Write for the Skilled Axis blog.
We're always looking for sharp, original voices to contribute to our growing publication. If you have something useful to say about SEO, marketing, business, technology, travel, or lifestyle — we want to read your pitch. Below is everything you need to know about submitting a guest post, the editorial standards we hold contributors to, and the content collaboration process we run.
What you get when we publish you.
We treat contributors the way I wished editors had treated me when I first started pitching. Real collaboration, fast responses, and a placement worth the work.
One contextual dofollow link
Every accepted post earns you one dofollow in-text link to a relevant resource on your own site. We don't strip it. We don't downgrade it to nofollow without telling you. Domain Rating 54 and climbing.
Permanent byline + author bio
Your name, photo, and a 60-word author bio sit at the top and bottom of every published article — with one additional outbound link in the bio (your homepage, LinkedIn, or Twitter).
Featured in the Friday letter
Strong articles get featured to our 4,200+ newsletter subscribers — founders, SEOs, and marketing operators. Real exposure to a buying audience, not just impressions.
Real editorial collaboration
You won't get your draft published as-is, and you won't get rejected without notes. We edit collaboratively — line-by-line if needed — and send you the final version for sign-off before it goes live.
Fast, human responses
Every pitch gets a personal reply within 5 business days. Yes or no — never silence. If yes, we move on a written 21-day timeline. If no, you'll get one paragraph explaining why.
Lifetime placement
Your article stays live indefinitely. We don't unpublish, gate, or migrate it behind a paywall. The link you earned is the link you keep — for the lifetime of the post.
What we publish.
Four categories. Pitches that fit neatly into one of them have the best shot. Articles that bridge two (e.g. business + travel, technology + lifestyle) are very welcome.
Travel
- Remote work + nomad operations — visas, setup, infrastructure, tax
- City guides for working travellers — coworking, wifi, cost-of-life math
- Founder travel — running a business while moving every 60 days
- Honest reviews — coworks, residencies, "nomad-friendly" countries
- Off-the-beaten-path destinations — places with quiet rooms and fast wifi
Technology
- AI tools + workflows — practical, not promotional
- SEO & marketing tech — Ahrefs, Semrush, Screaming Frog, GSC
- Developer experience — stacks, IDEs, terminal setups
- Self-hosted alternatives — escaping SaaS dependence
- Opinionated technology essays — what's overrated, what's underrated
Business
- Solo consulting + freelancing — pricing, positioning, capacity
- Service-business operations — proposals, contracts, billing
- SEO & link-building case studies — with verifiable numbers
- Niche category teardowns — SaaS, DTC, B2B, affiliate
- Honest failure stories — what went wrong and what it taught you
Lifestyle
- Productivity + deep work — schedules, rituals, tools that survived
- Reading + learning — book essays, course reviews, study habits
- Health for desk workers — sleep, ergonomics, training schedules
- Money & minimalism — independence, frugal living, financial calm
- Personal essays — career pivots, identity, founder mental health
What we won't publish.
Save yourself the pitch and us the rejection email. The categories below are auto-rejects, no matter how well written. They don't fit our editorial voice, our reader base, or our brand standards.
- Pure AI-generated drafts. We can spot them in two paragraphs. AI is welcome as a research aid; AI prose is not.
- Sales pitches disguised as articles. If the post's main job is to promote your product or service, we'll see it. Submit content marketing as content marketing — to a different publication.
- Generic listicles. "Top 10 SEO Tips" has been written. Original framing wins.
- Syndicated / previously published content. Original to our publication or nothing. We check.
- Multi-link drafts. One in-text link to your resource. Pieces with 4+ promotional links go straight to the bin.
- Niche restrictions. No gambling, adult, unregulated CBD, crypto pump-and-dump pieces, MLM, or "make money fast" content. Ever.
- Pure opinion without research. Strong opinions are welcome — but defended with data, examples, or first-person evidence.
Editorial standards. In writing.
Read these once before you pitch. Drafts that ignore them are rejected without a second read — not because we're harsh, but because the rules exist to protect both our readers and your placement quality.
Length & structure
Articles must be between 1,500 and 2,500 words. Shorter pieces feel thin; longer ones lose readers. Use one H1 (the title), descriptive H2 sections, and H3 sub-sections only where they add navigation. Paragraphs short — three to five sentences each. Lists welcome where they fit naturally; avoid bullet-stuffing for its own sake.
