Writing for Spartina.com: Editorial Guidelines

Writing for Spartina.com

The goal of Spartina.com is to gather the best information available for running an Internet business. We’d love to have content from you, if you have expertise that would be helpful to people starting or growing their business. If you would like to write for Spartina.com, here are three simple and easy steps to follow:

1. Read this document
2. Submit an article proposal no more than a few lines in length, which includes a two-line synopsis of the content, and its relevance to Internet businesses, if it isn’t obvious from the synopsis. Submit your proposal using the Contact form
3. Verify that you will submit original content only

Audience

All articles are intended for entrepreneurs starting or growing an Internet business. The readers may be quite new to Internet businesses, or have years of experience. Please be sure the articles address one or both of these audiences.

Tone and Writing Style

The tone and writing style for Spartina.com content is:

• educational
• action oriented
• highlights key take-aways

In addition, we like writing that is

• authoritative
• friendly but not personal (unless it is a personal experience article)
• clear
• has simple sentences
• is positive in tone
• is factual rather than subjective

Things to avoid in the writing include:

• marketing hype
• self-promoting text
• unfounded facts
• anything discriminatory or pejorative in any way whatsoever
• negative slant about businesses or the Internet

It is essential to provide clean copy, including spelling checks and grammar issues.

Topics & Subject Matter

In general, any information that will help readers create, sustain, grow, and sell an Internet business. The article should not replicate information already on the website and should fit within one of the follow topic categories:

• Finance
• Legal
• Human Resources
• Marketing
• Management
• Operations
• Entrepreneur Lifestyle

Please browse the website to see the subcategories under the above topic for more ideas.

Regardless of the topic you choose or are assigned, the material should always have a relevance to an Internet business. This means that if the topic is one that is relevant to all businesses, (such as accounting, etc), there needs to be something that addresses the Internet business in particular (such as accounting for traffic revenue.) It does not have to be the major point of the article, but should be up front, so our readers can see why this matters to them.

It is best to avoid time-sensitive material, except in relation to market data. The content should stand the test of time, and be relevant to readers for as long a period as possible. The more factual and informative the article, the better it will serve our audience.

Book Excerpts

We welcome submissions from publishers and authors who would like to post excerpts of their book on our website. We offer Amazon.com links to purchase the book. The content selected should follow the same guidelines listed below.

Length

The length of one article should be between 500-600 words. If the article is running longer, then it should be made to logically flow into multiple articles. If there are multiple articles, their titles need to be informative, not just Part 1, Part 2, etc.

Use of tables and photos

It is fine to include tables and photos when relevant, but only if it directly supports the content and makes it more easily read and understood.

References to Spartina.com and its content

If there are any references to content already on Spartina.com, such as previous articles, please include the appropriate link, so that the text can have a hot-link.

Crediting Sources

Any material that is used from another source must credit the source. This can include links, mentions of sources, etc. It should also be clear if you are paraphrasing or quoting directly. We do not condone any plagiarism. On the other hand, it is fine to use another source as the basis of the article (assuming you give credit) especially if you are adding an Internet business focus to the original material.

Spartina.com Writers Contract

We give full credit to the authors of the articles, including a free link to their website at our discretion. We currently do not pay for articles.

Terms: By submitting an article to Spartina.com you acknowledge that you are the owner of the material and that you are granting a license to Spartina.com to display and syndicate the content to its partners. Content must be original and you agree not to sell to another party. Spartina.com reserves the right to alter articles for style, grammar and content.