Want to Write for and Create with Us?

An Open Call to Guest Contributors

StuttgartDNA is always on the look-out for other Porschephiles who are interested in contributing their own unique points of view on all things Porsche — and on our magnificent obsession that the marque of Porsche has spawned within each and every one of us.

In short, we welcome your contributions on everything relating to Porsche automobiles, products, services, clubs, events, gatherings, tours, technical or repair issues, racing, track days, etc., etc. — as well as contributions about your own magnificent Porsche obsession and avid Porschephile lifestyle.

You’re invited to get in touch with us simply by completing the Contact Form at the bottom of this page.  Tell us a little about yourself and briefly give us your thoughts (see bullet points below for specifics) on what you’d like to share on these pages with the StuttgartDNA community.  We’re looking for articles, stories, blog posts, pieces on individual noteworthy Porsches, reviews, commentary, artwork, cartoons, etc. for this latest reincarnation of the website.

Your writings and other contributions will be on voluntary spec only — nonetheless serving as invaluable contributions to the Porschephile community, while also allowing you to chalk up credits on your curriculum vitae as well as to your body of work.  In addition, you’ll reap the benefits derived from your contributions garnering broad exposure to, as well as publicity and promotion in, the StuttgartDNA Community.

Here are some suggestions regarding what to include in the “Your Message” textbox in the Contact Form at the very bottom of the page below:

  • Subject matter of what you would like to contribute to StuttgartDNA
  • Types of articles or stories that you want to write
  • Types of artwork that you’d like to submit
  • List of websites and blogs to which you have contributed in the past
  • List of publications (magazines, newspapers, Porsche club newsletters or other newsletters, or other types of publications) for which you have written or to which you have provided artwork
  • Links to samples of your writings or artwork on the Internet (links to your work are most important and definitely required for serious consideration)
  • If you do not have any links because none of your work has yet been posted on the Internet — but you do have available PDFs of your work that you would like to submit — then please state this somewhere in your message.

So we invite you to get in touch with us today.  We look forward to hearing from you.  Let’s have fun working together on our favorite subject — Porsche — because we all know that you, like us, must be a mutant too. . .   But please allow us at least two to four weeks to get back to you with a reply as we sift through our continuous stream of emails.  Before contacting us, though, please review the following prerequisites that need to be met:

Prerequisites to Becoming a StuttgartDNA Guest Contributor

As you muse on ideas of what articles, stories, or artwork to submit to StuttgartDNA, please refer to the criteria listed below as guidelines in developing your prospective submissions.  In addition, consider these requirements as a “pre-flight plan checklist,” if you will, guiding you along your journey to drafting a post that, it is hoped, will ultimately go viral, wowing both yourself and your fellow Porschephiles.

If your final submitted draft satisfies each and every one of these guest-contributor requirements, you’ll be well on your way to getting your work to rise to the top of the heap, and possibly getting your work posted.  Best of luck, and thanks for your interest.

Here are your guest-contributor prerequisites:

1.  PDF of the Guest Contributor Agreement

We need a signed Guest Contributor Agreement to begin the submission process.  This is to protect both you and StuttgartDNA.  We cannot review nor post your material without your signed Agreement in hand.  Click on the following link to open the PDF of the Guest Contributor Agreement.

In the event that we reply to your initial guest-contributor query with an invitation to submit your ideas, then print the Guest Contributor Agreement, date and sign it with your wet signature — preferably in blue ink — and scan it back as a PDF.  Then email that signed Guest Contributor Agreement to us as an attachment to your reply to our initial email inviting you to submit your ideas.

2.  Submit Your Topical Ideas First before Drafting Your Material

Once we acknowledge receipt of your signed Guest Contributor Agreement via an email back to you, please reply to it by sending us your best topical ideas (approximately 2 to 5) before you draft anything.  Give proposed titles of each idea, along with some of the salient points to be covered in the prospective piece.  This step is critical before proceeding to the next item on the checklist.

3.  Flesh Out Your Draft to Make It as Informative and Entertaining as Possible

Once we give you the green light to draft your chosen topical idea, then go forth, have at it, create!  When we say “flesh out,” we mean make your piece as meaty as possible so that it doesn’t feel sparse, leaving the reader with that unsatisfied feeling of something left to be desired.  Remember, it’s almost always easier to scale back on verbiage than it is to go back and try to determine what meat on the bones has been left out of your piece.

