MIR 3.0 is hunting for shit hot mobile rockstar columnists

If you’ve got an opinion about the mobile industry — or life related to the mobile industry — I’d like to read it. And what’s more, so would more than a quarter of a million Mobile Industry Review readers.

Opinion and commentary is a a lot more valuable to MIR’s readers than your average handset review. Phonedog, Engadget, the industry leaders have that covered.

I want to know what you think of the implications of the iPhone extending reach into the medical environment. I want to know whether you think the market for mobile messaging is slowly dying. I want to know whether life in India is better with the addition of mobile, or not at all. I’d like to know what your mother thinks of her Motorola. Or why you think Palm are poised to take over the world. Or fail.

MIR’s readers aren’t necessarily commenters. Now and again you’ll see a post that attracts a lot of feedback. For MIR, it’s not always about the comments. It’s about the fact that your contribution is printed out and put in front of one of the mobile operator’s CEOs. Or having your article about the future of mobile music being included in the background dossier as briefing for one of the world’s top music companies.

Those are both real world examples that I’m aware of. Indeed I know of one mobile operator and another handset manufacturer who regularly prints off entire segments of MIR to forward round the office.

If only we could make people pay for that…. oh wait…

Anyway, part of the reason I’ve brought back MIR 3.0 is because I was missing really good opinion. I’m certainly capable of forming my own. Indeed I’ve never been known to be short of a perspective or two. But I thoroughly enjoy reading other people’s viewpoints.

So I’d like you to consider taking the time to write a post for MIR. On whatever mobile related subject turns you on. You don’t need to be *somebody*. You don’t need to be a jobbing columnist. You don’t need to have your own blog or 50,000 followers on Twitter. Nor do you need to worry about committing to a punishing 5-post a week schedule.

Submit one. Or try it weekly. Whatever. Provided you’ve got something to say — I’d like to publish it.

And the MIR audience would like to read.

I can’t commit to paying for content at the moment, but I can put your name in lights and give you an influential platform to reach hundreds of thousands of people, not just in the industry, but all across the tech blogosphere.

Here’s how it works.

1. Email me and tell me you’re interested. Tell me who you are, tell me what you reckon you’d like to write about. If you’ve just got one post in mind, no problem. Or if you’d like to try doing a few, tell me what you’re thinking.

2. I’ll write back as soon as I can. Usually within a day. I’ll give you some feedback as to what I reckon the audience will think of your idea.

3. If you’re still up for it, I’ll sort you out with a MIR publishing account and we’ll go from there.

If you think this might be a useful way of promoting you or your company, sure. That’s not a problem. We’ll put in a link and tell the audience about you — they typically want to know that level of context anyway. Indeed some of the readers might want to do business with you or hire you.

For anyone thinking about writing 4 paragraphs of puff rubbish and getting it published: No. The MIR audience are old enough and smart enough to be able to identify a bullshitter from someone who is passionate about a particular subject (and happens to be writing from a company who specialises in that area). We’re all about helping out with business development anyway.

Now, I’m often asked about word count.

There is no word count limit.

If you’re a new columnist then the readers aren’t going to react that well to three lines of text. Equally, there’s nothing worse than reading an article that’s a really cool subject — but finding that there’s only five paragraphs, because the author stuck rigidly to some imaginative 400 or 500 word limit. The key thing with MIR is we have — deliberately — a conversational editorial tone. If you want to write with the Queen’s English, brilliant. I set the tone as conversational originally because I wanted to be able write-as-I-speak, or perhaps, write-as-I-think. I find it a lot easier to get the stuff out my head that way. So don’t be worried about word count. Worry about quality. Get the stuff out of your head and keep writing for as long as you feel is relevant. And if you can’t find a decent end to the post, say something contentious and end with a question mark.

😉

If we’ve talked in the past about you writing — and you didn’t necessarily get an immediate response from me, it’s because I’m rubbish. It’s because I probably wanted to reply properly — but that’ll have required 45 minutes work and [insert more excuses here]. I do my best, but there’s a constant inbox of about 4,000, so please don’t be put off. Try me. Drop me a note and let’s see what we can do together.

Mail me on ewan@mobileindustryreview.com or get me by Twitter (ew4n) or instant messenger.