What Should You Expect?
We encourage pitches for content that targets keywords for which you are an expert. If we already have published content for the topic or keyword you pitch—or it’s simply not something we would publish—we may redirect you to write a different piece.
You should be open to writing content targeting keywords for which we want to rank in search engines. This is to your benefit as well, ensuring your content will reach more of our target audience.
We like to see outlines before writing to be certain you will write the best piece on the internet. Send colin@payline.io the outline for your blog to get started with us!
*We only respond to requests from contributors who we actively consider for acceptance. Emailing us a billion times will ensure we add your entire domain to a disavow list, and we will never consider requests from your company for acceptance ever again.
What Do We Expect?
Here are some tips to stay out of our trash can:
- Read through this entire page before pitching. These guidelines exist for your benefit as much as ours.
- We only respond to pitches we accept. We’re a busy team, but if your pitch sounds promising, we’ll do our best to get in touch within a week.
- Make sure we haven’t already covered your topic before. Use the search bar on our blog and send us something we haven’t seen before.
- We only accept educational how-to posts from guest authors. This means lots of step-by-step instruction that readers can actually put into practice.
- No pre-written posts. We want fresh content written with our audience in mind.
Our Editorial Guidelines
Our content needs to meet four pillars of quality:
- Topic. Your topic must be relevant and targeted toward our audience. Strive to write the best piece on your topic ever published on the web.
- Research. Do your homework. Link to reputable sources. Use data and statistics to back up your claims.
- Keyword. Your chosen keyword should be well-aligned with the search intent behind your topic.
- Comprehensiveness. Cover your topic in whole. Don’t leave out any steps or information that are necessary for readers to apply your advice. Ideally, a reader should fully understand your topic, without needing to read another piece.
Formatting Guidelines
We don’t have a detailed style guide we require you to follow. However, we do have a handful of basic formatting requests that will make your post easier to read:
- Write your piece with Google Docs. This is the easiest way for us to convert your content into a WordPress post (using our Google Docs and WordPress integrations).
- Stick to H2 and H3 subheader levels. This helps keep formatting clear and simple.
- Follow general best practices for web writing. Concise sentences and brief paragraphs work best. We like sentences of ~20 words and paragraphs of one to two words.
How Can I Submit a Pitch?
Email colin@payline.io with your piece that meets the above!
Keep in mind that most pitches are ignored because they don’t follow our guidelines. We don’t ask for much, just please read through this page before we take the time to review your pitch.
