A little while ago I saw this discussion on self-syndicated newspaper columns on the MB bulletin boards and asked my friend Mark Bazer, a nationally syndicated columnist, if he had anything to add to the conversation. He said,

From what I can tell, every syndicated columnist's story of how he or she became syndicated, or achieved success through self-syndication, is a different. But, along with luck, the two common ingredients seem to be 1) having a solid collection of clips and 2) presenting a unique kind of column, or a unique take on a more common kind of column. Unless you're President Clinton, a syndicate or newspaper isn't going to greenlight a column unless it can see, through clips, that you have a original voice and can come up with ideas and follow through on them. It's pretty basic advice, but it's true. If you show a syndicate or editor 20 solid clips of column-like work, you stand a better chance than if you show three. Also, it obviously helps if you have written a column before, or currently have a column appearing in a publication. (If you do, show the syndicate reader response.) Syndicates don't want to be burned by a column that fizzles out after nine months for lack of ideas. Secondly, the idea for the column is key. Every syndicate already has a full roster of political writers, so, if you want to write political pieces, what makes you stand out? For some, it's credentials (like past work in government or non-government political groups). For others, it's a big name. But if you don't have either of these, there are ways to make a political column special. One is the writing, of course, but the other is the amount of effort you put into it. It's relatively easy these days for a columnist to form an opinion and then buttress that with "research" on the Internet. But a political columnist who takes the time to do real research, or actual interviews, will stand out. A columnist with a unique column idea -- one that can fill a needed niche in papers -- has a greater advantage. Maybe you're a writer with a science background and you can write a column about science's convergence with politics and culture? I know a home-builder/master plumber who, years ago, started a column for people seeking advice on home-building and home maintenance. One question to ask is: What does my paper lack?

I also asked Wendy McClure, columnist for Bust magazine, what she could advise on writing columns:

Often I begin with ideas for three or four columns and when I run them by my editor I find that the best idea (the one she and I both agree on) tends to be the one where I'm thinking, "well, I could always JUST write about ________." I used to think I was selling myself short by not pursuing the more ambitious ideas I'd come up with, but I realized that my so-called "fallback ideas" were actually the ones that had a clear thesis. Which is really the way to go, since with a 900 word column you don't have room to explore a complicated idea.