Last week within ouR Webinar Series we heard from Graduate Fashion Foundation Ambassador and Associate Editor at Hearst Studio, Isabella Silvers.
During the webinar, Isabella shared top tips and advice on becoming a freelance journalist and writer, how to price your work and how to approach publishers to get your work noticed.
She was extremely kind to share links and resources for starting out in the industry.
Isabella Silvers
Useful Links
Professional Networking Sites
(register yourself as a journalist on the service and sign up for their newsletter)
Job & Internship Sites
Hearst Networks
Networking Groups
Mentoring
Pitching Guidelines
Useful Accounts To Follow
(also signed up to their newsletter for a weekly list of jobs and freelance opportunities)
(amazing newsletter with lots of opportunities)
(their free newsletter will alert you to which journalists work where)
- posts regular job opportunities across all creative fields
How To Search A Site
If you enter ‘site:[websiteaddress]’ into a search engine, along with your topic, this should give you a good idea. I.E. Google:‘site:cosmopolitan.com/uk PMDD’ and you’ll see what content we have on
Freelance Rates
– this is a regularly updated form where freelancers record fees in a bid to make freelancing rates more transparent
Royalty Free websites
- allows you to embed images free of charge from Getty
- free to use stock images, illustrations and videos
- free to use stock imagery including lifestyle, fashion, film etc
- free to use stock imagery and video
- free to use music
Guidelines and resources
- information on fair dealing with regards to the use of video and imagery
- guidelines for editors, and writers
- student discount for membership
SEO Free Tools
– gives you 10 free searches per day
– gives you a basic overview of a website’s estimated traffic and its competitors
– Chrome Extension tool shows you an estimated search volume
– similar to Keywords Everywhere
– pulls the questions people are asking (and other queries) from Google’s autocomplete results. It’s super useful for generating topic ideas
– shows the popularity of a topic over time. Use it to capitalise on trending topics, and avoid creating content about those with waning interest
– similar to Answer the Public but also looks at questions people have asked
SEO Useful Videos
– new blog posts and videos every Friday
Social Media Content Tools
- CrowdTangle is the leading content discovery and social monitoring platform for publishers and brands. You will need a Facebook account.
- Discover content ideas, uncover platform insights, identify passionate influencers and more. Offers free trials.
- a content discovery tool that makes content curation blogs and social media effortless for business in any niche or market.
NewshipSpike - Predict trends and performance from billions of sites, stories, and posts across the web and social.
- A network of communities based on people's interests.
- Works with publishers around the world to strengthen the connection between journalists and the communities they serve.
- The leading visual marketing platform that allows you to plan, schedule, publish, and measure the results of your instagram and social media posts.
- The latest news, trends, and tips in social media.
- How to use Twitter for news writing
- How to use Facebook for news writing.
- Tik Tok tips and news for members of the press.