Guest Posting

GUEST POSTING GUIDELINES FOR THE SOUTHEAST SOFTWASH BLOG

Thanks for your interest in the Southeast Softwash blog! We love guest posts because they allow us to provide a diverse range of topics and expert insights for our readers. We do, however, get a lot of requests, and we can’t accept them all! But these guidelines will give you the best chances of success.

About the SESW Blog

  • Our audience: Contractors and Consumers alike. Particularly for small to medium-sized businesses and consumers looking to DIY.
  • Our tone: Our blog is authoritative and informative but friendly and fun to read. Conversational writing is our style—think approachable expert.
  • Our topics: B2B, Cleaning Technique Content, Consumer Guides on Cleaning Their Home, Marketing Advice For Pressure Washers, etc (we do not cover topics related to other companies pressure washing equipment or products).
  • Our posts: We publish a wide variety of post types, including (but not limited to!):
    • New or different angles on common topics.
    • First-hand accounts of experiments/strategies/tests
    • How-to guides/cheat sheets for techniques and platforms.
    • Lists of tips, tools, or compelling strategies.
    • Industry trends, data, and insights.
    • Vertical-specific advice.
    • Creative ideas and real examples.
    • Examples/templates.
3. Check our specs

Here’s what we want!

  • Sufficient length: 1,500 words minimum
  • Short intro: ~150 words. Introduce your topic and then tell the reader what the post will cover.
  • Friendly tone: conversational, not corporate!
  • High quality: original, actionable, organized, and accurate!
  • Skimmability: headings, subheadings, short paragraphs
  • Images: screenshots, graphs, charts, concept illustrations, images from our existing posts, etc. NO STOCK IMAGES. A meme or two is okay. Images that don’t belong to us/you need to be cited via “Image source” anchor text under each image.
  • Backlinks: no more than 3 per post
  • Short bio: 1-3 sentences, can include links to your website or social accounts.

Here’s what we DON’T want!

  • Thin content that demonstrates a lack of depth of knowledge on a topic.
  • Fluff: redundant, filler words, uses many words to say little.
  • Overly promotional content.
  • Previously published or sponsored content.
  • Stock images! (Worth mentioning again.)

What to expect

We get a large volume of guest pitches, so please be patient with us throughout the process.

  1. Pitch response: If your pitch is chosen, we’ll do our best to respond within 1-2 weeks. Please follow up in three weeks if you haven’t heard from us.
  2. Outline: Once we nail down the topic and title, we’ll request an outline. If the outline is approved, you’ll get drafting!
  3. Draft: If the draft meets our quality standards, we’ll move on to editing.
  4. Edits: We will edit the content to align with our standards as well as our style, If we need anything on your end— a better quality image, a change to a section, or further elaboration on something, we’ll let you know.
  5. Publishing: Depending on the level of edits needed and our content calendar needs, your post could get published anywhere from 2-4 weeks after you’ve submitted it. This can be longer if we are particularly backlogged.

Ready to pitch?

Send an email to Chesca at admin@southeastsoftwash.com

Here’s what to include:

  • in the subject line
  • A little about yourself: What experience or expertise will you be drawing from in your post?
  • Proposed ideas: Topic ideas are great, title ideas are even better!
  • Writing samples: Please link to at least one existing publication.

We’re looking forward to learning from and working with you! Creating A Community: After your post is accepted and published, share it on social media to relevant groups and pages. This helps the content gain traction and in turn pushes that power and relevance back to your website (what you want). We are also looking for monthly contributors.