Since the focus of my blog is on helping readers find the best way to use their valuable reading time and/or spend their money and to promote authors whose books I’ve enjoyed, the guest post must be a benefit to authors and/or readers and not a promotion of an individual author’s books (I reserve the right to remove self-promotional content and links). The guest post must also bring something unique to the table. Something which I’ve not written about — at the moment, that leaves a lot of leeway, *grin*. That said, tell me:
- Title of your post: why do you believe this post will be useful for my readers?
- The hook: What makes your post different from other articles or blogs on the same topic?
- The audience: Who do you see as the audience for this post? How does this tie in to my blog?
- Value: How does this help my readers (the readers and writers)? What new idea or insight does this provide?
- Relevance: How do you see this post tying into my blog?
Requirements of a Guest Post
Ideally, your guest post would be original and exclusive to KD Did It Takes on Books. That said, I am aware that I don’t have a huge audience — yet!
Review: If and how a submission and review process is handled before publication.
Demographics/Audience: Define the audience with as much information as possible to help the writers know whom they are writing to and for.
Titles: All letters capped, sentence structure, word count limits, specific titling styles.
Bylines: Use of full name, real name, or nickname permitted.
Spelling: Not just guides for proofing but specific spelling preferences such as respect for trademark spellings, language type (English, American, Australian, etc.), and other writing styles that influence spelling.
Fonts: Use of bold, italic, colored fonts or font changes within the article.
Linking: How to link, from when and specific formatting styles (minimum/maximum words to link, external verses internal linking styles, link classes, etc.), and to what not to link.
Article Series: Steps and process for producing articles in a series.
Publishing Code: How to publish code in blog posts.
Tags and Categories: Many blogs are now using tags and categories differently from the default usage. Explain clearly how to categorize content.
Accessibility Standards: With the requirement in 2011 for public websites to meet web standards for accessibility coming up, spell out your site’s accessibility standards and practices.
Profanity: If and when profanity is permitted, what words are acceptable and which aren’t.
Fact Checking: Some sites require extensive fact checking and proof where others are less about facts and more about entertainment. Be specific on what your guidelines are on fact checking and verification.
Photography/Images: How to include graphics and photography, citation, credits, size, file formats, etc.
Blockquotes: How to blockquote and cite quotes, references, and resources. Also include how and when to get permission for usage.
Comments: What is the comment policy, requirements for commenting, how to comment specifics.
Copyrights: Clear definition of what is acceptable for copyright, including what is reprinted in the article as well as what is permitted to be reused offsite.
Special Publishing Instructions: Prepublish Reminder WordPress Plugin
Use tools like the PrePublish Reminder WordPress Plugin
Every blog uses different tools, Plugins, and techniques for publishing its content. For instance, if using Viper’s Video Quicktags WordPress Plugin, add instructions on how to use the Plugin to publish videos within the blog posts. If using the Feed Pauser WordPress Plugin, let authors know they have five minutes or whatever the limit is to fix any errors before the post goes wild through the feeds. Be clear about any quirks or special details you wish your authors to do before hitting publish.
- I will not accept guest posts that appear on more than four other blogs.
- I run Copyscape on all posts to verify that it’s your original work.
- I try very hard to give credit where due, and I expect the same of authors submitting a guest post, so please include proper citations for any ideas, text, or data that is not original.
- I don’t restrict myself to X-number of words when writing a book review, so I won’t be restricting guest posts unless the information is repetitive.
- I will perform a light edit on your post to catch those bits and pieces that may have escaped notice. If the post requires more editing, it will be rejected until it receives a more professional edit.
- Images help liven up and break up the text. If you choose to include images, videos, or infographics, you must have permission to use them. Creative Bloq has a great post on finding free images. Do please fill out all ALT tags.
- I would love to include an author bio of up to 300 words. You may use your Twitter handle as part of your byline.
Google Restrictions
Since I don’t want to run afoul of Google and its rules, I also require:
- Any links in the post must use “nofollow”, i.e., <a href=”yourLink” rel=”nofollow” title=”what this link is about or for”>
If I reject a post for whatever reason, I will delete it from my computer as well.
Leave a Reply