How to Become a Blogger at the Huffington Post (Includes a 2018 Update for Contributor Access)
Risk Equals Reward
I never expected to become a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. My main goal was to get my writing exposed and cultivate my own personal website. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to have three featured blogs on The Huffington Post within a month!
Here I will share what I did to get my foot in the door and what happened subsequently. The goal is to help any of you out there who are looking to get published and hopefully featured on The Huffington Post.
There is a tremendous amount of competition out there between online writers these days. But in the spirit of sharing and learning, I want others to benefit from my experience as well. After all, by reading about how other writers got published I gathered my own knowledge and inspiration.
I've read the articles and comments about how The Huffington Post doesn't pay their bloggers and those writers should not waste their time there.
I get that.
But I have to say, in the month that I had my blogs featured on The Huffington Post, traffic to my other writing sites skyrocketed which resulted in more money for me. We all want to make a living, and many of us want to make a living doing what we love. You can't argue with the number of readers The Huffington Post receives. It's millions.
...in the month that I had my blogs featured on The Huffington Post, traffic to my other writing sites skyrocketed...
Here's How I Got Started At The Huffington Post...
There is a formal blog submission form which you can find on the Huffington Post "contact us" section, but I found a more direct way of getting my ideas seen.
I decided to email two samples of my writing to Arianna Huffington herself. This was an absolutely spontaneous decision based on reading about another blogger who had done it.
Arianna's email is arianna@huffingtonpost.com. I took the risk and emailed her.
I really had nothing to lose and never expected to hear back. As it turns out Arianna Huffington does encourage writers to come forward and pitch their blog ideas directly to her. After all, The Huffington Post thrives on blogs and opinion pieces.
Two days later I got a response from Arianna herself inviting me to join their blogging community. I was stunned and thrilled, to say the least. I didn't realize how much it really meant to me to feel validated by someone as successful as Arianna Huffington until it happened.
Update: As of October 2016, Arianna has left her position at The Huffington Post to pursue other projects. This means that you may not get the same kind of response via email that I did. But this doesn't mean you should give up. By pitching your blog idea to submissions you still have a good chance of getting noticed but you have to be clear about your ideas and send samples of your previous work.
One thing I recommend highly is crafting an intelligent, attention-grabbing title for your blog. This is the first thing editors and readers will see so it's very important.
In my experience, Huffpost is still one of the only major publishers that will allow you to link your other work within the body of your post so you can gain more traffic for your other projects. Most sites will not allow this - even if they don't pay you!
You won't be able to make a living off submitting blogs to The Huffington Post, but you can use it as a platform with which to promote your other projects, brands, or websites.
In my experience, Huffpost is still one of the only major publishers that will allow you to link your other work within the body of your post so you can gain more traffic for your other projects. Most sites will not allow this - even if they don't pay you!
If you're already passionate enough about a subject to write a blog about it, then you're already on your way. However, realistically speaking, if no one knows about you or your writing, it's very hard to build a fan base or discover new opportunities.
The more exposure your writing has, the more you can gauge what readers think and learn to improve your skills.
My Experience Blogging For The Huffington Post
In the initial email from Arianna Huffington, she included an editor whom she advised would get back to me with sign-up information to gain entry into the Huffington Post bloggers site.
Now the ball was in the editor's court. All my aspirations were in the hands of another stranger. Scary but still awesome just to be experiencing it.
The hardest part of this whole process was waiting to hear back from the editor. It took about 6 days total to hear back and within that time I checked my email obsessively and sent a follow-up email just to make sure they hadn't forgotten about me.
When the editor finally got back to me with the link for setting up my username and password I was overjoyed. I filled out the information and then sent it off. After that, I still had to wait a couple of days to get the confirmation that my account was set up.
The blogging account and platform I was introduced to is not the same as it is now for new contributors. I will get to that part in a moment.
Once you become an official contributing blogger you can submit as many blogs as you like within the specified guidelines.
Crafting Your Blog
The Huffington Post has a multitude of sections, or "verticals". When you get access to a blogger account, you'll be able to construct your blog for publication. There are guidelines and instructions on how they like the blogs and images to be set up. Please take the time to read the guidelines.
Once you become an official contributing blogger you can submit as many blogs as you like within the specified guidelines. Popular verticals include parenting, women, politics and much more.
I have found that the blogs I've written that speak to issues other people are going through are more popular. Everyone wants to relate and feel they're not alone. It's the human condition and the power of sharing experiences.
