High Profile Magazine
Magazine Contributor Guidelines
Hello future writer!
Thanks for your interest in writing for High Profile Magazine. There are many benefits in becoming a contributor, including:
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Influence: sharing your expertise helps people find you online, especially after a meeting. When someone googles you, what they find helps them to decide to buy from you.
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Credibility: you establish credibility with the readers, followers and contacts on your social media channels.
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Experience: you gain valuable experience from the publication process.
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Exposure: you gain more exposure, and it becomes easier to get featured in other publications.
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Trust: you gain more trust from readers, followers and social media contacts by sharing your expertise.
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SEO: consistency is key: always use the same phrases and words - and ideally your keywords. Google will link those words to your profile online.
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Visibility: share your article with your database and social media connections. The more visible you are, the more credible and trustworthy you become in their eyes.
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Marketing: use your article as a marketing tool to attract prospective customers.
We understand some experts might not see themselves as “writers” so we have put together this guide (which is forever evolving) to help you understand what we are looking for when publishing an article.
You are writing an article to share your knowledge and expertise; it’s not an advert for your business. Readers should read your article and understand you’re an expert in your industry, so that when they have a problem to solve, and you’re an expert in the area they need help with, they will remember you and come to you for assistance.
Please read our Editorial Guidelines below. Following these guidelines will ensure that your article moves efficiently through the process.
Contributor Editorial Guidelines
1. Expertise led stories
Articles are stories, so they need an introduction, a main body (story development) and a conclusion. Keep that in mind when writing your first article.
Stories need emotions, so if you can evoke emotions such as anger, disgust, fear, happiness, or sadness, your article will be more likely to be remembered by the reader.
Case studies are useful to tell stories while showing your expertise.
For example: how your client was feeling, what the problem was, what was the process in finding out the problem, and how your client felt afterwards - once the problem, was solved.
Remember: “what’s in it for me” - readers want to read your article and learn something new, it’s essential to keep the reader in mind.
Don’t write the article in a way that sounds like you are just trying to sell your services.
Notes
a. While we encourage drawing on your own experiences in business to support your ideas, over-the-top self-promotion (of yourself or your company) will prevent us from publishing your article. The same goes for dense jargon and abstract, blanket assertions.
b. You don’t have to be well known to be a contributor, but you must know a lot about the subject you’re writing about.
c. Readers are seeking your firsthand advice and insights. For that reason, you should not approach third-party sources for quotes, if they are in the same industry as yours.
2. Personal Stories
We like articles that introduce new ideas and advance conversations around topics and trends that engage our readers—think op-ed rather than content marketing. We appreciate lively, polished writing that balances research or news with fun and memorable anecdotes or examples that help illustrate your point of view.
3. Exclusivity
Google penalises websites that duplicate content from elsewhere, so when you are writing for HPM, the content must be unique and not published elsewhere.
If we do find the content published elsewhere, we will remove your article.
If you duplicate content twice, we will no longer publish your articles.
4. Evidence
It’s not enough to know your subject thoroughly — you have to prove it to the reader. Referring to supporting research is one good way to do this. It doesn't have to be your research either. As long as you can back some of your information up with good references, it will give you more credibility too.
Note:
a. Wikipedia should not be a source of information. We don’t publish articles with references to Wikipedia.
b. Don’t use sources older than two years old.
c. Only links to trusted, authoritative websites are permitted. No keyword links, affiliate links, lead-gen links, company links, client links, etc. are allowed.
d. Do not include links to your company, product, services or clients within the body of the post. If you do, they will be removed.
e. Any links in the body of your post must serve to either enlighten the reader or support a statement of fact. If you do link to third-party sources, they must be authoritative, trusted sources such as major trade publications, research reports, reputable news media, etc.
f. Links for any other purposes, including SEO and keyword links (link schemes), affiliate links, lead-gen links, links to your own company or clients, etc., are not permitted and will be removed.
g. You may excerpt (quote), paraphrase or reference another reputable published work to support your points and/or edify the reader provided you cite the original source of that information.
h. Use outside sources sparingly to ensure fair use. Failure to do this may be considered plagiarism.
i. Provide links to corroborate any study, statistic, excerpt or research that is not common knowledge. (If you do not have a citation, delete the statement, or make it clear it is your opinion and not fact.). Links should point to the actual information you are citing (e.g., do not link to a news article referring to a study, but to the study itself), and all data should be recent (within the last two years) and from a reputable source. Just link the relevant words (e.g. “a January study from Gallup,”), not the full sentence.
