Guest Blog Post Writer’s Guidelines

JBSISAM.COM is a place where you come to get the tools you need to find your voice, succeed in life and reach the world with the message God has on your heart.

[featured-image single_newwindow=”false”]

Recently, people have been asking me to write for my blog. Up until this point, I’ve said, “no”. Not because I don’t want people writing, I felt the need to have only my voice on this blog.

That has changed.

Today, I’m accepting submissions for guest posts. Right now, I do not plan to publish more than a couple of them a month. Also, these posts will appear on Fridays, as Monday and Wednesday are solely for my content.

These are the categories I’m accepting for consideration:

Writing.
Personal/Spiritual Development (Note: I will only accept from the Christian Worldview.).
Productivity.
Leadership Principles.

Guidelines:

I want to thank you for wanting to submit, for my consideration, a guest spot on my personal blog. Please read carefully the following guidelines for submission.

Your post cannot include or be an advertisement for a product, service or be a sponsored post. If you are wanting to promote a product, I do have an advertising place available for $25/week.
Your post must be original and has not been previously published in ANY publication, print/blog/online or has appeared on your own website(s).
You are granting JBSISAM.COM, JASONSISAM.COM and SISAM ENTERPRISE sole rights to use your content for promotions, products and or advertisements for the websites owned by Jason Sisam.
You agree to not publish your post (as is) anywhere else, including your own website. You do have permission to post a sample and tease on your site linking back to JBSISAM.COM.
Please provide a byline no more than 3 sentences long and may include up to 2 links; your website and one social media account.
Your post/article should be no less than 500 words but no more than 700 words. Anything over 700 words will not be accepted.
You will not be paid for your submission.

How to Structure of your blog post upon acceptance:

Every online magazine and blog have a unique voice and style of writing. Here is the template, upon approval of your query letter, you should use to write your post.

Title of your article. Make it engaging and active – avoid passive or negative adverbs and adjectives.
Subtitle.
Lead Paragraph – tell the reader what the article is about. Use this to pull the reader into the article. Make it active and exciting.
Personal Anecdote – tell a personal story connecting you with the content. I often will use a personal story to convey the message of the post.
Pivot – turn your story into the reason you’re writing this post.
Objective Statement – use an objective statement to spell out your why.
Write the main body rationale – main points and min. of 3 points to convey your message. Make your content scannable. Use bullet points or numbered lists. Keep paragraphs short.
Conclusion. This is where you wrap up your article in a nice bow. Usually the conclusion circles back to the top paragraph of why you wrote this post.
Discussion Question. This pulls the reader into the comments section.

Editing:

I will edit your post for grammatical and spelling errors, alter the style of writing to suit the voice of JBSISAM.COM. If I make enough changes that change the tone and structure of your post, I will email you with the edited version for your approval.
There is a chance I may add my own conclusion at the end, or beginning of your post. I’ll do this so I can give a clearer picture or context to what you wrote. I will make sure my portion of the post is set apart stylistically from what you wrote, so my audience can tell my writing from yours.

Disclaimer:

Writing a blog is a lot of work. It takes a great deal of effort to put forth the energy to write a post. This is why I urge you to query me with an idea before you go ahead and write your post. If you do submit a written post, there is no guarantee that I will publish your writing. I, Jason Sisam, reserve sole right to accept or reject any submission that I feel will not serve my or my reader’s best interest.

If I reject your proposal, I will not give a reason why I simply will say it does not fit with my goals right now. I simply don’t have the time or energy to write an individual response as to why I rejected your post.

You are granting JBSISAM.COM, JASONSISAM.COM and SISAM ENTERPRISE sole rights to use your content for promotions, products and or advertisements for the websites owned by Jason Sisam.

How to submit a Query:

Before you write your article please submit a query letter for post consideration. Your letter should include the following:

One 3-4 sentence paragraph describing your post. Often this is your opening paragraph to the article – here’s an example from one of my queries: As a pastor, I’ve listened to plenty of people who shyly look away when I ask what they’re passionate about. They either don’t know, or they believe they’ll get the answer wrong. Why? People have a hard time identifying their passion.
One 3-4 sentence paragraph highlighting who you are, education, your website and writing accolades.
One 3-4 sentence paragraph highlighting your reasoning for writing this article and why you’re qualified to offer the advice within the article, the title of the article, word count and when you can have it ready.
Please use the form below to submit your query for consideration. It could take me 2-3 weeks to respond to your request.

Once Query is approved:

Please reply to the acceptance email and include the following:
- Please include a short 2-3 sentence byline, along with your website/blog and Facebook or Twitter handle.
- Tell me how many readers you have subscribed to your blog. This can be email subscribers, Facebook and Twitter followers combined.
- Are you willing to communicate with readers should they respond to your article in the comments?
- Please copy and paste your full article in the email. DO NOT submit a Word document (I will reject those). Also, do not add any HTML code or any formatting.
  - For bullet points use the *.
  - Include any reference links in [brakets] – remember, do not include any of your personal website links within the body of your post. Every reference link must be from an outside source. You cannot quote yourself.

If I happen to reject your post submission, please feel free to post on your website or submit to another blog.

[contact-form to=’jason@jbsisam.com’ subject=’Guest Post Submission’][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Social Media Address’ type=’url’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Query/Submission’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]