Contributor Guidelines
Strixus is a unique magazine with content provided by leading executives from across the world. Here you will find unfiltered thought leadership from the minds of industry execs in healthcare, technology, cybersecurity, finance, commerce, international business development, real estate, and much more.
The internet is filled with poorly sourced opinion. Hard-won-knowledge, shared in a succinct and usable form, is hard to find in one place. Failed entrepreneurs and executives are giving tips on business, and Ph.D.s who have never truly won the battle of leadership are leveraging the largest publications in the world to share untried processes and programs.
The world continues on the backs of a small few who disrupt, mold, and drive industry into the future. Strixus exists to give those few a voice.
Writing for Strixus
Strixus publishes executives by application. The offering is a Feature, Q&A, or contributed article for $299 USD if approved. We may decline; declined applicants are not charged and are not added to the site. Apply here.
Editorial Guidelines
The qualities we’re looking for in our content:
- Expertise. Define a challenge executives experience. Niche or broad.
- Actionable. Codify in written form what solutions are available. The article should be actionable, rather than subjective. What is the solution to the problem? Codify your message to the reader in easy-to-understand logic.
- Trust. Provide evidence-based background information leading up to these conclusions. You should know the topic you are writing about intimately and prove to the reader you are an expert on the topic. If you make a claim, have a reference to back it up.
- Originality. Keep it simple and fresh. No stale content. Original ideas are rare, and by pulling from your hard-won experience you can provide something unique. First-person stories are encouraged.
What we’re not looking for:
- Content that is overly promotional. The purpose of your Strixus article should not be to sell your company, product, or service — it should be to share your insights and advice, educate, and help others who might be dealing with similar circumstances or problems.
- Previously published content. All articles submitted to Strixus must be 100% unique. All content will be scanned with Copyscape for plagiarism.
- Unattributed information, studies, quotes, and so on. Please always hyperlink to any source you use in your article.
- Paid links or mentions. Editorial coverage for compensation from a third party will get you banned from Strixus.
- Unacknowledged financial relationships. It is discouraged to write about someone or something you have a financial relationship with. If you do choose to do this, please make sure to disclose the relationship in the article.
- Spam and search-engine abuse. Keyword stuffing (in the body, titles, headings, image alt text, or metadata), scraped or spun copy, doorway pages, hidden text or hidden links, cloaking, sneaky redirects, clickjacking, fake reviews, fake structured data, and other black-hat SEO will be denied and can result in a ban from the publication.
- Link schemes, over-linking, and malicious or irrelevant links. Over-linking for SEO, exact-match or repeating commercial anchors, paid or bartered ranking links, private blog networks, link farms, affiliate stuffing, footer or sidebar link dumps, and links to malware, phishing, scams, or unrelated destinations will be denied or result in a ban. Links to a relevant project, your own company, or a client website are permitted when they are applicable to the piece and suitable for an executive reader. One or two such links is enough.
- Malicious code. Attempts to inject scripts, iframes, tracking pixels, hidden forms, or any other code into the article, the Desk, or our pages will result in a ban.
Style Guide
Article Length
In general, no shorter than 600 words. While there are exceptions to this rule, they’re rare.
Sub-headings
Every article should contain at least two subheadings. Subheadings should be formatted in either H2 or H3 style, capitalized in AP style, and without a period at the end.
Hyperlinking Sources
When hyperlinking a source or reference, please do not hyperlink the entire sentence — pick the most relevant few words or short phrase. Please make sure to use reputable sources and link to the original source where possible, rather than another news article that references the original source. Do not add extra links to chase search rankings. Irrelevant, excessive, or malicious links are treated as spam and can result in a ban.
Editing Assistance
An article will be rejected if it contains excessive grammatical errors or spelling mistakes or the writing quality is poor. So, if needed, please feel free to use outside editing assistance. It’s never a bad idea to have a second pair of eyes proofread your article before you submit it.
Photos
Including a photo with your submission is optional — we can take care of the photo for you. However, if you do choose to include a photo with your article submission, please make sure it is from a free stock photo website like Pexels, Pixabay, or Unsplash. We will not accept photos that we do not have the rights to, and this includes photos pulled from Google.
Our Editorial Process
Wait Times
Applications are reviewed within 10 business days. If approved, you are emailed a $299 invoice (due in 14 days; Stripe sends reminders). After payment you schedule a meeting with the executive editor. Review and publication of the piece typically take 2–4 weeks after that meeting.
Article Frequency
You may publish as often as once a week and we recommend no less than once per month. But, please submit at a pace that works for you.
Rejections
Our editors are here to help and guide you but also to ensure the editorial standards of Strixus are maintained. Strixus reserves the right to edit all articles submitted for publication. This includes grammar, punctuation, headlines, formatting, length, and even style. Strixus also reserves the right to reject any content for any reason or remove content from the platform if it’s found to violate our editorial guidelines and standards.