Technology Blogs for Guest Posting: 35 Publications Open to Writers

Ten of the biggest technology publications lost a combined 58% of their US Google organic traffic between their 2024 peaks and January 2026, according to a Growtika analysis of Ahrefs estimates. Smaller search audiences have not made a byline worthless, but they have changed who takes outside writing. TechCrunch now says on its contact page that it does not accept pitches or guest post submissions, and several names from older guest-posting lists have closed, gone quiet or switched to selling sponsored placements.

This list covers 35 technology blogs and publications for guest posting and freelance pitching. Each one has an official contribute, write-for-us or pitch page that was checked on September 14, 2026, and each is grouped by what it actually offers: unpaid contributed columns, open publishing platforms, paid freelance pitches or freelance writing jobs. Programs that are paused, closed or pay-to-play are listed separately, so you do not waste a pitch on them.

What tech editors want from contributors in 2026

Read enough contributor guidelines and the same four demands keep coming back. None of them is new, but in 2026 they are written down more bluntly than before.

• Practitioner knowledge, not marketing. VentureBeat’s guest post rules say articles that look biased or carry a vested interest will be declined, and InformationWeek rejects vendor columns that promote products or trends tied to the author’s company. Google’s guidance on helpful, people-first content asks the same question from the search side: does the piece show first-hand expertise?
• Human-written drafts. DZone, Dark Reading, InformationWeek, InfoQ and SD Times all say they will not publish AI-written submissions. InfoQ and InformationWeek still allow AI tools for research.
• Exclusivity. Dark Reading, InformationWeek and SD Times want copy that has not appeared anywhere else, and DevOps.com spells out that a previous run on a corporate blog counts too.
• A narrow angle. A pitch called “Top AI tools for developers” competes with thousands of near-identical posts. “What broke when a 40-person team moved CI builds to ARM runners” gives an editor a reason to reply, because only someone who did the work can write it.

How these publications were selected

Choose a publication by its audience and submission policy, not a third-party domain-authority or traffic estimate. The publications below were assessed against four criteria on September 14, 2026:

• An official page. The publication’s own site, or its parent company’s site, has to invite contributions, pitches or freelance applications. Third-party “write for us” directories and guest post marketplaces did not count as evidence.
• A working program. The site has to be publishing, and the page cannot describe the program as paused or closed.
• Clear terms. The tables note whether contributions are unpaid, paid or only possible by applying for a job, using the publication’s own stated word counts, exclusivity rules and pay where they exist.
• No pay-to-publish. Routes that need a membership fee, a subscription or an advertising budget are flagged in their own section instead of being counted.

Guidelines pages change without notice. Treat the tables as a starting point, and reread the linked page before you send anything.

18 tech blogs that accept guest posts and contributed articles

These publications run formal programs for unpaid contributed articles or opinion columns. Most are trade titles for IT, security and software professionals, which is where a working practitioner has the best odds.

