Writing for the Internet: Comment your way in
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There are lots of tips available for freelancers trying to break into writing for online publications, but one topic I don’t see mentioned very often is the value of the well-crafted comment.
Editors get solicited all the time by potential writers via email pitches, and sometimes this works (I’ll write more on that in a future blog post), but commenting is another and sometimes better way to land a writing gig.
The right comment can:
- illustrate your writing ability
- show you can take initiative
- communicate you understand the tone and style of the writing on the site
- demonstrate your passion for and knowledge of the subject matter
Consistently posting high-quality comments on a site you want to write for may not lead to freelance work right away, but it’s likely to put you on their radar — or someone else’s — and land you writing assignments in the future.
Case in point: I discovered one of my best AfterEllen.com writers because of a single comment she left on the site.
Her comment stood out among the hundreds of others because it was well-written, intelligent, funny, and deflected criticism through sarcasm without being mean-spirited or resorting to personal attacks. Not only did the comment amuse me (never underestimate the power of provoking an emotional response in an editor), it demonstrated that the author had a good understanding of the zeitgeist of the site (which is often the most difficult thing to communicate to potential writers).
I was impressed enough by her comment that I contacted her via private message and invited her to write a sample blog post for us. A year later, she’s become one of the site’s most popular writers, and other sites have subsequently hired her for freelance writing work. She’s well on her way to being able to make a living writing full-time.
Don’t get me wrong: Her success is due to her talent and hard work. But she got her first break because she took the time to leave a thoughtful, well-written, and entertaining comment.
This story isn’t uncommon: I know of several other writers who have been hired by blogs or editorial sites by making a good impression in the comments or in forum threads. From an editor’s perspective, it’s always good to receive a killer sample piece from a writer trying to impress you, but it’s even better when someone impresses you without trying.
What qualifies as a “well-crafted” comment?
It varies slightly based on the tone and focus of the site and article/post/video you’re commenting on, but some themes are universal: clarity, wit, creativity, and most importantly, grammatically correct sentences with proper capitalization and spelling. This last point should go without saying, but unfortunately, an increasing number of comments look something like this:
i love this movie its so cool if u dont like it ur just a hater
At least this makes it easier for professional writers to stand out, simply by crossing their t’s and capitalizing their I’s — which is the only good thing about the rapid decline of proper punctuation and capitalization on the internet. But that’s a rant for another day.
The bottom line: if you want to write for a living, or even as a hobby, take care with what you write even in informal settings. You never know who’s paying attention.
Thank you for writing about one of the things that annoys me daily. As your example ably demonstrates, that which may function well in texting does not serve the reader.
I witnessed something similar to this on an SF usenet group about seven or eight years ago. One of the more intelligent and witty posters happened to mention she had written several novels, but had never actually submitted them to any publishers - this came up naturally as a result of the way a particular threrd had developed rather than her randomly thrusting that information out there. At the time, one of the other regulars on that usenet group was an editor at a major SF publishing house. He liked her writing and asked to see a mss. As a result she now has several published novels to her name. I doubt this would have happened had she been desperately hyping herself all over the place, but it came about quite organically in this instance.
I’ve also learned that the rules you supplied for commenting are effective when sending messages to potential mates while online dating. I was picked by my wonderful girlfriend to continue communication because I could write a proper sentence. I also lost a few myself when I responded to messages with “You know it would look better if you took the time to write.”
So if I write a clever comment here, you’ll hire me for Sarahwarn.com? Is this clever enough?
How about now?
Now?
I think that’s what everyone else before you was trying to do.
I was under the impression that sarahwarn.com with a big picture of Sarah Warn was meant to contain blog posts (and so on) about things of interest to Sarah Warn written by… well… Sarah Warn.
Ok, the pressure to leave a good comment under this post is ridiculous. So I won’t even try to impress you. But I would like to thank you for this advice. Lately I’ve been researching how to find freelance work. I’ve been flirting with the idea but I’m finally ready to take a shot at it!
Janay
Ha, I like that people commented on your blog dedicated to the “creation of a comment”… Its perfect.
A) My anti-spam word was none other than: “buffy”
B) Priceless.
C) Who was the writer from AE that you found through comments? I’m curious.
Hey Sarah,
AfterEllen was an important community for me as I came out. I was really only active for about a year…after lurking for a year. I was still pretty leary of dating sites, and AE was clever and entertaining.
I kept finding myself drawn to reader’s who left clever comments, so I would PM them. I still have friends that I value dearly that came from early messages, and, predictably, I fell in love. One forum post. One amazing writer.
Thanks, Sarah, for the work you did on AE. It was enjoyable–and important.
Shan
still smilin’ and enjoying your posts!