About The Guidelines

Thank you for offering to share information and knowledge via Bright Ideas.

These guidelines have been created to help you and our readers get the most out of all the articles we publish. Please read them carefully and follow each point to ensure we can publish your content. We have made them detailed to ensure all blogs are SEO-optimized, engaging and shareable across social media.

Each month we receive a large number of requests from people to publish content on our site, so we can’t accept them all. We only publish posts that offer expert and actionable digital marketing advice that provide original insights and are written in-line with these guidelines.

Mandatory Guidelines

We have summarized the important points that need to be followed in order to publish your article. If these are not followed, we will be unable to publish your post, as we need to keep the quality of all posts high to protect our brand’s reputation. Please use the following list as a checklist to make sure you have all the correct styling, formatting and structure before submitting your article.

  • Article length: Minimum of 1,000-1,200 words. More is accepted/desired.
  • Include title and alternative title.
  • Follow title with H2 subheading to act as hook and target keywords.
  • Use of additional headings throughout blog (H3 and H4 subheadings) to break up text.
  • Include bullet-pointed lists where possible to improve readability.
  • Write in a conversational but professional style (please refer to our recent blogs for guidance).
  • No more than three to four sentences per paragraph.
  • Use ‘ize’ spellings not ‘ise’.
  • One high resolution feature image (no stock imagery).
  • At least TWO high resolution images for blog content with any relevant credits (no stock imagery).
  • Images can be charts, graphs, infographics, screenshots, social media posts.
  • If you are embedding a video in your blog, provide the full embed link from YouTube.
  • Place images in the text AND send as separate attachments. Please name images with correct/optimized titles.
  • Best practice articles should include 5-10 examples/recommendations and should be supported with research.
  • Include links to provide extra information and provide credits where required. Links will be do-not-follow links and can only be to stats and data. Do not include product/service links or generic anchor text links for SEO purposes.
  • Put author’s bio (written in third person) at the bottom of the article. Include name, role, a link to the company homepage and social media profiles. The author bio MUST be for the person who actually wrote the article.

Please note: You may include more links in the text if you believe they are relevant, but these may be removed by our content team in the editing process if they believe they are not needed/against our guidelines. If you are referencing stats and there is a chart/graph to accompany the data please include this in your article (along with a credit) to help our readers see visual data.

You must either have rights to images you use, provide open source images or include accompanying links to act as credits. We do not accept any stock imagery, whether it is free or paid for.

Under no circumstances do we accept links to: essay writing services, gaming and betting sites,
casinos, antivirus software, home decoration, sport, health, or sites supplying or promoting drugs and drug use.

Editing Process

Due to the volume of articles that are submitted, our content team and editor are unable to source images, reformat and chase authors for bios, and content, so it is up to you to provide everything you want included. Our team is unable to make amendments after your blog has been published.

It takes a couple days for our team to process your article. We allow one round of editing if your article is not quite up to our standards. Once the team has reviewed your article you will be informed whether it has been rejected or accepted and the estimated date of publication.

We will perform a final edit for cosmetic purposes (spelling, grammar and link checking) as your blog is uploaded.

Please submit your article in Google Doc format to our editor via email.

Please note: The publication date you are given is estimated and subject to change. Due to the high volume of blogs we receive and our busy publication schedule, we are unable to send you a live link once your blog is published.

Our Audience

Articles need to be written to appeal to our current members and target audience. Please keep these customers in mind when writing:

  • eCommerce store owners and Agencies who need advice on how to attain and retain customers, improve brand perception and quick wins for creating and running digital marketing campaigns across all channels.
  • SMEs (all roles). Articles for SMEs should be full of advice and practical steps to help grow their business and reach customers with low cost and high ROI. Case studies and success stories to show best practice is essential. They want to know how to penetrate the market, will be interested in digital benchmarks and want advice in how to use specific digital marketing tools they may not have heard or used before.

We like advanced marketing knowledge and advice that will help our readers advance their digital marketing strategy.

Additional Guidance

If you wish to keep our content team and editor happy and increase the chances that your blog will be published, we suggest you also follow this additional guidance:

  • Write out numbers one to ten as words.
  • Use % not per cent or percent.
  • Do not use ‘here’ as anchor text for links.
  • Do not gender examples. Use ‘their’ rather than ‘him’ or ‘her’.
  • Numbered subheadings should be written as 1. Not #1.
  • Write eCommerce not ecommerce, e-commerce or Ecommerce.
  • Do not double space after full stops.
  • Do not bold or italicize words or phrases within your blog.
  • Do not use ellipses.
  • Avoid overuse of exclamation marks.
  • Edit your blog before submitting it. If there are too many cosmetic mistakes to correct while uploading, we may reject your blog.

Thank you in advance for following the guidelines – the Bright Ideas content team appreciate your time and effort. We look forward to receiving your contribution.