More Than Book-Writing to Make Money

Freelance-Writing

Making money with your first book is not easy and it takes time.  From the second, third or fifth book on it’s getting better, but still it might take years – if ever – until you can make a living as an author.  Don’t get discouraged, there are lots of niches where you can earn faster money with very short writing pieces, compared to books:  Writing for magazines and professional blogs.
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IMPORTANT: Get to Know the Magazine and Their Audience!
The trick to writing for magazines and blogs is knowing the target audience.  For example when trying to break into the lucrative airline magazine market, research their articles of the past two years.  The vast majority of readers are frequent flyers – travelers and wealthy vacationers.  They are also savvy about technology and business trends, as well as travel and leisure pursuits.
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Upcoming Book: How to Make (More) Money with Writing.
Besides 111 tips how to succeed as a freelance writer, you will find hundreds of magazine and blogger addresses. While you wait until the first money comes in for your book(s), write short articles of 1,500 to 2,500 words max. and get paid between $0.30 – $1.00 per word.
Here is just a short excerpt where you can freelance writing gigs:
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SEATTLE MAGAZINE

Looking for those who write about juicy, newsy topics going on in the Seattle area. The average department length story (1,200 words) pays about $350 and the average feature length story (1,500-3,500 words) pays from $400-$1,000, depending on the story. Some very short pieces (200-300 words) pay $50-$100. These rates are not guaranteed and vary widely.
http://www.seattlemag.com/writer-guidelines
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ALASKA AIRLINES
Alaska Airlines Magazine is the monthly in-flight magazine for Alaska Airlines, reaching more than two million travelers each month in nearly 100 destinations, including Alaska, California, Washington, Oregon, Hawai‘i, Arizona, Nevada, Western Canada and Mexico. Additional cities added in recent years include Chicago, Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, St. Louis and San Antonio. Rates begin at $150 to $250 for short articles in the Journal section (200 to 600 words); $150 for business shorts (500 words); $500 for columns (1,600 words); and $700 for features (2,000 to 2,500 words).
http://www.alaskaairlinesmagazine.com/contributor/guidelines/
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BABBLE

Babble’s mission is “to tell the truth about parenting” and “to explore the world of parenting with ruthless honesty, humor, and lyricism.” They’re looking for unconventional perspectives or counter-intuitive perspectives and service pieces on topics that haven’t been covered. Minimum Pay: $100 for essays. 
Highest Pay: $750+ for researched articles. 
Contributor Byline: Yes 
Rights: Buying all rights 
http://www.babble.com/write-for-babble/
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GREENPRINTS
GreenPrints lives because people like you, care about gardening, and about sharing with other gardeners. Without your garden writing, the magazine simply would not exist. Expressive, thoughtful, humorous, angry, contrite, flippant, searching, witty, observant, sad, inviting… whatever! Focus is on the human, not the how-to side of gardening. On the people as well as the plants. Pays $150 for articles for up to 2,000 words.
http://www.greenprints.com
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EXPLORE
Explore is a magazine for active outdoor enthusiasts. We cover a wide range of topics-hiking, mountain biking, climbing, canoeing, kayaking, winter sports and more. And as our tagline suggests, our content is largely Canadian.
THE EXPLORATA NEWS SECTION (100 to 600 words) reports on expeditions, competitions, trends, destinations, environmental issues, recreational controversies, weird new gear items, humorous spins on outdoor news items, and up-and-coming outdoor athletes and adventurers of interest to a national readership. Writers new to explore should consider Explorata the best section to break into.
IN-DEPTH FEATURES (2,500 to 5,000 words) include a mix of first-person adventure stories, investigative journalism, profiles of Canadian adventurers and events, and special guides to Canadian destinations. Looking for travelogues or trip journals. Payment depends on quality and length, and ranges from $1,500 upwards.
http://www.explore-mag.com/contributor-guidelines
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ADVENTURE CYCLIST

