great list! I wrote a few blog posts for Verge Magazine while I studied abroad.
Thank you for compiling this, it’s a great place to start and shows you that you can make money off of travel writing.
Thanks Robert, I hope this post will help you!
I am failing to understand why people keep publishing lists that include publications that pay literally nothing (a huge insult to anyone spending the time to research and write an article and far below even minimum wage no matter how short a piece is). $30. $40. $50 is NOT an acceptable rate for an article. It would be less insulting for these publications to simply say ‘we don’t pay writers but if you are new and haven’t been published anywhere better we’d be happy to work with you and include links back to your site in the article, in place of pay’. C’mon people, please do better than publishing lists of places that have such deplorably low rates and presenting them as if these are good opportunities. If someone asked you to come work at their business for five-ten hours and they’d pay you $30-$50 and call you and email you for the next to weeks with questions and small tasks you’d need to do for no additional money, would you do it? No.
I appreciate your concern. There’s opportunities here from $30 to £400 per assignment. It’s up to you to decide which one is relevant to you. More than likely, the $30 commissions require a great deal less effort and the editors expect a much lower bar in quality. For example, I wrote a ~500 word opinion piece for Matador Network when I was young and starting out. It took me maybe 1-2 hours to write and they published the article without any requested edits.
I wouldn’t consider this now as my hourly rate is higher, I am more experienced and quality articles take much longer to write. However, as much as I’d love for these rates to be higher, I wouldn’t want to take away that opportunity from new writers starting out like I was.
Excellent points 30 to 50 dollar rates are insult to writers. The publicaions want it for nothing
Thank you for being detailed and providing links to apply. It’s very helpful.
This is great information!
Do you need to copywrite your articles before submitting them to these publishing companies? My articles are just on my website right now.
Copyright not copywrite
Fabulous advice for seasoned journalists just dipping their toe in travel writing!
Very useful, though few of them do not allow submission from India. Will definitely try. Thanks