Contribute an article

Who can contribute

Anyone with first-hand expertise: founders, engineers, consultants, analysts, procurement leads, agencies and the vendors listed on TrustList. You write under your own name. Articles by vendors and customers are published with a clear Community contribution label and the author's name, so readers always know who is speaking; TrustList's own research is labelled Editorial.

You do not need an invitation. Register, open the Growth Hub, and start an article — the same editor our team uses.

What we publish

• Buyer-side guides: how to evaluate, compare and implement a category of software or service.
• Research and analysis: benchmarks, market comparisons, cost breakdowns, migration stories with numbers.
• Practitioner write-ups: what you built, what broke, what you measured, what you would do differently.
• Explainers on standards, regulation and technology that affect software and IT buying decisions.

We do not publish press releases, product announcements dressed as articles, listicles assembled from other people's content, or anything whose purpose is a backlink rather than a reader.

The rules

Every rule below is applied to every article, from everyone. The first three are enforced by the editor itself; the rest are checked in review.

1. Fully researched, with sources at the point of the claim. Every fact — a price, a benchmark, a market figure, a date, a quote — links to a named source a reader can check. No source, no claim.
2. Original, and yours. Written by the named author for TrustList. Not previously published (including on your own blog), not spun or paraphrased from other articles, not assembled from other people's work. AI tools may help you draft, but the research, the judgement and the facts must be yours and verified by you.
3. Substantial. At least 2,000 words of real prose, one main heading and at least 4 section headings, under a descriptive title of 20+ characters. Length is a floor, not a target: cut anything a reader would skip.
4. Useful to a buyer or practitioner. The reader should be able to decide or do something after reading it. Explain trade-offs, show numbers, name the conditions under which your advice is wrong.
5. Honest about your interest. If you work for, invest in, or are paid by a company or product you mention, say so in the first paragraph. Undisclosed interest is the fastest route to being unpublished.
6. Not an advertisement. You may mention your own product where it is genuinely relevant, once, with the same scrutiny you give competitors. Articles whose point is to promote one vendor, or that exist for a link, are declined.
7. Links serve the reader. Link to sources, documentation and further reading. No affiliate links, no link exchanges, no links to pages that exist only to rank. We may mark outbound links nofollow.
8. Accurate and current. State when figures were checked. Do not present old prices, retired products or superseded versions as current. Correct mistakes when they are pointed out.
9. Respectful of people and rights. No personal attacks, no private information about individuals, no images or text you do not have the right to use. Quote briefly and attribute.
10. Clear and structured. Plain language, short paragraphs, headings that say what the section contains, a title that describes the article rather than baits a click.

Sourcing standard

“Fully researched” means every factual claim — a price, a benchmark, a market share, a date, a quote — can be traced to a named source a reader can check: the vendor's own documentation or pricing page, a regulator, a peer-reviewed study, a primary dataset, or a reputable publication with a dated article. Link the source at the point of the claim. Numbers you measured yourself are welcome; say how you measured them. Aggregators, forums and unattributed “industry estimates” are not sources. If a claim cannot be sourced, leave it out.

Minimums the editor enforces

An article below these minimums stays saved as a draft; the editor tells you the exact counts. Meeting the minimums does not guarantee publication — it earns a review.

How to submit

1. Create a TrustList account (free) and open the Growth Hub.
2. Go to Articles → Add article, read the listing guidelines and confirm them.
3. Give the article its full title, pick the most specific category, and write the body in the editor (Markdown is fine). Your account name is pre-filled as the author; change it to the name you publish under.
4. Save as a draft as often as you like. Publish when it meets the minimums — the editor shows the exact counts if it doesn't.
5. A published article is reviewed by TrustList's editors against the rules on this page, usually within five working days. It stays live during review unless it clearly breaks a rule.
6. You'll be emailed if we edit for clarity, need a source, or have to unpublish, with the reason.

Create an account or, if you have one, start an article in the Growth Hub. Read the listing guidelines first — you confirm them before the editor opens.

What gets an article declined

• Claims without a checkable source, or sources that do not say what the article says they say.
• Content published elsewhere first, or that reads as spun or paraphrased from other articles.
• A promotional piece for one vendor, an undisclosed commercial interest, or link-building.
• Thin, padded or generic text that meets the word count without saying anything.
• Outdated figures presented as current; retired products presented as available.
• Rights problems: images or passages used without permission or attribution.
• Filed under a staff-managed listing type, or under a category that does not fit the article.

After publication

You keep the copyright to your article and grant TrustList a non-exclusive right to publish, edit for clarity and accuracy, and syndicate it with your byline. Our editors may add clarifications, correct sourcing, or trim promotional passages; substantive changes are agreed with you. You can update your article from the Growth Hub at any time; edits go through the same review. If it later turns out an article breached these rules, it is unpublished and the account's publishing rights are reviewed.

Questions before you write? Contact us with a one-paragraph pitch and we will tell you quickly whether it fits.