How to submit an article
Anyone can be a contributor for Netribution.
Netribution is one of 5,000 news sources indexed by Google news which means stories can get a lot of visibility in a short space of time. Because of this we also need to be a bit more careful about what we publish so all stories have editor approval, and our content submission is a bit more complex (but a bit more powerful) than many blogs.
If you have something film or media related (or even just inspiring) that you'd like to share with the world - we'd be delighted to welcome you. What follows is a guide to how to get your work published.
1 - sign up
Click on this link to register. It takes about one minute.
2 - get ready
If you are using an old version of Internet Explorer, or Safari on the Mac, it is also reccomended that you use Firefox - as this works flawlessly with our content management system. Safari is very slow, and Explorer is, well, unpredictable.
3 - get to the right place
If you aren't already logged in, log in. Click remember me to stop you getting booted out. At the top right corner of the screen you should now see a new menu. Click the link 'submit an article'. This page allows you to edit any articles you have written, see how many hits they have had, and enter new ones.
At the bottom of the page is a popup menu where you can chose what sort of article you want to upload - news, interview, review, article (ie essay), or diary (ie blog). When you have selected your content type you will be forwarded to a content submission page.
4 - enter your content
This page is divided into a number of sections where you can copy and past your article.
Important - If you are using Microsoft Word to write your article, use this button 
to paste it onto our system - this will strip out some of the strange formating Word includes. If you are using another text editor which adds strange formating (you'll realise this when your article appears a bit of a mess), please use this 
.
Otherwise just copy and paste as normal into the various sections (if you are copying from another web page, eg Wikipedia or your website, Firefox normally copies images and formating, which can save you a lot of time).
Title (required) - pretty self explanatory, enter the title for your story.
Category (required) - here you can choose a suitable category for your content to appear under (don't worry too much if one doesn't perfectly match, just choose the closest).
Intro (required) - the opening section of your story. Could just be the first paragraph, but ideally something which sums up what the rest of the article is about.
Body (optional) - this is where you put the rest of your article. If you article is only one or two paragraphs long you can put it all in the 'intro' box and leave the rest.
Metadata (optional) - to increase the chances of your article coming up high on search results, clicking on the metadata tab at the bottom will allow you the chance to enter a description of your piece and keywords.
5 - add pictures
If you want to add pictures there are two ways.
- The simplest way is to have your picture hosted already on another website. Then you just need to click
which will bring up a popup window where you can paste the URL (ie http://flickr.com/myphoto.jpg) of your image in the first box, and a description (for people with vision impairments) in the second box. Under the 'Appearance' tab of this window you can also change the size of the image, and align it to the left or the right of your text. - Alternatively, you can upload pictures to our system. Click on
which brings up Image Manager. At the bottom is a number of folders. Choose the folder that most suits your image and double click on it. Click the 
button and you can upload a JPG or GIF, which you can resize if needs be. Click on the appearance tab to change the alignment or size, and click insert.
6 - add bells, whistles and video
If you've got this far without tearing your hair out or giving up - well done and feel free to skip to number seven (or even eight). But thereare a few more things you can do to spice up your article if you are feeling particularly adventurous.
You will probably have noticed a number of familiar buttons - like 
for bold, 
for creating a numbered list and 
for making tabs. Have a play, they work just like in a word processor.
You can also make links by selecting the text you want to turn into a link, and clicking this 
button.
You can even climb under the hood and edit the raw HTML code with this button 
if that makes your day.
Add/embed video files
Perhaps coolest of all, you can embed video in the page to create your own personal one page film channel - or just to illustrate the story you are writing (eg an interview with a short filmmaker dotted through with examples of their work. To make it work you need to add a simple code:
{nameofprovider}video id{/nameofprovider}
There's a guide to doing this with most video providers here
7 - And save...
But wait. This is the moment where things can possibly go wrong. If you've spent a bit long working on your article, our system can log you out. Therefore when you click save, it doesn't recognise you and deletes your article. Aagh! Big nightmare.
To avoid this, there is a simple trick. You open up a second window (in Firefox or Explorer). Go to Netribution, and if you are not logged in, then log in.
Go back to your article, click the big save button 
and your article will be forwarded to one of our editors to double check it's not spam or illegal or illegible, and it will soon appear on the front page.
8 - Time for a cup of tea
If it doesn't work, or something goes wrong, or you've submitted an article and it hasn't appeared within 48 hours, or you think these instructions could be improved, then please drop us an email - hello @ netribution.co.uk
We cannot guarantee that we will include your article, or that it will appear on the front page of the site. We may change its category and formating for site consistency, and clean up any typos without telling you. Any other noticable material changes we will get in touch first. For more info see our terms and conditions.