Getting the

most out
of Digital
Doughnut
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Introduction
All members of the Digital Doughnut
community can post their articles to the site
for FREE. However, you do need to become a
member of the site to contribute.
We don't promise to publish everything we
receive, as we do moderate all submissions to
ensure quality control. This isn’t an exercise in
creating linkbait or driving traffic to your
website. Your aim should be create articles
that deliver real value to the community, and
build your thought leadership.
The aim of this guide is to help you
understand how to get your content read,
and deliver a positive outcome for both you
and the members.
Our easy to use content management
system, Kentico, allows you to easily post
you own articles to the site.
Once logged in, click on the Post
Contribution button, then click on the New
Article button to start posting. It can take
up to 2 to 3 days for your article to be
published. You will receive an email once
your article has gone live on the site.
You can easily add images, videos and links
to illustrate your articles. But please be
aware the you must have the rights to
publish all the content that you use.
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Benefits
Digital Doughnut can help you develop the
relationships and knowledge you need to
make your business better, as well as share
your own skills, expertise and know-how.
Digital Doughnut delivers the insights we all
need to flourish.
•  Post your own articles to world’s largest
digital and marketing community
•  Share your knowledge with other domain
experts within the community
Digital Doughnut allows you to build
engagement with other members of the
community.
•  Create content that drives involvement and
participation with you and your business
Digital Doughnut can help you and your
business build your reputation. Whether
people, ideas or brands – the things that
are great need sharing.
•  Build and amplify your reputation within
the community
•  Demonstrate your thought leadership and
expertise
•  Understand and uncover what your peers
value
•  Make your content work harder and more
intelligently
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Article Do’s & Don’ts

Before you start here’s some simply do’s and don’ts that will help you get the most out
of building your thought leadership on Digital Doughnut and ensure that your article is
accepted for publication…

...but don’t create content that plagiarises

Build your thought leadership by creating
someone else’s content, or is an advert for
original and engaging articles…
your products, services, reports or events*

Articles should be well-formatted,

...but If you’ve got a single sentence that’s
with short concise sentences, plenty of
the length of a whole paragraph, rethink it
paragraph breaks and white space...

...but make sure you have

Use images to illustrate your article…
permission to use them

...but don’t base it solely on someone

Create infographics to help make a point
else’s report or research. This builds THEIR
or illustrate your own research…
thought leadership, not YOURS

...but don’t include lots of links to

Do provide external links to authoritative
content on your site, or low-quality
content and original research...
articles on other sites

…but make sure they are

Use quotes and references…
properly attributed

...but avoid stuffing your article

Get someone to check your spelling and
with keywords and jargon, write for
grammar before you post your article...
humans not search engines

Include a link to your social

...but don’t add your contact
media profiles in your Digital Doughnut
information into the article
member profile…

Make sure you link to your article from …but don’t simply republish the
your website and social media. This article on your site or social media,
will improve your SEO as we are a high as you won’t benefit from the follow
ranking and authoritative site... links that you’ll get from us

* If you want to find out more about promoting your products, services, reports or events contact sales@digitaldoughnut.com

Research Before
You Write

Who is your audience? What are there needs?

The Digital Doughnut membership is a
broad church - from junior marketers to
business leaders. You need to be very clear
when planning your article which
segment(s) of the community you are
trying to reach.
What is your target audience trying to do,
and how can you help them? Does your
article relate to their specific interests, or
help them address the challenges they are
facing in their business? Or can you simply
help broaden their own knowledge and
keep them ahead of the curve?

From our experience, junior Reading other members’

marketers are more likely to articles, and the responses
TIP respond to articles that focus
on the ‘how’, while senior
TIP to those posts, will help you
spot the challenges or
marketers and business problems your target
leaders may be looking for something more audience are facing, and identify where you
strategic, such as articles that explain the can add value.
‘why’.
6

What are you going to What format should it

say? take?
There are thousands of articles on the
Digital Doughnut site. So how do you add
to the on-going conversation and develop
thought-leadership within the community,
without repeating what’s already been said
before? Do you have a clear point of view
or opinion? Does your article feel personal
and authentic? Can you offer a unique
angle on a specific topic, or bring
something new to the table? Remember to
use data, research or case studies to
validate your arguments, where you can.
There are plenty of options when it comes
to creating an article for the site. It could
be…
•  A how-to-guide, or list-based post
•  An Infographic or report you’ve created
•  An article that responds to an important
news story that’s relevant to marketers
•  Or something that is thought-provoking,
or simply entertaining

