About Joseph Reaney

I am the editor of the travel writing service World Words.

A Love Letter to CouchSurfing in NGT

1395332406000-Afternoon-tea-051Despite having been an active CouchSurfer for almost seven years, I’ve only ever written about the hospitality site for niche publications. So I’m delighted that I have finally had a feature-length love letter to CouchSurfing published in the great National Geographic Traveller.

‘Sleeping with Strangers’ features in the May issue of the magazine, which is now available in UK newsagents – and on the NGT website.

Here’s the opening paragraph of the article to whet your appetite…

“I am folded in half. My knees are tucked up to my chin; my chin tucked into my chest. I can’t even feel my feet. In fact, my only sensation is a sharp jabbing below my shoulder blade, where the spout of the tap has found its home. I pull a rough, damp towel across my midriff, and resign myself to the sleepless night ahead.

Thankfully, this doesn’t represent a standard ‘surfing’ experience…”

My First Feature for USA Today

1395332406000-Afternoon-tea-051I am delighted to reveal that I have had my first piece for USA Today published on their website! The feature article is titled:

How London Surpassed Paris as Europe’s Dining Capital

And it discusses how the city has developed its dining scene to now claim its place as the true king of continental cuisine.

The piece appears within the travel section of the USA Today site, under the sub-categories Experiences and Food & Wine, and was published this Monday. You can READ IT right here!

Dancing Spain: From Top to Bottom

This is my brand new infographic on the many varied dances in Spain for BEST IN SPAIN. See it all on their website.

spain-dancing-short

Online Travel Content That Sells

ExpediaWhat’s the key to creating successful online travel content?

From blogs, photos and videos to competitions, surveys and social media campaigns, travel companies are very adept at creating content that brings traffic to their websites – but are surprisingly poor at converting those visitors into customers.

So what should these companies be doing differently? In my new role as Editor-in-Chief for Melt Content, I spoke to three travel experts to learn how to create great content that sells.

The interview article was written for Melt Content and published on Travolution. Read the complete article here.

The Purple Passport for Private Air

ExpediaI’m pleased to reveal that my first magazine article of 2014 has now been published.

It’s a profile piece on The Purple Passport for Private Air Magazine.

I interviewed the founders of TPP, Jennifer Garcia-Alonso and Emily C. Brands, to find out what makes these ultra-stylish, luxury travel guides different from all of the others.

You can find out what they had to say in this extract from the latest issue of PA.

As well as this article, my World Words writers contiributed several more pieces for the January-February issue of Private Air Magazine. You can read them all on the WW site.

City Vacation Guides for Expedia

ExpediaWe have some exciting news, and it has been a long time coming! Our city vacation guide for Christchurch in New Zealand, which was written back in July, has finally been published on the Expedia website. You can read the overview by clicking on this here link, or check out one of the POIs, Lyttelton Harbour, here.

In fact, Christchurch is just the latest of several city vacation guides we have created for Expedia. We’ve previously written about city destinations in more than a dozen countries right around the world, including Albuquerque (USA), Friedrichshafen (Germany), Hua Hin (Thailand), Rarotonga (The Cook Islands), Edmonton (Canada), and Hong Kong.

You’ll find a selection of our completed guides in Projects. Or click here to see all Expedia’s guides in one place.

Our Latest Private Air Articles

Cities TalkingFor the last year or so, the World Words team has been contributing articles to Private Air Luxury Homes Magazine. And the most recent issue (November-December ’13) has a total of seven of our articles featured. That’s a new high!

In every issue of the magazine we write on a range of topics, from lavish travel to investment destinations to cultural events… and this edition is no different.

The travel destinations we’ve featured vary from the winter wonderland of St Moritz to the watery delights of The Finger Lakes, while other topics covered include London’s Silver Mine, Rossetti’s Proserpine and Harrods’ new whisky.

You can read all our latest contributions on our Projects page, where you’ll also find our work for previous issues, stretching back to November 2012.

Pimsleur Approach Blogs This October

Cities TalkingSince World Words was born back in late 2012, our expert writing team has contributed more than 50 SEO-friendly articles to the blog of the leading language learning company Pimsleur Approach. This October alone, we wrote five articles covering a variety of topics, including tough triathlons, creepy courtyards and – naturally – a little language learning.

You can find all of these blogs, along with a selection of our previous Pimsleur pieces, on our Projects page. Or you can read them individually now by clicking on the links below…

OCTOBER’S CHATTERBOX … Published October 25 … “Welcome to the real lowdown on language learning…”
THE MOST HAUNTED PLACES ON EARTH … Published October 15 … “Discover the planet’s spookiest places…”
OCTOBER’S TOP TRAVEL LINKS … Published October 11 … “Your guide to the best online travel-related stuff…”
THE 10 BEST RACES AROUND THE WORLD … Published October 4 … “From tiring triathlons to Tough Mudders…”
TEACH CHILDREN A SECOND LANGUAGE … Published October 1 … “It’s key for kiddies to learn another lingo…”

Editor Interview with Cities Talking

Cities TalkingWorld Words editor Joseph Reaney was recently interviewed by one of our clients, Cities Talking, outlining all the skills, tips and tricks required to compose great audio travel guides that entertain and inform the listener. Here was one of the questions…

Q. HOW DO YOU TACKLE A BRIEF TO WRITE A CITIES TALKING TOUR?

A. Cities Talking is a wonderful client. They provide a clear brief about the tour they wish to be written and have in-house researchers who send over a long document outlining each and every attraction en route. We’ll then scour these notes, pick out the interesting information and use this to create an entertaining and informative audio script. We also supplement this research with some of our own. In particular, we try to find interesting characters and dig into their personalities.

You can read the interview in full of the Cities Talking website. You will find some of the audio city guides we have written for this client, including on the beautiful European cities Amsterdam, Budapest and Prague, in our portfolio.

The Express Guide to Venice

Earlier this year, The Express and Monarch Airlines teamed up with the clear aim of creating a series of European city guides for their respective readers. And I am now delighted to confirm that I, along with my team at WorldWORDS, was selected to create the first six in their portfolio. All of these guides were recently published on The Express website, and you can find links to them below. I hope they come in handy. Happy travels!

THE EXPRESS GUIDE TO VENICE by Joseph Reaney (that’s yours truly!)

THE EXPRESS GUIDE TO BARCELONA | THE EXPRESS GUIDE TO ROME | THE EXPRESS GUIDE TO VERONA | THE EXPRESS GUIDE TO PALMA | THE EXPRESS GUIDE TO DUBROVNIK by Mandy (a WorldWORDS writer)