Write For About Meditation

Guidelines

We welcome and love new contributions from our growing community. Our goal is to demystify meditation for the modern meditator. We want to help make it more accessible to the world.

To that end, we like pieces that focus on meditation and: mindfulness, wellness, research/science, tips for beginners, how-to, business, the great traditions, healing, stress, relaxation, yoga, exercise, eating, habits, the brain, techniques, enlightenment, awakening experiences, productivity, and growth.

If it doesn’t contribute to someone’s wellbeing, insight, or deepening understanding, we’re probably not interested.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Word count: Posts run between 400 and 900 words. Do your best to stay under 900 words. If you want to write an epic post (2k plus words), please check with us to ensure it fits with our content strategy.

• Tone: Conversational, inclusive, accessible and generally affirmative. Check out our content for a sense of our overall tone.

• Original Content: Please share content that is unique and original to About Meditation. We do not accept posts that have already been published or submitted elsewhere online (not even on your personal blog) or that you plan to distribute to other websites.

• Republishing: It’s fine to republish your posts elsewhere after originally posting on About Meditation. Just include an attribution link to the original article.

• No SEO-driven submissions: We don’t accept articles written to boost SEO or plug a product or brand name in posts. If your submission or bio references or promotes a business or service that is not in line with our general content, then we aren’t interested.

• Bio and promotion: Since we do not compensate contributors for posts, we’re happy to include a byline and your brief bio containing links to your website, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter accounts. Please keep your bio to 2-3 sentences. About Meditation is a great resource to promote what you’re doing.

• Health claims: If you mention a statistic or a study in your piece, please include a link to that source. If you claim that a certain meditation practice is healthy or has certain benefits, tell us how you know. Try to link to peer-reviewed scientific papers, academic journals, and/or credible news outlets. This allows readers to go deeper into the topic and investigate.

• Review Process: We are growing at About Meditation, but we are a tiny team. We don’t have time to respond to all submissions. If your post is accepted, we will respond within 14 days. If your post has not run within two weeks of submission, we have decided not to publish it.

• Please only submit one post at a time: You’re welcome to submit again with a different post after you’ve waited 14 days.

• By submitting to About Meditation: You acknowledge that you accept our terms of use, and any form of editing that might occur on behalf of the About Meditation editorial team.

To submit, email us at contact@aboutmeditation.com:

• Your full post with a working title. Send this within the body of an email.
• Any relevant images for your post. (Send as separate files, not pasted within a doc.) Send only images that you own.
• Your bio (120 words or less) with links to your website, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter pages, in brackets: [http://facebook.com/aboutmed].
• A headshot or photo of you to use for your bio

What We Look For In Submissions:

• Inspire our readers and help them grow. While we don’t have strict guidelines about our featured posts, we find that how-to pieces, personal essays about a major transformation, mindfulness and stress-related articles, and posts about a particular meditation technique, tradition, or tip do well. We are also open to writing about meditation in the context of lifestyle.

• Photos: We encourage you to submit photos with your posts. You must own or have rights to the photos via creative commons copyright licensing. Photos should be at least 850 pixels wide by 400 pixels tall (bigger in either direction, or both, is fine). We love photos that are shot outdoors, in natural light, and with as few distractions in the background as possible.

Why Write For About Meditation?

1. You’ll impact lives. Our community is passionate about meditation! They like to learn how to live from their deepest selves, share tips with friends and clients, and discuss ideas here on the site. Writing for About Meditation gives you a chance to be part of this discussion, and to shape the way meditation is perceived around the world.

2. You’ll reach a broader audience. Once your piece is accepted for publication, we’ll make sure it reaches as many people as possible. In addition to posting your work on our home page, which gets over 40,000 visits each month, we share most posts on Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Published pieces also live in our library of meditation content and we are always finding ways to repurpose the content so it gets ongoing exposure. We may also include it in our weekly newsletter.

3. Enhance your own professional platform. Writing for About Meditation gives you a chance to get new fans, clients, and build out your professional network. We encourage you to include a relevant free offer in your short bio to attract readers to your own site. (Ex: About Meditation readers might also enjoy this short guided meditation on the breath.)

4. Learn more about online copywriting. Our editors will work with you on your piece to give it the best chance of reaching and impacting the largest number of people. We’ll give you tips to improve your online copywriting. We’ll also illustrate your work with high-quality photos to make it pop.

Before Submitting Your Article, Ask:

1. Is my article inspiring, informative, and/or educational? Posts featured on About Meditation should educate and inspire. If your piece is sarcastic, snarky or not about insight and wellbeing, it’s probably not for us.

2. Has this already been covered on About Meditation? We feature a growing range of meditation topics on About Meditation, and we have a large library of great content. How can your piece add to what’s already there? Perhaps your submission can elaborate on one aspect that didn’t get a lot of attention.

3. What’s a great title? A good title grabs readers’ attention and makes them want to read your piece. Make sure it follows the 4 U’s and is: Unique, Useful, Ultra-specific, Urgent. For inspiration, check out Copyblogger’s 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work.

4. Is my first paragraph succinct? Your first sentence is the most important. It needs to swiftly usher your reader in the door and make her feel at right at home. Make sure your opening paragraph tells the reader clearly and succinctly what the article is about.

5. Am I offering actionable tips? Many readers come to About Meditation to find solutions to their personal and meditation challenges. A great article provides easy to practice tips.

A Few Copywriting Tips

1. Use conversational tone. The best online writing is personal and conversational. Imagine you’re explaining your topic to a close friend.

2. Keep it short. You can write a great post anywhere between 400-900 words. It doesn’t have to be long. Just use the space it takes to convey your main idea. If you’re offering tips, include a short paragraph to explain why you’re offering this advice. Are you an expert? Did you also struggle to understand the issue and want to share your knowledge?

3. Delete extra words. After writing your blog post, review it once or twice and look for unnecessary words. Can you say it simpler or with fewer words? Look for any extraneous ideas and words that don’t advance or clarify your main idea.

4. Be authoritative. It’s clear that About Meditation posts are the opinion of the author. As the writer, you’re the expert on your own opinion. For this reason, you don’t need to use phrases like, “in my opinion,” or “I believe,” which detract from the idea you’re trying to convey.

5. Use simple English. Try to keep your language simple and straightforward. Avoid twenty-dollar words when five-dollar words will do. Many people who visit About Meditation are new to meditation, so we avoid jargon related to traditions or techniques. If you use terms specific to the tradition, be sure to define them. This is also helpful to keep in mind if you’re writing about ancient forms of practice or using terms that might be new to those embarking on a wellness journey.

6. Link to your sources. We are reiterating this because it’s important to us. If you mention statistics or studies, include a link to the source. If you’re claiming that a certain practice or technique has proven benefits, tell us how you know. Ideally you’d link to peer-reviewed scientific papers, academic journals, and/or credible news outlets.