Autoholics only just launched a few weeks ago, it's been an absolute blast, and the fantastic blogs keep on rolling in. Some of you who have submitted stuff have been asking us about why your blogs haven't been published yet, and yes, we've been a bit flooded and haven't yet had a chance to respond to everyone. (Sorry!!) In the meantime, while working our way through the stack of thank-you cards we owe you, we thought we'd slam together a quick tutorial to help those of you who haven't been published yet. Of all the blogs we receive, the ones we can't publish usually fall into one or more of the categories addressed below the jump, so take a look for some ideas on how you might refine your approach a little so you can get published. And as always, thanks so much for all of your amazing effort over these past few weeks--we literally could not have this site without your ongoing contributions, and it's been incredible to experience so many of your unique car-crazy perspectives and the awesome stories you have to tell. Keep those blogs coming! I hope the tips are helpful, and don't hesitate to speak up in the comments or shoot me or Rob a PM if you have specific questions.

1. Consider writing about something other than your own car. Hey, it's cool to write about your ride. And if you really want to talk about what you're working on, you can always submit a "What Did You Do This Weekend?" by Sunday night and we'll totally consider it. But we get a TON of blog submissions that basically go, "Hey, here's my such-and-such that I bought for x dollars, so far I've done y and z little mods to it and I'm thinking of doing q next. What do you guys think?" We can only publish so many of these, so we tend to save the space for cars that are genuinely unique, that are getting a truly insane or unconventional build, that come with a hilarious story, or that have been outrageously wrecked. Or, when someone writes about their ride but relates it to wider interests that readers other than owners of that same car can be expected to relate to, we're stoked. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, we'd much better love to see your writerly energies directed into something more exciting.

2. Make every word count. Aim for about 200 words per blog. This is the internet--people's attention spans are short! Brief, tightly-crafted blogs are harder to write, but they're much more likely to get published than bloated, verbose ones. Even something that could understandably be a little longer, like a step-by-step install how-to, an in-depth vehicle review or editorial, or an account of an entire race weekend, should rarely go longer than 500-600 words at the very most.

3. Try not to write a blog about how you got into cars, or one that's an ode to cars in general. Listen, everyone agrees that cars are awesome; that's why we're here! But when people write us blogs on this subject, it quickly becomes clear they're all basically saying the same thing. Write instead about something more specific in the automotive world that hasn't already been done to death!

4. Don't be a spammer. If you find a cool product or something that you want to share with your fellow gearheads, that's absolutely legit. But if all you're doing is promoting your business, this really isn't the place for it. We subject our members to enough advertising as it is, just to keep the lights on around here--we sure don't need more spam in the blog! Plus, we will be making fun of spammers in our April Fool's issue. Look forward to it.

5. Be original. Give us your own unique take on stories you find on the web, rather than just paraphrasing or cut/pasting material from other blogs or websites. It's totally fine to source content from other sites, and to link to them. The important thing is that the blog is yours, even if the inspiration came from somewhere else. Be generous with your crediting.

6. Be literate. You don't need a degree to write for Autoholics, but please observe the basics of grammar and punctuation and at least run a spell check. The less work we need to do to undo bad writing, the more likely you are to get published.

7. Don't make your editors' lives hell. This includes keeping your posts formatted plainly so there doesn't end up being a lot of junk html in there that we need to go and strip out. Please, no centering of text or photos, no fancy fonts, no colored or weirdly-sized text. Just keep it as plain-text as possible. Sorry, but any posts submitted in ALL CAPS will automatically not be published.

8. So what the hell should your write about? Here are some ideas: tell a striking or funny story. Ask an intriguing gearhead question. Share a bizarre eBay find or a hilarious video. Teach others how to fix a problem, or how to install something. Write about the meaning of developments in the automotive industry, or timely events in motorsports. Go to a car show and take a bunch of awesome pictures.

Happy blogging! And let us know if we can be of any help.