In the effort to build your audience and grow your business as a life coach, it’s a great idea to take advantage of all the no-cost opportunities to get noticed and get in front of your ideal clients.

And getting yourself published as a guest contributor, interview guest, or article writer is one of those targeted no-cost opportunities that can really make a difference for life coaches at any stage of their business.

This is how you can be featured in online or traditional media, at no charge, without waiting to get asked, and without having to write a book.

The strategy is to pitch yourself to these channels and hijack their audiences so you can position yourself as a go-to coach in your industry.

Aside from it being such a great free opportunity for more exposure and reach, it also gives you access to a targeted and engaged audience that will get you noticed way faster than waiting for organic reach.

Getting published and seen by more people,  the authority of the publication, website, podcast or TV show rubs off on you too, and you get the extra Google Search juice from links and mentions.

There’s nothing to lose and you don’t need any special tools, software, or ads to make it happen.

You simply identify the websites, publications, and media that are already talking to your audience and submit a story idea and let them write it or interview you, or get straight to it and write your own article and submit it for publishing.

When I was getting started online, my first business was Boutique India Travel.

I was an Eat Pray Love obsessed divorcee who fled corporate looking to express myself and make money on my own terms.

And one of the best things I did when I got started was to find other people, places, websites, and publications that I could get featured in and share what my business was.

I would submit a ton of guest posts to websites and I would reach out to other operators too and see what we could collaborate on.

I would write a 600-word blog post that would appeal to their audience and it would get published and send direct visitors to my site.

My first post was on The Lost Girls site which back then had a ton of traffic from women with adventure and wanderlust in their hearts, which was the same attitude I was looking for in my potential clients.

That led to being seen on some really popular websites at the time and was a key reason I got my first clients even though I never paid a cent in advertising.

Over the years, I’ve also used this strategy to be featured in Marie Claire and on the popular website Huff Post.

I’ve encouraged my clients to reach out and do the same thing, which often leads to them getting 100 new sign-ups or more to their list, depending on the reach of the publication.

The kind of results that used to be reserved for big brands or those who paid thousands to publicity experts is available to all of us.

Yet so many life coaches rarely consider this as an option.

The media is a machine that needs to be fed, and it needs stories, news, features, and content to keep its audience engaged and attract advertisers or subscribers.

And this is your chance to be part of that and also access their huge audiences with a story about who you are, what you do, and the problem you help solve.

This is also a way to find an angle for your marketing as well as being validation for your message to market too.

This strategy could be more in-depth if you choose, and the project could really take on a life of its own, but what I really want you to do is simply give it a shot first.

So, I want to share with you 4 Steps To Getting Featured that you can take now to get published quickly:

1. Identify The Media Site, Publication, or Channel You Want To Be Featured In
Think about the sites you like to visit as well as those that regularly showcase stories and info on the area you coach on.

As Life Coaches, we’re very lucky that we get to talk about life and all it contains, so even if you find a great site or publication, but it’s not technically about personal development, you can still put on your “reporter” hat and make it newsworthy.

You then want to check if they take story contributions or ideas from their audience.

These will be the most likely to feature you as they depend on a steady stream of content being published to ensure they get audience growth.
Stay tuned because I’ll list some recommendations to start. 

2. Write Your Story Or Story Angle

Now, this is where having a clear idea of the target market you serve and the big problem you help them with comes in very handy (if you don’t have this yet, then come and join Coach Co. or think about your own personal experience, insights or obstacles overcome).

It needs to be an engaging story that has a chance to get noticed, it could also be an observation of a trend, something related to current news, or results that you’ve got yourself or others.

Try and stand out with a different argument on a common help belief, take a forthright stance or choose a topic that is getting a lot of discussions and see if you can tie in – Google Trends is great for this.

Check Editorial Guidelines and scope for tone, engagement and audience profile as this will depend on the publication, and of course leave any sexism, racism, or ableism at the door.

See where you can softly sell or hook back to your offer or link, this will usually be in a footnote, but generally, you want to come from a place of news, advice, and value rather than a blatant plug.

But when you frame your piece with a compelling headline and use a story that sells, you won’t need to make a direct offer and readers can follow any links you can include.

Even if you don’t think you’re a great writer, you will still need to have a summary of your angles and why it should be featured for any story submissions or interview suggestions.

3. Edit & Refine Your Submission

Whether you write and submit a full article, or you write a story idea or interview submission, you’ll need to write in a way that offers the value and outcome upfront.

You need to be clear and direct and demonstrate that you align with the goals and audience of the publication.

Frame your content so they know what’s in it for them and how it complies and ticks all the boxes, to give it the best chance of being featured or you being selected as a guest.

Use tools and apps like Grammarly or Hemingway to help make it as punchy as possible in the least amount of words, and try and make it direct and conversational with a request for them to take the next step, like reply and give you an invitation.

Also ask someone else to take a peek, just for a sanity check, but don’t overindulge in perfectionism, as that will only hold you back.

4. Actually Submit It!

Seems weird I know but actually send it, even if you are full of doubt and you believe it’s a total longshot.

