Over the years, I have received numerous guest post submissions for my blog. I have only accepted two: this one and this one. Others have been cheesy attempts to advertise to you, and a few have been submitted by people who threw something together and submitted it to dozens of blogs at once. I know you wouldn't have appreciated posts like that, so I politely declined.
These days, I'm receiving increasing numbers of submissions, a few of them quite good, so I created some guidelines so people know what will and will not be considered as a guest post at the Indie Business Blog. For those of you with something of quality to share, this is your invitation to write for my blog!
Topics
As you can see from the Categories in the upper right sidebar, my blog focuses mainly on Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Success, and Social Media. I accept submissions in any of those topic areas, but in order to maintain high quality, these guidelines are important.
Guest Post Guidelines
- I only accept original articles never before published, and ask that you not publish them elsewhere afterwards.
- I encourage you to Tweet the post, and to write short teasers at your blog and elsewhere, with a link back to the post here, but do not re-print the entire post.
- While you do not have to blog nearly daily as I do, you must have a well maintained blog, and it must be clear from your social media pages that you are proactively engaging with people and not just sharing your blog posts and promotional items. The more engagement I see, the more likely I am to choose your post for publication.
- Your submission should be at least 500 words. I will create a graphic that will include your name and your business name so every time it is shared, even when poeple don't click it, you and your brand will be recognized. While I don't expect anyone to “write like me,” I do hope you will read enough posts and comments to get a feel for the type of articles my readers enjoy and respond to.
- I will edit your post for grammar, aesthetics, etc. If I have to make substantive changes in order to ready it for publishing, I will probably not use it. If I add anything by way of introduction, summary or editorial commentary, I will be sure to set it apart from your writing.
- I will let you know if I choose your article for publication, and provide you with an approximate publication date so we can work together to plan the best timing for purposes of sharing to get the most mileage out of the project. I will let you know if I do not choose your article for publication, but I will not necessarily explain why. It's usually because it's too sales-y, or just not the right fit for Indie Business Blog.
- By submitting a post to me, you are certifying that it is your own original work of authorship, that it is not copied from anyplace else and that your submission does not infringe on the intellectual property rights of anyone else.
Submission Guidelines
If you would like to submit a guest post in accordance with the above guidelines, please send it to me at support @ indiebusinessnetwork.com, and include your name, website address, and the text of your submission. At the bottom of your submission, write this: “I agree to comply with the Submission Guidelines posted at Indie Business Blog. I certify that this submission is my original work of authorship and does not infringe on the intellectual property right of anyone else.”
Attachments are not needed so please do not send any.
Question: Have you ever been a guest blogger, or accepted guest posts submissions for your blog? How did things go?
