Topics Covered:

• Why to write an article?
• Will I be paid if my article is accepted?
• Who can write the article?
• What topics should I write on?
• How to write the article?
• How to submit the article?

Why to write an article?
Some of the reasons why you would want to be an author are:

1. To become a professional author.
   Professional authors are developers who regularly write articles for online and print publishers and also participate in writing books. To start your career in this field, you start off polishing your skills by writing articles for sites like Stardeveloper. Once you are experienced and known by people around, you can contact publishers which will pay for the content you write. It is an exciting field and people who are involved in it enjoy a decent life.
   
   
2. To add something to your resume.
   Adding a note on your resume that you are an experienced author and have written articles on these topics for these sites should increase your job prospects.
   
   
3. To help the developer community and become popular.
   People who are involved in helping others get the respect and honor of fellow developers. So when time comes e.g. when that person writes a book or something, those fellow developers know that this is a knowledgeable person and his book must be useful.
   
   Others that write articles and reply to other developer's questions do it because they think this is the time to return something back to the community which helped them when they needed it badly.

Whatever is your reason, it is for you to decide.

Will I be paid if my article is accepted?
No, we do not pay for any articles you submit. But we do provide you an opportunity to get involved with the developer community and you retain the right to post that article to other publishers as well ( if you want to ).

Who can write the article?
Anyone with experience in related field/s e.g. .NET/J2EE. When you submit your article and if this is the first time you are doing that, make sure you include some information about yourself as to who you are and what you do.

And remember!, you have to be a member to submit article(s).

What topics should I write on?
Any topic which is of interest to .NET/J2EE developers. You can see the categories list on the top-left column. If the topic you want to write on is not listed, then let me know.

How to write the article?
Your article must be focused on a given topic. To make it easier for Stardeveloper editors to format the article according to the style of Stardeveloper.com, you should write the whole article on a single page ( preferably use Notepad ).

Begin with the title at the top e.g.

Title: This is the title of the article

After that write the whole article under the title. You should separate the article into paragraphs and headings e.g.

<p><h>This is the heading</h><br />
Now here goes the content. You should divide the content into 
paragraphs. Try to use as few HTML tags as possible.</p>

<p>This is another paragraph.</p>

Please use only following HTML tags and not anything else, as it'll make it extremely difficult for us to format according to Stardeveloper design scheme:

• For paragraphs: <p></p>
• For new line: <br />
• For large pieces of code: <pre></pre>
• For code keywords within sentences: <code></code>
• For unordered lists: <ul></ul>
• For ordered lists: <ol></ol>
• For list items: <li></li>
• For links: <a href=""></a>

Following tags are part of Stardeveloper Article Format ( SAF ) scheme. They are not HTML tags but work the same way. During runtime these tags are replaced by appropriate standard HTML. You should use them for article headings, highlighting sections of text etc.

• For large headings: <h></h>
• For small headings: <sh></sh>
• For highlighting text: <hl></hl>
• For important notes: <note></note>
• For important tips: <tip></tip>

Do not use any format other than plain text. Using Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat or even Frontpage will make it difficult for us to format the article. Also do not use any CSS, JavaScript in the article.

If you can stick to plain text with HTML and SAF tags described above, it'll make it more likely that you article gets published at Stardeveloper.

How to submit the article?
Simple! when you have written the article and double-checked it for spelling and URL mistakes, you should contact me to let me know what you have written.

If your article is accepted then you'll receive a reply and the link where the article has been posted. And if your article is rejected, you may or may not receive a reply as to why your article was rejected.

If you need any other information, please feel free to contact me at any time.