write articles for magazines

Make it Right: Writing for the INTERNET

Internet-Writing

Writing for blogs or websites is totally different from writing a novel.  Online content is not just about words.  When you write for the Internet, think “presentation”.  Online content is informally written, interactive and dynamic.

Learn how to write the “inverted pyramid” from most important on top to less further on, seen in newspaper articles everywhere.   How this works can be found in this article by “Writers Write”.  Other requirements are for example: Is your text easy to read?  Eye-tracking studies have shown that readers SCAN text (in an F-shaped pattern), rather than to READ it.  And: website visitors read more slowly on the screen than in print.  So, how do you use this knowledge for your writing?
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Respect the Reader’s Time
Everyone is busy, and most people would rather scan an article first before they decide whether it’s worth reading. Make it easy for your readers to know what your article is all about at a glance. Make it interesting enough for them to want to read all of it. Have a point of view and give an opinion. You want to invite and generate engagement and discussion with people.
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Use Effective Titles for Your Articles
Your title should be able to tell your readers at a glance what your entire article is all about. A good practice is to use not more than eight words when formulating your title, especially if you want it shared on social sites. And don’t promise something in your title that you don’t deliver in your post.
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Grab Your Readers’ Attention With Numbers
Readers are attracted to numbers. Numbers allow them to quickly and easily navigate your content, and they give a structure to your article.
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Use Beautiful Images
Add pictures, infographics, slideshows, and artwork to your written pieces.  Images not only break up the text portion of your article but also make the entire article more visually interesting.  People are attracted to visuals.  Make sure that the visuals you use are your own creations.  If not, make sure you get permission to use them from the original owners of the graphics and give credit where it’s due.
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Use Bullet Lists, Such as This One

  • Create lots of short paragraphs, and give them all a headline
  • Keep sentences short, they should never be longer than one line
  • Use spell check and a beta reader or software
  • Readers like to interact on the Web, so give them lots of links
  • Illustrate your text, use lots of images
  • Don’t let your readers scroll on the screen, keep it to one page
  • Except for prepositions and the words “and” and “the”, all major words in a headline should be capitalized

People love lists almost as much as they love numbers.  And lists are great because they’re not only easy to read but also scannable.  Lists will also help you keep your content and thoughts neat and organized.  Most blog posts aren’t meant to be long-form essays, so keeping your ideas short and to the point not only appeals to your readers but also keeps your content on point.
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Use Keywords Strategically
Know your keywords (see my earlier comment about doing your homework) and your keyword research. Go into the process knowing what people are searching for in relation to your content, and then use that input to guide the creation of key content areas, such as your headline, first paragraph, meta tags, and meta description. But be careful not to overdo it!
Today more than ever, quality content is really important.  Using too many keywords, or repeating the same ones over and over because you’re lazy, compromises the quality of your content and it can get you in trouble with search engines, too.

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Use Subheadings
If your article is longer than 250-400 words, using subheadings is a good idea. Subheads will entice your visitors to continue reading your article and easily find sections of their most interest to them. Subheadings add more fuel for search engines, so use keywords to help craft your subheads. Break up text into short paragraphs to make it more readable on a computer monitor.

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Use Sharing Buttons
Make sure your site includes social sharing buttons for all of the major social media channels. And if you’re crafting a piece such as a press release, include links so people can easily access images and more information. Remember: We’re busy. We’re lazy. And we don’t want to work for information.  Give the people what they want!
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Most Important: Tell a Story!
No matter what topic you write about, the best copywriting technique always involves telling a good story.  Nothing beats quality content that is written well and contains interesting and relevant information that’s both helpful and entertaining.  You can always go back and tweak your content to better optimize it for search results.  If, at its core, your content isn’t compelling and interesting, however, all of the optimizations in the world won’t help it get read, shared, and discussed.
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The Demand for Web Content is Higher than Ever
Content is even more valuable than it was in previous years.  More and more businesses are looking for web content writers.  Many businesses don’t have the time to spend on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook and would rather outsource this part of their marketing.  Get paid for Social Media updates and interacting with their following.  Self-employed, artists, small companies – they all need a professional biography and they would rather have someone like you collect the facts and make them shine.

