One of the most common questions we get at Lifehacker is “How do I contribute a guest post?” We love guest posts — here’s what you need to know.
Writer picture from Shutterstock
What We’re Looking For
Lifehacker is all about how-to advice: telling people how to do things better. Guest posts are a valuable part of that mission, because they allow us to share experiences that are much broader than just what happens to the editorial team.
So we love to hear from people about how they’ve achieved something — whether that’s setting up their media centre, learning to code, dealing with temper tantrums, finding a better job or sorting out their money woes.
Experience counts — we’d always rather hear about how you’ve achieved something than broad, generic advice. We’re also happy to republish stuff you’ve written for your own personal blog if it seems suitable for Lifehacker (and we’ll include a link back to the original).
How To Contact Us
If you have an idea for a guest post, the best way is to use our [contact text=”contact form”]. Choose the ‘I have a story idea’ option. (Using the form means our whole editorial team can see your submission.)
Be specific: tell us what you want to write about and why it’s interesting. If you’ve already written on the topic for your blog, include a link. Don’t write in and say “I’m happy to write about anything you like” — we already have staff to deal with the ideas we generate ourselves.
Please note: we get a lot of mail, and we can’t always respond to everyone. If we’re interested, we’ll be in touch. Note also that we’d don’t have any budget to pay for guest posts — sorry, but that’s the budgetary reality here.
What Not To Do
- To reiterate: don’t just write in and say “I’m happy to do a guest post on anything”. That’s not how we operate (and it’s not fair on you either).
- Don’t send in something that’s wildly at odds with Lifehacker’s tone: informative but casual. Spend time reading the site before you submit anything.
- Remember this is Lifehacker Australia, so the advice needs to be relevant to local readers, and you need to follow Australian English spelling and grammar conventions.
- Don’t submit something which contains spurious commercial links designed to drive SEO — we’ll just bin that straight away. Nor do we want posts that are just thinly-veiled promos for a particular product or service.
Any other questions? Ask in the comments.
Comments
9 responses to “How To Write A Guest Post For Lifehacker”
Then why do so many U.S.-centric articles seems to be reposted on LH without alteration?
Care to give an example? We spend a lot of time localising articles, eliminating irrelevant topics etc. I won’t claim we’re perfect — no-one is — but I totally reject the suggestion that anything goes up without alteration or that this applies to the majority of our content.
I probably can’t give specific examples because I only casually browse LH. Maybe the issue is some of the articles just seem to be:
Want to learn how to do X? Here is a YouTube video or an article we found on instructable or something. Can I do that for a guest post?
“Want to learn to be a bee-keeper?”
Ahh, bees. We’d be in an awful lot of trouble without them. They do so much for us and ask so little in return. Their tireless work in pollinating our crops supplies us not only with food, but also keeps the multi-billion dollar agriculture industry rolling along.
Apiculture, or beekeeping as it is commonly known, is a fascinating activity that humans have been engaged in for almost 4500 years. The earliest examples of beekeeping are on the walls of the Sun Temple in Egypt which depicts workers blowing smoke into the hives as they collect the honeycomb.
This unique hobby will not only allow you to produce your own honey, but there is a booming industry of “bee renting” where farmers will rent bees in order to help pollinate their crops. This industry has developed in response to the phenomenon known as “Colony collapse disorder” where the worker bees disappear from the colony.
Beekeeping for Beginners — Hive Set Up by GrowOrganic Peaceful Valley
http://youtu.be/zDZDYgBkCx0
OK. So I am taking the p*ss a bit. But you get the point.
That’s an example of an article you don’t like, not one that’s US-centric. And if you’re a casual reader, your claim to identify US-centric posts is even more suspect.
I’m always happy to address genuine criticism, but you haven’t offered any yet.
Maybe I unfairly singled out LH. Sorry. I also browse Kotaku and Gizmodo and have done so for a few years so maybe over time the articles which have been lifted verbatim from the U.S. site seems larger or more frequent.
Kotaku used to be the worst for one sentence descriptions of content from other sites.
Dont fall on your butterknife…I love bees. 🙂
So something like this:
Header: unleashing your samurai poet
Body: I published a book of poetry before I was twenty five. Back in the dark ages (early 90’s) before that internet thing fell from the sky unleashing our humanity on everyone whether they wanted to be YouTubed, Skyped, twitter bombed, or podcast all over with grimdark or not, I wrote poems on a weekly and monthly basis in pencil in a nice little journal with a red fox (not the actor) on the cover and filled it with a horror and emotional suffering that sucks the life from the reader. I then got my hands on a mac plus and having typed it up, printed and bound ten copies of that literary ebola, I even sent a copy to the Australian national archive and the state library. It was a painful, horrible, and expensive experience that could have been replaced with a free blog. But enough about me.
Making you the Henry Lawson of the next century.
Most of your poetry will likely be a bitter expression of the daily crushing grind that will remind you why you hate your life. That poetry is as much about who you are as the clothes you wear. Go to the effort of writing that poem down. Try to write one on a daily basis. On a break or in a time when you need to meditate away from a problem build a four line verse in your head, write it down, and continue on. Long form poems, that epic of Gilgamesh, that faerie queen; They will happen one day when you feel okay about them, when you have a story to tell.
Title: The lady of shalot on a Malvern star
Taking up that cycling craze,
riding past the armored knights,
their armour scratched and
Dented with religious dogma
as to why women should refrain,
yet one precarious bumb
and her virtue did remain.
And she rode past the green
Where signs said keep off
And demanded bikes be walked,
And only a fool forgets a helmet
Yet a fool was the lady of shalot.
Her moment of freedom ended
As judicious coppers bailed her up,
And asked about her lack of helmet.
A fine! What penalty for your sin?
What admonishment of your joy
In your rush to meet that boy,
What penalty for you lady of shalot?
Title: And the words came tumbling out
It isnt an aberation or a sin.
Nor some dark act of heresy.
No need to fear it. Its you.
In words you understand.
Every heartbreak, every joy.
Every broken toy. Its you.
The poet became a scribe.
And the words came,
Tumbling out: Its you.
So lets get that poetry down…
How about “Four Signs You’re On Top Of Your Finances”. It talks about a study by the US government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The article mentions furnace replacement (whatever that is), vacations (I think we still take holidays) and going back to school (who goes back to school, I guess it’s referring to university).
Maybe this article slipped through – I can’t see that it’s been Australianised at all.
All those US-centric phrases come from section that quotes from another writer — so it would be unethical to change that. The broad point the article makes is still relevant to Australian consumers, which is why it ran — but I agree that it’s not ideal. If it talked about 401(k) and Obamacare, it definitely wouldn’t have made the cut.
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2015/06/build-your-own-amazon-dash-with-a-raspberry-pi/#comment-2058022
To be fair I find this happens on Gizmodo far more than on Lifehacker. I usually make a cranky comment about lack of localisation when I find it and going back through my comment history there’s very few Lifehacker examples.
◾Remember this is Lifehacker Australia, so the advice needs to be relevant to local readers, and you need to follow Australian English spelling and grammar conventions.
Fundamental expectation.
All articles on this site should adhere and that includes those from other sources.
We owe it to our heritage.
More important, we relay it to our next generation.
I’d love to include some links in my guest articles – they do have a commercial purpose, but they aren’t spammy. Will that be okay?