The more you can do of these, the better, but even if you schedule in one a week, that will go a really long way to getting the opportunities you deserve.

And when it does get published, make sure you get on your social media and share it to support and reward the publication as well as maximize the views.

Get in the comments and reply and engage – readers and the publishers will love this!

Another way to leverage media is to publish yourself on a high-traffic site so you can be found and shared.

Here are some options to try:

1. Medium

Medium allows you to republish your existing blog posts (if you use their import feature, they even add a rel=canonical link), but you can also use this platform as a way to increase traffic to the full blog posts on your site.

2. Scoop It

Content curation software where you can get found by others wanting to share your contributions.
Mastin Kipp got 1m Twitter followers because KK shared a tweet

3. HARO and Source Bottle

These are sites where the media place call-outs for stories and interview sources and contributors. 

Worth checking out for additional opportunities. 

You’ve got nothing to lose by trying any of these strategies, except a bit of time, but they can all bring in great results and definitely get you some amazing exposure, so go for it!

So there you have it, a quick start formula for getting published or featured as a Life Coach (without needing to write a book).

And if you still have no idea what you could share, then it’s likely you need to get clarity on your message to market.

If that’s you, and you want to uncover how to attract more clients with your coaching, then grab a free copy of my Niche Guide for life coaches, you can get that at https://victoriagibson.com/niche-guide

Show Notes:

Here are the publications you can get started sharing your ideas and submissions to:

1. USA TODAY Opinion section publishes analysis, arguments, and essays on a wide variety of subjects.
They are looking for timeliness (pegged to news), persuasion pitched to the other side, new information, novel arguments, revelatory insights, passion without partisanship, first-person experience, original reporting that reveals fresh angles and makes news, expert knowledge, and/or a topic that will drive the conversation on social media and in the real world.

They accept only pieces that are submitted exclusively to USA TODAY. We do not accept material that has been published on blogs, social media, or anywhere else.

Columns typically run 550 to 750 words. They should be pasted directly into an email and sent to theforum@usatoday.com.

2. Mind Body Green is an online media brand with a focus on health and wellness.

Although they have a few more parameters around submissions than they used to, they are a great opportunity for getting featured.

They welcome new highly credentialed experts and voices to their community.

They seek out writers and reviewers who have deep expertise in their field. (Think M.D., Ph.D. L.Ac., etc.) And they also love hearing about wellness journeys and publish powerful, transformative personal stories about health and wellness.

If you have knowledge or a story to share, reach out to them and if your submission is accepted you will work with our highly skilled team of editors to sharpen and polish your work.

Send in your contribution here
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/contribute/

3. Elephant Journal

We’re about “the mindful life”—yoga, organics, sustainability, conscious consumerism, active citizenship, eco-fashion, the arts, non-new age spirituality, enlightened education—anything that helps us to live a good life that also happens to be good for others, and our planet.

We try to refrain from publishing you-oriented articles in Elephant Journal in favor of more personal, experiential, less to-do-list-like work.

https://www.elephantjournal.com/write/

4. The Good Men Project

The Good Men Project started 10 years ago with the idea to “spark an international conversation about the changing roles of men in the 21st century.”

They believe you will enjoy contributing to a mission-based publication that has a vast reach and high engagement.

Submit here https://goodmenproject.submittable.com/submit

5. Business Insider

Although this feels more like a news site, they also feature lifestyle articles and their story submission guidelines speak to:

“We want to take readers on spellbinding adventures, and introduce them to powerful jerks they don’t know (or don’t know enough about), weirdos, eccentrics, and folks in search of redemption. There’s plenty of room for joy and wonder here, too. We can do it all, with a blistering irreverence and a sense of discovery.

We want big, meaty narratives and must-read profiles, true crime (a genre that can include a lot of stories!), anatomies/autopsies of scandals and corporate collapses, and explorations and explanations of viral moments. We want stories that bring us into worlds and subcultures that are new to us.

If it’s wild if it sets off your Spidey sense if it obsesses you if it’s a big story that readers everywhere can’t get enough of, it’s something we should talk about. If a pitch is exciting, shows a clear sense of dramatic arc and tension, if it unearths a new perspective, goes to some zany places, and is very much in the zeitgeist, then it’s got potential, so think big and reach out at

features-pitches@businessinsider.com.”

https://www.insider.com/how-to-pitch-features-business-insider-2019-9

6. MamaMia

This is a great option for Australian women to share their stories and add links to your site.

Mamamia is a women’s media company with a purpose: to make the world a better place for women and girls.

“We do that through the written, podcast, and video content we create every day that, makes women feel heard, seen, and understood. We do it by promoting women’s businesses – Lady Startups – and by directly contributing a portion of our profits to the education of some of the world’s most disadvantaged girls.

Submissions: If you have a post or post idea you’d like to submit to us for publication on Mamamia we’d love to read it.

Please email submissions@mamamia.com.au and put the word “submission” in the subject field. If your post is time-sensitive, please write “URGENT submission” so we know to prioritize it.”