Lessons

Lesson Info

Secret 7: Partner With Big Publications

the seventh Secret is to partner with big publications. So in this video we're going to talk about how to get featured in major media outlets like Forbes Time and inc magazine, so more people can see your work and I know technically this lesson is more about the distribution of your content than the creation of it, but it still is important because let's be honest you can have some of the best writing some of the best headlines in the world, but sometimes it won't get as many views as it should because you don't have that audience at least not yet, at least not initially. And so I really try to ask myself earlier in my career, you know, is there a way to build my audience overnight? Not just over time about putting out more great content because that audience will come, they'll come to your work that comes to your clients work as you put out more stuff for them. But if you can get featured in some of these publications, well that will just accelerate your growth like crazy and I want t...

o talk to you about how to do that and what I've realized after making so many mistakes and seeing even more mistakes from people reaching out to me now that right for these publications. So the question you may be asking yourself is you know, how can somebody like me be published in these publications, you know, Time magazine Forbes, there are some of the best and most widely read magazines and publications around the world and you may be asking yourself that but the truth is it's not as hard as you may think, as long as you go about the right process and reach out to the right people and that's what I want to outline for you today. So here's the thing, here's one of the best kept secrets of the media industry is that there's two types of writers and most major media publications and one will probably ignore you while the other one will be much more likely to feature you to speak with you to write an article or a story about you. And what I want to do here is talk to you about those two different types of writers and how to get in touch with them and what to say when you do the first type of writer is a staff writer, simply put, it's who you imagine when you think about a stereotypical the journalist, right? They go to the office, they have an editor telling them what to write or an editorial team telling, hey, right. X number of stories every week and they feed them different headline ideas. And the thing about them is the most important nuances is that they get paid a set salary per year. So that's key. That's really, really key. Because if I were to tell you that these types of writers would be bombarded by pitches publicly in addition to pitches from their editorial team. What do you think are the chances that they listen to somebody outside of their team when they're being paid a set salary, right? If they write an extra story from somebody who's pitching them publicly, it's just more work for very little pay off with no pay off. But the editor is just breathing down their back and giving them stories already. Right? So, you're in a huge uphill battle, and this is what most people do, right? They reach out to staff writers and they're like, hey, can you write about me? Can you write about my startup? Can you write about my client? And that's what I did initially, I had no idea, right? I had no idea that the staff writers just, you know, you think that they'd be receptive, but they're not because they have stories on the pipeline and they'd be doing a huge favor to write another one and add a burden to the workload. Right? So that's the first type of writer and the second type of writer is called a contributor. And this type of writer is a freelancer. So they don't go to the office every day, nor do they have an editor who's breathing down their back and telling them what to write. And most most importantly, here, is that the publication pays them only when they write a new article. So if they write more articles, they get paid more, if they write fewer articles, they get paid less, it's a completely different payment models and what the staff writer experiences on a day to day basis, and knowing that difference is all the gold that you need to be able to say, okay, I'm not going to reach out to staff writers anymore. I'm going to reach out to contributors. And just about every publication has a version of a contributor has their version of somebody who's hungry for content, because that's the form of currency, and that's how they're going to get paid from the publication. Knowing that tiny difference, a tiny nuance between the two different types of writers is the key to your outreach, and we're gonna go deeper down the rabbit hole here. But knowing that is the key to knowing who to reach out to and knowing how to save your time, because a lot of these pitches that you may be sending out, or people that you may be reaching out to our staff writers on salary. And, you know, it's not that they're bad people, they're just super busy and they may not be receptive to outside pitches, but people like contributors who get paid by the publication for each post that they write, well, they're much more receptive to hearing from you, because they're like, oh, wow, if you deliver a good story idea and we're gonna talk about how to find out whose a contributor and what exactly to say, they have a much greater chance of being featured in their work, because, again, they're hungry for content because it's their form of currency from the publication. They get no salary makes sense. And we use Forbes as an example of how to spot that difference, right? So to find out who's a staff writer, simply look up an article related to the topic area that you're interested in or that you're writing about and pay close attention to who wrote it more specifically, take a look at that faint gray font next to their name. What does it say? Do you see how in this situation it says Forbes staff boom. So that means they're obviously a staff member. Most people again, totally missed this gloss over, don't even realize that there's a difference. But seeing that next to their name means that this person is being paid a salary from that publication. Alright, so now let's find out who is a contributor. Now take a look at this article, right? You see a similar