mrdavidwhitley I think you've got the wrong end of the stick. This site is called 'Wannabe Hacks', it's for 'wannabes'. I'm not claiming to be a professional travel writer or the world's best, I'm simply claiming to be a trainee journalist and editorial assistant doing everything I can to make it as a travel writer. This is my experience so far and this is what I've found works. If I'd made it as a professional, I wouldn't be writing guest posts.

And how does a wannabe travel journalist make enough money to earn a decent living? Press trips don't pay bills. It's very easy to get the odd travel writing job that puts a few quid in you bank account. To get enough of them to live on is a different matter altogether.

This is a typical exercise in dream-selling, rather than practical travel advice. The key things anyone wanting to get into travel writing will need are:

1. An ability to identify a good story (NOT just write about what they did on their gap year).

2. Write well and research hard - it's often the boring information that's profitable.

It's a myth that you need to write for free. Get the right story and show you can write and the editor will commission an article. If your idea is good enough and you can write, people will pay for it. If you're offering your work for free, you're essentially saying that you don't think the story is very good or you don't think you're very good.

Being a good travel writer is about getting great stories, not "loads of freebies."