Contributor Guidelines

Contributing Writers & Guest Bloggers Guidelines Our Purpose: The Business and Learning Campus (B&L) is an online community which exists to resource small business professionals with the best and current practices within their industry, both online and offline. Our Members & Visitors: B&L Campus members are small business, primarily work-at-home, professionals.  Their skill set ranges from brand new business owner to serial entrepreneur.  The typical reader is 30 to 60 years old, 80% are female, and most are well educated. Our Expectations: We’re looking for contributors who are creative, original thinking, that presents themselves in a warm and energetic manner. Articles should be practical and engaging, intelligent but not stuffy. We expect articles to reflect an accurate understanding of doing business in today's economy, success mindset, organization, marketing, and everything in between. Finally, we’re looking for a gracious, unifying spirit that refrains from criticism and divisiveness. We want you to inspire us! Because the B&L Campus is online, readers’ attention spans are shorter than in print. This means we have to keep our article lengths short, and you have to develop your ideas quickly. Avoid long, eloquent descriptions and cut to the chase. You have maybe five minutes to give your reader an inspiring takeaway that will encourage them to take action. Our Process: All new contributors must be approved.  In order to submit an  idea for publishing on our site, please email us the following information:

• A summary (1-2 paragraphs) describing your article/post idea;
• The purpose/takeaway for the reader;
• Your qualifications to write the piece.

Once you are accepted to either guest blog or be one of our contributing writers, you will be assigned private log-in access to submit your articles. Contributing writers are expected to submit at least one (1) article/post per month.  Guest bloggers are only required to submit an article/post one time, however you are encouraged and welcome to submit as many as you would like. For contributing writers only: Once you've been accepted, please provide us with a bust photo of yourself (100 pixels wide) to be included with your article, plus a 50-word +/- bio, including the website you’d like to have linked. Our Article Standards:

• 300-400 words (+/- 50);
• Please proof your articles (or have someone else do it) and submit your very best work;
• Separate paragraphs by a double return—no indents;
• Paragraphs should be no longer than 8 lines, however do not break up a sentence;
• Submit all articles in a .txt (notepad) format.  Please do not submit your article in a Word (.doc) or .pdf format. It will not be used and you may lose contributor privileges, if this guideline is repeatedly ignored.

Articles should be  one of three types:

• How-to: Practical applications of concepts & skills;
• Profile: Spotlight on how a person or group that is impacting the world through their business (not an infomercial, but more inspiration);
• Opinion: Your thoughts on ideas and trends in a particular business-related industry

Article/Post Ideas

• Leadership
• Relationship Building
• Technology
• Business start-up
• Business Development
• Advanced Skills
• Niches Marketing
• Social Networking/Media
• PR & Media Exposure
• Professional Industry trends
• Interviews with industry leaders

Please make sure every article submission includes some practical application so that the reader is encouraged to take action. I hope this guideline answers any questions that you may have and I welcome you to apply for one of our contributor positions. I'll see YOU around the Campus! ]]>