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The Why, What, Where and How to Getting Published
Part 2 - What Should You Write About?
By Maja Rehou
The most important thing about getting published is showing prospects and clients what you have to offer and how your service or product may benefit them. You want to write about your service or business, but you have to do it in a way that offers the reader value and gives them information that they need. For example an article about how to clear clutter by a professional organizer will be of interest to people who are disorganized. The reader will find the information useful and view the author as an expert in the field. If the reader, after following the tips in this article, discovers that they need more help in getting organized, the chance that they will contact the author for his or her services is more likely than just a listing in the Yellow Pages. If the reader sees that same company in the Yellow Pages after reading the article, the added exposure will increase the chance of the writer being contacted.
Write articles that are relevant and speak to potential clients. To find out what topics will be of interest to your target market contact association publications to see what the 'hot' subjects in their respective industry are or what issue their readership may be facing that you can help them with.
Contact industry trade magazines and ask for a media kit. The media kit will include an editorial calendar for the year allowing you to find a topic that will fit and a timeline of when it will be printed. This is also an especially useful tool for getting your article accepted when querying the publisher or magazine editor. Editors are very busy and constantly have to meet deadlines. If you help them see exactly where your article will fit, you increase your chance of getting published.
Another way to find relevant subject matter is by reading newspapers and following the trends. Knowing that workplace wellness is a highly publicized topic will increase the chance that an article from an onsite massage therapist will get published.
Once you have come up an article idea use the information repeatedly for different sources. You can redirect the focus of an article and submit it to another publication with a different readership. For example you can easily change a few words in an article explaining how to reduce the cost of training employees to speak to the retail sector and then the manufacturing industry.
You now have an idea of what type of article will be of interest to the media. The next article in this series will show where you can get your articles published.
Part 1: Why get published?
Part 3: Where to get published?
As writer, editor and specialist in the English language, Maja Rehou, founder of WordForce Communications, uses words strategically to help businesses prosper. With an unparalleled knack for language and five years managing the marketing department of a professional service firm she knows how to create marketing materials that generate outstanding results. Email subscribe@wordforce.ca to join her monthly newsletter and receive a free copy of her latest publication: How to Successfully Promote Your Business through Publishing.
This article has been published with permission from WordForce Communications(c)2005
Added on December 22, 2005
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