I get a lot of requests to do guest posts for Four Pillars so I thought I would publicize some guidelines for these. As well, I’m also interested in paid writers as well.
Benefits of writing for Four Pillars
Writing for Four Pillars is a great opportunity to share your experience and knowledge with a large readership and gain experience and feedback about your writing. If you are a blogger or writer, this is a great way to build your professional portfolio and/or drive traffic to your website.
Writing opportunities
I am interested in publishing articles by guest authors as well as adding a paid writing position or two for selected topics. The paid articles would be on a freelance basis. Please contact me for more information including article requirements and payment details. My email is qffpillars at gmail dot com.
Guest post guidelines for Four Pillars
Guest Posts do not receive payment but are a great way to gain experience and exposure for your website, or to build your portfolio. Please use these guidelines:
- Articles should be well-written, must be original, and should not have been previously published elsewhere.
- Articles should be related to personal finance in some way. Please e-mail me with proposed topics if in doubt.
- Please include a short author bio with a link back to your website and RSS feed if applicable.
- Feel free to add a reasonable number of links back to your own web site within the content, but please do not use this as an opportunity to stuff the article full of keywords.
- I retain full editorial and approval rights, including removing and/or substituting links.
- No affiliate links.
- Feel free to send image recommendations with the article. Please only include images that allow for derivatives unless you own the image (Flicker is a great source of images that allow for derivatives under the Creative Commons License).
- Guest posts can be republished on your site after a minimum of 3 months have passed.
- Please send articles in html or in a Word document (html preferred).
If you are a writer and would like to submit an article for consideration, please send me a message via my contact form or email to qffpillars at gmail dot com. I look forward to working with you!
The differences between the paid articles and guest articles:
- Ownership – Paid submissions become the property of this website; guest articles may be republished by the author after a minimum of 3 months has passed. Anyone can apply for either position at any time.
- Links – Guest posters will be allowed more leeway in terms of links back to their own sites.
Thanks to Cash Money Life, Moolanomy and Good Financial Cents for their inspiration for this post (ie I copied them).
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Mike:
I hope it’s okay to comment here instead of in a private e-mail. I think that my comment is better done in public (as the underlying issue affects so many of us). But if you think different I am of course happy to have any discussion of this matter through private e-mail communications.
You have posted a Guest Blog Entry of mine before (“The Curse of Pretend Money”). I am happy to supply as many more as you are willing to run. My views on investing are “controversial.” I think more people need to be exposed to them. I see the writing of Guest Blog Entries as a great way to get more exposure for the ideas.
I of course have no objection when community members who believe in Buy-and-Hold Investing (the conventional advice of recent decades) offer critical or contrary viewpoints (so long as they are minimally civil). I think that we all learn when people with different viewpoints engage in frank and civil back-and-forth discussions. I’ve learned a lot from supporters. But I think I probably have learned just about as much from listening to and trying to come to terms with comments put forward by critics.
I of course understand that you do not want to run post after post on the same general theme. It’s of course entirely up to you as to how many (if any) such guest posts should run here. What I am trying to communicate here is that I am available to generate as many of them as you are willing to post. If you expressed a desire that I prepare one guest post per day for the next month, I could do that. There’s lots and lots of material for me to tap into because the change from the Buy-and-Hold model to the Rational model turns just about everything we “know” about investing today upside down.
There are other bloggers who will be reading these words. I mean to direct them to anyone in the Personal Finance Blogosphere who has an interest in giving greater exposure to the ideas. My ultimate aim is to launch a national debate on the flaws of the conventional investing wisdom and what we need to do to get back on the right track. I am grateful for any interest that anyone expresses to help bring that dream to reality.
I of course understand if you choose not to bite. I don’t at all get the sense that you are a believer today (although you were kind enough to run the earlier blog entry despite that). It’s of course entirely up to you as to how to proceed. I am just taking the opportunity (since the general question of guest blog entries is put on the table through your post here) to let people know that I am available to supply Guest Blog entires on the Valuation-Informed Indexing strategy and the Rational Investing model just about anytime and anywhere. This has pretty much become my life in recent years, for good or for ill (I believe that it will ultimately be seen to have been for the good but my sense is that there are some who see it from a different perspective today).
Rob
I’ve got my infinite number of monkeys on their infinite number of typewriters starting work as I type.
Rob – The problem is your topic. Not sure if too many people are interested in “Valuation-Informed Indexing strategy and the Rational Investing model”.
Now, how to spend $1 million if you found it on the street, however, would excite most
Not sure if too many people are interested in “Valuation-Informed Indexing strategy and the Rational Investing model”.
I think there are different ways of looking at this aspect of the question, Samurai.
There are a good number of people who hate the topic with a burning passion. This has been demonstrated at numerous places and at numerous times and in numerous ways. And this is a problem for a blog owner debating whether to run a Guest Blog Entry. The blog owner alienates a good percentage of his readers by providing a forum for arguments criticizing the Buy-and-Hold model. I have had a number of blog owners who I respect voice this concern to me in e-mails (and in several cases these blog owners banned me from commenting at their blogs in response to reader demands that they do so).