- 1,500–2,500 word count window
- One H1 (matches the page title)
- 4–8 H2 sections per article
- H3 only where it aids scanning
- Paragraphs of 3–5 sentences
- US English spelling preferred
- Oxford comma encouraged
- Sentence case for all headings
Originality & sourcing
Every article must be 100% original to our publication. We run a plagiarism check before accepting — duplicate content or near-duplicate content is auto-rejected. Claims that need evidence must be cited with a link to a primary source (research paper, official documentation, original article). Cite generously; we'd rather over-source than under-source.
- Original to our publication only
- No syndication elsewhere for 6 months
- Plagiarism check before acceptance
- Cite statistics with primary sources
- Link to original studies, not aggregators
- Quote real people with attribution
- No "studies show" without the study
- Fact-checking is your responsibility
Linking policy
You're allowed exactly one in-text dofollow link to a relevant resource on your own website, plus one link in your author bio. The in-text link must be contextually relevant to the paragraph it appears in — not shoehorned. We'll also expect 2–3 internal links to existing articles on our blog (we'll suggest these during editing if you can't find them yourself).
- 1 dofollow in-text link to your site
- Link must be contextually relevant
- 1 link in author bio (any URL)
- 2–3 internal links to our blog
- 3–5 outbound links to authoritative sources
- No affiliate links anywhere in the article
- No links to gambling, adult, MLM
- Anchor text natural, not exact-match SEO
Images & media
Articles need at least one featured image (1600×900px, JPG or PNG) and ideally 2–4 in-article images, screenshots, or diagrams. Stock photos from Unsplash, Pexels, or Pixabay are acceptable if relevant. Original screenshots and diagrams are strongly preferred — they signal real expertise. All images must be license-cleared; you confirm rights in the submission form.
- 1 featured image, 1600×900 minimum
- 2–4 in-article images preferred
- Original screenshots score higher
- Stock photos acceptable from Unsplash etc.
- All images license-cleared by you
- Alt text required for every image
- No copyrighted logos without permission
- Embedded videos welcome (YouTube/Vimeo)
Voice & tone
Direct, opinionated, founder-to-founder. Write the way you'd explain something to a smart friend who runs their own business. Contractions welcome. First-person allowed and encouraged. Avoid agency-speak ("leverage," "synergize," "ideate," "circle back"). Avoid hedge words ("might possibly help to potentially"). Show your work.
- First-person allowed
- Contractions encouraged
- No agency-speak or buzzwords
- Show working, not just conclusions
- Specifics beat generalities
- Numbers beat adjectives
- Opinions welcome, defended
- Humour OK, in-jokes not
How content collaboration actually works.
From pitch to publish in roughly 30 days. Step-by-step, with response times in writing so you always know where your draft stands.
Submit your pitch
Fill the submission form at the bottom of this page. Include: working title, 3-sentence outline, target category, link to one piece of your published writing, and a 60-word author bio. Don't send full drafts unsolicited — they'll be deleted unread.
Pitch review
Every pitch gets a personal reply within five business days — accepted, accepted with edits, or rejected with one sentence of reasoning. If accepted, you'll receive a brief: agreed angle, target word count, anchor text we've approved, internal link suggestions.
Draft submission
You have 21 days to send the full draft. Use Google Docs (commenting on), markdown, or a hosted preview link. Stick to the agreed angle and word count. If you need an extension, ask early — we'll usually grant a one-time 14-day extension if you give us a heads-up.
Editorial review & revisions
We edit collaboratively — line edits, structural notes, tightening, occasional rewrites of weak passages with your sign-off. You'll get edits within 7 days of receiving your draft. Most drafts go through one revision round. Particularly strong drafts go straight to publishing.
Final approval & scheduling
We send you the final version for sign-off — including SEO meta description, title tag, slug, and featured image. You approve or request final tweaks. Once approved, we schedule publication in our editorial calendar — typically 7–14 days out.
Live + promoted
Article goes live with your byline, photo, and bio. We send you the live URL, indexability confirmation in Search Console (usually within 48 hours), and promote it across our newsletter and social. The placement is permanent and the link stays dofollow.
Who we publish.
We're a working publication — not a content mill — so the bar is real. You don't need to be famous; you need to be useful. The list on the right is what we look for in a contributor application.
If you don't tick every box, pitch anyway. Strong writing covers a lot of resume gaps. We've published first-time writers and we've rejected published authors. The work speaks first.
- Real expertise. You're writing about something you actually do — not researching it for the article.
- Published writing track record. Even one well-written post on your own blog counts. We need to see how you write before we commission you.
- Native or near-native English. US or UK English both fine — but consistent within a piece.
- Willing to revise. We rarely publish first drafts. Be open to one round of substantive edits.
- A real human with a real bio. Pen names and anonymous bylines aren't accepted. Photo + verifiable identity required.