5. Originality
New ideas are rare and precious — and that’s why we’re looking for experts who can provide new ideas to our readers. If you’re writing about a well-worn topic, we’ll be looking for a unique argument or insight.
6. Usefulness
Put yourself in the shoes of the reader and ask yourself:
“Is this article useful?”
If it’s going to help people learn something, change their mind, make up their mind, learn a new skill, etc. - then your article is useful.
If you can explain your thinking so that the reader understands how to apply it in a real situation, that will make it more powerful.
7. Persuasion
You should be writing persuasive articles which are a pleasure to read. If you don’t capture the reader’s interest right away, they will move on to something else.
8.Financial relationships
You should not be charging people to feature them in your articles. We may contact the person you mentioned in your article to ask if they had to pay you to be mentioned.
If we find out this is the case, your article will be removed (and any other articles you have published previously).
Content that is commissioned by a brand or vendor, or created or modified on behalf of such a business interest (sometimes described as “sponsored content”), is a violation of our content submission guidelines and will not be accepted for publication.
9. Copyrights
HPM typically holds the copyright on the finished article, but authors continue to own the underlying ideas in their articles.
It is your responsibility to do your research, check the accuracy of your facts and ensure that you have permission to post or quote any copyrighted or confidential information. Our editors will verify accuracy where possible and easy to do so, but it is ultimately your responsibility to ensure the material you are presenting is credible and correctly attributed.
Make sure you check all the facts before you submit the article to be published.
No lengthy book excerpts, though you are welcome to write about a concept from your books.
For more information about copyright and fair use, refer to the Stanford University documentation.
10. Things you should NOT do
10.1 - Charge someone to be mentioned in your article. Please refer to paragraph number 8.
10.2 - Add your contact details in the article. You will be allowed to write your bio, so keep the URL to the biography. You can use one URL (your website, your LinkedIn, etc.).
10.3 - Write something that has been written before hundreds of times - this will bore people to death!
10.4 - Invite the author or paid staff of HPM for lunches, coffees or dinners.
10.5 - Don’t write the title USING ALL CAPS - it’s considered SHOUTING.
11. Grammar and spelling
Your article should have the correct spelling and grammar at the point of submission. If English is not your first language, we suggest you use grammaly.com (the paid version). Our editor is super busy, reading and providing feedback about the stories - not correcting grammar. We will not publish articles with spelling or grammar mistakes.
We offer editing services if you wish us to edit the grammar and spelling.
12. Prohibited content
No offensive, partisan or discriminatory content. We do not run content on religion or politics, and articles with the inflammatory or obscene language will be removed. We do not publish articles criticising companies or people. Focus on giving positive,
tactical insight. We also reserve the right to remove any links that lead to material considered offensive, harmful or that are an attempt to solicit commercial sales from readers (e.g. affiliate links, links for lead-generation purposes, links to company or client blogs). You may not use our publishing opportunities to solicit or accept free or discounted goods or services under any circumstances.
13. Recommendations
No puff pieces or listicles about vendors, products or people. When you do make a recommendation, be clear about why and offer several reputable alternatives. If you have a conflict of interest, avoid any brand mention.
14. Guarantees
Avoid statements that guarantee success or results (e.g., “these 3 marketing strategies guarantee you’ll make millions”).
15.Confidentiality
You are expected to respect the privacy and confidentiality (as well as the copyright and intellectual property) of the companies, people or fellow members they may write about or reference without exception.
16. Plagiarism
Our editors use a plagiarism checker for every submission to ensure content is 100% original.
Plagiarism is never tolerated, in any form. Do not submit plagiarised work under any circumstances or we will terminate your contributors’ role. You may be required to pay a fine if your published articles are deemed as plagiarised.
