I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….

In general I:
1. keep the note as short as possible (2-3 sentences), most of these people get so much email they are skimming anyway

2. Focus on whats in it for them

3. I don’t ask to be a contributing editor up front, i just talk to them about one article, and then ease into that role later by continuing to send them stuff

4. personalize the note

If you spend the time (it does take time) to actually write a good article, that is rare, and you’re giving it to them for free.

So my note might look something like this:

Hey XYZ,

Great article on BLANK and since you love BLANK so much, i thought your readers might enjoy this article I wrote: LINK

Thanks!
Brian

or

Hey XYZ,

What you wrote about BLANK was awesome, I ended up sending that to a friend and he BLANK. I’ve been experimenting a lot with BLANK lately and was going to put together a research article. Maybe you can use it on your site, want to take a look when its done?

Thanks!
Brian

Who would say no to that? You can slowly ease into a contributing editor position this way.

I was wondering: how do you approach others and ask them to allow you to be a contributing editor? Do you follow a format?

Great blog, by the way!

That reference to lifehacker.org doesn’t go to a blog? What’s the actual link?