Editorial guidelines

These are the standards every article on Websarb is held to, whether it was written by an outside contributor or by us. They exist so that writers know what is expected before they spend an afternoon on a draft, and so that readers know what they are getting.

Accuracy

• Every factual claim must be checkable. If a number, date, quotation or study is central to the argument, cite where it came from.
• Link to the original source, not to somebody else’s write-up of it.
• Do not present a projection, an estimate or a single company’s marketing claim as established fact.
• If you are describing your own experience, say so plainly. First-hand experience is the most valuable thing you can bring us, but it has to be labelled as what it is.

Originality

• The article must be yours, unpublished anywhere else, including your own blog, LinkedIn or Medium.
• Do not submit text generated by an AI as your own work. Using a tool to check grammar or tighten a sentence is fine; handing us a machine’s draft is not.
• Quoting is fine, in proportion, with attribution. Reproducing someone else’s structure and swapping the words is not.

What makes an article good enough to run

We ask one question above all others: does this say something the reader could not already get from the first page of results? Concretely, that usually means one of:

• You did the thing, and can say what actually happened, including what went wrong.
• You have data nobody has written up yet.
• You can explain something genuinely difficult more clearly than it is usually explained.
• You disagree with the consensus and can argue it properly.

What is not enough: a list of tips assembled from other lists; a definition-then-benefits-then-conclusion piece; an article whose real purpose is the link in paragraph nine.

Writing

• Minimum 600 words. No maximum. Length should follow the idea, not a target.
• One argument per article, made properly.
• Plain language. Write as you would explain it to a capable colleague who does not work in your field.
• Break the piece with real subheadings that say what the section contains.
• Open with the point, not with throat-clearing about how important the topic is.

Links, promotion and disclosure

• At most two outbound links per article. They carry nofollow, so they pass no ranking value.
• You may mention your own company where it is genuinely relevant, once, without a sales pitch.
• Any commercial relationship behind a product you recommend must be disclosed to us at submission. Undisclosed relationships mean we will not work with you again.
• We do not accept paid placements, paid links, or “sponsored guest posts” in any form, under any label.

Tags and topics

Every article is filed under one topic and may carry up to ten tags of no more than thirty-five characters each. This is enforced automatically. Tags are for readers finding related work, not for stuffing keywords, and anything beyond the limit is removed on save.

Review, and what happens to your draft

Submissions are screened automatically, then read by an editor. The screen scores originality, depth, evidence of expertise, readability and promotional intent, and flags concerns for the editor. It advises; a person decides. It also cannot verify that work is your own, which is why originality is something we take on trust and stop working with people who abuse.

The first two articles from a new writer are always read by a person before publication.

We may edit for clarity, length, structure and house style. We will not change what you are arguing. If an edit would alter your meaning, we will ask you first.

Corrections

If a published article turns out to contain an error, tell us. We correct the text and add a dated note at the foot of the article saying what changed. Articles are not silently rewritten, and they are not deleted to make a mistake disappear.

Rejection

We publish a small share of what we receive. A rejection means the piece was not right for us on the day; it is not a judgement on you as a writer, and you are welcome to pitch again.