- Not a one-off SEO play. If your only goal is the backlink, we'll see it in the pitch. Show genuine interest in writing for our readers.
Your byline. Your rules.
Headshot
One square photo, minimum 400×400px, JPG or PNG. Professional or candid — your call. We display it next to your byline at the top of the article and inside the bio at the bottom.
60-word bio
What you do, who you do it for, what you're known for. Third-person preferred. Include any credentials that establish authority (years in industry, notable clients, books, etc.) — but keep it tight.
One outbound link
Your homepage, LinkedIn, Twitter, or a specific landing page. Dofollow. Separate from the in-text article link, so you effectively get two backlinks per article.
Social handles (optional)
LinkedIn, Twitter/X, and one other social handle of your choosing display below your bio. They're nofollow and decorative — no SEO juice, but useful for human readers who want to follow your work.
The pitches that don't make it.
Reading this list once will dramatically improve your hit rate. About 70% of pitches we receive fail for one of these reasons.
The pitches that get rejected
- ✕Subject line: "Guest post for your blog?"
- ✕Topic is way outside our four categories
- ✕Pitch is clearly a copy-paste, sent to 80 publications
- ✕No outline, no previous work, no bio
- ✕Topic we've already covered (search first)
- ✕Promotional intent obvious in the angle
- ✕Vague: "I'd love to write about marketing for you"
- ✕Three links in the pitch already
The pitches that get accepted
- ✓Specific subject line referencing one of our recent posts
- ✓One sharp working title with three angle options
- ✓Outline shows you've actually thought it through
- ✓Link to a single piece of your past work
- ✓Brief but real bio establishing authority
- ✓Topic that bridges two of our categories smartly
- ✓Personal angle only you could write
- ✓Evidence you've read the blog (mentions a post)
What contributors ask.
Do you pay for guest posts?
Not at this time. We're a small independent publication. What we offer instead: a high-DR dofollow link, permanent byline, newsletter feature, real editorial collaboration, and lifetime placement. For most contributors, the link + audience is worth more than a $100 honorarium would be — but we understand if that's not enough for you.
Do I need a portfolio or published work to apply?
Yes — we need to see how you write before we commission you. Even one well-written post on your own blog or Medium counts. If you don't have anything published yet, write something on Medium for free first, then pitch us with that link attached.
Can I link to a client's website instead of my own?
Only if you disclose it upfront and the link is contextually relevant. We don't accept third-party link placements disguised as guest posts — that's a different business model and not the one we run. If the link is to a genuinely useful resource the client publishes (and you're the legitimate author), we'll consider it.
How long do you keep articles live?
Indefinitely. We don't unpublish, gate behind a paywall, or strip your link unless the article becomes factually wrong (and even then, we update with a footnote rather than remove). The placement you earn is the placement you keep.
Can I repurpose my article elsewhere after it's published?
Yes, after 6 months. You can republish a slightly edited version on your own blog, Medium, LinkedIn, or anywhere else — provided you add a canonical tag pointing to our original URL. Within the first 6 months, the piece is exclusive to our publication.
How many guest posts can I submit per year?
Up to four per calendar year, max one per quarter. We want contributors who add real value to the publication, not freelancers with a content quota. Quality over volume.
What if my pitch is rejected — can I pitch again?
Absolutely. Wait at least 4 weeks before pitching again. Read the rejection note — it tells you exactly what was off. We've published writers whose first or second pitches were rejected and whose third was a featured post.
Do you accept sponsored content or paid placements?
No. Every piece on our blog is either written by us or by a contributor with editorial standing. We don't accept sponsored articles, paid placements, "we'll write the article, you publish it" arrangements, or money in exchange for links. If you're looking for sponsored placements elsewhere, our link-building service page has guidance on what actually works.
Can I write under a pen name or pseudonym?
No. We publish under real names with verifiable identities. Authority depends on a reader being able to look you up and trust who's telling them something. If you have privacy concerns, we can discuss using initials + last name (e.g. "M. Patel") — but the byline must be traceable.
Will you provide a Search Console screenshot proving the post is indexed?
Yes, on request. Within 48 hours of publication we can send you a screenshot from our Google Search Console showing the article URL is indexed, plus an Ahrefs screenshot showing the live link in our outbound profile. Useful if you're tracking link acquisition for a client.
Got an idea worth publishing?
Fill the form. We respond personally within five business days — accept, redirect, or decline with reasoning. No automated rejections. No silence. No ghost.
If accepted, you'll get a brief, a 21-day writing window, collaborative edits, and a permanent dofollow placement with a byline and bio. The whole pitch-to-publish process averages 30 days from form submission.