If you’d like to submit a guest post to Flying Solo for consideration, please read carefully through the below as we are unable to consider articles that do not meet these guidelines.

1. Types of article we are looking for

There are three main types of articles we are looking for:

ONE: First-person stories from Australian small business owners

We prioritise these submissions above all others – articles where Australian small business owners, writing in the first-person, share an experience or challenge they’ve faced in their business life, along with what they’ve learned from that challenge.

For great examples of these kinds of stories, have a read through the below:

• Depression – and the lies it tells soloists
• The guilt few men ever talk about
• How being a sales klutz actually won me business
• 6 big money mistakes I’ve made and the lessons I’ve learned
• Sometimes, I get scared
• How I used a mirror to double my hourly rate
• Stressed out? Here’s how to be the egg, not the potato

TWO: Practical tips for running a small business

These articles need to be uber-practical, contain immediately actionable ideas and show those ideas in action rather than the author positioning themselves as an expert and saying ‘you should do this/do that’. (It’s important to understand that our readers don’t want to be told what to do, they want to be shown what to do.)

All of the below are great examples of what we’re looking for in this category:

• Pulverise procrastination with these four simple words
• 3 steps to a clear and focused mind that gets things done
• 4 simple email hacks that will claim back and hour a day
• How I get all my work done in 5 hours a day
• Repair, replace or refund? Your obligations to your customers
• Grammartistry with Em: all about commas, colons and full stops
• 3 tips for owning your social media audience
• Build your brand on Instagram in 4 easy steps
• 11 no-brainer reasons why you should be doing email marketing
• 7 ways to kick ass at conferences when you’re an introvert

THREE: Things that provide a good laugh

Not much more to say here. If you can give us a giggle, and your article is relevant to small business owners, we’d love to see what you’ve got!

• Ten honest daily habits of a mildly successful person
• 5 crazy ways to avoid saying ‘no’
• Noel Ranger is out of the office
• How to (not) win friends and impress people

2. Who can submit articles to Flying Solo?

• Because we are an Australian publication, we only accept article contributions from Australian small business owners.
• We do not accept articles submitted by PR firms or SEO firms on behalf of a client.
• We also don’t cover news or press release information in house. All our content is produced by our brilliant contributor team.

3. Quality of writing

This might seem like a no-brainer, but we do get a lot of people sending us articles that have been written for them by content ‘factories’. These articles are easy to spot as the syntax is awkward and the pieces lack personality. Please don’t send us articles unless they have been written by you.

For first-person type stories, as mentioned above, the writing doesn’t need to be amazing. If your story is one our Editor feels our community will benefit from, she will work with you to refine the piece.

4. Article tone

This must be conversational – like a friend speaking to another friend. If your preference is to write in an authoritative tone, positioning yourself above the reader … then Flying Solo is not the publication for you.

5. Article length

We accept articles of all lengths – from 500 word think-pieces to 2000 word epic guides. The important thing here is to ensure you know exactly what idea your article is trying to convey and that every word in your article is contributing to that idea. (ie … no waffling!)

6. Author self-promotion

As you can imagine, if all our authors were taking the opportunity to self-promote in their articles, our readers would switch off very quickly. So we opt to limit all self-promotion to the author bio that appears at the end of your article.

In your author bio you are permitted to have one external link (in addition to links to key social media sites). This is a good place from which to link through to a landing page on your own site specially for Flying Solo readers.

Please note: we do not pay for submissions.

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Ready to submit your article? Check that it’s been formatted to our requirements here.