FINDING TOPICS THAT
MAKE YOUR ARTICLES
INDISPENSABLE
Gordon Burgett
Copyright © 2011 by Communication Unlimited
Published at Smashwords
(800) 563-1454
Since my recent publications have focused on how you can make yourself indispensable by empire building (and the lifelong wealth that can come from that), let’s talk about how you can apply that to magazine, newspaper, and newsletter articles.
Or, as the sub-title of this report says, “How to make it hard for (their) editors to say no.”
Mind you, most editors I know have a mission in mind but not much print space in which to achieve it (and keep their paying subscribers or buyers). So with an ever-shrinking budget to pay for copy, they have little difficulty saying “no” to almost anything from outsiders like us. Still, they must put something on their pages. Let’s make their rejection of the articles you propose much harder!
Why bother with articles in the first place?
Not for the big bucks—at least not directly. Often it’s for no bucks at all!
Our goal in empire building is to keep others regularly aware of our unique knowledge or service. It’s to show that we have special information or skill that the readers of key publications need to know, and, by extension, products, consulting, and speeches or seminars they might then rush to buy, use, or hear.
If we get paid along the way, that’s a welcome bonus and another reason for providing editors with copy that shouts (with appropriate demeanor) to be read!
Think of a publication as a convention in words. Conventions usually have a half-dozen key speakers, each offering his or her own thesis that attendees at that gathering particularly want to hear.
You are speaking at the convention (or writing an article) for three reasons: (1) to be one of those chosen speakers (or article authors) and thus be identified as exceptional, (2) to share your unique knowledge—the words and energy and clarity of expression—and thus show the listener that they need to hear more of what you know and can share, and (3) to display your “bio slug” (like a speaker’s introduction, here under the by-line or at the end of the article) to again state your name, your area(s) of expertise, how others can contact you, and what you’ve recently published where they can further check you out.
Except it’s much better in print because the reader can cut out and save those words to dutifully read again and again.
A mixed blessing. Spoken words, if not otherwise recorded, are here and gone. Errors, misspeaks, or the odd slip-up are often missed or dismissed. Printed words, like bells that can’t be unrung, are in print to be read and weighed forever.
In other words, you want to get in print because that in itself can be a huge payment. Being there says you are special, alive, current, and valuable. By using your knowledge or skills, the readers can use you again to reach their own goals or dreams.
How do you get on those pages?
That is really four key questions:
(1) Which publications are best for your empire building?
(2) How do you best contact the right editor at each?
(3) How do you find the right information and examples that convince the readers of each that you are the right expert they should seek for further information and help?
(4) What specific topic will the editor most likely find irresistible (thus indispensable, and the most difficult to reject)?
This report addresses the fourth only. The others become issues only when the editor agrees to read what you have to say about your topic. The right topic is the golden key that gets you permission to put your words on that editor’s pages. The right pages, the best means to contact the editor, and what words and examples you need are the process bricks of building your house in print. But the topic first gets the real estate on which the house is built, then shown.
I’ve written books about all four steps and spoken about the how-to’s of getting reliably and even profitably in print since the 1980s, so I promise to address the others in the “Lifelong Wealth by Being Indispensable” newsletter and related reports.
But let’s start with the most important element first—finding the topic—and I’ll add some critical pinches of the other processes as we go along. (I also have examples of key niche topics in one of the other free reports being sent to the newsletter subscribers, in 101 Niche Marketing Topics.)
How do we find those indispensable topics?
You start by determining where your words in print will (1) do the most good establishing you as an expert in your field and (2) carry the most weight with readers.
Which presumes you know your core topic, the topic you want identified with your name and all you sell.
Are you an expert (or can you be) on bathroom tile? Or reproductive disorders in pandas? Is the core of your empire “closing real estate sales in luxury condos”? Or, like three of my publishing clients, in “what every superintendent and principal needs to know”? (Not by chance that became the title of their best selling book.)
Whatever your core, what is read by those most in need of what you have to say (or write)? Compile a complete list of the topic-related publications where having your words seen will create a positive impression.
How do you do that? First you list all of the publications you read—or should. Then check www.google.com and see what publications appear when you type in your topic+publications (try magazines, newspapers, and newsletters, too). Continue your search at the library to see what other publications exist. (Let the research librarian acquaint you with the tools.) And if there are associations linked to your topic or vocation, check the Directory of Associations and both explore the appropriate association websites and see if they will send you a sample newsletter or magazine, if you don’t have one.
With diligence, you can often find research within the field itself about what its members read. You can also ask association directors, the newsletter editor, or the public relations officer.
Another way to create a double win is to do your own research. That might mean contacting several hundred of the key people in your field with a quick survey. Explain that you are attempting to determine an order of reading priority by leaders in your field, the results will be sent to every participant within a week (or on X date), and that all responses are completely confidential. Then list 8-10 of the best known publications, with several blank lines for the participants to add other suggestions, and ask them to put a number by those they read, with the most useful #1, the next most #2, and so on, but no number if they haven’t read the publication in, say, three or six months.
That will both help prioritize your list and put your name before your peers as a serious provider of information they probably want. You must follow through, of course, with the results. (Make certain what you send them is tightly and professionally written.)