Get Business Trade Credit the Right Way

Are You Looking for Business Trade Credit?

Business trade credit is a line of credit extended by a merchant to a business. Often the terms are Net, which means there’s a set time to pay, and you can’t carry the balance, like you can with what’s called revolving credit. One common term is Net 30 – which means you have 30 days in which to pay.

Legit Business Trade Credit

A business gets goods or services and agrees to pay for them at a later date. Trade lines are often established between a business and a vendor. This is as opposed to a line of credit offered by a bank. Trade lines can help businesses build credit since the loans are frequent and the turnaround quick. They can also help rapidly build positive credit experiences.

Working with Starter Vendor Credit

When you use tradelines that report, then you’ll have an established credit profile. You’ll get a business credit score. And with an established business credit profile and score you can begin to get credit for numerous purposes, and from all sorts of places.

Details

To kick off your business credit profile properly, get approval for vendor accounts that report to the business credit reporting agencies. When that’s done, you can then use the credit. Then pay back what you used. And then the account is on report to Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, or Equifax.

Vendor Credit – It Helps

Not every vendor can help in the same way true starter credit can. These are merchants that grant approval with very little effort. You also need them to be reporting to one or more of the big three CRAs: Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, and Experian. As you get starter credit, you can also start to get credit from retailers. Since over 90% of all vendors don’t report, it helps to work with a company that knows the ins and outs of which vendors report, and how to work with them.

Business Trade Credit from Uline

Uline is a true starter vendor. They offer shipping, packing, and industrial supplies and more. They report to D&B and Experian. Over 99% of their products ship same day, with no back orders. They will ask for your business bank information. Your company address must be uniform everywhere.

You need:

Entity in good standing with Secretary of State
EIN number with IRS
Business address- matching everywhere
D-U-N-S number
Business license(s) if applicable
A business bank account
Business phone number listed in 411

Here’s how to apply with them. You will need to create an account first. Then place an order and select Net 30 terms. Their credit dept. will review the account. Your application may be approved for net 30 at time of order. Upon final review, their credit department may change to a few prepaid orders before a Net 30 is granted.

Business Trade Credit from Marathon

Marathon Petroleum Company provides transportation fuels, asphalt, and specialty products throughout the United States. Their product line supports commercial, industrial, and retail operations. This card reports to Dun & Bradstreet and Experian. Before applying for multiple accounts with WEX Fleet cards, make sure to have enough time in between applying so they don’t red-flag your account for fraud.

To qualify, you need:

Entity in good standing with Secretary of State
EIN number with IRS
Business address- matching everywhere.
D-U-N-S number
Business license (if applicable)
And a business bank account
Business phone number listed on 411

Your SSN is necessary for informational purposes. If concerned they will pull your personal credit talk to their credit department before applying. You can give a $500 deposit instead of using a personal guarantee, if in business less than a year. Apply online or over the phone. Terms are Net 15.

Business Trade Credit from Grainger Industrial Supply

Grainger Industrial Supply sells hardware, power tools, pumps and more. They also do fleet maintenance. And they report to Dun & Bradstreet. Apply online or over the phone.

To qualify, you need the following:

A business license (if applicable)
An EIN number
A company address matching everywhere
A business bank account
A D-U-N-S number from Dun & Bradstreet
Your corporate entity must be in good standing with the applicable Secretary of State

If your business does not have established credit, they will require additional documents. These are items like accounts payable, income statement, balance sheets, and the like.

For even more starter vendors, check out our starter vendor research – and for the most up-to-date information, always be sure to go directly to vendors’ websites.

Business Trade Credit: Some Misconceptions

Since you have heard about how business tradelines can help you build business credit, you may think, I’ll just buy a few things and then I’ll be done, and then I can move onto what I really want to buy from where I really want to shop. You may feel trade credit is just a steppingstone to the good stuff. But here’s a tip, vendor credit is a great end unto itself.

Discover our business credit and finance guide, jam-packed with new ways to finance your business without emptying your wallet

Beyond Business Credit – What Starter Vendors Can Do for Your Business

Don’t just throw stuff in a cart willy-nilly! There’s a lot to buy from starter vendors. It’s things you will need now, and later in the life of your business. Starter vendors sell more than boxes.

