Writing Newsworthy Articles for Rankings and PR

A great way to get high-reputation backlinks to your site and publicity in solid Australian media is to write newsworthy articles.

Soon, I’ll explain how the magic happens.

In journalism at Uni, we learned that every story must be:

  • Timely – the right time for the story to run
  • Newsworthy – important for readers of the media
  • Short and sharp – take out any fluff
  • Written for the readership


The Wrong Way to Use Articles

You might be jaded and put all articles online into the same box, however they vary widely. Business articles written for undifferentiated article directories, Quora and Medium don’t do much for your SEO, and may send a dribble of referral traffic. It’s easy to do and that’s why cheap SEO contractors do it that way. Blah.

write articles for reputation

The Right Way to Write Articles for Reputation

There’s no point doing all that writing for little business result. The golden egg is: to publish an interesting article with a live backlink from a high domain authority site in Australia. Somewhere like Mumbrella, Dynamic Business, Business Insider, StartupSmart, Startup News WA, Foundr, Women’s Agenda, Leaders in Heels.

This means thoroughly checking what these sites will allow before submission, including the links allowed or bio size. Also, it pays to check what kind of readers they have and what tone you should use.

But first: find the editor or submission page. Remember, you want to build a relationship with them (not burn through favours) and a vital contact in your area will pay dividends over time.

Go to LinkedIn and Twitter to find magazine editors. Use the search function with the keyword #editor and location: Australia. 

Or if you’re trying to get comments into a story, then you’ll look for journalists. 

 

Newsworthy Stories

At the heart of this strategy is newsworthy happenings. Things to jog your thoughts on this:

  1. 10 years in business and a wonderful celebration/competition
  2. Won a business or advertising award? Crow about it (enter some to improve chances!)
  3. Doing good in the community – e.g. giving a free basket of goods to a rest home
  4. Creating a new product that saves time/money/helps health? Find the angle.

Don’t forget, get an amateur photographer to take some good shots.

  • Won a competition or grant to start a business? Write about that
  • Launching a book?  Focus on outcomes for the public, not your book
  • Being newsworthy – you’re 75 and starting a business, you run an arts group, you create paper machiere masks for a hobby.

Don’t worry if your news isn’t earth-shattering, because there’s one more key to getting an article published. Which is:

Relevancy

So if a website portal is self-starting women (like YMag) then highlight your spokeswoman’s career and challenge that you overcome to be in business.

Being relevant to the media is another must-do.

timing is part of article writing strategy

Timing

Another way to meet relevancy and timing is to spin an article towards a current news issue.

Let’s make up an example.

We know that young university students are having a tough time without casual work and find it hard to get related experience too, let alone a dream job.

Your digital media agency hires two interns and promises to give one a well-paying, relevant job after 12 weeks. IN the article, you can talk about the reasons you want to give young people a leg up; give some statistics about how long it takes to get a job after graduating and impact on their morale; speculate on future recession times, where it will be even harder.

These angles depend also on the magazine or website chosen. Try two: one local magazine and one national media or media/jobs site. The initial pitch would be slightly different.

 

Don’t forget the Backlink and Contact Data!

If you get an article writer, make sure there is a live backlink to your website placed in the bottom paragraph.

On a media release, ensure there is a spokesperson’s contact details (including phone number, email). Optionally add the words., “photographs on request”

Remember, all editors and journalists are extremely busy and don’t have time to look up your website and find photos on your behalf. Provide them for them.

And if the editorial team is kind enough to leave your backlink in the article, then this article may get the coveted ‘dofollow’ link from their High Domain Authority site: a small win for your Google rankings.

 

Writing newsworthy articles for ranking and PR is easiest with a freelance copywriter writing or editing your valiant attempts, hint, hint.