Sharing hot takes, conventional wisdom and infographics won’t help you gain media traction.
Online audiences want expertise and opinions that are supported by facts and relevant experience. No one builds credibility by being the loudest or first to comment.
To level the playing field for people who want to share their knowledge and opinions, TechCrunch operates a guest contributor program. This isn’t sponsored content: Each submission is evaluated on its merits. The program’s overall goal is to showcase a diverse range of perspectives on tech-related issues.
Guest contributions fall into two categories:
- TechCrunch+: Strategies and tactics for building and scaling startups.
- TechCrunch Opinion: Editorials about tech-related topics in the public interest.
The most common reasons we turn down submissions
- The article was too promotional.
- The author addressed a general trend or a basic best practice that’s already well understood.
- The post consisted of conventional “thought leadership,” but contained few personal or actionable insights.
Before submitting a guest column, please review our site to see if we’ve published something similar.
How to submit a TechCrunch+ guest column
TechCrunch+ guest columns offer actionable ideas that readers can use to make better decisions while building and scaling startups.
We’re not looking for general thought leadership, basic best practices or general overviews of new tech or individual sectors. To meet our standards, TC+ guest posts must have a clear business focus and share strategies and tactics that will produce quantifiable results.
Ideally, TechCrunch+ guest articles offer information that readers can put to work inside their own companies and test for themselves — the more specific, the better. Great topics include advanced how-to guides on fundraising, entrepreneurship, growth, product management, recruiting, or in-depth discussions of where tech industry sectors are heading.
We’re only interested in columns that offer actionable advice written by authors who have direct experience in the topic they’re covering.
Focus
- TechCrunch+ contributors have a lot of leeway to explore their topics. Since we’re writing for informed audiences, we encourage more length than may be normal on other sites — 1,000–1,500 words is typical, but we are flexible.
- We do not accept guest posts that are based in whole or in part on interviews.
- We encourage contributors to mention their companies in passing to establish their credentials, but we don’t accept posts in which they center their company’s products/services as a preferred solution.
Review process
- An editor reviews all submissions, but due to the high volume of emails we receive, we are not able to reply to everyone who contacts us.
- Please email drafts to guestcolumns@techcrunch.com as .TXT., .DOC, or .PDF attachments; shared Google documents; or in the body of your email.
- We accept detailed outlines or completed drafts for consideration.
- Only submit images you own or have the right to use (.JPEG, .GIF, .PNG, or .TIFF at least 1,000px wide).
Syndication
- Authors are free to republish the full article anywhere they please one week after we run the story, as long as they link to and mention the original article.
- We do not republish articles that have been published elsewhere first.
Paywall
- We place the TechCrunch+ paywall after the first few hundred words of the article body, so please provide a preview of the key information from the article in that space.
- After we’ve published, we’ll share a link and a PDF with the complete text. Reprints are available for purchase via a third party.
Deadline
- There is not one unless both parties agree to something. We’ll typically schedule the article to run within a week or so once it nears the final stages of production.
Conflicts of interest
- We want readers to use our information to make big decisions, which means they must be able to trust what we are providing them. So, we minimize conflicts of interest where possible and are fully transparent where they occur.
- Please note anywhere you do have potential conflicts. In fact, we’ve found that writing about your own experiences or decisions helps reinforce your credibility.
Generative AI
- We do not accept contributions that include text or images produced via generative artificial intelligence.
How to submit a TechCrunch Opinion guest column
We publish TechCrunch Opinion guest columns without a paywall because they address technology-related topics in the public interest.
Our goal is to provide readers material written by authors who represent a broad array of diverse opinions and lived experiences. Topics for these columns must be timely, convincingly in the public interest, and not something that our staff could write about directly.
Beyond stating the author’s opinion, these columns should give readers a better understanding of the subject under discussion and help them understand how it’s relevant to their interests.
Focus
- Guest contributors have a lot of leeway to explore their topics. Since we’re writing for informed audiences, we encourage more length than may be normal on other sites.
- We are somewhat flexible, but most TechCrunch Opinion articles are 750–1,000 words.
- We do not accept guest editorials that are based in whole or in part on interviews.
Review process
- An editor reviews all submissions, but due to the high volume of emails we receive, we are not able to reply to everyone who contacts us.
- Please email drafts to opinions@techcrunch.com as .TXT., .DOC, or .PDF attachments; shared Google documents; or in the body of your email.
- We accept detailed outlines or completed drafts for consideration.
- Only submit images you own or have the right to use (.JPEG, .GIF, .PNG, or .TIFF at least 1,000px wide).
Editing
- If accepted, we will edit submissions for clarity and fact-check them prior to publication. If we have substantial edits or questions, we’ll contact contributors before publishing.
- We only publish information we can verify, so please provide links to primary sources.
Syndication
- Authors are free to republish the full article elsewhere one week after we run their post on TechCrunch.com, as long as they link back to and mention the original article.
- We do not republish articles that have been published elsewhere first.
Paywall
- We publish TechCrunch Opinion articles without a paywall. They’re always free to read.
Deadline
- We don’t assign deadlines unless both parties agree to something. We’ll typically schedule an article to run within a week or so after we accept it for publication.
Conflicts of interest
- We want readers to use our site to make major decisions more successfully, which means they need to be able to trust the information we are providing them.
- We will minimize conflicts of interest where possible and are fully transparent where they occur. If you have a personal or financial relationship with a topic you write about, please let us know.
- We’ve found that writing about your own experiences or decisions helps reinforce your credibility to our audience.
Generative AI
- We do not accept contributions that include text or images produced via generative artificial intelligence.
We don’t work with content marketers, SEO specialists or freelancers
TechCrunch’s guest contributor program does not accept submissions from freelance content writers, content marketers, bloggers, SEO specialists, or other people who distribute content on behalf of third parties, and we’ve never charged a fee for publishing guest articles.
If you’re interested in placing paid, sponsored content on TechCrunch, please complete this form and someone will be in touch if they are interested in working with you.
How to submit a freelance article
To pitch a freelance piece to TechCrunch, contact freelance@techcrunch.com.
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