For example, Grainger sells computer supplies like mice, screen filters, and cables. You can get your next laptop carrying bag or flash drives from them. Get your next desk chair from Uline (ergonomics are really important – your back will thank you). You can even get disinfecting wipes from them – remember when those were an incredibly HOT commodity in 2020?

At Marathon, you can fill up with your business credit card and earn points. Use your points for everything from 7 cents off per gallon, to Southwest Airlines travel points. And buy gasoline at hundreds of stations in much of the continental US and near parts of our borders with Mexico and Canada. A fill-up in Cadillac, Michigan could get you Target or Petco gift cards – and a cool 5 cents off per gallon.

Business Trade Credit: The Dark Side

But you should be aware that sometimes it’s not all gift cards and a good PAYDEX score. There’s a dark side when it comes to tradelines. You may have seen ads where you can buy them. Or a fellow businessperson may have suggested buying tradelines to you as a shortcut. That person is not doing you any favors.

There Are No Shortcuts in Life or Business. This is very true about building business credit. Yet some people try for a shortcut all the time. The top three areas where they try to game the system are:

Buying trade lines
CPNs (credit privacy/profile numbers) and
Buying shelf corporations

Getting caught doing any of these will hobble your funding efforts. Let’s touch on a terrible idea – buying trade lines.

Buying Business Trade Lines

Many companies online promise to sell ‘seasoned’ trade lines. A business with poor or little credit, can, for several hundred or several thousand dollars, be piggybacked onto the account of someone with established excellent credit. New business owners seem more creditworthy than they really are. Does this sound unethical? Of course it does – because it is.

What is Piggybacking a Trade Line?

‘Piggybacking’ trade lines is a practice involving seasoned trade lines. A creditworthy borrower’s accounts are used to improve the credit of an unrelated third party. A creditworthy borrower adds the third party as an authorized user of his lines of credit. But he or she does not actually provide the third party with materials (credit cards or account numbers, etc.) to let the third party make charges against that account. Hence, the authorized user never actually uses the credit.

How does Piggybacking Benefit Anyone?

The benefit to the third party is an improved credit rating. It ‘shows’ they are already approved for higher limit revolving accounts. In theory, showing you already have credit is supposed to make you more creditworthy for higher limit accounts. Many companies claim to be able to secure $100,000 – 250,000 credit lines once these accounts are reporting. This is dishonest.

How do Piggybacking Companies Work?

A company offering the piggybacking service maintains a network of creditworthy ‘card holders’ or ‘vendors’. They will add strangers to their accounts as authorized users for a fee. A third party, looking to increase their credit score, contacts the company. The company then offers a selected trade line to the client and charges the client a fee per account. The FBI has found that the trade line company can be a fake, and the primary card holder can be a stolen identity in these kinds of scams.

The client pays anywhere from $500 to $2,000 per trade line. The company submits the order to the card holder. Once the trade line reports, the company pays the card holder their fee. This is runs from $50 to $250 per authorized user. The company retains the remaining funds as its revenue.

Discover our business credit and finance guide, jam-packed with new ways to finance your business without emptying your wallet

What Federal Agencies Say About Buying Business Tradelines

The Federal Reserve says:

“The potential distortions in credit scores that piggybacking credit may introduce suggest that a reconsideration of existing regulations, industry practices, or both may be warranted to preserve the predictiveness of credit scoring models.”

Credit Where None is Due? Authorized User Account Status and “Piggybacking Credit”, Robert B. Avery, Kenneth P. Brevoort, Glenn B. Canner (Federal Reserve Board, March 5, 2010)

The FBI says:

When commenting on a 2013 bust of a fraud ring, “A second kind of tradeline is the “authorized user” tradeline, where a credit card holder adds another, so-called “authorized user,” to a credit card account. This raises the credit score of the authorized user, who inherits some of the primary user’s credit history.

Some defendants created and sold fake lines of credit for false identities made up by other defendants. These fraudulent primary tradelines were then used to increase the credit limits on fraud cards, so that the defendants could reap even larger profits. Defendants used the authorized user tradelines to create new identities.”

The leader of the scam ring was sentenced to 80 months (that’s over 6 1/2 years!) in prison in 2016.

