Write for us
Welcome to Sweat Equity.
We are an independent media group with no political, religious or corporate affiliations. This means we are free to share what we want. We create content designed for our core audience.
Creating and sharing content is our passion and we know that your contributions come from your passion as well.
While we can’t pay for you to say what you want to say, we commit to sharing your content and promoting your writing through our social, online and print networks. You’ll gain exposure, publicity, social media followers, Google searches, and naturally you’ll gain some advantages from your good karma, and establish further credibility as a leader in your field.
What to write?:
It’s simple. Be genuine. Share from your experience and knowledge.
sweatequitymagazine.com is part of a collective wellness community. We are here to serve the community with content that is meant to contribute and be meaningful for our readers.
We encourage readers to follow us on social media and sign up for our email newsletter where we send out links to articles that are hosted on our site.
To become a writer for Sweat Equity:
Fill out the below form. If you have any issues, please email us at editor@sweatequitymagazine.com.
We welcome contributions and encourage you to contribute:
1. Wanna Write an Article or Contribute a Photo/Video Feature? Query Guidelines:
>> Submit your articles to editor@sweatequitymagazine.com.
PLEASE submit original work. Suggested word count is usually between 400-800 words.
Note: If any part of your work has been published previously, you must inform us in writing—or you legally guarantee our right to publish. If your work has been published previously elsewhere online, you must update your article with a new title and approximately 20 percent new and different content in the body. This allows Google and other search engines to pick up the article as a unique article.
Images should be under 1mb and be relevant to your article. You must have rights to use the image. Images will be deleted if inappropriate.
>> Include a brief, fun, third person bio with your submission and be sure to include your relevant contact info that you want promoted, web address, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram).
Note: All of our articles require a real first and last name, as well as a headshot.
>> After publishing, please feature your content and share it with your following!
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2. Tone & Edits:
>> Reviewing articles on our site before submitting work will help you write to our audience.
>> Write using your own personal style. You can use a personal story to draw the reader in. (a personal style, however, that doesn’t mean that the substance is casually researched). If you like something, be detailed. If you are negative, be fair. Always begin from the ground up: who, what, where, why, when. Keep it accessible—don’t assume that the reader is already familiar with the topic of your story. Don’t dumb it down—feel free to go in-depth—just define and explain as you go, and keep it fun or serious as appropriate. Include a call to action that benefits the life of the reader.
>>Using “you” in an article or title tends to separate the writer from the reader and can appear disconnected or preachy. Instead, try to think/write in terms of “we” and “us,” which unifies the reader and writer. It becomes a journey that we’re on together rather than an expedition that only you are qualified to lead.
>> If you have submitted for editorial review expect edits. This doesn’t mean that your article isn’t already great—but we may need to make adjustments to your work so that it fits better with our audience and/or to fit our layout, particularly if your submission is on the long side. This includes images! We want to include your images where possible, but we reserve the right to choose what we use for final publication, for aesthetic reasons and/or copyright issues.
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3. Interviews/PR/Advertorial Articles:
We don’t do it.
We do not publish infomercials, advertorials, or glorified press releases. Articles are not a substitute for advertising. Your bio may, however, contain info re: programs, products, or your website.
We will publish dedicated coverage, however, for non-profits and charities whose missions we and our readers believe in.
To learn more about our sponsored blog opportunities, email us.
For interview consideration, please email us with details.
4. Acceptance, Payment & Rights:
While we do not pay per article, we do provide writer incentives.
We hope that you’ll consider the publication of your work the best publicity money can‘t buy, a good link/clip for your journalist’s portfolio, a contribution to your community, the chance to share your views/opinions/research on a broader scale, and something to email home about. We may not be able to respond to or publish your work immediately, but we do our best to have our community voices heard.
*Important! Please check in with yourself honestly before you submit your writing. Ask yourself, “is this something I’m willing to have on the Internet for eternity?” We do not un-publish promoted articles, even if you change your mind years later.
By submitting, you give Sweat Equity Lifestyle Media Group “use rights” in perpetuity. That’s a fancy word for “forever”. That said, you can use our edited and published article with credit and link in any publication that you own or control—i.e. your personal site or a gallery exhibition. You can re-publish your Sweat Equity article elsewhere online only if: 1) you change the text by 20 percent; 2) you significantly change the first paragraph; 3) you change your title meaningfully; 4) you do not use our edits (use your draft), and 5) you link back to where it initially appeared on Sweat Equity. If in print, you can publish our version with prominent credit if you ask for permission by emailing editor@sweatequitymagazine.com.
If you agree to our writers’ terms, you will be required to honor our investment of time and care as editors.
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5.Stylebook: Please follow these guidelines:
>> Sweat Equity should be title—case and italicized.
>> Start a new sentence only one space after a period, not two.
>> M Dashes are “—,” not “- -.” (for a Mac: option+shift+ – dash) (for a PC: Alt (hold) and press 0151 and no space between the two words on either end of the M Dash)
>> Any number over nine is written numerically: 10, four, 32, 108, nine years, 10 apples. (Unless it is the first word in a sentence: Eighty years ago.)
>> Please use the oxford comma. (The comma after the last item in a list and before the “and” or “or.”)
>> Indent using the block quote button in the toolbar, rather than only italicizing long quotes (from scripture, for example) within articles.
>> Do not credit a quote by placing the person’s name at the end of the quote with a dash before it. Use a ~ and keep the name in the same paragraph as the quote.
>> B.K.S. Iyengar not BKS Iyengar; a.m. not am.
>> Put a period at the end of every title in the title.
>> Credit a photo like this: Photo: [name] (Again, make sure to use non-copyrighted images you own or found through photo sharing sites like Unsplash, Flickr Creative Commons, or Wikimedia.)
>> Always italicize and explain first use of foreign words. Exp: “It’s a difficult asana (yoga pose).” Exp: “It’s a difficult asana, or yoga pose.” Exceptions: if in common usage (yoga, karma, Buddha, etc.).
>>Vocabulary: in order to spread the good word beyond the close community, to the masses, make sure new terms are linked to a site that you find by doing a google search. Linking yoga terms or Buddhist vocabulary to Sweat Equity articles, for example, will be easy to do. The link does not have to define the term, but can portray the meaning of it through articles telling a story. Remember—you can’t assume that everyone knows what you’re talking about!
>> Do not put words in ALL CAPS or bold for emphasis, please italicize.
>> Spell out the word “and” in the article. Do not use &.
>> Screamin should be screamin’…any slang like that, put an apostrophe on the end.
>> Online, it’s best to break up long paragraphs. It makes longer posts easier on the eye and less intimidating.
>> Always include a subtitle (makes your post more searchable on google).
>> Read up on libel—we take this seriously, and you should too.
>> Read up on plagiarism—we take this seriously, too.
>> If you want to quote, excerpt, or source direct information at any point ever, read more about fair use here and here.
>> Please proofread your article before submission.
Perfection is not required but please do take time to read your work more than once before submitting.
6. Wanna Be a Regular Blogger/Contributor?
If you’d like to become a regular contributor to sweatequitymagazine.com, connect with us.