Publication	Focus	What they accept	Guidelines link
VentureBeat	Enterprise AI and data	DataDecisionMakers guest posts, typically 800 to 1,200 words, submitted as a Google Doc through an online form. No marketing angles or AI-written pieces. No reply within 14 business days means a pass.	VentureBeat guest post guidelines
Fast Company	Work life, leadership, careers	Finished, unpublished articles of 600 to 900 words for the Work Life section. No pitches, outlines or press releases, and no payment.	Fast Company contributed article guidelines
Computerworld	Enterprise IT	Foundry Expert Contributor Network: 1,200 to 1,500-word articles from IT practitioners, edited by staff and eligible to run across Foundry’s enterprise titles.	Computerworld Expert Contributor Network
CIO.com	IT leadership and strategy	The same Foundry network, which describes itself as a free platform for IT experts to share their insights with peers.	CIO.com contributor network
CSO Online	Security leadership	The same Foundry network, for security topics.	CSO Online contributor network
InfoWorld	Software development, cloud, data	New Tech Forum contributed pieces on emerging enterprise technology, picked by editors. No marketing collateral, and all contributed content may be edited.	InfoWorld New Tech Forum
InformationWeek	IT leadership	Full commentary drafts only (no abstracts or pitches). Exclusive, unpaid, vendor-neutral, and not written with generative AI.	InformationWeek column guidelines
Dark Reading	Cybersecurity	Opinion columns of roughly 700 to 800 words (1,000 at most), pasted into an email. Exclusive, unpaid, and not written by AI.	Dark Reading column guidelines
DevOps.com	DevOps, cloud native, security	Vendor-neutral articles of 600 to 1,000 words for practitioners, never published before (corporate blogs included) and exclusive to Techstrong sites. No promotional links.	DevOps.com contribution rules
SD Times	Software development	Guest View opinion essays of 750 to 1,000 words, discussed with the editor first. Ghostwritten or AI-generated pieces are rejected.	SD Times Guest View guidelines
InfoQ	Software architecture, engineering leadership	Article proposals from practitioners. AI tools are fine for research and grammar, but primarily AI-generated work is rejected.	Write for InfoQ
Built In	Tech careers, engineering, data	A one-paragraph pitch by email describing the professional problem you want to write about. No features centered on a specific product or company.	Built In expert contributors
Tech in Asia	Asian startups and tech	Guest posts from registered users, sent by email for review. The help page dates from 2019, so confirm before submitting.	Tech in Asia guest post FAQ
Cult of Mac	Apple	Guest posts by email (its About page says it is open to them). Sponsored posts are sold separately.	Cult of Mac About page
BetaNews	Software, security, enterprise tech	Pitches from writers who know their subject, sent through the Write for Us section of the contact page.	BetaNews Write for Us
TechTarget WhatIs	IT terms and definitions	New or updated technology definitions, ideally 500 to 1,000 words, under a writer’s agreement. Not general articles.	WhatIs contributor page
TechEngage (this site)	Consumer tech, apps, AI, security	Sourced explainers, analysis and practitioner commentary with conflicts disclosed. No link-building posts or pitches that require dofollow links.	TechEngage contributor guidelines
TECHi (sister publication)	AI, markets, tech companies	Contributions that meet its sourcing, originality and disclosure standards. All work is edited, and AI-assisted drafts need human editorial review.	TECHi contributor standards

Foundry is the clearest example of why reading the actual page matters. Its enterprise titles run the Expert Contributor Network, while its consumer brands say the opposite: PCWorld and Macworld state that their editors do not run guest posts, and Tech Advisor says accepting them is against Foundry policy. The company is the same, and the answer depends entirely on which audience you are pitching.

For security, IT leadership and software topics, the Informa TechTarget titles (Dark Reading, InformationWeek) and Techstrong’s DevOps.com have the most explicit rules, which makes them easier to pitch well. InformationWeek and Dark Reading also let you summarize your published column in one or two paragraphs on a personal or company blog with a link back, so the piece can keep working for you after it runs.

Open platforms: publish first, then pass an editor

These sites do not need a pitch. You write the article, submit it, and an editor decides whether it runs. They are the fastest way to build a set of published samples, with the tradeoff that the byline carries less weight than a commissioned piece.

Publication	Focus	What they accept	Guidelines link
HackerNoon	Software, startups, AI, Web3	Free publishing for anyone, with a human editor reviewing each story before it goes live.	Publish on HackerNoon
DZone	Software development	Articles of at least 800 words from people working in software. No product promotion and no AI-written content. Reviews were running at about 30 business days in September 2026.	DZone article submission guidelines
freeCodeCamp News	Coding tutorials	Apply for a contributor account, then publish through Hashnode. The style guide allows AI for research but not pasted AI-written articles.	freeCodeCamp publication style guide
Towards Data Science	Data science, machine learning, AI	Original practitioner articles submitted through a form, with a reply promised within a week. Authors can apply to a separate Author Payment Program.	Towards Data Science submissions

8 tech publications that pay for freelance pitches

Paid outlets expect reporting or real technical depth, and most commission pieces from a pitch rather than accepting finished drafts. The pay details below come from each publication’s own page.

