New Theory & X Factor Media is going to be undertaking a new rebranding effort, complete with a deeper focus on quality content that is both trustworthy and intelligent. All submissions to New Theory are going to need to abide by the following rules in order to be accepted for placement:
- Graphics must be relevant, high quality, and well-placed throughout the story.
- Stories must be well written, engaging, and also offer something that benefits the readers.
- All stories must be written in native English and provide interesting information, thought-provoking content, or news to the reader.
- General “advice” that is obvious in nature will not be accepted, since it doesn’t provide true value to the reader.
- No outright product-oriented “hard advertorials” will be accepted without prior consent.
- Hard advertorials will be defined as articles that heavily push a certain product, along with a strong call to action, without offering benefit to the person.
- Soft advertorials are accepted, but they must offer some benefit to readers and avoid repeated calls to action throughout the story.
- Branded content is acceptable as long as it fits into these five categories:
- Product reviews, complete with videos OR image.
- Product roundups, for people who want to solve certain problems.
- Stories about the companies and how they are impacting certain industries.
- Stories about CEOs, including interviews.
- Stories surrounding issues that arise with certain products, or advice articles dealing with certain products.
- Branded content must be written in a subtle manner. The idea is not to sell; it’s to spread awareness and earn customer trust. If a piece appears overly salesy, you will need to re-edit it per guidelines.
- Data has shown that mentioning a company brand more than twice will cause a serious dip in affiliate sales. Keep company mentions to a minimum.
- Add affiliate links so we can track sales.
- Mention the product or item after the first 300 words.
- Ask yourself if you would want to read the article before you get it.
- Articles must be a minimum of 800 words.
- SEO articles are welcome, and will be a mandatory part of the content schedule. SEO guidelines will need to be followed as such:
- Using five latent semantic words per SEMRush, at most once.
- Adding backlinks to other articles throughout the site, at least three times.
- Using the SEO word or phrase a maximum of 1 percent of the time.
- All keywords need to be fluent and native. Awkward keyword stuffing is not allowed and is grounds for rejection.
- All submitters are expected to promote the work they own on social media as part of their contribution agreement. If you are ashamed of your work for New Theory, you should not publish your work!
- All links have to relate to the content, and ideally will be placed after getting a quote from an expert associated with that link. Only one link per story, please, unless it is a link to a highly regarded site.
- If you are a paid advertiser or a paid contributor, please don’t add more than one link per story. Links are subject to approval.
- All submissions must be written UNDER YOUR REAL NAME. No exceptions.
All writers are encouraged to talk to editorial staff for more clarifications.
Some editorials may apply to certain posts.