How to get featured on top blogs like Huffington, Mashable, TechCrunch etc? November 22, 2015 – Posted in: Blog, Feature – Tags: advice, blogging, featured blogs, get published, guest posts, top blogs, write for top blogs, writer, writing
Getting to write for some of the top blogs is difficult at first, but very rewarding. It not only brings you a lot views and cred, but you also get some high authority backlink juice for your own blog. Here we’ll give you some good tips and pointers and how you can break that ice. Our favourite sites include Huffington, Mashable, Tech Crunch, Boing Boing (yes, that’s a very famous and highly visited site), Gawker, Endgadget, Jezebel and Buzzfeed. At the end of the article, we’ve given direct links to each blog’s submission form.
So, how can you make the cut?
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START WRITING
A famous blogger, Josh Steimle explains how he wrote more than 700 articles before getting published in Forbes. He shares what he learned in 10 years of blogging and gives the following advice:
1. Start blogging. Become an expert on one subject and blog about it as much as possible. If you do it right, they might come to you.
2. Start with smaller or niche publications to get your work published and build up a body of work.
3. Leverage your existing work when you approach larger publications to show your ability.
4. Educate yourself by reading the publications in which you want to be published as much as possible.
5.Network – get to know who the writers are that write on those publications and follow them on Twitter, comment on their articles.
6. Keep on pitching! Josh said that early on in his career he gave up to easily. He would pitch an idea a few times and when it gets rejected, he would give up. Keep on trying. -
LEARN FROM THE GREATS
Catherine Alford, guest blogger for the Huffington Post, says she started with enrolling in Jon Morrow’s Guest Blogging Course, and it changed the way that she approach her writing. She also suggests that you study the published articles on the blogs you would like to be published. Keep a list of the subjects that they regularly blog about as well as which articles get a lot of attention. She also re tweeted or recommended articles on those blogs as often as she could.
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COPY THEIR STYLE
Catherine says that she even went so far as to learn how to copy the style of successful articles on Huffington Post. She would copy articles into MS Word and see how many words were used, how the paragraphs were broken up and what writing style was used. -
PITCH IT THE RIGHT WAY AND TO THE RIGHT PERSON
Yes, the blogging sites all have upload pages where you can submit ab article, but have someone that you can send your article to always helps. So develop your network, start interacting with staff of the publication, until you can pitch to them directly. But never send them unsolicited emails directly – these will simply be ignored and you may end up getting in their spam list.
Leah Vidal, blogging at Little Miss Wordy, explains in one of the links how she pitched a story directly to Arianna Huffington after getting her email address. This method may work sometimes, but be careful of overdoing it.
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BE THOROUGH
When submitting an article to a major blog, remember that they have to review thousands of submissions every day. Make it as easy as possible for them:
1. Include your profile and head shot: With your article, submit a (professional) headshot and short profile. Look at the profiles of other writes on the publication for guidelines.
2. Include links and references to any material you used for your article, so that they can verify it very easily.
3. Don’t make silly mistakes. In the article “12 things not to do when submitting to Mashable, ” Adam Ostrov mention silly mistakes, such as spelling the editor’s name wrong, using all caps, not including links, and pitching an old story.
4. Make sure any facts you include are accurate with reliable sources.
5. And keep something in the fridge to celebrate with when you do get published! -
SUBMITTING YOUR ARTICLE
We have included the links below to top sites article submission pages. Follow the instructions on these pages and make sure you submit your article in the way that makes it as easy as possible for them and add all your contact detail. The one thing that you don’t want is that they accept your article, but can’t get hold of you!
We hope that you can keep producing awesome content and make the jump into the big leagues. Remember, keep trying!
LINK TO ARTICLE SUBMISSION FORMS
Where to submit your article on Mashable
Pitch a Blog to The Huffington Post
Contact us with a tip at Engadget
Submit a story to Gawker media group (Includes Gizmodo, Deadspin, Jezebel, Lifehacker etc)
Guest post for us i.e Book ‘n’ Media Sharing 🙂
RESOURCES
How Josh Steimle became a professional blogger for Forbes
How Catherine Alford got published on Huffington Post
Five bloggers explain hey they got published on Huffington Post
12 Things Not to Do When Pitching a Story to Mashable
A Strategy To Get Your Guest Post Published
2 Comments
YourBasicGeek November 29, 2015 - 06:19
Many people do write for money… and should. I make a six-figure income from writing and editing. I’m worth it.
There’s nothing wrong with doing it “for exposure” (though to me, exposure is what you die from in the winter), but please do not assume that’s the primary motivation.
FWIW, the advice given in that blog post is kind of lame. I’m not blaming you or downvoting you, because I’m fully in support of helping people to discover anything that can help you succeed. But most of that particular advice won’t get you to the home page of those sites.
I pitch editors all the time. It’s a very simple process. You send them an email message that clearly states:
Here’s the article I aim to write. Usually I write the headline and deck/teaser to summarize it: “I’d like to do a piece on ‘5 ways to get your article featured on top magazines’ which would include these points….”
[Optional, if it seems necessary] Why this audience would care. If you’re pitching a how-to-write article to tech news site, the editor will wonder why her readers would find this relevant. Explain why, in less than two sentences. If it’s a tech news article you don’t need this section. But when I pitched an article on traveling-by-train to a magazine for German expatriates, I explained why the stretch of German railroad I aimed to write about was unique.
Why you’re the right person to write this piece. Back it up and make it specific. “I’ve been earning a living as a writer and editor for 25 years, and have been on the front page of every one of these sites multiple times.”
That’s it.
– DO NOT send a completed story, even if you already wrote it. “What I want to say” is not necessarily, “What our target reader wants to read,” at least in the eyes of the editor.
– DO NOT suggest an article just like an article they already published. They did that one. They’re done. Give it a new spin, maybe — but it had better be new.
– DO NOT include your bio or photo at this point. That only matters if you get the gig.
motoapk I love it May 01, 2017 - 20:38
Im thankful for the article. Really Great.