Guidelines for features on BusinessZone.co.uk
Many thanks for your interest in writing an article for BusinessZone.co.uk. In the first instance, please email our editor Dan Martin at dan.martin@siftmedia.co.uk with a short synopsis of your idea. If agreed, the article should then adhere to the following guidelines:
- All content must be exclusive to BusinessZone.co.uk and not published elsewhere either online or in print
- All features must be targeted specifically at our audience of entrepreneurs running small businesses. The majority have under 20 employees so using words like ‘HR department’ may not be appropriate
- Word count between 600 and 1,000 words
- Deadline will be specified by the editor
- We’ll also need a photo of the credited author (as a jpeg attachment please, not copied and pasted into an email) to be sent with the feature
- Please also supply a short credit for the author – e.g. 'Donald H Taylor is chairman of the Learning and Skills Group and the Learning Technologies conference. He blogs at ww.donaldhtaylor.co.uk' - with a website address for further information
- All in a word document please. Please use single spacing after full stops if possible – otherwise we have to take the extra spaces out. All website addresses referred to should be visible in the document i.e. no hidden links please as these get lost in the transfer into our admin system. And simple layout – all formatting also gets lost in the transfer, so there is no need to try and make it look pretty
- English not American spellings please: 'Organisation' not 'organization'
- All job titles should be written in lower case.
When submitting copy, please suggest a headline and write a short synopsis. For example:
- The evolution of learning technology
- Technology correspondent Jon Wilcox takes a look at the past, present and future of learning technology.
Please could you also provide three short main points in your article. For example:
- How learning technology has changed over the years
- From PowerPoint to elearning, the key trends in learning technology
- Trainers are embracing technology as a means of improving learning and cutting costs
Please note that the features that we run on site are generally opinion pieces – we do not run case studies – and should be about the subject matter in general and not a veiled advert for the writer's company, product or service. All material should be exclusive to BusinessZone.co.uk unless otherwise agreed.
If you have any questions on the formatting or structure of article submissions please contact Dan Martin on dan.martin@siftmedia.co.uk
We enjoy good working relationships with many regular contributors but occasionally have to send articles back to authors for re-writing. This is normally because either they are way too long, are written in too corporate a style, have drifted away from the brief and are no longer really about small business issues or have become a sales pitch. We always endeavour to make suggestions as to how to resolve any difficulties.
Summary of key facts:
- Exclusive material only
- No case studies
- Word count: between 600 and 1,000 word
- Include author credit
- Attach author photo WITH the article
- No fancy layout - in a Word document please
- Include a suitable headline, synopsis and three main points
- All job titles to be written in lower case
- Spell out all links; UK spellings; single spacing after full stops
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