journalism-advice.cubreporters.orgJournalism Advice

Should You Write For Content Mills Like Demand Studios? These days, lots of laid-off journalists and wannabe journalists are turning to so-called "content mills," such as Demand Studios, to find writing assignments. But is it worth it? It depends. Such content providers are good opportunities if you enjoy writing as a hobby, if you want to build a portfolio or if you want to establish yourself as a thought leader in a particular subject area. But they're not good opportunities for serious, professional writers. The time you invest on assignments isn't worth it for the meager pay. And there's not much room to express your creativity because often you'll be writing about pedestrian topics and required to follow strict writing guidelines. 1 Comments Study Abroad To Improve Your Journalism Job Prospects Studying abroad can be a great way to give yourself an edge in the journalism job market or journalism internship hunt. First, you can build your portfolio by helping out in a media outlet’s foreign bureau. Or look into contributing to English-language media in the foreign country. Many are severely understaffed and welcome the help. “While the crunch on foreign news budgets may limit the amount of staff correspondent posts available, it presents a golden opportunity for upstart journalists,” said Jason Motlagh, a freelancer who’s reported from West Africa, the Caucasus and Haiti. “I’ve met many other full-time reporters who broke in simply by showing up at a far-flung bureau and asking to lend a hand.” It will also give you something interesting to talk about when you interview for jobs or internships. Editors love young journalists who have demonstrated a sense of adventure and courage to go into foreign territories – skills that are very applicable to being a reporter. I always got asked about my junior year abroad in Cairo. Finally, you’ll gain perspective, learn about other cultures – and yourself – and have a lot of fun. 0 Comments Modernizing Your Journalism Job Application Increasingly, media companies are asking for applications to be sent electronically: either via e-mail or by completing an online form. If you're reading this, surely you know how to e-mail a cover letter and attach your resume as a file to it. But how are you supposed to send your clips? Electronically. Scan and save your publication clips as PDFs that can be attached as e-mail files or uploaded to a website (like this ). Upload broadcast clips to YouTube or (if over 10 minutes) Vimeo and e-mail the links (like this ). While a newspaper or station may have posted your materials on its website, those links often expire, require passwords or cost money to access. So, make your own electronic copies of your work samples. Better yet, create your own website and upload your portfolio to that (like this ). You can even convert your resume into a webpage (like this ). This way you won't inadvertently disqualify yourself from consideration for a job because an editor's using software that can't open your document file. Believe me, it happens. Moreover, you'll impress prospective bosses with your new media skills and separate yourself from other applicants. 0 Comments How to Promote Your Blog or Website These days, journalists need to be their own entrepreneurs and promote themselves – and their work – like a brand. There are many and varied ways to promote your blog and/or website to increase traffic. The 10 ways listed below are probably the easiest and most efficient ways. Plus, they're all free! 1. Word of mouth: this is a very basic and old school way of marketing but it has remained because it really is effective. All you have to do is tell all your family, friends and co-workers about your new site or blog and let them do the work! 2. Submit your site to search engines: this will ensure your site or blog is include in indexes for search engines and shows up when people do Google and Yahoo searches. See http://www.google.com/addurl and http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html 3. E-mail signatures: at the end of your e-mails, attach a link to your blog. Many e-mail programs, including Gmail and Adelphi’s, allow you to change your settings to automatically include a signature everytime you send an e-mail. Mine includes my name and contact info along with a plug for my website “Find journalism jobs, internships & more @ CubReporters.org”. 4. Social media: put a link to your blog or latest post on your Facebook page. When you post a video to YouTube, put a link in the description. 5. Twitter: there are two options. First, you can manually tweet about your blog using Twitter. You can post your own personal tweets with links to your blog posts, link to other people’s content, ask readers questions, etc. Second, you can set up an RSS feed using Twitterfeed. This is free and will do all the work for you. Basically, anytime you make a new post, a tweet will also appear on Twitter. You could also do a combination of the two: utilize Twitterfeed and also make your own custom tweets. See twitterfeed.com 6. E-mail organizations and people who are interested in your topic: I have a website about journalism careers, for example, so I e-mail journalism professors to let them know I have a website that might be useful for their students. E-mailing a professor may result in dozens of their students learning about my website. Likewise, I contact various journalism organizations, such as the Society of Professional Journalists and Asian American Journalists Association, in hopes that they will spread the word to their members. 7. Link exchanges: it is important to exchange links or get one-way links from relevant sites. The best way to do this is to manually search for websites and blogs related to your site and contact them for a link exchange. Use http://blogsearch.google.com . When soliciting links, remember, flattery will get you everywhere. When you pay someone a compliment, it piques their curiosity in who you are. “Who is this person with impeccable taste?” Be honest and sincere in your flattery, but it shouldn’t be hard to come up with a compliment. Something like, “Hey, I liked your post about [insert topic] because [insert compliment]. I also have a blog that I thought you might be interested in because [insert why it’s relevant]. My blog’s URL is [insert Web address].” 8. Other blogs comments sections and forums: regardless of what you cover, there are likely Internet discussion boards and numerous blogs related to your topic. If you’ve got a post that you think relates strongly to something that another blogger has written about or that is the topic of discussion on a forum – leave a link to your own post. The key to pulling this off without being labeled a spammer is to leave a genuinely useful comment on the blog or forum. The comment itself should add value, be right on topic and contribute to the conversation. Then if you include a link introduce it with a ‘I’ve written more about this at….’ type comment rather than just a spammy call to action. Relatedly, many newspapers have likely, at some point, written a story related to your blog topic or one of your blog posts. And many newspaper websites these days allow readers to post comments about stories. You can do a search using Google News. 9. Write a press release: some press release services don’t cost anything and they can be surprisingly effective with a little luck. For example, see www.i-newswire.com , www.free-press-release.com and ww.prlog.org 10. Pitch mainstream media: some posts will have mainstream media appeal. Shoot a reporter at a paper, magazine, TV or Radio station an email – you might get lucky. For example, if you write about Adelphi’s theater department, you might email the theater critic or arts writer at local newspapers. If you cover Adelphi sports, you might e-mail the college sports reporter at Newsday. 0 Comments How to Write a Journalism Resume There are many different formats you can use when writing a...