What is a Rancher Writer?

Writers are authors working in the Rancher Writing Program.

Writers share their knowledge by researching and writing detailed technical articles on topics like Kubernetes, CI/CD, cloud-native application development, and more. After agreeing on a subject and an outline, writers conduct research, organize their ideas, and high quality articles with clear language and detailed explanations. In most cases, Rancher writers are responsible for conducting their own research, so it is important to be comfortable learning processes and technologies that you’re not familiar with.

If you enjoy researching more than writing, you may want to consider our research assistant role instead. Rancher compensates writers on a per-project basis.

For those already familiar with the writer role, here are a few links you might need to reference again:

If you’ve never worked as a writer at Rancher before, please continue reading for additional information.

What is the Process?

We use the following workflow to align expectations and produce great content.

Application

If this is your first time working on content with Rancher, your first step will be to apply to the program. If we’ve contacted you about writing for Rancher, you do not need to apply.

To submit an application, email content@rancher.com with the subject line Writing application. Include the following information:

  • Your name
  • Your background with containers, DevOps, Kubernetes, and related technology
  • Links to two examples of previous writing. These can be blog posts or other technical projects you have worked worked on in the past. If you don’t have published content to share, try submitting the first two or three paragraphs of an article you think would be a good fit for our community so we get get a sense of where you’re at.
  • A list of topics or subjects you’re be interested in

We can only evaluate applications based on the information you submit, so be sure to include as much detail as you can.

We will review your application as soon as possible and reach out to let you know if we think you might be a good fit.

Topic Discovery and Project Scoping

Once you’ve been accepted into the writing program, the next step is to work with the Rancher content team to come up with an appropriate topic and determine the project scope and deliverables.

This stage of the process involves:

  • Deciding on a topic to write about
  • Determining project scope
  • Agreeing on deliverables, due date, and compensation
  • Signing a contract

If you have ideas for articles that you would like to write, let your Rancher contact know so they can verify that it is a good fit for the library and isn’t currently being worked on by somebody else. Take a look at the Rancher content library to get a sense of the topics that are already available. Your contact may also provide you with a list of topics to choose from.

After agreeing on a topic, share a brief outline of what you think the article should cover to ensure that both sides agree on the appropriate scope for the project. Take a look at our sample outline for writers to get a sense of how detailed your outline should be and what should be included:

Once the outline is approved, we’ll discuss the terms of the agreement and send over a contract for you to sign.

Writing the Article

Once you agree to the terms, you can begin research and writing your article. Read the Rancher community writing guidelines to learn how we write content at Rancher and remember to keep the project scope in mind as you write. Also reference our word usage guide to understand some of our preferred terminology.

To get started, choose the article template below that best matches the style of your article:

Let your contact know if you have any questions throughout the process.

Your goal is to create the following:

  • A complete article, written as a single, plain-text document, formatted in Markdown
  • Any screenshots or supporting images referenced in the article. For diagrams and similar assets, feel free to create rough examples that we can use to produce finalized images.

When you are ready, submit the above pieces to the Rancher content team member you are working with.

Submission and Payment

Once you’ve created the above assets, submit them to your contact for review. We evaluate submissions by looking for the following qualities:

  • Faithfulness to the agreed upon outline and project scope
  • Completeness of the implementation
  • Accuracy and clarity of information
  • Correct use of grammar and voice
  • Adherence to the Rancher writing conventions

Your contact will let you know if your submission needs additional work any of the above areas. After you’ve satisfied the requirements, the team will issue your payment and prepare the piece for publication. You can then discuss additional articles you’d like to work on with the Rancher content team.

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