I am incredibly fortunate to write for The Huffington Post. The exposure has been great for my writing career.
That said, there’s not a good “how-to” guide for “How to Be a Successful HuffPo Blogger.” That left me with trial and error.
Here are just a few things I wish I had known before writing for The Huffington Post.
- Your author bio doesn’t automatically appear on the bottom of your posts. Since I had to fill out detailed information for my profile, I thought at least some of it would appear at the end of each post. Plus I had read plenty of other articles on The Huffington Post, and each of them had an author bio included. Well, it turns out authors have to add each of those manually. So my first (and most popular) piece doesn’t include any bio details. I learned my lesson, and now I add a few lines about me at the conclusion of each post.
- The Huffington Post might accept your post, but they don’t always feature it. Like with my own blog posts, self-promotion is key. I’ve been fortunate to have some of my work prominently featured in the Weddings section, but other times, my link has been at the very bottom of the of the Women’s section. My HuffPo writing does best when I promote it myself and get my friends to share it.
- Trolls can hurt. I’ve had a few trolls on my blog, but writing for The Huffington Post has exposed me to a whole new world of hateful people. Some comments are just ignorant, but others are intentionally cruel. I get to a point where I have to just stop reading the comments because it’s not good for my mental health.
- It can take a whole week for editors to approve your submission. So far, everything I’ve submitted to The Huffington Post has been accepted. So far, only one article I wrote was not originally posted here. It was a time-sensitive piece, but it took the editors of the Women’s section an entire week to publish it. I immediately emailed the team with an update, and it took another 24 hours or so for them to update it. I ended up with 1,000+ comments asking why I had written about such an old story and why I didn’t include the latest details. I was just as annoyed as everyone commenting.
- You can’t predict what will be popular. I publish 3-5 posts a week here on Belle Brita. I submit only 1-3 posts a month to The Huffington Post. I choose to submit pieces that performed well here, either in terms of page views or comments or both. Some of my HuffPo articles have thousands of Facebook likes and over one hundred comments. Others have less than one hundred Facebook likes and zero comments. It’s basically a guessing game.
I'm currently a FEATURED blogger on @HuffPostWomen http://t.co/zYLnoTRTCe #winning pic.twitter.com/oE2IFNPB3e
— Brita Long (@BelleBrita) May 13, 2015
If you follow my advice from Wednesday and end up writing for The Huffington Post, hopefully you’ll be more prepared than I was!
Ugh, #3. I saw some of the troll comments on your latest featured post. I really don’t understand why people make criticism so personal. If you’re going to criticize or disagree, try hard to make it objective and constructive to foster a discussion. And the trolls, just. . .why. Honestly, if I were in your position, I probably wouldn’t even read the comments!
I read somewhere once that the comments in any article on feminism proves the need for feminism. Between the men telling me I was inventing problems and the women telling me not to be a “stumbling block,” I think I made my point!
I read some of the comments, but I’m not reading any more.
I had a post on Thought Catalog a while back and I got some really really mean comments. It hurt me enough that I haven’t submitted anything to anyone since. Eventually I will toughen up and try again.
It’s definitely hard at times. The comments can just be so deliberately malicious. I mean, I often disagree with other writers, but I think very carefully about whether or not to leave a comment in disagreement. Then I read through it several times to make sure it’s as polite as possible.
You know though I have a very few followers on my blog I’m glad they’re all kind. When I submitted on TCat, I had all sorts of mean comments. It’s a pity to see how mediocre and small minded the world could be and are threatened by your brilliance. But it’s true that you just have to accept that and carry on doing what you do.
Thanks for these tips. It sure is a dream for bloggers to be featured to giant sites like Huffington. You’re blessed!
Thank you so much for your encouragement! I do consider myself to be pretty lucky that HuffPo lets me write on their platform. I just have to ignore the trolls and keep writing. 🙂
What a great experience for you! I can see where just down right mean people are bored and try to take their unhappiness out on you. Not reading the comments is probably the best thing you can do!
I especially wonder at the men who go through articles on HuffPost Women (I’ve seen it on pieces other than my own) and leave comments like:
“This is pointless.”
“I just wasted 3 minutes of my life.”
“Who cares?”
And I’m just like… maybe it’s not about you?
Yes! I have seen this and wondered the exact same thing!! 🙂
The trolls are the main reason I’ve steered clear of writing anything I intend to submit to places like HuffPo. I know how mean people can be on there, and I’m not sure I want to put myself out there like that. I know it’s them, it’s not personal, but it’s still just like… why? Why do that at all?
It’s definitely hard. Basically if you’re a woman with opinions on the Internet, the trolls will attack. I mean, I received nothing but friendly comments on a post about what my parents taught me about marriage. But my feminist stuff is always way more popular… and way more hated. Still, for each troll being a jerk, there’s someone else telling me I’ve articulated what they’ve tried to say for years, or I’ve validated their own experiences.
Sometimes (quite often, actually!) I read the comments and think I will never, ever be brave enough to submit anything to anyone! I agree with so many others here — why be so mean? I do not share the same opinion with many things I read online, but common courtesy still prevails.
Interesting post! I do find it sad that people can be so mean when they’re hiding behind the anonymity of a computer. I guess you just have to ignore them (sounds like you do) but it’s still sad. Congrats on all your posts getting accepted though…that’s great!
Lisa @ Fun Money Mom
The anonymity definitely contributes to it. I’ve had some wonderful, passionate discussions with people with whom I’ve disagreed vehemently, but with few exceptions, they’ve always been civil. I say the exact same stuff online, and people can’t wait to spew vile words at me.
I would actually be very curious as to how much Huff Post actually pays their writers.
I hate that they don’t always accept your hard work either. It’s like you’re playing the lottery.
Ha, they pay us exactly $0. While I’m usually pretty against the idea of working for “exposure,” sometimes a company is big enough that you can get enough exposure. Since I only submit pieces I’ve already posted to my own blog, I’m not doing too much extra work for them. The increase in my page views to my own blog, not to mention all my social media followers, has been huge. Eventually I hope to be successful enough that I don’t need to write for them anymore, but at the moment, I depend on their audience to grow my own readership.
I certainly see your view on that! I would in fact love to write for Huff Post purely for exposure!
This article answered my question from your top ten post I just commented on. Great tips! Pinning this.
Thank you so much for your information! I might consider to post on huffington now!
I am getting ready to submit my first post so I appreciate the tip about putting your info at the bottom of each post. Right now I’m debating between doing a written post or a video. Thanks!