One Trip, Ten Opportunities

One Trip, Ten Opportunities My first press trip seemed glamorous – delicious food, eco-hotels, unique sights. Less glamorous, however, was my office when I returned – overflowing emails, unfinished queries, pressing deadlines. It didnt take long to finish the one article I wrote from that press trip, but it took more than a week to finish the neglected work; in the meantime my income dipped while I played catch up. 1. Your Assignment: Before you start extra pieces from a press trip, dont neglect the one piece youre expected to do. No matter how much inspiration you may have, it is vital to do your best work on the piece you know youll sell. 2. Airline Magazines: Airline magazines, found in every seat pocket, always seek new material that covers destinations along their routes. What better way to know youre covering a suitable destination than to cover the same location as your press trip? 3. Restaurant Reviews: Press guests are often treated to delicious meals at local specialty restaurants. Take careful notes of the menu, ambiance, and price ranges, and you can submit a review to local newspapers, regional magazines, or larger markets interested in niche restaurants. 4. Hotel Reviews: If your press trip includes accommodations in boutique hotels, bed-and-breakfast inns, or other unique places to stay, take notes to create reviews just as you do for local restaurants. Explore the hotel, poke into the fitness center, check out the pool, and sample any breakfast offerings, and youll be able to create an intimate article about the property. 5. Events: Even if your trip is a general visit, you can easily pick up brochures and community magazines covering festivals, concerts, fairs, theater productions, and more. Putting those details into a round up about the areas special events can give you another piece to sell to magazines or newspapers. 6. Culture: Most press trips include local guides or drivers who are an ideal resource for cultural insights into community quirks. Ask about unusual things you see, favorite hangouts, local history, language dialects, or other unique topics that can be turned into additional articles. 7. Trip Experiences: A press trip is filled with activities – Ive gone kayaking, visited museums, toured a coffee plantation and more – and each one can be a different article. Tips for first-time kayakers, museum etiquette, how coffee grows – each topic can bring a different paycheck. 8. Networking: While the professional connections you make may not lead immediately to more work, each new contact with an editor, photographer, or writer can connect to additional markets and expertise. Follow up with a nice to have met you note after the trip to remain memorable. 9. General Tips: Instead of narrowing your focus for more articles from the same trip, broaden your reach. General tips for first-time travelers to different destinations are hot topics for travel magazines and websites. 10. Recycling: Even if all you write is one article, that article can bring in ten paychecks if you sell it repeatedly. Clever rewriting can target one article for different, non-competing markets, lining up paycheck after paycheck for the same work. After each press trip I may still come home to extra emails and work to catch up on, but when I also come home with ten new ideas and opportunities for more writing, Ive never again come home to a dip in income that can tarnish the great fun the trip has been.