FICO, Equifax, and Experian

FICO says:

“A shadier version of piggybacking has been promoted by some CROs who offer to “rent” to their credit-challenged customers the trade lines of established accountholders, in an effort to boost their customers’ credit profiles and scores.”

Equifax says:

“ authorized user abuse occurs when low-risk primary card owners “rent” their tradelines with extensive credit histories, high credit limits and solid repayment profiles to others – most times, knowingly, to fraudsters.”

Experian says:

“Buying tradelines may be viewed as deceptive by lenders and credit reporting agencies, and could even put you in danger of committing bank fraud.

…

If you pay money to improve your credit scores without doing any of the work or even getting a card to use, you could be falsely representing your creditworthiness to potential lenders.”

Unethical Methods Are Bad News

Lenders and CRAs know all the unethical methods out there. They know what to look for, and they will always be looking. When they see a new authorized user on a card, they will dig deeper.

Discover our business credit and finance guide, jam-packed with new ways to finance your business without emptying your wallet.

It Will Catch Up to You

Sooner or later, D&B in particular will determine you bought tradelines. If a tradeline sales company performs an inquiry into your credit report, then D&B is tipped off. And any time you buy a tradeline, the seller will check your credit. Because they want to be sure they get paid.

D&B Methodology

Shutting down tradeline(s) is just the start. D&B will red flag your entire profile. They will flag legitimate trades alongside the illegitimate ones. You will lose whatever time you think you gained. Plus, you’re out the cost of the tradelines.

Years Later

When a company is known to be a tradeline seller, then that company will be flagged. Any new inquiries by that flagged tradeline seller harm buyers. And so will older tradeline sales. There is no Statute of Limitations on this. That’s because it’s not through the courts system. If you bought a tradeline 50 years ago, D&B could still find out.

Personal Credit is Different

Consumer trades as an authorized user are considered legitimate. A person with poor credit can use this strategy legally. Hence if you know someone with great credit. Ask if you can become an authorized user on their card. You never need to use the card, yet it can still help to raise your personal credit scores. But never do this to jack up your BUSINESS credit scores.

Getting Business Trade Credit the Right Way: Takeaways

Working with starter vendors isn’t just a means of building business credit. It’s also a great way to get products and supplies that your business truly needs. It’s not a waste of time or money. All you need to do is search on any vendor’s website to find what they have to offer.

Business tradelines are perfectly legitimate IF you do not pay for them and build them properly and naturally. Buying business tradelines will sink your business credit building effort. It’s dishonest and potentially part of a larger theft ring, SO DON’T DO IT!

The post Get Business Trade Credit the Right Way appeared first on Credit Suite.

How to Build an E-commerce Brand Using Instagram When You Have No Followers

There’s a ton of advice about using Instagram as an effective online marketing tool, but it can be challenging to scale your e-commerce brand on Instagram if you are a new brand without many followers yet.

New accounts often have low engagement rates, which can be disheartening, but there are ways to navigate this period strategically.

Let’s talk about why Instagram as a marketing tool matters, how it can help you grow your business, and look at effective strategies to grow your e-commerce brand—even when you have no followers.

Why Is Instagram a Powerful E-Commerce Tool?

Today, 81 percent of people use Instagram to research products and services to buy. Therefore, using strategies to stand out from the competition and attract potential customers to your Instagram e-commerce page can reach a wider audience.

To do this, you have to understand what makes Instagram a powerful e-commerce tool.

Research shows we remember more of what we see through photos and videos than what we read through plain text. This makes visually-oriented platforms like Instagram a prime tool for marketing.

Instagram lets you upload product photos, share demo videos, launch partnerships with influencers, connect with engaged followers, and boost your ROI.

This can help you grow your e-commerce business faster than marketing only through Facebook and Twitter (which have less than half of Instagram’s brand engagement rate).

10 Ways to Grow an E-Commerce Brand on Instagram

We now know Instagram has a lot to offer marketers at all levels, but how do you capitalize on these benefits when you have no followers?

Don’t worry. Here are actionable strategies you can use today to start growing your Instagram following.

Engage With Comments and Review Feedback

Having a ton of followers is useless if you are not engaging with them. The best way to gain and maintain a large number of followers is to engage with potential customers.

Engaging with users takes mere minutes but has the potential to boost your revenue significantly.

