Contributor Guidelines!

Today, business leaders are asked to make business and technical decisions about IoT and the Connected World. But there isn’t a place they can go to read the stories and talk about what’s going to happen next.

The NewsSkook Mission

NewsSkook is the premier media platform devoted to the Internet of Things and the Connected World. We collaborate with the industry’s leading technology, thinkers, and businesses to tell the narratives that move the world ahead. We attempt every day to answer the most important concerns on your mind, including those about data, privacy, security, and platform challenges, as well as how these ecosystems work for you. Our content is at the confluence of entrepreneurs and enterprises, the home of these new technologies that will have a strong impact on every industry they touch.

Our Goal

We cover IoT, Technology, and the Connected World.
We cover new topics that no one has before explored or even thought.
We also cover existing topics, but with a different perspective or insight.
We are challenging, yet data-driven and analytical.
We are controversial and even aggressive, but we always work to reach a conclusion.
Why should someone read this? (in other words, did we answer a question)

Not Our Goal

We don’t cover applications (exception: an app that has connected a lot of new items to a community, but that’s probably not an app story, right?)
We do not follow specific crowdfunding projects (although we do periodic roundups of interesting crowdfunding campaigns)
We don’t do games (sadly)
We discuss AR (as a wonderful interface topic) but not VR (see “games” above).

NewsSkook Guest Author Guidelines

NewsSkook is seeking guest contributors to improve our relevant content with timely, valuable information on topics like Technology, Smart Cities, Entertainment, Finance, Security, How to, Connected Devices, Industrial, Health, and others. All provided content is meant to help our readers in understanding modern technology, including how to invest in it, utilize it, and gain from it.

We welcome high-quality guest contributions from experts whose writing style fits with ours. The content should appeal to the founders and innovators who are developing disruptive technologies and bringing these solutions to people worldwide.

How to irritate Us

We receive several emails. But so does everyone else, you may say; they are all free. Simply delete them.

Deleting them is not free. It’s a lengthy process. And the resulting discomfort is fungible. Our colleagues dislike it when we are irritated. Then, we take the final cup of coffee and do not replace the machine. And so forth.

So, help us assist you in helping them.

Although it should go without saying…

If you submit us an unsuitable pitch (i.e., something we obviously do NOT focus on as a topic), we will ignore and delete it. Yes, we understand that everyone has a client that “kind of” falls under one of our areas of focus. Spam is relative to the viewer. However, that is our choice. We understand inappropriate behavior when we see it.

Your follow-up email asking whether we’ve had the opportunity to read your ineffective pitch. Also deleted.
If you ask us again, we may send someone to your location to clarify certain things.

At best, you may expect that at some time we will have a bot that will ask you to re-read these guidelines, similar to what you would hear if you repeatedly hit 00000000 on a huge corporation’s automated phone system.

The IoT (Internet of Things) is now a popular concept, but using it in a non-IoT-related pitch will not instantly grab our attention. In fact, it may earn our disgust or perhaps widespread humiliation.

Clearly, any form of bias — racial, religious, or otherwise — will be terminated with bias. Ironic in a sense. Now you understand how the person you wronged feels.

So, are we good? Good. Let’s hug it out.

Write and Submit Your Author Bio/Profile

Please include the following information when establishing your author profile with us:

Every post published on NewsSkook will be attached with biographical information. This should be a brief “tweet”-style bio describing who you are and why you’re important. We recommend keeping this to 200 characters.
Twitter profile. This enables us to tag you online in order for you to share your post.
LinkedIn profile. This assists the reader in understanding your experience, history, and credentials, as well as establishing a connection with you.
Your other social media profiles, include Facebook, Instagram, Medium, and YouTube.
Your personal website or business name, as well as your role and URL.
A 200 x 200 profile image This will be configured using Gravatar. Here is a detailed instruction for creating a Gravatar image. This will also appear on any other WordPress site with the same email address.

Blog Post Lengths

We like to have posts that range from 1,300 to 3,000 words. Preferably, we aim for 2,000-3,000 words.
Longer blog post lengths provide more relevant information that readers can use and helps bring them back to read more on our site.
Longer, in-depth posts are also more likely to be picked up by some of our media partners.

Citations, Links, and Relationships

Please have the first two links in every post point to relevant internal NewsSkook content that relates to your topic.
Use external links for any third-party perspectives, evidence, and statistics.
Only use credible sources, including research studies and major publications. Do not use Wikipedia.
Disclose the nature of any relationship with a company or person that is mentioned in your content.
If your post is a non-sponsored, non-affiliated product review, there needs to be a disclosure included at the top and bottom of the post.
If you use a quote within an article, you may only link to their Twitter handle unless previously approved by our editorial staff.
Please do not overly self-promote your own business if you include it in any of your content. We will remove anything that we deem too promotional.
Our editorial staff reserves to right to add rel=”nofollow” to any link or remove a link attached to words or images before or after publication
Do not link to any questionable sources or industries, such as pharmaceuticals, casinos, payday loans, or pornography.
Buying, selling, or trading links that appear in posts are strictly prohibited.

SEO Best Practices

HTML formatting related to bulleted lists, headers, bolding, etc.
1 WordPress category
Shortened titles in the meta title section
Alt tags for any images used in the blog post
No keyword linking
All quotes must be cited properly
If there is a link in the post that isn’t valuable to the reader, it’ll be removed.
We do NOT accept the following types of links in articles: Gambling, Casino, Drugs, Violence, Real Estate, Lawyers, Porn, adults, etc. We reserve the right to remove every and all links in every post. We rarely do this but occasionally we do.

