Content Writers guidelines
This is still considered a work in progress as we are testing the waters.
All articles/posts will be posted directly on the Vanilla forum in a category named, 'LES Talk' (as a throwback to the defunct talk.les domain name)
Every new post will be "announced" as a stickied thread on the forum for 7 days after posting
The sidebar widget will be updated to show the last three threads in the category.
Authors of published articles will be awarded a Content Writer tag and get access to a private area on the forum to discuss ideas for new articles with other Content Writers.
Content Writer Group/Tag
There will be activity requirements to maintain the Content writer tag and climb the payment ladder.
The activity requirements go in reverse on the payment ladder. (See below for details).
There is no Wordcount limit to keeping the Tag. Writing 1-2 short quick tips articles, where the "Easy/Medium/Hard" series that Ant started is a perfect example of how to keep the tag with "minimal" effort. And highly appreciated as a knowledge base collection.
The article writer decides if he/she wants payment for the article or if it is written for free.
Unpaid articles can be posted elsewhere by the author. All we ask for is that the author accepts the same rules that apply to the LES Exclusive Offers. (First on LES, then a delayed post on other sites).
Paid articles are Exclusive to LES. No reposts unless given permission. Mentions/links on the authors' other site(s) are appreciated but not required.
Payment
As LES is a not-for-profit community, we strive to have the articles sponsored by providers who will get their names and non-intrusive image links in the article. This way we expect to be able to pay a fair amount for the hard work Writers put into their articles.
< 600 words == "short" article == unpaid , accepted to keep the Content Writer tag "alive".
> 600 -> 1200 words == paid with X usd
> 1200 -> Y words == paid with X * 2 usd
Payment ladder
1. First guest post (unpaid) - receives the Content writer tag.
2. Second post as Content Writer - 50% of the agreed payment.
3. Third and onward (as long as Tag is active) - 100% payment.
In the case of multiple writers, one (1) takes the lead and will receive the full payment, the lead writer will be in charge of deciding how the payment should be split among the co-writers.
LES pays the lead writer and does not interfere with how the money is split between the writers.
Activity requirement
Content writers have 3 months to stay within the 100% payment level. If no article is published in that timeframe, the payment level goes back to the 50% level and after 4 months, the tag is removed and new additions are considered as Level 1 articles (Guest posts).
We'll maintain a public list of all current (and previous) content writers and their number of contributions to the community
Misc. Rules/Changes/Clarifications
- Content that is written and paid for, posted on, and promoted on the LES blog should be treated as exclusive to LES and not reposted elsewhere in its entirety (snippets and links to the full article on LES are fine to post elsewhere).
- No LEB links posted on LES are permitted. LES obviously is not welcome on LET/B, therefore LEB will not be welcomed here (especially given LEB's track record for spam and scams).
- Content writers may split their time and write/post content wherever they wish (i.e. someone wants to publish different writeups on both LES and LEB), assuming LES content is not being copied elsewhere and vice versa.