One opinion blog I wrote which was featured in the women's section garnered a lot of attention but the opinion itself was not very popular. That was my first experience with negativity and backlash.
If you're going to expose your stories or opinions you've also got to be prepared for comments that are pretty harsh and even cruel. Not everyone is going to agree with you or even get what you're saying. The Huffington Post carries many readers and also readers who love to comment with no filter so be warned.
Remember, the important thing is that getting your writing published can start a conversation about something you're passionate about and lead to new doors and opportunities down the road. No matter what anyone says about The Huffington Post, it still looks good on a writer's resume.
*Keep in mind that if someone took the time to read what you wrote but doesn't agree with you, it's still a victory for you because whatever you wrote made someone think.
Note: When adding images to your blog for The Huffington Post, make sure they are all under a creative commons license or else used with permission.
I have also found that some images I added to my posts never translated when I shared my blogs on social media. I emailed the blog team about this but never heard back.
Unfortunately, many of these trial and error challenges need to be sorted out on your own as the blog team is likely busy or overwhelmed with other blog submissions.
The Huffington Post allows you to link any of your other projects or personal website links to your blog posts, so be sure and utilize that in every post you publish.
Publishing vs Being Promoted
Although you can write and submit as many blog posts as you like once you are a contributing blogger, there is a big difference in exposure between simply publishing your blog and having The Huffington Post feature it. On the new blogging platform being "featured" is now referred to as being "promoted".
On the new contributing blogger platform, you can immediately publish your work but it doesn't get indexed or show up in Google search engines until an editor at The Huffington Post decides to "promote" it.
Sometimes you don't know for a couple of days if your post has been noticed by an editor. The longest it took for me to know if a post was featured was about two weeks on the old blogging platform. On the new Beta Athena contributor platform, the longest I had to wait to have a post promoted was a week.
Generally, on the new contributor platform, if your post hasn't been promoted within a couple of days it's probably safe to assume that the editors were not interested in it for whatever reason. Don't take it personally. There are a lot of writers publishing posts for editors to go through.
Unless your blog is showcased on the front page of a specific section, not many people will have access to it even though it has technically been published. You will have to promote it on your own through social media sites or other means. If you do get your post promoted by an editor, then the social media exposure is almost guaranteed.
If you're going to expose your stories or opinions you've also got to be prepared for comments that are pretty harsh and even cruel. Not everyone is going to agree with you or even get what you're saying.
I've found that the key to great exposure on a Huffington Post blog is Facebook. If the specific section your post is promoted in shares it on one of their Facebook pages, it could potentially go "viral".
The Huffington Post allows you to link any of your other projects or personal website links to your blog posts, so be sure and utilize that in every post you publish. You never know which post may be featured/promoted garnering widespread exposure on the internet.
A Closer Look At The Beta Athena Platform
As many writers now know, The Huffington Post blogger platform has experienced some significant changes. If you were already a contributing blogger on the old platform, you will have received an invitation to the new "Beta Athena" site.
I get many emails asking me how to get onto the new site if you were already a blogger on the previous site and my answer is.....you should have received an invitation to set up your login on the new platform. If you didn't, there's not much else you can do other than try to contact Huffpost and hope for a response.
Things look quite different on the new platform and they are still making monir changes every couple of months. One major discovery so far is that you need to use Google Chrome in order to prevent glitches while constructing your blog.
It doesn't look like bloggers can choose which section/vertical to submit to anymore as was the option on the old platform. You simply write your post and publish it to the Huffington Post right then and there.
While this seems like writing without a safety net due to the fact you are immediately putting your stuff out there, you also now have the option to go back in and edit your post at any time and you can even "unpublish" it if you want to.
The bottom line on Athena: If the editors feel your post is trending or worth promoting - they will. If not, it's unlikely your blogs will be seen by anyone but those you personally share it with.
As I said before, even though you "publish" your blogs directly to the site, no one can see it unless The Huffington Post editors decide to promote it to a specific section/vertical.
The biggest change so far for myself appears to be the lack of a submission period waiting time as well as the loss of choosing a section or vertical for your post. Finally, it does appear to be more challenging to get work featured/promoted on the new platform. As I discover more I will be updating this post.
Finally, it does appear to be more challenging to get work featured/promoted on the new platform. There are a massive amount of contributors at The Huffington Post.
One of the things I like about The Huffington Post is that they don't demand to own your content if they decide to feature or promote it. This means that you can share the same blog anywhere else you wish.
