Volunteer Writers

February 10th, 2014 by Dylan Leave a reply »

An interesting offer from New Zealand’s national air carrier – write for their website in exchange for… nothing.

We’re searching for creative and interesting writers in the areas of Aviation, Travel, Health, Tech, Education, Lifestyle, Music, Film, Fashion, Food and lots more.  We have re-launched and expanded Flying Social to offer even more interesting lifestyle content from around the Air New Zealand global network and from interesting people all around the world.

In return for writing for the Flying Social team you will be featured as one of our contributors with a contributor profile page that has links to your social media channels and your content will be shared across Air New Zealand’s social media channels.

Air New Zealand

Encouraging people to contribute free content for your blog isn’t such a bad thing, but it’s a little difficult to stomach when you’re a very large and high profile airline. Unsurprisingly the offer wasn’t well received online…

https://twitter.com/mattfairh/status/432658115037626368

Now it’s fair that Air NZ might not have a cash budget to source content for their blog, but there must be a better option?

Here’s some ideas for the team at The Flying Social Network (these are offered for free!)

  • Pay in Airpoints – The Air NZ loyalty scheme is great… Airpoints dollars are worth the same as standard dollars. So much simpler than the insane air miles that many carriers offer. How about 50 Airpoints for each published article?
  • Discounts and upgrades – Why not let your valued contributors travel more often and in comfort? What about some simple discounts, maybe special offers for them? A complimentary lounge pass?
  • Exclusive offers/competitions – Going to offer a special on travel to Singapore soon? Why not open up a chance for one of your proven contributors to win a complimentary weekend there!

These simple offers would cost very little and allow contributors to be rewarded for their work (and it is work!) while also building a stronger sense of community.

UPDATE: Air New Zealand has taken the criticism on board and say they’re reconsidering to come up with appropriate compensation… Good! Fingers crossed.

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