Photo by tps12

If you’ve got questions, we Everything you need to know about Open Road Authorship

Editing Window

If you’ve got questions about the composing window on the article submission page, here’s an in-depth tutorial/explanation. It’ll tell you just what all those weird buttons do.

Images

Feel free to upload your own images to go along with your article–helpful, especially if you’re writing a product review or a how-to. But if you don’t have an image to add, you can look through Creative Commons photos on sites like flickr.com. But you have to be a little careful when grabbing images from others. Here are the steps for borrowing images from Creative Commons photographers:

Make certain that you’re searching only “Commercial Use Allowed” photos within Creative Commons. On Flickr, you can do this by first searching from the main page, then refining your results at the “Any license” dropdown menu top left.

Search>>Any License>>Commercial Use Allowed

No matter what, you must link the photographer’s name to their Flickr feed where the image was found.

Gear Reviews

You know what’s important here content-wise, but always remember to include price information and a link to the manufacturers website. It’s also necessary to allude to how you ended up doing your review (meaning, if the company gave you the product for free in return for a review, you definitely have to disclose this fact).

Other General Stuffy Rules

1. Add a catchy title
2. Write your name as you want it displayed on the article page
3. Funny is encouraged, but no mean stuff, please.
4. Absolutely no profanity or adult-oriented content/language/jokes (If you wouldn’t say it in church, don’t write it here).
5. No affiliate links
6. No plagiarized or otherwise copyrighted material (by submitting your content, you agree that you own the copyright or have obtained proper permission to use the content including adding proper credit/links where required).
7. Press releases and new product announcements are encouraged (just make sure you’re not misrepresenting yourself if you are affiliated with the product in some way. Full disclosure is required).
8. Make sure you’re cool with everyone reading/sharing the content you’re submitting (check out our terms of use and service and remember, you’re giving us permission to publish your content as we see fit on SLO Cyclist and our social media channels, etc.).

Tips for Writing

If you’re nervous about your writing, don’t be. Remember to try to be as unique as possible. Here are a few tips:

1. Avoid clichés (stop the cycle of “par for the course”); repetitious language (do you really need to use the word majestic more than once?); to-be verbs (the key to great writing is great verbs. “Is” is a weak word–super passive aggressive)
2. Show, don’t tell. As Chekov wrote, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the hint of light on broken glass.”
3. Open with a story, but not with some boilerplate, toss-out text like, “Bikes are great. Many people enjoy riding them, which is how my sister fractured my left hand.”
4. Our claim to marginal fame is our use of funny. We try to do it. You can try too, but don’t stress about your sense of humor if you’re more into a sense of serious.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions! Thanks for writing!