Thank you for your interest in writing for the websites and e-newsletters of 50Plus.com (part of ZoomerMedia Ltd). These editorial guidelines are intended to help you understand what we’re looking for and how to submit it.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

The ZoomerMedia Ltd. is Canada’s leading Internet publisher for the 45+ market. We operate a number of web sites and electronic newsletters designed to provide news, trends, and how-to information to Zoomers, Baby Boomers and seniors.

Here at 50Plus.com, our main categories are health, money, travel and lifestyle. Our readers are looking for news, insight into the latest trends and tips they can apply in their daily lives.

How can you get to know more about us and our audience? To understand more about our specific web properties, and some of the key demographics of our market, read our online media kit.

Also, it’s a good idea to visit our main website, www.50plus.com, so you can get a sense of new material as it comes online, and see how we keep our site fresh and engaging. (You can visit us on Twitter and Facebook too.)

We’re always interested in material that’s “different” – that offers a new perspective on a familiar topic, a less-than-obvious angle or an unusual or unexpected new resource.

COMPENSATION

We do not pay for unsolicited articles at this time. You will get a by-line, links to your web site or other appropriate destinations and you retain the right to re-market the article to other publishers, both online and offline.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Please read our submission requirements carefully. This will save us both a lot of time and inconvenience.

Article categories

Our main sections are health, money, travel, lifestyle, relationships, employment, and retirement living. The best way to understand what’s covered under each category is to browse the website or subscribe to our weekly newsletters. (Remember, we’re looking for fresh ideas and a new perspective.)

Content qualifications

To be qualified for consideration, your article…

  • Must be an original article that you wrote
  • Must not be an article that you took from public domain, or bought
  • Must not be a press release, advertisement, sales letter or other promotional piece (If you’re interested in advertising with us, click here.)
  • Must be proofed and checked for accuracy
  • Must not contain pornography, obscenity, or any material that would promote intolerance against any group
  • Must not contain content that is a violation of any law, or that would be considered defamatory or libelous

Format

Title: Ideally, titles should not be more than 10 words in length. The title should describe your topic and contain appropriate keywords. (Your name or your url can’t be part of the title.)

Author name: We need a first and last name; we don’t allow company names or email names to be listed as “author.”

Summary/Introduction: Articles should contain a brief summary/introduction of 15-25 words to describe the article — and catch readers’ attention.

Article body: Our preferred article length is 550-1000 words, but articles can be shorter or longer depending on the content.

Links: You can include links to your own website in the body of the article or within a brief author bio at the bottom of the article. We allow a maximum of 3 such links. You can include up to 3 links to third party websites that you do not own or control as long as the links provide information or resources important to the article.

We don’t advocate including a mailto: or email link to your personal or work email account. (Unfortunately, spammers will abuse it.) It’s better to include a valid website URL and let people find your email address on your website.

Keywords: Your title should be “keyword rich” – the first 3 or 4 words should describe the topic clearly.

Adding the top keywords related to your article helps us bring more traffic to the article. You should have a minimum of 4 – 5 keywords, and maximum of 25. We don’t accept keywords that are not related to the content of the article.

Technical specs: All articles should be submitted in Microsoft Word.

DECISIONS

We unfortunately cannot respond to every submission we receive. We will normally report back to you by email within 4 weeks if your article is accepted.

EDITING

We reserve the right to edit your article, change the headline, and write an article summary consistent with our style requirements. Submission of the article indicates your acceptance of these conditions.

HOW TO SUBMIT

Please submit your work to the Editorial Team at editor@50plus.com. (Please note that you will only hear back from us if your query is being considered for publication on 50Plus.com.)

We look forward to reviewing your material!