The other side of the story is that I have spoken to several financial planners who have told me that both financial planners and their clients are gradually losing confidence in the Buy-and-Hold model. There is much evidence of a growing anxiety re the conventional advice. There was even a cover article in Money magazine on this theme in the January issue (I wrote to the editors of Money to suggest that they write about the Rational Investing model but received no response to the e-mail).
I have heard numerous experts acknowledge that the old model no longer hangs together (there is an entire book that has generally been well-received — The Myth of Rational Markets — that makes this case). But the usual conclusion that people reach (and this is so of Jason Fox, the author of the book) is that “Well, the old model doesn’t really work but we might as well stick with it because there is nothing better available.” I have found this to be not even a little but true. There’s better stuff available but you have to be willing to look for it to find it!
There have been people working to develop a better model for 30 years now. There are lots of wonderful ideas available to those willing to do a few internet searches. The insights of the new model are available to us today. The trouble is — we are not yet sure we really want to make the change. We have doubts about the old model but things have not yet reached a point where we feel comfortable giving serious consideration to the idea that the old model is entirely discredited.
I am trying to push things to that point. I of course accept that lots of good and smart people are not going to agree with what I think. That’s to be expected and that’s entirely healthy. What I believe is that we need to get the discussions going. If the old model (Buy-and-Hold) is going to survive, those who advocate it are going to need to come up with answers to the challenges that have been raised to it. If the old model is not going to survive, it is better that we find that out sooner rather than later. Waiting for another crash to consider alternatives is a terrible idea, in my view.
Opening up debate on the fundamental questions that would be discussed is a delicate matter. We need to be sensitive to people’s feelings and concerns. But I think that we do need to get about the business of debating these questions. My view is that we need to combine charity toward those who hold different views with an insistence on our right to state our own views frankly. We need to combine love with honesty.
I believe that blog owners worry that they do harm to the popularity of their blogs by permitting such debates to proceed at their blogs. In a short-term sense, there probably is something to that. In a long-term sense, I believe that things will cut very much the other way. I personally believe that the old model is doomed. So my view is that those who begin learning about how the new model works are positioning themselves to play a big role in helping people make the transition to the new model. So I feel that blog owners who get involved are helping both themselves and their communities in the long run.
It’s a complicated matter. I don’t think there is any reasonable person who does not agree with that much at this point. I find myself smack dab in the middle of a hurricane through no “fault” of my own. I either just happened to be precisely in the wrong place at the wrong time or in the right place at the right time, depending on your point of view. I am not 100 percent sure myself which one it will turn out to be! (But I am an optimist by nature.)
Rob
Rob – I LOVE debate, and that’s why if you take a look at several of my posts, you’ll see 20-30-40-100 comments debating the subject. I’m not afraid of debate whatsoever.
I have no advertisers to play puppet to and I would NEVER ban you for commenting on whatever you like. You’re welcome to guest post your topic at my site if you wish!
The thing is….. readers have SHORT attention spans. If the topic is not clear, spicy, and enjoyable to read, you’ll lose readers by the 2nd paragraph.
You’re welcome to guest post your topic at my site if you wish!
Thanks, Samurai. I’ll get something to you in about two weeks. I am leaving Monday for a week at the beach with some friends. But I look forward to sending you something the following week and then seeing whether we can generate some good conversation together.
The thing is….. readers have SHORT attention spans. If the topic is not clear, spicy, and enjoyable to read, you’ll lose readers by the 2nd paragraph.
I can do clear and spicy easy enough. The short-attention-span thing causes some difficulty for me; there’s no question but that I post long (there’s one article at my site that clocks in at 17,000 words — that’s a felony in several Southern states). Perhaps I should make it a challenge to myself to limit the word count for my submission to your blog and see how that turns out. I am going to give some consideration to doing that. Thanks for your kindness.
Rob
No prob Rob. I think it’s important communicate with readers with as much punch as possible. There’s too much stuff to read, and frankly, I don’t think anybody will care about your/our writing as much as you/ourselves. It’s just the way it is.
Financial Samurai guessed: “Rob – The problem is your topic.”
and then also added: “I don’t think anybody will care about your/our writing as much as you…”
I disagree with the first point Samurai makes, and as proof, offer a link that happens to also prove the second point Samurai makes – who but Rob Bennett could turn a single input on his blog into a 25 comment-long dialog with himself?
I sincerely doubt that anyone read even one of his lengthy expositions, much less all of them. If anyone wanted to dialog with Rob, he already has a blog, so I’m not sure what ‘guest posting’ provides the reader, except a bothersome interruption to those who probably don’t care for ridiculous long-winded conspiracy theories when they are trying to talk finance and investing.
Rob’s recent decent into the absurd:
http://arichlife.passionsaving.com/2009/11/20/podcast-180-volatility-is-evil/#comments
I’d offer to, but my Potato Wedges columns seemed to have killed the money gardener
The last two I sent him never got put up, MG hasn’t asked for any more, and once I touched it, the posting frequency dropped from 15-20/mo to 5-10/mo. *^_^*
who but Rob Bennett could turn a single input on his blog into a 25 comment-long dialog with himself?
Oh my!
