Pinar asks: How we can find out if a website is a paying market when they have posted writer's guidelines and/or an email address for story submissions but haven't revealed whether they pay or not?Excellent question! Unfortunately, there are a fair number of low or no paying websites out there (*cough, cough* Huffington Post). I'd hate to spend lots of time writing an in-depth query, only to discover that the market doesn't pay, so here are a few of the strategies I'd recommend.
- Look at who's writing for the website.
Is it experts who are trying to promote a book or themselves? Mommy bloggers who are interested in driving traffic to their own blogs or participating in the blogging community? Or is it mainly professional writers? If it's the latter then that can be a good sign that they do pay, although that's not necessarily the case. - Look at the website's business model.
Is the website part of a larger publishing network? Is it owned by a large company (for instance, an insurance company or a bank) that's doing content marketing? Has TechCrunch or Mashable written about them raising a few million bucks through angel investors or venture capitalists? Those are potentially good signs. If it's a small startup that's bootstrapped by the founders, then it may not pay or it may not pay much. - Ask your fellow freelancers.
I typically ask around on private writers' forums or listserves if I'm unsure because chances are good that one of my colleagues has looked into the same website. And if I see a colleague posting cool new clips on Facebook, Twitter, or G+, I might send them a quick note. "Hey, I saw that you're writing for ____ now! Great clips. Do you mind my asking how much that website pays? I'm thinking about pitching them myself." - Send a LOI rather than a query.
If all else fails, I have a letter of introduction (LOI) template I customize and email to editors I may want to work with. Instead of asking, "how much do you pay?" I would list some of my credits and ask, "Are you open to queries from professional writers?" If they don't respond, that may mean that don't pay and are too busy or embarrassed to 'fess up. Some editors will write back saying, "right now we aren't able to pay for articles" or "we're still ramping up so we have a small freelance budget and can only pay $XX/article." Then it's up to if you want to pitch or move on. There are a couple of perfectly reasons why some writers choose to write for free. However, if they don't have the budget, you're probably not going to change their minds.