setup, like the writer's name is there, but the faint griffon next to the name, says contributor and there we go. Right, then, you know how this type of writer is getting paid and it's by publishing more stories. So, you know, from that, that they're going to be much more receptive to hearing your pitch to hearing your content idea and that's where your trojan horse, some of the things that you may be working on to get featured yourself. So, again, we're using Forbes here as an example, but the same holds true for most major media publications, they may even have different names, some of them call contributors, freelance writers or independent writers in their bios. But the key here is to dig the average reader will only read the headline and maybe some of the articles, but the smart reader will read the writer's name and the savviest readers, we'll take a look at whether they're a staff writer or a contributor, so I encourage you to be savvy like that. And of course, the next natural question here is, alright, so how exactly should I reach out to these contributors? And what the heck do I say, once I do, and I want to cover both of those here, because it's actually much simpler than most people realize. It's simply go to their personal page on the publication will typically see an email icon button right there, plain as day. And if it's not there, usually there's a link to the contributors website where you can find their email or contact form to reach out again, these contributors usually want to be more receptive and more open to people emailing them and sending them story ideas. So it's not uncommon that they would put their emails out there. I know I put mine out there and make it easy for people to reach out to me and send stories, ideas and that's how I get a lot of new story ideas as well, and give credit, of course, and in terms of what to say, once you track down the contact or the email of that contributor, here's the bottom line. I always deliver value first and foremost, here's the thing to know. Every contributor and writer has what the industry calls their beat and that's just the way that saying that this is what they cover. They cover some topic of expertise, that could be women in tech, that could be Cryptocurrency, that could be the business of sports and so on and so forth. And usually these writers stay within those lines, so take a few moments, is just study their past articles, make sure their past topic aligned with what you're interested in and what you may be pitching and then send them something of value. What I like to do is send them a headline idea for their next artist or send them a few surveys or interesting stories or statistics that could be woven together in an article. Again, you want to send something of value to develop a relationship that could lead you to being quoted or interviewed or mentioning some product or service that you have in a future story. And truthfully that's how I became a writer for Forbes entrepreneur and Time magazine. I started off by reaching out to a bunch of staff writers and whoa, those guys aren't interested but these contributors seemed to be emailing back and so I started delivering value to them first, I was just like, hey, what do you think about this story idea? Or did you know about this interview? I'm happy to make an introduction. And eventually I started getting quoted and I earned enough trust to say, can I pitch and get my own column, and that's what happened. And then once I got one publication, I went to the other and said, hey, I've written for this publication, I've been quoted in that publication and have a story idea for you, can we publish it? And it's still, you know, it's not a cakewalk and you'll still be rejected. But here's one story I want to say about being rejected because it's still part of the process. Remember that article that I shared earlier in this lesson, The one about the Uber Preneurs How an Uber Driver makes $252,000 a year. So that was one of Forbes's most popular articles. 1.5 million views on that one, I'll never forget. I I actually pitched that to another publication and I said, I have this story, I met this guy, you'll never believe it. Here are some facts. And I was just gonna give it um you know, just, just offering value. And I won't say which publication was, but it was a big one. Um and they're like, sorry, john, like, we're not interested. Like, we appreciate you. Like sending over another idea, We're not interested. Um so I took it over to Forbes and they published it and 1.5 million views later, it's one of the most popular articles of that year. And so I think that's just something that always reminds me rejection isn't always a sign of quality. And I encourage you just to keep going because especially there's so few people that know about this difference between contributors and staff writers. And so if you focus on those contributors, you're going to have much more win win relationship, right? You're gonna help put money in their pocket from the publication. Again, there's no money being exchanged between you two. I want to be very clear about that. It's just that you're delivering them content ideas for free, right? You're delivering value. But again, they're more interested in more receptive because they have that contract which says they will be paid for articles versus staff writer, they're being paid and even more. So they're being fed stories. So, adding another story to their schedule and their agenda is just gonna add more work. Um, so it's almost like it can be a win lose. So, if you're spending time with contributors, if you're delivering value, and if you're being consistent in your outreach, I promise you, you're gonna start getting featured in different publications and that's gonna start to snowball and I know that's what happened for me. So, um if that can be helpful at all, you know, that's something that is, you know, a few people realize some of the savviest PR agencies don't realize, and I just want to say, I think with all the lessons here, you can really put together amazing pitches, either for yourself or for clients to get the word out and really amplify your voice. And I want to say congrats on finishing the seventh of the Seven Secrets in this course, um, I actually have a surprise for you in the next video, so I'll see you there.