Writers (App Performance Optimization)

Will You Be the Next Writer on Our Blog?

You have published articles about mid/senior-level Node.js, Ruby, or Elixir topics before.
You can dive deeply into a topic, using lots of code examples.

You're able to explain difficult concepts in a clear manner.

If you check all these boxes then we’d love to work with you to publish some posts. Find further information on this page, and when you are ready...

Wait, What Is AppSignal?

AppSignal is an application performance monitoring tool for Ruby (on Rails), Elixir, and Node.js. We monitor thousands of applications and process over 100 billion requests for our customers each month.
A hand writing for AppSignal
Our Blog

We share tips and tricks about performance optimization, monitoring, and observability for JavaScript, Node.js, Ruby, and Elixir apps.
A hand writing for AppSignal
Our Blog's Reach

We’ve built up a strong following, hitting over 150k page views per month and our posts are frequently upvoted on Hacker News and Reddit.
A hand writing for AppSignal
Why Write for AppSignal?

Writing for AppSignal should be an enjoyable and stress-free experience. We'll give input at every stage to help make your posts awesome.

We’re open to your ideas!

Although our blog has a greater focus on some topics than others, we’d love to hear what you’re passionate about. Some topics won’t be quite right for us, but we’ll let you know if this is the case. We have technical editors on hand who will help steer things in the right direction.
We’re here to help every step of the way

From helping you to select a topic, to providing feedback on your outline, and edits to your post, all the way through to publication and promotion.
A good rate

We offer a good base rate for articles, plus free stroopwafels! Need we say more?
A chance to contribute to your community

We can get your posts seen on Hacker News, Reddit, Twitter, LinkedIn, and various newsletters.
Republish on your own blog

You’re welcome to republish on your blog, as long as you set up the canonical tag on the post.
We’re flexible and don’t set deadlines

We understand life gets in the way sometimes. You can write as often or as little as you’d like. Most of our writers have full-time jobs and write for us on the side.
The freedom to write in your own voice

As long as your tone isn’t negative and you don’t bash others, you can maintain your unique voice. We encourage you to be informal (as long as you’re not too informal) and conversational in your style.

What We Are Not Looking For

We work hard to maintain the quality of posts on our blog. To avoid the possibility of getting rejected, we ask that you avoid making any of these mistakes.

Content that isn’t original or has already been published elsewhere. We want fresh content for our readers!
Beginner-level topics. The AppSignal audience consists of mid-level/senior developers.
Posts that don’t have a lot of code examples or are thin on content. We like to go deep into our subjects!
The wrong length: We ask that posts be approx 1,500 words. This isn’t a hard and fast rule - you can write a bit less or more than this. Our main concern is that you give code examples and lots of explanations alongside your code.
Posts that need a lot of editing, are too vague, or unfocused. These are likely to be rejected because they're too hard to fix.
We ask that you have strong English writing skills.

The Process:
6 Easy Steps

Here's a super quick summary of how our collaboration process usually works:

We sign a really simple author agreement for legal reasons.
We agree on a topic.
You spend 15 minutes on a rough outline, and our technical editor gives some feedback.
We set up a Github repo for you, and you write a post.
We support you to make any further tweaks that are needed and once approved, we pay you.
We publish and promote your post!