Guest Author Guidelines

The intention of this blog is to provide multiple perspectives on issues affecting product stewardship. Here are some guidelines to help you develop your post:

• Read our blog. Get a feel for the kinds of posts we publish. Join the Product Stewardship Society​ to automatically receive our weekly update.
• Have product stewards in mind. Your post should be designed to benefit, interest, or inform product stewards and related professionals. Speak to their needs, challenges, questions, pain points, and other issues that might keep them up at night.
• What’s your point? Make sure your introduction has a main message so the purpose of your post is clear.
• Write as if you’re talking to a friend. Use approachable, easy-to-understand language.
• Length matters (but content matters more). Ideally, we’re looking for posts that are 300-500 words in length. Longer posts are welcome, but please try to keep it at a max of 1,000 words (or consider making it a two-part post).
• Self-promotion. Please avoid promoting your company, product, or service in your post. Your author bio is a better place to do that.
• Limit links. Do not overload your blog post with links. Too many links can make your blog look like an advertisement.
• Include images. Images should be high-res in either PNG or JPG format, the original size preferred. We’re not able to accept animation.
• Cite your sources. Please give credit where credit is due. Double-check your facts and any quotes used.
• Make it personal. Where it’s appropriate, don’t be afraid to share your feelings.

In general, we are looking for posts around these categories – as they relate to product stewardship:

• Emerging Issues
• Extended Producer Responsibility
• Global Regulations
• Hazard and Risk Communication
• Legal
• Program Management
• Risk Assessment
• Talent & Career Management
• Value Chain/Supply Chain

Please submit your full draft in a Word doc format and the information below to productstewards@aiha.org:

• Your bio: Bios should be around 50-60 words and should include your email address, Twitter handle, and any other relevant links you would like to show (e.g. your personal blog, LinkedIn or other social media profiles, website URL, etc.) This is also the place to include any promotional links that are not allowed in the blog post.
• Your headshot: New authors should include a headshot with their draft (PNG or JPG format). Photos will be sized to 120 x 120px, so if you’d like to control the cropping/sizing, please provide your image at that size.
• Any supporting images, interactive content, or videos: Please provide any high res images (PNG or JPG format) you would like to include within your Word document. When saving your images, please provide a descriptive name (e.g. product-stewardship-risk-assessment-img1). For multimedia content, including infographics, videos, or other interactive content, please include the embed code within your Word document.

After you submit your full draft, you will receive a confirmation email within a couple of business days. Once received, your post will be reviewed by a team of staff and/or volunteers. If your post is accepted, we will contact you with the next steps. We will also contact you if your post is not accepted. The typical turnaround time is 1-3 weeks depending on the number of posts currently under review. Posts are published based on the Product Stewardship Society’s schedule. We can’t always fulfill publication date requests, but if you have a specific publication date in mind, please let us know.

The Product Stewardship Society promotes all posts via LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Posts are also included in our Full Circle e-news, sent to our members weekly. You can help us promote your post too:

• Share it on LinkedIn and Facebook and tag the Product Stewardship Society
• Share it in our LinkedIn Discussion Group (join the group if you haven’t already done so!)
• Tweet it to your network and mention @ProductStewards.
• Respond to any comments your post receives to extend the conversation.