Becoming publishable

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Writing an Online Column or Blog

Writing a weekly column is powerful training for both new and experienced writers. It’s often said a writer must write a million well-edited words before becoming published, and writing a column is a fast way to build the word count. Columnists learn discipline, idea generation, and rapid writing. While it can be difficult to get a column into a newspaper, the Internet provides many opportunities for columnists who want to build their credentials. My publisher found me first on an online site where I wrote a column and from there, followed my bio to my personal website. After studying my work there, he offered me a contract.

There are a number of content management sites on the Internet. Some pay, some offer opportunities to earn affiliate money, and some just offer exposure. You can also choose to create your own blog and treat it like a column.

Writing an online column is not a decision to make lightly. Are you willing to write for free if that's called for? Are you willing to take this job as seriously as you would a paying job if you are writing for free? Remember, it will serve as a resume of sorts for your writing skills. If a potential publisher or employee searches for you online, he is going to find what you wrote. It must look as professional as if you got paid millions for it. Your readers might include your dream publisher, who will notice if you write sporadically. Your articles may stay around forever, since there are websites that host archives of sites from long ago. That means that even if the place you are writing for removes your articles, it may be saved elsewhere. Be proud of every word you write because many of them will rise up to haunt you later. Be certain a future employer won't be shocked by what he reads. Make sure you are able to write every week whether you feel like it or not. If you don’t have a schedule for writing, set one and establish the writing habit before applying. This is one of the most important benefits of writing a column. You'll learn that writing can happen whether or not you're "inspired."

How well do you know your topic? Your readers will expect you to be more experienced than they are, so if your baby is two weeks old, wait until she’s much older to apply for a parenting advice topic, even if you’ve read every parenting book in the library. Most sites require first hand experience in the topic. You will need to be able to write on it every week for a year or two. You may be surprised how soon you run out of ideas. Sit down and make a list of all the articles you’ll write for the next several months.

The biography you submit in your application, if you're asked for one, should clearly outline your qualifications for doing the job. If you have writing credentials, list them, but if you don’t, explain why you're qualified to write the topic. Explain how long you’ve been doing it, how you feel about it, and what unique experiences you have that are related to the topic. Focus most of your biography on topic-related material. If you want to write on Spain, don’t exclaim over your enthusiasm for crochet. The staff is usually looking for passion for a particular subject, so treat it like the love of your life. Confidence is good; arrogance is not. It's great to tell the editors you have many contacts through your participation in festivals based on your topic, and can bring them new traffic. It's not effective to say the site will fail if they choose anyone but you or that you are the best writer in the world for this topic. The best writers in the world usually don't apply for these sites. They are frequently the training ground for newer writers.

If you are given space to write your thoughts about the subject, demonstrate that you've spent time on the site and understand how it's set up. Saying, "If you have a forum, I'd like to use that," shows you didn't bother to find out if they do or don't.

Write a sample article before you apply. Before doing so, study the site carefully to understand how the site works. Make sure you’ve checked to see where your chosen subject is located on the site—the channel (department) and subchannel, if there is one, determine the focus of the topic. The sample article you submit should be a typical article, not one on yourself or on how you found out you have cancer, or what happened when your baby was born, even if these apply to your topic. Show the person making the decision that you can write on topic, never wandering away into unrelated subjects, and that you can give valuable advice. Your article should show off your writing skills, so avoid list articles, interviews, or those with mostly single sentence paragraphs. Put your article through a spelling and grammar checker. As with any other manuscript, perfection counts. Poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation will get you immediately rejected and is, actually, the most common reason for rejection.

Follow any rules outlined in the application. You are demonstrating you can be trusted to follow the rules after you are chosen. Do your homework and read the entire application area to make sure you understand what is expected.

The benefits to this type of work is that it buids confidence and can create a credential and a following. The bad part is that you are building someone else's website instead of your own. You may find, once you've developed the discipline you need, you'd rather put up your own site and keep full control over both your work and the environment in which your work is shown. Content sites change owners, focus, and personality, and you may find you no longer fit in or that you've outgrown the job, and then your material is on another site. Give serious thought to which setting--someone else's site or your own--is best for you. I learned a great deal from my time on content sites, and since I started them when the internet was somewhat new, they were a great training ground, but I've outgrown them now. Only you know where you are in that spectrum.