I’m always on a search for those “write for us” platforms that are actually worth my time.
But there are a few out there that are just better than all the rest. If you’re looking for the right place to write, there are many out there, but these few I’m about to share are the best out there, and there are numerous reasons why.
These platforms, they’re not like submitting something for a writing contest or writing challenge. They are places to air your thoughts, share your creative stories, and inspire others.
Benefits of Writing For Other Websites Rather Than A Blog
There are benefits to publishing on “write for us” platforms rather than starting your own blog.
I personally do both, I have the freedom of writing for my own blog, knowing I can say what I would like and publish on my own time. The downside is the exposure. On my blog, it’ll take a much longer time for anything I write to get the readers.
If I write for someone else, I have to be calculated with my story, but if it’s good, it’ll get shared and read hopefully thousands of times in just a few days.
All of these websites consist of user-generated content. Yes, they had a team behind them making sure the business runs, but overall, people like you and me, and even people from top industries are writing for some of these platforms.
1. “Write For Us” on Elephant Journal
Elephant Journal is the largest mindful writing platform on the internet where people can tell their innermost deep thoughts and share them with others who might be feeling the same way. They cover a variety of topics on heartbreak, sex & relationships, parenting, yoga, veganism, and a myriad of other topics.
I found Elephant Journal after I went through a breakup. The Facebook algorithm was pushing breakup and sadness articles through to me left and right. And when I was looking for a job, I saw Elephant Journal was hiring. Their application process was super easy except for a single question I couldn’t answer, so I ended up not following through with the application.
A couple of weeks after I almost applied, I decided to post my very first piece of writing with them.
The piece was called, What It’s Like Having Sexual Anxiety.
I submitted it to editors and I was off onto my own life, not thinking too much of it. My first writing was published and had gotten 1,000 reads in the first day. I was shocked. A few weeks later, my article made it to the Top 10 Articles of the Week in their Elephant Ecosystem.
I’ve been writing for Elephant Journal ever since. You can find My Elephant Journal Profile below.
Understanding the Elephant Journal Ecosystem
What you write will be deemed successful based on the audience and not just by the editors alone. Editors are an extra step to publishing and getting your writing out, but really, the audience determines how good your work is.
So the score of the Elephant Journal Ecosystem depends on a few factors:
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- Number of reads
- Number of times hearted
- Number of times shared on social media
- Number of comments
- Number of likes from EJ Subscribers
- And if it’s an Editor’s Pick
The scores are calculated, averaged, and then produce a score between 1 and 10. 10 is the best, but only achieve if your piece was made an Editor’s Pick. If the piece wasn’t selected for Editor’s Pick, the highest score you will ever get is a 9.5.
Your score by the end of the week may help you get to the Top 10 Pieces of the Week in the Elephant Ecosystem. But take pride in knowing it was because of the EJ followers and fans and not just the EJ Staff.
How to Post on Elephant Journal
It’s really intuitive, posting your content on Elephant Journal. You click the “Create Post” button at the top of the page, and you’re off to writing. I’ve found that the platform can be glitchy sometimes and reject your submission.
If this happens, I suggest a few things before writing in the form directly:
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- Set up a folder in Google Docs dedicated to your Elephant Journal ideas.
- Make a Google Doc for each topic
- Flesh out your idea and edit it as MUCH as possible
- Then submit through Elephant Journal
This keeps you from writing in the create post form directly and losing those simply badass ideas you just spent hours typing out.
After one of my posts is published, I move it to a “Published” folder so I can make space for my other ideas.
Before you start writing for Elephant Journal, it’s important to read the Style Guide. If you don’t follow it, they won’t post your content.
Classes For Writers on Elephant Journal (Elephant Academy)
Elephant Journal and owner Waylon Lewis, really try to nurture their writers and give them a space to hone their skills.
That’s why they created the Elephant Academy.
In Elephant Academy, there are incredibly affordable courses writers can take on:
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- Writing
- Using Instagram
- Publishing & selling the hell out of your book
- Mindfulness
- Maitri
- Meditation
You can see all of their available courses here. For those interested in working for Elephant Journal, they typically like to hire someone who has gone through the academy.
