Every week someone on LinkedIn posts a long, thoughtful piece and gets forty likes from people who already follow them. The writing is fine. The problem is the venue.
There are plenty of publications, trade magazines, and industry blogs that run long form feature articles from outside contributors. Most people who want to be seen as thought leaders have no idea those places exist, let alone how to pitch them.
The idea is a Google Sheet of feature article ideas paired with a list of where to pitch them and how. It is one of the 100 business ideas in Google Sheets I put together, and it is one of the easier ones to start because the whole product is knowledge you may already have.
The idea
You might think the buyer here is a freelance writer, blogger, or content creator. I think it is the other way around. The person who should make this sheet is a writer. The people who should buy it are everyone else.
Someone who already knows how to write a feature article, knows what it takes to pitch one, and can compile a quick list of places that publish long form feature content can turn a painful process into an easy one for people who have never done it.
Thought leaders across LinkedIn are looking for places to share long form content. They have opinions, they have expertise, and they would gladly pay for a roadmap that tells them where those opinions could live beyond their own feed.
Don't stop at a list of ideas. Include templates that help someone actually start writing. A feature article has a shape: an opening scene or hook, a paragraph that says why this matters now, supporting sections, a close that lands. Most non-writers don't know that shape, and a template that lays it out is worth more than the idea prompts.
Add format notes too. What length do these publications tend to want? Do they like subheads? Do they want a byline bio, and how long? These small details are what separate a pitch that gets a reply from one that gets ignored.
What puts this business over the top is the pitch list. Where to pitch, who to pitch, and how to pitch them. Editor names change, submission guidelines change, publications open and close their doors to contributors. That means the list can be updated all the time, and an updated list is something people will pay for again and again.
How to build it in Google Sheets
I'd build this as four tabs. Keep each one simple enough that a non-writer can use it without a tutorial.
- Ideas. One row per article idea. Columns: Idea, Angle, Industry, Format (op-ed, how-to, profile, trend piece), Estimated Length, Difficulty, Status. The Status column gets a dropdown so the buyer can mark ideas as Drafting, Pitched, Accepted, or Published.
- Where to Pitch. One row per publication. Columns: Publication, Industry, Section, Editor or Contact, Email or Form, Guidelines Link, Accepts Outside Contributors, Pays, Typical Length, Response Time, Last Verified. That Last Verified date is the reason people renew.
- Templates. Article skeletons and pitch email templates. One cell per section with a short explanation next to it, so the buyer can copy the structure into a doc.
- Matcher. The buyer picks an industry and a format from dropdowns and sees which publications fit. This is the part that feels like a product instead of a list.
The features I'd actually use:
- Data validation dropdowns for Industry, Format, and Status, so the data stays consistent enough to filter.
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FILTER on the Matcher tab, so picking an industry pulls the matching publications instantly. Something like
=FILTER('Where to Pitch'!A:K, 'Where to Pitch'!B:B=B2)where B2 holds the chosen industry. - Checkboxes for Accepts Outside Contributors and Pays. They are faster to scan than text and easy to filter on.
- Conditional formatting on Last Verified, so anything older than six months turns orange and you know what to re-check before the next update.
- Protected ranges on the Where to Pitch tab, so buyers can add their own notes without accidentally overwriting the data you researched.
Who pays for it, and how to sell it
The buyer is the person with expertise and no publishing plan. Consultants, founders, agency owners, executives who post on LinkedIn and want something bigger than a post. They are not buying ideas. They are buying the shortcut past hours of searching for publications that accept guest features and coming up empty.
What they pay for is the pitch list, the verified contacts, and the templates that let them write without staring at a blank page. The time saved is obvious. The updates are the thing that makes it a business rather than a one-off sale.
Pricing options: a one-time template price for the ideas and templates, and a subscription for the updated pitch list. Because contacts go stale, the subscription is the honest model. You could also layer a service on top: pitch review, or writing the pitch for them.
Deliver it on Gumroad if you want a simple one-time sale. If you want to sell ongoing access to a live sheet that you keep updating, use OnlySheets, which shares the Google Sheet automatically when someone pays and lets you keep one master copy that every buyer sees.
For the first 10 customers, go where the buyers already are. Find ten people on LinkedIn who post long form content regularly, comment thoughtfully on their posts for a couple of weeks, then message them with one specific publication where their last post would fit. That single suggestion is a free sample of the product. A few will ask what else you've got.
Related ideas from the list
- Media to Pitch Contact List, the same research mechanic pointed at press coverage instead of bylines.
- 100 Blog Ideas, another idea list product aimed at the same people who need something to write about.
- LinkedIn Post Generator, which serves the same thought leader buyer at the short form end.
Want the other 99? This is one idea from my list of 100 business ideas you can build in Google Sheets. Get all 100 business ideas as a free Google Sheet.
And if you want to learn how to package and sell spreadsheets, my course Selling Spreadsheets walks through exactly that.
