Submitting articles to First Stop

We generally recommend 3 to 5 articles for e-news purposes. Anything more than 5 or 6 articles posted at a time may overpopulate your newsletter template in MailChimp (or alternative newsletter platform).

Note: Limits may vary depending on your newsletter template - consult your design associate if in doubt!

Similarly less than 3 or 5 articles posted at a time may under-populate your newsletter template leaving unsightly empty 'white space'.

Please Note, We would need content submitted (in the agreed formats) at least 7 days prior to the e-newsletter publication date.

Important considerations (incl for customers with partial publishing access):

1. Articles should be submitted/posted in draft (but fully edited/spell-checked) either on your website or submitted in Word format and each section / document clearly labelled with the article title
2. To keep a consistent and professional look to your blog articles they should consist of at least 150 to 350/500 words or so where possible  IMPORTANT: Research shows that web visitors are not keen on very long articles and are unlikely to read them. See; 'You Won’t Finish This Article' and 'Myth 1: People read on the web'
3. PDF or image fliers should be accompanied by the article text as set out above. (PDF documents and image fliers are not compatible for visually impaired users)
4. Provide any clearly specified attachments / downloads as separate Word or PDF documents
5. If submitting items by email please ensure any links required in the article(s) are clearly defined to specific text. Like this for example, "Congratulations to our [team of staff https://www.mywebsite/ourstaff/] that recently volunteered at a local charity."
   
6. Please provide any images for your articles (max. 2 per article) in high resolution JPEG, PNG or GIF format. If you do not have an image we will match one to the article content
7. Submit any images with descriptive titles (e.g. Staff volunteering at local charity, June 2018) so that we can tag them. Tagging helps blind and visually impaired web users to understand what any images are actually depicting
8. Avoid using images of graphs or tables in articles. It should be noted that any blind or visually impaired visitors to your website using screen readers will be unable to read text in images! You should be familiar with your responsibilities under the Disability Act 2010

Advantages of regular news posts: 

• Ensures that your website (a primary marketing tool) produces regular new content that in turn drives more traffic to your website and improves search ranking 
• You can share published posts to your Facebook & Twitter accounts which in turn will see further engagement 
• And last but not least, subscribers to your MailChimp/other e-newsletter will see more frequent issues of your e-news updates
  

A few things to note when submitting draft articles on websites yourself:

1. Observe the general guides already detailed above
2. When you upload images please give them proper/clear titles
3. Always use the category 'All News' or 'Newsletter' (or equivalent) and up to 2 others in the editor *
4. Always use at least 1 tag in the editor *
5. Always enter mailto: before email addresses when editing
6. See our publication 'Web Design Do's and Don'ts'

* Important: Please try using existing categories & tags where possible rather than create new ones!