Thank you for wanting to contribute to the CAA blog! Your post will be shared through the CAA’s Facebook, Google+, and Twitter accounts, so they will receive wide exposure. These guidelines are intended to protect and strengthen the CAA blog’s reputation for quality apologetics material.
After reading through these guidelines, please fill out this application.
We expect all contributors to have a basic familiarity with WordPress (There is an introductory tutorial available).
General Expectations for All Posts:
1. All posts must be “polished work.” You should always use the “Preview” feature to make sure your post is error-free and well edited before scheduling it for publication. Especially if you are a new writer, we encourage you to have someone else proofread your work before you add it to the CAA blog.
2. All posts must be directly relevant to apologetics. If you write about politics, theology, current events, and so on, be sure that your post is still primarily about apologetics.
3. All posts must exemplify the values of “unity, liberty, and charity.” This means that while we are okay with differences of opinion, posts may not be divisive, disparaging, crude, or inappropriate. Potentially controversial posts require admin approval. Do not disparage Christians unfamiliar with apologetics, question the validity of their faith, or mock their churches and pastors. We reserve the right to delete any posts that are negative, attacking, or divisive in any way.
4. Give credit where credit is due and don’t plagiarize. If we learn that you have plagiarized, we will delete your posts and you will no longer be allowed to publish your posts at the CAA blog.
5. Make sure you set up your WordPress profile with a completed “Biographical Info” field. Do not insert your bio at the bottom of your posts, as WordPress will automatically include the content in the Biographical Info field.
6. You are required to add a CAA logo to your blog, if you have one. If you don’t have a blog, we ask that you add your CAA’s author page url to your social media profiles. We will include you on our Contributors page, with a link to either your personal blog, social media account, or your CAA author page (let us know what you prefer).
7. The CAA administrative team reserves the right to edit any posts published on our website as needed. We may clean up spelling and grammar errors, as well as improving on style and tone, and we further reserve the right to postpone or remove any posts that we feel are not appropriate for the CAA blog. Work that does not meet our quality standards will be changed to “pending review” by our editorial team until you have appropriately developed the post. If we need to remove your post, we will notify you that we have done so and explain why.
Specific Expectations for All Posts:
1. The title of your blog post should be in the “down style” and less than 70 characters.
2. Posts in essay format need to contain an introduction with a clear thesis, a body of well-developed supporting arguments, and a compelling conclusion. The conclusion must not introduce new ideas or end abruptly with no resolution. We do not allow posts that begin or end like a letter (salutations, etc.).
3. If the main content of your post is a podcast or video, you should first summarize the video or audio content with at least one or two paragraphs.
4. If post is published elsewhere on the Internet, link to the original post’s direct link at the end (and not in the body of the post). Also, add this direct link in the “canonical field” (this is located below the body of the post). You must have the right to republish the post at the CAA.
5. Include one “More” tag (click the “More” button) after the first or second paragraph. Please do not create a “Continue reading” link at the bottom of your post that links to the rest of the post off-site. We only allow full posts at the CAA, not partial work.
6. Change all links to “in-line links.” (If needed, see our “How to In-Line Link” doc).
7. We recommend that all posts be between 400-1500 words. You will need to provide a reasonable justification for exceptions to this recommendation.
8. All posts need to be placed in 2-3 categories (list of categories here). Every post must have the “Uncategorized” category unchecked. Click here to learn how to add a category to your post. If you are reviewing apologetics material, and using the “Review” category, be sure to additionally check 1-2 other categories. Do not check both a parent category and a child category within the same category.
9. We discourage the use of tags and we do not allow either your name or your blog name to be used as tags.
Scheduling Posts:
1. Commit to a monthly posting day. We encourage you to immediately schedule out a year of posts on your monthly posting days when signing up as a new author. If you choose not to do this, be sure to set up a personal reminder for yourself so you don’t forget to follow through on your commitment.
2. In addition to your monthly post, you are allowed to post at the CAA blog up to twice a week. If you’ve already posted twice in a week, schedule it out for a future date. When scheduling posts, choose open time-slots in the WordPress calendar.
3. Authors who have not published in 40 days will be removed from the Contributors list. Authors who have not published in 50 days and do not plan to do so, will be removed as authors (content will remain, and guest posts are always welcome).
4. When posting a series to the CAA blog (e.g., four connected posts on the problem of evil), schedule each of the posts in the series a week apart from one another.
5. Please respond to comments to your blog post(s). Comments may be posted at the CAA blog and at the CAA’s Facebook page. (We encourage you to share your CAA posts across your social media accounts).
Communication with the CAA Blog Team
1. We send out very few mass group-emails to our authors, so you must join, collaborate, and stay informed within our CAA Blog Authors group. Full Authors are also encouraged to join the Apologetics Bloggers Alliance.
2. Here are other documents, including updates list, posting ideas, weekly stats, SEO handbook, et cetera.
3. Ask for help, if needed, after reading the “If You Need Help” document. If all else fails, email the admins.
Within the Christian Apologetics Alliance, we consider our bloggers an essential part of our community and we very much appreciate your interest in working with us. We are here to help with any of your questions or concerns as you begin to work with us to post your content.
We look forward to your contributions!
Sincerely,
The Christian Apologetics Alliance Administrative Team