If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t have posted that comment, FactCheck.
It is my belief that you care a lot. You don’t like hearing what I am saying. But you care intensely.
I think that’s a good thread and I encourage those with an interest in learning about the substantive issues under discussion to check it out. It is of course not even a tiny bit so that I was having that discussion with myself. All of my comments came in response to solid and thought-provoking questions being put forward by Evidence-Based Investor. Evidence is not a believer but he helped us all out by exploring some interesting angles in that thread.
Rob
1,200 words or less, with a beginning thesis, middle, and end.. thnx Rob!
1,200 words or less, with a beginning thesis, middle, and end.. thnx Rob!
Please understand that it is 100 percent your call as to whether the blog entry I submit to you will appear at your blog or not, Samurai.
I have never included one word in any of my write-ups that I didn’t believe was needed. And in the days before I started posting about the flaws in the Buy-and-Hold “strategy,” it was extremely rare for me to hear complaints that I did. In the days since I began reporting accurately what the historical data says about the effect of valuations on long-term returns, I have heard many such complaints — the number is now in the hundreds of thousands!
This is an important matter. Millions of us have lost large percentages of the accumulated wealth of a lifetime because of a decision by The Stock-Selling Industry to continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars promoting a “strategy” that has been tried four times in U.S. history and that has caused huge financial misery on each of those occasions. I am going to talk about some aspect of that story to the best of my ability in the Guest Blog Entry that I submit to you.
You may choose to run it or to reject it on grounds that it lacks a beginning, a middle, or an end or any other reason you please. You can reject the write-up on grounds that you don’t like to run Guest Blog Entries by guys with an “R” in their name in the month of December. That’s cool. That part is on you. That part is out of my hands.
The part that is in my hands is for me to do my best to tell the personal finance story that most needs to be told for us to get out of this economic crisis straight and plain and true. My pledge to you is that the work product that I turn over to you for your consideration will reflect my sincere efforts to do just that. I can do no more and I can do no less.
I am grateful for your willingness to at least give something that I submit the once-over. I’m taking a few days off. When I return, I’ll get about the business of putting together something juicy for the consideration of you and your readership (with the full understanding that what I submit may not meet your needs at the current time)!
Rob
No prob Rob! Those are just my requirements, whether you choose to follow or not. If not, it will probably be declined, but that’s up to you.
Either way, I’m sure you’ll write something great that some site will pick up, and you can always put it up on your site!
BTW Rob, what I like about you is how passionate you are about your writing, and your enthusiastic comments!
Enjoy your Vacay!
Sam
what I like about you is how passionate you are about your writing, and your enthusiastic comments!
Thanks much for your kindness in saying that, Samurai. It’s true that I care intensely about this stuff, for good or for ill. Perhaps I care too much. But me trying to care less is like a dog trying not to bark. It just doesn’t play out!
Enjoy your Vacay!
Thanks again. In one small concession to non-intensity, I am not bringing the computer. Only a beach chair and a book (we are going to Myrtle Beach).
Of course the book is Kierkegaard’s The Sickness Unto Death!
Rob
Sam/Financial Samurai, best of luck with your overture to Mr. Bennett. The record shows such dalliances with him inevitably end badly; The Motley Fool, Early Retirement Forums, Morningstar’s Vanguard Diehards, The Oblivious Investor, The Financial Webring Forum and many others. But perhaps this time things will be turn out differently. And maybe pigs will…oh, never mind. If nothing else, it will be most interesting to see if Rob can overcome that formidable obstacle you’ve placed in his path; “1,200 words or less, with a beginning thesis, middle, and end…”
The record shows such dalliances with him inevitably end badly; The Motley Fool, Early Retirement Forums, Morningstar’s Vanguard Diehards, The Oblivious Investor, The Financial Webring Forum and many others.
What Carlyle is making reference to here is that I am the person who discovered the analytical errors in the studies that financial planners use to help us plan our retirements. I posted about what I discovered at the places referred to and there were many community members at each of these places who evidenced a desire to learn more about the realities of stock investing as revealed by the academic research of the past 30 years (that valuations affect long-term returns and that the chances of Buy-and-Hold ever working in the real world are thus precisely zero). There were also a good number of Buy-and-Hold dogmatics who insisted that honest posting on the flaws of the Buy-and-Hold model be banned and bans indeed ultimately were adopted at all of these places.
Not good. Not in Rob Bennett’s view. We are now suffering the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And this was 100 percent predictable and 100 percent avoidable. The heavy promotion of Buy-and-Hold always causes an economic crisis; there is not one exception in the historical record. I believe that there will come a time when the Ban on Honest Posting will be lifted at all of these places and when investing “experts” will come to see it as their job to report accurately what the historical data says about the effect of valuations on long-term returns rather than just to sell product through extremely misleading appeals to the most base of human emotions.
I have been consistent in urging that honest posting be permitted and in arguing that it is a black mark on the Buy-and-Hold “strategy” that so many of its advocates have been willing to tolerate bans on honest posting at so many places. We need to work together to take things to the place where deep in our hearts we all very much want to see things go.
That’s my sincere take, in any event.
Rob