Guidelines and Suggestions for Guest Posts at Service Coach.

Thanks for your interest in writing a guest post for Service Coach.

We are always open and welcome all guest posts, but we’re not able to use everything that’s submitted. We may decline to use your post because of its quality, the relevance of your topic, because we have more posts than we can use, or because we’ve published a number of posts on the topic recently.

We may also decline to use your post if it covers information we’ve already covered on the site. We’re really looking for guest posts that present new ideas, fresh perspectives, and innovative approaches. We like to present readers with ideas that we haven’t seen elsewhere online.

To help you with your writing, to increase the chances of our being able to use your post, and to help us get your post ready for publishing on Service Coach, we’ve put together a few guidelines and suggestions for you below.

In short, before you send us your submission, please make sure it:

1. conveys quality, practical advice presented with Service Coach readers in mind
2. is able to be used exclusively at Service Coach
3. includes all the information—links, link text, etc.—you want the published version of your post to include
4. infringes no copyright laws
5. includes a headline, body text, and your byline.

Exclusivity

Unless previously negotiated, we ask that the posts you submit to us are written exclusively for use by Service Coach. While you’re more than welcome to write on the same topic elsewhere, our hope is that posts that appear on Service Coach don’t appear in the same form elsewhere.

Topics

Posts work best on Service Coach that are relevant to my overall topic—tools to help Service business owners build a better business and make more money. Of course there’s a lot of room to move in this overall topic. Anything that helps a Service business owner improve their business will be helpful for readers.

Service Coach readers love practical tips and how-tos. Give my readers information that they can apply to their businesses immediately, and you’ll be popular here. Even more theoretical posts that have something in them that readers can “do” rather than just “know” are good.

Topics in which we’re particularly interested right now include (but aren’t limited to):

• Website SEO & Design
• Marketing and Growth Strategies that are working
• Tips on ways to systematize a Service Business
• Time Management Secrets
• Tips for hiring and building a better team

Voice

Some guest posters worry about what voice or style to write in. Ultimately this is up to you. We encourage you to bring your own voice to your post.

Formatting and markup

Feel free to submit your content in Word or plain text format. It’d be great if you could also follow these points in preparing your post for us.

• Please don’t use bold font in your post’s prose.
• Subheadings: wrap any subheadings in your post in <h2> tags, or simply bold them so they stand out.
• Links: if you want to mark up a link and link text using HTML, by all means do so. Otherwise, include the URL in brackets within the prose, immediately after the text you’d like to use as the link text. Note that we don’t publish affiliate links in guest posts.

Please do include everything you want to have included with your post in your submission. If you want to include links, paste them in the spot where you want them to go. If you want to use particular link text, tell us. Don’t assume we’ll know what information you want, and where: tell us clearly.

A note on links to your own website or blog…

If it’s relevant to the topic you’re writing about, you’re welcome to link back to your website within the post. Keep in mind that this relevancy is very important. If we feel your post includes too many links back to your own website, we may remove them, or reject the post. A high-quality, helpful post will get people checking out who you are more effectively than will lots of links back to your site.

Post length

Your post should be as long as you need it to be in order to convey your message.

We publish posts that vary greatly in length. Anything goes—length isn’t a factor, but quality is. Stick with your own style and voice, and choose a length that sits well with you.

Editing

All posts that appear on Service Coach are edited. We rarely edit them heavily, but we will change titles, rework openings or conclusions, or correct grammar and spelling.

Don’t be offended by this—we’re just trying to make every post we publish as successful as possible. We also know what generally works well with the Service Coach audience.

Occasionally, we’ll send a post back to you with suggested additions, omissions, or changes. This generally suggests we feel the post could be further enhanced in ways that go beyond some basic editing.

Our hope is that we get a post that hits the mark with the readership—that’s good for you as the author, good for Service Coach readership, and good for the blog as a whole.

Byline

You’ve worked to give us great content, so let us help you promote you. We want to highlight you, your website or blog, or any product or service that you have to offer. This is largely done in your byline.

Bylines should be a sentence or two explaining who you are and what you do. Feel free to include up to two links in it. Some guests include a link to an RSS feed here, which can convert well. Your byline will appear at the bottom of your post, but we’ll also write a short introductory sentence that will include your main link, and will appear at the top of the post.

If you have any questions or concerns or would like to contact us with your post, please contact us via our contact form.

Thanks for your involvement with Service Coach.