Here are some critical points to keep in mind when drafting:

  • Facts and Figures – always substantiate your assertions and claims.  Cite research or other articles, posts or stories, as well as using charts, diagrams, quotes from experts, etc. that support your arguments or story points.  Give examples and anecdotes from your own experiences, too.
  • Perennial Content – make whatever you write feel as relevant 5-10 years from now as it is today.  So avoid trendy matters that will appear and/or feel dated as time goes by.
  • Suggested Further Actions – give the reader recommended steps to take or actions to accomplish the goals espoused in your article.  For example, if you’re writing about the restoration of your 914-4 2.0, cite the contact info (via links, etc. – see next point below) of the vendors who are assisting in the process and who can assist the readers who may be in the same boat.
  • Links for Further Investigation – as much as possible, provide links across the Internet allowing the reader to dive deeper into the subject matter that you are covering.
    • Whenever possible, link to past news pieces, articles, stories and posts on StuttgartDNA as suggested further reading that is relevant to your subject matter or to any points you are making
    • Make sure your links open in another tab – not going directly to the new site – so that readers never have to leave StuttgartDNA
    • Link to your sources and list them at the end of your piece as bibliographical references for further study
    • Be sure to test your links to see to it that they go where you intend as well as to ensure that they open in a new tab
  • Pictures, Graphics, Videos and Audio – enrich the reader’s experience by adding high-quality media such as pictures, graphics, video and audio.  Pictures, graphics and images should be at least 700 pixels wide, on up to 2,000 pixels wide, ideally, to nicely fit your post.  We strongly encourage you to host all of your submitted media on you own servers such as Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, etc.  In any case, also submit your images as attachments, too, in case they need to undergo quality improvements to become suitable for posting.

4.  Submit Your Contributions in the Proper Formats

There are only two (2) formats that we accept — and you must submit each of your contributions in both formats:

  • MS Word document file, and
  • HTML file, formatted specifically for WordPress, with all of your links in place — especially your target=”_blank” code included to open each link in a new tab

Submitting in both of these formats will expedite the posting of your contributions without any unnecessary delays.  This enables us to post ASAP without forcing us to do any extraneous reformatting on our end.  Please take the time to do all of the proper formatting on your end first.

Above all, before you in fact submit your draft, please PROOFREAD your piece thoroughly, making sure there are no typos, spelling errors, grammatical errors, etc.  If we do find any such errors, probabilities will run high that your piece won’t be posted.  It’s as simple as that.  Sorry. . .

5.  Agree to Accept Our Right to Final Draft

We want each and every one of your posted contributions to be the best they can be — in other words, each one must be worthy of our magnificent obsession, Porsche.  We therefor reserve the right to edit your piece to comply with this high standard.  That said, the goals of our final editing process are clarity, cogency, coherence and concise elegance.  Bottom line, here’s our editing rule on final cut:  The least needed, not the most possible.

6.  Allow Reasonable Time for to Us to Respond to Your Queries and Submissions

Please allow us enough time to sort through all of our emails pertaining to guest-contributor requests and invited submissions.  Your patience will be greatly appreciated.  We’ll gladly get back to you as soon as we can.

7.  Agree to Accept Our Terms and Conditions

Please carefully review the Terms and Conditions that follow.  Your submission of queries and material constitutes unconditional acceptance of and agreement to these Terms.

Guest Contributor Terms and Conditions

Content of Your Contributed Work

Original Work

  • Your Work — whether a written, drawn, painted, graphical or CGI depiction, or a photographic, video or audio piece or other such similarly formatted medium — must be originally authored by you. Furthermore, such Work must not have been posted or otherwise distributed on any other website, chatroom, forum or social media network as of the date on which it is to be first posted on http://stuttgartdna.com.
  • Once posted on StuttgartDNA, the Work cannot be posted or published anywhere on the Internet, in part or in its entirety — including on your own website or blog.
  • However, you do retain the right to promote your Work by linking to it at StuttgartDNA.com on your own website, blog, Twitter, Facebook or other social media networks and forums.
  • You are nonetheless expressly limited to only a brief 1- to 2-sentence synopsis stating the mere gist of your Work when describing that link to your guest-contribution Work at StuttgartDNA.com.
  • The use of plagiarized and/or previously copyrighted material in the Work is strictly prohibited.
  • Any and all quoted authorities on the given subject matter must be expressly attributed and cited, preferably with links within the Work to their respective sources, or at the end of the Work as bibliographical references.

Authorship, Grant of License and Non-Compensation

  • Your writing credit will be acknowledged at both the top and bottom of the post as author of the Work.  You are entitled to submit a brief bio (25 words or less) and a photo, either of which may or may not be posted along with your Work.  A standalone bio page is not available at this time, but may be in the future.
  • As Guest Contributor, you will have a byline acknowledging your authorship.  Said byline will provide you with one (1) link-back to your own website or blog.  However, said byline link cannot be an affiliate link, nor can it point to an affiliate site.
  • Should you happen not to possess a website or blog, one (1) link will be made available in order to link back to your Twitter account or to your Facebook account.
  • In any case, StuttgartDNA retains the right to delete this link at any time at our sole discretion.
  • Despite acceptance of your authorship, the Work becomes the exclusive property of StuttgartDNA, to whom you are unconditionally granting perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, but licensable rights to your Work, so long as we continue to acknowledge you as author of that Work.
  • Submission of your Work constitutes your acknowledgment that you will not receive any compensation, and that you are entering into this agreement completely without expectation of payment or compensation, other than benefits derived from your Work gaining broad exposure to, as well as publicity and promotion within, the StuttgartDNA Community.