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Books by Doris-Maria Heilmann:

111 Tips to Create Impressive Videos:
How to Plan, Create, Upload and Market Videos
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111 Tips To Make Money With Writing
The Art of Making a Living Full-time Writing
An Essential Guide for More Income as Freelancer
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111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free:
Detailed Plans and Smart Strategies for Your Book’s Success
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111 Tips to Get Free Book Reviews:
Best Strategies for Getting Lots of Great Reviews
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How to Create, Where to Upload and How to Market Your Videos
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Book Marketing on a Shoestring:
How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money 
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Well-Paying Markets to Write for

Writers-Market

2016 Writer’s Market, “Yellow Pages” for Writers
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Do you like to travel to foreign countries, or other states / provinces?  Enjoy weekend trips to new places?  Where does your novel or nonfiction books take place?  In your hometown or in a foreign city?  I bet you did a lot of research to describe those places.
Leverage this research work for your novel and all your travel experiences to write not only for travel or well-paying airline magazines, but also for newspapers or lifestyle magazines – print and online.  Travel articles are not for travel magazines only!

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Why wait months or years until royalties for your books arrive, when you can easily write articles that pay faster – and a lot more per word count?
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Travel Magazines Are Not the Only Possibility.
Seniors magazines, parenting magazines, business magazines, frugal-living magazines, health magazines, writing magazines, newspapers – from free locals to national and international, and even pet magazines, they all print travel articles and city profiles. Here are a few examples of topics that fit into a variety of magazines / newspapers:

How to save money when ordering a rental car
Traveling with Fido to USA / Canada – pet friendly hotels
How to spend your waiting hours between flights
The Gardens of Venice, Italy
Scenic road trips to …
Amazing weekend destinations in …
Dining and nightlife tips for …
Top Ten Things to Do on a Budget in …
Most interesting museums to go with kids in …
How to save money when taking a road trip
Gear and gadgets that cater to your kids travel joy
Tips for people with disabilities or medical conditions on air travel
Best wine sampling places / wineries in …
Marvellous National Parks of the North West
Historic places to visit in Southern Great Britain
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What Works Best:
The first most important step is to read many issues of the magazine or newspaper to find out if there was anything similar written before you query them.  Travel articles containing more than the 2,000 words including high-resolution images works usually best.
If you don’t have the necessary skills or equipment to offer stunning photos, contact regional or state tourist sites and ask them for photos to accompany your article.  They are almost always free to use.  It might take a couple of days or even weeks to receive their permission, so contact them early, and once your article is printed, send them a copy and a thank you note.  Another possibility is to check out free photo sites, such as Morguefile.com or any other site as described in a former blog: 7 Free Photo Sources.

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Examples of Magazines You Could Write for:
Check out former blog posts where we provided details about magazines, using the search function here on this blog and type in freelance writing or writing for magazines.  Here are more magazines where you can pitch your story – exact addresses can be found in the latest Writer’s Market 2016:

Canadian Living
Chatelaine
The Ride Journal
Southern Living
Travel Smart
Boat Magazine
Midwest Living
Travel & Leisure
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Re-Purpose Your Writing Content.
Just to give you an example how you can re-purpose research and content of your novel, that may take place in medieval Great Britain or a travelogue you wrote about a trip to Europe: You could for example write an article about horse staples in the UK for equestrian magazines, bike riding paths in Denmark to a bike magazine, about one of the fantastic gardens in Great Britain to garden magazines, how to travel on a budget to European cities for a frugal living magazine, a feature about pumpkin seed pressing in Austria for gourmet magazines, an article about a historic flax or wool mill in France for a sewing or craft magazine, a photo feature that you took in a boutique hotel for a fine interior magazine, how to dress for city trips without looking like a tourist for fashion or lifestyle magazines …

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Possibilities to write for magazines other than the traditional travel markets are virtually endless.  Travel articles often cover one or more market boundaries.  Leverage every opportunity to “cross-over” into other non-travel magazines with your travel articles.
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Best of all: writing for magazines or newspapers will allow you to add a two-sentence bio, including a link to your author website or to your book sales page, which will be then seen by a completely new audience.  A great way of book marketing and to expand your platform and portfolio!

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How to Make More Money as a Writer

Writers-Market
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In many blog articles I encouraged writers to use their writing skills and even details from their research or their manuscript and start to make way more money with magazines articles or online content.  
And at the same time promote their books in the byline.  A great help how to start, where to find the latest contacts and how to pitch your writing to editors, can be found in this Yearbook for authors – including constant updates.
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I just ordered the latest edition of the 2017 WRITER’S MARKET Deluxe Edition, featuring 7,500 links – a comprehensive guide to find publishers, agents, magazine and newspaper editors and an abundance of addresses  to online writing markets – including the online version.
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“The Most Trusted Guide to Getting Published”
Their title seems to imply these “yellow pages” for writers are just to find book publishers.  No, it’s only a part of it!  Since 1921, Writer’s Market has been the “freelance writer’s bible”, providing contact information for thousands of editors and agents, tips on manuscripts formatting, query letter clinics and more.
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Online Version Included!
Now it’s all available online, in a searchable database of information that can be personalized to meet your specific market needs.  You can search through the thousands of markets in seconds, easily eliminating those that don’t fit your criteria.  You also get daily market spotlights, a guide to Web resources for writers, tips on getting published, news from the publishing world, online submission-tracking tools, and more.  WritersMarket.com is continually updated, so you can be sure you are getting always the latest information available:
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NaNoWriMo – and What Then?
Whether your goal is to publish a book, write a magazine article, or freelance for local businesses, this Yearbook, together with the latest data helps you to achieve your dreams.