Adventure Cyclist is a bicycle-travel magazine published nine times yearly by Adventure Cycling Association, a nonprofit service organization for bicyclists. Adventure Cyclist is dedicated to publishing stories about bicycle travel and other recreational cycling subjects. Adventure Cyclist generally uses two types of stories from free-lancers: Feature-length stories. These should be about specific areas and must be accompanied by high-quality photos, both in terms of content, composition, and size. 
The Final Mile. These are essays less about locale than about a singular experience while on a bicycle trip. These run at 1,200-1,500 words and don’t require accompanying photos. What we pay is negotiable, but generally ranges from $.30 to $.50 per word.

https://adventurecyclist.submittable.com/submit/59795/adventure-cyclist-magazine-submissions-2016
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AMC OUTDOORS

AMC Outdoors inspires readers to get outside and get involved by providing high-quality coverage of outdoor recreation, education, and conservation topics throughout the Northern Appalachian region, from Maine to Virginia. Features range from 2,000 to 2,500 words and often include sidebars. Our editorial departments make up the front matter of AMC Outdoors. They are designed to be short, in-depth articles that provide readers with news and advice on a variety of outdoor recreation and conservation topics. We generally pay $500-$700 for features and $150 – $400 for department columns.
http://www.outdoors.org/about/newsroom/index.cfm
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THE GUARDIAN
Publishes contributions from all freelancers on their standard copyright terms and payment is at their normal rates, unless agreed otherwise before publication. Pays GBP 300 per 1,000 words and pro-rated thereafter. The Guardian is a UK national newspaper and online news service. Commissioned blog posts can pay GBP 87.
https://www.theguardian.com/info/2014/oct/22/the-guardian-us-team
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PHOTOSHOP TUTORIALS
Accepts pitches for short tips and longer comprehensive tutorials, in a step-by-step walkthrough format with plenty of images to illustrate the technique. They also publish tutorials on photography and Photoshop Elements. You must use their Word document template (download it from the contributor information page) for your submission. 
Pays $50 for short tutorials, and $150 to $300 for full-length tutorials 
Contributor Byline: Yes 
Rights: Buying exclusive online publication rights
http://photoshoptutorials.ws/money-photoshop/
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WINES AND VINES

Wines & Vines Magazine is well-balanced to serve the entire wine and grape industry with comprehensive articles and relevant news. The magazine emphasizes industry-leading Boutique winery editorial coverage and spotlights the many thriving wine regions in North America. Wines & Vines is noted for its expert monthly columns and approachable “how-to” reporting on winemaking and grape growing techniques and trends. Pays $500 on acceptance for articles of 1,500 words. Seeking info, how-to, self-help, interviews, product info, personal experience and opinion pieces. Columns are up to 1,000 words.
http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=aboutus
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WRITER’S DIGEST MAGAZINE
Helps writers improve their skills, find means to publish,stay abreast of the industry, and promote.
Accepts email queries at wdsubmissions@fwmedia.com
Articles are 800 to 1,500 words. The Inkwell column is 800 words. Payment is 30-50 cents/word.

http://www.writersdigest.com/contact-us
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MONEY TALK NEWS
This blog covers everything money-related: business, retirement, investing, real estate, insurance, taxes, spending, and more. 
Pays $50 for a 300-700 word article, or $200 for a 90-second video clip. 
Contributor Byline: Yes 
Rights: Not stated, so check with them.

http://www.moneytalksnews.com/contribute/
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ALABAMA HERITAGE

Alabama Heritage, a nonprofit publication of the University of Alabama and the Alabama Department of Archives and History, is a quarterly historical magazine designed for a general audience, with published articles on local, state, and regional history, art, literature, language, archeology, music, religion, architecture, and natural history.  Most feature articles contain 2,000-4,500 words and include additional material such as sidebars and photographs.  We also consider short pieces, 250-1,200 words, for our departments. Pays around $350.
http://www.alabamaheritage.com/writers-guidelines-and-submissions.html
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Sure, the magazine and blogger market is competitive, although not impossible to crack.  Even if you don’t have a long list of publication credits or an impressive resume, you can still break into the well-paying market.  Important: Do your research – both about your topic and the publication you are pitching, rely on your particular expertise about a place or a subject matter, and produce insightful, error-free, professionally edited copy, aimed at a sophisticated audience.  And don’t forget: there are constantly writing contests where you can earn great cash prizes or free residences / fellowships for writers.

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