There are pros and cons to submitting your content to any online publication like this but The Huffington Post is definitely a great stepping stone to other ventures. Good luck out there!
UPDATE FOR CONTRIBUTOR CHANGES 2018
If you've been a regular contributor through the Beta Athena platform at HuffPost or have been trying to become a new contributor, then you may know by now that HuffPost has ended access to their Beta Athena contributor platform and are trying their hand at making writers pitch articles going through the original submission process.
HuffPost is also saying that they will pay writers for pieces that are completely original and not previously published anywhere else.
What's the pay?
Well, the answers have been pretty vague and it all depends on the content, apparently.
This is not to say that they won't bring the contributor platform back, especially if they lose readership over this -- so hang in there writers and you can find details on how HuffPost wants pitches sent to them here.
Questions & Answers
I've been asked by The Huffington Post to write about a project I'm doing, but I have never written a blog before, although I've done a lot of copywriting. I don't know where to write it and where to add images to upload it to their site. Could you advise me please on the best and simplest way to do this? Should I start a blog on my website and link it from there?
If an editor emailed you, then you should email the content to them and ask if they are going to add the image themselves or if you need to provide one.
Helpful 1
© 2016 Michelle Zunter
Comments
Hi Michelle, how much they pay for one post? Thank you!
I have been writing articles for socializepool.com and have been thing about doing guest post. This article has help me understand how to make this happen. Thank you for that, and keep up the great work.
- AUTHOR
HI, it could be that she was in the middle of transitioning out of her role at The Huffington Post. I don't believe she is as active there as she once was. I would try one more time and if that doesn't work, I would try and submit your blog idea through their general submission form on their site.
Hi,
I received a welcome note from Arianna in November 2016 stating that she is ccing an editor to get in touch to give me password so that I could start sharing my voice on Huffpost.
It has been 3-4 months now, I have not hear back from the editor. I have sent follow-up mails, but have not got any response.
Any idea, what should I do now, or whom should I contact for assistance/clarification?
- AUTHOR
Hi Milton,
Yes, I've noticed the same thing. I've done about as well as you as far as featured posts but with the new platform, it is sometimes difficult to locate exactly where your posts have been featured at times. Recently, there were changes made to the area where you could see how many Facebook likes or shares you got. I can't even see those stats anymore unless my post has been shared by Huffpost on Facebook and then I need to search for my post there to see how people are responding.
Yes, no more tags either. Not sure about the possible mysterious venue.
The best way for me to know what Huffpost is doing with my posts or where people are getting them from is on my personal blog where I track the stats on how people are coming to my page and also by searching Facebook using my post titles to see what networks have potentially engaged with or shared my work on Facebook.
Glad to meet you!
I've been blogging for HP for a year with a fair amount of success..maybe 2/3 featured/promoted. Now i've been forced to just use the new athena platform and finally had a piece promoted in a sub-sub section of a sub-section of Politics (almost impossible to find unless by accident :)). An odd thing I noticed is that in the first few hours two people wrote comments, but in the following 8 days, where it has been the lead blog in this hard to find place, there have been no additional ones. It's possible this is just chance, but I wonder if HP also makes promoted blogs visible in some other venue for a brief period after it appears on the HP site. I know tags don't exist, so it doesn't seem RSS is going on. Any thoughts?
You can no longer submit to a particular vertical now that all bloggers have been moved to Athena. Kind of a shame.
I'm so thankful for your help, Michelle. A couple months ago you suggested pitching articles to the editors at Huff & gave us a form. I did submit some article pitches. How do we go about finding out if Huff Post used them. Is there a way to search for our work since pitching in this way 'would' get indexed, right?
blessings!
- AUTHOR
Hi, and thanks for your comment and also pointing out both my spelling error and an outdated piece of information about the tags! On the new platform you were able to add up to 8 tags to categorize your post but in the last month or so that option has disappeared. I took that part out of my article.
I have yet to find a platform that resembles the old Huffpost platform and I totally relate to your frustration with the new one. Huffpost has now completely moved to the new contributor platform so bloggers like you or me cannot submit via the old platform anymore. I have noticed a significant delay in editors promoting my submissions compared to before. I'm sure they have thousands of contributors publishing to the new platform daily/weekly.
I agree that it seems bloggers are not getting as much of the spotlight as before but I also see that The Huffington post has been very slow overall to update many of their sections and many of the same posts will stay in the same spot for weeks.
