Write a Marketing or Business Guest Post – Contribute to KyLeads

For a very long time, we didn’t formally accept guest posts but we get countless emails asking us if we do anyways.

There have been a few that have blown us away and been able to get accepted on the KyLeads blog.

Most of them have been horrible.

We mean, they’d make our brains want to melt and our eyes fall out of their sockets.

Needless to say, we ignored them. Well, that’s putting it lightly. We deleted those emails with prejudice.

It has come to the point where guest post inquiries have blocked our inboxes so much that tit’s making it difficult to sift through them and help the people who pay us for our service and those who are genuinely interested in it.

Because of the situation, our hand has been forced and we’re making a page for you if you’re interested in guest posting on KyLeads. It’ll walk you through what we expect from our contributors and what will get your email deleted fairly quickly.

Note: we’re not going to try to convince you to write for us by sharing our metrics and all that jazz. If you can’t do enough research to figure out if you want to write for KyLeads then you’re probably not a good fit for us anyways.

We digress.

Onward.

The KyLeads audience

We serve an audience of business owners in all industries and sizes. They have some experience running their business in a general sense but often want more specific tactics to help them grow. That means a post like ‘5 Email Marketing Tips’ isn’t going to cut it here. Our audience is beyond that point and won’t give an article like that the time of day.

If that article is ever going to be written then we’ll handle it in-house.

An article like ’99 subject line examples and why they work’ has potential and so does ‘how to craft a successful omnichannel marketing campaign from scratch’

The whole point of writing a guest post article is to share YOUR expertise. Write something no one else can and you’ll be welcome here.

Marketing topics we cover

You want us to do the work for you right? Go ahead and look at our blog to see what we write about. You can go off the beaten path and wow us. We’re open-minded.

How to improve your chances of a successful feature on KyLeads

Read the following instructions carefully. If you miss something, we’re going to delete your email with prejudice. There are a number of steps to follow:

  • Your subject line should say “Guest post submission.” Don’t’ get clever here – we will delete it.
  • Introduce yourself with your name, title, and your website or the website you represent
  • Pitch at least three relevant topics
  • Share your favorite social media accounts
  • Share at least three relevant (and recent) writing samples where a byline with your name is clearly visible

What happens after your pitch is accepted?

There are a number of steps a successful pitch passes through:

  1. You’ll be asked to submit an outline to make sure your pitch actually has substance
  2. We’ll share our writing guidelines with you and leave you to create a masterpiece (we don’t have specific timeframes for when you should be able to deliver but we will ask for a ballpark estimate for when you’ll deliver it. If you’re much later than that then we’ll pass on the opportunity).
  3. Once you submit your draft, we’ll go through it and make comments. At this point, we often ask for large changes so don’t be discouraged if it happens to you.
  4. Once the structure is down, we’ll give you a final verdict about whether or not we’re interested or not
  5. It’ll go through copy edits
  6. We’ll send you an email when it goes live

This entire process can take anywhere from a month to three months. We’re a software company – not a media company.

General guidelines

Quality is a must. People say we’re unforgiving taskmasters when it comes to content we accept. If you submit something that’s riddled with grammatical errors we’ll reject it pretty quickly unless something else makes it shine. Be prepared to go through multiple revisions.

– Copyscape is our friend. We don’t syndicate content and we definitely don’t publish plagiarized content. People have tried and they have failed. Not only Copyscape, but we’ll also use real live humans *shocker* to make sure it hasn’t been reworded to appear ‘unique.’ Focus on your own experiences and create a unique angle. Bottom line, original content or nothing.

– Has a key takeaway. We won’t go as far as saying it has to be actionable but someone should close the page feeling like they’ve learned something tangible. Sometimes that’s step-by-step instructions on how to do something. Other times, that’s introducing a new concept and helping people understand why it’s so important. You can view an article our founder wrote here to get an idea

– In-depth. There’s no specific word requirement but we do feel like you can’t cover a topic in-depth with only 700 words. If you can then you have no business writing about it for KyLeads. Be detailed but don’t keep repeating the same things over and over. A lot of examples help.

– You’re not afraid to promote. We’ll do our part and you should do yours. Just like getting the article ready for publication was a joint effort, promotion is too. Let the world know about what you’ve created.

– Content rights. If we publish it, we own the right. If we don’t publish it, you own the rights. And no, you can’t republish it elsewhere.

Does everything sound good? Send us an email at media [at] kyleads.com, we’re looking forward to hearing from you.

Note: we check the email once a week so please allow at least 7 days to pass before following up.