Writers' Guidelines

Due to a little internal restructuring, we are NOT accepting any new submissions for payment at this time, but you are ALWAYS welcome to donate an article via a guest post.

Share your creative expertise with our readers and promote your business in the process!

The Dabbling Mum® is an inspirational eMagazine and shopping portal featuring how-to articles, step-by-step craft tutorials, creative writing tips, and business coaching articles for busy, creative entrepreneurs who work out of their home offices.

We pay writers cash for original articles. We also accept guest posts and donated articles. We require exclusive online rights. And yes, we accept articles from both men and women as well as new and veteran writers. See what our writers have to say about working with us.

Editorial calendar: Article Needs

Submit article: Get Paid To Write | Submit A Guest Post

Get featured on The Dabbling Mum ®
Artist Q&A Form | Children's Author | Fiction Author | Non-Fiction Author

Publication Terms

Since the search engines now favor original content, do not support duplicate content, and are penalizing sites with heavy duplicate content, we've changed our policy to only accept content that will not appear anywhere else online—including but not limited to websites, blogs, newsletters, forums, newsletter archives, pdfs, etc.

You can, however, sell reprints of your articles to print publications immediately after publication, and you can also use your material in book submissions.

Response Time

We do our best to respond with at least a form letter within 8 to 12 weeks of submission.

Please understand that no matter how reliable we like to believe technology is, it sometimes fails. If you feel there's a chance your article didn't get to us, don't hesitate to drop us an email.

Pays on acceptance

Acceptance means when we receive the final draft of your article and approve it for publication. Payment is mailed within 32 days from the time we say your piece is ready for publication. Checks are written and mailed last day of each month.

Payment: U.S. dollars in the form of a business check.
an attractive byline -- under five sentences, including one web address and business name;
a headshot of author; and
an active link back to the author's website via author title.

Click here for payment schedule and publishing rights.

Headshots

The theme of The Dabbling Mum is to show our experts as regular people. It makes us more personable and friendly. Therefore, we require headshots of our authors, for articles placed online; except in our recipe center.

Expenses On Assignment

We do not pay the expenses of a writer on assignment. We do not pay for long distance expenses should you choose to interview a source by phone. (Consider email.)

Kill Fee

We do not pay a kill fee.

Buys Manuscripts

We purchase between 2 to 8 articles per month or 24 to 96 submissions per year.

Publishing Schedule

Articles are published 1 to 4 weeks after acceptance notification, unless otherwise specified at time of acceptance.

Articles are published throughout the month.

Simultaneous Submissions

We prefer that you don't send us simultaneous submissions. If you send us a simultaneous submission (same article you sent to several dozen other publications) we won't even consider your article.

We tend to publish at the last minute, so we need to know that immediately whether or not we have the right to publish your piece. In other words, if we say we want your article, we're ready to publish it within that week.

Article Reserve Rights

We reserve the right to change the focus of this publication at any time.

We reserve the right to edit for space, our publication's voice, style, grammar, punctuation, typos, etc.

We reserve the right to change your article's title, condense your material, and/or rearrange content to flow smoother.

We reserve the right to ask for rewrites to make the piece its best.

We reserve the right to remove articles when, and if, the publication changes its focus.

We reserve the right to refuse submissions at our discretion, and choose whether your piece will appear in our e-zine, on our blog, or be posted on TheDabblingMum.com.

Bio Reserve Rights

We reserve the right to condense your byline to fit our publication's format.

We reserve the right to remove the active link in your byline; if the link you've provided us with no longer belongs to you or has become invalid.

We reserve the right to replace broken links in your byline with your most current online presence.

We reserve the right to remove any mention of a website, blog, or social media presence in your author's byline if you no longer have an online presence, or we cannot find one.

Better Your Chance Of Acceptance

Our philosophy when it comes to accepting articles for this publication is simple: "more is better".

There are many times our editor will research a topic for personal use and have to weed through hundreds of web pages to get to the stuff that is "important". We don't want DM readers to come here and skip past our content because it's all fluff. We want them to stick around.

We want them to think, "Wow! This publication offers fresh ideas and informative articles."

For DM, a web page isn't just about keyword stuffed articles that increase ad revenue or page views—a web page is about helping the reader reach his/her end goal. Write in a conversational tone, write to both educate and entertain, and most importantly, offer up something unique.

Provide Original Content

We don't want to read your article and think, "Did I read that somewhere before?"
Articles should be entertaining, educational, informative, and actionable.
Articles should NOT overlap an existing article on DM.
If you feel your article is better than one written on our website, or that it offers a fresh angle and can compliment an existing article, don't hesitate to request a chance to prove it to us.
Do NOT send us something that duplicates what is already written on the site; only with a different voice.

Be Conversational

Write your piece with a conversational tone, but include more of a journalistic approach.

Stay On Topic

Write your articles on a single topic only.
Do not try to cram too many ideas into one 1,500 word article.
Do not write your article as though you are providing a synopsis of something bigger.
We don't like articles that barely scratch the surface by offering blurbs meant to entice the search engines and nothing more. We want depth.

Provide Plenty Of Details

Be as detailed as possible.
Give us step by step instructions.
Take us from point A to point B.
Do not leave us guessing or confused.
Use bullet points and sub-heads to organize sections and make skimming/reading easier.

Be Factual

Fact check your information, statistics, numbers.
Qualify your resources.
Provide true and accurate information.

Don't Be Preachy

We're not interested in having you prove to us how wrong we are and how right you are.
We're interested in learning and growing, and forming our own educated and informed decisions.

Be Recent

If you are going to state a fact, statistic, or other figure in your piece, use the most recent data.
Do not use information that you researched a year (or more) ago in a piece you write today.
Give credit to your source.

Make Quotes Count

When appropriate, use a combination of anecdotes, facts, and quotes to make your piece stronger.
Before inserting a quote or citation, ask yourself, "Can the piece be written without the quotes and still make sense or do the quotes help solidify the piece?"
Use new quotes from recent interviews and a minimum of 2 different experts.
Expert quotes must be more than one-line sentences and used throughout your work; not just in one small section.
Do not use a quote from an interview you did last year, and especially not one you did three years ago.
Do not take quotes from other articles and use them in your article.
You can use a quote from a book if you also reference the author's book as the source, (such as the ones used in the article here), but we will not pay the higher article fee for such quotes.

End With Take Aways

Make sure every article has a take-away value that can be exerciseed by the reader.

Clear Photographs

Pictures must be in focus.
Free of clutter.
Well lit.
Close up shots.

Submission Page

Use this form for paid submissions.
Use this form to submit donated articles.