I believe The Huffington Post still very much relies on contributors like us to draw attention and readers to their site and I still contend that the exposure offered if your post is promoted or featured is still worthwhile for a writer as long as you also have other platforms in your repertoire.
Thanks!
Michelle,
I read your article from my perspective as a HuffPo blogger since 2012. The old system seemed more inclusive on more democratic as all my article would basically rank themselves and would drop down the list as new articles were published in the same vertical. It seems that bloggers have been slowly and systematically de-prioritized.
Do you know of any progressive publications that have the old HuffPo system?
Also, in reading your article, I found a sentence that I don't understand...
"You can, however, as up to 8 tags for your post which can help guide it to the appropriate section".
I don't understand.
Thanks for your help.
Fred Lundgren
CEO of KCAA Radio
ceo@kcaaradio.com
www.kcaaradio.com
Such helpful information! Thank you....Specifically where do we tag our article?
- AUTHOR
Give her at least a week to respond, then send a polite follow-up email. As you can tell, they editors are probably quite busy with lots of submissions pertaining to current events and such....
Hi, Thanks for the info. Arianna just replied back to my email within 2 days, but haven't heard from the blog editor she cc'ed. Does emailing the blog editor still help get published? I'm waiting to hear back from them, and I submitted through the blog submission form as well.
Thanks!
- AUTHOR
Yes, I do still submit on the old platform, mainly because I keep having issues with image alignment on the new platform. They are still publishing mine on the old platform - not everytime - but a good amount.
Hello Michelle,
Thanks for writing this post. I am Huffington post contributor myself, but for some reason, I noticed that they no longer publish my articles on the old platform unlike last year. Do you still contribute using the old platform, or are you just using the new beta platform?
- AUTHOR
Yes, I can access mine, although there are still annoying glitches I'm finding such as when you're adding images. You can email the huffpost team but, unfortunately, they will rarely respond. You are using Google Chrome, correct?
Hey! Sorry if I didn't make sense - I didn't want you to access the Huffington Post blog team for me, I just wanted advice for those of us that aren't able to access our blogger platform AT ALL. Can you access yours? I wondered if you or anyone here has emailed the team about this problem and has gotten a response. What addy do we use to get their attention.
Thank YOU!
- AUTHOR
Yes, it's definitely tough out there! Keep trying.... Thank you so much for reading :)
Love the blog. I am trying my luck at getting published a few places. It is nice to hear all of this feedback in real time. I send an email to 5 different online blogs because I want to write about "Mobile First Web Design" and I feel there isn't enough content about this on the internet. 1 out of the 5 gave me an account but hasn't published my article yet. It is pending review. Anyways. Thanks!
- AUTHOR
Unfortunately, I'm not able to access for you. For this issue, I'm afraid to say only the staff at The Huffington Post can fix it - IF you can get ahold of them.
I am one of those contributors that has been writing posts but now cannot access my acct. on the contributors platform. (new platform). Can you give me an email address you would try? I want to make sure I'm using the right one. My last post won't show up at all and I need to edit what is there desperately. Thank you, Michelle!!!
- AUTHOR
As far as the tags go, when you get accepted to contribute on the platform, you're allowed to tag your piece. For example, if it's an article about parenting, the tags would be, "parenting," "parents," or "families". If you have pitched a blog to editorial submissions they will let you know if they like your idea and are interested in publishing it. I don't believe they would publish it without letting you know first.
Im really interested in your knowledge on Huff Post!! Thankyouf ror this blog as i'm struggling to work things out. When you mention adding up to 8 tags within an article, can you clarify what you mean exactly? Also - on the site it says on the form submission - 'please note that, like any publication, we cannot respond to all queries and you'll only hear from us if it's something we're interested in running'
Can you clarify, if i have pitched a blog, if that means it will exist in some form, but will only be shared if its read?
- AUTHOR
What are you trying to tag?
I don't see where you can tag in the new platform? Does that even exist? Thanks!
- AUTHOR
Great question~ I didn't know you could get a badge but I'm sure you can add it to your website - I would!
Thanks for this new platform info! I joined as a contributor and posted two posts so far. What I was wondering about was the HuffPo badge on people's blogs/sites, is that something helpful? Do I get to place that badge on mine being a contributor? How do you feel about that? Thanks so much.
Thank you so much for this interesting information. Especially notable was your comment that while the Huffington Post doesn't pay, it brings a lot of viewers to your blog. I realize now that the Huffington Post can be a powerful platform for one's writing.
- AUTHOR
Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to delete an article from the old platform, only the new one. Was the article published by Huffington?
