Regarding Our Columnists & Contributors

We always get a fair number of proposals from practitioners interested in contributing to ClickZ and Search Engine Watch. Lately, we’ve been getting an inordinate number of those proposals from outside PR firms and other third parties.

I’ve also had a few conversations recently with column candidates who seemed unable to refer to themselves in the first person. Discussions were impossible to steer away from how much “we” want to write a column for your publication, and “we” feel “we” can bring value to editorial submissions.

We do have posted guidelines that explain what we’re looking for in potential columnists, as well as how to go about submitting a pitch (so it’s not necessary to get into any of that here). But perhaps it’s a good idea to share our editorial policy about third-party pitches and columns “written” by companies.

We don’t do it. ClickZ’s relationship with all our contributors is directly editorial. The columns are written by the person you see in the photo and whose name is on the byline.

Some work for global conglomerates, others are free agent consultants. We select them not only because they know their stuff (and are strongly opinionated), but in equal measure due to their passion. They possess the fire and drive to sit down and write about their ideas themselves. In no small part, that’s what makes them good (whether you agree with them or not!).

This policy has never been explicitly shared with our readers, but it’s probably something you deserve to know.