In part four of my how to get featured in magazines feature (part one, part two and part three are all available to view too!), I look at you – as an expert. As someone who can share their knowledge on a particular subject for the greater good. This can be a really powerful offer for magazines and is something that has allowed my clients to enjoy a lot of column inches in the past. And you know what’s even better? Everyone wins. The magazines gets free, exclusive content for their readers, the readers learn something the didn’t know before, and you get publicity that could attract work or sales.
So, how does this work?
It can work in a few ways. Some magazines run question and answer sections where, each month, people send in their queries and questions and the most appropriate person from a panel of experts answers it. Or maybe you’re providing a more in-depth feature about a bigger subject, that works alongside a features list or a current, topical issue? Either way, offering your skills as an expert in your field and offering your knowledge for free can earn you brownie points from lots of different directions. Yes, you get the feature in the magazine, but what’s to stop the magazine calling on you again when something else inside your area of expertise comes up? If you’ve played nicely, been helpful and grateful and supplied what the magazine editor or writer has asked for by the deadline they asked for it, very little.
Things to think about…
- Again, think about looking at the publications you want to feature in – do they have these sections? How do they work? Do the questions being asked fit into your area of expertise?
- Make contact with the editor/writer responsible for that section. Call or email (see what they prefer) and sell yourself (concisely).
- Work with them – they might say no, they might have someone who does that area already. That’s fine. That’s life. But be nice about it.
- Help them. If you get to the point of contributing do all you can to make their life easy – this will mean providing the info they want when they need it, but also sticking to word counts and maybe providing relevant images in a timely fashion. And deadlines. Respect deadlines. It stresses people out when things come in late and you get a black mark next to your name.
- Be grateful. Yep, you’ve helped the magazine out, but they have helped you too – in a massive way – so show your appreciation for what they’ve done to help you.
What do you think? Have you reached out to any magazines and offered your services? I’d love to hear below.
pages and worked out what areas I wanted to cover in each, to showcase my skills and passions. And that’s good – that’s what you should do with a website. But you should also be mindful that people want concise info to decide on whether to drop you an email to see if you can help them. And that doesn’t give you a huge amount of space to talk about what you’re passionate about in any kind of detail. The kind of detail that if you’re researching a topic in detail you want.