How to Guest Post on Firepole Marketing
Do you want to write a guest post for Firepole Marketing?
If you do, then you’ll be in good company – we’ve some super-successful posts from guest authors, and we’d be happy to consider publishing your post here as well!
We’re pretty flexible about what we publish here at Firepole Marketing, as long as it meets the following criteria:
- It’s really good. Seriously, our standards here are high, and some guest posters go through 2-3 rounds of revisions. But if you’ve got a good idea, we’re happy to work with you until the post is ready.
- It’s original. Duh – if it’s been published anywhere else, we don’t want it.
- It’s relevant to our topic and audience. By which we mean “marketing that works” for entrepreneurs and small business owners in the 0-10 employee range. Read Danny’s Timeless Marketing Wisdom from Shakespeare and Lao Tzu post for more insight into who this blog is for.
- It’s “meaty” enough to be useful. We don’t have word limits or requirements – the post should be as long as it needs to be, and no longer. That being said, it’s rare to be able to squeeze much substance into less than 800-900 words, and many of our posts are in the range of 1,200-1,500 words. There are exceptions, though – focus on writing a good post, not on meeting word count requirements.
- It’s from an actual blogger (and not an SEO company). We’ve been burned a few times by SEO companies offering; the guest posts usually end up being mediocre, and they rarely stand behind their posts, respond to commenters, etc. So if you’re working for an SEO company, we’re not interested. If you email us offering a “free original article about any subject you like”, and mention that you “only need 2 backlinks”, we won’t reply, and your message will be marked as spam.
If you have an idea for a post that you think would fit well, here’s what you should do:
- Make sure you’re okay with our timelines. We plan our editorial calendar several months in advance, and there are a lot of people who want to guest post with us. What this means is that while we’re happy to publish your post (if it’s good), it may take several months for it to be scheduled. Make sure you’re okay with that before proceeding.
- Read our most popular posts to see what our audience responds well to (it’s on the right-hand side of the blog homepage, and any post page).
- Send us an email about your idea. Just the idea – not the finished post. We will either approve the idea, or suggest changes – either way, we’ll get back to you within a couple of days at the absolute latest. If you’re ready to do that now, go ahead and contact us. Note: this is not a blog about blogging, and we aren’t interested in posts that are just about blogging!
- Write the post, and send it to us. In a Word document. After you’ve planned it out. And proofread it. For extra credit, read it out loud, make corrections, and add a comma wherever you take a breath. Feel free to include links in the post – to your stuff, to our stuff, to other stuff… we don’t have any problem with links, as long as they’re relevant and value-adding.
- Be ready to make revisions. Once we’ve seen the post, we’ll either approve it for publication, or more likely, request revisions. If we request revisions, it isn’t a rejection – we want to work with you to make sure that your post is as good as it can be. You’ve got to work with us, though – if we ask for a revision, we don’t mean for you to just add a sentence or two (we could do that ourselves while editing). Take our advice to heart, and let us help you make your post a home run.
- Understand that we will edit your post, too. It doesn’t matter how good your post is – we will still give it an editorial pass before it goes live on our blog. It’s nothing personal, just standard procedure on almost every serious blog that runs guest posts.
- Plan to be around when the post goes live. We’ll let you know as soon as it’s been scheduled, and you’ll have plenty of notice to make sure that you’ll be available. We expect you to be around during the day, and the following day, to interact with readers in the comments.
- Do your part to spread the word. If you write a post here, you should be proud of it, and we expect you to tell your networks about it!
That’s all there is to it. If you have any questions, or you want to propose a post idea, go ahead and contact us!
