Recently I passed a personal milestone and finished my 1,000th blog entry for the Houston Press over the course of a four-year career. When you throw in print work I do here and for other publications, the total number of articles I've had published ranks closer to 1,200. It's a lot, and I collected a paycheck for every single one of them.
A lot of people ask me how I got into this gig, and I tell them the truth: bullshitted my way in. And while that is 100 percent how it went down, I've learned a lot at the hands of people who really do know what they're doing, and I thought this article might be helpful to aspiring writers who want to break into the world of monetary compensation for writing. At the very least, it will cut down the number of times I get asked this question.
1. Write something: It sounds basic, but a lot of the people who tell me they want to write have absolutely nothing to start from. Write a review of a movie you just saw, or your thoughts on a news story you read. I started with my submission in an essay contest to open for the Misfits. It was good enough for my first gig. Editors want samples to get an idea of your voice and how good you are.
2. Find a place to showcase your writing: You're not likely to walk right into a paying gig. I started off doing CD reviews for Space City Rock, which doesn't pay but netted me lots of free CDs and free tickets to shows. It's easier to break into places that don't pay because they have a hard time finding people. So if you want to be a food critic, find a food blog and ask to guest-spot, or if you're a political junkie, see if one of the millions of political blogs will let you take a stab at something. These are great places to build up a repertoire, and I owe at least some of my current position to a glowing recommendation letter from SCR's Jeremy Hart.
3. Learn your audience: Once you've found a place to write, spend a fair amount of time looking at other articles, especially ones that get lots of comments or otherwise flag as top-viewed pieces. Maybe your site gets a lot of gun owners, or metal heads, or Yankees fans, or people that are really into Batman. It doesn't matter so long as you see what people who visit the site are interested in.
4. Proofread out loud: So you've found a gig, discovered a passion for Christian rap music in your audience and you blast off "Top 5 Christian Rappers." Here's a little editing tip: Be sure you read the the thing to yourself out loud. For instance, did you notice I used "the" twice in the last sentence? Reading out loud helps you catch mistakes...especially ones that word processors autocorrect incorrectly.
5. Reaching out: One of the most important keys in getting page views is reposts. Whenever I mention a band in an article, I always try and find a manager's e-mail address and send him or her the link while asking for a repost on Facebook or Twitter. Rachel Maddow once linked to a playlist I did on songs about pi and it made the story a top-viewed entry. I've sent her every quirky playlist ever since. Opening a relationship with people who will help spread your stories is vital, and it never hurts to ask. Remember that any place that pays you to write is looking for page views. You want to be the writer that supplies them.
