How to Pitch an Article (and Get an Enthusiastic Response)

How to Pitch an Article (and Get an Enthusiastic Response)

Reader Comments (16)

  1. Hey Stefanie,

    Guest posting is one of the finest practices anyone can adopt to become a better writer.

    You can showcase your writing skills on your own blog but once you go out in front of a different audience, it can be really disappointing.

    Not every blog has the same writing standard like yours. The reputed blogs have set a standard which should be matched.

    I try my best to craft an article which can drag an attention of many. The biggest benefit of guest posting is building human bonds.

    Thanks for this wonderful article.
    ~Ravi

  2. Guest posting is so crucial to your writing development – but it isn’t easy and neither is link building in general. Like you say, it can be beneficial to start with pitching to smaller publications to find your feet and then working your way up the ladder.

    I really enjoyed this article, Stefanie.

  3. Thank you for the Post!
    I blog for enjoying my time.
    I love it & do it for my own passion.

  4. This advice is excellent as far as it goes, but there is another essential element besides the rules written down by editors for potential contributors. This is the *voice* of a blog or publication.

    In my earlier career as a writer for top magazines (including Cosmopolitan, Psychology Today and the New York Times Magazine), I learned that it was crucial to read many issues of a publication and get a feel for the attitudes, vocabulary, tone and approach they were looking for. Without this, following the rules led to rejection slips. With it, editors were delighted.

    For example, one article I was specifically assigned got rejected because it was “too earnest.” This publication wanted me to take an ironic, superior and somewhat snobbish tone on my topic.

    Porting this to today’s world of guest blogging, this means understanding whether a particular blog wants densely packed how-to information, emotional epiphanies, oh-so-cool commentaries or vulnerable revelations – or something that matches their favorite writers. These differences do not always come out in the posting guidelines, only in the blog itself.

  5. Stefanie, what you said just hits the nail right on the head! Guest posting is key to your writing development. I did gleen some advice from you here regarding the benefit of start with pitching to smaller publications until you work up to larger publications.
    I learned a lot from this article so thanks again!

  6. Thanks for the interesting write up. I feel more confident to exploring other writing opportunities.

  7. Yeah, I think pitching is about building a relationship than just asking for something.
    Many times I look for an error on the website that I’d like to pitch on. It can be an erroneous form or simply a spelling mistake. Then I let the owner know about it.
    That way I build trust before pitching in my request for a post.

  8. Hey Stefanie,

    I can only agree with you about the article.
    But I also have to say that you get better with time, which means that especially as a beginner you shouldn’t stop if the article doesn’t immediately have the quality of the New York Times.

    In my opinion, it’s especially important not to obsessively want to seem funny or interesting. You should write for the appropriate audience, of course, as you also say, but if the audience is just completely removed from you, it’s hard to empathize.

  9. Thanks for these great tips! I’ve been posting articles on my blog for the past 2 years but never understood how important it is to guest post. I’m definitely going to give this a go. Thanks again!

  10. Hi Stefanie,

    Building relationships is the difference maker because close friends tend to accept pitches while strangers reject most pitches from strangers. I placed 1000’s of guest posts and only sent 2 pitch emails. One pitch was for a million member readership and the other was an experiment. Other than that, almost 70,000 backlinks point to my blog based on genuine blog commenting, guest blogging and most of all, authentic blogger outreach.

    Excellent post.

    Ryan

  11. Hi Stefanie!

    Thank you very much for sharing these tips. Thank you for your video (Masterpiece Blogging: Should Writers Get Up Early or Stay Up Late? [Lesson 1])

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