The following guidelines must be followed in order for your submitted legal news/blogs to be published on MyAdvo and our distribution network.
The Editorial Guidelines are MyAdvo’s values and standards. They apply to all our content, wherever and however it is received.
Writing Guidelines
Language
Profanity is strictly prohibited, as it is considered an unprofessional practice. However, in releases pertaining to court cases, MyAdvo will not censor or change the content of quote if it contains profane language.
Topics
MyAdvo accepts blogs/content on a variety of topics, legal matters, and even political commentary.
Rules
However, certain guidelines do apply:
- Slander – Content that include slanderous or libelous statements will be rejected.
- Cases – If a particular case is the topic of your blog, you must include the case name and court in which it is filed.
- Truth – Statements in all blogs must be accurate.
- Sources – If you cited a statement from another news publication, you must link to or mention that source in the footer of your write-up.
- Politics – Political commentary is allowed in content on MyAdvo. However, comments must be attributed to a person or company statement in a quote within the release and cannot be part of the general news release content. Conspiracy theories, absurd speculation, or anything that could be interpreted as inflammatory political discourse is not allowed. Disagree and debate as ladies and gentlemen.
- Reputation Destruction – Any content/write-up that is written with the obvious intent of harming another person or company’s reputation will not be approved.
- Responsibility for Content - You are fully responsible for the content you submit.
Purpose
The focus of the author must be on writing content that is user-friendly and in a language that could be understood by any customer/user who is looking for legal queries on MyAdvo’s page or blog.
This applies to in-house, remote and freelance writers
- You must use British English, as opposed to American English. For eg scrutinise, modernise, endeavour, diarrhoea, colour (not scrutinize, modernize, endeavor, diarrhea, color etc).
- Make sure that the content you write is engaging and consistent. It should hold decent readability. To ensure a good readability factor, see that no sentence contains more than 20 words.
- Each paragraph must have a maximum of 4-5 lines. If the content flow or explanation demands, you can add 6 lines but not more than that. This helps the user in defining better clarity and encourages the reader to read further.
- Feel free to provide an alternate title, if you think you can suggest a better one. But ensure that it must be unique and include the keyword.
- Ensure that the facts, figures and statistics added in the content (if any) are taken from a credible source. Also, mention the source too.
- We do not tolerate plagiarism. The content must not be copied. Check for plagiarism after you’ve written the article. For plagiarism, please refer to the tools such as Duplichecker, Quetext, and Plagiarism Checker. You can avoid redundancy up to 3%, if at all, but only in exceptional cases such as adding a quote, or writing on Articles or Sections of law. Look for opportunities where the content could be reframed better and that it still makes sense.
- If keywords have been allotted to you, please try to use it in the content at least 3-4 times, if and when applicable. You can also use its variations.
- If there is any confusion with any content assignment, feel free to ask queries. You must not begin with your work until you know what is it that is expected from a particular topic.
- Please check the intent of the article. Copy-paste the topic/title provided to you and have a quick look at the kind of results you get for the first 2 pages of Google search engine. This will give you an idea on how to take on the article and the content structure overall. For instance, if you find a listicle, go for it. If the search results mention something else, see what is being followed in the majority, go with that.
- In reference to the abovementioned point, don’t take the flexibility to directly copy the points.
- To analyse the quality of content you’re writing, please give 5 minutes to proofread the content before submitting to us.
- We expect that there won’t be any basic grammatical errors. But again, to be doubly sure, please use tools such as Grammarly or Hemingway.
- You can always go 10% above or below the assigned word count. If there is no clarity about the actual word count, please ask.
- Please see that the content is relevant and to the point. Try to avoid fluff content just to add to the word count.
- There might be chances that you may use some images in the content. If you take snapshots/screenshots, make sure that you crop them properly. The resolution and clarity of any images are important as well. Other than that, give credit where it’s due or make sure that the source of the image is added too. There must not be any copyright issues.
- Wherever you see an opportunity, please add an outbound/external link in the content. See that the link you add holds relevancy and adds value for the reader.
- While adding any external/outbound links, please do not use any affiliate links. Check the URL before adding it in the article. The link you are adding must not belong to any competitor. The anchor text you choose for the same must be relevant.
CheckList
What to do
- Connect with the question
- Your answer should stick to the question strictly
- Present an answer that is informative and interesting
- Answer questions which add more value in improvement of current situation of user
- Use conversational tone while answering for better relevance & connection with the users
- Try to do conversation step-by-step in simple English, using layman terms
- Cite cases, wherever possible right after answering the questions
- Use bold, italic font styles or use quotes -" " - to make the lines stand out
- Provide backlinks wherever possible & needed like: related blog, legal topics, lawyer listing, website links
- Use only relevant images with some text in it, pertaining to the question
- Blend in the services and CTA of MyAdvo with the answer
- Check for grammatical errors and composition (Use Grammarly in British English or Ginger)
- Update the already written answers
What not to do
- Do Not start with the facts right away
- Do Not use long sentences (max upto 3 lines usage is okay for long sentences)
- Do Not repeat lines or context
- Do not throw answers at the user
- Do not throw promotions at the user
- Do not write in third person except for purchase intent questions
- Do not emphasise on MyAdvo, rather make the answer stand out in information & educational intent queries
Submission Guidelines
Deadline
on or before 5 days of receipt of the assignment (11:59 PM of the 5th day)
Word limit
2000-2500 words (excluding footnotes), unless otherwise specified.
Formating
- Font and size for blog post: Times New Roman | 12
- Font and size for footnotes: Times New Roman | 10
- Line spacing: 1.5
- Page size: A4
- Margins: 1” all sides
Citation
- Uniform style of citation should be followed throughout the essay.
- The write-up must be in .docx or .doc format (Microsoft Word)
- File name should be in the following format: (Name of the writer)-(No. of submission)-(Theme) e.g. AbhayKandhari(3)Insolvency.docx for the 3rd submission by Abhay on Insolvency laws.
General Rules
- It is hereby stated that the copyright for all submissions shall vest with MyAdvo, under all circumstances. MyAdvo reserves the right to modify, alter or use the submissions in whatsoever format/nature suitable for the blog posts.
- The author of the submissions shall be given due credit on the page it is published on.
- The write-ups must be solely written by the author, in English and co-authorship is not allowed for any submission.
- All texts for the write-up should be aligned as Justified.
- All the claims of the authors, in the body of the manuscript, are expected to be backed by reasons along with proper citations and shall not be merely an assertion.
- Any violation of rules shall result in direct disqualification.
- The submissions will be scrutinised through plagiarism software and any write-up, if found plagiarised, will be discarded immediately and the author will be disqualified for the content writing/internship with MyAdvo.