Links Inserted in Your Work

Links for Further Investigation

  • StuttgartDNA encourages you to provide links within your Work that span across the Internet as much as possible, allowing the reader to probe deeper into the subject matter that you are covering.
  • Links to any third-party sites must be germane to the subject matter of the Work, and are subject to the approval of StuttgartDNA. Following any and all of these links must lead to the new site opening up in a new tab only
  • Links to affiliates or to spammy websites are prohibited, and are thus subject to deletion by StuttgartDNA, as are an excessive number of links.
  • You are also strongly encouraged, whenever and wherever possible, to link to past news pieces, articles, stories and posts on StuttgartDNA as suggested further reading that is relevant to your subject matter or to any points you are making within your Work.

Affiliate Links

  • Affiliate links within guest-contributor Works are prohibited.
  • StuttgartDNA does reserve the right, though, to insert its own affiliate links in your Work as we deem it to be beneficial.

Media Incorporated within Your Work

Enriching our Readers’ Experience

  • High-quality media such as pictures, artwork, CGI, video, audio, graphics, etc. are highly recommended to augment and enhance your Work.
  • We strongly encourage you to host all of your submitted media on you own servers such as Flickr, YouTube, etc.  Send us the links embedded within your Work to where each image is stored on external servers.
  • Also submit your images as attachments, too, in case they need to undergo improvement in quality to become suitable for posting.

Rights, Limitations, Obligations and Responsibilities of Media Usage

  • You must hold the copyright to the pictures, artwork, CGI, video, audio, or graphics incorporated into your Work.
  • If you are not the copyright holder of any such images, then the images must either be in the public domain or licensed under a valid creative commons license.  Such images require proper attribution by you of the owner or creator of said images.
  • You must submit proof with any image indicating that it does not infringe upon any laws of copyright.
  • If individual persons are depicted in any image, you must furnish written releases approving the use of each person’s likeness.
  • All submitted images must bear substantive relevance to your Work.
  • StuttgartDNA reserves the right to modify, alter or edit any submitted image to comply with the professional standards of the Website.
  • We also reserve the right to remove any image, or refuse the use of any image, that is not consistent with the professional standards of the Website.

Editing of Your Work

Our Right to Final Draft

  • You agree and accept that we have the right to make alterations and/or corrections to any Work that you submit, and therefore that we retain the right to final draft which we can edit how we deem necessary.
  • Changes could involve, for example, shortening the length of the Work to better fit within the given webpage format at that point in time.
  • Any edits will be made and executed with the sincere, good-faith effort to sustain the original intent and tenor of your piece.
  • Our general rule of thumb about final-cut editing is this — the least needed, not the most possible.

Working Relationship

From Initial Submission through Termination

  • You accept that your Work may be reviewed by StuttgartDNA with no guarantee of being posted.
  • We retain the right to refuse posting any Work, or to take down a Work, without any prior notification to you, the Guest Contributor.
  • For the duration of time that you will be creating and submitting your Works under these specific Guest-Contributor Terms and Conditions, your status will always be independent of, and separate from, the entity of the Website, i.e., not as an employee and not as a member of the Website.
  • Over the course of your submitting of Guest-Contributed Works to StuttgartDNA, you agree to abide by these Terms and Conditions, as well as by the Guest Contributor Agreement’s terms and conditions — both sets of which may be amended from time to time.
  • In the event that you fail to follow any of these Terms and Conditions, StuttgartDNA shall have the right, in its sole, unilateral discretion, to terminate this agreement, to refuse to post any of your Works and/or to remove any non-compliant Works from the Website, all without further notice to you.

By completing and submitting the Contact Form below as well as by submitting any Works to us, you affirm that you have read and now understand the foregoing Terms and Conditions and agree to be bound by them.

Contact Form

If you agree to all of the above Prerequisites and Terms and Conditions, then print, sign and scan the PDF of the Guest Contributor Agreement to your desktop for future emailing to us, and then please contact us by completing this Contact Form:

If you wish to submit the hard copy of the original signed PDF of the Guest Contributor Agreement, other various hard copies, etc., here’s our USPS mailing address:

StuttgartDNA
P.O. Box 412561
Los Angeles, California 90041-9998
USA