How to write for a publication

In today’s video I’m going to answer a question that I get asked all the time, that is “can I simply write an article and hand it over to the media outlet I want to be in and see it being published”. Now the answer to that is yes you can, but some publications do this more often than others and others won’t do it at all. The magazines that we work with that do this quite frequently include Smart Company, CEO Magazine, Dynamic Business and Lifehacker. And other media outlets where this is quite common include niche magazines and niche trade magazines particularly your retail trade magazines but there’d be a range of them that would accept this.

Now the way you’d pitch your article idea is very similar to the way you’d pitch a press release or a story angle to a journo. Come up with your angle, write a press release about it, pitch it to the specific journo who writes that column or who looks after that section, but in the body of your pitch email you would say that you’re really happy and would love to write an article for their publication and have about four headline ideas that you could write on. Now as with all pitch e-mails the most important part is the follow up so follow up your e-mail pitch and again remind the journo that you’re talking to the editor that you’re happy to write an article. If you get the go ahead, they’ll generally give you a word count that they need and obviously a deadline. So write the article make sure someone else looks over it so it reads really well and that you’re as good as it can be and make sure you submit it with a picture of yourself as well.

Now although this strategy takes a bit more work because you’re the one writing the article, the good thing about it is you have control of what’s in that article and it’s really impressive to have your name in the byline of a magazine as well. So a bit of food for thought there. Get your creative juices thinking, feel free to ask me any questions as always and look forward to seeing you in the next video.

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