How to Submit a Guest Post to 360Learning

So, you want to write for the 360Learning blog? We couldn’t be happier. 

That’s what Collaborative Learning is all about, after all: sharing knowledge, working together to fix problems, and going further than we thought we could, collectively. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts and stories—and neither can our 50k newsletter subscribers.

We receive a lot of submissions and hold our blog to high editorial standards. For that reason, we will only reply to submissions that we think are a good fit, and cannot always respond to those that we won't move forward with. If we do reply positively, don't be discouraged if we come back to you with some suggested edits, or if your first draft doesn't make it through the process. Because we receive so many submissions, we need to be selective when choosing which submissions to move forward with. For this reason, even if we approve an outline, we won't be able to greenlight a draft if significant changes would be required before publication.

To give your submission the best shot at getting published, you’ll find our simple steps for submitting a guest post proposal.  But first, let’s get to a few frequently asked questions:

FAQs

Who do we write for?

Our main audiences are L&D and HR professionals, but also C-level execs and general managers. They love all things learning, management, career growth, and company culture.

What topics do we cover?

We have two main categories on our blog:

1. Management & Mindset: This covers thought leadership content or best practices on managing and growing a company, a team, and yourself.
2. Training & Learning: This covers employee training and learning best practices.
   

Here are some examples: 

• How Active Learning Can Help You Avoid the Biggest eLearning Pitfall
• Your Manager Training Wasn’t Working Before—Now It’s Really in Trouble
• Our 3-Step Process for Using OKRs to Drive Performance (+ Free OKR Template)
• Why 2021 is the Year of the ‘Learning Organization’
• 9 Learning Theories to Structure Your Training Programs
• Everything You Need to Know to Build a Scalable Employee Onboarding Process

Do we include links to third-party websites?

We will include do-follow links to websites to cite the source of relevant facts, figures, or information mentioned in your article, or to link to your bio or contact information as a guest writer. 

If links in your article point to untrustworthy content or are overly promotional, they will be flagged and removed during the editing process. So please be mindful of who you’re linking to, and where.

Steps to submit your guest post

Step 1: Submit an outline for approval. (We don’t accept pre-written drafts). 

1. Your outline should be original and well-thought-out. 
2. You should include your main idea, main supporting arguments, and a few bullet points of examples, use cases, or supporting facts. 
3. It should include a target SEO keyword for your post. This keyword should not already be targeted on one of our 360Learning blog posts. Unsure if your topic is already covered? Don’t worry, submit your pitch anyway: our editorial team will get back to you to confirm or propose a new topic.
4. You can submit your outline using this link to a Google Form. We strive to answer all guest post inquires within one workweek, so be on the lookout for an email from one of our Content Managers

If your outline is approved, you can move on to:

Step 2: Writing a draft of your guest post.

1. Please use Google Docs  (and include commenting or editing access.) 
2. Take care to cite all sources appropriately. 
3. If you include images in your draft (which we encourage), please be sure to include a link to their source.
4. Please avoid stating platitudes, and be sure to back up your arguments or ideas with examples, data, and/or use cases.
5. We do not accept plagiarized material.
6. We only accept original content—your article should not already be published elsewhere.
7. Articles should be between 1,200 and 2,000 words. 
8. We will work with you to adapt your guest post to our editorial style. This may include wording or formatting edits or removing links that are overly promotional. Please try to align your article draft as much with your editorial style guide, here, before submission.
9. Do-follow links that are contextual and add value will be kept.

Once you submit your draft, one of our Content Managers will review it. If only minor edits are required, (or if the article is ready for publication as is) we'll communicate our suggested changes or suggest a publication date. If at this stage the draft doesn't seem like the right fit for our blog (the article isn't written for the right audience, the content isn't original enough or is overly self-promotional, or the quality of the writing is below our standard), we will have to turn down the submission.

Your article goes live

If your post gets through the editing process, then it’s showtime for your article!

We’ll find a slot in our editorial calendar for publication, usually anywhere from 1 to 8 weeks after the draft is finalized. We’ll be sure to send you the live link so you can share on social media, with your friends, family, and pets!

So, nothing left to do but check out our blog and start getting inspired!