I would like to delete one of my articles, but when using the new platform, not all my articles transferred over. I tried deleting the account all together thinking the article would dissapear with it . Wrong! Do you know how to delete an article from the old platform?? I've tried contacting the blogteam email address and havent recieved a reply. This is something I've been trying to do for months. Any tips are appreciated! You seem like a seasoned writer thought I would ask.
- AUTHOR
Have you tried pitching to the editors at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScrz0kcST... ?
I'm wondering how to apply for access through Athena as a new contributor now that the open period has closed.
- AUTHOR
That's so frustrating! I'm sorry you're going through that. It's true that the support team isn't very responsive.....
I'm so relieved to see that many are having a login issue with Huffington Post's contributor platform. I haven't been able to publish anything for weeks now and I get an error message every time I login. I've emailed the support team numerous times and feel ignored - no response. It's so frustrating!
I was recently approved and I noticed that Google does not index the posts.
It's a bit of a bummer. I am going to try emailing the editor like you had done with Arianna.
P.S. I would love to interview you on my marketing show. PM me on FB if you are interested: planetxeo.com/fb
- AUTHOR
I totally agree. I still submit articles for them and some of my articles get featured while some don't. The great thing about publishing to The Huffington Post is that they don't demand your work is original. Other sites I write for won't accept anything that's been published anywhere else, including your own blog. If your post does get featured, the exposure is still terrific. I would definitely advise you try submitting to other media outlets that offer pay and then when you feel like it submit to Huffpost on the side....
Good luck!
Hi there, I just noticed with the change to Athena, I got very few eyeballs on my post on the contributors platform as opposed to pre-Athena. After putting in all that effort then what's the point of writing for the Huff if no one but 13 people are going to read that article? What do you think? It doesn't feel like they care about the info we have to share anymore....unless it fits the format/vibe etc they like in which case they will feature/promote it. I'm wondering what their rationale is because won't they also lose good content with this new strategy?
- AUTHOR
Hi Nadir - Unfortunately you would have to contact the Huffpost Blog team as I'm not sure what technical issue is going on there... Good luck!
Hi,
i am contributor on huffingtonpost. but from last week my contributor account is not opening. even i post is indexed in google. what the problem please give me solution.
thanks
Nadir
- AUTHOR
Send me the info and I'll check it out!
Hi Far, do you mind taking 15 minutes out of your time to fill a very short form for my roundup post?
I promise it won't take time.
Iyiola.
- AUTHOR
No, not as of this morning... it is very glitchy at times though...
has anyone else today have a problem signing in to the new Huff Post platform. Once I sign in the page will not land and keeps scrolling
- AUTHOR
Oh wow! I haven't experienced that (yet!) I do know that the new system can be glitchy - I have many issues adding images. Have you tried emailing the blog team at all or one of the editors? I know they are difficult to get ahold of but it would be something they should know about or fix.....
Hi Michelle, I'm wondering if you know why some of us huffington post contributors can't even lock into our accounts any more and some of our posts are deleted? A friend who is also a huffington post contributor for its new platform is experiencing the same issue. We're both so stressed out because we can't access our account at all. We can't make revisions to our current work and can't do new posts at all :(
- AUTHOR
You are! Wow, that's interesting. Thank you. I know it can be a touchy subject sometimes so it is challenging to write about but if it resonates it means the world to me....
Thank you so much! And I just saw you had an article featured today. I loved your piece. I am a stepdaughter and really appreciate your point of view.
- AUTHOR
Yes, publications like Salon, PopSugar, and YourTango are good potential publications to submit to....
Hi Michelle, Thanks so much for your response. I'm sorry the same thing happened to you, but I guess it makes me feel better that it wasn't a 'glitch' or something. In this case, it was a timely election related piece so it's probably losing relevance by the day. I doubt it's worth it to submit this particular post elsewhere. I will definitely try some other sites in the future as well. Do you have any you recommend trying? Thanks again for your feedback and for having this post to support fellow writers :-)
- AUTHOR
Hi Jacque,
Yes, that happened to me a couple of weeks ago as well. I think it's just a matter of The Huffington Post being flooded with content and perhaps they did mean to place it somewhere but it got pushed aside. With this election going on I think they just have a lot going on. I wouldn't take it personally but at least now your piece is indexed! Keep trying and don't be afraid to take that post and submit it elsewhere. There are other big name sites out there as well that will give you great exposure and some of them pay their bloggers as well...