Benefits of Writing For Elephant Journal
There is so much to love about Elephant Journal, but here is a brief list of things:
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- Has 13 million Facebook followers over 60 pages
- 5 million YouTube Views
- 900k Instagram followers
- Amazing and friendly editors
- Quick turnaround publishing articles
- You can publish directly or submit to an editor
- If your writing is good, it can make “Editor’s Pick”
- Articles submitted to editors are shared on all social media channels (less work for you)
- Top 15 performing articles each week get rewarded!
- Top-performing articles can make their newsletters and reach even more people.
- You can gain a following on EJ
- There is an easy to use app
- The community is huge and there is more engagement
- Lowest yearly subscription (Starting at $36 a year) which gives you unlimited reads.
Downsides of Writing For Elephant Journal
I’ll be honest, Elephant Journal has been my favorite so far. I love the people, I am in constant touch with the editors managing my submissions, and they put a hell of a lot of effort into publishing what I write literally everywhere.
Knowing that what I have written is reaching so many people and relating to even just a couple hundred of them, fills me with joy.
If there could be downsides or critiques from others, I imagine they would be the following:
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- Rewards are not as often and given to really the best-written pieces
- Only EJ subscribers can heart and comment which can take away from potentially higher scores.
- Side note: for readers, only two reads are allowed per day until you decide to subscribe.
I legitimately can’t think of anything else.
They are my favorite so far and I’ve never seen another platform work this hard for their writers before.
2. “Write For Us” on Vocal
Vocal Media is a different writing platform that gives me a sort of Medium vibe, when I look at it. But there is a lot to love about this platform too.
Vocal is another writing platform that, like Elephant Journal, also has a variety of different topics to write on. I did notice that there were a lot of areas for writing articles that were more mindful, but I think what attracts people to this site is their Writing Challenges, which I will get to in a second.
I found this platform because of a writing challenge, actually. It has been a struggle to find a writing platform that would publish your more “Creative Writing” without having to go through a tough editing staff. I had submitted for only magazines like Narrative and it seems like all they ever do is pass on my writing.
Vocal is different.
So far, I haven’t yielded as many outstanding benefits with my writing as I have for Elephant Journal, but I do have some thoughts on this, which I will get to later.
Understanding Vocal’s Selection & Compensation Guidelines
One of their coolest “write for us” features as a platform is how they pay you for your writing. The dashboard even gives you analytics on things you have written, how they are performing, and how much money you have made.
If a single piece of yours generates 1,000 reads, you get $3.80 for those 1,000 reads.
I know that doesn’t seem like much, but if you are kicking out tons of content that generates those kinds of reads, pretty soon you’re making passive income and a lot of it.
Here is an article on how one of their vocal creators was able to do that.
As far as being selected for Vocal’s “Top Stories section, there are factors to that. Unlike Elephant Journal, where the readers ultimately decide what is best, Vocal curate’s their own page of content they deem to be the best. Here is how they select their picks.
Another feature Vocal has allowed is the ability to tip a writer for their article, which I find to be really cool. I have only received one $5 tip so far.
How to Post on Vocal
Posting on Vocal is easy. And if you don’t know where to start, here are some guides on how to get started.
What I like about this poster is you can choose photos from the popular and free stock image site, Unsplash, and you can embed a video. The poster is pretty easy to use, but can be glitchy and slow when trying to write directly in it.
If you are going to write for Vocal, I suggest following the same steps for writing for Elephant Journal.
Write your content in a Google Doc before you submit it. This will avoid you losing anything spectacular you’ve been writing. I’ve also noticed that editors will most ALWAYS post the content as is. Meaning, if you have minor errors in your content, it’s on you. Their staff is more screening your content than they are editing.
Luckily, if you notice there is a minor error, or you want to update a post, you can submit a form to retract the post and make your edits. If you want to delete your post, you are allowed to do that as well.
