Citizen Journalists Resource Center

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News Photos Just In Debate Topic Latest News Articles Local News Blog Posts Pictures Reviews Recipes

Resource Center

Quick Tour

Articles Submission

Have a flair for writing? Like voicing your opinions? Want to be heard? Look no further! Submit your article today. To learn how to submit articles, click on the link below.

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Photos Submission

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. We say it is more. No words can express a moment as a single picture can. To learn how to submit a single picture or an album, click on the link below.

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Just In Submission

Time is of crucial essence, and so is news. Use lesser words and be quick to report. News on the go, for you and by you! To learn how to submit a Just In news, click on the link below.

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Debate Submission

You have a strong viewpoint and need people to discuss it, both for and against it? Publish your debates and gather diverse views. To learn how to submit a Debate, click on the link below.

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Humour Submission

Remember that funny story you heard lately that made you laugh till there was water in your eyes? Share it! Lighten up the moment. Make someone laugh. To learn how to submit Humour, click on the link below.

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About My Page

My page embraces all the functions of social networking for every citizen journalist. To learn more about Mypage and its features, click on the link below.

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WE Program

Join the WE Program and start earning from your contributions. To learn more about the program, click on the link below.

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Contribution Guidelines

You should be the owner of the content or rather the content has to be created by you. If your content has already been published in some other website or magazine ensure that you hold the copyright and the contributors name matches with your account name in Merinews. Merinews reserves the right to accept or deny publishing.

The content length should not be less than 300 words.

Content should be grammatically correct, proper sentence formation, right spelling and should adhere to the Article formatting guidelines given in the left column.

Merinews does not allow any writing which is stuffed with keywords. Though Merinews encourages contributors to optimize their content for search engines, but the content must meet the quality standards. Excessive key word stuffing leads to very poor sentence structure and creates an unpleasant experience for the reader. If such kind of content with excessive key words in title or body is observed even after publishing it would be removed from Merinews and sent back to the contributor for editing.

If the articles submitted by you are virtually the same as articles submitted by you or some other contributor or available on other website with few words being changed then Merinews reserves the rights to deny publishing such articles. Since such articles would create a negative impact on search engines and would impact the ranking of other articles already published and Merinews does not consider them as original article and this may result in deactivating your account.

While writing a title for your article, ensure that it is descriptive and flashes the crux of the message the article has to convey. Also keep in mind that if a reader is using a search engine, what kind of words he/she would type to reach your article. To know more about writing headline click on "How to write a title" in the left column.

Though we encourage you to promote yourself and your business or services, excessive self or brand promotion or providing external links in the article are not allowed. Also Merinews does not allow unrelated promotional content about the author or about a business or service.

You cannot submit content related to pornographic, defamatory, inflammatory, obscene, abusive, contain hate speech, encourage illegal or discriminatory content or infringe the rights of any third party. This is not an exhaustive list and any determination of violation of content guidelines solely vests with Merinews.

You must mention the sources that were used in your content creation. For example if you are quoting a line from an interview of President Obama by The Washington Post, the source has to be clearly mentioned or if you are referring to any key statistics from a government site mention the site as the source. But this doesn’t mean that you copy content as is from any such site mention the source and publish. This amounts to plagiarism and Merinews reserves the right to remove such content from the site.

Article Formatting

Use single line space between paragraphs.

Use line breaks only at the end of paragraphs. The text that you copy and paste into our system should fill the width of the screen.

Do not use block or centered formatting for any portion of text.

All text should be left-justified.

Content is published in 11-point Verdana font. Our text editor would automatically convert your submission to this style.

Limit use of bold, italicized or underlined words to highlight section headers or key points.

Please refrain from capitalizing all letters anywhere in your submission.

Remove your name or and personal information, since all your content display your name and is linked to your profile page.

Place the title of your content in the headline field only

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Don’t submit your article in the Description field.

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The article has to be submitted only in the field which says “Cut & paste your article”.

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The description field should depict the theme of the content in not more than 50 words or it can be an important phrase or quote from the article.

How to choose a Topic

Content on the following topics doesn't typically attract a lot of traffic. These topics include:

1. Artistic Writing (including memoirs or imaginative writing, poetry, short stories or any variety or prose)

2. Any reviews on Movies, Music and Television programs (except sneak-peak reviews)

3. Reviews of Video games (except recently-released games, cult-classic games and comprehensive guides not readily available online)

4. Website reviews

5. Opinion/Editorial pieces

6. Recipes

The content that does not have in depth information about what a visitor would be looking for on the respective subject/topic.