Hi Michelle, I noticed a few days ago that one of my posts was edited and 'promoted'. Obviously, I was very excited! But...even though someone took the time to edit and promote it, my post was never actually on HuffPo anywhere. The link is now searchable on Google and HP, but with no visibility on the site, it won't be seen by anyone. I am just surprised that an editor took the time to edit and promote it with no intention of having it appear on HP. Do you think it was an oversight? Or is there something I might need to do on my blogging page (like republish?) Should I email them? Thanks so much.
- AUTHOR
Have you tried the submissions page where you can pitch a blog idea?
- AUTHOR
Thank you Paul! Good luck to you on your own blogging journey. It's certainly a jungle out there :)
I came accross this so late! The HP contributor Platform is closed... I am so sad.. What can I do.
No editor seems to be answering me
This was a really great read. Being a fairly new blogger, this definitely put meat on the bones for me as far as what I need to do and what to expect. Thank for this. Peace and love to you.
This is awesome! Very informative! I like how you explain the process of blogging on Huffington Post, I do get a lil emotional about my stories and whats going on in the world. I haven't really thought about blogging out side my website but this article gave me some guide lines on how to start blogging here on Huffington.
The only thing I would add is a lil humor, I know its a informational data but having some humor will just make it pop or stand out. Plus humor invites your readers and in general make people be intrigue!
I hope this help, I just saw this and thought is was great, and have me thinking! I hope this help's and I will look forward to seeing more of your blogs. Cris
- AUTHOR
Fantastic!!!!
Hi Michelle, Thanks for your response. I did email an editor and the next day I noticed my post had been lightly edited to look like a feature article! It was featured in the education section and even on the front page!...but only for a day. Today it was not in either section but is still searchable on google and in the Huff Post. I don't know the reason for the short time it was featured, but I am so grateful it was, if only for a short time :-) Thanks so much for sharing your experience and insight with others. Your post is very helpful, especially for a 'newbie' to the blogging and writing world!
- AUTHOR
Personally, I would wait at least 2 days and then, as you said, if your post has been well received elsewhere on social media it couldn't hurt to email an editor. Don't be shocked if the editor doesn't respond to you - but yes - definitely worth a shot!!! Congrats to you and thank you for reading my post!
Hi Michelle, Thank you for this post. I followed your advice and am now a contributor on the Athena platform. I am curious if anyone has ever submitted a current 'unindexed' Huffington Post blog entry to a specific editor after publishing it to the HP blog? If a post is being well received among your social media circles and has 400+ likes on the HP blog is it worth emailing an editor suggesting it might be a good fit for them to feature? Or is it better to just 'wait and see' if they choose to feature it?
Excellent article! Writing for the Huffington Post gives us a chance to have your article featured and drive viral traffic to your blog along with a chance to get a juicy do-follow backlink. However getting invited to the Huffington Post contributor platform can be time consuming so I scoured the web to find a faster way to get an invite. I bought my Huffington Post invite from this seller on Fiverr: http://bit.ly/2c06vxZ
- AUTHOR
From what I can tell, if you get your work FEATURED on the new platform it should be searchable with Google. However, on the new platform where any contributor can publish at any time without much filter, it's increasingly difficult to be featured and the time that The Huffington Post actually features you on the site has significantly lowered.
By this, I mean that you could be featured in a specific section on the front page but then gone within a day or two whereas in the past it seemed to be a much longer timeframe that a featured piece would be showcased for readers to catch.
I suspect this is due to the growing number of contributors. When The Huffington shares your featured posts on social media, it helps immensely as well.
As you mentioned, it looks as though the new platform marks all mages with a noindex attribute, which means they will never appear in any search engine.
I have read that posts can get that tag removed if you promote them. Has anyone had success with this? I am curious if there is a specific way to get these indexed. For example, a number of Facebook shares or a certain amount of traffic. If someone has gotten their posts indexed I would love to see the post and then perhaps we could at least have a benchmark of promotional traffic and interest to shoot for when writing articles. If anyone has any input I would love to read it.
Hi
I am using athena platform and my profile already got indexed http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/mariah8412-45...
but I am still waiting may be any of my post also get indexed. I have seen few people they are using athena platform and there posts got indexed in google I dont know how they did but they were also not featured by any huffpost editor.
- AUTHOR
Yes. Try to copy and paste the link and share that way.
Yes, I'm using the Athena platform on Google Chrome. Is that the reason why when I log in, the links do not work?
