We appreciate your decision to write for us. These guidelines will help you with your writing and help us create more jobs for Americans.
There are two ways to write a guest article for us. First, you can send us a proposal about what you want to write about and we will let you know if you should go for it. Next, if we like your writing, we may suggest some topics. The key is to write about what you know.
General Tips: Writing Guidelines
DO:
- Make sure your read our web site articles and news sections to see the kinds of stories we post.
- Tell me about your story before you write it. If you send a pitch, we can save you a lot of time from writing something that we may not be able to use.
- Our business is about helping people. Make sure what you write falls in line with that. When you send pitches, we will let you know.
- Be Distinctive. We will only post content that isn’t posted anywhere else.
- Be Imaginative. Use your imagination when it comes to various topics, write about things you love that would be beneficial to our readers. Remember, we want them to be inspired to Buy American, even if that means local restaurants, local farms, vacation spots and more. Really the sky is the limit.
- Be captivating. You can interject personal experiences into your writing to help draw in the reader.
- Be current. Write about topics that will be relevant to the United States or any state or city or county that you believe will be interesting to our readers.
- Be Thorough. The more you write about the topic and the more interesting it is, the more share and such it will get on social media and real world reads.
- Send us a profile picture of yourself and a bio about why you are passionate about Made in USA. All articles will also be on your bio page. Your writing could also end up on google news feed.
- Cite your sources and provide links if you are referencing an article you read. You should be able to add the link to the text like this. BuyDirectUSA wrote a great article as to why Americans should buy American and gave 15 Good Reasons. One of the top reasons they cited was “When you buy American products you support American workers. Existing jobs are saved and more employment opportunities are created.” No plagiarism allowed, we want the original writers to get full credit.
DON’T:
- Write about religion or politics. We know this can be difficult to do on some topics but if you write about something related to politics then do not take sides. You can write about the merits of certain legislation that helps create manufacturing jobs or helps train people for certain skills without gloating that it is your favorite politician doing it.
- Try selling stuff. It is possible to link to a product that is relevant to a story, but if it is an affiliate link and not your own product, we will not allow it. We do our best to make sure all products mentioned on our web site are actually Made in the USA.
- Cause trouble. If you write anything on controversial topics, you must include both sides of an argument. We are here to unite people on being American and Buying American.
- Expect to earn money. We hope that you will understand at this time we don’t have the funds to pay writers, but your writing can help the overall US economy and create jobs for Americans.
- Try to bribe us to publish your article, unless you have really deep pockets.
- Once you submit your article, do not post it anywhere else. However you can link back to our web site once it is live.
- Don’t copy other people’s work and call it your own, it’s called plagiarism and we do not approve of it. As mentioned above, always cite your sources.
Who Can Submit A Guest Article?
Anyone can submit a guest article and you do not have to be a professional writer. Just be willing to write. If you have the story and the ability to follow these guidelines you can be a writer for us. Please note that we do not take article submissions from businesses unless you are one of our sponsor advertisers.
Topics
- Favorite places, places of interests in your area, or places you have been to that you love. For example we have a Civil War Battlefield, Route 66, Jesse James, A shootout with Wild Bill Hickok occurred in the downtown square of Springfield, Branson, MO has lots of things to do when vacationing and so on. It could also be favorite places to eat because they use local food and so on.
- Skilled trades, why they are important, the costs of getting educated for them, places where people can get their education, schools, apprenticeships and the like.
- Anything jobs related, hiring events, employment rates, skills needed for certain jobs and so on.
- STEM Education, we need skilled trades to build the items that are designed by those in some of the STEM fields
- Manufacturing, there are lots of things to write about on this topic from finding employees to why some manufacturers choose to make products in the US to problems manufacturers are facing and so on.
- Veterans, jobs for veterans, homes for veterans, healthcare for veterans and the like.
- Animal adoptions and pet rescues. Very close to our hearts as we have two awesome rescue cats.
Are there opportunities for manufacturing in your area? Then tell our readers about it. Perhaps there are incentives to relocate to your area.
Maybe share your experience with US Manufacturing, perhaps you or your family members worked in manufacturing.
Explore the pros and cons of US Manufacturing and tell us why you support it.
Maybe you love organic gardening and have some tips for doing that.
How will it Benefit Us?
We know there are a lot of people who want to help us reach more people to encourage them to Buy American. While our small team can write, there are so many things that we want to do that we just are not able. You will be helping us cover more topics and create more jobs.
How will it Benefit You?
There are a variety of benefits for you, if you write about your local area, you can help create more interest and boost the local economy. The idea is that you have the power while using your pen to keep our overall national economy strong and reach more people and encourage them to Buy American.
You can reach a large audience: BuyDirectUSA has around 100,000 monthly visitors, some 25,000 subscribers and Nearly 50,000 Twitter followers, 4,200 Facebook followers, 13,000 Pinterest followers.
You can even use your profile and articles to help you get paid writing gigs.
