Guest Posting

Yes, I happily accept guest posts to share with my audience here at DavidRisley.com. :)

In order to streamline things and save time all around, I’ve compiled a few guidelines for you. And they are…

  • Your post must bring value to my readers. This means it has to be relevant, of course. Furthermore, it needs to bring something of value in an interesting way. We all know that blogs about blogging can easily fall into a trap of saying the same things over and over again. So, please, if you’re going to send me a post, make sure you bring a unique angle, unique personality… something unique which makes the post interesting. Blogging 101 level stuff that’s been said a million times already isn’t going to cut it.
  • Your post shouldn’t be TOO basic. My audience doesn’t need to be told the obvious. Your guest post should be truly valuable and geared toward a smart audience. If it is a generic “make money” post, it will be deleted.
  • Your post cannot be overtly promotional. It is OK to drop a link or two to your site, but your post shouldn’t be a blatant commercial for anything.
  • Please do NOT contact me asking about what to write. Simply put, if you have a post in mind for me, write it and send it in for evaluation. But, please, do not email me asking what topics I want. I won’t answer you.
  • Don’t be boring. Write with the reader in mind, and realize that my audience is busy. If you want to get noticed, it has to be interesting and compelling, and written in an easily scannable way. Read this post about how to write for readers riddled with ADD. :)
  • Make your post web-ready. Check for grammar and typos. If I have to correct too many stupid errors, I’m going to give up and not publish it. I’m no grammar nut, but I’ve gotten some real doosies before as guest posts. Just plain unreadable. Don’t be one of those people. Your job is to make it so that all I have to do is copy/paste your post into WordPress. The closer you can get me to that point, the better.
  • Include your bio at the end. No more than 2-3 sentences.
  • Your post must be exclusive. I don’t want to publish a piece you’ve posted somewhere else, even if it is your own site. Your post must be unique to DavidRisley.com.

Submit Your Post

  • BASIC HTML is OK for formatting purposes. Be sure to include your bio at the end of your post, in italics.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

What to Expect Next…

  1. Your post will be drafted and first be reviewed by my assistant. Only once she verifies it meets my guidelines will the post go to me to see if I like it or not.
  2. If your post is just obviously not a fit for this blog (i.e. it is boring as snot, too basic, offers nothing of clear value)… then it will be bypassed and we won’t bother notifying you. Nothing personal, OK? It is simply that we get a lot of people submitting garbage to us because they’re being paid to build backlinks for a client (most likely). And, with the volume, we’re just not going to take the time to notify people in those instances.
  3. I cannot give you any kind of timeframe on when your post will be published. Various things can affect the publishing schedule on this blog, including any promotions I might be running.
  4. While I will try to give you advanced warning of your post being published, realize that it doesn’t always happen. Nothing personal. I try my best.
  5. When the post goes live, be prepared to monitor reader comments and reply to them on the blog.