Article Submission Guidelines for Truly Heart

Congratulations on the approval of your writing applications. Kudos to you – it is well deserved.

The system can be a challenge to navigate at the best of times, and therefore your Chief Editor - Mina Keenan and Editor - Justine Crowley have decided to put together a resource to save you time and lessen those frustrating moments that beginner writers might have.



Mindset

Many of you know what it takes to be persistent. Like any new project, you’re climbing that steep hill. For a while, writing for Truly Heart may feel like an apprenticeship at first.

Earnings (clicks per month based on readership) will be slow at first. It will take a bit of time, dedication and sweat equity at first before any desirable results will materialise. Truly Heart is an awesome audience building platform with a wonderful community feel of positive energy.

Credibility is maintained as you’re freelancing alongside other like-minded writers who might share a similar life purpose to you. That is exciting.

Justine suggests the key is to write articles quickly, and articles that are free from any spelling and grammatical errors. Work hard first and play later. Anything important and worthwhile is worth the short term sacrifices involved for long-term gains.


Submitting Articles

1. Firstly, we advise you to start writing the article first, and then worry about what image you’re going to use. Once you’ve fully written the article, you’ll be better equipped to source the right image for your article.


Two ways to write an article:

A. Type into a word document first, and save that word document or similar. Then copy and paste the text into the yellow space after you’ve clicked on “share article” once you’ve logged into your account. Remember to click “update” so that the text saves in the open yellow field, and that way you won’t lose your article copy.

B. Go ahead and start typing/writing your article copy in the yellow field, and then click “update” once done. Otherwise you’ll have to start again. Don’t waste precious time unnecessarily.


Categories

2. Next add in the relevant categories next to the
# Replace With Category.

When typing in the categories, remember to type them in camel case.

For example, some of you have been doing this - for example #love instead of
#Love.

Another example #self-esteem - should be
#_Self_Esteem.

If in doubt, please leave a comment for the editor.


Title

3. Decide on a title. It is good common sense to write your copy, and then you’ll have a better idea on the right title.

Hint: search Google. For example, if you’re writing an article on attracting the right soulmate; Google that exact term (attracting the right soulmate) and go with your gut for the most common search title. Article titles must be in line with Google to optimise search engine rank. This means more readers for you. For example, an article on Self Avenue called Eliminating Poverty Consciousness The Basics: Part 1 is on page one of Google - where you want it to be. Go ahead, go to Google and search “eliminating poverty consciousness” and you can see that the article is on page one.


What to not include in your article title:

If you include a question mark in your article title, the HubGarden system thinks you’re asking a question/writing a short question piece and not a full feature article. Question articles also receive 1/3 of the total CPM payment (only $3.30 instead of $10 for every 1000 readers) because they’re quicker to put together.

We’re not doing question articles on Truly Heart - only full feature articles. Plus each question article deducts 10 “karma” points from your account. If you’re not writing on a question related hub on the network, you don’t need to worry about this.



Plagiarism (copying and pasting text in whole or part from another source) is definitely not allowed, unless its your own work - for example an excerpt from a book you’ve written and published to emphasise a certain point.

Article titles must be in camel case. For example Love For The First Time. Not Love for the first time - or something similar.


Other article formatting tips:


For example, say you want to italicise “How dare he did that to me.” This is how the formatting should look like: ”How dare he did that to me.” Once you hit the ‘update’ button again below the yellow field, on the preview page on the right hand side, in the relevant paragraph you will see this text italicised.



For example, say you want to bold the word ‘he’ in this sentence: “How dare he did that to me.” This is how the formatting should look like: ”How dare he did that to me.” Once you hit the ‘update’ button again below the yellow field, on the preview page on the right hand side, in the relevant paragraph you will see this text italicised.


Uploading images:

The HubGarden platform allows you to upload up to 20 images per article. You only need one for Truly Heart. Original images are preferred for Google search engine rank optimisation - meaning more readers for you.


Sourcing Images

However, we appreciate it can be tricky sourcing an original image for some of the content on these hubs. Thereby, we need you to please cite the source if images are sourced elsewhere.

Justine suggests sourcing images from a Facebook page and/or a royalty free website is the way to go. If you’re wanting tp use an image from someone else’s blog, for example for a source ending in blogspot.com - you must seek their permission first. We do not want to breach copyright. HubGarden will assume automatic ownership of original images, and hence why they’re preferred.

Good sources include Dreamstime, Morgue File and FreeDigitalPhotos.net to name.

There are more image sources in the FAQ.

When uploading your image, use the same keywords you found from Google earlier, and then upload.



If you get a blank white screen after uploading an image to your article, here is what you need to do:

Try again - re-upload the image. If this fails after 2-3 attempts, then try any of the below.
Save the image again on your computer, and lower its resolution and try again.
If the above fails, re-start your modem/Internet connection.


Placing the image in the article:

Indent your first paragraph, and then place your cursor at the top. Make sure your caps lock is on, and hit the key next to the “P” just once. Keep your caps lock key on and then type in IMAGE1. (Image in all caps and then the #1. Hit the space bar, turn your caps lock off and type in the source (if not original), and then a caption. Once you’ve finished typing in your caption, put your caps lock key back on and hit the button before the \. See more here .

Then remember to hit the “update” button again to save your changes.


Submitting Your Article

Once you’ve had a quick skim read through your article/edit to yourself, then hit “notify editor / submit article. “

The article will go to either Mina or Justine. The system randomly allocates editors. We can’t pick and choose which articles to publish. Please allow up to 48 hours for your article to be published. If Mina (for example) is the allocated editor for your article, and the article is not published after 48 hours from when you notified the editor; the article will come to Justine, and vice versa. There is no need to hit “notify editor” twice.


Talking to Your Editor

If you wish to leave or reply to an editors comment, enter in that comment and submit. There is no need to hit “notify editor” again. The comments will automatically go into the assigned editors queue to respond back to you.

Remember, if you make a mistake on the title, there is no need to re-create another article. You can edit it in the title box.

Any questions, please remember to ask on the forum.


All good, and happy writing.



You can download a copy of this article for your own reference here.




Image: "Success in sight" by seeveeaar under license cc by nd 2.0



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