You need to have a long-term guest blogging strategy in place if you want to establish your reputation in the field. It will also help provide you with new job opportunities.
Where your guest posts are published will have a massive effect on your career. And the Huffington Post is one of the most reputable authority publications on top of the guest-posting list of many professional and budding writers of today. However, submitting articles to the Huffington Post and getting them published is not as easy.
Writers who are not staff of the company is known as HuffPost bloggers. Once you’re accepted as a blogger, it’ll be like you have a column of your own on their site. As a result, you’ll have fewer obstacles to endure in terms of pitching and publishing your articles.
So what does it take to get approval for your first article? Find out in this article about the essential Huffington Post submissions guidelines you need to know right now.
What Is Huffington Post?
Before submitting stories to Huffington Post or HuffPost, you first have to get to know the company itself. It will allow you to understand their mission, standards, and approach on stories, which you can apply to your work.
AOL owned the American online news and blog publication. It got its name from Arianna Huffington, who is not only an author but also a political activist. Founded in 2005, it became one of the top 10 largest news websites in America on April 2011. And since 2012, it’s visited by around 40 million unique visitors each month and steadily growing.
Since it was launched, the company’s growth is both notable and constant. According to the HuffPost, “they are for the people, not the powerful.” Their mission is to provide entertainment minus the guilt. They also shat people from all walks of life need and want to know to provide them with ways on how they can best live their lives.
At first, the site focuses mainly on politics. Today you’ll find not only news but original content, blogs, and satire covering the following:
- Business
- Politics
- Entertainment
- Technology
- Environment
- Popular Media
- Healthy Living
- Culture
- Women’s Interests
- Comedy
- Lifestyle
- Local News
Diversity plays a big part in their mission. It’s what makes them who they are. You can also see it on the stories they tell, which means that you have to submit an article to the Huffington Post that can reach a diverse range of audiences.
Furthermore, their standards include accuracy, transparency, and thoroughness in terms of resources. They also make it a point to check and confirm the legitimacy of the information through various sources if applicable. They do, however, provide source anonymity to protect them but not to those who only want to avoid responsibility for their views and opinions.
Can I Write For Huffington Post?
Recently, the HuffPost extended their invitation to anyone who wants to contribute to their site. Meaning, any writer can sign up, write, and submit their blog post.
You can submit whatever blog topic you want. However, it’ll be beneficial on your part if the subject you’ll tackle is something you’re an expert at or have personal experience. Before pitching a post idea, ask yourself first if the readers of the HuffPost will find your content relevant to their lives. Or what value can your published article offer to them?
The company wants to provide its audience with a reliable and trusted source on subjects that they’ll care about. So make you sure to consider these things when you pitch to Huffington Post.
When you become one of their bloggers (posts contributor), you’ll be able to submit as many blog posts as you want, whenever you want. You can do it as often as once a week or as little as monthly, and even annually. As you long as you have something relevant, authoritative, and vital to say, you can write and submit it to them.
Remember to keep the tone of your article not only persuasive but also engaging and written as a first-person. And do not forget that it should be opinion-led and written with the UK audience in mind.
Why Should I Write For Huffington Post?
Unfortunately, your Huffington Post submissions will not get indexed. So your quality content will not include any backlinks to your site. And although they pay writers, they don’t pay guest bloggers. Instead, they’ll offer you a byline link.
So why should you even consider submitting to Huffington Post? Well, for starters, they’re one of the most well-known publishing sites across the globe. And secondly, there’s a high chance that people will give your links attention even if search engine bots keep on ignoring them.
Aside from these, here are the reasons why should contribute to the Huffington Post:
- You can build your own online community or audience. Posting high-quality content regularly to the HuffPost site allows you to grow an online fan base. Readers are more likely to give your amazing articles the time of day. So although you will not get any SEO results from your links, real people may see and click them. Additionally, you are allowed to link your posts to your social media accounts.
- You still have all the rights to your articles. You’ll still obtain rights to your content when you write for the Huffington Post. However, you’re also giving them the right to use it as they see fit. This means that you’re allowed to post the same content on any platform you want without any hassle. But it’s also legal if the company intends to utilize your post as clickbait to bring money to their site. That’s a good thing though since it’ll bring in more audience to your content.
- You’re given the freedom to post whenever you want. There are no maximum or minimum post requirements during a specific period. You will not be pressured to post. However, if you’re going to promote your brand, it’ll be better to contribute more often.
How To Submit To Huffington Post?
Although becoming a HuffPost blogger is a challenging attempt, it’s still doable. You can do so by following these simple tips:
- Try to model your blog post to the style of their bloggers on their site’s targeted section.