The content which is not unique and is already available on the web. If it’s a generic topic, then the content should be very specific. For example try narrowing down on a generic topic like “Christmas Vacations” to a more specific topic like “Christmas vacations in Las Vegas”.

The content submission is very similar to content which is already there in Merinews. Before getting into creating content do a quick search in Merinews to find out if the content is already submitted. If you can provide more info than the existing content then create your content and submit.

There are many topics were the content shelf-life is very less. The internet is a very unpredictable market and the search patterns differ from day to day and region to region. For example “The Super Bowl results” is searched in the US only and not from any other country and the shelf life is very less since nobody searches for the result after a week of the event.

If the content has already been published on the web before it is published at Merinews it would not attract visitors.

Plagiarized content:

1. The content doesn’t belong to the contributor or portions of the content are already available in the web which is contributed by someone else.

2. Parts of the content or specific quotes which are published (both web & print) are included with out proper citation of the source.

3. Even if the citation of the source is mentioned but the content includes too much of third party content then we don’t consider the content as original.

Submitting News Content

News submissions must be at least 300 words. However, in the case of breaking news, submissions which are 200 plus words would be considered. Abuse of this policy could result in suspension of news-publishing privileges.

All news submissions must properly cite sources of content or quotes. When you are using quotes from other sources (Web, print or television) the source should be mentioned immediately after sourced content or quote.

Merinews encourages original reporting. Original reporting is about gathering first hand information from the primary resources such as:

• newsworthy events that have a broader appeal.

• detailed first-hand accounts of how a major, newsworthy event is affecting you.

• localized content, such as reporting about local events, city council meetings.

• interviews with scientists, government officials, business representatives or celebrities.

• interviews with local politicians on local community issues.

• Stories on common people who are involved in newsworthy events like experience of a relative, friend or neighbor deployed as part of the United Nations fleet to fight Somalian pirates in International waters or about opening of a new community facility in your area.

Merinews welcomes News analysis and opinion, but they can't be rewritten versions of a previously published story or press release. News analysis and opinion submissions must:

• be a well researched and well reasoned on a major news based on event or media coverage.

• unique, original and the tone to be maintained.

• should mention all the sources explored or cited.

• avoid heavy personalized tone or too much of ranting.

How to write a Title

The article title is a key for a visitor to move towards the articles. The title has to capture the imagination of the visitor. Visitor means the right audience to read your article.

Before writing an article title the following approach has to be adopted:

There is big difference between writing titles for online articles and print. Since search engines play a major role in sending a visitor, you need to write titles thinking that these are the words the visitor would be typing in a search engine.

Think about whom you would be targeting. For example a college teen wouldn't be interested in an article on Wall Street index. Conclude that the article would be targeting business visitors or potential investors who are very busy and serious about their business. Hence the title should be very specific and descriptive in nature quickly conveying on what the article is on. Also when the search engines display at least 10 articles in a search result page a visitor would click only those titles which convey what he is looking for.

Also understand the geographical location from were visitor would come. For example a US visitor would not be looking for what happened in the elections in Chile.

Compelling article Titles: Man is prone to curiosity; if you look at history curiosity has paved way for discoveries and inventions. If you write a compelling article title it will compel the reader to click and read the article. Compelling title is mostly used for creative writing. Let’s see how to write on compelling titles:

a. How to-titles: When you write an article title on “How to-“it means that you are providing instructions on how to do something. For example

i. How to loose 2 pounds in a week?

ii. How to save tax?

iii. How to find a school for your child?

b. Question titles: People always seek answers to their questions. Even if the topic is of no concern people tend click and read the article. For example

i. Is your child immune from Swine Flu?

Even if your child is healthy you would like to know more on the same to be cautious in future.

c. c. List Titles: The list title is very similar to the above. List titles are used to stimulate the reader’s interest. For example

i.10 ways to lament your broken relationship

i.5 tips stay slim without exercising.

All the above compelling titles are to invoke interest on the reader to click and read the article. Your success to pull a reader to your article to an larger extent depends on the title. But ensure that you provide the necessary info in a proper flow explaining things in a step by step manner and maintain a proper flow.

FAQ's ( Frequently Asked Questions )

What is Merinews?

Merinews is the largest citizen journalism portal. It is an open platform for every person to share news, views, analysis, pictures etc.

What is citizen journalism?

