Trade magazines are niche magazines read by professionals in a specific business sector. Many associations also have their own trade magazines for members. Some examples of trade magazines are ABA Journal which is the American Bar Association’s magazine for lawyers; American Salon, a magazine for salon owners, beauticians and product distributors; Glass magazine which is for the architectural glass industry; and Writer’s Digest, a magazine about writing and publishing. 

You can break into this market quickly by interviewing executives within the industry, writing about trends, discussing how a company solved a problem, reporting on promotions within companies, discussing emerging issues, profiles, Q&A interviews, technologies that will affect the industry, or developing articles that teach professionals how to run their company better.

The key to getting into trade magazines is to know the audience and tailor your article to them. Perhaps you used to work for a company that assisted small businesses in gaining government contracts. Every business can benefit from an article teaching them the ropes, so which magazine do you target? Target them all! Do this by writing a specific article for each industry. This is how you can be clueless about the trade, but get into the trade magazine-by helping the business owners.