- AUTHOR
The new platform doesn't index your blogs - UNLESS your article gets featured by The Huffington Post, which is why many writers are frustrated with the new system.
If they feature your article in one of their various sections it will be searchable - especially if they share it on their social media channels. The new version allows you to publish whatever you desire, but it doesn't guarantee any exposure.
Hope that helps
Hi,
I am contributor on huffpost new platform which is beta versio, but there is a problem, how to get it index, i published articles, but that page has noindex meta tag, which is not indexable by search engines?
how to get published on main site?
Waiting for your response, i am confused please help.
- AUTHOR
Hi, Nabanita - are you using the Athena platform on Google Chrome?
Hi, I was also invited to the contributor platform and even published a post. But when I log in now, the links do not work. Any idea why? Has the url changed?
Great insight into writing for this massive site! I have friends who have been bloggers for Huff Post and was curious how they got there. Definitely sharing!
- AUTHOR
Nope, they don't tell you so you have to search for your article in the section it's most likely in. The very best way to tell if it's been featured is to see the number of likes or comments it has received. Usually if it's featured more people get exposed to it.
Hi Michelle,
Thanks so much for this information. Does the Huffington Post let you know if your blog is going to be featured?
Christy
- AUTHOR
Fantastic News!! Great job Solen!
Hi Michelle,
thank you very much for the tips. I followed your advice and sent an email to Ms. Huffington directly and she responded within 24 hours that she'd be happy to share my article and now I am also waiting to hear from the editor. I am quite thrilled :)
- AUTHOR
Yes! Let us know how that goes!!
- AUTHOR
Yes! I was just curious if you had access to the old platform or not. Hope it's going well!!
Very interesting to read about how all this is rolling out. Even though I'm on the contributor's (Athena) platform, I decided to try a timely piece on the regular Huff Po blog pitch form to see if it might get featured. You never know what will work for sure!
Hi,
No. There is just the one platform where I can submit: Athena. That just means I can publish the work immediately. I don't get a 'no-reply' email response when I publish on Athena. I just publish and share.
Hope that helps.
- AUTHOR
Hi! Question:
Do you mean you submitted your post to the contributor blog where you get a "no-reply" e-mail response when you submit as well as posting to the new beta Athena platform where you publish your work yourself immediately? Thanks
Thanks so much, Michelle! So I began sharing the post and in 4 days it's crossed 950 FB likes. This is beyond thrilling.
I did notice though that there are now two links to my post. One is under the original Athena platform and is filed under 'Blog'. That's the one which has 950 likes. As of yesterday when I click on the URL it takes me to a 'Contributor' category. That one has no views from what I can tell. Plus my author name on the contributor page, when clicked, returns a 404 error page.
So I have been very careful to mention everywhere that I am contributing to HuffPo and not 'featured' unless and until it appears on the home page somewhere. In the meanwhile I have shared the link to the piece with a couple of editors in India's Huff Post team, where I reside. Not heard from them yet. Will keep you posted and thank you once again for being so open about the whole process.
- AUTHOR
Hi Shailaja!
I'm not sure how the editors are filtering through the posts with the new system and choosing what gets featured. I know they generally look for posts relevant to trending topics or unique opinions. Without being able to submit to a specific vertical as was always done in the past I'm really just waiting to see how all this rolls out.
I suspect that with all the glitches and concerns writers are having, that the new chrome platform may change again soon and is just in the beginning test phase.
You can share your published post wherever or with whomever you like. You should know within a few days at the most if an editor is going to feature your post. There will have been an update and maybe even some slight editing done to your piece, as well as being promoted on social media by the Huffington Post.....
Keep us posted and good luck to all!
Hi Michelle,
Thank you so much for this. It was extremely helpful. I pitched a piece to Arianna Huffington, exactly as you described and was put in touch with an editor who set me up with a contributor platform.
Now my first post is already live on the site but like you said, it's not featured or on the home page. My question is: Can I share it with my friends and followers or wait till it perhaps gets picked to feature and then do it?
Also, I hope I made the cut based on the quality of my writing. Not sure how the Athena platform is rolled out to new contributors. I got my account set up yesterday.
I'd be grateful for any advice. Thank you.
-Shailaja
- AUTHOR
Hey there! Yes same challenges here. If you look at the actual website, you can see that they are still making changed. It's changed just since yesterday, especially in the "Parents" section where I have no doubt a huge majority of the contributors submit to.
As far as getting featured, it looks to me that this may also be more challenging and I'm not sure how the editors filter through the blogs now and decide what goes where.
