‘Us’… is really just me, Dachia.
Dashboard Wisdom welcomes submissions from amazing guest writers with a story to share. If you have a great story or piece of wisdom that came to you at o’dark-thirty in the morning, or just some life experience you’d like to share, I’d love to hear from you.
But there are a few guidelines guest posts need to meet.
Rule #1: Keep it simple.
My goal here is to add some life experience and humor to the internet. Stories can be as personal or silly as you want.
If you are one of the many unfortunates who now has a story to share about Steven, let me know. It can be posted anonymously, but you do need to stand by it.
I had my own name on the series and finally removed it simply because I didn’t want this series coming up on a search of my own name. This really isn’t my story. It’s his.
However, that’s not to say I am embarrassed or ashamed in any way. Nor should it be interpreted that I would not restate any of this story in a court of law. The fact that it actually happened is what keeps me out of the courtroom.
You need to stand by your story, as well.
Rule #2: Keep it Fun. Enjoy sharing your story.
This site is different from others in that we are not targeting keywords. We are targeting readers.
If you are not laughing as you commit your story/advice to text or video, you are doing it wrong.
Rule #3: Make it the best story on that topic the Internet has ever seen
Google is looking for great user experiences. They want to know that if they send somebody to your post, it’s what the person wanted. One way it judges that is how long a person stays on that post or the site and how many other questions that post or site will answer.
Google assumes other questions this person might have. A great post covers several related questions in a single post. So, the goal is to be one of the best posts out there on this topic.
If it’s not, it has little chance of cracking the top 10, which doesn’t do either of us any good. I’m not looking for filler and you are not looking for an exercise in writing. We want organic traffic.
What does that mean?
It means covering a topic in as much detail as needed to thoroughly answer the reader’s current question and predicted questions. It usually means writing content that’s at least 2000 words long.
Rule #4: Format it so it’s easy to read.
Formatting blog posts is not very hard once you get the hang of it, but super important. Put yourself in Google’s shoes or that of a person searching your topic. And then take care of them.
Your post should:
- Brake up text in a few simple sentences per paragraph, and use H2 subheads. These subheads should include your main keyword and related questions that you found when searching Google for this topic.
- Links to relevant internal and external resources. Relevant external sources need to be reputable and heavy hitters, not Bob’s Blog.
- Relevant images or screenshots, 700 pixels wide if possible. Smaller is fine, bigger is not. Images need to be royalty-free (tell me where you sourced them).
- Your author bio with preferred link. Your link can be included in the bio, but not in the post.
Ready to Pitch?
When all that sounds good, pitch away! Due to the volume of pitches I receive, please follow the instructions below.
If you don’t, I’ll assume you haven’t read these guidelines and will ignore your email.
- Compose your article in Google docs.
- Run your draft through Hemingway or Grammarly (or both).
- Send your pitch to editor at DashboardWisdom dot com.
- Use the Subject line: “Guest post pitch: [Your proposed title]”
- Link to the Google Doc version of your post.
Keep in mind that somebody else might be working on a similar topic, so I encourage you to connect with me first to be sure your work is not in vane.
Click here for topics I’d be interested in. And feel free to pitch one of your own.
Thanks!