Wise Bread's Guest Writer Showcase

We love showcasing talented writers on Wise Bread.  If you have great tips to share with our readers, we would love to hear from you!

1. Benefits of Guest Posting on Wise Bread
2. Types of Articles We're Looking For
3. How to Submit an Article
4. FAQ
5. Story Pitch Submission Form

Benefits of Being Showcased on Wise Bread

Guest posting is a great way to expand your readership. Wise Bread gets a million pageviews a month. Several of our best articles have reached a hundred thousand pageviews.  But traffic is only a small part of the benefit.  Writing here is a good way to get noticed by some important folks who read Wise Bread on a regular basis, including:

• Journalists.  We frequently correspond with journalists about personal finance and frugal living.  Sometimes journalists will ask to speak to bloggers who have written especially interesting articles.  This has resulted in our bloggers getting featured in magazines and newspapers.  These opportunities led to a book deal and national TV appearances. We usually get a couple of major media mentions a month.  We have been featured in just about every major newspaper and magazine, including New York Times, CNN, Forbes, NPR, PC World, CTV, Fortune, ABC, FOX, Family Circle, Home and Garden, the homepages of MSN and Yahoo, etc.

• Publishers. We work with Skyhorse Publishing (publisher of our book), Macmillan (producers of our Dealista podcast), Dystel Goderich (our literary agent) as well as the editors of several top magazines.

• Advertisers.  Wise Bread is a member of the Federated Media, a premiere advertising network that represents top sites like Digg, BoingBoing, Mashable, and Dooce. 

• Influential bloggers.  We're a member of the LifeRemix Network (members including Zen Habits and Dumb LIttle Man), and we're the founder of Money Tips Network (members include Get Rich Slowly and The Simple Dollar).  Wise Bread's own writing crew also work for or contribute to companies like PC Magazine, Variety, Discovery Channel, Chicago Tribune, Mashable, and Lifehack.org.

• Top social media users.  Wise Bread has been on the front page of Digg, Reddit, Delcious, and StumbledUpon countless times.  One of our editors is a top 30 contributor on Digg and our Twitter account has over 3,000 followers.  If you write a story on Wise Bread, we will Tweet it!

Your guest articles will be published with a two-line bio, your picture, a link back to your website, and three links back to your best articles.  Here are some examples of guests posts on Wise Bread that received lots of attention:

• Federal Citizen Information Center, Lifehacker, and Consumerist featuring Coupon Sherpa's 7 Tips to Apartment Living.
• Lifehacker and Consumerist featuring Frugal Duchess's Cheap and Easy Wardrobe Repairs (Frugal Duchess has since joined Wise Bread as a full time writer).
• Consumerist featuring Charissa Arsaoui's 10 Small Businesses That Are Free or Cost Little to Start Up.
• Consumerist featuring Max Wong's 5 Ways Self Storage Units Are More Sad Museums Than Savvy Solutions.

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Types of Articles We're Looking For

We're looking for:

• "How-to" articles that solve a specific problem. Each article should contain several solid, actionable tips.

• Evergreen, authoritative content readers would want to bookmark and share with their friends.

• Fresh ideas. Please do a quick search of Wise Bread's archives before submitting a story pitch. If you want to write about a specific topic we've already covered, your article should have a fresh spin or be more comprehensive than our existing articles.

• Please do not submit a "link post" that is basically a teaser pointing to another article.

Here are examples of the kind of quality articles we're looking for:

• How to Answer 23 of the Most Common Interview Questions
• Finding the Sweet Spot When Buying Electronics
• Tips for Perimeter Perusing at Target
• 7 Beauty Secrets That Cost Almost Nothing
• How to Deal With Collection Agencies
• 11 Opportunities for Free Travel
• 55 Ways to Get More Energy
• 6 Options if You're Under Water on Your Mortgage
• 6 Ways to Create a Home Gym For Less
• Travel Full-time For Less Than $14,000 Per Year
• Create a Business Plan by Answering 4 Simple Questions

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How to Submit an Article

Step 1:  Send a Story Pitch

Tell us about yourself and your ideas for the guest article using the story pitch submission form. Please don't start writing the article until you get our feedback. You'll get a response from us within 30 business days. 

Step 2:   Writing and Submitting the Article

If our editor likes your story pitch, she will email you an invitation to submit your article and a Guest Contributor's Agreement to sign electronically. Here are the article submission guidelines:

• Article must be at least 650 words in length.

• Submission must be an original article 100% created and owned by you. The article cannot be published anywhere else, including your own website.

• Submit the article with Microsoft Word, Open Office, or Google Docs.

• Don't include any affiliate links, link to any spam sites, overstuff your article with links back to your website (remember you already get 3 at the end of the article) or try to sell any products.

• Please include a two-line bio, a 85x85 pixel picture of you, and 3 links back to your best articles.

• You are strongly encouraged to include a link to a Flickr photo with one of the following Creative Commons licenses: Attribution, Attribution-NoDerivs, or Attribution-ShareAlike. The best way to find a great Flickr photo is to use the Flickr search engine and select "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content" and "find content to use commercially" (see example).

Step 3:  Publication and Compensation

After our editor reviews your article, she may do one of three things:

• Accept the article. She will give you a rough date of when the article will be published, and send you a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate as our small way of saying thanks for your contribution.

• Ask you to rework the article. She may provide you with some suggestions on how to make the article more appealing to the Wise Bread audience.

• Reject the article.  This won't happen too often.  Since we liked your story pitch and writing samples, we are unlikely to reject your article completely.

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FAQ:

1.  Will you edit my article?   

We reserve the right to edit your articles.  Generally we will edit for grammar, punctuation, linkage, and clarity.

2.  Will Wise Bread own my article? 

Yes.

3.  Will my article always contain my byline?

We will always display your byline when your article is published on Wise Bread.  However, we have syndication relationships with a couple of publishers.  It is possible that your article may be selected for syndication.  When your articles are syndicated, we cannot guarantee that your byline, bio, and links will stay intact.

4.  Will submitting guest posts increase my chances of getting hired as a Wise Bread writer?

Yes, if your guest post performed well on Wise Bread it can certainly help your chances.

5.  Can I guest post more than once?

Certainly!

6. How do I apply an electronic signature to the agreement?

We use a service called EchoSign, which is also used by companies like PayPal, Comcast, and DELL.  It is free for signers, requires no registration, and usually takes only a minute to sign.  We'll email you a link to EchoSign and after a few clicks you'll be done.  Here's a walkthrough of the process. 

7. How do I apply to be a regular staff writer on Wise Bread?

Visit our write for us page for details on submitting an application.

Sounds good? Fill out the following story pitch form to get started!

If you have any additional questions not answered by this article, please contact us.

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Submit Story Pitch | Back to top

Photos by David Joyce, Lain Farrell, and Ruud Hein.