Here’s how to get started.

Turn on notifications for all comments.
Respond to every comment you receive, be it positive or negative. This will help increase engagement on your posts.
Review feedback and see if there are areas you can improve in.
Thank users for taking the time to interact with your posts.
Avoid starting fights in your comment sections, even if you disagree with a user’s perspective. This will help you maintain a positive impression online.

Research Competitors

If you’re not sure about how to get started, look at what your competitors are doing.

Your competitors have already done a ton of the heavy lifting and collected a huge base of engaged followers. You can use this to your advantage.

All you have to do to attract your own following is to head to the Instagram profiles of your competitors and steal their audience.

You should already have a pretty good idea of who your competitors are. If you don’t, try using Instagram’s discover tool to find popular accounts in your industry.

You can also search for keywords and hashtags that relate to your brand to get started. The top accounts relating to that keyword should appear.

Host Giveaways in Exchange for Engagement

Instagram giveaways can be an excellent way to generate user engagement. You may have seen some of these in your feed.

They typically say, “like this post and tag a friend to win a free product, but that strategy might not be the most effective way to gain real followers.

Giveaways often attract people who want free stuff and are willing to like your images to get it.

Instead, ask users to upload Instagram photos about your e-commerce brand or follow your page. If you ask users to post content, be sure to share a branded hashtag to get discovered by more users.

To start, announce your contest with an Instagram post. Include the rules in the description section so people will know how to enter.

If you need help coming up with giveaway ideas, try out a tool like Woobox. The tool helps brands of all types and sizes create social media contests that drive sales, increase followers, and collect leads.

Consider offering your own products for free instead of prizes unrelated to your niche or brand, like a free iPad. Otherwise, people may only follow you for the prize rather than their interest in your brand.

Post User-Generated Content (UGC)

If you want to drive engagement, make a habit of posting user-generated content. This can be as simple as asking users to review your product in exchange for a free sample.

You can also choose to host bigger UGC contests where dozens (or hundreds) of users share their experiences related to your product and industry. This can help you reach new users you wouldn’t have found otherwise.

Customize and Optimize Your Shop

Giveaways and hashtags might be easier than a customized, well-optimized shop, but they aren’t more important.

In fact, having an easy-to-navigate and memorable storefront may increase your sales.

Here are a few ways to customize and optimize your Instagram e-commerce store for maximum visibility.

Offer promotions right in the photo or the first line of the description, so users don’t scroll past it.

Add shoppable links to your photos so customers can buy your product directly.
Keep your descriptions simple, clean, and easy to understand so new users can quickly get an idea about what your Instagram e-commerce brand stands for.
Add links to your store on other channels, including your Instagram description (or bio), website, other social media pages, and email signature.

Create a Branded Hashtag

A simple way to keep track of who is talking about your e-commerce store on Instagram is to create a branded hashtag. You can use your business name, an existing slogan, or another creative phrase.

Then, let your customers know what the tag is by adding it to your bio and encouraging followers to use it in their posts.

Later, you can search for your hashtag to find and quickly share user-generated content. You should also add these tags to your images to remind your followers about it.

For instance, when you search the tag “#topshop,” millions of photo results show popular UGC related to the brand.

User-generated images don’t just give your brand more exposure; they also give other Instagram users exposure so they can gain more followers, too. It’s a win-win situation.

Prioritize Customer Experience

Sometimes you can do all the right things and still not get satisfactory results. You used all the right hashtags, engaged with your customers, and created tons of user-generated content, but you’re still not getting many sales.

Why is that?

It could be because your customer experience is lacking.

The easier you can make for users to find, browse, and buy from your shop, the more sales you can see.

A simple way to try to catapult your sales numbers is to prioritize the customer experience.

Are you making it easy for Instagram users to find your website or buy your products? Is your storefront easy to navigate? Do you have alt-text for your images? Do you offer a prompt response to questions?

These may seem like trivial things, but a good customer experience can go a long way in helping you find lifelong customers.

Partner With Influencers in Your Niche

Instagram influencers are users with a large number of followers and a great engagement rate.

Why do they matter for your Instagram e-commerce business?

They can help you expand your brand’s reach. These individuals have hundreds, thousands, sometimes millions of followers interested in hearing what these influencers have to say.

