1) Send us your ideas
E-mail opinion@theguardian.com and tell us a bit about yourself and a brief outline for an article. If you already comment on our site, please include your commenting name.
We're always particularly interested in people with particular expertise or experience in the relevant areas (in your professional or personal life). Bear in mind that when writing for us, you are writing for a global, diverse audience. We're always keen to hear from people from outside the UK, from different backgrounds, and about ideas and subjects you may not feel we're covering enough already.
If we like your idea and ask you to write, we will guide you on word length and deadline. When you file, remember to send a sentence or two about yourself and a headshot for your author profile page if you haven't written for us before.
Keep in mind we get a lot of pitches every day and not all queries will be replied to – but we will certainly try.
2) Links
Open journalism is all about seamlessly knitting our own reporting with the wider network of information beyond. For this reason, links are an essential part of writing for the web; you should aim to include several in every blog entry.
The internet is awash with rumours, gossip and inaccuracies, which makes credibility all the more important to our readers. Links are helpful in lending extra credibility to your blogs. Writing about a government report? Link to it. Quoting the prime minister? Link to the source. Referring to old news stories? Find the link. The more you can show the workings of your research, the better.
3) Make yourself heard
Once your article has been published, we encourage all contributors to join in with the debate that follows. Commenters will no doubt have questions and opinions of their own about what you have written and they really appreciate it when writers enter threads to respond to them. Commenting on the site requires a simple registration process – sign up now and you'll be able to start posting comments straight away. You can also report any comments you think contravene our Talk Policy so that our moderators are alerted as soon as possible. You can always alert your piece to interested communities on other platforms too, and join in conversations on social networks.
4) Keep in touch
Follow @guardianopinion on Twitter and on Facebook at facebook.com/GuardianOpinion.