6 months ago, I submitted an application to be a contributing writer for ONE37pm in the Sports Cards category.
After mentioning that my writing had been featured in other publications, including top ones for Medium, I thought it would be a slam dunk.
It wasn’t and I never heard back.
A few months later, I decided to apply in a different way. I’ll include the steps I took that you can copy as an alternative to traditional applications as a writer or any job.
It Started With a LinkedIn Message
In early 2021, I received a message on LinkedIn from a former MLB Executive.
He found and read a few sports card articles I published the previous year and wanted to set up a phone call to talk more about it.
Pro Tip: As you build your brand, you never know who will read your content and when they will read it. I didn’t think the message was real at first, but it turned out it was. I wrote for 2 years before receiving this type of message.
Once we got on the phone, he praised my writing and asked about my interest in a partnership. I politely declined, but the conversation helped me validate that my writing was strong and I should revisit ONE37pm with a different strategy.
Write for 8 Hours on a Rainy Sunday
A week after the call, I realized it was a mistake that I hadn’t just written a few articles to submit and see if they would be published. I had the validation of an MLB executive, so the plan was to get at least one of my articles read by a decision-maker at ONE37pm.
Before I could get an article read by a decision-maker, I had to make sure it was quality work, not just an item on a to-do list. This meant that I had to write on a Sunday, to give myself a full day to put content together.
In mid-February, I spent a full 8 hours producing 2 quality articles, that if read, would showcase my ability to analyze and present sports card data in a way that would help the general reader of ONE37pm get value.
Here’s the kicker: I had no promise of these articles being published, or doing anything for me. In fact, those original articles still have not been published.
Here’s the lesson: I spent 8 hours producing quality work that I wasn’t asked to do and it sat on a shelf for two months. I did it on a Sunday, a day off from my full-time job, but if I hadn’t done it, I would never have gotten my work published.
Cold Outreach on Twitter
Now that I had something to show a decision-maker, it was time to get in touch with one.
I scoured the ONE37pm website and its Twitter handle, to figure out who was involved with the sports card publishing aspect.
ONE37pm also has a sports card podcast, so I looked at one of the host’s Twitter profiles and found this:
Source: Twitter
He was actively posting and shared a lot of the content from ONE37pm. That means he checks Twitter and that he would see my request.
Because I had written the articles previously, my cold DM was more than just a statement of interest to write for ONE37pm. It was value-based:
Source: Twitter
I made sure to compliment his podcast, which demonstrated my genuine interest in his content and I made it easy for him to digest what I wrote in 55 seconds, by creating a Google Doc that outlined the Article Title and Summaries:
Source: Personal Google Docs
By doing all of this work up-front, I believe it helped me demonstrate my talent and commitment to producing articles that would provide value for his readers. It turned out, I was right:
Source: Twitter
I Had to Be Persistent For 2 Months
On February 17th, I received an e-mail from the publication editor asking to take a look at my articles. It wasn’t until April 27th that one of my articles was published, and it wasn’t one of the original articles I submitted.
Over the course of those two months, here are a few things that I did in the e-mail chain between myself and the editor:
- I wrote a third article as an excuse to give a friendly bump to the thread
- Each Friday, I followed up with a friendly ask about the articles and status
- I never got frustrated or upset when my content wasn’t published
- I wrote a fourth article that was finally a fit as a “right-now” article for the publication
- The editor called me to ask that I take a slightly different angle with that fourth article, and within an hour, I revised it and sent it along
Even though at times I felt like I was pushing, the persistence was recognized and appreciated:
Source: Personal E-mail
Finally, on April 27th, after a lot of work and persistence, my first article was published:
Source: ONE37pm
It was great to see the hard work pay off and finally get into the publication. My intent has always been to build my brand through my interests and passions, sports cards being of them.
There was no expectation of getting paid — the value for me was visibility and the social proof of being a ONE37pm contributor. It was also great practice to find a different door to enter for an opportunity.
Turning it into a paid gig
While it took two months to get some writing published, it didn’t take long for them to reach back out to request more content from me:
Source: Personal G-mail
The truth was that I actually didn’t have any articles in the hopper, but I told him I did and got right to work.
I spent that evening writing an article and woke up early the next day to polish it. I submitted it and it was posted that same day.
Continuing the proactive nature of my outreach, I wrote a follow-up article the next evening and submitted that one as well. It’s also going to be published and the follow-up e-mail stated an intention to pay me for future articles:
Source: G-mail
I never asked to be paid and my goal was to write valuable content, build my brand and see if any opportunity came of it.
After sharing my first article on social media, I received multiple DMs on Instagram about writing content for other platforms. It opened a door for me and was worth every bit of time committing to it.
The effort didn’t interfere with my full-time job or other side projects, and ultimately, since I was value-driven instead of seeking immediate monetary return, the scenario played out better than I could have hoped.
We agreed to a rate of $75 per article:
Source: Personal E-mail
Through persistence and different strategies, I not only got my work published on ONE37pm, but now will be paid for the work and have the opportunity to write more consistently.
So far, I’ve written 14 articles, 11 of them paid work!