Thank you for your interest!
DataDecisionMakers is our guest post channel – the community side of VentureBeat. We welcome contributions from guest writers who want to share cutting-edge ideas and up-to-date information with our readers.
VentureBeat helps business leaders make smart decisions, and we’re recognized as the leading media authority in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Publishing your articles with us gives you the chance to get your ideas in front of the millions of readers that visit VentureBeat every month.
Although well-known tech leaders contribute articles to VentureBeat, we understand that good story ideas will come from many different segments of our reader community.
If you have an interesting story to tell that can give other readers in-depth insights on how to better work with data, we want to hear from you!
You’ll find everything you need to know to successfully submit a great article to VentureBeat right here.
Please make sure to follow these guidelines carefully.
Be aware that our readers expect professional, high-quality articles. This means that if you decide not to follow our guidelines, we will not accept your article.
Submission Guidelines
The quick version
Do you have an informative and exciting headline, a great featured image, an attention-grabbing and to-the-point introduction, a clearly written and coherent body, and a solid conclusion? These are simple elements that will help readers discover and enjoy your article.
- Story: Make sure you have a great data-related story to tell – one our readers won’t have heard before and one that doesn’t (explicitly or implicitly) promote a product or approach that you or your company are marketing.
- Headline: Your title should be a reflection of the content of the article. It should engage readers without being clickbait. Be aware that if we accept your article, our editors will revise your title as necessary. Titles and headings should be written in sentence case. This means that the first letter of the first word should be capitalized and, generally, the rest should be lowercase. We don’t use all caps for titles, headings, subheadings, etc.
- Images: If you want to include a featured image, the size of your featured image should be a 2:1 ratio (for example, 2000 x 1000), and not smaller than 1200 x 600. Make sure your image is licensed for commercial use! For all images, please make sure to correctly cite the sources and verify that you have the right to use them. If you don’t have a featured image, we are happy to add one.
- Note: Please be aware that we often alter or replace titles and featured images in order to appeal to our readers and help your ideas reach as many people as possible.
- Conflicts of interest: Make sure you clearly disclose any conflicts of interest. Let readers know if your company or a company you’re invested in stands to benefit from the messaging in the story. Readers appreciate clarity and no one wants to feel manipulated. If there is a small amount of promotional material in your article, we may accept your article, but we will remove text and images that appear to be marketing or promotion during the editing process.
- Links: Please do not add links to your company or website in the body of your article unless they’re absolutely necessary. You can include a link in your bio at the end. We also ask that you do not include affiliate links in your article.
- Introduction: Your introduction should jump quickly into your main idea. Let readers know what makes your article important and why they should care about it. If you need to discuss the history or backstory of a concept, that can be included later in the article. If you’re looking for guidance regarding article length, 800-1,200 word articles tend to do well on VentureBeat. However, don’t be afraid to submit a longer article if you want to explore a topic deeply!
- Body: The body of your article needs to establish why your topic is important, why you are the one who has the answer, and how your solution works. There should be a logical progression of ideas that clearly establishes the importance of your topic and your own expertise. Make a strong, clear argument supported by examples, details, and/or data.
- Create original content! Everyone prefers fresh information that they haven’t seen before.
- Verify that your information is accurate. Once your article has been published, it’s public record and a permanent reflection of you, your company, and your work.
- Conclusion: Your conclusion should wrap up the main idea of your article. It should leave readers with a solid understanding of what they’ve read and excited about where they can go from here.
- Bio: Please include a one-sentence bio at the end of your article. We only accept articles written by individuals, so please include your first and last name. If you want to add a link to your company or website, this is the place!
The detailed version
Make sure you have a great story
We’re looking for exciting and original ideas that will help this community make better data-related decisions. If you’re submitting a listicle, an article that explains something readers have read a thousand times before, or if you are expecting to use this space to promote yourself without giving anything of value to this community, please understand that we won’t accept your article.
DataDecisionMakers is also not the right place for marketing or promotional pieces. If you’re interested in contributing a sponsored article, let us know! To speak to VentureBeat about sponsored post opportunities, please contact [email protected].
Please do not send press releases, interview requests, or news tips to the DataDecisionMakers submission form. These should go to VentureBeat’s news team at [email protected].
Language and communication
Did you put your thoughts together coherently, using language that the majority of people in this community will understand? It’s critical that you carefully proofread your submission. There are free tools that can help with basic typos and errors, but it’s also important to reread your submission to be certain that it clearly communicates what you want to say. Whenever possible, please make sure to use the active voice (for example, “The company raised the funds.”) and not the passive voice (“The funds were raised by the company.”). Please avoid jargon and unnecessarily complicated language. Readers prefer articles written in an everyday, conversational style.
Data, images, and citations
If you’re including images or data in your article, did you verify that they’re licensed for commercial use? It is your responsibility to verify that the data and/or images in your article are correctly licensed for use on VentureBeat. If your article includes images, graphs, diagrams, or a dataset that is privately owned, covered by restrictive licenses, or scraped, we will need the owner to send explicit permission to [email protected] that states that you have the right to use the information in an article on VentureBeat. Without explicit permission from the owner, we will not publish your article.
Please make sure that you correctly cite all of the images in your article with the name of the artist/owner and a link to the license information. (For example, “Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash, license here.”) Please include both the source of the image and the link to that source in your image caption.
If you aren’t certain you have the right to use an image, please don’t use it. Adding the source to an image doesn’t give you the right to use it.
If you’re including facts, figures, or quotes in your article, please make sure to correctly cite your sources and include a link when possible. Make it clear to readers where your information comes from and how they can find more information.
How do I submit an article or idea?
When you’re ready to submit your article, click the button below to go to our online submission form! We prefer to work with Google Docs, but you will have the option to upload a draft of your article if you prefer to send a different editable format, like a Word doc. If we accept your article, we will convert it to Google Docs for the editing process.
If you’re more comfortable submitting a pitch, you can submit your idea using the button below.
When will I hear from you?
If your article is accepted, we will notify you using the email address you provide in the online form. You can expect to hear from us within five business days. If seven business days have passed and you haven’t heard from us, it’s safe to assume that your article wasn’t accepted.
Unfortunately, we can’t respond to all of the submissions we receive. The most common reason an article is declined is that the author didn’t follow these guidelines. Feel free to carefully review the guidelines and resubmit your article! However, we ask that you not submit more than three times in a week. Any more than three will be refused without reading.
Please be aware that having your article accepted does not guarantee that your article will be published. It’s the first step in the editorial process, and there may be more work to do. If we ask for changes or revisions and you are not willing or able to make the changes we request, we won’t be able to move forward. If your article is accepted and you would like to include a profile picture in your author bio, we will ask you to set that up through Gravatar.
Feel free to reach out to [email protected] if you have questions.
