Author Topic: Has anyone ever written a piece for Cracked.com or another website?  (Read 3644 times)

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Offline Beat LA

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I've tried a couple of ideas, but nothing worked out.  Shocking, I know.  Cracked says that they want articles written with facts, not opinions etc, and yet I see nothing but opinion pieces that they couldn't possibly prove, only to discover that they're written by the established people  ::)  so I guess that, surprise, surprise, some animals are more equal than others.  Sigh.  Just wondering.

Re: Has anyone ever written a piece for Cracked.com or another website?
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2014, 08:01:38 PM »

Offline pokeKingCurtis

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Celticsblog's Fanshots is underused.

Re: Has anyone ever written a piece for Cracked.com or another website?
« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2014, 01:39:08 AM »

Offline Beat LA

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Celticsblog's Fanshots is underused.

Can anyone write them? 

Re: Has anyone ever written a piece for Cracked.com or another website?
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2014, 02:01:10 AM »

Offline indeedproceed

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Cracked is some serious stuff man. I've written probably over a fifty (edit; I originally said a hundred but that's too many) entries for Celticsblog (all prior to the SB Nation merge) and I thought about trying my hand at Cracked, but I found myself without voice. They put out some weak articles sometimes, some clickbait, but by and large their quality of writing is informed, assertive, and very clever. Very clever.

Further edit: I really cannot say how much I appreciate Cracked. Their written articles are awesome, their video original content stuff is pretty much without match for my money, and just overall, they do an amazing job. Anyone who has a penchant for 90's nostalgia, nerddom, or just weird trivia, there really isn't a better site.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2014, 02:10:29 AM by IndeedProceed »

"You've gotta respect a 15-percent 3-point shooter. A guy
like that is always lethal." - Evan 'The God' Turner

Re: Has anyone ever written a piece for Cracked.com or another website?
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2014, 02:40:03 AM »

Offline Beat LA

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Cracked is some serious stuff man. I've written probably over a fifty (edit; I originally said a hundred but that's too many) entries for Celticsblog (all prior to the SB Nation merge) and I thought about trying my hand at Cracked, but I found myself without voice. They put out some weak articles sometimes, some clickbait, but by and large their quality of writing is informed, assertive, and very clever. Very clever.

Further edit: I really cannot say how much I appreciate Cracked. Their written articles are awesome, their video original content stuff is pretty much without match for my money, and just overall, they do an amazing job. Anyone who has a penchant for 90's nostalgia, nerddom, or just weird trivia, there really isn't a better site.

Really?  Did you pitch more than one piece?  What was it about?  The whole process is extremely frustrating, especially because they are obsessively picky with their formatting.  If one detail, however minute, is missing or out of place, they won't send it through, which really makes you want to put your head through a wall at times, haha.  I'm on my third attempt right now.  The only reason I even attempted it in the first place was because someone suggested that I should be a writer or something like that. 

My first idea was around the time of last year's finals, and it was going to be about how Lebron James still pales in comparison to his digital representation from NBA 2K9 haha, and I could prove it.  Believe it or not, I had videos, stats, all sorts of stuff, but in the end they deemed it to be too narrow of a subject, especially because no one on there watches sports, apparently.  I tried submitting it to college humor as well, but I guess that it just wasn't their cup of tea.  Fun fact about cracked - you can't delete your profile once you've made it, which I think is dumb.  Sigh.  I'm trying.  I just need one break.  One.  Just like how the 07-08 team approached the finals - we may never have this chance again, so we have to take advantage of it now.  I think I'll try college humor again with something different fairly soon , now that I know what they're looking for.  I think.  I was just wondering if anyone on here has had any success in this or a similar kind of venture.

Re: Has anyone ever written a piece for Cracked.com or another website?
« Reply #5 on: July 02, 2014, 02:52:59 AM »

Offline indeedproceed

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Well I think there, you picked a poor audience. Like you say, and they did, it's not really their cup of tea. Like I said, I didn't really find my voice when I thought about submitting a piece. It's not that I don't have one, I just didn't think I had one they'd find appealing to their demo. Which isn't a bad thing, I doubt Id have much to say on a football blog either.

Don't get dissuaded just because Cracked isn't your cup of tea. You want a good cracked article, rank the top 30 ninja mutant turtles action figures in terms of how ridiculous they are.

But if you want to write in-depth basketball, try the celticsblogs.

Here, reds army, celtics life, it's not hard to get something published if it's good. Especially during the offseason when fatigue sets in for the regular writers.

If you really wanna get published, write. Write and write some more. Think about it like basketball. The guys who just play for a paycheck are never remembered fondly. You gotta love it, and if someone pays you for it, great. But don't write because you want some kind of reward. Just write.

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like that is always lethal." - Evan 'The God' Turner

Re: Has anyone ever written a piece for Cracked.com or another website?
« Reply #6 on: July 02, 2014, 08:32:29 AM »

Online Roy H.

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Celticsblog's Fanshots is underused.

Can anyone write them?

Yes, and the particularly good ones get moved to the front page as a published article.


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Re: Has anyone ever written a piece for Cracked.com or another website?
« Reply #7 on: July 02, 2014, 09:29:00 AM »

Offline D.o.s.

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Here, reds army, celtics life, it's not hard to get something published if it's good. Especially during the offseason when fatigue sets in for the regular writers.

Yup -- although keep in mind that since its the offseason you're going to want to write something really unique, since the full timers are going to be covering the normal ground (free agency, wacky offseason antics, etc.)

A lot of the real key to success is repetitive  submissions and dissemination: if you write a piece for a sports blog (and there are several really good ones) and it gets picked up around the web by one of the content aggregators, they're going to be more likely to be receptive to your next idea.

A lot of it, too, like IP is picking the right avenue. I wouldn't send a LeBron piece to Cracked, although James gets a lot of traffic anywhere by virtue of being him. I might look into the SBN Cavs site and see if they wouldn't let you freelance one, especially if the headline was something like "Why LeBron James Will Never Be As Good As He Was in 2K9," or something that rides the click bait line without being disingenuous. You can find all the writers and editors on twitter, but I think the best way to do it is to email one of their editors/regular contributors with your pitch.
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Re: Has anyone ever written a piece for Cracked.com or another website?
« Reply #8 on: July 02, 2014, 09:37:51 AM »

Offline perrin_goldeneyes

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I'd still like to read your LeBron vs 2K9 LeBron article though if you still have it ;)

Re: Has anyone ever written a piece for Cracked.com or another website?
« Reply #9 on: July 02, 2014, 09:30:35 PM »

Offline Beat LA

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First of all, thank all of you so much for your incite.  While I do love sports, that's not all that I could write about.  I'm a huge history buff and have always paid a great deal of attention to what's going on in the world and politics, etc.  With cracked, I rarely play video games or engage in the type of subject matter that is popular on that site, so that doesn't help (for example, I've never watched a single episode of teenage mutant ninja turtles, so I couldn't write about that as a subject).  I'll keep trying, though.

I'll check if I still have the Lebron article.  In order to make it more broad of a topic, I modified the original piece to be about hilarious occurrences etc in NBA video games, but still, nothing.  I had photos of players with the wrong numbers, footage of the PA system mispronouncing players' names, or in the case of Horace Grant in NBA Live 2004, forgetting his name entirely, calling him 'number 54' ;D  Even Marv and Fratello don't say his name.  It's hilarious ;D  Oh yeah, and the PA system also mispronounces Scal's last name.  Instead of saying Scal-uh-bree-nee or however you correctly describe how to pronounce a word, it says, "Scal-uh-brine," like bright and the Rhine combined.  It's pretty epic ;D