Everyday projects can be used as new ideas for articles to sell, from house renovations to cooking meals for your family to photographs of everyday life on the farm or anywhere you live.
If you are going to go through extensive renovations or expanding your living area, before you start, take quality photographs. Numerous magazines and newspapers are interested in articles on redecorating ideas, etc., with good photography included. Our children have all left home but, when everyone comes home at the same time, we need more space. We decided to double our kitchen-dining area. Since I love to cook, new cupboards were a priority, with an island that grandchildren could gather around to help with baking. What has this to do with freelance writing? There are lots! The are numerous possibilities for renovation, cooking and food, and decorating articles, along with photographs. Photographs of the new cupboard plans, cupboards, and food shots in the kitchen all can be sold as stock photography.
It is surprising the ideas you can come up to help pay for renovations. Never give up hope for selling a stock photograph. This weekend, I sold a photograph I shot five years ago while climbing the Johnson Canyon in Alberta. Personally, I use canstockphoto.com to mechanize my photography. If you search the Internet, you will find numerous sites that accept photographs if you meet their standards.
Even a photograph taken of cattle moving down the road from pasture, just grazing or lying on a hill in the sun, can sell to an agricultural magazine. Sometimes an editor will e-mail to ask if you have a photograph on file. Before Christmas, an editor e-mailed wanting a photograph of a child taken at Christmastime, I quickly checked my files and sent her a variety of shots, and made a sale. If you build up a network of editors you work with regularly, they are more liable to contact you when they need something in a hurry.
An editor phoned me to see if I could attend a convention as his newspaper’s representative, plus cover the event. He said my expenses would be covered, as well as the regular fee for any photographs and articles I provided for him. There were lots of bonuses to the assignment. I met new contacts as well as learning from the workshops and motivational speakers.
If your dream is going on a tour and making some money as a travel writer, think of ALL the magazines or newspapers, not just travel magazines, that would be interested in different aspects of the trip. After a farm women’s bus tour, I sold a photograph of a hayride we enjoyed and stories on different entrepreneurs. There are still more stories from this trip I have ideas for. Before leaving, take time to make a plan of things that might sell and always keep a notepad close to make notes. You don’t want to forget a great idea!
Joan Airey is a freelance writer and photographer. Specializes in agricultural life styles stories and photography. Writes for Farm Business Publications–Grainews & Manitoba Co-operator, Horse Country, and Agri-Post. Published in Reunions Magazine, CountryMile, and Canadian Teddy Bear Magazine. Her photography is available at www.canstockphoto.com