Publication	Focus	What they accept	Guidelines link
Wired	Features, science, security, culture	Pitches with original reporting sent to named section editors; feature pitches of 500 to 700 words. A typical assignment works out to about $1 per word. No opinion pieces.	How to pitch Wired
IEEE Spectrum	Engineering and emerging tech	Freelance news and features, with flat-rate stories from $500 and reported stories from $1.25 per assigned word. A separate unpaid track takes guest posts and features from technical experts.	Spectrum freelancer guidelines; expert author guidelines
Gizmodo	Science, tech, culture	Freelance pitches for investigative and narrative features, reported mid-length pieces and first-person essays. The guide was first published in 2021 and is still linked from the site.	How to pitch Gizmodo
Tom’s Guide	Consumer tech, reviews, how-to	Freelancers and story pitches go to Future’s freelance pitch email address listed on the About page.	Tom’s Guide About page
TechRadar	Consumer tech news and reviews	Freelancers with a strong pitch can email the news desk. The page describes no guest post program.	TechRadar About page
Smashing Magazine	Web design, front-end development	A 200 to 300-word outline sent through the contact form, from individual authors rather than companies. Authors receive an honorarium on publication.	Write for Smashing Magazine
LWN.net	Linux kernel, free and open source software	Proposals for articles of around 1,500 words on a narrow topic. New authors are paid $400, with higher rates for regulars.	LWN author guide
It’s FOSS	Linux and open source tutorials	Community tutorials agreed in advance through a form. Payment is a token $2 per 100 words, or a donation to an open source project.	It’s FOSS community submissions

Wired is the hardest name here to land, and its guidelines explain why: it wants sharp angles, original reporting or investigations, and it rarely runs essays. LWN.net and It’s FOSS sit at the other end. Both reward specialist Linux knowledge more than general writing polish, and LWN in particular pays well for depth on a narrow topic.

5 tech sites hiring freelance writers (not guest posts)

Valnet’s tech sites do not publish one-off guest posts. They recruit paid contract writers through work-with-us pages that ask for a CV, writing samples and sometimes a test pitch. XDA’s listings, for example, are remote roles within the U.S.

Publication	Focus	What they accept	Guidelines link
XDA Developers	PCs, Android, software	1099 freelance author roles, such as PC components coverage.	XDA work with us
MakeUseOf	How-to guides, features, news	Freelance features writer and news reporter roles.	MakeUseOf work with us
Android Police	Android	Freelance features authors expected to pitch 3 to 5 topics a week and publish at least 12 stories a month. Pitches in the application are for screening only.	Android Police work with us
How-To Geek	How-to guides, explainers, roundups	Experienced freelance writers for guides, comparisons and explainers across Windows, macOS, mobile and smart home topics.	How-To Geek work with us
Pocket-lint	Consumer tech, streaming, AV	1099 freelance writer roles, such as streaming and AV coverage.	Pocket-lint work with us

Paid placements and paused programs: flagged, not counted

These routes exist, but they cost money or are not open right now. They are not part of the 35.

• Fast Company Executive Board: a paid membership whose listed perks include publishing bylined articles on FastCompany.com. It is separate from the free Work Life submissions above. See the Executive Board membership page.
• The Hacker News: “Expert Insight” articles and videos are the first item on its advertising menu, so treat them as paid placement.
• Softonic: its partner FAQ says it sells clearly labelled sponsored articles and does not take part in link exchanges.
• Geeky Gadgets: the advertise page sells sponsored articles and pitches their search ranking value to buyers.
• The New Stack: a July 17, 2026 update on its contributions page says the guest byline program is on pause, with sponsored articles available through sales.
• SitePoint: its write-for-us page makes guest article submission a perk for paying SitePoint Premium subscribers.

Check publication submission policies

A publication may be useful to readers without accepting outside contributions. Check for an explicit submission route before pitching.

• Say no in writing: TechCrunch (see the intro), PCWorld, Macworld, Tech Advisor and Digital Trends. Techworm’s submission guidelines say it has stopped taking guest posts until further notice.
• Closed, sold or inactive: The Next Web brand was sold by the Financial Times to Tekpon in December 2025, and the site has no submission page today. NextPit’s English site now redirects to the German magazine inside digital. Pocketnow’s sitemap shows no new articles after June 2024. KnowTechie did not load on September 14, 2026, and GeekWire’s guest commentary guidelines page now returns a 404 error.
• No public contributor route: CNET, Mashable, ZDNET, PCMag, Ars Technica, The Verge, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Windows Central, Android Central, Android Authority, AppleInsider, SlashGear, Neowin, TechRepublic, eWeek, ComputerWeekly, Digit, New Atlas, Silicon Republic, gHacks, Phone Arena, Techdirt, Geek Culture, Gadgets 360, TechNewsWorld, AddictiveTips and Android Headlines. Some take news tips or post staff and freelance job listings, which is not the same as accepting a guest post.
• Moved to the paid section: The Hacker News, Softonic and Geeky Gadgets.

