Straight Up Craft aims to grow the marketplace for Craft CMS by publishing quality, educational content written by web professionals.

We welcome content that would interest any Craft user – from designers to developers to content authors – with a focus on content that can help users solve more problems with the Craft platform.

Article Topics

The best topics are ones where you have a deep knowledge, real professional experience, and are excited to share. Imagine yourself trying to do something better with Craft, typing a question into your favorite search engine, and seeing your article appear as the ideal option in the search results. What did you search for? What is the article title?

We prefer articles that are instructional and specific vs. articles that are too general or opinion-based in nature. For example, How to improve Craft performance using eager-loading vs. Why Craft is the best CMS.

Topics do not have to be Craft-specific but they should be relevant and help Craft users live a better life. For example, an article primarily focused on Vue.js such as Building an autocomplete component with Vue.js would be welcome if the article included examples of how to implement the component using the Craft GraphQL API.

We welcome articles proposed by plugin developers (sharing how their plugins can solve problems) or third-party products and services (sharing how to implement Craft integrations) but ask that they are framed with a focus on educational content first and product second. Win over readers with your expertise on a topic and your deep experience as a web professional and let learning more about your product or service be a natural next step for the impressed reader.

Audience

Visitors of our site are primarily web professionals working with Craft or business users considering or using Craft to manage content and hoping to learn more about the CMS and the community.

• Beginner - Most users of the site will have several years of experience as a web professional or CMS user. While we will consider beginner-focused articles, we're also the most critical of them. If you want to go down this path, your article should really stand out. Don't just propose an article that rehashes the Craft documentation; convince us how your article will be more relevant and go above and beyond what the docs have already accomplished.
• Intermediate - The majority of our content will fall in this category. We assume our users know the basics (HTML, CSS, Javascript, that a CMS is used to manage content, etc.) and are savvy and resourceful enough to seek out documentation or related articles if necessary. Articles should read like you are communicating with another web professional about how to get more out of the platform and, if necessary, let links to supporting articles or the Craft documentation handle the basics.
• Advanced - Advanced content and tutorials are welcome but should be approachable by intermediate users in how they are framed. Give context; give examples; provide supporting reference material where appropriate. Show us what Craft is capable of.

Examples

Articles should be a friendly, professional tone. Be welcoming to readers, playful (if you wish), and respect your readers' time by creating high-resolution content that's worth their while.

Marion Newlevant's article Respon­sive images with Twig macros is a good example of an advanced article. She provides resources for intermediate users to get up to speed on the topic, a quick overview of relevant concepts, and several code examples that users can use in their own projects.

Ben Croker's article Secu­ri­ty Con­cerns in Craft CMS is a good example of a promotional article. The article focuses on Ben's expertise around security, helps users understand the problem and how it might relate to them as they work on Craft websites, and also mentions that he has a plugin that addresses some of these topics. While his plugin is mentioned and users can go learn more about it if they choose, the emphasis of the article is giving users a greater understanding of his expertise: security considerations when using Craft CMS.

Authors are encouraged to use code examples, demos, and images to help communicate ideas where possible.

Payment

We currently do not offer monetary compensation for content. Articles will be linked on your profile and your profile and byline will highlight your professional expertise and link back to your website. Additionally, you can highlight your skills and Craft-specific projects and work on your profile page.

Workflow

1. You propose an article via email [email protected]
2. We follow up via email and confirm we're on board
3. You write an outline or draft
4. We approve the outline
5. You write the article
6. We edit the article
7. We publish the article