It’s easier than ever to connect with editors and charm them with your brilliant ideas and writing skills, all thanks to the web and social media. Here are three ways to leverage the web and social apps as a way to break into writing health/fitness articles that pay.
Blogs
There was a time when you needed to already be published to prove to an editor you could write. Editors wanted evidence of your already-published work before they’d consider hiring you. Naturally, they still want to know you have what it takes, but now options like blogging help you prove it to them.
A blog of your own lets you create a publishing platform for yourself, full of as many writing samples as you feel like producing. This can boost the possibility of then scoring paid assignments in magazines, on websites, on other blogs—and maybe even a book deal if you’re a real superstar blogger.
Web Exclusives
Magazines used to simply throw whatever articles were in the print publication onto their website. Now most major mags develop web-exclusive content, too, for attracting traffic and posting on social. These web exclusives are published only online.
It’s entirely possible to sell an article to a magazine’s website even if you’ve never contributed to the print version of that mag. And when you do, it’s fair game to go ahead and add the big-name magazine to your writing creds. Smart, right?
Web exclusives generally pay less than what you’d pocket for writing a print article, buuuuttt the upside is there are few or no revisions, so your per-hour writing rate works out to be decent.
Following editors on Insta means you might get a helpful inside glimpse into their personal and professional lives through their feeds (follow public accounts only, though, so as not to creep anyone out). Social media might be where you get the inside scoop on what stories editors are working on and maybe even what pieces are coming down the line.
You can also use your own Insta feed to possibly snag new health and fitness writing opportunities. How so? Long-form, thought-provoking captions are a thing RN on IG. So crafting scroll-stopping captions is yet another way to showcase your writing skills in a public forum.
The more ways you demonstrate your awesomeness as a health/fitness writer, the better your chances of scoring paid writing and/or blogging work.
For more guidance on how to break into health/fitness writing and guest blogging, have a look at: How to Write Winning Queries: Get Your Articles Published for Profit and Promotion as a Health/Fitness Writer, Blogger and Expert.