Formatting

Write out numbers from 1, 2, 3, etc.
Write percentages as digits.
Use one space after all punctuation.
Use the Oxford comma format.
Capitalize first and last words in headings. All other words are capitalized in a heading except articles (an, a, the, etc.), coordinating conjunctions (for, and, or, but, etc.), and prepositions that contain three or fewer letters (in, one, at, etc.).
Headers in H2 tags and sub-headers in H3 and H4 tags.
No spam or div tags

Images

A featured image should be at least 650 pixels wide and 400 pixels tall. Make sure that the featured image appears correctly before submitting your post.
Use center alignment for photos within the blog post unless they are aligned with the text.
Set the display size for all images to “large.”
Upload at least one image per blog post and place it within the first approximately 150 words.
If you want to include images, please also share them via an online service (Flickr, Dropbox, etc.) and include the link. You can use your own images, but please note that. Note the source if you are using an image from a photo licensing service like AP, Getty, or Shutterstock. Also, include the name and email address of your representative so we can verify that you have rights to the image. You are solely responsible for obtaining these rights. By submitting a post, you represent and warrant to NewsSkook.com that you have done so.
All images must have alt tags and title attributes. Use the title of the post or a brief photo description.
Do not use charts, graphs, or illustrations from other websites unless our editorial staff has approved them.
We do not accept any images that have a brand, logo, or external links displayed on them. There should not be any branded images that may appear to make the post sponsored content.
Memes are not acceptable images for our site.

Our Publishing Process

You can apply to become a contributor at the Email Address (easyservicesclubllc@gmail.com).
Send us an email with your (Full Name, Email Address, Linkedin or Twitter Profile link, and Your bio under 200 characters)
When Sending, then we will create a contributor account and share your login details in your email reply.
After you click the link below (http://newsskook.com/esc-login/) to login account and Write/Post your article.
After you hit the “Submit for Review” button, here’s how our process works for reviewing the content:
- Our Editorial Assistant checks that it follows our editorial guidelines.
- The post undergoes copyeditor review. Grammar, spelling mistakes, and content flow are checked. Links and references are reviewed for accuracy, relevance, and adherence to our linking guidelines.
- If the editorial staff has requested that you make changes, it will go on Editorial Hold. Your post will be published faster if you quickly respond and make the required changes. If you see “Editor Hold” on your post’s status but have not received an email with the requested changes, please contact us.
- Once all editorial changes are completed, your post will be changed to “Ready for Publishing” status. Typically, each post involves a two to four-week turnaround from post submission to publication.

Follow Us Everywhere

First, if you have not already done so, please make yourself an account with each of the following spaces on social media:

Twitter – Follow and tweet as many as you can.
Facebook – Like a few posts because it helps us grow.
Pinterest – Follow us
Linkedin – Like a post or two.

Enough About Us…Who Are You?

If you are an agency (public relations, media relations, friend, or competitor) submitting on behalf of your client and it is a one-time submission for publication, you should follow the same procedure.

You will require a NewsSkook/WordPress profile if you are a freelance writer interested in continuing work or a guest poster wanting to communicate with our audience on an ongoing basis. It is free and essential if we will be collaborating frequently.

After submission, a NewsSkook editor will review the post for content, grammar, etc, and decide whether or not to publish it. Only the NewsSkook team has final editing control.
As with our comments on unsuitable pitches to NewsSkook – whether in terms of the subject matter, writing style, or viewpoint – we will delete any posts that do not match our content guidelines.
We’re extremely busy, so it’s possible you’ll never learn why we eventually deleted the submission, but if it hasn’t been published within two weeks, it’s probably not going to be posted (unless there are specific release dates for the information in the article).

Examples of Ideal Guest Content

If you’re interested in some examples, here are a few posts that we think nailed what we’re looking for from guest authors. They’re analytical and intelligently critical.

To participate in our guest contributor publishing program, we have established a set of guidelines listed below.

Republishing Content

No duplicate content issues should exist in order to enhance search engine rankings.
Content can only be republished on Medium. You may not repost anything from our website until two weeks following its first publication on our site.
If we discover that your article has been published on a website other than ours, your company’s, or your own, we may delete it from our site.

Additional Notes on Our Guest Post Opportunity

We cannot promise that your submission will be published, but we will review it and make a publication decision. Due to the number of applications, we are unable to provide review timelines or feedback beyond approval or rejection. Please avoid emailing us to ask about the status of your application, since this causes further delays.
We hold the right to alter the post for style, length, etc. as necessary. When possible, our policy is to provide guest authors the chance to review our edits before publication, but NewsSkook keeps final editorial control.
By submitting a post to us, you confirm that the content is unique/original to you, the author, and has not been published online or in print elsewhere. We are able to accept previously published work. If so, please indicate where and when it ran when submitting your post.
We do not pay guest contributors.

NewsSkook Guest Post Benefits

Here are some benefits of giving us high-quality, relevant content:

Author Bio on the website NewsSkook.com
Exposure to millions of readers who may be your target audience.
Numerous syndication arrangements with media organizations.
Followed by the NewsSkook account on Twitter.

If this all seems reasonable, we eagerly await your submissions. We welcome working with you. Apply below to become a contributor.