Why tech media traffic fell 58%, and what it means for contributors

The Growtika figures from the intro cover ten large tech publications, measured from each site’s peak month to January 2026.

Publication	Peak monthly US organic visits	January 2026	Change
Digital Trends	8.53M (Mar 2024)	265K	-97%
ZDNet	7.61M (Feb 2024)	769K	-90%
The Verge	5.32M (Feb 2024)	790K	-85%
How-To Geek	1.97M (Feb 2024)	294K	-85%
TechRadar	15.58M (Jul 2024)	4.05M	-74%
Wired	7.75M (Nov 2024)	2.98M	-62%
Tom’s Guide	16.01M (Jul 2024)	7.99M	-50%
CNET	20.29M (Nov 2024)	10.66M	-47%
PCMag	12.67M (Jul 2025)	7.45M	-41%
Mashable	16.11M (May 2024)	11.33M	-30%

Source: Growtika analysis of Ahrefs US organic search estimates, February 2024 to January 2026. The estimates exclude direct, newsletter, app and social visits, so they understate each site’s total audience.

Growtika attributes the drop to a mix of Google’s AI Overviews, Reddit ranking for more product queries, and people asking chatbots instead of searching. Broader data points the same way, with more caution about the cause. Chartbeat data compiled for the Reuters Institute’s 2026 trends and predictions report shows Google organic search traffic to more than 2,500 news sites fell by a third globally between November 2024 and November 2025, and by 38% in the United States. The report says it is not clear how much of that is due to AI Overviews, and the 280 media leaders it surveyed expect search traffic to fall by more than 40% over the next three years.

User behavior helps explain the pressure. A Pew Research Center study of 900 U.S. adults found that people clicked a traditional search result on 8% of visits when Google showed an AI summary, against 15% when it did not. Links inside the summary were clicked on just 1% of those visits.

For contributors, three practical consequences follow:

• Search traffic is a poor proxy for readership. A trade title with a loyal newsletter audience can put your byline in front of more of the right people than a consumer site with a bigger but shrinking search footprint. Ask whether contributed pieces go out in the newsletter.
• Expect slow replies. Smaller teams mean long queues: DZone’s review times were about 30 business days in September 2026, and VentureBeat treats two weeks of silence as a rejection.
• Own a home base. A personal site where every byline is collected keeps your work findable even if a publication folds or pulls its archive. If you have not built one yet, start with the basics of setting up a website.

Paid guest posts and link schemes: what Google’s spam policies say

Many “guest post” offers that land in an inbox, or appear on marketplaces, are really paid link placements. Google’s spam policies list buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam, including exchanging money for links or for posts that contain links. The same section names advertorials where payment is received for articles with links that pass ranking credit, and links with optimized anchor text in guest posts or press releases distributed on other sites. Google says sites that violate its policies may rank lower or not appear in results at all.

Paying for exposure is not the problem. The policy says buying and selling links is a normal part of advertising, as long as the links carry rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". Google’s documentation on qualifying outbound links says sponsored is the preferred value for ads and paid placements, and nofollow is still acceptable. In practice, that means:

• If you pay, it is an ad. The link should be qualified and the post labelled. In the U.S., the FTC’s native advertising guide says sponsored content must be clearly identifiable as advertising.
• A followed link bought for rankings is the exact behavior the policy describes. The risk falls on the publisher’s search visibility, and the credibility of a byline comes from editorial selection that a paid slot does not provide.
• Genuine columns are treated differently. Google’s site reputation abuse policy, on the same page, targets third-party content hosted mainly to borrow a site’s ranking signals, but it lists columns, opinion pieces and other editorial work as examples that are not a violation.
• Watch for broker red flags: price lists for dofollow links, the same article offered to many sites, no editor involved, or a “guest post” on a publication whose own page says it does not accept them.