So if they recommend your product on their account, you are likely to see an uptick in sales.

How can you partner with influencers to grow your Instagram e-commerce business?

Find influencers and large accounts in your niche. For example, if you’re a beauty company, reach out to beauty bloggers and ask them for a product post.

If a user puts an email address on their profile or says something like “DM for business inquiries,” it typically means they’re interested in sharing sponsored posts.

Email or DM these accounts and ask what their standard pricing is for sponsored posts. Try and establish a relationship with these users.

If they’re willing to work with your competitor, they may be willing to work with you.

Then, make a spreadsheet comparing each account’s followers, cost per post, CPM, average likes per post, and followers divided by the average likes per post.

Pick the account(s) with the biggest payoff and lowest price.

If you’re selling an original or unique product, it may be better to ask for a review instead of a product post.

Don’t think you have to go for the big names. Sometimes micro-influencers with just a few thousand followers have a better ROI because they have a more targeted audience.

Use Product Tags

Another way to increase customer convenience is to use product tags to amplify your Instagram e-commerce sales.

Product tags let users buy products directly from the app without having to jump through many hoops.

This makes it easier for them to purchase, especially if they are browsing on the go (like most of us.)

Create Product Collections

Instagram has been working hard to create user-friendly shop interfaces to increase e-commerce activity.

Along with handy features like product tags, Instagram launched product collections, where users can browse through products from a similar category.

This image from the Instagram business blog shows that product collections make it straightforward to find what you want while scrolling through attractive pictures of the products.

Instagram E-Commerce FAQs

Do I have to pay for an Instagram e-commerce shop?

Creating an Instagram account highlighting your products is free, but you may have to spend money on advertising, shipping, taxes, transaction fees, and other tools to make a sale.

How to know if I’m eligible for an Instagram e-commerce shop?

Instagram has posted official eligibility guidelines on their help page. These include having a legal product, being located in a supporting market, and providing accurate information about your business, among other rules.

How many followers do you need to get Instagram shopping?

Unlike the 10,000-follower rule for the swipe-up feature on Instagram Stories, anybody can access Instagram e-commerce features as long as they meet the eligibility criteria.

Do you need a website to sell on Instagram?

Yes, Instagram’s e-commerce rules state that your business must own a website domain from which you intend to sell your products to qualify for an Instagram shop.

Conclusion of Instagram E-Commerce Guide

Building a successful Instag r am e-commerce business won’t happen overnight, but it can be done.

Start with these strategies to get your business up and running, then look for tools, tips, and strategies to make your first sale.

Which of these Instagram e-commerce tips will you try today?

What The Boy Scouts’ Settlement Says About Justice for Child Sex Abuse Victims

Child protection advocate Marci Hamilton on the Boy Scouts’ sexual abuse settlement and why she says justice has not been served.

The post What The Boy Scouts’ Settlement Says About Justice for Child Sex Abuse Victims appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.

Synthetic Minds (YC S18) is hiring a compiler engineer for program synthesis

Article URL: https://www.workatastartup.com/jobs/44386

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27794794

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

'It' factor: California cops pose for viral photo inspired by horror film

New comment by etircopyh in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (July 2021)"

Location: Ukraine

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: Yes

Technologies: Linux, Bash/Shell Scripting, Ansible, Terraform, Nginx, Docker, Python, C/C++, JavaScript, SQL, Git

Résumé/CV: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B98HhTju7Cgyj8s8oXKC7VNm…

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-tsaruk

Email: etircopyhdot at gmail.com

Linux (7+ years) user and contributor.

New comment by anandsaha in "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2021)"

lily.ai | US, Hybrid | Machine Learning Engineer & Scientist | Full time

We are a well funded startup fueling the next wave of innovations in product discovery and personalization. We are working on use cases such as deep product attribution, visual search and psychographic profiling of consumers, among other things. We are a team scientists and engineers specializing in Computer Vision, NLP and Recommender Systems. We have a range of interesting problems to solve. We lead the industry in terms of the depth of our taxonomy.

There is full freedom to own, shape and execute our vision irrespective of designation. We are goal oriented than task oriented. Empathy and well being are a big part of the company’s culture.

We are augmenting the ML team with a Machine Learning Scientist and a Machine Learning Engineer.

