Make £200 Being featured in a Women’s Magazine

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Have you ever thought about selling a story to a magazine? I got paid £200 for a short piece about my health.

If you’ve ever read any women’s magazine then you’ll know the sort of stories they are full of. Cheating husbands, miracle babies, cute kiddies photographs. Have you ever thought about trying to sell your own story to them?

Make £200 Being featured in a Women’s Magazine

Now, I fully understand that most people wouldn’t want to air their dirty laundry in public, so stories about adultery and divorce may well be out. But there are loads of other stories they feature too – health problems, ghost stories, articles about children and pets.

The First Story I Sold To A Magazine

One of the first stories I sold was about an operation I had a few years ago to have one of my ribs removed.

This was due to a rare condition called Arterial Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. 

The piece of rib I had removed now sits in a jar on my bookcase and the magazine seemed to love the idea of this. I was paid £200 for my story which was featured on a page with two other health-related stories.

All I did was email a short summary of what had happened to the magazine after seeing a request for health stories on their Facebook page.

They then replied saying they wanted to use my story. A call was arranged to go over all the details which took about an hour.

After the story had been written up they rang again to check I was happy with it before publishing.

All in all the whole process took about two hours of my time. About Six weeks later I received a cheque in the post for £200 although I think nowadays this is usually done by bank transfer.

More recently, (2022) I was featured in Take A Break Magazine talking about how I saved a £50k house deposit and how using cashback apps helped me save.

You can find more details of this story over on my Media Page.

Comment On Dilemmas

Commenting on dilemmas is also been something I’ve been in magazines for.

“Should I stay with my cheating partner?”

“Should I tell my best friend I don’t like his new fella”

You get the idea! Simply leave a comment on what you would say or do in that situation.

They pay around £30 each time and I think it’s just luck of the draw whether your comment is chosen or not. Make it as detailed as possible – the magazine won’t go for a comment that says something short like ‘dump them!’

I was also in a magazine write after writing a few paragraphs about how early I do my Christmas Shopping.

Again it had popped up on Facebook

“Do you think Christmas starts too early – email your thoughts”

So I did and I was lucky enough to be chosen. This paid in £30 worth of vouchers and they sent me a copy of the magazine in the post when it was published.

While this is not something I spend a lot of time focusing on if I see something that is relevant I will always give it a try.

Where Can I find Women’s Magazines To Be Featured In?

Finding magazines that are looking for stories is surprisingly easy. Here are my top 5 tips for finding a women’s magazine to be featured in.

The focus here is specifically on a women’s magazine as that’s what I’ve had the most success with myself. As most publish weekly or bi-weekly they do often seem to be looking for content.

1. Follow some magazines on Facebook such as Chat, Pick me Up, Woman and Take a Break. They post regular dilemmas, photo requests and shutouts for specific types of stories they are looking for. Sometimes you can comment on the post, other times they will ask you to email.
2. Put all of the above on the ‘See First’ feature on Facebook so you never miss an opportunity.
3. Search for magazine requests using the hashtag #journorequest on Twitter.
4. If you have what you consider a ‘big’ story it might be worth emailing the magazine directly to see if they are interested. You can do this from their website.
5. Be friendly and polite and don’t get disheartened if you don’t get featured immediately.
6. Join the ‘Feature me’ Group on Facebook where opportunities are posted daily for both magazines and newspapers. I was recently featured in the Sun Newspaper which you can see here. 

Some magazines will ask that your story hasn’t been featured anywhere else before.

Or that you don’t sell it again for so many weeks or even a year after publication.

Usually, payment is around six weeks after the publication of the issue you are featured in but i sometimes sooner.

More Than Just Stories

Another area you could try to be featured in is the ‘Tips Corner’ where people share their tips from around the home.

Women’s magazines also often feature pictures of cute children and pets and I think most of us have a few of those on our phones!

It may well be worth trying to make some money out of them! I wrote a more detailed account of getting pictures featured in this post for Victoria over at Lylia Rose.com