BootsnAll is the latest in a growing number of travel content sites attempting to find ways to reward hard-up or aspiring travel writers around the world.
The Oregon-based company is launching a service – BootsnAll Travel Writer Platform – of its own which gives writers the chance to produce guides and content for sites that specialise in specific destinations or types of travel.
Created using the company’s existing web-content publishing technology, writers will be able to build their own portfolio of work on their own site and also be paid a flat rate for around ten hours work a week.
BootsnAll promises that each writer will also be able to profit-share (up to 40%) from subsequent revenues as a result of traffic levels to the individual sites.
The company is initially looking for five new writers for the programme.
The move follows similar initiatives from other travel consumer content sites to offer writers some element of return for their efforts.
NileGuide launched a programme in November 2009 to pay commission to its writers depending on traffic to their pages. UK site SimonSeeks also has a payment structure for some of its contributors.
The context to this series of developments is an ongoing and often heated debate focusing on how travel writers are struggle to maintain incomes as traditional forms of publishing turn increasingly to in-house content writing or PR-driven articles.
Many of the individual blogs created by established travel writers do not provide enough revenue to sustain a business away from contracted work, but equally the number of commissions have also slowed down.
There is a growing acceptance in some areas of the travel publishing world that quality needs to be rewarded to counterbalance the reams of average travel content on the web.
BootsnAll says in response to the suggestion that writers can launch their own blogs:
Yes, the internet is full of travel blogs and guides. In fact, that is why we are starting this program. The web is full of a lot of crap… and writers and content producers are, in general, not perceived as a valuable part of the process.
I really like the Bootsnall approach… I think they have it just right. I plan to post about it soon!
Sure, these companies make some promises of “profit” but there never is any. I, and probably many other writers (at least the ones I have talked to) who have done writing for places like Boots never saw any of this and kept getting our contracts cut and had very one sided agreements in place where the content is owned by them long after they let you go because the site is not “profitable” and can no longer afford to pay you the base wage promised in the beginning. Companies are always trying to leverage people who “have passion” into doing work for cheap and the company ends up owning the content forever and making the profit in the long run.
I am not saying that you should not take on a job like this but just be sure that you fully understand your agreement so you as an aspiring travel writer are not taken advantage of by any company out there. Do not be naive and under value your work and knowledge!
I also really love how whomever the person quoted from Boots and all is says there is a lot of “crap” out there implying that people who start their own independent sites fall into this category, yet how much of their writers actually have been to the places they write about. It reminds me of the lonely planet colombia issue not too long ago. not to mention all their low-value posts about top 10 this or that. That whole quote just makes me want to puke and oozes elitist mentality to me.
Thanks for the feedback Kevin, Jeremy and “TravelWriter”. I love the doubters Mr. TravelWriter!
BootsnAll is not promising a profit. We do, however, want to enter into a partnership with writers that gives us both the best chance of success. We fully understand that these positions will not be profitable overnight and our goal is to have relationships with our writers for a minimum of three years.
Check out the video on that Kevin links to above:
http://writers.bootsnall.com/platform
I state in that this program is not for everyone.
As for profit, our network already has about a dozen sites in the black. This model was debuted on our network in 2002 with the debut of BaliBlog.com.
My comment on a lot of crap out there refers to much of the junk content created for purposes other than serving the traveler not about blogs and websites written by passionate independent travellers who love their subject.
We love independent sites and link to them everyday across out network. The implication you have drawn is wide of the mark.
Cheers to you for your feedback. Not sure who you are – but I would love to talk to you on the phone or meet you for coffee or a beer sometime. Please do e-mail me and we’ll set something up.
One more comment – for folks that look at the NileGuide program and ours – from what I know of their program – ours is vastly different. As always investigate for yourself and take the path that suits you. There is a lot of room for many folks to succeed and we look forward to seeing you on the competitive playing field!