16. Employability and payment
You are not employed by High Profile Magazine as such there is not payment in exchange of your published articles.
High Profile Magazine and its writers contributors understand the mutual agreement which consists of the exchange of the content (provided by the writer contributor) for visibility and credibility provided by the magazine.
The writer contributor is required to write 12 x articles over a period of 12 months. The writer contributor may add to their Linkedin public profile under "Experience" Writer Contributor, Writer, Contributor or Columnist but should not imply in anyway employment. The writer contributor may also use the experience in public speeches, biographies, books and other marketing materials. Once the 12 months have passed and the writer contributor no longer wishes to write for High Profile Magazine, s/he should terminate their experience on their Linkedin profile too.
The publishing process
Our editorial process is thorough. You may be asked to do multiple rounds of revisions.
We retain final decision rights over headlines. Our editor(s) have spent years learning which kinds of headlines have better chances of being read, found online, and shared both on social media and in offices around the world. If we rewrite your title, it’s because we believe the revised version will help your idea reach the audience it deserves.
First Draft
First draft submission should be three weeks before the publishing date, irrespectively of being a weekend of a bank holiday. See below our dates for publishing.
Feedback and revision
If your article needs to be edited, we will provide feedback within a week once you have submitted.
Final Draft
The final draft must be submitted two weeks before the publication deadline. Check the deadline below.
Notes
a.The quicker you write the first draft and submit it, the quicker you get feedback to work on it.
b. All articles are subject to editing.
c. Headlines and subheads are subject to change.
d. Content may be edited for style, tone, or substance.
e. Links may be added or removed.
f. HPM may permit a select number of partner outlets to syndicate contributed articles that we’ve published originally, so your article might be used in another website and your bio will also be shared with them. You will be notified when this happens.
for writing more effectively
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Start with a mind map. If you have never done a mind map, read this article.
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Do your mindmap on an A4 sheet of paper, or several if you need it. We also recommend using the White Magic Paper. You can buy it on Amazon.
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Make a plan with a sequence of words. Use bullet points to structure the ideas that came out from the mindmap and shuffle the order around until it starts to flow and make sense.
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Know your audience. Once you figure out who you're writing for and why your natural writing voice can shift to accommodate this.
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Don’t try to imitate another writer. You will find your style once you start writing.
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An informal language is a good approach. Write as if you are “chatting to a friend in the pub”. No jargon, no pompous words.
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Don’t try to show off with the use of difficult words. The reader will switch to another article.
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Shift that fear of the blank page by starting with draft 0.5 instead of draft 1.
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Try copying your plan directly into your first draft document and use it as a skeleton to write around rather than starting with nothing.
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Don't worry about writing it in order when doing your draft. The beauty of typing rather than handwriting is that you can jump into a piece of writing at any point; you don't have to start at the beginning.
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Writer's block comes when you freeze up over getting the right words out in the correct order.
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Introductions don't have to be written first - they are better written last.
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Do it all again the next day if you can’t do it in a couple of hours. That’s fine. Leave it and go back to it the next day.
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Ultimately, the key is this: habits form through repetition. The more you write, the easier it becomes. In getting comfortable with the idea of writing regardless of your mood, you become less reliant on needing to feel inspired or 'ready', and more capable of making steady progress.
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When writing your article, it is helpful to answer the following questions:
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What is the central message of my article?
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What is important, useful, new, or counterintuitive about this idea?
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Why do readers need to know about it? How can my idea be applied today?
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What is the source of my authority? On what previous work (either your own or others’) does this idea build? References, white papers, reports, etc.
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What academic, professional, or personal experience will I be sharing in this article?
Tips
Note
a. You don’t need to worry about your biography in your article. There will be space for you to add your bio at the end of the article. You write a biography of up to 50 words, including your website.
b. When writing your biography, you must use only ONE URL. We recommend that you use the easiest one for people to contact you, such as your company website OR your personal website OR your Linkedin page OR your Instagram account or any other link you wish to use.
c. Use the BANEC® system to write your bio. Watch this video to learn how to write a credible bio. The video shows you how to write a 50-word bio. For your articles, you must write a 50-word bio. We won't accept bios longer than 50 words.