Currently, the market listings are largely from the U.S. and Canada, with a few from the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries.  If you’re looking for market listings in the United Kingdom be sure to check out Writer’s Market UK.  Writer’s Market is an invaluable tool that authors are recommending again and again. There are two more valuable guide books:
Guide to Literary Agents 2017
Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market 2017

How to Make Money as a Writer:  Order it right away – or put it on your Birthday-Wish List!

 

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Has No One Told You This?

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Riverbank

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There are lots of possibilities to let everyone know about your book, without even incurring any costs.  Browsing through our more than 900 blog posts, you will find an abundance!  However, most important is, to have a solid amount of friends and followers on Goodreads, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook  - at least 2,000 on every Social Media site, and a long list of opt-in email addresses to send out invitations for your book launch or any other news-worthy events – or for your readers to download single chapters or short stories as a teaser.
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Check out the genres that are popular and announce your books on these book reader’s blogs and websites:

http://www.Wattpad.com

http://www.ebooksjustpublished.com/about

http://jcphelps.blogspot.com/p/submit-content.html

http://www.manicreaders.com/index.cfm?disp=authors

http://www.Goodreads.com

http://books.google.com/googlebooks/tour/

 

Google writes:  “Once you send Google your titles (or upload them as PDF files), we’ll add them to our index for free. By matching the content in your books with user searches, Google Books connects your books with the users who are most interested in buying them. Each Google Books result will display the book’s title and author, a short excerpt containing the highlighted search terms, and other public data about the book.”
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Get as Many Book Reviews as Possible:
Finding reviewers is so much easier if you are well-established in Goodreads communities and other writer / book forums. Start a book giveaway on Goodreads at least a month before your book will be printed (create “dummies” with the help of a digital copy/print company or through “espresso book machines”. When giving out these early copies, try to solicit as many reviews as possible. Use the best reviews for blurbs on your final book cover.
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http://bookreviewclub.blogspot.ca/

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=47

http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/forum

http://www.GoodReads.com

http://www.Wattpad.com

If you have an Amazon account, you could visit the Amazon Kindle forum, where Kindle users share their experiences with the Kindle reader, and also talk about books available for the Kindle. Many authors also post about their new books and join the conversations. When you introduce yourself, consider telling folks there about your book.  Be polite and conversational in tone, and be sure to provide direct hyperlinks to your book page.
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Benefits of Content Marketing
Why asking for (media) reviews, when you could get both: book promotion and at the same time (often) being paid?  I know, it is a new concept to many writers, but when you think about it – it makes really sense: why use your time and effort to chase reviewers, when you can use your energy to leverage your books content and your research content - to create articles that you can pitch to both, print and online newspapers and magazines?  And as an added benefit: You get valuable back-links to your website/blog or book sales page!
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Make use of your assets!
The three main assets you have as an author:

  • your writing skills
  • the content you already wrote
  • the research you have done for your book(s)

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Again: Start Early!
If you’re waiting until the book is finished to start marketing, you’re already behind the curve. As an author, you should devote a portion of every day to get your name out there and to build relationships with prospective readers, partners and friends.  And with relationships I don’t mean advertising your book (tweeting: buy my book, buy my book, buy ….) this is not relationship-building!
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All books live or die, based on word of mouth!
If you try to build your network after you release your book, you’ll face a more difficult challenge. If you build a large social network BEFORE you release your book, your marketing efforts will be much more successful.
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Help is on the Way:
If you have a full-time job and / or other commitments and not at least an hour per day left to build your platform and network with potential readers, let us do a good part of your book PR, and at the same time we will coach you over the phone and teach you how book marketing can be done on a very low budget – all for less than two dollars / day.  Read more about this valuable and extensive package we offer to authors.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.international-ebooks.com/book-promo to advertise your new book, specials or KDP Select Free Days.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 900 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

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@111publishing

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Tagged: book forums, build your author platform, coaching, get back links to your website, how to get book reviews, Online Seminar, Reader forums, word-of-mouth, write articles for magazines