how to get interest in your writing

[slee]

I've begun writing articles on my site and i wondered how you get people interested in the articles or my article writing. i would really like the opportunity to write for a magazine. i know this won't happen overnight but i wondered what steps i should be taking to get to that kind of level?

My first step will be to redesign my site to accommodate the articles as i know the site doesn't lend itself to them at the moment. i also i need to write a few more articles so i can get used to writing in my own style.

how would i get a magazines interest once i have written a few?

[sarahG]

I would say to get a few good articles on the site in your niche subject, and then perhaps look into a few magazines and maybe contact the editors (are you talking online or offline magazines?). Ask them if they may consider you for a freelance article and link through to your site or the good articles specifically.

Also run through the site you'll submit to them and make sure there's nothing exceptionally 'bad' on there. You don't want to give them the wrong impression if they stumble across it. When I got hired to write for Practical Web Design it was in part due to the help I'd given out on their forums but the editor had been reading through my blog and used that as a measure of what I was capable of writing.

I think if you can prove you know what you're talking about and are confident, and that shows in your posts, then you've got a good chance of getting picked up. Even if you go for a few lesser known mags at first, so that you can get a bit of experience under your belt to then take to the bigger magazines.

[akira07]

Hmmm, yes, it's a proud if many people interest in your article, the indicator is a comment. Well, to reach this, of course you need to write interesting content, how? That must be unique and don't use formal writing style. Add a joke is helpfull.

[ap4a]

Hmmm, yes, it's a proud if many people interest in your article, the indicator is a comment.

Not necessarily. Quite often that can be an indicator that you got it wrong - imagine if everyone is asking you to explain something that you thought you had already explained in the post, for example.

Add a joke is helpfull.

That would depend on the focus and target audience. It wouldn't be too helpful to add in a lot of jokes on a blog about Parkinson's Disease for example. If your blog is personal then having a loose friendly rapport is a good thing, but it isn't always appropriate.

[sarahG]

the indicator is a comment

Some of my best posts don't have any comments. I assume/hope that it's because my post addressed any potential questions and most of my readers don't feel that adding a one liner such as 'thanks for this post' really creates much value.

You'll often find that articles or posts that are more technical / tutorial based will get less comments. So a measure of comments is not a way to measure how good a post is. It's just a way to measure how popular a site is. I get far more comments on my posts on Blogging Tips than I do on my own site, but my quality of posts are just the same (in my opinion of course), which is simply due to the popularity of Blogging Tips.

[Kevin]

I would have to agree. I have spent a few hours writing some technical posts in the past and they only got 1 or 2 comments but some posts which took 10 minutes to write got dozens of comments.

In my opinion RSS subscribers remains the best indication of the popularity of a blog. There are some large popular blogs that don't get a lot of comments (well when you consider the traffic they get). Check out this post (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/16/microsoft-puts-weight-behind-open-source-projects-with-web-platform-installer/) which was posted yesterday on TechCrunch. TechCrunch has close to 1.2 million subscribers and that post only got two comments.

[Dannymh]

I have noticed that too.

My more detailed and techy posts get very few comments, or if they do they tend to be less constructive and more along the lines of "You have too much time on your hands" :)

I guess the more someone can tie the post to themselves and get to the bottom quickly, the more likely they are to respond

[akira07]

Haha, i find a fact that mostly best post (which many comment) is post about : Contest hahahahaha....!!!!!

[slee]

wow thanks guys i wasnt expecting this many comments maybe this is an indicator of being a good post ;)

joking aside thanks for the comments maybe once ive written a few more artiicles some of you might be interested in reviewing them for me?

my aim would be to eventually write for a offline magazine, i was very jealous of you Sarah :) although an onoline one would be great.

[narendra.s.v]

yeah as they allsaid good contest always works and interests people. So be creative, be list, be a blogger, be a good writer, be a social person :) and one day you be in mag :D

[sarahG]

yeah as they allsaid good contest always works and interests people.

How is having a contest on your site going to convince a magazine editor that you're capable of writing 3000+ word articles or 16 step tutorials for a printed magazine?

[Swtrose]

Submit your articles to article directories. A newspaper just contacted me today and asked permission to reprint one of my articles.

[akira07]

@swtrose
wow, congratulations. It's evidence that your article is very good...!!!