Find out more about the roles at https://www.lily.ai/careers#job-openings

I am the hiring manager, feel free to reach out to me directly at anand AT lily DOT ai

NOTE: We are predominantly looking for candidates based out of US, but willing to make exception if we find a good fit between us outside US as well. Feel free to reach out.

New comment by lpatton68 in "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2021)"

Reify Health|Remote|Full-time Reify Health accelerates the development of new and life-saving therapies by creatively connecting and empowering the clinical trial ecosystem. We are helping thousands of research sites across 6 continents and 7 of the top-10 global biopharma sponsors, including Amgen, AstraZeneca, and Eli Lilly & Company. Our team is made up of a diverse … Continue reading New comment by lpatton68 in "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2021)"

Compose.ai (YC W21) Is Hiring a Senior Front End Engineer

Article URL: https://jobs.lever.co/ComposeAI/8c6550b1-8b67-40f8-9a70-bf07cbfaf22f Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27785830 Points: 1 # Comments: 0

5 Actionable Tips to Get Your Website Added to Google News

You can get thousands of clicks to your site from Google News.

And, you don’t even have to be a journalist.

Smart bloggers, news publishers, and digital content marketers are already tapping into this huge resource for targeted traffic and better search engine visibility.

Google News is reserved for sites and blogs that publish timely, topical articles. You don’t necessarily need to be a news site but if you are consistently posting newsworthy content it’s possible to get accepted.

Danny Sullivan once said: If you aren’t a news site, Google News and its web crawlers won’t likely show you love.

But that isn’t a guarantee.

What is News?

A major search engine like Google defines news as “newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent or important events.”

If you’re at the forefront of your industry and reporting information that’d be of interest to your audience on a timely basis, then you’re a news publisher.

Google News is a content syndication platform that Google introduced to help organize the world’s news in many ways and to make it more accessible to its users, like a news XML.

Google News sends 6 billion clicks per month to publishers all over the world. Even if you get just 0.0001% of these clicks to your web site, that’s huge. Do the math.

That said, it’s a challenge in many ways to get your website indexed as a news publisher by the Google News sitemap file crawler and your articles indexed and ranked in Google News.

Let’s look at some of the best practices for getting added to Google News XML sitemap and how you can get real-time traffic.

Adhere to the Principles of Good Journalism

If you look at recent additions to the Google News sitemap syndication platform, you’ll notice that Google, for the first time, is no longer 100% focused on news-related “current events”- type content. You can tell that just from looking at the meta tags.

It’s evolved over the years as a news sitemap, leveling the playing field for bloggers, content creators, and news publishing experts. This evolution may not be obvious from the search term headlines but the content reveals this expansion.

However, the principles of good journalism haven’t been discarded by this major search engine. Google still cares about the style and substance of articles, especially as part of its XML. Good journalism is all about being honest and as objective as possible.

Why do you think the Google XML sitemap crawls, indexes, and publishes third party website content from CNN, BBC, Techcrunch, The Wall Street Journal and others in its search results?

One of the reasons is because these sites are true news publishers and adhere to strict standard journalism practices. They’re transparent and they adhere to the same professional standard. Just take a look at their search history and you can see they take their news seriously.

To be included in news XML’s your reporting must be original, honest, and well-structured with quality anchor texts, meta tags, and an authoritative voice.

Standard journalism is all about investigation and not just about search engine optimization. So, you should be able and ready to investigate a story and authenticate it, before reporting it.

For your story to strike a chord with editors, who will in turn syndicate it at Google News, PBS recommends that you present information from the most to the least important content points.

There’s an established application process to get your stories featured on the XML sitemap of Google News. But, before you apply, follow these guidelines:

1. Don’t copy from other sites. Write original news articles.

First and foremost, you need to make sure that your stories are original.

A major search engine like Google doesn’t want to syndicate the same piece of content verbatim and it’s search algorithm will pull you up. You’ve got to make your story original with accurate data points from credible sources. Wherever you got your information from, whether it’s trawling through search history, sitemap files, or exploring web pages – make sure your sources are trustworthy.

Take a look at the Google News homepage. All of the featured stories are original content with credible sources. And, no site is ranked more than once for its stories.

