Editorial Policy

Here at Tidewater, we accept nothing less than the absolute best, but you already know that. We can provide you with the platform you need in order to get your expertise and opinions out there. From either you or your clients, we’ll publish your marketing content and get it to a wide audience.

However, our services don’t end there. We serve as an extensive blog resource for everything from public relations to marketing and community management. Whether you need articles on marketing research, interviews from high-powered influencers, or reviews of the latest tech, we’ve got it.

To help you get started, here are some important guidelines for all articles we accept:

Original Work Only

We don’t accept any work that has been published elsewhere. Whether it’s plagiarism or reposting your own article for additional exposure, this is a zero-tolerance policy. All posts are carefully checked, which includes being run through Copyscape.

We want to make sure that we only offer new information to our community. Reposting other articles has the opposite effect and diminishes our reputation for excellence. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t draw attention to your content elsewhere. Thirty days after your post is approved and published on Tidewater, you can post a small portion of your Tidewater post on your personal blogs, linking back to Tidewater and the full post.

 

Our Audience

The intended audience of our site is public relations experts, marketing professionals, community managers, social media gurus, small business owners, and rising entrepreneurs. These people are the best and brightest in the business. As such, they want to be on the cutting edge of SEO, marketing developments, interviews with innovators, and detailed strategies for selling to both customers and other businesses.

Content Types

How-to and educational articles designed to inform readers of how to accomplish a certain task
Roundup articles that gather and synthesize news to create an easily-digestible format for readers on a time crunch
Case studies that bring new data to the table
Product reviews that identify rising stars in the competitive world of technology
Marketing influencer reviews that illustrate and explain the best ways to obtain and utilize an online audience.

Formatting

  • Use short, powerful sentences that convey maximum meaning in minimal time
  • Write 1000+ words to ensure that the topic is adequately covered from multiple angles
  • Use subheaders and bold text to make articles easily navigable
  • Check your content several times to make sure grammar and spelling are correct
  • Link to reliable sites to back up your claims
  • DO NOT link to your own or your client’s site more than once. No affiliate links allowed.
  • Ideally, reference another Tidewater article to encourage readers to explore the website further
  • If you do plan on providing pictures, tables, or other graphics, ensure that they are of high quality and more than 800 pixels wide. We will provide a relevant stock image, so you don’t have to worry about that.

Headlines

A good headline can make or break an article. Consider using some of the following elements to get maximum viewership:

  • How to… (for when you want to set up an instructional article that offers value directly to the reader)
  • Why you should… (for when you want to persuade the reader to take a certain course of action)
  • X Best…. (for when you want to use a list format that immediately primes the reader)
  • Use urgent phrasing that makes the reader need to know the content of your article
  • Insert exciting adjectives like Hot, Great, Simple, or Free that give readers a taste of what kind of value they will find if they click
  • Use negativity sparingly and only if your article offers a solution to the problem posed in the title

 

Community Engagement

Right before your article gets published, you will receive a notification. Make sure that you regularly check in on the blog in order to respond to any comments and build rapport with your audience. If possible, tweet out a link to your blog post and mention it on any other pertinent social media platforms.

Accepted Guest Post Topics

While we accept most articles involving marketing for small and medium businesses, we specialize in several particular industries:

  • Financial Marketing articles, such as those that identify modern trends and how best to take advantage of them
  • Insurance Marketing articles, such as those that help readers understand what different types of insurance do and how local laws can impact insurance settlements
  • Legal Marketing articles, such as those that illustrate how to offer value to potential customers by simplifying complex legal jargon and demonstrating immediate value
  • Nonprofit Marketing articles, such as those that list ways to appeal to donors and paint your organization in the proper light for maximum value
  • Real Estate Marketing articles, such as those that point out how to position yourself in saturated markets and still get prospective homeowners
  • Healthcare Marketing articles, such as those that demonstrate how to harness concerned web searches about symptoms and possible explanations
  • Tech Marketing articles, such as those that identify upcoming products and how to position reviews for maximum impact with the audience
  • Web Design & Development Marketing articles, such as those that identify waxing and waning trends in recent months
  • Digital Marketing articles, such as those that list the latest and best plugins and services for maximizing exposure to your web content
  • General Business Marketing articles, such as those that analyze movements in the stock market and recommend how to react

Of course, we accept articles from other categories as well. If you have a specific idea and want to know if it would work, reach out with an outline and we’ll get back to you if it has promise. In most cases, we’ll accept any articles related to marketing if they’re written well enough. Specifically, we’d like to get more content in the following areas:

  • Content Marketing
  • Digital Marketing
  • Email Marketing
  • Pay-per-click Marketing
  • SEO
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Video Marketing

When submitting, make sure your article is formatted as a Word or Google document. More specific instructions can be found on our Contact page.