How to get featured in Entrepreneur: every route, what each costs, and a feature arranged through Blue Leopard Media

The short answer

To get featured in Entrepreneur, you either earn the coverage or pay for a labelled feature. Earning it means pitching a story to the right editor or writer, or applying for a list. Paying means using one of Entrepreneur's own products (the Leadership Network, Entrepreneur Wire or Partner Studio branded content) or having an agency such as Blue Leopard Media arrange a sponsored feature for you.

Our business publicity service is where Entrepreneur features sit: tell us what you want to announce and we come back with a written quote for Entrepreneur. If a fixed price matters more than the name of the outlet, features on the publications in our standard packages start at $249 and go live within 24 hours of your approval.

First, know which kind of Entrepreneur page you mean

Entrepreneur Media publishes Entrepreneur magazine, entrepreneur.com and the Entrepreneur Books imprint. Its editor in chief, Jason Feifer, explained in a 2021 column that three kinds of people write for publications like his: staff reporters and editors, freelancers who are commissioned and paid by the publication, and contributors, experts who write under the brand through a formal programme. Entrepreneur's is the Entrepreneur Leadership Network.

Add the paid products and there are several kinds of page you might see. Check the byline and the line above the headline:

• "Entrepreneur Staff" means an employee wrote it. This is earned editorial coverage.
• A freelancer's byline in the magazine or on the site means the story was commissioned by Entrepreneur's editors. It is also earned coverage.
• "Entrepreneur Leadership Network Contributor" under the author's name means a member of the paid contributor programme wrote it about their own expertise. Recent contributor pages also carry the line "Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own."
• A press release sits under the note "Press Releases are paid for by or on behalf of the featured businesses."
• Spotlight content is introduced as "brought to you by the Entrepreneur Partner Studio, which creates dynamic and compelling content for our partners."

Each one is a real page on entrepreneur.com, and each says what it is. Decide which one you are after before you spend time or money. The rest of this guide takes each route in turn, then explains how a feature arranged through us works.

Route 1: pitch Entrepreneur's editors and writers

This route costs nothing and carries no guarantee. Entrepreneur's editors look for stories that teach other business owners something. In a 2013 piece on pitching, Colleen DeBaise, then special projects director at Entrepreneur.com, set out what the editors want:

• Keep it short: a few sentences or short paragraphs by email, with contact details.
• Lead with the takeaway. "We typically look for entrepreneurs whose stories provide lessons for other business owners": an unusual way you found customers, financing or staff.
• Do not send your investor pitch. Market-size claims and buzzwords do not help; the story of how you did something does.
• Share the challenges, especially ones many other entrepreneurs face, and how you got past them.

Feifer's 2021 column adds two points. Press releases emailed to editors "tend to" be deleted without being read, and personalised approaches are always better. And a publicist can help frame the story and reach the right people, but the editors decide what runs. You do not need a publicist to pitch; it just takes more legwork.

What journalists in general say they want

Muck Rack's State of Journalism 2026 survey, as summarised by the University of Minnesota, found that 86% of journalists said at least some of their work began with a PR pitch, but 43% said relevant pitches were rare. They valued clear relevance to their beat (70%), access to the right people for interview (58%) and original data (40%). 62% preferred a one-to-one email, 69% preferred pitches under 200 words and 78% preferred them before noon.

1. Find the right person. Read the sections of entrepreneur.com that match your story and note the staff and freelance bylines that recur.
2. Write the headline you hope for, then the lesson another founder would take from it.
3. Send it one to one, in the morning, under 200 words, with who is available to talk and what data or images you can share.
4. Follow up once, a few days later, then move on to the next idea.

Our guide to getting featured in a magazine covers pitching in more depth.

Route 2: apply for the Franchise 500 and other lists

Entrepreneur's lists are editorial projects. Feifer writes that lists such as its 100 Powerful Women, published every October, are overseen by editorial staff and "are never pay-for-play".

The best-known is the Franchise 500, Entrepreneur's annual ranking of franchise companies. Entrepreneur's help centre says participation is "completely free". To be listed you complete an online questionnaire and upload a current Franchise Disclosure Document, a list of your open units and, normally, audited financial statements, which are recommended but not required if you have franchised for under three years or have fewer than ten units. For the 2027 list, everything was due by 7 August 2026, so that cycle is closed; plan for the same summer window next year and check the help centre for the date.

Route 3: join the Entrepreneur Leadership Network

The Entrepreneur Leadership Network (ELN) is Entrepreneur's contributor programme: a paid membership that lets you publish your own bylined articles on entrepreneur.com. These are the terms on its own pages, as read on 10 October 2026:

What the writer guidelines expect

• Your own lessons and experience. Articles should not profile or quote other people's businesses unless they are household names.
• Advice, not promotion. Articles "are not a place to promote people, companies or services."
• No paid mentions. Members may not offer coverage to a third party for any kind of compensation; the guidelines call it a serious violation that ends the membership.
• Original writing. No previously published or AI-generated text, and no images you do not have rights to.

