Craft a fresh article with relevant and practical takeaways. The article must be original and have not been published elsewhere. Check the CMI blog for other stories on the same topic and make sure that your story tells readers something new, follows a fresh angle or offers suggestions on how to do something better (rather than just why and how to do it).

Give credit. Check your facts and quotations. Cite the original sources (not the source that quoted the original source.)

Create an engaging introduction specific to your article.

Make it concrete. Give examples (even better if they’re examples from brands that don’t sell to content marketers), details, and metrics.

Write just long enough to engage and enrich readers. We don’t have a word count goal.

Disclose any relationship/partnership you have with links or sources in the article. (Limit your use of these to one or two per article. CMI does not allow links to gated content, but we do allow ungated links to articles and blogs that illustrate a point in your story.)

Avoid self-promotion in the article. Your author bio is a good place to do that.

Credit third-party sources. If you contribute a quote or tip to another author’s article, we will include a link to your individual (not corporate) social media or other profile of choice. Links to corporate websites or social channels won’t be included.