Write for us

The CYPHER Learning Blog has hundreds of subscribers, thousands of monthly visits from people located around the globe, and more than 130K followers on social media. This means your voice will be heard and you have a chance to share your passion for online education with a diverse audience. You can also choose to write for a school and university, corporate or entrepreneurial reader base according to your experience and knowledge.

If you're a teacher, trainer, an industry expert, thought leader or you simply have a passion for e-learning, educational technology or online courses, and want to share your ideas with the world, you’re welcome to submit your article. 

Please note that we don’t accept articles if your real identity is hidden, meaning that we need to be able to verify your identity through your main website, LinkedIn, etc.

To find a good topic, first take a look at our existing blog posts and make sure that your article topic is new or offers a fresh perspective on a specific subject. However, it’s also a good idea to pitch a few topics first and we can work together from there. 

Here are just a few of the most frequent topics that we write about: 

K-20:

• Online teaching practices;
• Using a learning platform for teaching and learning;
• Practical ideas for incorporating edtech in the classroom;
• Implementing edtech across the curriculum;
• Student engagement in online learning. 

Business:

• Online training practices;
• Using a learning platform for training employees, clients, etc.;
• Creating effective online training;
• Topics related to leadership, organizational development, etc.

Entrepreneurs: 

• Designing self-paced online courses;
• Marketing online courses; 
• Selling online courses;
• Topics related to entrepreneurship such as personal branding and productivity.

The main audience depends on the related product. 

K-20 / CYPHER Neo: 

Schools and universities. We cover topics for teachers, LMS administrators, school management, and even parents.

Business / CYPHER Matrix:

Corporate. Our readers are instructional designers, trainers, managers, and HR professionals. 

Entrepreneurs / CYPHER Indie:

Entrepreneurs. Readers are knowledge entrepreneurs who create, market, and sell online courses on a variety of topics (fitness, online tutoring, coaching, etc.).

Yes. Those that have absolutely no connection to e-learning or edtech. For example, even if you want to talk about time management tips for knowledge entrepreneurs, the article should be related to e-learning and tailored to fit our audience. Please avoid general topics as well.

Adapted to the audience. The text should address our main readership (see What is your main audience?) and offer solutions to their pain points. General topics that don’t offer anything of value will not be taken into consideration. When applicable, include expert advice and examples. 

Readability. The writing should be simple and easy to follow. Avoid pompous words, jargon and clichés. Steer away from unnecessary modifiers, adjectives and adverbs. Sentences should be no longer than 20 words each and kept short for conciseness. Use a casual and conversational tone rather than academic or formal language.

Well-researched and informative. We expect extensive research and for writers to back up their claims with recent data and high-quality references.

Use American English. Because we’re based in the U.S., we use American spellings (for example, “color” instead of “colour”). We allow the use of “they” as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun.

Keep SEO in mind, but write for our audience. It’s good to keep SEO in mind and that’s why we usually offer an article brief complete with relevant keywords to writers that approach us for a potential collaboration. However, it’s more important to focus on making the text enjoyable to read, and we’ll do the SEO part during the editing phase. 

Follow industry term guidelines. We aim to be consistent with using “e-learning” and “edtech” even though other forms for each of these terms exist and are not wrong. So, if we change your spelling from “eLearning” to “e-learning” it’s just a matter of style. 

Keep a good structure. The article should have an introduction, body, and conclusion. Make sure to break long paragraphs into shorter ones. Don’t forget to add headlines whenever appropriate. Where possible, include subheadings, lists or quotes.

Add visual elements if appropriate. We encourage you to add images such as charts or tables if they help you illustrate a point and add value to the final article. 

Non-promotional content. We don’t accept content that is promotional and uses sales-y language. 

Both can work. You can send a full article for consideration or, if you’re not 100% certain that what you want to write about is a perfect fit for the blog, you can send a list of topics. We usually create an article brief for collaborators to help them draft the article. 

Also, sending us a sample of your previous work is highly appreciated. 

The article length depends on a number of factors. We require a minimum of 1,000 words. However, our blog articles are usually between 1,200 - 2,000 words, with 1,500 being a good average number. 

We actually encourage you to! But please only include links that provide extra information, are relevant to the context, and come from a reputable source. The more helpful they are to the reader, the better. You can link to academic papers, official reports, appropriate posts on your blog or on any other site, even websites of useful tools or systems. When you link to other posts on the CYPHER Learning blog, that makes us happy. 

However, keep in mind that we don’t add links to our competitors’ websites, blogs, or content that is sponsored by them. No affiliate or paid links please.

We take copyright issues seriously, so if you want a particular image to go with the article, please mention your right to use it or its source if it only needs attribution. Please note that we have a library of pictures for the blog, so you don’t have to send us an image for the main header, for example. 

Yes. Mostly we’ll edit and proofread for content and clarity or for SEO purposes. We promise these tweaks won't change your unique voice.

Please send a short description of maximum 50 words. Feel free to include links here that promote your activity. Also, include a high-quality headshot or an avatar of at least 150 x 150px. You'll also get an author page.

Of course you can! However, we don't want duplicate content issues on our blog and neither do you. We only ask to:

• Add the rel=canonical tag to the original link;
• Mention the original post within the text on your blog, such as “This post was originally published on the CYPHER Learning Blog” so that both readers and search engines will know where that content first appeared;
• Please wait at least a month before you republish.

No, we don’t offer payment for guest author submissions. 

No. We accept only valuable content for our readers. No sponsored posts please.

Send us an email at blog@cypherlearning.com.

We’ll be in touch within the next two weeks if it feels like a good fit for the blog at this time. If you send us a list of topics, we will consider it and send you an article brief to help you draft the text faster. 

If you send an article and don’t hear from us, feel free to try again with a different one.

We’d love for you to share it on social media. Of course, we will also promote it on our channels.

• We encourage you to send a post or a list of topics for consideration, as well as article samples;
• Guest writers should have a reader-first approach and provide valuable and educational content that is based on extensive research and their experience;
• Links are encouraged as long as they are from reputable sources and don’t include competitor content;
• We reserve the right to edit articles, especially for clarity and SEO purposes;
• Send your articles or ideas to blog@cypherlearning.com.