Google is a credible company, a major search engine that is trusted by millions all around the world. Imagine Google reporting a story that’s false, it would be a metasearch engine disaster!

What do you think would happen to its credibility?

And, speaking of credibility, Google is equally concerned with Author Rank.

There’s no better way to become a reputable author than to write for other news and magazine sites. If you’ve never written for trusted news web sites, such as Forbes, Inc. or Business Insider, you need to begin.

Google knows that reputable authors and columnists don’t copy news stories from other sources which is why they get included in their XML sitemaps.

Instead, they go all out to get an original story. Famous authors who publish original stories over a period of time are given credit so that they can build “rank” and improve their reputation, no matter what online publication they choose to write for.

One way to get your story added to Google News quickly is to use a co-author who has a high Author Rank.

In Google’s view and when looking for inclusions on their news XML sitemap file, such an author brings a higher level of authority to your site and the resulting story is more likely to be original and credible.

To get started reporting news, you need original stories. The resource guide below will give you more guidance:

The Origin of Stories: How Journalists Find and Create News in an Age of Social Media, Competition and Churnalism

2. Write keyword-rich headlines that communicate the story topics.

Your headline makes a promise to the reader. If you get it right, your news story will likely be picked up by Google and other journalists who can amplify the content’s reach.

According to Poynter, you should “try to keep your headlines straightforward and unadorned. Use concise and familiar words, if possible.”

You may be tempted to use numbers in your news story headlines. After all, users love numbers. But, if you’re going to use a “listicle” headline type, it should provide specific insights and steer clear of “linkbait” territory. There is no way that linkbait and lousy anchor texts are going to get you placed on Googles news XML sitemap file.

I’ve noticed that authority sites that report stories daily rarely use the listicle format or “numbered” headlines.

They simply write an accurate, clear and compelling headline. Let’s take a cue from Search Engine Land.

Just like blog posts, your news story headline determines whether your story will be syndicated by Google or not.

Here are some tips to help you write newsworthy headlines that are sure to appear in the search results and remember the same approach can be taken with your meta tags:

i). Don’t repeat words: The purpose of getting your website or story added to Google News XML sitemap is to get clicks and views from the huge user base. You don’t have to repeat words or keywords in the headline, as though you’re actively doing search engine optimization.

Here’s a weak news headline:

“How experienced investors can mentor about-to-quit investors”

Avoid this repetition of words like the plague.

ii). Use active voice: A news headline is a quick way to demonstrate what’s inside the story and will catch the eye of the search engine.

Don’t bore users or discourage journalists from picking your story. Avoid using a passive voice.

In the passive voice, the subject is receiving the verb. For example:

Passive voice: Mary was hit by a car.
Active voice: The car hit Mary.

An active voice starts with the subject. With an active voice, you can say more with fewer words from the very first time. Brevity is an essential news publisher tactic that captivates the audience.

Using active voice in your news headline also helps to trim down unnecessary words. If you check Digg’s homepage, you’ll see that most of the syndicated stories have headlines written with an active voice.

Here’s an example:

The passive-voice version of the above news headline is obviously weaker:

An Episode of ‘Top Chef’ Was Produced with Help From the CIA

iii). Write in the present tense: This is another important point to keep in mind when writing a story headline with the hope of getting it syndicated on the Google News XML sitemap file.

Even if the story itself or content is written in the past tense, the headline should indicate what’s happening right now. After all, that’s why it’s called “news”, and that’s what the XML sitemap is looking for.

Several stories on the Google News homepage are written in the present tense. Take a look:

iv). Know which words to capitalize: Have you noticed that not all words in a news story headline are capitalized? As a rule of thumb, capitalize the first word of the headline. You must also capitalize proper nouns.

On the Google News homepage, both title case and first word/proper noun capitalization standards are used.

If you use title case, don’t capitalize articles. So, for example, “Judge Rejects Kesha’s Last Effort to Free Herself From Dr. Luke” is correct, but if “to” were capitalized as well, that would be incorrect.

3. Write news-related articles, not evergreen content.

In adding sites to Google News, remember that a major search engine like Google can only include sites that follow their Webmasters Tool Guidelines.

If there’s nothing timely about your topic or story, it’s not news. It’s as simple as that. In journalism, “timing is everything.” Timely content makes it to the top, others get lost in the pages of the search history.