That makes ELN a fair deal for an executive who will write a useful advice piece every month and wants a permanent author page on a well-known business site. It is a platform for your ideas rather than a story about your company, so if what you want is a feature about the business itself, one of the other routes fits better.

Route 4: publish a press release on Entrepreneur Wire

Entrepreneur Wire is Entrepreneur's own press release service. Its page lists a flat fee of $499 per release, with no subscription. Each approved release gets its own page on entrepreneur.com and a listing in the press releases hub, after an editorial check for accuracy, quality and fit. If a release is not accepted, Entrepreneur says it gives the reason and refunds you in full.

• What it takes: product launches, funding, partnerships, expansions, results, research and key hires, written as news at 400 to 1,200 words. Generic ads and opinion pieces are refused.
• Timing: you can choose a date or ASAP; on ASAP, a release not reviewed within 48 hours is published.
• What it does not promise: Entrepreneur says plainly that it cannot guarantee pickup or coverage by other media.
• How it is labelled: the press release pages carry the note that releases "are paid for by or on behalf of the featured businesses."

For $499 it is a quick, legitimate way to put an official announcement on a well-known domain. A release is written in announcement format by you; a feature is a story about you. Describe each accurately: "our announcement on Entrepreneur Wire" says exactly what it is.

Route 5: branded content from the Partner Studio

Entrepreneur Partner Studio is "the custom publishing and marketing division within Entrepreneur Media". Its writers, editors and designers create articles, videos, webinars, special reports and podcasts for advertisers, published under the Spotlight banner. Its page quotes 7.1 million unique US visitors, 3.5 million readers per issue and 16.5 million social followers. It does not publish prices; you request information from the sales team, and the scale of the formats tells you the size of budget it is built for.

Entrepreneur also runs Entrepreneur Authorities, a done-for-you programme with an outside publishing partner that combines ghostwritten articles, media opportunities and an optional business book under the Entrepreneur Books imprint. Its packages are priced after a consultation. Feifer's 2021 column notes that brand-sponsored content "must be labeled as advertising", even when it looks and feels like editorial, and that rule holds for every paid route in this guide.

Getting featured through Blue Leopard Media

Entrepreneur is one of the leading outlets on the list of publications we work with. Our site's note for those outlets is short: "Priced per outlet." So a feature on Entrepreneur is quoted per outlet, and the price and terms are confirmed in writing before you pay.

What you get

• A feature about you or your company, written for you by our editorial team from your brief.
• Your approval of every word before anything goes live.
• A labelled, sponsored feature. Every feature published through Blue Leopard Media is sponsored content and labelled as such on the page.
• A written quote first, setting out the format, the price, the turnaround and what is included for Entrepreneur, so you know exactly what you are buying before you pay.

Timing and the money-back assurance

Our fixed-price packages carry two promises: the feature is live within 24 hours of your approval of the final draft (business days), and if it is not, you get a full refund for that feature. Our homepage note for the leading outlets says they are priced per outlet and that the 24-hour promise does not extend to them, so for Entrepreneur the turnaround and terms are the ones in your written quote. Read them before you pay, and ask us anything that is unclear.

The fixed-price alternative

If a fixed price and a known date matter more than the outlet's name, our standard packages are the alternative. Start is $249 for one feature on one publication, with your official cover. Build authority is $499 for three features on three publications. Dominate your presence is $999 for eight features on eight publications. Each goes live within 24 hours of your approval, with the money-back assurance. One of the publications in those packages, The Entrepreneurs Weekly, is a separate title and not Entrepreneur magazine; your quote names the outlet, so you always know which one you are buying.

What your written quote should tell you

Whoever you buy a feature from, get these answers in writing before you pay. Ours come in the quote:

• The outlet's domain and the section the feature will appear in.
• The format, and the label it will carry on the page.
• Whether links are marked rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". Google's spam policies say paid articles with links that pass ranking credit are link spam.
• The turnaround, and what happens if the feature is not published or is later removed.

Then describe the feature accurately when you share it. The FTC's guidance on native advertising says an ad should not suggest or imply that it is anything other than an ad, and a labelled feature is a credible thing to point to as it is.

The routes into Entrepreneur compared

How the options compare, if the aim is an article on Entrepreneur that people find when they look up you or your company:

Entrepreneur figures are from its Leadership Network, writer guidelines and Entrepreneur Wire pages. Blue Leopard Media terms are from our pricing page and refund policy.

If you have a story with a lesson in it, pitch it, and enter the Franchise 500 if you franchise. If you have an announcement, Entrepreneur Wire is a fair $499 option. If you want a feature on Entrepreneur arranged for you, ask us for a quote: tell us what you want to announce, and we will confirm the price, format and turnaround in writing. If a fixed price matters more, see PR pricing for features from $249, live within 24 hours of your approval, or contact us below.