Thanks for your interest in contributing to the Cannabiz conversation. It’s industry experts like you who give the site its unique and independent voice. But if you’re not a regular writer – or even if you are – we know it can be daunting putting ‘pen to paper’ and sending your views out to the world to be judged by your industry peers. In order to help make the journey a little smoother, we’ve put together some guidelines on the best way to engage in the Cannabiz community. We hope you find it helpful.
Cannabiz opinion piece guidelines
- Have an opinion
It sounds obvious, but you can’t write an opinion piece without having an opinion.
What issues do you care about? Which causes do you fight for? Which areas of the industry would you change if you could? These are all good starting points for a strong article.
This isn’t the place to tell the world about how great you are: it’s a chance to show your expertise through interesting, helpful, informative and perhaps even divisive content.
The good news is, as long as you can find a great nugget of expertise and have an interesting opinion to share, you’re probably on the right track.
- Give answers
No one likes a fence sitter, and there’s nothing more unsatisfying than an opinion piece that poses an interesting question… and then fails to answer it.
Try to avoid questions in headlines, especially if your piece doesn’t ever actually answer the question you’re posing.
- Don’t make it a sales pitch
Instead of trying to shoehorn your products and/or services into your writing, think about how you can provide a genuinely useful, unique and interesting take on a particular topic.
Your opinion piece can point out issues, but the answers you provide to those issues shouldn’t be all about you – they should be about the wider cannabis industry. That’s who you’re talking to, after all.
- Write about what you know
Only attempt to write about a topic if you know it inside out. The best opinion writers know enough about their specialist subject to not only discuss an issue, but dig holes into the status quo and suggest alternatives.
True experts are able to not only spot issues in their specialist area, but have ideas about how to fix them. Sure, not everyone will agree with your opinion, but that’s okay. If your content causes some debate, you’re probably heading in the right direction.
- Don’t waffle
We’re not asking for a thesis: 600-800 words is enough to make a strong, clear, concise argument.
- Format your piece correctly
Please send your article in DOCX or DOC format, with any necessary hyperlinks embedded. We hate PDFs. Alternatively, you can fill in the form below.
- Include a bio and a headshot
Please include a short bio that explains who you are and what you do. We love putting a face to the name, so please include a clear, high resolution headshot to be included in the piece.