–All post should be placed into either the “featured” or “news” category. If it’s content that is written/produced for and appears on our site, then it is “featured.” If it’s general happenings in the community, or pointing out interesting posts on other peoples’ sites, then it is “news.” If it’s a piece of news that directly relates to our site (i.e. the recent call for volunteers, or the maintenance notice I’m going to post sometime today), then it should be placed into both.
–Also mark posts into any other categories that are appropriate (interviews, reviews, etc.). It’s OK to select multiple categories.
-Use the “guest post” category for guest posts.
–Be sure to include the archiving tag for featured posts [theme]{space}[year of posting]. For example “business 2015” or “pushing the boundary 2016”
–Have at least 1 photo/graphic inserted into each piece of content (especially original content), and set the “featured image” for the article. Readers like visual aspects to articles.
-If you are doing a review of a product and receive a review copy for the feature, be sure to mention that the software/files/hardware was provided to you. (You can simply thank the maker for providing the copy for the review so you can seem nice in the process)
-Articles that you post from a guest contributor should have attribution at the top of the article (usually in italics) such as: “Guest contribution by Cheesy McSaltyburger (Salty Audio)” or “Special thanks to Cheesy McSaltyburger for contributing this article to Designing Sound”. If possible: also include their website or Twitter handle or some other way to get in contact with the author as a hyper link attached to their name in the above examples or at the end of the article when you thank them in italics. Do not include their email address or else they will get spammed beyond belief.
–Please be very descriptive with Tags. Any names mentions of persons, places, things should be added as tags. As well as if it is film audio, game audio as well as more abstract concepts. Please check posts by Shaun Farley for an example of how detailed we all should be.
-Rule of thumb: schedule posts on weekdays for better visibility. As well as check the Google Calendar so that you can schedule the post on a day without other new original content. (and be sure to add your post to the Google Calendar!)
-Contact Shaun or Jack for any needs regarding uploading to YouTube or Soundcloud accounts. Please use the DS accounts when possible, otherwise we cannot control broken links in the future (ie if a guest contributor takes a video down from their own account).
-Use external image and video links when possible. Uploading pictures to our own sever uses up a lot of bandwidth that we don’t have. Also: resize and use smaller images when appropriate.