We publish guest contributions from people who actually invest, advise or analyse for a living. Our readers range from beginners buying their first dividend ETF to portfolio managers checking a withholding-tax treaty. They come here for numbers, sources and honest risk assessment — so that is the bar for anything we publish under a guest byline.
This page explains what we accept, how our editorial process works, and exactly how we treat links. Please read the linking policy before pitching: it is the part most enquiries get wrong.
How we handle links
Every outbound link in a contributed article carries rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". None of them pass ranking credit. That applies to author-bio links, in-article citations and anything else pointing off this site, whether or not money changed hands.
This is not a position we negotiate, and it is not something we price differently. Google’s spam policies treat “buying or selling links for ranking purposes” as link spam, and specifically name “advertorials or native advertising where payment is received for articles that include links that pass ranking credit”. Sites that sell ranking credit lose their own rankings, which would make this a worthless place to be published. Marking links protects your investment in the article as much as it protects our domain.
Three related rules follow from it:
- We write the anchor text. Links are labelled for readers, using the destination’s real name or a plain description. We decline submissions built around a specific keyword-rich anchor.
- One bio link, plus citations that earn their place. Your author bio carries one link to your site or profile. In-article links are for sources a reader would want to check — a filing, a fund factsheet, a dataset — not for promoting a product mentioned in passing.
- No link exchanges. We do not trade links, and we do not add a link to your site in return for one to ours.
Sponsored placements
We accept a small number of paid placements, on these terms:
- A flat publication fee of $50. It covers editorial review, fact-checking, formatting and permanent hosting. It does not buy a link, an anchor text, or any ranking signal — see the linking policy above.
- Labelled for readers. Paid articles carry a visible Sponsored label at the top. Readers are told the relationship exists; so is Google.
- The same editorial bar. Paying does not change what we will publish. If the draft does not meet the standards below we ask for a revision, and if it still does not, we refund the fee.
- We keep editorial control. We edit for accuracy and clarity, we may decline a claim we cannot verify, and we can update or remove a published article if it later proves wrong.
If your goal is a link that passes ranking credit, this is not the site for you, and any site that offers you one is selling you a risk rather than an asset.
What we publish
- Dividend stock analysis with specific metrics — payout ratios, free cash flow cover, dividend growth history
- Portfolio construction for income, across global markets
- Sector-specific dividend strategies: utilities, healthcare, consumer staples, financials, REITs
- International dividend investing, domicile choice and withholding tax
- Dividend growth versus high yield, argued with historical data
- Risk management in income portfolios through drawdowns and rate cycles
- DRIP mechanics and compounding maths
- ETF analysis: methodology, holdings, distribution composition — see our ETF comparison for the depth we expect
Editorial standards
- Original, human-written work. Not published elsewhere, not spun, not generated. We check.
- Claims backed by data, with a source a reader can open — a filing, a fund document, a regulator, a named dataset.
- First-hand expertise. Tell us what you have actually done, held, modelled or advised on. That is the part a reader cannot get elsewhere.
- Risk stated plainly. Every recommendation names what would have to go wrong: a dividend cut, sector concentration, rate sensitivity, currency exposure.
- Terms explained. Assume a reader who knows what a dividend is but not what a record date or a payout ratio means.
- 800–1,500 words, with real headings and paragraphs a person can read on a phone.
- Conflicts disclosed. If you hold a position in something you write about, or the article touches your employer or your product, say so in the draft.
What we decline
- Anything written to carry a link rather than to inform
- AI-generated or lightly-edited machine drafts
- Promotional copy about a product, service or fund with no independent analysis
- Generic listicles that could sit on any finance site
- Recommendations with no discussion of downside
- Content about regulated activity we cannot verify: signal services, guaranteed returns, unlicensed advice
How to submit
1. Pitch first. Email submissionpost4@gmail.com with the subject line Guest post pitch: [your proposed title]. Include the headline, three to five points the article will make, what qualifies you to make them, and two or three samples of your published work.
2. We respond within five business days, with either an acceptance and any adjustments we want, or a decline. We decline more pitches than we accept, and a decline is not a judgement on your writing — usually the topic is already covered.
3. Send the draft as a Google Doc or Word file, with your sources linked in place and a 50-word author bio.
4. We edit. Expect questions about numbers and requests for sources. You see and approve the final version before it goes live.
5. Publication. For sponsored placements, the invoice is settled after final approval. Nothing publishes before we have edited it, regardless of payment.
Before you pitch
Spend twenty minutes reading what is already here. The strongest pitches we receive respond to something we have published — extending it, updating it, or arguing with it. Our dividend stock guide, European dividend guide and high-yield safety screen are the pieces contributors most often build on. If your idea is already covered at that depth, we will say so.
Guest contributions represent the author’s own analysis, not investment advice, and not the view of Top Dividend Stocks. Nothing on this site is a personal recommendation; see our disclaimer.