Google has targeted manipulative links since its Penguin updates, and shortcuts like keyword-stuffed domains lost their power in the same era, as covered in this look at how domain names affect SEO. A contributed article is worth writing for its readers and the editor relationship, not for the link.

How to pitch a technology write-for-us editor

Start with the format the publication asks for, because the programs on this list disagree. Fast Company’s Work Life section and InformationWeek want finished drafts and no pitches. Smashing Magazine wants a 200 to 300-word outline, Built In a single paragraph, and Wired a detailed feature pitch. Where a short pitch is expected, the structure below keeps it readable in under a minute.

A pitch structure you can adapt

The example is illustrative, not a template from any publication:

• Subject line: “Pitch: Why GPU cost dashboards miss idle inference spend.” Lead with the word Pitch and the working headline so the editor can find it later.
• Credential: one sentence with the fact that qualifies you, such as “Platform engineer responsible for a 200-GPU inference cluster at a mid-size SaaS company.” Leave out adjectives like passionate.
• Argument and evidence: two or three sentences on what the piece claims, who it helps and what backs it up, such as cost data you are cleared to share or a benchmark readers can reproduce.
• Fit: name a recent article on the site and say what yours adds. This shows the pitch was not mass-mailed.
• Disclosure: your employer, clients and any products the piece mentions. TechEngage’s guidelines ask for conflicts up front, and trade titles such as InformationWeek check vendor ties anyway.
• Samples: two or three links to published work. A well-edited post on your own site is fine if you have no bylines yet.

Put together, that is roughly 150 to 250 words. If the editor wants more, they will ask.

Timing and follow-ups

Look for a stated response window before chasing. VentureBeat says to assume a rejection after 14 business days, and DZone’s queue was around 30 business days, so a follow-up after three days only adds noise. Where no window is given, one short follow-up after seven to ten business days is a reasonable norm; after that, pitch the idea elsewhere. An email app with snooze or follow-up reminders makes this easier to track across several publications. There is no reliable public data on the best weekday to pitch, so time your idea to the news instead: a piece tied to a product launch or a new regulation should land before the story peaks, not after.

Mistakes that get tech guest post pitches rejected

• Sending the wrong format. Fast Company says no pitches, abstracts or outlines, while Smashing Magazine wants an outline first. Sending a draft to one and a pitch to the other fails both.
• Pitching a topic the site covered last month. Search the archive before you write the email, and explain what your angle adds.
• Promotional links and product plugs. DevOps.com requires vendor-neutral articles with no promotional links, and DZone rejects content written to advertise a product.
• Submitting AI-written drafts. Several programs on this list ban them outright, and a flagged submission can end a relationship with an editor before it starts.
• Ignoring length and exclusivity. Dark Reading commentary runs about 700 to 800 words and must be exclusive, so a 2,500-word post already on your company blog fails twice.
• Asking for a dofollow link. TechEngage’s guidelines reject pitches that require one, and most editors read the request as a sign of a link-building campaign.

Building a contributor portfolio over 12 months

One byline rarely changes much. A steady run of pieces in the right places does, because each one makes the next pitch easier to say yes to.

Months 1 to 3: publish where the barrier is lowest

Use the open platforms, such as HackerNoon, DZone or freeCodeCamp News once your contributor account is approved, plus your own site. Aim for two or three pieces on problems you have solved yourself: a systems engineer can write about an outage they debugged, and a marketer about how an ad platform change hit real campaigns. A regular writing habit matters more than gear, though a laptop with a comfortable keyboard helps once you are drafting every week.

Months 4 to 6: move to contributed columns

With a few published samples, pitch the trade programs in the first table: the Foundry Expert Contributor Network, Dark Reading, InformationWeek, SD Times or InfoQ, depending on your field. Pick one or two and try to become a repeat contributor. An editor who knows you hit deadlines and follow the rules is more valuable than ten scattered one-off posts.

Months 7 to 12: pitch paid and high-profile outlets

By now you should have a half-dozen bylines and a clear specialty. That is the point to approach Wired, IEEE Spectrum, LWN.net or Smashing Magazine, where assignments are paid and editing is heavier, with fact-checking and several rounds of revisions. Following the tech journalists who cover your beat is a good way to learn which stories those editors commission and how they are framed.

Technology guest posting FAQ