For your site to be accepted, you’ve got to write news-related articles consistently. Evergreen content just won’t work with Google News.

Aside from that, the major search engine Google also has specific types of content that they accept. In Google’s words:

“We generally do not include how-to articles, advice columns, job postings or strictly informational content such as weather forecasts and stock data.”

In the world of blogging, creating evergreen content is your guarantee for sustainable organic traffic. And Google rewards such content in its organic results.

But, that kind of content isn’t news, so a search engine like Google won’t syndicate it.

When you look at the Google News homepage, you’ll notice that the stories are timely – mostly as the events unfold:

4. Write at least 2 news articles each day.

Are you the only one managing your site? If you want to get added to Google News, you may need to make a change.

The majority of the news media sites that are syndicated on Google News are multi-authored. In other words, more than one person writes for the site.

Think about CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, New York Times, Huffington Post, and so forth.

These sites are updated every minute of the day, by a crop of prolific writers who are transparent and accurate in their reporting, it’s why they are so popular in the search engines.

You need more writers who can source for fresh stories, write about them and submit them within hours.

You may find you have to train good writers. You could start by hiring freelance writers, then train them on the journalistic approach that Google News and other media platforms and search engines require for every story.

You should also work to teach your writers how to follow your brand guidelines, especially if they are writing for you for the first time. Let them know the elements that should be present in a news story – the headline, the appropriate voice, the requirement for sources and the rules of citation.

Ideally, create an author page on your site, where you introduce each writer on your team.

Google will ask you for a list of authors who report stories on your site. In fact, you’ll be required to submit contact details for each author, when you apply.

5. Establish authority with your blog.

Google is understandably strict about the content it considers to be news. Not every article is news-related.

Most of the time, it’s not about the story, but the context or angle by which the author covered it, this is why lamestream media can be so popular.

Since Google is passionate about timely, up-to-date stories, you need a way to prove to Google that you’ve adhered to its guidelines.

You need to establish authority with your blog. Authority, on the web, boils down to how many user-friendly sites and web pages link back to yours. Webmasters tool can help you check where you stand.

Let’s say that your 3-month old blog has been reporting timely, up-to-date stories as they unfold.

Another site (say, Mashable) has more authority than your blog and established search history.

Now answer this question:

If your blog reported the same trending story as Mashable, and both news stories followed the news-writing standard, which of the stories do you think that Google would crawl first, index, and offer a high pagerank?

Did I hear Mashable?

You’re 100% correct.

The reason why is obvious: Mashable has more authority in the search engines than your 3-month old blog.

Mashable publishes more timely content because it’s got the budget for a sufficient number of authors. If you’re a small business, you can’t beat that.

Building authority with your blog isn’t a straightforward thing. And, it definitely will not happen overnight.

You need to get off of your site. You should be everywhere.

While you’re building your Author Rank, by contributing to other trustworthy sites, always reference your story in a natural way. Ideally, use your branded keyword or story headline as anchor text to link back to your site.

The more authority sites you contribute to and get links from, the more authority your blog will get and the more you will show up in the search results and the search history. Your blog will build momentum gradually. Be patient!

Social media is equally vital, so spread the love. Get active on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

Don’t try to copy or mimic another author’s writing style. Find your own voice. Stick to it. That’s the only way to stand out from the crowd and get your news-related articles added to Google News.

When your content is unique and compelling, more people will click your headline, visit your site and take action.

But, when your news is like everyone else’s, you’re not making an impact. To the audience, there’s nothing in it for them. Consequently, they’ll leave.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve seen the possibility of getting your website and news articles added to Google News, it’s time to take action and apply.

Don’t be too quick to do this. You first need to create a path, on your blog, that a Google News bot or spider can follow to crawl your fresh stories as they’re published.

Google suggests that you add a Google News Sitemap to make this easier. If your blog is hosted on WordPress CMS, you can find Google News sitemap plugins in the WordPress repository.

Once you’ve installed one of the plugins, you can apply to Google News here. This will connect with your Google Console account, thus making it easier to add several of your sites to Google News. Be sure to use the webmaster tool to check your indexing status.

Does your site meet the Google News requirements? If yes, why aren’t you tapping into Google News for real-time traffic?