Share Your Knowledge!
Know something worth telling people about? How would you like to share your ASP.NET knowledge with tens of thousands
of developers around the world!? If this sounds exciting to you, consider writing an article
for 4Guys!
We accept articles written on nearly any ASP.NET or web development-related topic. If you have an idea for an article,
drop us a line, and let us know what you're interested in
writing about.
| Unique Articles, Please |
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At 4Guys we like to have unique, useful articles. Many article authors want to obtain the largest possible
audience for their articles, so they send them to many websites. That's perfectly fine, but
if you're taking that approach, please do not send it in the 4Guys as well. We aim to publish unique
articles that can't be found elsewhere. Thanks!
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Why Write for 4Guys?
Why should you write an article for 4Guys? After all, we don't pay our authors. If you're someone who
gets excited when talking about ASP.NET, who likes coming up with neat ideas and sharing these ideas with others,
writing for 4Guys will assist you in sharing your idea with thousands of other developers. 4Guys
attracts tens of thousands of unique visitors each day - that's tens of thousands of pairs of eyeballs reading your article each
day!
If you have fun writing and sharing your interests and expertise with others, you are the ideal author candidate!
We put no pressure on writing deadlines or styles.
(We do ask that your article focus on lengthy explanations and examples as opposed to a short description
followed by a lengthy code dump.)
Make sure that you write about something you know and are
excited about, and that you have fun writing the article! If it takes you a day, fine. If it takes you a
year, that's OK too! Just make sure you have a fun time writing! If you had fun writing your article, others
will have fun reading it.
The Technical Details
Once you have decided on a topic and have contacted us and gotten the go-ahead,
it is absolutely imperative that you write your article in text format. Not HTML format; not Word format.
Text format - using Notepad or Edit or some other text editor. Go ahead and use
Word if you like, but be sure to save as text! Articles
written in formats other than text will most likely be sent back to the author.
(Writing an article in
text format shortens the editing process on our end dramatically.)
Screen shots are strongly encouraged where appropriate. All images should be in either GIF, JPG, or PNG format in
with a reasonable file size, please.
All code used in the article should be sent in as well in ZIP format. Once you have completed your article, email it - along with
images, code, and article text - to mitchell@4guysfromrolla.com.
Depending on the current queue of articles, it can take several weeks before your
article will appear on 4Guys. Normally, however, articles make it onto the site within a few
weeks.
The Stylistic Details
When you write your article, there are certain things to keep away from and others to tend toward. Things
to stay away from include:
- Very long, unborken blocks of source code
- Inadequate discussion of an advanced topic (never assume that everyone knows what you're talking about - if
you don't want to delve into details, at least provide a URL for more information)
Stylistic techniques that are encouraged include:
- A beginning introduction explaining what the article will examine in plain English
- A high-level technical discussion of the various parts and pieces of your code/application
- A more indepth look at each of these pieces (refrain from one large code dump - rather, break up your
code into logical pieces and discuss each of these pieces in detail)
- A conclusion, nicely summarizing the lessons learned
Sticking to these encouraged stylistic practices and refraining from the discouraged stylistic practices will
make your article easier to read, understand, and use for the tens of thousands of readers who will read your
article each day. It will also make our job easier since less time will be needed to be spent editing your
article. Thanks.
You might also find my blog, Scott On Writing to
have some helpful gems regarding style, coming up with ideas, organization, and what not...
At minimum, be sure to read Writing for a Technical Web Site.
To Conclude...
If you'd like to write for 4Guys, start by dropping us a line, letting us know
what topic(s) you'd like to write about! We hope to hear from you soon!
Happy Programming!
