We’re excited to open our blog to chamber members. Your voice matters, and we want to give you a platform to reach other local business owners and customers searching for what you do. To keep the blog valuable for everyone, we have a few editorial standards we ask all contributors to follow.
Fair Housing and Legal Compliance
This one’s non-negotiable because it protects you and us. Don’t reference protected classes like race, religion, national origin, familial status, disability, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity. If you’re in the wellness space, avoid making medical claims or giving medical advice. We ask that users stick to what your services offer without crossing into healthcare territory. Same goes for legal advice: you can share your experience, but don’t present opinions as legal fact. Finally, verify any statistics or claims in your post before you send it our way. A single wrong number tanks credibility fast.
Relevance and Alignment
Your post should connect to Johnstown, the area surrounding Johnstown, and/or our chamber community. We’re here to support business owners with a particular focus on local business owners, so content that serves that mission works best. If you’re tackling community issues, stick to topics that bring people together rather than highly divisive political terrain. We’ll work with you if you’re in a grey area, just ask first.
Quality Standards
We’re not looking for perfection, but we do expect professional quality. Your grammar and tone should represent your business well. We’ll request light editing if needed, but we won’t publish content that feels low-effort or unfinished. Aim for whatever length you think is reasonable and provides real value to readers. That could be educational, informative, or a substantive opinion, just make sure readers come away having learned something or thought about something differently.
Promotional Limits
Here’s the balance: educational content and thought leadership are encouraged. Overly direct sales pitches are not. You should feel free to mention your business and what you offer, but the post shouldn’t read like an ad. The goal is to showcase your expertise first, then let readers naturally want to learn more about your services. And be thoughtful with links, no spam or suspicious linking.
Originality
Send us original content or content you have permission to publish. If you want to adapt something you’ve published on your own blog, great—just make it different enough for this audience. Don’t just copy-paste the same post everywhere.
What Gets Rejected
We’ll ask you to revise or reject posts that attack competitors or bash industries, include misinformation or unverified claims, read like overly direct sales pages or landing pages, have nothing to do with chamber members or local business, or put the blog’s credibility at risk. This isn’t personal. Rather, it’s about protecting the platform for everyone.
Posting Limits
Posting limits (amount of posts per year) are tied to membership level. Higher tiers unlock more publishing opportunities as a special thanks for their contribution to the Chamber. Posting limits by tier:
- Business & Affiliate member: 2 posts / year
- Bronze Star: 4 posts / year
- Silver star: 8 posts / year
- Platinum star: 12 posts / year
Ready to Publish?
If you have questions about whether your idea fits, just ask. We want your voice here, and we’re happy to work with you to get your post ready to go.