Use a case study you’ve Use a a video or

created, or the findings
TIP from a survey or report
that you’ve read to make a
point that hasn’t been
made before. Or focus on how a specific
business sector might benefit from your
advice.
Slideshare presentation
TIP that you’ve created to
further illustrate you
your article and drive
engagement with the Digital Doughnut
membership.
7
Tips On Writing
Your Article
Grab Their Attention Make It Easy To Read
Your headline should be short, concise and
give people a reason to click. Hubspot has
plenty of great tips on writing headlines*.
Your first paragraph should introduce the
story you’re trying to tell, and make people
want to read on. Be clear what value they’ll
get from reading your article.
Use keywordw and content
search tools° to identify
TIP what people are looking
for, and which words or
phrases will get your post
noticed.
* http://bit.ly/1aGVZcD
w http://bit.ly/1uhUokM
° http://bit.ly/1Gk1Z6e
Over half of the people who click on your
article won’t read the content all the way to
the end, so make sure that readers can
easily grasp the key points from your post,
even if all they do is scan read it. Try to
avoid using unnecessary jargon, but equally
don’t talk down to your readers.
Use short paragraphs,
section headers, bullet
TIP points and other simple
formatting techniques
(such as bolding or italics)
to break up the content and make your
article easy to read.
8
How long should it be? What visuals can I use?
There are no strict rules around article
length. Concise 300-500 word pieces -
such as how-to-guides or list-based posts -
are not only popular and easily accessible,
but are more likely to be remembered,
especially if the reader only has a few
minutes to spare.
However, an in-depth 1.500-word article
can be just as effective, especially if you are
covering a new topic or something that
merits in-depth analysis. It’s also been
found that longer posts are more likely to
be shared, even if the reader hasn’t read all
of the article!
Tools such as
buzzsumo.com can not
TIP only help you identify
what has been written
about a specific topic, but
will also give you and idea of what word
lengths are likely to be the most effective.
Visuals are an important tool in helping you
get your article seen, and read. There are
lots of free images available online, but you
need to ensure that you have the rights to
use them, before posting them on Digital
Doughnut. When it comes to fair use, it’s
not OK…
•  If you link back to the source of the photo
•  If you reference the photographer's name
•  If you only use part of the image
Always make sure you a have the rights to
use an image. You can get free images
from both Unsplash.com and Flickr
Creative Commons. But if you’re still
unsure Get Spokal have created an
excellent guide*, which provides all the
information you might need.
* http://bit.ly/1mGBooK
If your business has
created a white paper,
TIP report or case study you
may already have access
to a number of visuals,
charts, infographics, tables, or diagrams
that you can use to illustrate your article.
9

How can I make sure

my articles will be
found?
The new Digital Doughnut site provides a Always ensure that you
number of different ways of getting your accurately tag your articles
article noticed. The home page will feature
the latest and most popular articles, while
TIP to ensure that they come
up in site searches. But
the sites content can also be searched by please be sensible. No one
category. We will also pick one featured will thank you for taking them to an article
article, which will be highlighted at the top on email marketing, when they were
of the homepage, and changed regularly. looking for an something on programmatic
We will also be featuring the best articles in advertising.
our weekly newsletters to the membership,
which will also help drive traffic to your
article.
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Outcomes

What outcomes should What do you want

you expect?
It may be that you’re trying to start a
conversation, drive engagement, share
valuable insights, or sound off about
something that you’re passionate about.
Equally you may be looking to enhance
your or your company’s reputation,
develop new business partnerships, or
generate new business enquiries.
These are all good reasons to contribute,
but you need to be clear what you want to
get from writing the article, and be realistic
about the outcomes.
readers to do?
If you want readers to respond to you, does
your article include a clear call to action?
Do you want people to comment, share, or
contact you? If you don’t get the response
you hoped for, what can you do better to
get the response you wanted next time?
Ask a question in the
last paragraph of your
TIP article to get the
conversation started. But
remember it needs to be
valuable for both you, and your readers, to
ensure that you get a response.

Content that is seen as

nothing more than linkbait is
TIP unlikely to drive engagement or
build thought leadership
within the community.
© DIGITAL DOUGHNUT 2016

info@digitaldoughnut.com

digitaldoughnut.com

+44 (0)207 193 4600

Digital Doughnut
Shoreditch Building
35 Kingsland Road
London, E2 8AA