Guest Post & Contributed Content Guidelines

ColdChainSA publishes contributed articles from people who work in or around South Africa’s cold chain. We welcome practitioner expertise — an operator’s hard-won lesson, an engineer’s method, a supplier’s technical insight. What we publish has to teach the reader something useful, not sell them something. These guidelines explain what we accept, how we handle it, and where contributed content sits relative to our sponsor commitments.

The three kinds of content we publish

Keeping these separate is what protects the platform’s credibility, and it’s what we’ve promised our sponsors.

1. House editorial — Independent analysis written under our own editorial voice. No third-party branding.
2. Contributed / guest articles — Free to submit, open to industry practitioners. Must be genuinely educational. Carries a single closing author line linking to the contributor’s site. These guidelines govern this category.
3. Sponsored & co-branded articles — A paid benefit for Foundation and Category sponsors. Always clearly marked Sponsored, may be co-branded, and follows the sponsor agreement in addition to these standards.

A useful way to hold the difference: a guest article is a contribution to the reader; a sponsored article is a contribution to the platform that the reader is told about openly. Both must be accurate and well made. Only one wears a label.

What makes a publishable guest article

• The reader test. Would this still be worth reading by someone who will never become your customer? If the answer is no, it isn’t ready.
• Topic fit. Relevant to the South African cold chain. Physics-first and operationally specific content (load shedding, altitude, heat, compliance, real routes) is especially welcome. Generic global logistics copy is not.
• Original. Not already published elsewhere, unless you flag it and we agree on a syndication note.
• Accurate. Claims should be supportable. We may ask for sources for specific figures or assertions.
• Length. Roughly 800–2,500 words. Quality over volume — a tight 1,000 words beats a padded 2,500.
• One author line, at the close. A single closing sentence may name the company and link to its site. The body of the article must stand on its own as editorial.

We edit submissions for clarity, accuracy, and house style, and we may decline anything that reads primarily as promotional. Publication is at the editor’s discretion.

What a guest article does not buy

This mirrors what we’ve told sponsors, so no contributor can expect more than a paying sponsor receives:

• No directory ranking or preferential listing. Listings are evaluated on the same criteria for everyone.
• No editorial influence over the directory or any other content on the platform.
• No ability to exclude or disadvantage competitors.
• No guarantee of publication.

A guest post is editorial space earned by usefulness, not a placement that’s been bought.

Featured images

Featured images are editorial, not advertising.

• Unbranded. No company logos, wordmarks, or product labels in the image. This keeps the article reading as independent content rather than paid placement.
• Coordinated, not branded. We’re happy to match a contributor’s brand colours and subject matter, and to generate an image that complements their visual identity.
• Product photography belongs in the listing. A contributor’s own logo-bearing photos are reserved for their directory listing, not the article header.
• We assign the featured image. Contributors may suggest direction; final selection sits with us.

Exception: sponsored and co-branded articles follow the sponsor agreement — they may be co-branded and are marked Sponsored.

Sponsored & co-branded content

This section defers to the Supporting South Africa’s Cold Chain Industry page, which is the single source of truth for tiers and benefits.

• All sponsored content is clearly marked as such.
• Foundation and Category sponsors receive co-branded articles as part of their tier — these may carry sponsor branding and acknowledgment.
• Sponsored content is still editorially reviewed for accuracy and quality, and remains editorially independent in substance. Sponsorship buys visibility and acknowledgment, not control of the words.
• Sponsorship never changes a company’s directory treatment.

Technical & submission specs

• Send as a Word document or Google Doc. We handle WordPress formatting.
• Internal links: relative URLs only (e.g. /glossary-terms/), never the full domain.
• External links: open in a new tab (target="_blank" rel="noopener").
• Glossary terms: do not manually link them — our glossary plugin auto-links recognised terms.
• Sources: include references where the article makes claims that need support. Opinion and method pieces may not need a formal source list; data-led pieces will.

How to submit

Email info@coldchainsa.com with your draft or a short pitch. We’ll confirm fit, edit for house style, prepare a featured image, and send a preview before anything goes live.