Guidelines for Posting News

Getting started

First thing you want to do before anything is fill out your bio section in WordPress. Make sure to include a photo of yourself, information about yourself and your social media accounts. This is VERY important and must be completed before anything.

Strive to create ORIGINAL content. News that comes from rival sites do not perform as well as news that is original.
Always check to make sure the news you are submitting is not already on the site. We don’t want the same article twice. Use the search feature if you have to.
Always mention in your article where you got the news from at the bottom or within the article and INCLUDE A DIRECT LINK.
Time sensitive posts: If you have a post that is time sensitive, let Steve know right away that way we can get it out.
Keep news current. Do not post week or month old stories/interviews.
Always get your news from the ORIGINAL source.
If you use a quote from another site, be sure to hash tag that site at the bottom of the post with LINKBACK. (Thanks to SITENAME for the above quote)
Do not post rumors that can’t be confirmed by a reliable source.
Topics to post: Controversial topics, shootings, DRAMA, Florida Man, interesting interviews, breaking news.

Providing a unique and proper title is one of the most important parts to publishing a successful title. When writing your title, you want to make it stand out and be descriptive as possible.
One rule of thumb for best SEO practice is to try to include the individual the article is about in the title. Use full names in the titles.
You also want to make sure you are using the proper formatting. Below is a proper example of how an article tile should be wrote out and below is are examples of how an article title should NOT be written.

“Cardi B Takes On Haters Saying She Pays Radio Stations To Play Her Tracks”

Here is a bad example of a title would be:

Cardi B takes on haters saying she pays radio stations to play her tracks..”

The body of the post is where the information about the article will go. In this section you want to make sure you user proper spelling and grammar.
You also want to include a good opening paragraph and a good closing paragraph.
The opening paragraph can be used a tool to keep the reader informed of the current on-goings of the subject.
The opening paragraph should also include keywords that are also used in your titles. (SEO)
The closing paragraph is the section of the article where you want to close out what you are writing about. You can also use this paragraph as an opportunity to encourage the reader to leave feedback in the comment section.
Within your article, you want to include as much information about the subject as possible. It’s always good to include photos, videos and social media postings, if available. This helps fill out the article.

When you write an article, you will need to include certain elements. One of those elements is quotes. When using quotes from another website, you ALWAYS want to include a backlink to the site as to where the quote came from. If you wrote the quote yourself, invite other websites at the bottom of your article to credit our publication if they use our quotes for their website.
To include a quote in your article, you want to use the blockquote option, as seen in the video below.

You want to make sure you select the proper category for your news. A lot of authors often forget this step and it causes extra work for the administrator and slows down approval process.
If the news is about a MOVIE or TV show, it would go under “ENTERTAINMENT”
If the news is about someone in the music field such as Cardi B, or Eminem, it would go under “MUSIC”
If the news is about Connor McGregor it would go under “SPORTS & MMA”
If the news is about Labron James it would go under “SPORTS & BASKETBALL”
You get my point. Celebrity is for famous people, Entertainment is for anything related to a movie or tv show.
Stay away from the “Featured News” category, as the administrator that approves articles will select which articles go in this section.

You always want to have a featured article attached to your article. Often times we will change these for marketing purposes. You want to make sure with your photo selection, you chose a photo that best illustrates the story.
If your story is about someone dying or some upsetting news, you do NOT, and I repeat DO NOT want to attach a photo of that person smiling. The article should be a reflection of feeling/vibe you are writing about.
To add a featured image, you can do so by clicking “FEATURED IMAGE” on the right hand side of the screen. There you can search for an image that is already in our database. Try not to use the same photos over and over.

If you can’t find an image, you can always google one and upload it. If you make your own photo, try to make it 800PX by 500PX.
Try to make sure there is a good aspect ratio on the photo. Basically, don’t have a photo that is super long.
Also, do not include any small photos. Small photos are anything under 600PX wide and 400px in length. A good size photo can be seen below:

Always add a backlink to previous articles when you can that relate to the topic. Not only does this help with SEO but it also helps the reader navigate and keeps them informed incase they missed something. You can learn how to add a backlink by watching the video below.

As mentioned above, always try to include elements into your article. Some of those elements can come from social media. To include YouTube Video, Tweet from Twitter or Instagram post: Just paste the url in the body and it will automatically display when the article is published.
You may also need to add headings to some sections of your article. You can add headings to your articles to make certain text items stand out. Like seen below.

Once you feel that your article is completed, it’s time to submit the article for review.

Make sure you have all the links to any sources you have gotten news from. Not only is this good for SEO but we also don’t want other websites emailing us about stolen content.
Double check to make sure EVERYTHING completed before submitting for approval. That includes proper spelling, grammar and paragraph spacing.
Once you feel your article is ready, change the state to “pending review”, as seen below.

If you’re article is time sensitive or you have any other questions, you can contact Steve or H Jenkins.