I think we all have a few low-paying magazines, websites, or other clients that we write for. We’re tempted to drop them, but we know they’ll be receptive to our ideas if things get dire, so we maintain the relationship, just in case… I’ve decided to take a different approach. Rather than dropping pubs that I’ve outgrown or keeping them around for a rainy day, I’m using them to get the kind of clips I want.
For instance, I’d like to write more on women’s health, but with only one clip in that genre, it’s hard to convince editors of bigger pubs that I can handle the research. So I’ll cut my teeth writing about women’s health for some smaller websites and see what happens… Of course, there’s also merit to writing the topics that you know, because that doesn’t require much research so you can churn out an article quickly, but then where’s the opportunity for growth?
Use Them or Lose Them!
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Great post (and great blog, I’ve been an avid reader for a while now). I write for free for places like Memoirville.com and The Huffington Post even while continuing to pursue some high-paying markets I want to crack, because those pieces are ones that are important to me, it gets my name out there and reaches new audiences, and makes me feel productive. I think we all have to decide which markets serve our interests, financial and otherwise; there’s no single right way.
Hey Rachel,
Huffington Post is a good one! I’d love to write for them. Couldn’t agree more about being strategic about where we’re willing to write for free. In fact, that was part of my New Year’s Resolution, but I’m still figuring out what that means for me.