Citizen Journalism is defined as the process by which a citizen irrespective of his educational and professional background takes up the onus of reporting an incident, through writing or sending a picture(s), to the entire world. Check out the citizen journalism page for more.

Who can contribute content?

Anybody who is above 18 is allowed to submit his/her contribution(s) on merinews.com. You only need to make a simple registration to submit your articles on merinews. Click here to register.

Will all my articles get posted on merinews.com?

All the articles submitted to merinews pass through a moderation process profanity and authenticity check. Depending on the quality of the article, it gets posted either on merinews.com or the clog (citizens’ log) section of merinews. Articles which are copied or lifted from other websites or articles written by somebody else are not published. Submitted piece should be an original work of the contributor.

How do I contribute content?

In order to contribute you need to make a simple registration. Click here to register.

What happens after I submit my content?

Every contribution will pass through the moderation process before it gets posted. As soon as the content is posted, an intimation mail is sent to your registered mail id.

How to view my articles?

As soon as the article is posted it will appear in the recent articles section on the home page. It will also appear in the respective category. Your Mypage also displays links of your articles under the articles section. If you are still not able to views use the search function to searh your content ny contributor or by the content title.

Do I get paid for writing?

There are no direct payouts for contribution but however we share the advertising revenue generated through your content. To know more about the WE program click here.

What is WE program all about?

If you are a writer or a photo journalist you can earn through the content contributed by you. The revenue generated by the advertisements placed in your content pages is shared with you.

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How does this model work?

It’s very simple, the revenue is calculated based on the pageviews on your content pages. All the articles and pictures submitted have advertisements. All these advertisements generate revenue based on the responses or page views on that particular page. According to the pageviews and the corresponding revenue from a citizen journalist’ contributions the revenue is shared. This would vary between citizen journalists since revenue generation is based on the quality, type of content and current news trends.

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How is this WE program different from other revenue share sites?

The WE program is unique in the sense that, every revenue sharing site shares revenue based on an imaginary index on a monthly basis where the contributor is clueless on the revenue earned. Merinews is transparent in the revenue sharing and the contributor can see the exact revenue generated from any contribution. This helps the contributor to understand what kind of content generates more revenue and help him to earn more.

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How do I earn revenue?

The content pages attract visit which is a pageview. The pageview is directly proportional to the revenue generated by the ads in that page. At the end of every month revenue generated is calculated and shared. However the

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How do I maximize the revenue earnings?

The revenue report on your MyAccount clearly shows you the revenue generated from each contribution. This is an indicator for you to understand what type of content is more sought after by visitors. Also since most of the advertisements displayed are contextual (means Ads served based on the type of content) it will give you a clear idea of what type of content earns more accordingly you can organize your contribution pattern.

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How do I get to know how much I had earned?

Once you login into your account you will land on your Mypage where you have MyAccount. Under the MyAccount you have a revenue report which is updated on a monthly basis. It will show a report which is displayed content title wise with the respective pageviews and estimated revenue earnings. You can use the calendar to find out the revenue earned from these pages during a specific time period.

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What is Pageview?

The no. of times a content page has been viewed by visitors.

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Why pageviews are different in my content page and revenue report?

Since the revenue report is based on Google Analytics which doesn’t count automated visits or robotic hits you see the difference.

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I had posted articles on different topics though the pageviews are same but the revenue earned is different, why?

Since the advertisements are geo-targeted the revenue generated varies according to visits from different countries.

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How will I receive my payments?

Your payments would be processed through your Paypal account. However for contributors from Indian cheque payment option is also available.

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Is there any restriction on submission of content?

Yes, there is a restriction on submission of content. Not more than 20 articles can be submitted per day. However there is no restriction on the number of photos uploaded.

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Is my content protected for copyrights?

Refer to Clause 4 of the The Terms of Use (TOU) regarding the Rights of Use

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Can I edit my content?

No, once submitted you cannot edit your content. However if you like to make some changes you can send your request at editor@merinews.com . But no requests for change in title would be entertained.

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Can I Tweet my content?

There is a content feed available on your Mypage which can be used to stream your content in your Twitter page.

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Can I update my content on Facebook or any other social networking site?

Yes, you can update your content using the RSS feeds available on your Mypage.

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Is this program open to non-US residents?

The WE program is open to any citizen who is a legal resident of a country.

If you have not found a satisfactory reply here, kindly mail your query to info@merinews.com. Kindly give us sometime to respond back.