This Guest Post has been submitted by J.T Dabbagian.
When I worked for my community college’s newspaper, I was told a story about a man whose goal was to work for the Los Angeles Times. My teacher stated that it was his New Yorker. Not to be confused with the Literary Magazine The New Yorker, the term ‘New Yorker’ is given to the print, literary, or other media outlet that is the dream or goal outlet of a person.
As bloggers, a good deal of us have blogs that we greatly admire, and many would jump at the chance to work, or even contribute to such a blog. For me, my New Yorker is the productivity blog Lifehacker. For others, it could be sites like Problogger, or a Google Blog, or any other blog. Whether your goal is to actually work for the blog, or merely to continue having your own blog, you can benefit from having a New Yorker to look up to.
Remember that in blogging, it’s best to have a role model in the blogosphere. Your New Yorker should be none other then that very role model in your blogging experience. Want to write for The Motley Fool? Learn their style; it’s probably one of the reasons why they’re so popular. Don’t completely rip off their articles, obviously, but there is something to be said in copying the professional style of a blog. How does this tie in to making money? It works in two ways: Directly, with contribution, and indirectly, with reference.
Making a contribution to the site
If you’re a contributor to one of the sites, or an author, odds are for the bigger blogs that you might be able to work out a deal for either a segment of the revenue, or maybe be paid directly by the site! Often times, even the smaller blogs, or blogs that don’t rely too much on revenue can often give you something in return, such as hosting, or a recommendation on LinkedIn.
Furthermore, If you become an author of said site, their influence, their reach, all becomes YOUR reach! Also, their audience becomes your audience as well, to an extent, which means more traffic driven to you, more ads clicked, and more money!
So what do you do? Write a query email to the blog’s head writer, and send a proposal of your topic article. Later on, as you post more entries, you might consider offering your services as an editor.
References and Recommendations
For blogs that look down on generating money or revenue, or can’t generate good revenue, you can still get a good deal out of working your blog in a similar style. When the blog site in question posts a blog entry to something similar to what you’ve done, comment and show the blog entry in question.
In another aspect, you can also email the blog any time you have an interesting entry you’d like them to read. Email then with something like ìInteresting blog entry (Blog topic)î in the subject, then describe the post, and why it’s relevant to their blog. Best case scenario is that they link to that blog, in a way recommending the post. This way, you still get traffic, a link to your blog, and a potential reference for later.
So with that in mind, the question I’d like to ask you is what YOUR New Yorker is? Post in the comments!
Read more of J.T’s posts at www.jtdabbagian.com
My blogging goal is to be read by mass quantities of people…..DROVES :)
My “New Yorker” is Entrepreneur Magazine. *=)
As a writer on personal finance I got mine when I was offered a staff job at The Finance Forums.
I’m not sure if i would qualify them as my new yorker, but i greatly admire Steve Pavlina’s blog, and MP3 blog Motel de moka.
I don’t have one, I have many! ;)
The reason I don’t have just one is that the secret to be successful is to be unique, so if you concentrate on being like some other, chances are nobody will notice you, that’s why it’s good to learn a bit of each blog you like, and then put a lot of your personal spice. Inventiveness my friends! We have enough gizmodos already ! X)))
I love that term “My New Yorker” – it reminds me of being young and innocent. I guess mine would be to get printed in any traditional media. That would mean that my blog was noticed, and my writing style “approved” for the masses. I know that, in many ways, traditional media is going the way of the dinosaurs. But to me, it would be the ultimate to get PUBLISHED in any way, shape, or form. Once I reach that goal, I am sure I will get a new one, like to write a book. Until then, there is my blog….
tks for this great idea and suggestion. Have not considered this strategy, but will seriously start doing so. I would love to be able to contribute her though, perhaps someday….. :)
Thing’s are not that simple! I’ve been guest posting on several blogs and I can tell you that my traffic increased just a little. Not worth my effort.
Sorry to disagree, but it was MY experience, maybe things went wrong with me.
Beijinho (kiss)
Ooh – great question! And timely for me.
First, I’ve been contemplating applying for some paid blogging work at a site whose typical posts, while compelling, are completely outside my sweet spot – not the kind of writing I usually do at all.
And second, I picked up a couple of magazines last night and read them over dinner (I’m on a solo business trip this week) and thought, “Bingo! This is it, this is the kind of stuff I’d really love to sink my teeth into and write.” The magazines? Popular Mechanics and Popular Science.
I’m a hopeless geek. ;)
My New Yorker was Apartment Therapy. One of my start-up goals was to get linked to by them. Well that happened in the first month! I still admire the way that they’ve grown their site and the community they’ve generated there.
My New Yorker eh? I never really thought it through to be honest, but to be honest I am an admirer of most of the blogs in my feedreader. Some of them are huge, some of them not so much. I guess my goal is more to make a name for myself than for my blog to become insanely popular, though I suppose in many ways those two things are connected.
My New Yorker is eMoms at Home. Very good blog and I admire Wendy, her blog is one that I follow and use as motivation. Problogger would be second on my list, but it doesn´t really relate to my niche.
Mine would be World Hum because they publish interesting, in-depth travel articles with a real feel for local places and people.
My New Yorker is for my blog to become so popular that it is someone else’s New Yorker. :-)
Love this article! I quite enjoy reader the New Yorker magazine.. not the literary one, the other one (online at nymag.com– they’ve got an article on steve jobs this week).
My New Yorker is also Lifehack! And dumblittleman too, since my blog is on personal development. I’m going to try to contribute to them… I would absolutely love to be linked to by them!
I also admire StevePavlina, though I don’t agree with all his philosophies. I greatly admire his hard work, and a link from him would be fabulous!
And obviously, I love Problogger! It’s outside of my topic though…
My New Yorker, well to have a successful blog that people enjoy reading. Perhaps have one or two readers that find my sense of humor amusing and laugh with me. Provide a service that people find fills a need they have. Most importantly, I’m having fun doing it.
What do you mean, ‘not to be confused with the literary magazine The New Yorker’?
How do you think the phrase came about?! It actually does come from the literary magazine The New Yorker. The phrase derives from the fact that many writers’ dream is to write for The New Yorker.
Forbes.
I’m in the boat of not having a New Yorker… just trying to break out.
@caitlin
True, but that still doesn’t mean you shouldn’t confuse them.
Anyway, thanks to all for the comments! I’m happy to have been able to have written for Problogger.
Right now, it’s Deadspin. Updated regularly throughout the day with humorous commentary on various sports related topics, and has a large number of commenters that keep the humor going.
One of the best days of my young blogging “career” was having a post that I had written on my own site get put up there after I had e-mailed a link over. I felt like my writing and effort had been validated in some way because a popular site like that thought it was so good that they made it the main focus of some of their content.