Submitting to Vocal Challenges
Some writers have raked in serious money entering into Vocal’s Writing Challenges. This is ultimately why I came to this site. I personally love how they are throwing out writing prompts that will challenge our creativity.
When you are submitting to a challenge, it’s important to do the following:
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- Read and really understand the prompt and instructions before submitting.
- Edit your content very well before submitting it (filling out a form to edit is time-consuming)
- Don’t forget to include everything they ask for in the challenge
Some people have made some serious money on Vocal by submitting to challenges. Here is a post on how one writer has been doing just that. She made $4,000 off submitting her writings into Vocal Challenges.
Benefits of Writing For Vocal
There are some awesome benefits that I think are really great if you decide to exclusively write for Vocal. With a variety of topics to speak to and challenges to test your writing and creative ability, you’ll be plenty busy.
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- All articles that get reads get compensated (pretty darn cool)
- Tips allowed if people like your writing.
- Earn $3.80 per 1,000 reads
- Easy posting and image selection at your fingertips
- Affordable monthly subscription at $4.99 a month
- Quick publishing turnaround
- Best articles can make the Top Stories Page
Downsides of Writing For Vocal
Overall, I think, if you need a place to write, then Vocal is a good place, but there are some things about it that give you a disadvantage in getting the word out.
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- Vocal does share your writings, but there is low engagement and shares.
- As a result, people don’t see your posts and you don’t get paid
- The staff doesn’t edit your posts before they publish.
- No ability to gain followers
- No easy and convenient app.
3. “Write For Us” on Medium
I know Medium has been around since 2012 and there are a lot of writers who post on Medium. It is even known for having some top executives write for it. But what I’ve come to find is getting featured is even more competitive than Vocal. With only 60 million active monthly users, getting your writing in front of that kind of crowd would be outstanding.
But it will take content that really stands out against the rest and is well-edited.
I have a friend that has had one of her pieces featured or selected to be one of the top stories, so I figured, why not give it a try myself? I uploaded a post and then shared it to see how it would perform.
I got very little interaction or notice from that post, but thought that this would be a useful platform to post your thoughts and build your audience. To me, I am essentially seeing it as an online journal.
Understanding The Posting Guidelines & How to Get Featured
After reading a very high-traffic post on how to get featured on Medium, I realized that basically the content you are pitching to Medium editors should be formatted and written with SEO in mind.
According to this post on Medium, your posts are more likely to get featured if they have the following:
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- Pitch Them (a lot)
- Be Compassionate in your writing
- Give them work that’s too good to refuse
- Add links to research
- Avoid formatting acrobatics
- Publish under your name then submit a draft link
This post will even give you a breakdown on how to submit a post.
Overall, having a good understanding of SEO and posting trending topics will likely be the way you reach top story status on medium. If you are planning to see intense social sharing, you may be out of luck.
Benefits of Posting to Medium
Obviously, I favor Elephant Journal a lot, so this may seem a tad biased, but I’m trying to look on the bright side of the platform and give you some real benefits.
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- Can be featured by editors in Top Stories
- Can get your writing in front of millions of eyes
- Potential to be featured in top stories alongside industry experts
- You have control over what you post on Medium
- You can grow your audience and interact in comments.
- You can get paid for your writing
- Access to stats to see how your posts are performing
- Membership cost is low ($5 a month or $50 a year)
Downsides of Posting to Medium
There aren’t many downsides to Medium, but there are a few.
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- The sharing frequency isn’t as high as platforms like Elephant Journal (if you’re not a featured story, you’re on your own when it comes to social sharing)
- Only get paid for your stories if selected by the staff
- No editors to screen your posts
- Their social channels are relatively low in follower count and engagement.
My Thoughts On All Writing Platforms
Although none of these writing platforms are perfect, any one of them is a good place to post your stories and musings so you can build up an audience. If you want to practice your writing, share it with the world and see how they respond, any one of these platforms will be perfecy.
You may find that one platform works better for you than others, which is the case for me. I find more success on Elephant Journal than I do on Vocal or Medium. That may be different for other writers.
Either way, if you love writing these are the three platforms I recommend.
