Overview
Thank you for your interest in writing an article for Purposeful Finance. Please read the below editorial guidelines and make sure the article you are proposing meets with these guidelines. Purposeful Finance articles are dedicated to providing unbiased information to the public and promotions disguised as articles are not allowed.
As a general rule, the value to the consumer should constitute over 90% of the conceptual value for the article and any value to the business or author should constitute less than 10%, inclusive of the personal branding derived from having an article on Purposeful Finance. The below guidelines are the basis for making this determination. Whether articles meet these guidelines is determined solely at the discretion of Purposeful Finance.
Valuable Content
Articles should be written for the purpose of educating the public without industry bias or a promotion. This means article content should be based in the applicable professional standards, contribute to a deeper understanding of the topic, avoid promotion of a product or company, and be easily read and understood.
Basis in Professional Standards
Content should have a basis in professional standards and conform with the applicable objective professional practices and ethics. This means the content, philosophies, strategies, tactics, and ideas within articles should conform to an authoritative professional body’s standards of professional practice. Examples below:
General Personal Finance and Financial Planning - Standards set forth by the CFP Board
Legal Matters - Standards set forth by applicable laws, the Bar Association, law schools, and the CFP Board
Tax Matters - Standards set forth by applicable laws, the IRS, the AICPA, the CFP Board, and GAAP
Investment Matters - Standards set forth by applicable laws, the CFP Board, the CFA Institute, the SEC, NASAA, and FINRA
Contribute to a deeper understanding
Articles should contribute to a deeper understanding of the topics for the audience. This means articles should be well-researched and go beyond general advice or ‘common knowledge.’
Cite Sources for Key facts/assertions
Sources should be cited for all major assertions of fact, for controversial ideas, or for other statement which are integral to the readers understanding and trust of the article. Citations must make it easy for the reader to find the source content, ideally with links directly to the page containing the information.
Use Authoritative Sources
Sources should be the most authoritative source available. Citing other blog articles on a topic is not a best practice. Instead, cite primary source material including government agencies, academic research, professional association research, respected industry research, and the like. For more on citations and linking to external documents, see External Links below.
Do not use citation as promotion
Citations should not be to other articles or to companies. Instead, the authoritative source should be identified.
Identify Opinion as such
Where opinion is used, it should be made obvious to the reader it is opinion and whose opinion it is. This can be done through properly cited quotations with appropriate qualifiers such as 'according to…’ . Opinion should serve a valuable purpose to the article and benefit the reader. The holder of the opinion should have some professional and/or research basis for the opinion.
Opinions that are promotional, such as “the best mutual fund for _____” are not appropriate and will be rejected. Neither are opinions of pure conjecture such as what the stock market will do or that ____ will be a good investment or that housing prices will fall.
Purposeful Finance reserves the right to edit out opinion or quotes at its sole discretion.
Reader-centered Portrayal of Products and Companies
Companies and their products, including goods and service, should not be included in a story unless required by the content of the story, their mention helps readers better understand the concepts presented, or they serve some other clearly beneficial or necessary function (for the reader). This is especially true for financial products sold on commission, products sold through multi-level marketing, DIY products that seek to replace licensed professionals at potential harm to the public, and any product or company that do not have a legal fiduciary standard attached to them. The determination of this rests solely at the discretion of Purposeful Finance.
Balanced Portrayal of products
Products must be portrayed in an unbiased and balanced manner. Dogmatic approaches to strategies, products, or tactics (either for or against) will be rejected. When a product is mentioned, the article must include the following information:
A factual presentation of the product and its workings
An explanation of the benefits of the product and circumstances when the product is appropriate
An equal explanation of the risks or other drawbacks of the product and circumstances when the product is inappropriate
Easy to Read and Understand
Content should be written with the intent of ease of readability and to foster understanding of the subject. This is often the most difficult to do when balancing against offering a deeper understanding of the subject.
Well-Written and Grammatically Accurate
Articles should receive an “A” letter grade from your college English teacher. This means they are well structured and are free from spelling or grammar errors.
Avoid industry Jargon or advanced key terms
Articles must be written in everyday English. Avoid industry jargon and complex terminology. When necessary to use, the article should explain the terminology in simple, straightforward terms.
Broken Into Easily-Readable Segments
Content should be broken into easily-read segments using informative headings and subheadings. Review the headings and subheadings in current articles or of this editorial guide for an example.
Original Content
Content must be original and published first on Purposeful Finance. This means it cannot include plagiarism of any form and cannot be part of a strategy intended to widely distribute the same content across the internet.
Minimize Company Mentions
Company promotion or mentions within an article should minimized, if used at all. When presenting a company, the methods by which the company earns revenue should be made obvious to the reader. This included commission, indirect, or other forms of hidden compensation. Significant conflicts of interest should also be disclosed.
Fiduciary Obligation
Companies or professionals referenced within articles should only be those legally held to a fiduciary standard. This means the companies and their agents have a legal duty of loyalty to their clients and must place the client’s interest above their own. Examples of organizations and professions that meet this requirement are government agencies, registered investment advisors, lawyers and law firms, Certified Public Accountants, and medical professionals and providers.
Very rare exceptions may be made to this requirement but will require extraordinary circumstances. A company can create this legal obligation for themselves by having a legal representative of the company sign a fiduciary oath to the public and their clients and having the oath displayed on the Purposeful Finance website and prominently on the company’s website.
External Links
Links should primarily be to other Purposeful Finance articles and resources. Links to external sites should provide value to the reader in that they offer deeper reading, source material, or some other benefit for the reader. When external links are used, the links should be to an authoritative source as explained in the Content section above.
Link first to Authoritative Sources and Purposeful Finance
Links should be to Purposeful Finance content or to authoritative sources. Only if there is no option for appropriate content from Purposeful Finance or an authoritative source should a link be considered to a third party. Purposeful Finance reserves the right to replace any link within the article.
Accessibility of Links
The links should follow ADA guidelines for accessibility and linked text should clearly identify the content of the target page.
Qualified Author
Authors of articles should themselves have some authority or qualifications to write about the subject material. This can be due to them being a professional journalist, being an academic at an accredited college or university, being a practicing professional in the field in question, and/or having earned certifications or education from a respected body. Students do qualify if they are currently enrolled in an appropriate program at an accredited college or university.
Real Authors
Pseudonyms are not allowed. Authors must be real people and credentials will be verified.
Helpful ‘About the Author’
A one paragraph ‘about the author’ should be included in the bottom of the article, which outlines the author’s qualifications. This is the place to mention your company. The about the author section should be written first to provide the reader with an understanding of who is writing the article and a distant second as personal promotion.
Conflicts of Interest Will Be Considered
The conflicts of interest of the author and their employer(s) will be considered when reviewing articles for submission. If the author works for or regularly writes for a company, the conflicts of interest associated with that relationship will be considered and may keep an article from being accepted for publication.
Conflicts of interest associated with how the topic of the article pertains to the business or sources of income of the author are carefully reviewed. As an example: if the author is associated with an insurance company or is an insurance agent, articles on insurance will be carefully scrutinized to identify and avoid misleading or agendized content.