Our Submission Process
If we haven’t asked you to write a specific article, then you will want to send your story idea to us BEFORE you write and via email to info (at) buydirectusa.com
- Subject: BuyDirectUSA Article Idea – (Put idea here)
- Introduction: We want to know about you and why you want to write for us. Then tell us about your story idea.
We need the following information for each of your article proposals. You are welcome to submit more than one at a time but do separate them so we know you are doing that.
- Suggested Headline – Headlines should grab people’s attention. It is what attracts people’s attention. Optimal headlines should be 50-60 characters including spaces.
- What things do you plan on covering in your article? You can use 3-4 bullet points to give us a general idea.
- Why would this be good for our readers? What would make them want to read it? Does it have an emotional connection with them or is it useful travel information, will it talk about opportunities for employment, help veterans, help rescue animals and so on.
We review each and every proposal and let you know if we approve or not or perhaps we will offer different angles for you to write about.
Don’t be discouraged if we suggest modifications or outright reject your idea, some things just don’t always work, but other things can be wonderful and help us reach more people for US Manufacturing.
Article Specifications
ACCEPTED – NOW WRITE. Once we accept your proposal, you will want to get writing right away so we can review make any edits to your article and get it posted. We promise no red ink, we make the corrections if needed.
- Article length: The minimum is 500 words but we would love more than 1,000. When your article is full of great information and interest, you will get more reads. Also the search engines seem to like longer articles over the shorter ones. We want your writing to be seen so if you can make it a 1,000 or more words with quality details then do so.
- Article Formatting: Make your article easy to read, 3-4 sentences per paragraph and no double spacing after a period and no indentations on every paragraph. If there are certain things that need to be highlighted than you can bold or italicize it.
- Your name: You can use a pseudonym if you want or your real name.
- Article Headline: This should be the headline we pre-approved, but should you change it because you think it will be more captivating, let us know and keep it to 50-60 Characters.
- Article Introduction: A brief introduction about what you are about to write about. For example “Polls show that Americans want to Buy American but they don’t always know where to find products made in the USA. We have found lots of places online and since online shopping has become more popular, we will share some of those places with you and what kinds of things you might find there.”
- Main content: This is the heart of your article, here you will include links and images, facts and information.
- Closing – this is usually a general summary of the article you just wrote and a challenge for readers to experience the places or things you want them to.
- Bio: We need your biography. Specific details for your bio are below.
- Submit the article in plain text (.txt or .rtf) or as a .doc or email. It is easier to copy write it in word then copy it to your email so we have all the hyperlinks you include. The easier it is for us to copy and paste your article into our site the better.
BIO Guidelines
- Length: 2-4 sentences.
- Links: 1-4 links – If you have your own web site, we want to link to it so long as it doesn’t have anything that go against our guidelines above. If you have a professional profile on LinkedIn, you can use that too.
- Photo: A great place to upload your head shot is at gravetar.com, you can create a free account and upload your head shot then provide us with the link. You can send us an image too, but it may not look at cool.
Use of links
We want your links to be included within the text of the article. 2-3 especially if you are citing sources then we must have them. Email us if you have questions on how to do this.
We do not allow affiliate links of any kind. Other links posted may be removed if we deem they are not a good fit.
Use of Images
We need at least one image to add as a featured image, it will show up on social media and such and look really cool. We need it to be 980px × 658px. Make sure you own it. If we get reports of copyright violations, we will have to share your information with them and you will be barred from submitting any further articles.
Editing and Revisions
- We will edit most article submissions and check them for some of the following
- Spelling errors
- Flow of story
- Paragraph and sentence structure
- Link checks
- Your story will run through a service to check for plagiarism, so long as you cite your sources and properly attribute any parts of another story you will be fine.
- Post title and opening paragraph
- We have some great editors who are writing experts so once the revisions are done, the article will be published to our website.
When will it be Published?
Once we have edited your article and polished it, we will publish it right away. The time frame will depend on the kind of article and its relevancy to today. If you are writing about Christmas and it is March, you will wait a while.
We have a small team and will check your article submissions and get it posted in the order the articles are received. This can take several days to several weeks, it just depends on our workload.
Promotion and Post-publication
- Your article will be posted to our web site and all social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Linkedin If is exceptionally good, it will be sent out to our nearly 25,000 Newsletter subscribers.
- Once we post it, you are welcome to share it as well.
- Feel free to refer your guest post to other people that might find it useful.
- When we post it on social media, be sure to reply with comments when you share it.
Rights, Ownership and Republishing Terms
The article is yours, however, we ask that you not post it anywhere else, instead link to it when referring to it. Likewise, by submitting it to us, you authorize us to use it in whole or part in any way we need to. You will always be given credit for it.
Let’s Get Started. Send us Your Article Pitch Today!
Yes it’s a lot to read, but we want to make sure we covered everything without sounding to legalistic and boring.
Now if you are all set to write for us, send you article pitch to info @ buydirectusa.com and we will try to respond back as quickly as possible.
We really appreciate you taking the time read all this information and look forward to reading your article pitches. With your help, we can help US manufacturing improve even more over the next 20 years.
