Welcome!

First of all, thank you for being a contributor to my blog.

You can contribute posts and see your past contributions in the dashboard. If you cannot add a post (by clicking New+ > Post in the admin bar at the top), you may not have contributor permissions. Please contact me to add those permissions for you.

NOTES:

All posts should be set to type “Image” in order to show up correctly on the blog.
After you submit a post, it will be in “Pending” status until I approve it. Please message or email me to let me know that you’re finished so that I can be sure it gets published.
Before I publish your post, you’ll need to fill in your bio (in the profile tab).
If you have any images that you’d like to include in your post, please e-mail those to me at gaius(at)gaiusjaugustus.com.
After you submit your post, I will edit it, add images, etc.
Expect a link to preview your post before it goes live.

FAQs

Try to keep your articles longer than 700 words and less than 3000 words. If you find that your article is going over, consider writing a series! Just contact me and let me know.

I prefer all posts to be written in American English with Oxford commas. I’ll read over your post before it goes live and make edits where necessary, so don’t stress about it too much. If you have any worries while writing the article, save the post and ask me to take a look. Don’t forget to tell me what the question is.

Reading scores are useful for making sure that articles are accessible and use simple language. I don’t have any targets for reading scores, but it’s a good idea to copy-paste your text into a readability checker. When I edit the article, I may change wording to make the language simpler. If I change anything substantial, I will let you know. Please read over the article after my edits to be sure I didn’t change your meaning.

If we didn’t discuss a deadline, you should definitely ask me for one. Currently, my editorial calendar is quite flexible.

I’m glad you asked! My goal is to create a resource for those interested to learn about creative ways to communicate science, and to get experts to help me fill out content. I would love to pay you for your articles, and plan to do so once this site is making money for itself.

If you’ve contributed in the past, please check in with me every once in a while about this. And if you have ideas to monetize the blog without inundating it with ads, I’d love to have ideas!

When you are working on your post, if you scroll ALL the way down, you’ll see a module called “Rank Math SEO”. This is what I use for search optimization.

You’ll want to choose a keyword or keyphrase and use it 5 or more times in your article. (Don’t overuse, or “stuff”, the keyword. Use it where it feels natural to do so)
Write a 1st paragraph summary! You want readers to get the gist of what you’re going to tell them with the first paragraph! Make sure your keyphrase is there, and tease important information you’ll be giving them later on.
Create a rockin’ title. You can use this tool to check on the effectiveness of your title. You’ll want your keyphrase to be in the title.
Use headings. Try not to have more than 300 words between headings, though it’s okay if you go a bit over.
Keep paragraphs short. Take a look at my other articles to see how long I typically let my paragraphs get (note: not long!)
Add emphasis. If there is a quote you really like, use a pullquote block. If there’s a key message within a paragraph, make it bold.
Check your Rank Math SEO score. If it’s red, you’ll probably want to go through and make edits. If it’s yellow, you might be okay. I tend to use 80-85 as my cutoff, depending on what Rank Math SEO is telling me to do. If I don’t agree with their suggestions, I don’t worry about it.