Five Steps for Contributor Success

By Jenny Batt and guest contributor Brittni Mehlhoff. Photography by Elle Moss.

The first, and probably most important, rule of being a good contributor is simple: don’t be afraid to give away the good stuff. It’s natural to want to hoard your best articles and projects for your own blog, but if you only have a handful of readers coming to your personal blog, it makes sense to reach out to the larger audience. It will get you seen by more people, and you’re gaining blogger street-cred and name recognition as someone readers should know about.

More tips for contributor success:

1. Create amazing content. Always!

2. Be consistent. Make sure that the style in which you write melds nicely with the other content written for the site you are contributing to.

3. Don’t miss deadlines. Editors and site owners are counting on you to get things to them on time because they have a million and one other things on their to-do lists. Establish yourself as someone who can be relied on to get the job done, and you’ll be rewarded.

4. Always look over any guidelines that you are given before posting. Every site does things differently, but typically there is a particular size image width that sites like to stick to, along with a word count range (i.e. every post is between 100 and 300 words), or sentence minimum (this type of post should have at least three sentences, etc). Find out what the guidelines are and stick to them.

5. Keep the lines of communication open. If you have a question or concern, don’t be afraid to voice it.

You’ll be well on your way to contributor success with these tips and tricks. Good luck! You’ll be awesome. We know it! Have your own rules for contributor success? Share your experience in the comments below.

Comments

[Natalie Bowman]

Love this post. Great tips!