3 Easy Types of Articles & Guest Posts to Write for Magazines, Blogs and More

As an expert in your career field or that thing you do for fun, you never know when you might be invited to write an article for a publication. Expert knowledge is needed in industry magazines, niche blogs, newsletters and anthologies. If you can share some of your knowledge in publications like these, you stand to gain new followers and will build credibility as a go-to person in your field of expertise. Sound intimidating? Let’s put the jitters aside and start forming a plan of action to write that article!

Tip List

A tip list is the kind of article I’m writing right now. First, I came up with a topic I thought my audience might be interested in learning more about, “Easy types of articles or blog posts to write for an industry publication.” I’ve turned the topic into the article’s title.

Then I made a list of the simpler types of article and blog post structures I’m familiar with. Once I knew I had enough “tips” to support my topic, I wrote the introduction and descriptions of each tip, connecting them back to the topic.

Question & Answer (Q&A) Interview

If you are writing a guest blog post or are contributing to a magazine for the first time, a Q&A style article helps readers get to know you. Determine what you want the focus of your interview to be. Do you just want to introduce yourself in general, or do you want to set yourself up as an expert in a specific area?

Depending on how much space you need to fill, create 4-5 questions (or more if needed) to answer. Make sure the questions will help you fulfill the goal of your article when you answer them. Craft questions that need more than a yes or no answer, like What led you to become a XXX? This way, you can tell us your story and how you got to where you are today.

Then it’s time for the fun part, answering the questions. Keep in mind any word count guidelines. If your answers are too long, they might get edited down. So make sure everything you want to say gets in there!

Whether you write them first or last, you’ll need an introduction and title. Use details from your bio in the intro to support the angle of your article. I’ve been creating titles for Q&As by combining the person’s name, expertise, and their resulting impact, ie. “Writer & Editor Eva Barrows Turns Raw Interviews Into Insightful Stories”

Opinion Piece

This one is all on you. An opinion piece is something you write based on your own experience. It can be about a discovery you’ve made, a methodology you’ve developed, or how your preference for something came about. I wrote an opinion piece about how I re-discovered the library and all of the free resources I have access to there.

Tell us your take on something we know about, or introduce us to something only you’ve figured out!

The structure of an opinion piece is simple enough. In the introduction, set the scene—what’s the problem you encountered? Take a few paragraphs to tell us how your discovery unfolded and wrap it up with what you learned and the wisdom you want to leave your readers with.

Feel free to reach out to me if you want to write one of these types of articles yourself. I’m always here to cheer you on and get you going on your writing journey!