- When sending a pitch, make it short while emphasizing on your topic’s most exciting and intriguing aspects.
- Make sure to send everything. Aside from your pitch, send in your headshot and author bio.
- Try to comment on the Facebook page of the Huffington Post until you get an invite by one of their editors to contribute something.
- It’s also beneficial if you’ll develop a relationship with one or two HuffPost bloggers. Comment on their posts or ask for help about how you can submit your fantastic work to a Huffington post editor.
- You may also want to contact one of the editors of their targeted section directly by email.
Reading the blog posts in the sections you’re interested in writing for is also a good idea. Make sure to contribute well-curated responses. Try doing this for some time, and you may see your efforts paying off. Then, if lady luck is on your side, a HuffPost personal (editor) may contact you for blog ideas. If not, it’s still a plus point since you’ll be building your reputation around smart and valuable comments.
If all else fails, you can just submit a blog post that’s well-written through the Huffington post submissions form on their contact page. Huffington blog post submission requires a near-final or final 500 to 800-word final draft article.
How To Pitch To Huffington Post?
You can email your Huffington post pitch by emailing their blog team at ukblogteam@huffpost.com. Keep the following guidelines in mind when submitting your idea:
- You can pitch in any blog topic you want. However, ensure the plan is something you have the expertise and have personal experience.
- It should be a subject that their audience would want to read and relevant today.
- Blog around topics that their audience will care about. Consider scanning HuffPost blogs before submitting your work to have an idea what they’re looking.
- Passionately written blogs describing your personal experience will resonate better with their site readers.
- Use an engaging tone and language. Make it persuasive and write with a broad audience, especially those in the UK, in mind.
- Write an opinion-led piece as a first-person.
- They won’t edit any of your position or reasoning on a subject. However, they’ll ask for your permission to edit the title of your blog post for SEO purposes.
- The recommended number of words is between 500 to 800.
- If their editor thinks that your HuffPost submissions can capture the attention of their registers, they’ll try to publish them within 24 hours. However, they do not work during weekends and evenings.
- They have a small team with thousands of writers pitching ideas, so during busy times, getting your post published on the Huffington Post may take longer than usual.
- You’re allowed to cross-post and link back to your site indicating that the piece was first published there. They will not cross-post anything their audience will find irrelevant.
- You can embed videos or photos as long as you have permission to use them.
What Kind Of Blog Posts Will Not Get Published?
- Articles that are diary-like, too subjective or focusing too much on a niche.
- Anything that advertises a personal business that the majority of its readers will not find relevant.
- Huff Post will not accept interview-based articles.
- Any reviews of straight travel, locations, events, activities, music, products, or films will not get approval as well.
- They’ll accept blog pieces critiquing certain media and those raising awareness about wider social issues.
- Huffington Post will not accept your post if it’s written like publicity or endorsing a product. Breaching this guideline will more likely ban you from ever blogging to the site.
- Even if you’re a Huff Post blogger, that doesn’t mean you’re a representative or employee of the company. They’ll ban you if you use their name to get access to products, people, and events.
- They have the right not to publish your piece if it doesn’t meet their expectations and quality standards.
To ensure your Huffington Post article submission gets published, it should not exceed the required number of words. It should also be reasonable with video and images as well to provide multimedia experience.
Make sure it has clear and descriptive headlines instead of short, puns, and vague ones. When brainstorming a title, think about the titles that make you stop when scrolling through your search engine searches. Your headline should convey to the readers what you’re blogging about right away as well as encourage them to click your link.
Furthermore, write your blog post in a shareable and informal tone. You’d want it to not only be persuasive but can keep the readers wanting more about what you’re talking about.
Additional Information On How To Contribute To Huffington Post
Your Huffington Post pitch should:
- Summarize your topic or story idea.
- It should briefly explain the reason why you’re an expert about the piece. It should also describe your experience about it and why you’re the best person to write about it.
- Provide a quick explanation of why your argument is significant to the story. Include what the stakes are as well.
- Include a brief outline of how your blog post will begin and end. Add the article draft to the email’s body if possible.
- The subject line should have an informative and clear headline. Also, specify in your subject line if what you’re pitching is newsworthy.
- Do not forget to submit a short author bio describing your past writing experiences. Include relevant links to published content.
- Your pitch should be your own work since they don’t accept those from agents or PR reps.
Make sure to pitch something that will interest Huff Post readers. Avoid chances of getting declined by not including promotional links to your content or any financial incentives. Wait within 24 hours after Huffington Post submission for your post to get published, or longer depending on the blog post volume they receive every day.
It’s hard to aim for the front page. But if you want to increase the possibilities of your article to be featured by one of their editors, post its link in your social media channels or email list.