Before this change I didn't have an issue getting featured so we shall see what happens next! I just published one today.
Good luck and keep in touch :)
Thank you so much; your update is also very helpful! I don't know if anyone else has run into this problem, but I found that although I have to post initially on Google Chrome, when I want to send the link after posting, I have to quit Chrome and log in from the link in my the first invitation email (from Huff Po) using Safari and get the link that way for Pinterest, FB, Twitter, etc. This sounds incredibly cumbersome, but it's the only way I've been able to do it. I'm still trying to figure out how to get featured but maybe, as you say, that's something that's up to Huff Po editors.
- AUTHOR
Pamela Jane: I see now that their new site for contributors is quite different and looks to have some bugs. I just published a blog on it but did find it difficult to even edit before I published so I will wait and see what happens and update from there.
- AUTHOR
They just added a new Beta version of the contributors platform which I just signed in to. It does look different and the verticals are not there as an option anymore. I take this to mean they are now going to decide which vertical to publish your post to.
As far as the Google searches - have you tried searching your post titles?
Update: I can't find my posts for the Huff Po in Google either. If I google my name and "Huffington Post" I find only a reference to a slide show the Huff Po did of a book of mine in 2013 -- that was their feature, not my blog. I think the contributor's blogs might be hidden -- unless we send a link? Also, I have to post with Google Chrome, but then I have to return to the post in Safari in order to Tweet or FB the link. I hope this is helpful! I'll be interested to read about others' experience as well.
Ooooh now I get why I can't find my articles through Google! Just when I thought this was getting easier... I don't see where I can pick the Vertical, though - are these just the tags? It doesn't seem like I can select a category.
Thank you so much for that! I do think things have changed; I did get my log in info, and I downloaded Google Chrome (because my log in info said that is the only browser they are supporting now) and was able to post – but rather than hit "submit" I simply had to hit "publish". Also, on the bottom of my post it says that I am on the "contributors" platform and that contributors "control their own work and post freely" on the site. I'm not sure if it's harder to get featured as a contributor but it may well be. I was able to share on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. It's all a learning cure! Hope this comment helps others as well.
- AUTHOR
You compose your blogs as drafts and are able to view them in a preview mode which is cool. Then you hit submit when ready. But unless your post gets "featured" it is very difficult to find for readers. By featured it appears on the front page of whichever section you submitted to. Also, if your post gets shared by the Huffpost on one of their many Facebook sites it really helps to boost your esposure.
I will check out your sites - they sound great!
I did send a polite follow-up a few days after I heard, but have not received an email back, so still waiting...in the meantime, I've read that the new HP bloggers do not have their posts actually visible on the site, and they don't show up with a Google or other search engine either -- in other words, you have to post the link to your blog on HP just as you would on your own site. I've also read that new HP bloggers don't press "submit" when they blog, but simply "publish" so it seems that things may have changed a bit.
I blog at http://www.memoircoaching.com (memoir) and http://www.pamelajane.com (children's books). I also write blogs and essays for literarymama, mothersalwayswrite (3 coming out) dirtyandthirty, and womensmemoirs.com. Your site is amazing; you provide an invaluable service! I empathize with Tahir's comment; still waiting to hear from HP!
- AUTHOR
If the editor was included in the e-mail -send them a polite, short follow-up. I know they're pretty busy...
I have been waiting to hear frm Editor last 6 days, Very Frustrating But fingers crossed , Any advice
- AUTHOR
Awesome! Thanks. Do you have a blog website?
I blogged about 7 (Unlikely) Things that Make me Mad; it's a wacky post. As far as the submitting process, in the children's book field, we regularly "break the rules" and not surprisingly that's how we get published. Thanks again, and congratulations!
- AUTHOR
Awesome!!! The waiting for the editor part was the toughest phase. I don't know what their workloads are like and I'm sure they're very busy. May I ask what did you write about?
Thanks!
I had the same experience and am now waiting to hear from the editor who was copied on the email I received from Arianna Huffington. It is hard to wait! Some writers cannot understand why I would blog for free when I have books in print, but I spend so much time looking for places to publish my essays when I'd rather (as one person put it) "just type" (i.e. write). Thanks for this post!
I had read about huffingpost elsewhere, the blogger had mentioned that huffingpost is a writing platform to make a decent amount of money, but they hardly accept writers as they are seeking very high quality content.
I have found the information provided by you very detailed and delibrate as compared to the individual concerned above. Thanks for it.
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