Guidelines for Writers
Thank you for your interest in writing for BalletHub!
Please take a moment to read through the following guest contributor and team guidelines. Understanding them will help you on your way to an article that is primed and ready to be published on BalletHub.com. Writers for BalletHub are typically active and former dancers, teachers and college professors, or health and fitness professionals. Please note, these guidelines are subject to change and should be reviewed before submitting an article.
Audience
BalletHub.com is a niche website for the ballet industry. Here are the categories and groups we primarily focus on content for, including some general breakdowns:
- Ballet Students (all ages, from pre-ballet, to toddler, teens, college and adults, at all skill levels)
- Professional ballet dancers (studio companies, first years in the company, mid-way, retirement, and post-retirement)
- Ballet teachers (including studio owners)
- Parents (of children at all levels from above, pre-ballet-college, boys or girls)
- Health (some topics limited to health professionals, injury prevention, diet, mental health)
Guidelines
It is very important to understand these guidelines for each article you want to submit:
- All writing must be unique: Even if it is your own, but you’ve had it published elsewhere, even on your own blog, please do not submit it. BalletHub only publishes unique content. Also, by submitting an article to BalletHub, you are agreeing and giving BalletHub, LLC the exclusive right to publish and use it across any medium.
- Links: Some links in the body of your article are permitted, but all are subject to removal, including any affiliate links. An appropriate link would be one that gives more information to your story but is out of the topic or scope to include. Try to make the link contextual and descriptive, such as: The benefits of a healthy diet, researchers at Duke University say, are ten-fold. As opposed to: Researchers say the benefits of a healthy diet are ten-fold, click here to read why.
- Formatting & Length: Please submit all articles in a clean font, 12-14pt font. As a tip for writing for the web, it is best to not exceed 4 sentences per paragraph. Generally, articles should be between 500-1200 words, but a bit over is fine if you need it. If you think you will approach 1500 or more words, it may be that your article needs to be split into two topics. This is only to increase likelihood of readership and marketability for your hard-work. All articles must be submitted as a .doc, .docx or rich text file.
- Images: You are encouraged to submit any images that you feel are appropriate and compliment your writing, under the strict condition that you own the rights to publish the images and can provide any necessary copyright information. If you are unsure, please let us know. Please submit up to four images, along with the description and copyright information, separate from your text. They will be manually added and arranged if decided to be published.
- Self-promotion: Please do not submit an article that focuses completely on promoting yourself or a product. The idea is to write about a topic and have it be so informative that readers will want to read more about you and visit a provided link in your post-article bio. If the topic is about a product or service, write about the value these add to ballet or the reader.
- Responsibility: All information said or implied to be fact in your article is your responsibility to check. Do not make outrageous claims or try to pass hunches/gossip as truth. In other words, if there is something you’ve learned from another source, please include it. Lastly, do not write anything inappropriate for those under the age of 13, or that condones violence, hatred, racism, sexism, illegal or sexual activity. This should go without saying, simply use common sense.
- Requested Revisions: You may be asked to make a few changes to your article. Please understand this is to only make what you’ve written even better for both our readers and search engine visibility.
- Final Edits: BalletHub and its editor reserve the right to make any final edits prior to publishing. This is to ensure only quality writing is being presented to our readers. This includes possibly reorganizing points, adding pull-quotes, creating headers to separate sub-topics, grammar and spelling errors, and removing text.
- Author Page/Bio: Every contributor has an author page that houses an index of all her or his submissions and the following optional: short bio up to 100 words, a headshot, and links to Facebook, Twitter, and an external website or blog. Again, they are not required, but encouraged so that our readers can get to know you and they help bring you more exposure. Your bio/headshot can be updated at any time under your profile once logged in to ballethub.com.
Approval
All articles are subject to approval. We appreciate you wanting to write, but not everything can be published in order to maintain a high-level of quality for our readers. Please review the following before writing and submitting:
- Relevant to ballet: There are many things that can be written about dance, but if it never ties in at least 1/3 to ballet, this may not be the publication for it.
- Quality content and focus: We are only interested in publishing quality content that can clearly communicate a topic and provide value to the reader in an informative or educational way. You do not need to be previously published or have a degree in journalism, but there is a standard that all articles must meet. Remember, your name is attached to what you submit, so always try to submit your best work.
- Topic similarity: Before picking out a topic and writing, take a moment to search a few keywords relating to it on ballethub.com. While we can post multiple articles about a similar topic, each one must provide something new and unique. It does not encourage our readers to return if they find they’re continually reading the same thing. If you’re unsure, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help focus a topic.
Submitting
You can submit your articles by clicking on the link below when ready! The editor will get in touch with you, usually within 14 days.
