If you’re really lucky you may get your first account back sometime this year...
Yeah, time will tell...
What sort of journalism are you planning on doing? Activism, politics, general interest?
I would say the intersection of business, technology, and current events.
Activism. I like that term. Yeah, I think you could say activism too.
Here’s the problem you may have - like acting, a **** ton of folk consider themselves “journalists” which can make it hard to get into without having someone else open the doors first. In fact, I’d be hard pushed to imagine you’d have much luck as a greenhorn with zero credibility.
Well, loosely speaking, my startup is based on over 20 years of working in the business and IT sectors. So I do consider myself an "expert" in those areas, but a journalist I am not.
However, I don't need to be a journalist to do what I am envisioning.
For instance, people might not be so interested in topic XYZ on my website, but if I can show how it relates to something President Trump did, or related to the George Floyd protests, or Pride Week, or Climate Change, or the Pandemic, then I am betting people will be interested.
Everyone is interested when you connect-the-dots and show how one things relates to, and impacts, the lives of individuals.
Somewhat vague, but hopefully that makes sense?
Also, I'm not looking to get hired by the NYTimes, nor do I expect to win a Pulitzer, but I would like to learn how to - (gasp) tell the truth!
(Yeah lynch mob, I actually do know a few things...) ;-)
Please don’t take that as an insult, for it’s not meant to be one.
Understood.
It is however a fact of life. Ask yourself “why would anyone want to be interviewed by me?” before you begin.
Well, most people like talking about things that they are interested (e.g. themselves, their families, their careers, etc).
So it's not to hard to get people to talk about their careers or families or their businesses or get their opinions on politics or the economy or the President.
And since I won't be interviewing any CEOs or celebrities, I probably don't need the credentials that someone at the NYTimes has, although credentials certainly matter.
What I can say for sure, is that over the last 6 months I have been doing "person-on-the-street" interviews with my iPhone, and I have interviewed over 60 people in about 12 states and had great results.
Again, most people want to be heard, and are happy to bend the ear of a reporter who is genuinely interested in them. (And, in fact, I've had a few people tell me that it is an *advantage* that I am NOT a "professional" journalist, because are more likely to open up to a common person like myself.)
Now, getting interviews with more high profile subjects will be harder, no doubt.
Even if I had my Twitter account back in May, I may very likely have been turned down for interview requests on a couple of stories that turned out to dominate the national news. But if I don't try, then I certainly will fail.
Since I am focused more on every day people, I think I will have good results - especially if I can take a crash course in journalism and journalistic ethics. And I have found a couple of laces where I think I can get some mentors to help me out - just like the lovely people at MacRumors help keep me moving forward with IT stuff!!
Again, no insult meant, it is however key to starting off. The subject needs to know it’s worth their time being interviewed, so you’ll need to define that before you start.
That is the challenge for any startup...
How do you convince people to come to your website when it is empty? How do you convince people to come to an empty restaurant? And so on...
That is probably another benefit of working on at least getting a YouTube channel, Twitter account (check!), and so on set up. Every little thing I do like that gives me more of a "presence"...
Of course my #1 goal is to stop procrastinating and get my website done, and start filling it up with great content, including hopefully some great interviews, and then keep building on my momentum.
No easy roads, but this is what is fun about being an entrepreneur!
I read that you’re getting a mentor session: is that with someone with a lot of experience?
It is with a journalist from a newspaper, and I have access to other professional journalists.
It's not like it Nicholas Kristof or Maureen Dowd or Maggie Haberman, but still a good start!
Would they be able to open some doors for you?
Maybe. I think just teaching me things they have learned by being real journalists in the "real world" would be priceless. (No, you cannot learn *everything* from YouTube?!)
Having interviewed the subjects, where will you publish the results? Personal blog? Social media such as Medium? Be prepared to do this for quite some time with next to no-one reading. You’ll need to persevere and keep hacking at it to build up some sort of portfolio.
It's all for my business website.
If years from now I am asked to be a guest columnist, then great, but in the mean time the plan is to create timely, unique, informative, and thought-provoking content for my website. That could be news, articles, interviews, investigative reporting, or more.
You’ll need to hack at it over and over and over. Don’t be picky and always be writing.
What I need to be less picky is the design and code-base of my website!
Writing won't be a problem - I literally have tens of thousands of article titles stubebd out, I just need a website so I can host that content as I write it.
If I live to be 500, I will never run out of things to write about.
And, when you’re not writing, read. Read other journalists output, read up on the subject matter that you want to write about.
I spend 3-4 hours a day reading the news, and have PDF'ed about 4,000 articles in the past 12 months that I will use for research and ideas for artcles and interviews.
If anything, I wish the world would slow down so I could catch up!
Finally, get ready for rejection after rejection, after rejection.
MacRumors has prepared me well!! *LMAO*
Being a freelance journalist with no formal education is going to be damn hard. You’ll be up against kids with formal training, youthful arrogance, and the ability to work 36 hours a day (sic) to contend with.
Very true. But I also have advantages that they don't possess...
1.) 25 years of experience in the areas mentioned above
2.) 25 years of experience seeing what doesn't work
3.) Passion
4.) A strong desire to give something back to the American people and society
5.) The things my startup are about are my loves of life. I have been doing them nearly every day for 20 years. My startup and website and my journalistic endeavors are what i do for fun, and NOT for fame, glory or $$$.
If I can make a buck or two, awesome. If I never make a dime, and I never have a single customer, I will probably do this the rest of my life, because it makes me happy.
If it's meant to be, it will happen. If not, I tried my best!
Find a niche and exploit it to hell and back.
True. I think this falls into that category.
Thanks for listening, and for the *friendly* advice... 
