The following serves as both our requirements and suggestions for content submitted on our platform. Please review on a regular basis. These guidelines are subject to change.

---

• All content contributed to Contentgather must be in the English language.
• You must be, at minimum, 16 years of age in order to earn money via writing content for Contentgather.
• Content that is explicit, violent, hateful, or otherwise illegal is strictly prohibited.
• Content submitted to Contentgather must be 100% original and never used previously for any other purpose. Content may not be copied from any prior or existing website or publication and submitted to Contentgather, even if the source content is your own. Do not, under any circumstances, copy or spin content from another source, as this will likely result in your access permanently revoked from Contentgather.
• Recycled content is prohibited (unsold content previously written for another client/purpose).
• Content submitted to Contentgather cannot be listed for sale at any other website or outlet. You reserve the right to remove unsold content from Contentgather at any point to use elsewhere.
• You may only submit each article to Contentgather once. You cannot remove an existing listing and then resubmit the same article even if you modify it first.
• Once your listed content is purchased by another Contentgather user, you immediately surrender full rights to the content.
• All content contributed to Contentgather must be high-quality. Low-quality content will result in suspension.
• Promotional material of any nature is prohibited in content that you submit to Contentgather unless when specifically requested by the buyer of a custom job that you have been selected to perform.

• No stories, poetry, fiction, or other creative writing.
• No first-person point of view, whether singular or plural. No "I", "mine", "we", "our", etc. unless you are referring to the collective "we" as in society or people. You should not reference "we" from the viewpoint of the author or publisher.
• No opinions, biases, or beliefs. Do not take a stance on any issue. It is best to avoid controversial material entirely, but if you do discuss it, you should avoid one-sided conclusions and present both sides fairly.
• No author bio, byline, or contact information in your content.
• Time-sensitive content, primarily current news/events, is not conducive in the Marketplace. When you list an article in the Marketplace, there is no guarantee when it will sell. It could sell immediately, or it could sell two years after you list it. If you write an article based on a current event that may only be relevant for a few weeks, you run the risk of your article becoming irrelevant very soon. Content about current events is best suited for Custom Jobs and not the Marketplace. You should only submit evergreen content to the Marketplace.
• Do not reference "part two" or another related article in a series. All Marketplace articles must stand alone and not be part of a series.

• Use some form of spell checker. A tool that checks grammar and makes suggestions on presentation is also a good idea. We use and recommend Grammarly as an all-in-one tool.
• Do not use big or complex words and sentence structure just for the sake of doing so. We're not looking for academic papers, because that's not what our clients want. Your content should be easy to read and approachable by a majority of people.
• Use a professional tone in your writing. It's okay to be casual on occasion, but don't go overboard. Act as if you are an authority rather than a comedian or the reader's best friend.
• Paragraphs should be small and broken up in logically. Any paragraph that contains more than 5 sentences is likely too long. Large paragraphs will turn away readers.
• When providing statistics or making health, medical, or scientific claims, include sources.
• Avoid absolute statements. Examples being "the best way to lose weight is _________" or "everybody wants more money." Instead of these phrases, say "a great way to lose weight" or "most people would like more money."
• Do not use passive voice. It's okay to use on occasion, but there is almost always a better way to present your thoughts.
• Most adverbs are unnecessary and do not add value (ie: totally, completely, probably, very, quite, just, rather, etc.). Don't use these, or similar, words.
• Use quoted sources sparingly. Our clients pay for content on a per word basis, and they prefer to pay for unique content, not something quoted from another source. We will accept quotes, but in limited quantities.
• When generating ideas for content, put yourself in the shoes of a buyer. Your potential buyers cannot see the full contents of your article. They can see the title, category, description, and a few sentences as a sample. Reduce the element of surprise by carefully titling and categorizing your article. If the content of your article is very specific or highly targeted, your title and description should reflect that.
• Do not add sentences or words just for the sake of padding word count. If what you would like to include does not add value, then it is not worth including. The best articles keep the reader engaged throughout, and you are unable to do this if you are rambling or repeating the same thoughts. By reducing "fluff", you can write less (shorter articles) and demand a higher price in the process.

• Capitalize all words in your title except for common words like: a, the, of, at, on, etc.
• All content submitted to Contentgather should be in plain text.
• Do not include HTML formatting tags.
• No special characters or symbols like bullet points. If you'd like a bulleted list, you can do so with hyphens.
• Include a single blank line between all paragraphs and headings. Do not add extra (double) blank lines between any sections.
• If you include sources or citations, this is best done in-line with the referenced text. Because we do not accept HTML or hyperlinks, you should include the full URL in-line. If you don't like how this breaks up your text, you can also include a source number (ie: [1]) in-line, and then a list of sources at the bottom of your article. Do not include sources at the bottom of the article without indicating where in the text those sources were used.
• We prefer American English but will accept British English. British English will likely be converted by our editor to American English unless it is very clear that the content is targeted towards a British audience.
• We prefer to see the Oxford comma but will accept content without it.