Become a Columnist

Columnist Guidelines for PS Pulse

If you are interested in being a PS Pulse columnist, please contact Luanne (phone: 330-607-7294) and send 2 writing samples for review by our Editorial Board.

We publish new articles weekly. Your article will be published on the PSVillage home page for one week prior to going into the archives where it will continue to be accessible on the PSVillage site. If you’d like to see the published work of other authors who are active contributors to PS Pulse, go to our home page and click on PS Pulse.

PS Pulse Editorial Calendar

Click here to see the 2012 PS Pulse Editorial Calendar.

Submitting Your Article

What we need:

  • Your article
  • A title for your article
  • A brief, one-paragraph synopsis of your article that we can use for promotional purposes
  • Your bio
  • A headshot
  • Images must be provided in (.gif, .jpg or .png format) separate from the article
  • Suggest five keywords to highlight

Please be sure to put an article title, your name, title, company and company link at the top of the page. Also, if you would like us to publish your email address along with your bio, please be sure to include that as well.

Send your article, bio and photo to:

Luanne Pirogowicz
Community Relations Manager, PSVillage
330-607-7294

Choosing a Topic

Professional Services covers a range of topics, from very specific PS-related topics such as utilization, performance management, PS operations, customer satisfaction, PS business models, PSO interaction with sales and finance, outsourcing, partnering, etc. to more general topics on leadership, employee retention, contracts, communication, and team building. Think about the areas in which you/your team has excelled and why you’ve been successful. Write about how you accomplished what you set out to do and cite examples where possible. If you can provide charts, graphs, templates, models, etc., that makes your article of greater interest to the reader. Cite sources where possible.

Here’s a list of example topics to consider:

  1. Operations and Delivery
    1. Assessing the economic value of the PS businessProject and Consulting Methodologies
    2. Effective IP management
    3. Revenue Recognition
    4. Handling DSOs
    5. Service business growth rates
    6. Service acquisition success
    7. Service development life cycle
    8. Knowledge Management
    9. PSO best practices
    10. Benchmarking
  2. Sales and Marketing
    1. Sales and marketing best practices
  3. Human Resources
    1. Hiring and Retention
    2. Travel Challenges
    3. Compensation Models
    4. Team Building
    5. Leadership and Skills development
  4. SaaS/Cloud Computing
  5. Partnering
  6. Outsourcing
  7. Communication

Length of Article and Other Guidelines

  • Your article should be roughly 800-1600 words; it’s okay if you are under or over but try to keep it in that range.
  • Write short catchy headlines using appropriate keywords that relate to the article. Users should be able to grasp the gist of an article by reading its headline. This is the “hook” so to speak and generally has the most impact on whether or not your article will get read.
  • We encourage you to include templates, models, charts, graphs, links etc. to help make your point.
  • Consider using a "Top Ten List" to convey key points or ideas.
  • Keep in mind that this is a “community blog” and although the articles that appear are based on the author’s opinion, they should be backed up with facts wherever possible.
  • Consider writing in the first person, blog-style (not required, however) as it makes the article more personal, interesting and engaging.
  • Write in a conversational style, avoiding dry syntax or technical jargon - the casual human element will be much more appealing to our readers. The use of humor where appropriate is also welcome.
  • Consider using sub-titles to break up the text.
  • Write on a topic that you are comfortable with and in which you have substantial knowledge that would benefit others.
  • We are not interested in articles that are self-promotional in nature or are an advertisement/brochure for your company.  Your article must provide value to the reader.
  •  Please submit your article by the date you agreed to. Once we have provided you with a publication date, we are counting on receiving your article in the agreed upon time to allow for review and publication.