Most “write for us” pages are traps.
They exist to harvest guest posts from SEO agencies who want a backlink and don’t care what’s in the article as long as it contains their client’s URL. You know the type — 800 words of nothing, three keyword-stuffed paragraphs, and a link to a mattress company buried in the middle of an article about productivity.
That is not what this page is.
We’re looking for people who can actually report, actually think, and actually write. If that’s you, we’d like to hear from you. If you’re an agency sending a templated pitch to two hundred sites this morning, please save us both the time — we can tell, and we say no.
What We’re Looking For
PressDeep publishes four kinds of writing. We’re open to pitches in all of them.
Deep Dives. Long-form investigation. Original reporting, primary documents, real digging. This is our signature format and the hardest to place — but if you’ve got something genuinely new, this is where it belongs. We’ll give you the space and the time it needs.
Analysis. The piece that explains why the news matters. You need to know your subject cold, and you need to make an argument that survives contact with someone who disagrees with you.
Explainers. Plain-English breakdowns of complicated things. Deceptively hard to write well. If you can make something genuinely difficult feel obvious without dumbing it down, you have a rare and valuable skill and we want to talk to you.
News. Fast, accurate, no padding. Usually staff-written, but if you’re close to a developing story we’d consider it.
What Makes a Pitch Land
A specific question, not a broad topic. “The gig economy” is not a pitch. “Why three delivery platforms all raised their fees in the same week, and what the filings show about who decided it” is a pitch.
Something we don’t already know. New reporting. New data. A perspective from inside a world most readers can’t see. If your piece could have been written by anyone with a search engine and an afternoon, it isn’t for us.
Evidence you can actually get it. Tell us what documents you have, who you can talk to, and why they’ll talk to you. Ambition is good; ambition with a plan is better.
A reason it matters now. Not necessarily breaking, but there should be an answer to “why publish this at all.”
Your own voice. We don’t want you to sound like us. We want you to sound like you, thinking clearly.
What Doesn’t
Being direct about this saves everyone time.
- Guest posts written to place a backlink. Non-negotiable. We don’t accept them at any price, and we don’t do link exchanges.
- AI-generated articles. We can tell. We’re not interested. Our position on AI is public in our Editorial Policy.
- Rewrites of other people’s reporting. If it’s already been covered, we need a genuinely new angle, not a summary with different adjectives.
- Undisclosed promotional content. If you or a client has a stake in the subject, tell us upfront. It might still work — undisclosed, it never will.
- Generic listicles. “10 Ways to Improve Your X.” No.
- Sending the same pitch to fifty sites. We can tell that too.
What We Pay
We pay for what we publish. Rates depend on the format, the depth of reporting required, and the length — a reported Deep Dive that took six weeks is not paid like a 900-word explainer, and shouldn’t be.
We’ll agree on a rate with you before you start writing, not after. You’ll never do work for us on spec without knowing what it’s worth.
[Publisher note: replace this section with your actual rates or arrangement before going live. If you’re not paying yet, say so honestly — “we’re a young publication and can’t pay yet, here’s what we offer instead” earns more respect than vagueness, and vagueness scares off the good writers first.]
Our Standards
Anything published under the PressDeep name is held to the standards in our Editorial Policy. Read it before you pitch — it’ll tell you a lot about whether we’re a fit.
The essentials:
- Every significant claim is sourced. Link your evidence. Primary documents wherever possible.
- Quotes are exact. We don’t tidy up what people said.
- Conflicts get disclosed. Financial interest, personal relationship, former employer — tell us. Disclosure almost never kills a piece. Discovering it after publication does.
- Right of reply is real. If you’re making a serious allegation, the subject gets a genuine chance to answer, and their answer goes in the piece.
- We edit. Sometimes lightly, sometimes hard. Nothing goes out without your sign-off on the final version.
Rights and Ownership
You keep the copyright to your work.
We take first publication rights, and we ask for a reasonable exclusivity window before you republish elsewhere. When you do republish, credit PressDeep and link back to the original.
We don’t lock writers into anything ugly. If you want to put the piece in your portfolio, anthologize it, or build a book on it later — good. That’s how it should work.
How to Pitch
Email contact@buytextlinks.com with “PITCH:” and your headline in the subject line.
Include:
- The pitch itself — three or four paragraphs. What’s the story, what’s new about it, why now.
- How you’ll get it — sources, documents, access. Be specific.
- Format and rough length — Deep Dive, Analysis, or Explainer.
- Two writing samples. Published is ideal. Unpublished is fine. If you’ve never been published anywhere, that’s genuinely not a barrier — the pitch matters more than the CV, and everyone’s first byline was their first byline.
- Anything we should know — conflicts, prior relationships, whether it’s exclusive to us.
Please don’t send a finished 3,000-word draft as your opening move. Pitch first. It saves you weeks of work on something we might want shaped completely differently.
What Happens Next
We read every pitch. Every single one.
If it’s a fit, you’ll hear from us within about a week, usually with questions and pushback before a yes — that’s a good sign, not a bad one. It means we’re taking it seriously.
If it’s not, we’ll tell you. A “no” from us is a no on that pitch, not on you. Several writers we work with regularly were rejected the first time.
If you don’t hear back after a couple of weeks, feel free to nudge us. We’re small, things get buried, and a polite follow-up is not an imposition.
One Last Thing
We know how demoralizing freelance pitching is. The silence, the templated rejections, the sites that take your work and pay in “exposure.”
We’ll try not to be that. You’ll get a real answer from a real person, and if we say yes, we’ll agree what you’re getting paid before you write a word.
Send us something good.
Email: contact@buytextlinks.com
Website: pressdeep.com
— The PressDeep Team