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| Image Courtesy:-Matt Simon |
How to Write for My Own Stories (plus Guidelines)
Before you start writing, I suggest you to read a warning:
A lot of what you read here may shock and amaze you.
I think this would seem odd, it sounds silly. How could something so mundane as editorial guidelines shock and amaze anyone?
Because we do things differently at My Own Stories. Very much differently.
Most blogs have an easy to publish model for guest writers / bloggers. You submit a post, and it’s either accepted or rejected. Maybe they do a little tweaking, and then it is published.
Overall, it is rather easy. You can get published on most popular blogs far easier than you could get published in a major magazine or newspaper.
We also offer guest posting on our several blogs written on different topics.
But there are exceptions.
In the beginning a small number of blogs become so big and influential that everyone wants to write for them. As a result, they become choosy in terms of quality content, better writing skills etc.
Instead of just writing a post and sending it in, you have to get your ideas approved first. For this you have to submit your post to us via email as mentioned below. You might go through two-three revisions before the post is finally accepted.
For others, we are one of those blogs.
On average, writing a post for us takes 5-8 hours from start to finish. And because we only publish 4-5 guest posts per month, your chances of getting accepted are less than other writing on other blogs.
Well, let’s talk about that next
4 reasons you should to write for us
The reason we can be so choosy is that there are lot of benefits of writing for us.
Have a serious look on:
- Money:- Initially we are not giving any money to all, except in some cases and the final decision will be our but a lot of our writers make several thousand dollars per guest post by linking to product and service sales in their bylines. We have no problem with it. In fact, we’re proud of them for being so clever.
- Exposure:- Our blog My Own Stories is quickly becoming most popular blogs on the web. You can assume that thousands of people will read your post. If your post goes viral, as they sometimes do here, you could reach hundreds of thousands or even more readers.
- Followers:- If you’d like to get to know our founder and CEO, Mohinder Verma, getting a guest post published here is one of the best ways to do it. He takes an interest in all of our writers. Lots of popular bloggers also read My Own Stories, and if they like your post, it’ll give you double benefits.
- Spread Social Sharing:- If you are writing quality content for other blogs too, the tell us about it, and if it’s relevant to our readers, we’ll share it on Twitter and Google+. Over time, this can be worth thousands of visitors to your own blog and other guest posts.
And when you will put all of those benefits together, each guest post you publish for us is potentially worth tens of thousands of dollars to you. In return, we expect the best quality content.
And let’s be very clear on the main reason of excepting your post is that...
Not every post you pitch us will be accepted. We are just considering posts from more than 200 different top writers across the web, and only the best of the best will be published.
We have an editing department setup for received posts and your post may go through two or three drafts before it is ready to publish. After you have delivered your final draft it will be given a second final touch by us.
If you want to get your post published after your very first draft then My Own Stories is not the blog for you. We don't mind to pick ideas from other successful blogger's posts but for a copied content there is not place on our blog.
What sort of ideas should you pick?
Although there are thousands of ideas can be generated for which you can write your post for us but we like Motivational or Inspirational because these topics are current and for most searching keywords on the net.
Here are some headlines from popular posts on the blog:
- How to write a Quality Blog?
- 7 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block
- How frequently you should write for your blog?
We cannot overestimate the importance of crafting a strong headline.
Your proposed headline will very likely be our first contact with your post. If it doesn’t grab us and demonstrate that you have a good understanding of how headlines work, then we are unlikely to ask you to write for My Own Stories.
It doesn’t matter how good your post idea is. If you can’t sell it to us via your headline then we can’t be confident you can sell it to our readers either.
My Own Stories ever want to write on the core topics i.e. on traffic techniques, writing tips and blogging techniques. These break down as follows.
Traffic techniques:
- Getting traffic from social media i.e.Facebook,Twitter etc.
- Getting traffic from organic search result
- Converting more traffic into re-visitor
Writing tips:
- How to become a good writer
- How to be a creative content writer
- How to develop writing skills
Blogging how-tos:
- How to set up a blog using WordPress and configure useful plug-ins
- How to migrate from wordpress to blogspot
- How to optimize your blog titles for more conversion rate
What type of post should you write?
Many writers who pitch a guest post to us, should take care and try to write inspirational, essay-style posts, we are more interested in highly practical posts packed with genuinely useful content and backed up with insight, also it should be in very much detail and concrete, well explained and examples should also be there.
To be frank, we like list posts content the most.
What makes a good list post?
