10 Quick Tips for Freelance Writers: Online Magazine Jobs

If you’re interested in freelance writing, and especially if you’re already established and have some experience, you may want to consider looking for online magazine jobs. Magazine articles demand quality writing and can take some time and research to complete, but they also pay considerably more than your typical copywriting and content writing gigs. Magazine writing isn’t limited to print magazines; there are also many publications that are located exclusively online. If you’re looking for online magazine jobs, there are several types of publications, whether digital or in print, that you can search for:

• Mainstream magazines. This includes many print magazines, like Vogue, Men’s Life, and Better Homes and Gardens. They’re large, tenured publications with many, many readers and extensive reach. Some online publications may also fall into this category. It can be challenging to get an article pitch accepted to these kinds of publications, but if you have a great idea and the writing skills to pull it off, it’s definitely worth a try.


• Trade publications and niche online magazines. Trade publications are small periodicals aimed squarely at an audience within a particular industry, like manufacturing or restaurant management. Many of these are print magazines, although others may be located only online. There are also online magazines aimed at niches involving hobbies, like crocheting or woodworking. Freelance writing for these types of magazines don’t garner quite as much exposure as a larger, more well-known magazine, but the pay is fairly high, and it’s a great piece to have in your portfolio.

Pitching Your Article

Even if you’ve already written a piece in advance, you won’t submit a fully finished freelance article to a magazine. Instead, you’ll send them a pitch. Your pitch basically summarizes what you plan to write about. It generally should include:

• Your idea. A good freelance magazine article starts with a great idea. Make sure your idea isn’t too broad; it should be narrow enough to write about within the word limit constraints of a typical magazine article. For example, “social media marketing” is too broad, whereas “Using Pinterest and Other Image Sites for Social Media Marketing” is narrow enough to work with.


• The lede. The lede is usually a “sample” of the article, including the first couple of paragraphs. This introduces the piece as a whole, and gives the magazine editors an idea of your overall writing style.


• A list of what you’re going to cover in your article. This consists of the “meat” of your article, which will eventually become the body of the piece.


• Some basic information about yourself and your qualifications.