TRAINING MANUAL FOR GETTING THE

PERFECT PITCH

This manual with take you through the simple process of responding to journalist emails
and getting backlinks. If you adhere to the rules keenly, this should be enjoyable work that
will pay well.
 THE QUERY EMAIL

Now that you are logged in and have chosen a relevant, suitable query to work on, this is
how it will look.

Pay attention to the following areas:

1. Summary: This is the topic of the email. It MUST be the subject line in your email when
responding.
2. Name: This is the name of the journalist. Use the first name only in the email during the
opening and closing. I will show how you in a template. At times, there will be no name
but written “anonymous” instead. In this case, no names will be used.
3. Email: This is the email where you send the answer.
4. Media Outlet: This is the name of the website where you are pitching to. Take note of
this name so that you don’t pitch to a website where you have already gotten a backlink.
Backlinks earned on the same website are not paid for.
5. Deadline: This tells you the last day of submitting your pitch. I use to know when to
start expecting a backlink. If the deadline is 30th November, I know a backlink might
arrive a week or two later. No matter how far the deadline is, always pitch immediately
and never two hours after receiving the email.
6. Query: This is the backbone of your pitch. It says what the journalist wants. Adhere to
the demands as strictly as possible. If the client says 100 words, do it. If they say two
sentences, do it. More importantly, respond to the question asked and no going off-
topic.
7. Requirements: Be careful with this part. If the journalist wants a business owner,
respond like a business owner. If they want a doctor, ignore the query as we don’t
 respond to medical queries. If they ask for a URL, headshot, LinkedIn and bio; be sure to
provide them. I will guide you on these.

THE RESPONSE TEMPLATE

Let’s see how I would respond to the email above. Do not mind the many terms above; they
are meant to guide you to pitch the right thing. You will realize it’s the easiest job you’ll
ever try.

So, each email will have a template that you will follow. It will have a greeting, intro,
response and outro. Here is a sample template:

I will send you the template to use. Your job will be editing the name of the journalist in the
greeting, writing a response in the response field, editing the journalist name in the outro
and sending the email.

The other fields will remain as they are. I will guide you as you write your first few
responses.
 THE TRICKS

There are tens of other writers like you sending their pitches to the journalists. To rise
above the competition and increase the chances of getting picked, here are some x hacks.
Adhere to them strictly!

1. Pitch As Soon As Possible

Wait for the emails as they come in at 12.40pm, 7.40pm and 12.40am. I pitch during all
three sessions. The emails are sent on weekdays only so the weekends are yours.
Experience has shown me that fewer people pitch at 12.40am, so your pitches are most
likely to succeed then.

Submit your answer as soon as you can. Most successful pitches are sent within the first
hour.

2. No mistakes

No grammatical errors, please! You will be working with journalists from top sites like
Yahoo, Forbes, Washington Post, Entrepreneur, etc. These are strict people and will dismiss
your email as the first sign of poor language, errors with punctuation and so on.

Make sure your pitch is perfect and can be posted as it is without editing. These people are
very busy!

3. No fluff

Be as precise as possible. Avoid phrases and words that add no value to the answer. Make
sure each sentence says something useful.

4. Be unique

This is very important. When you ask Google for answers, don’t choose the most obvious
results that appear. Dig deeper and twist your answer to appeal to the reader.

Be sure your response is unique, has sweet information and has creativity inside.

5. Use facts

Don’t guess!

You are pitching as an EXPERT in a specific field like HR, CEO, Financial Analyst, digital
marketer and so on. Therefore, send info that is legit and verifiable.

More importantly, use measurable facts that arouse the curiosity of the journalist. For
example, I ensure that all my responses have some quotable info like:

 Over 90% of all ecommerce interactions start with Search Engines

 There are over 77,000 searches on Google every second
  Bad reputation makes hiring 12% more expensive
 6,000 computer viruses are generated and released every month

These info bytes attract the reader and make them interested. Depending on the subject, I
find the best and most relevant info and use it to start my responses. You can include them
anywhere.

6. No plagiarism

Never copy-paste info from Google as you will get banned. Read info and write something
unique using it.

7. Be quotable

Experience has shown me that even if you write 4 paragraphs, the journalist picks one of
them or just a sentence. Therefore, as you frame your paragraphs, ask yourself, “Can this be
copied and used directly as a quote?”

Each sentence in the paragraph must be informative and quotable. This trick will win you a
lot of backlinks.

8. Use Neat Formatting

Never italicize or bold your work. Rather:

 Use a heading to define a paragraph

 Use multiple paragraphs, one for each point
 Use full sentences and not skeleton bullet points

Check out the next response and see how we adhere to the above points.

THE RESPONSE

Enough with the theories. Let’s see how I would respond to the query above (repeated
below):
First, check that you meet the requirements. Then get the keywords of the query (the topic
or subject line) and head over to Google. My keywords here will be “improving gender
equality at work.”

