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Article Guidelines

On this page you will find information on our article requirements, article types, styles and formats and the qualities of a good article.

Article Requirements

  1. Posts must be 750 words or more, preferably over 1,000 words and less than 1,500 words. Post length is a factor in determining approval for publishing. Keep in mind that articles should maintain quality and context. Extending an article’s length artificially is obvious to the reader, and more likely to be declined.
  2. Posts must be in English – If you have an article in another language, please have it translated for submission. If English is your second language, please ensure that you have the article edited by an English-as-a-First-Language editor.
  3. Posts Must be on-topic. Please see the list of Articles Wanted, or understand the Topical Categories of SportsNetworker.com. All Guest Posts will be accepted, but if they are off topic they will be rejected immediately upon review.
  4. Posts must be original pieces with unique content written for SportsNetworker.com. Guest posts cannot be republished at any time and should not be reproduced anywhere else on the web including your own blog (neither party benefits from duplicate content).
  5. Posts must be non-promotional (Not filled with links). A Guest Post should never read like an advertisement. If the post has affiliate links or is a blatant sales pitch, it will be rejected. Repetitive submissions of spammy articles will result in prohibition for further submissions. You should not write articles around topics to justify a link to your blog and you should not actively encourage visitors to visit your blog. Promotional content, which advertises for-profit services (including gambling sites) or indecorously plugs the author’s own written work will not be approved. If you would like to include a promotional link within your article, visit http://sportsnetworker.com/promote-with-sports-networker for more information.
  6. Posts are unpaid – All guest posts at this time are unpaid. However, we can provide you with a TON of value that will benefit your own career and business ventures (check out the Benefits Of Writing For Sports Networker)
  7. Post may be edited for spelling, grammar, content, context, markup and optimization for search engines. If an article requires extensive editing the author will be notified and provided an opportunity to object or revise their work, or it will be declined with a note to the author on the issues.
  8. Posts must be factually correct and referenced – We will do basic fact checking, but we expect you to do the same. Where necessary, references and resources should be linked to. Again, this should not be used a self promotion tool.
  9. Authors grant License to SportsNetworker.com – consent to the full article, extracts, samples or examples from it appearing in other 418 Media Inc sites, products and services. By submitting an article, you grant a license to SportsNetworker.com to be the exclusive publisher of the article online. You may republish extracts online – for example on your own site – however the article in its entirety should not appear elsewhere. You may also republish the article offline in any way you wish – e.g. sell it to a magazine, submit it to a book.

Article Types & Styles

The following list outlines what sort of style or format you might take with your articles. Take any one of the Topical categories above, or specific Article Topics below, and apply one of the following styles to it.

Of course there are many different Post Types you might explore. These are just to get you started.

  1. Case Studies – profile best practice examples
  2. Informational – state the facts – Wikipedia style
  3. How-To Article – Instructional with a problem and a solution
  4. List Article – Top 7, 11, or ??? – Questions, Mistakes, Tips, Best examples, Worst Examples and much more
  5. Interview Article – Q&A interview format (see Interview Article Training video)
  6. Book Reviews – Top 3 selling books or best quality or cult favourites.
  7. Event Reviews – Conferences, Networking Events, etc
  8. Most Popular Resources (Websites) – List of and short review of top 3 forums, blogs and others.
  9. Rants – Got something to say about a topic?

Article Formatting

Ok, so this is a little high-school for most of us. But we should be reminded that website publishing rely’s a great deal on Search Engines, and so a little concept called Search Engine Optimization is particularly important. In order to Optimize our content for the Search Engines, we need to have a nice tidy format to the content.

Please recall the basic structure for organizing information:

  1. Beginning
    • Introduction of Topic, and Problem (Thesis)
    • Introduction of Points 1, 2, and 3 etc.
  2. Middle – Body
    • Point 1
    • Point 2
    • Counter Point
    • Point 3
    • etc
  3. End – Conclusion
    • Summary of Points 1, 2, and 3 etc.
  4. Call to action
    • Leave a comment, ask a questions, take action. Ask the reader to do something.

Qualities of a Good Article

Please understand that we are a community helping each other, and so the content we create should strive for a standard of helpfulness. Consider the following guidelines when writing your articles.

  1. READABLE – We’re a community publication, not The New York Times. We want to present quality content, but we believe this content is best received when written with a dose of personality. Write like you’re having a conversation with a friend, not like you’re writing a final paper for a difficult professor. Please look at our website, SportsNetworker.com, and read through some old articles to get a sense of the tone we strive for.
  2. RELATEABLE – Every article must somehow relate to, and be of interest to, those interested in the “Business of Sports”. Ask yourself, why would I be interested in this?  Try to take an angle on the story and craft a narrative around your own experiences. Most of all, be yourself. Characters wanted, apply within.
  3. RELIABLE – Articles should contain some supporting facts and statistics, but these facts should only come from credible sources. Each source should be linked to either in-text using the appropriate keyword as an anchor (get more information on using HTML to make links in your articles), or directly after the reference in parenthesis. Generally, popular magazines and newspapers should not be used as stick statistical sources, but they can be certainly used for references.

Let’s Get Started!

Check out the following pages for more information on how to write for us:

  1. Check our list of Articles Wanted
  2. Submit a Guest Post