Expat Focus is a website for expats, by expats. If you're someone who has already made the move abroad you will almost certainly have information of use to others - why not share it? You don't need to be a great writer (we can tidy things up), all you need is the willingness to help others by sharing your experiences.
Beyond the warm feeling you'll get from helping others, what else is in it for you? Here are some possibilities:
- Make new friends or contacts. Thousands of people visit Expat Focus every day and anything you write will be available to them all as soon as it's published. If you want others to get in touch with you just ask us to include your contact details in your article.
- Feel that you're doing something useful with your spare time. If you're a trailing spouse, for example, with a lot of time on your hands don't let your valuable experience go to waste.
- Articles can be published not only at the Expat Focus website but also in our newsletter which goes out to over 6,000 subscribers every month.
- There's a certain satisfaction to be gained from preventing others from making the same mistakes you made when you moved to your new country. Equally, have you found a great tip to help others through the endless maze of paperwork you were required to complete? Pass it on!
- Impress people at dinner parties by telling them you write for a popular expat portal. OK, you might not impress them, but you can tell them anyway :-)
If the above sounds good, how do you get started? Simple - think about what you've learnt from your own experiences. It might be something applicable to all expats or maybe just something of use to those heading to your own country, city, town etc. It really doesn't matter, if it's something you think might help someone else and you're able to write at least 500 words about it then we're interested in publishing it at Expat Focus.
Don't think that just because no one else has written about a certain topic before, or you don't see an appropriate section for it already here, that we're not interested in what you want to write about. Remember, if it's something you would have found useful to know, someone else will too.
If you're not comfortable sending us a complete article straight away because you don't think your writing is good enough why not send in a short sample first? It can be anything - something you've written in the past perhaps on another subject or just a couple of paragraphs you've put together to see how it looks. Don't worry too much about making it perfect, although we do appreciate it if you can run it through a spell checker first!
If you'd like to contribute an article, or even start writing regularly for Expat Focus, please contact Jo James via our contact form.
Jo's a lovely woman and she'll be delighted to hear from you, we promise!
2 comments:
hello I just found your blog. I am an american freelance journalist, expat wife and mother of 2. We live in Lebanon right now and have been here for the past year or so. We've also lived as a family in Afghanistan and Bosnia. Last summer I started a blog with articles and photos about our travels and my insights into politics, women's stuff, and kids stuff. www.theharbins.info/julieblog
Julie Harbin
Many thanks for your comment, Julie, and the link to your own blog (if you have the time please add it to our links section in the main Expat Focus site - and feel free to join us in the forums). That's a fascinating CV you have - somewhat more adventurous than the average expat to say the least!
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