They also use syndication as a sort of soft payment since they don’t actually pay contributors who aren’t staff writers. Since I’m working from the assumption that you haven’t contributed to Business Insider before, you’re not going to be syndicated directly. The key is to leverage your own unique perspective. Bring something to the table that you get from blogging about your subject, from running a business in your industry, or just from your personal experience. They want content that has unique commentary and opinions.
They don’t want generic, published-everywhere content. If you have past samples of published work, throw in a humble brag. This lets the editor know before they click to read your draft that your writing has been published before by other editors. Rather than drop links themselves into your pitch, hyperlink to them from individual words; this will give your pitch a tighter, cleaner look. If you do these things, you’ll be well on your way to getting paid business writing assignments related to e-commerce.
Readers; even if they are not working in tech, it’s something they want to read. You might be surprised to learn that it’s actually relatively straight-forward to become a contributor to Business Insider. They aren’t as picky as many other high profile sites, and you have several possible options to get in.
Content posted on Medium is spread based upon the engagement and interest the pieces receive. If you have a compelling personal story, this may be the place for you. To contribute to Inc.com, pitch your story idea first .
The piece must be original and exclusive to Forbes. They won’t consider articles that have already been published either in print or online. The piece must be original and exclusive toThe Times.They won’t consider articles that have already been published either in print or online. They prefer you send them a short pitch instead of a full article so they can give early feedback. However, they do need to see a full draft before officially accepting your piece, even if they’ve asked you to write it.
To write as a contributor or pitch a first-person freelance idea, contact Debbie Strong at Make sure your idea is in line with what they publish—and that the topic isn’t too similar to an angle they’ve already covered. Do your homework, and make sure your ideas are different from what they’ve already published. The editors also like to feature articles about innovative local individuals and companies.
They will not respond to all inquires, and they are open to one follow up email. Yet, if you don’t hear anything from them after this, you can assume that your work wasn’t a good fit for their site. It is better to think in the style of op-ed instead of marketing pieces when writing pieces for Fast Company. It’s not easy to become published on this site, but in my experience it’s certainly worth the effort.
There’s no “pitch an idea and we’ll get back to you” process with Business Insider. The first is that they have hundreds of contributors and thousands of submissions to comb through pretty much at all times. If anyone tried to go through a multi-step process like that, it would eat up the time of the editors, and that’s a hassle they don’t want to deal with. On a case by case basis, we accept posts from outside contributors that fit in nicely with the areas we cover. We don’t pay freelancers, but we’re willing to republish blog posts or articles that you retain the rights to.
