By Kelsey JonesFounder and CEO, StoryShoutExecutive Editor, Search Engine Journal

Managed blogs big and small; SEJ has about 1m page views monthly, my own sites have 4-5k monthly

Contributed to several outlets

Just started a news content marketing agency, StoryShout, to help brands grow their traffic and engagement

Creative Writing/English degree; background in Journalism

Basics for Editors Why Branding Matters Editorial Guidelines Guest Writers Engagement Building

What We’ll Cover

• WordPress or CMS knowledge• HTML/PHP for text-based editing,

formatting, and SEO• Good sense of organization/project

management: • ToDoist• Asana• BasecampAnd finally….

Basic Editor Necessities

Who is my target audience? What does my target audience want

to read about? Where am I going to share and

promote my posts when they are published?

Why should people care? What’s a concrete milestone I can

set now for my blog?

To create a mini business plan,

answer these questions:

Think of all the logos you instantly recognize…

• Blog on your own for 6+ months before expecting or recruiting guest contributors

• Good bloggers are in all corners of your company

• Keep a running brainstorm list of ideas: Help & support forums Industry questions you have Q&A sites like Quora

Creating a Base of Content

• Your blog reputation is shaped on what you do and don’t expect out of your writers.

• People usually try to push the envelope– set boundaries*.

• Know what your audience expects out of you

• Read all the competitors you can: BlogLovin’, Feedly

Start Shaping Your Editorial Guidelines

Grammar/Spelling Photo Attribution SEO Best Practices

• ALT Tags, HTML formatting, WP Tags, Headers

Linking Practices• Set a self promotional linking policy• Require links to back up

argumentative postsSEJ’s Editorial Guidelines: http://goo.gl/b7Ynjm

They say they require a link up front

They say anything about “trading links”

Their grammar/spelling is terrible

Their industry doesn’t match They don’t have any

applicable writing samples They look fake* Extra Hardcore: Their website

and social media is terrible

They look like a real person in their photo and on social media

They pitch you applicable ideas

They already attach an article that is well-written and doesn’t contain any shady links

They seem genuinely interested in growing themselves but contributing to the industry, not just getting a link

Extra hardcore: They address you by name*

Set deadlines or story assignments Get writers to agree to a weekly or monthly

post to keep commitment high Motivate writers with rewards* Give thoughtful feedback*: if writers know you

spent the time, they will too Build them up: Comment, share, and interact

on social media

Providing Writer Motivation & Engagement

Know when to hire editors and writers Branding is just as important as content Build a base of content before focusing

on anything else Shape your Editorial Guidelines to keep

everyone on the same page Build engagement with writers- make

them more than just content

Key Takeaways

Thank you!

• Email: kelsey@storyshoutnews.com• http://storyshoutnews.com• Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat: @wonderwall7