Blog Posts and Articles: What You Need to Know

Here’s what you need to know about blog posts and articles:

1. Accessibility
   As a general rule, once you are brought on board as a regular blogger at a given outlet, you are able to post content without having to go through the editorial process – meaning you can spend more time writing and less time thinking about how to “spin” an article so that it will get accepted and published. To the contrary, you have to pitch each magazine and newspaper article fresh – unless you’re a columnist, and even then, your articles will still be subject to the editorial process. Especially in the case of mainstream outlets and in the case of writers with “radical” ideas, you may end up spending copious amounts of time packaging your articles so that they are digestible to the masses, instead of just writing and publishing what you think.
2. Promotion
   The genius of blogs like The Huffington Post is that their platform overall is very mainstream, ranking one of the top news and media outlets, with tens of millions of unique visitors per month. Their promotion, however, is driven by their bloggers – each one personally invested in her/his articles being read. So when you blog for a platform like that, you get the prestige of being part of a major media outlet, but you’re on your own for driving traffic to your blog site – unless one of your blog posts catches the attention of editors, who may choose to put their weight behind what you wrote. When you write articles for magazines and newspapers, to the contrary, your articles get promoted as part of the general magazine and newspaper promotion. Your work went through the official channels of editorial acceptance, so welcome on board, you are part of the team!
3. Payment
   As a general rule, blogs posts do not pay, but articles do. Magazines and newspapers have blog sections and article sections, so things can seem a bit confusing here. The rule of thumb is that the blog sections do not pay, whereas the article sections do, even at the same media outlets. And in the case of mainstream media, the article sections can pay quite well, giving you anywhere form hundreds to thousands of dollars per article, depending on the word count and media outlet, as well as your experience (and how demanding you are).

Get Published in Print Media!
If you’d like help getting your work accepted for publication, whether in blog post or article format, give me a holler! I offer a complimentary 30 minute consultation. Contact me here, and I’ll get back to you.

Got a Bio for Your Article Pitch?
And if you’d like help writing a rock star bio for your world-changing blog post or article, be sure to sign up for my live video conference on June 8: Write a Rock Star Bio. While you’re at it, check out my other upcoming live workshops and on-demand classes, including Write a Press Release that Generates a Media Frenzy.