We try to have very open policies about blogging in order to make sure that everybody has a voice. However, over the years we have talked with the community on what they feel adds value or detracts, so we have some guidelines that ensure that the readers have a good experience on the site. If you have any questions about these policies, please let us know.
1) Add real value to the discussion. As our community members are quite busy, it is tasked to us to make sure that their time spent on MFI is well spent. Therefore, blogs need to offer tangible quality information for readers. If a blog is too basic in nature or only covers topics that have already been discussed ad nauseam, it may be rejected.
2) Self promotion. Self promotion and advertising is not allowed in the main blog text. Instead, information about yourself and your company can be shared in the author information area. This includes self-references such as “We at Multifamily Insiders believes that…” Self promotion also includes promoting your type of service, even if you don’t name your company directly.
a. Note: Free services, access to whitepapers, promotions, and other giveaways are considered advertising. This also applies to free events, such as webinars. Any "call to action" that relates to your business will almost always be considered self promotion.
b. Note: Infographics or images should not have a logo or other promotional information embedded.
3) The Byline. UPDATE: We are replacing the old "byline" with the author information section. You can fill out this 3-line area in your blog settings, and allows you to tell the audience a little bit about yourself and your company, and can include a direct solicitation to visit your website.
4) Blog links. Each blog can have one link to your web properties as an anchor text. Any additional links will be removed. (You will also receive another link in the author section, assuming you filled out your blog profile). For example, if you wrote a text with the term property management, you could link that term like shown here. But the link couldn't be a solicitation to directly visit your site, such as "Please visit my site, XYZ.com, for more information", a call to action to "click here for help with XYZ problem", or a solicitation to visit a 3rd party site or page that you are involved with. That sort of text should be shared in your author info area as mentioned in #3 above.
5) Use of terms like “Originally published on” or “also seen on”. Our reputation as a source for trending and interesting topics is important to the success of the site. So anything that creates the feeling that MFI is a second-hand source will hurt that reputation. So please do not include phrasing that makes it appear as if a blog is simply a repost. There are exceptions to this rule if the blog is coming from a 3rd party industry leading source, such as UNITS. In those cases, a notation at the bottom of the blog in italics can suffice.
6) Tags. Tags are essentially keywords that are important to the blog, and are a great way to get picked up by search engines. So please limit blogs tags to words present in the text of the blog. For example, if you use the tag “property management software”, that phrase needs to be present in the blog itself. Also, please do not tag using your company name or your own name.
7) Full blog posts. A blog must be a full post, rather than the first section, with a link to read the rest at a different location.
8) Reposting from another site. If you currently host a blog on your own site, it is ok to use that blog on Multifamily Insiders. However, if the blog is also shown on additional other sites, Google will see the blog as simply duplicate content and might punish all locations.
a.Note: We recommend sharing past blogs over time, rather than posted all at once.
9) Blog Titles. In this respect, we are referring to the title of your overall blog, not an individual blog post. These should not be marketing pitches. For now, you can use your company name, such as "Multifamily Insiders' Blog", but should not be "Multifamily Insiders' Blog about our great webinar series" or "Sedgewick's Cheap Tree Removal Blog".
We hope you enjoy the blogging process. The blogs reach thousands of multifamily professionals, and many people have expanded their careers by showcasing their knowledge on Multifamily Insiders.
These guidelines can change at any time without notice. Also, if a blog breaks any of these guidelines, Multifamily Insiders may edit the blog to ensure it is following the guidelines.
We try to have very open policies about blogging in order to make sure that everybody has a voice. However, over the years we have talked with the community on what they feel adds value or detracts, so we have some guidelines that ensure that the readers have a good experience on the site. If you have any questions about these policies, please let us know.
1) Add real value to the discussion. As our community members are quite busy, it is tasked to us to make sure that their time spent on MFI is well spent. Therefore, blogs need to offer tangible quality information for readers. If a blog is too basic in nature or only covers topics that have already been discussed ad nauseam, it may be rejected.
2) Self promotion. Self promotion and advertising is not allowed in the main blog text. Instead, information about yourself and your company can be shared in the author information area. This includes self-references such as “We at Multifamily Insiders believes that…” Self promotion also includes promoting your type of service, even if you don’t name your company directly.
a. Note: Free services, access to whitepapers, promotions, and other giveaways are considered advertising. This also applies to free events, such as webinars. Any "call to action" that relates to your business will almost always be considered self promotion.
b. Note: Infographics or images should not have a logo or other promotional information embedded.
3) The Byline. UPDATE: We are replacing the old "byline" with the author information section. You can fill out this 3-line area in your blog settings, and allows you to tell the audience a little bit about yourself and your company, and can include a direct solicitation to visit your website.
4) Blog links. Each blog can have one link to your web properties as an anchor text. Any additional links will be removed. (You will also receive another link in the author section, assuming you filled out your blog profile). For example, if you wrote a text with the term property management, you could link that term like shown here. But the link couldn't be a solicitation to directly visit your site, such as "Please visit my site, XYZ.com, for more information", a call to action to "click here for help with XYZ problem", or a solicitation to visit a 3rd party site or page that you are involved with. That sort of text should be shared in your author info area as mentioned in #3 above.
5) Use of terms like “Originally published on” or “also seen on”. Our reputation as a source for trending and interesting topics is important to the success of the site. So anything that creates the feeling that MFI is a second-hand source will hurt that reputation. So please do not include phrasing that makes it appear as if a blog is simply a repost. There are exceptions to this rule if the blog is coming from a 3rd party industry leading source, such as UNITS. In those cases, a notation at the bottom of the blog in italics can suffice.
6) Tags. Tags are essentially keywords that are important to the blog, and are a great way to get picked up by search engines. So please limit blogs tags to words present in the text of the blog. For example, if you use the tag “property management software”, that phrase needs to be present in the blog itself. Also, please do not tag using your company name or your own name.
7) Full blog posts. A blog must be a full post, rather than the first section, with a link to read the rest at a different location.
8) Reposting from another site. If you currently host a blog on your own site, it is ok to use that blog on Multifamily Insiders. However, if the blog is also shown on additional other sites, Google will see the blog as simply duplicate content and might punish all locations.
a.Note: We recommend sharing past blogs over time, rather than posted all at once.
9) Blog Titles. In this respect, we are referring to the title of your overall blog, not an individual blog post. These should not be marketing pitches. For now, you can use your company name, such as "Multifamily Insiders' Blog", but should not be "Multifamily Insiders' Blog about our great webinar series" or "Sedgewick's Cheap Tree Removal Blog".
We hope you enjoy the blogging process. The blogs reach thousands of multifamily professionals, and many people have expanded their careers by showcasing their knowledge on Multifamily Insiders.
These guidelines can change at any time without notice. Also, if a blog breaks any of these guidelines, Multifamily Insiders may edit the blog to ensure it is following the guidelines.