As I have already discussed in my previous post that the web loves big list posts and so do we. It includes while discussing about the list post:
- It addresses a genuine topic with an interesting content
- It makes points that are surprising or unexpected but as per the headline
- Each point is backed up with detailed research and helpful examples that allow the reader to take action
- The points are organized in a logical way that enhances their impact on the reader
You first imagine that the first stage of writing a great list post is to think of all the obvious points to be made on the topic and then discard them. You might even have to eliminate the next most obvious ideas before you get to something of genuine interest and value. Expect to be pushed to take your ideas to the next level, and then the next and so on every time.
When you take an example of someone then don't shy to give backlink or credit to that site or person because doing so you are not keeping their credit into your pocket and this is genuineness of a good writer / blogger.
When creating examples to back up a point, make sure they are not generic and bland but are novel and interesting even entertaining.
Most importantly, make sure you’re making points that readers won’t have heard elsewhere. In other words, if we haven’t made the point clear, don’t go for the obvious or usual suspects. Go beyond. We also love to have the final word on a topic and that’s why we’re also very keen on “ultimate” guides .
- It should cover a topic of interest to our readers that has not yet received a detailed or definitive treatment elsewhere on the web.
- It is written from the perspective of someone with in-depth understanding of the subject matter. There is a sense that the author’s knowledge extends even further than the scope of the guide.
The content should go beyond the typical advice given on the topic and shares expert insights, insider details, or experience earned in the trenches. Even if the basics are covered for the benefit of beginners the guide quickly gets into detail that is valuable to readers of all levels.
Key points are backed up by detailed examples and, where necessary, with links to other essential resources elsewhere on the web. Supporting examples might include actual screenshots, helpful diagrams or a step-by-step walk through of a typical scenario.
Where practical advice is given it should be clear to the reader exactly where to start and what steps to take to get the desired result. If there are exceptions to the process these should be highlighted and alternative steps given as we are doing in this post step by step. This is another sort of helpful guide.
Here are some possible ways to approach a helpful guide:
- Pick a new or emerging topic from the web where it is simply too early for much quality content to have yet been written
- Take a narrow view on a popular topic and explore that one aspect in much more detail than has been covered elsewhere
- Pick a popular topic which has been covered widely elsewhere and simply go further with it than others have. Provide extra detail, better examples, more up-to-date information, etc.
How much longer content should be pitched to write a guest post for our blog?
We do not except a post which is pitched to us with words up to 1500 - 1700. We love and more interested in excepting post between 2000 to 3000 words. The more longer content you will write the more chances for your post to be picked up by us.
The reason we want posts this long is that we are looking for authoritative, definitive posts that deliver the final word on a topic. Posts that remain valuable over time. Posts that people feel compelled to share and link to because bringing them to the attention of other people makes them look good.
If you are more comfortable writing 500 - 750 word posts that skim the surface of a topic, then My Own Stories is probably not for you. However in the early we except a post of about 500 characters but now time has changed and a good length and a well structured post gets attraction in search engines.
What next?
If you think you have what it takes to write for My Own Stories, shoot an email to the owner of this blog at mohinder.verma@aitcc.in following the format in these guidelines. You can expect a reply within two or three days, not excluding weekends.
Good luck!
The reason we want posts this long is that we are looking for authoritative, definitive posts that deliver the final word on a topic. Posts that remain valuable over time. Posts that people feel compelled to share and link to because bringing them to the attention of other people makes them look good.
If you are more comfortable writing 500 - 750 word posts that skim the surface of a topic, then My Own Stories is probably not for you. However in the early we except a post of about 500 characters but now time has changed and a good length and a well structured post gets attraction in search engines.
How to structure a great post?
A post with some best elements posses the title "Structured Great Post" and frankly speaking, the elements of a great guest post are:- A Killer Title of headline that makes a strong, relevant promise
- An engaging, empathetic opening that builds momentum and anticipation for the main body of the post
- A well structured body full of strong points that give an interesting and distinctive take on the topic
- A motivational closing that makes the reader want to take action
What’s the process for pitching a post?
Send us your proposed post headline, you can send more than one headline for the same topic and if your post is selected then we will decide which title best describes your post content and that would be our final decision. Also send a couple of paragraphs about what the post will cover. If you’re pitching a list post (remember, we love list posts) please include a few example bullet points as we are doing above in this post.What next?
If you think you have what it takes to write for My Own Stories, shoot an email to the owner of this blog at mohinder.verma@aitcc.in following the format in these guidelines. You can expect a reply within two or three days, not excluding weekends.
Good luck!