
Well howdy. How’s it going? Whatcha been up to?
Let me start off by pointing out the obvious – the past 2-3 years have not seen as much content on IkigaiWay as years past. The explanation: I have shifted a lot of my time and attention to creating books. It started of with “Tales from the Western Generation”, and has shifted to helping other martial arts authors achieve their publishing aspirations since then. I’m very happy about the whole thing, although it does mean that IkigaiWay is much less vibrant than it used to be.
One thing I used to do was feature articles by readers. Instead of sprinkling them here and there, I would dedicate a whole week to reader articles. I felt this was valuable because it gave exposure to some different perspectives. It was also a concentrated blast of a variety of topics, which can be fun to experience back-to-back.
So, that being said, I’d like to do it again! This could be a great way to kickstart action on the blog and give some readers a chance to shine.
Submit Your Article Here:
Who’s Eligible to Submit an Article?
You are! As you know IkigaiWay is not style-specific, so you can bring whatever experience you have to the table. Whether you’re a 30 year vet or a 2 year newbie, it doesn’t matter. If you have something interesting to contribute, go for it. Since I’ll be acting as your editor and assistant, you needn’t be self conscious about matters such as spelling and grammar.
What Should I Write About?
The door is fairly wide open regarding your topic. However, I can give you some general guidelines that will improve your chances of getting selected:
Avoid:
- Attacks on any specific person or organization you happen to dislike
- Promotional bragging about your organization or school
- Raw training schedules about your workouts or routine
- Self aggrandizing biography
Consider:
- Weird or unique historical studies
- Important lessons learned throughout your training
- Memorable experiences with instructors
- Specific concept analysis
- Broad scope trends and goings-on in the martial arts world
- Whatever else you can dream up!
How Long Should the Submission Be?
My articles tend to vary wildly in length. However I would suggest not dipping below three paragraphs. If you start to wonder if your submission should be an ebook, you might have gone on too long.
How Do I Submit?
Submission is easy. First, create your article in a file that is friendly with Microsoft Word, Wordpad, or Notepad (if this is impossible for you, let me know. We can probably make arrangements via Google Docs). Include the text of the submission either in the body of the email you send or as a separate attachment.
Once your article is prepared, fill out this short form:
Matt – I submitted an article but wasn’t given the option to submit photos. So I cut and paste the article and tried to upload the photos. Let me know if it was successful. Otherwise you can see the preview of my post – I’ve scheduled it for my blog on Nov 20. This means you can use the article anytime before then. Afterwards, it’ll be pushed up on my site. Hope you’re fine with that. https://7261308875817560474_8d0c28d5ce681214374e426fc27ffaebcd03dad3.blogspot.com/b/post-preview?token=NH48ol0BAAA.Ofoa8ib2XZgn5or2-ubdyzl3uqBdl6_ZTz_uQrHbVHVtgJgmEC82cQMe69VnhuUJea6OqJwExhsdhei0OSNDEw.u8wL5v7ocl_4zli3OTPSTw&postId=1229560347738909986&type=POST Cheers, Colin
Hi Colin! Great to hear from you, as always, and I appreciate your submission. For photos, I would recommend using the “upload article” file upload button. With that, you can send me a word document with the photos already imbedded. However, if you are intending on publishing the article on your website even if it goes up on mine, I would not consider it for the Reader Week. It’s always best to avoid duplicate content. If I publish it first on my website, I’ll get canonical credit for it, which means search engines may react poorly to it appearing on your site. Vice versa would be true if you published it on your site first. I hope you have a stand-alone piece you could submit!
Alright Matt – I understand your position. I’ve just deleted the article from my site at http://www.joongdokwan.com. So go ahead and use it as you will. And if you don’t use it – please let me know so I can put it back on mine. Cheers, Colin
Roger that, thanks Colin.