How To Get Featured on The Gun Feed
We’ve received many inquiries about how to get featured on The Gun Feed, so I thought that I would put this post together in an effort to help answer some FAQ and give out some general guidance.
Help us help you.
1st – Let us know that you exist.
We consume a lot, repeat a lot of gun related content on the web each and everyday. Some of it is from the lame stream media… Some of it is from bloggers… Some of it is from YouTube… Some of it is from industry sites… Some of it is from non-firearm related websites that just happen to wander into the topics that we care about. However, some stuff out there we just don’t know exists or some of it can sometimes fall through the cracks. So if we have never linked to any of your content then one of two things is going on here. Either you completely suck and offer nothing worth noting or we simply have no idea that you even exist. You can rectify that by firing up the old email machine and introducing yourself or by simply using the submit news tips box at the bottom of this page and send me over some of your newest work.
2nd – Keep it fresh.
The beauty of this site is that it moves at warp speed. So fast in fact that sometimes it can even get too far out in front of the news cycle. Thats mainly because The Gun Feed usually only features the newest and most pertinent firearm news that is out there at the time. The old adage is that “Content is King“, but around here I would say that fresh, new content is what reigns supreme. So when submitting content that you want to be featured… keep it fresh. The more you can stay on the front edge of the things that are happening, the more original the content is that you are generating, the more unique and insightful your commentary is then the more likely it is that you will get a link featured on the site. Look, you might be able to put together one hell of a well done review of the ubiquitous Glock 17, but if it doesn’t have anything really ground shaking in it then its going to be a complete waste of everyone’s time. I’m sorry, but it probably wont get featured.
Also, most of the stories that are featured on The Gun Feed are news drivers, not news followers. Its great if you want to add to the discussion on a particular topic that is making the rounds – and sometimes that stuff will get featured – but don’t look for your article to get featured if it is just a re-reporting of a story that has been widely talked about already. Add something new or insightful to the conversation and your chances of getting featured certainly increase.
3rd – Bloggers…
Clean up your feed – A good bit of the content that we source from bloggers comes from their website feeds. If you are a blogger/webmaster then do us a solid and clean up your feed. Take out all of the Feedburner generated stuff like – feedproxy.google.TheGunFeed/SoYouWant/~379.utm/~recwpo987.itm/RSS.WTF!.com – Its a real hassle. It slows things down, and its sometimes a deciding factor when pressed for time or when things are questionable if they will be featured or not. So, please go into your feed and set it up for just a straight URL. Changing the setting away from only allowing for a preview of the post would also be great.
Post on the weekends – Its a slower news cycle on the weekends. A slow news day means your work is more likely to get featured on The Gun Feed.
Submitting News Tips.
When submitting a news tip please submit more than just a link/headline. Whether you are a publisher or just a regular reader… When you hit the news tips box at the bottom of the page, please don’t just throw a link in there. Give us some idea of the who, what, when, where, and why of its importance. We appreciate ALL of the news leads that are sent in each and everyday, and 99% of them get followed up on… but sometimes its difficult to sift through long articles to get to the most pertinent issue at hand. Please include with each submission something quick as to the why. If you have a witty headline or an idea for a meme, then throw that on in there too.
Also, don’t just limit submissions to news articles. If there is a great blogger/YouTuber out there that you regular readers follow that we may not know about yet, then please point us in the right direction. If there is a great blog post that just came out of nowhere and hit it out of the park, then send it in.
Help spread the gospel.
Help us help you by helping us grow this site. Yes, traffic growth has been well beyond our wildest dreams for what this site would be and many of you who have been featured here can attest that this site can really move some traffic when it wants to, BUT there are still a ton of people in the online firearms community who still don’t even know that The Gun Feed exists. Help us change that. Talk the site up, post about it, link to it, Blogroll it, social media-ize it, Reddit it, post it up in forums, you name it… Be a friend of this site and it will be a friend to you. Make a point of pointing to The Gun Feed and getting the site out there and we promise you that you will be moved to the top of the pile of the everyday reads. As things continue to snowball, the more this site grows then the more traffic it can move.
Businesses and industry folks…
If you are an “industry-insider” (did I really just say that?) and want to see this site help play a part in growing your business, then its as simple as firing up the old email machine. If you are interested in advertising, if you have a new product that will be coming to market, if you have products that you want to see reviewed and blogged about… You name it. Just reach out and let us know what you are interested in working on and perhaps we can make it happen. Even if we cant help you, odds are that we can certainly put you in contact with someone else in the industry who can.
Additionally, I will once again point to the fact that fresh content is the name of the game. If you are in the industry and have news before it is news then get in touch with us. Give us an exclusive or give us something to be featured when your product is officially announced and it will certainly make a big splash here. Press releases are great… Add the site’s email to your mailing list and send them in. But remember, having it before everyone else makes it news is the big driver.
If you have a blog for your business where you are regularly posting awesome stuff to, then let us know. Once again, we read a lot of stuff each day and we may already be familiar with your company/product but just didn’t realize that you are blogging too. Please, point us in the right direction.
************************************************************************************************************************
If there is anything else that I did not cover that you want to know about then please get in touch with us. We will try to keep this “FAQ” page current and let it grow as the site does.
Thanks,
The Gun Feed