Google will give tons of suggestions:

To be safe, avoid the top answers that appear as they will be used by most writers like you.
Here are some sources that I opened and this is how I rephrased the info:
The above is my first source. See how I distilled info from it and wrote my first point below:

1. Focus on the Work; Not the Worker

The World Economic Forex says that it may take over 200 years for the gender pay gap to
close. Employers, however, can reduce the inequality instantly at their workplaces by paying
their employees equal salaries regardless of their gender. If a man and a woman perform the
same work that requires similar competence, uses the same hours, executes the same duties
and produces the same result, their salaries should match. An equal employer should pay
based on position and nature of work rather than gender.
This is my second source. See how I used the info to create my second point below:

2. Punish Sexual Harassment Accordingly

In America, 20% of adults report to being sexually harassed at work where 27% of these are
female and 10% are male. Employers can support gender equality by punishing sexual
offenders at the work accordingly. The punishment should adhere to workplace ethics and
laws of the land where necessary. For example, if a man touches a colleague indecently, if the
punishment as per the workplace constitution is getting fired, it should be enforced
immediately. The victim should also decide whether to take legal action or not. However, the
employer should take the first and firm step by punishing such offenders to ensure both
genders are treated fairly and respectfully.

There, I finished my first query in about 15 minutes!

Please notice the following:

 I used catchy headings

 I started with a strong fact
 I answered the question in sentence 1 or 2
 All my sentences are unique and add more value to the answer
 There was no fluff and/or filler
 I used two paragraphs and each has a heading
 I used examples
 I used hard-to-find answers on Google

The work is so simple and fun that I can add an extra paragraph. Remember the word limit
is 300 words yet I only have about 185.

Let me find another source so I can add an extra paragraph. When you write more points,
you raise the chances of getting one picked.
3. Let female employees train their male colleagues

It is a fact that women suffer the burden of gender inequality at the workplace. This can be
reversed by giving a workplace a more female worldview by letting the women do the training
roles at work. If the workplace approaches are feminine-friendly, their male counterparts will
understand the perspectives of women and will adjust to treat them accordingly. The problem
with male-dominated training could be that only the masculine worldviews are shared;
leaving the females unaccounted for. Therefore, whenever an organization appears to suffer
from gender inequality, the affected gender should be allocated the upper hand in training
roles.

Five minutes later, I have added another juicy point and attained 285 words. This point is
even juicier than the previous two and is hard to find on Google.

Now, my finished query would look like this (with the intro and outro included):

Hello Garret,

I am Mia Green, the Chief Operating Officer of FindThisBest, a company that helps consumers
to find the best products fast and easily. From my experience, I wish to contribute that:

1. Focus on the Work; Not the Worker

The World Economic Forex says that it may take over 200 years for the gender pay gap to
close. Employers, however, can reduce the inequality instantly at their workplaces by paying
their employees equal salaries regardless of their gender. If a man and a woman perform the
same work that requires similar competence, uses the same hours, executes the same duties
and produces the same result, their salaries should match. An equal employer should pay
based on position and nature of work rather than gender.

2. Punish Sexual Harassment Accordingly

In America, 20% of adults report to being sexually harassed at work where 27% of these are
female and 10% are male. Employers can support gender equality by punishing sexual
offenders at the work accordingly. The punishment should adhere to workplace ethics and
laws of the land where necessary. For example, if a man touches a colleague indecently, if the
punishment as per the workplace constitution is getting fired, it should be enforced
immediately. The victim should also decide whether to take legal action or not. However, the
employer should take the first and firm step by punishing such offenders to ensure both
genders are treated fairly and respectfully.

3. Let female employees train their male colleagues

It is a fact that women suffer the burden of gender inequality at the workplace. This can be
reversed by giving a workplace a more female worldview by letting the women do the training
roles at work. If the workplace approaches are feminine-friendly, their male counterparts will
understand the perspectives of women and will adjust to treat them accordingly. The problem
with male-dominated training could be that only the masculine worldviews are shared;
leaving the females unaccounted for. Therefore, whenever an organization appears to suffer
from gender inequality, the affected gender should be allocated the upper hand in training
roles.

I hope you found my response resourceful, Garret.

Best,

Name: Mia Greens

Title COO and Co-founder of FindThisBest

Site URL: https://www.findthisbest.com/

Headshot: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mia-green-154438190/detail/photo/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mia-green-154438190/

With that, I will now open new email, copy and paste the subject into the subject line, copy
and paste the recipient’s email in the “send to” field, then copy and paste my query into the
email body then send it and wait with crossed fingers for a backlink.
From here, I can proceed to find more queries and act on them.

Easy, right?
 ASSIGNMENT: SAMPLE QUERY

If you find this enjoyable and achievable, please respond to this sample query and send it to
my Whatsapp. Use an imaginary intro and outro.

Thank you and all the best!

The next manual will be about checking if your pitch has been accepted.