Wait before you do anything else, you need to know these FIVE things
will end you up on the ban list for journalists
So these are the five things you absolutely CANNOT do.
Otherwise, you'll end up on their ban list.
It's very easy to get on the journalist's ban list
and very hard to get on their good list.
So these are the five things you absolutely cannot do.
First of all, you cannot... Advertise.
Advertising is the quickest way to get you on the ban list, and nobody likes it.
Instead of advertising,
think of a way you can help a journalist complete their story.
Oftentimes there are many resources where
you can find queries sent by journalists asking for an expert or asking
for clarification on a subject, and then you can provide a quote
to help that journalist out and make sure that if you do that, it's relevant
to what they're actually asking
AND you have the expertise to do so.
The second thing that people do is that they use way too many words.
If you're typing 700 word essays to a journalist, you're doing it wrong.
You want to keep your emails to about 60
to 150 words maximum unless you're answering questions.
Those depend on the responses that you give.
So for each question, it should be about ten to maybe
100 words maximum, depending on how many questions there are.
Generally speaking,
you want your emails to be short and sweet and to the point,
quotes should be relatively short unless they ask for more.
Unless the journalist specifically asked you to send more,
don't send more.
So the third thing that people do is they use profanity.
Now, there's nothing wrong with cursing on a day to day basis.
But many journalists have rules and regulations they need to stay with.
And many publications have rules against
profanity, including some of the words that you might not think of like a word
that is associated with a fiery place that nobody wants to go.
There are many words that you need to avoid that are generally speaking,
banned from media outlets and media publications.
And those include words of profanity.
If your source has too many words
of profanity, it's just going to get trashed.
And in fact, sometimes if it even has one word of profanity, a journalist will just
delete it because they need to edit it out,
and it's just not practical, and it's just a waste of time.
So do not use profanity when giving a quote or source to a journalist.
And generally speaking, you want to avoid words of profanity.
There are better ways of expressing your opinions.
The fourth thing that you can do that will not help you in the long run
is include an attachment.
See, journalists can't actually open attachments.
First of all, most of the resources that have you send
an email through their services don't even include attachments in their email.
So if you send like an attachment
for a headshot, the journalist is not going to see that.
The second thing is,
journalists can't download things directly from an email to their computer.
First of all, that is the quickest way to get a virus.
And second of all, they just don't do it.
So instead of using an attachment,
use a service that provides a link for the journalist to click on, and then
they can see your documents and see what you are sending to them.
Don't send attachments.
Send a link.
The fifth thing that you can do to end up on a journalist ban list is chase them.
Unless they tell you that they want you to chase them.
Don't chase journalists.
They don't like it.
Don't do a follow up email.
Don't say hey, Where's my live link?
Just don't do it.
There are different ways to approach a journalist.
If you don't have a query and want to send like, a pitch or something.
But generally speaking, you should not be chasing journalists.
There's a way there's a process, and maybe we'll talk about it in a future video.
But for now, just know that journalists in general do not want to be chased
and they do not want to receive a follow up email.
They just don't have the time.
Their inboxes are way too full,
and you're not going to get the results that you want.
So just don't do it.
If you guys are interested, we can do a Part two where we discuss five
other things that you can do to end up on a journalist ban list.
There are many things that you can do, and there's a lot to talk about.
So if you guys enjoy it, please do
leave a like and also comment down below.
If you want to see a part two.