Laura’s Blog

My son and I were in the waiting room of his physical therapist when we spotted Horse Illustrated, a magazine for equine enthusiasts (the cover horse was quite handsome!).

What’s your specialty?

Chances are, there’s a trade magazine or newsletter (either print or online) for that industry.

Here are a few “trades” I discovered:

• Today’s Trucking
• Nail Pro (the finger and toe variety of nails)
• Sign Builder Illustrated
• InTents (for the tent rental and fabric structure industries)
• Concrete Construction
• Impressions (for the embroidery/monogram industry)

Trade journals are a great place to recycle your blog articles. You can also sell original articles to trades.

I adapted an article from my blog for SpaRetailer, a print and online magazine for hot tub retailers. This magazine includes an extensive marketing section, so I pitched them an article about how to create a promotional campaign that features “what’s in it for me” content. They bought it and published my article in their March/April 2010 issue.

Not only did they publish my article, but they asked me to submit a sidebar (a super-short, tips-based article) for their May/June issue. My sidebar, “Five critical elements every business blog needs,” became the focal point of a feature article, “Blogging for Business.”

The feature (written by one of their in-house staff) included an interview with my client, Rich’s for the Home (a major hot tub retailer in the Seattle area), and an interview with me.  I wasn’t expecting to be quoted, so I was pleased that they featured me as an expert and included a link to my Website.

If you want to build your reputation as an industry expert, I encourage you to re-purpose your blog articles for trade magazines. Trades are always looking for well-written content, and many of them pay (some of them pay quite well, in fact).

You’ll find an exhaustive list of trade journals in the 2010 Writer’s Market (*Note: the 2011 Writer’s Market will be out July 12, 2010).

Here’s an assignment to get you thinking outside the barn:

1. Brainstorm how you can re-purpose an article you’ve written for FeedLot Magazine (breaking news that pertains to the livestock industry).
2. Share your “pitch” or your article idea in the Comments area of this post.
3. Get mooooving!