By James Plouf

So the editor of Road King magazine calls the travelwriters.com office and demands that we take her magazine off our Travel Publications Database. Road King is a trucking magazine and her argument is that they are not a travel magazine and they do not want to hear from writers or pr agencies.

First: People that call and demand that I do something usually get no results (as she did). This is the third time that I have had editors call and demand that I expunge their publication from the database.

I take these requests as equal to me calling them and  demanding that they not write features about the city I live in because I don’t want people visiting.

I always play stupid and say: “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. I will let the writing community know that you are out of business.”

When I went into my ‘What is travel, anyway’ speech she hung up.

The solution for editors that do not want to hear from writers is to make it clear in the description that they ‘DO NOT ACCEPT’ freelance.

What publications have you come across that have flat out said that they do not accept freelance?

James Plouf

http://www.twitter.com/jamesplouf

If you are thinking of setting up your own blog I highly recommend Bluehost.com.

They are the recommended vendor by Wordpress and I followed their advice and have been extremely happy with the service so far.

Watch for upcoming videos showing you step-by-step instruction on how to install your blog and get started.

By James Plouf

Blame Gary Vaynerchuk for this one. I love wine and when I started watching his hugely successful blog about wine I thought to myself. Wow, what a great way to get free wine. My idea is simple. I convince wine makers to send me samples of their wine for review (that’s the free wine part). If I like the wine I link to an online source where they can buy the wine. If they have an affiliate program I would of course link it so that I get a part of the action. The point is — anyone can start a video blog on anything. And, the cost and complexity to get started are minimal. As Gary says: “It’s not about the lights or the sound or the set. It’s about the content. Content is king.”

If you’re passionate about any topic and you’re not doing a blog on it then you are leaving money on the table.

So check out the pilot episode of “Wine For Ten” — A Wine blog exclusively for wine under $10. Please comment and let me know what you think. Be brutally honest.