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Syndicated Newspaper Column

You'll find everything you need to know about positioning yourself as an expert by getting into self-syndication with your own syndicated newspaper column.

Marketing your Syndicated Newspaper Column to News Editors

Excerpted from Syndication Secrets - What No One Will Tell You! (March 2006), by Jodie Lynn.

Make your first impression good. Write your column. Edit it. Take some time away from it, then edit it again. Let others read it and jot down their opinions. Put it away for several days and begin this process all over again. I also sent the information I got from all of the "polls" I conducted.

Many people do not send in query letters because they feel it just prolongs the final result. What people really should do is to send both a query letter and a sample column, or whatever the newspaper or syndicates guidelines say to do.

Market your entire package/proposal (your package/proposal is basically all of the material you are sending) in a brightly colored, large envelope as described earlier. Everyone likes to get to the attractive things first.
I do not care who says this does not matter; it does. I get more than 15 packages a day. This triples in the weeks leading up to Christmas. My entire family has to help me keep an inventory of the items, products (including books) and tons of things for kids. The reason I get so much stuff is that if I plug something in my internationally syndicated column, it is worth mega free advertising bucks for these companies. They often respond by sending me samples of their product.

The packages that catch my attention are the ones that stand out because of their wrapper. For example, a couple of years ago, Disney sent me a wooden crate full of toys based on the Looney Tunes gang. They made a new movie, DVD and tons of other things to try to remarket Daffy Duck, the Tasmanian Devil and some of the older characters of yesteryear.

The wooden crate was full of action figures, T-shirts, caps, games, CDs, movies, and even a new Barbie. What stood out to me? It was the "dazzle" and quality of the crate. It was unique, was an unusual size, and could be used to store items, plus it contained a lot of fun stuff. It was different and got my attention!

The same is likely to be true of the editors you deal with at a newspaper or syndicate. They get a lot of submissions, so make yours stand out. The stamped return envelopes that you send in with the rest of your material can be plain. It is important to make a good first impression and get your proposal opened.

Another example of how creative marketing might help: Oprah once asked for different things to be sent in for a show - things people had invented or were selling that they thought were unique. At the time, I belonged to a business women's group that had around 50 or so members. Someone came up with the idea of making large colored cubicles and gluing different items to the outside of the cubicles.

The cubicles ranged in size and pattern, making the completed project quite large, probably about the same height as Oprah and almost as wide as the couch she kept on stage at that time.

It turned out to be such a rare work of creative marketing that Oprah actually showed it on stage and announced the group's name. This was quite exciting, and everyone was thrilled when she chose to show America what the business women in our division had come up with.

As you can see, first impressions are important and packaging is the first impression.

Stand out in a crowd - better yet, be noticeable in a group!

Article by Parenting expert Jodie Lynn, an award-winning internationally syndicated family/health columnist and radio personality. Her column, Parent to Parent , has been successful for over ten years and continues to grow in popularity with a readership of up to 20 million readers.

In her book, Syndication Secrets she shares the exact process she used to do it. It's really great. She shares everything from deciding what to write about, writing query letters, pitching editors on the phone, follow up, organizational tips, Internet ideas and straight through to editorial rebuttals. She helps you get inside the editor's head so you know how to speak their languange when you pitch the column. Click here to learn more about Syndication Secrets today!

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