Contributor Agreement
Before posts can be published, all MWR contributors are required to digitally sign a basic contributor agreement.
Posts Must Be 100% Original
Columns accepted for publication must be exclusive to Search Engine Journal and 100% original. This means:
Columns accepted for publication must be original and exclusive to Search Engine Journal. That is to say:
- No plagiarized work! We use CopyScape, and the Executive Editor decides whether the offense warrants a warning or removal from the list of Contributing Experts.
- There is no self-plagiarism: You cannot “borrow” sentences from previous published content or company blog posts (or other written materials). If you use someone else’s words or ideas, you must properly attribute them.
Note: As of May 2018, we no longer accept syndicated posts.
What to Write About
There are two ways to claim a topic for your next submission:
- Pitch the Managing Editor.
- Choose an approved title from the list in our private Writers Group.
The most popular articles are usually:
- Articles should solve a reader’s problem.
- Be in line with our slogan – Cook The Restaurant’s Food at Home.
- Write in an exciting, quirky, and entertaining tone.
Always provide actionable tips and practical advice.
Share your own experiences. Don’t rely heavily on quoting influencers, experts, or authorities from other sites.
Be the expert!
What Not to Write About
Milkwood Restaurant does not publish content pertaining to gambling, weapons and firearms, pornography, or other industries/topics that may violate Google’s content policies.
We do not publish examples of other marketing publications conducting their marketing activities. Try to find examples that are relatable to food, cooking, kitchen, restaurant, and culinary.
Disclosures
You must disclose any relationships you have with a company or someone mentioned in your post. Here are some examples of disclosures:
- Citing your company’s original data/research: “(I must disclose that I work for [insert company name here])”
- “My case study features a client of mine, the Gardens Keeper.”
- “The case study below was written by my business partner, Sun and Shine.”
Experiences involving a client or business partner should be approved in advance by your Managing Editor, and the relationship should be disclosed in the article. Please keep in mind that client, company, and colleague mentions will be removed if they do not add value to our readers.
Post Length
How long should your post be?
- Your writing must be completely unique, clear, concise, motivating, and engaging.
- Deadlines and sources are critical, and please double-check your work before submitting it.
- Blog posts should be roughly 500 words long.
- The majority of posts on Milkwood Restaurant are between 1,500 and 2,000 words long.
The most effective posts are clear, concise, and only as long as necessary. After all, our readers are extremely busy. Tell them what they need to know, then leave.
Paragraphs
Make an effort to be succinct.
Always make an effort to keep your paragraphs short.
One sentence suffices.
Two sentences are usually sufficient. However, no more than three sentences.
In this age of information overload and short attention spans, short paragraphs are easier to understand and digest (especially on mobile), help drive your point home, and encourage reading.
In-Article Links
Links to authoritative third-party sources indicate to the reader that you are incorporating third-party perspectives and evidence to support your argument. Otherwise, all you have is a theory with no supporting evidence.
Our editorial team looks for links to clients, friends, or anything that appears self-serving. In some cases, the promotion may be unintentional, but the effect is the same.
- There are no links to people’s home pages or company websites for quotes or cited sources. It is acceptable to link to sources’ Twitter handles, LinkedIn profiles, or other types of bio pages.
- There are no self-promotional calls to action (“Our new blog post discusses this topic in depth. “Read more here!”).
- There will be no links to gated content.
- Editorial staff will remove any links that appear promotional or unnecessary.
- We reserve the right to remove or add rel=”nofollow” to any link at any time, before or after an article is published.
- There are no links to websites related to pills/RX, porn, gambling, or payday loans.
Editorial Review and Corrections
- If we discover that authors are not writing their own posts, we reserve the right to reject or delete the post and to bar the author from writing for Search Engine Journal in the future.
- We reserve the right to include a disclaimer at the end of any article to disclose any relationships (or lack thereof) that Search Engine Journal or the author may have with organizations mentioned in the article.
- Search Engine Journal reserves the right to edit any post at any time to correct byline, facts, or updates to published articles. Post changes may be noted with a note from the editor about the change and, if applicable, the reasoning for the update or change.
Our Publishing Process
- Posts are due two business days before your next publishing day for contributors on the writing schedule.
- Ad hoc contributors: Our goal is to publish your post within two weeks of submitting it.