• Software Engineering
  • Python, SQL, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Java, C++, C#, Swift, PHP, Docker, UNIX
• Web, Mobile, and Desktop Application Development
  • Django, React, React Native, Bootstrap, Ruby on Rails, NodeJS / ExpressJS, Android, iOS
• Artificial Intelligence
  • Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Robotics
• Special Technologies and Expertise Areas
  • Blockchain, Solidity, Chatbots, Data Visualization, Web Scrapers, Unity Game Development, Security setups (particularly for remote development teams), NFTs, IoT, Data Science
• APIs and Packages
  • Tensorflow, Ethereum, Google NLP and Computer Vision API, D3, Facebook API, Google API, GIS, Github Copilot
• Design
  • UI Design, UX Design, Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction

1. Decide on a topic. The title should be “How to [what you are teaching the reader]” or “How I learned [what you learned]”. Get the topic approved in your 'lde' channel before proceeding. We will simply google the title and check that there aren't other articles on google covering the specific topic. So, make sure the topic is specific enough. Here are some interesting examples:
   1. How to deploy Django app with AWS Elastic Beanstalk
   2. How to build a text detection in React Native
   3. How to use Selenium to scrape Linkedin profiles
   4. How to use Tensorflow to predict stock prices
   5. Deep Learning OCR using TensorFlow and Python
   6. Some more topic examples
2. When presenting your idea to the CMO in your lde Slack channel please present the title (i.e. How to …) and the primary keywords (which are a 2-4 word google search phrase) you hope your article will appear under in google. Argue why your project and article on blog.ldtalentwork.com would be able to compete with the other articles showing up on google and offer something new to learners. Your project title should have your primary keyword in it.
3. Once the topic is approved, create the project, while taking notes on how you do each step. Push frequently to the github repo. You need to provide your github handle in your 'lde' channel so that you can push a repo to github.com/ldtalent.
   1. [firstnamelastinitial]-name-of-project (i.e. martink-android-app)
4. Upload your project code to github.com/ldtalent. A special repository will be created for you but please request to be invited as a contributor to the repo. The name of the repo should be relevant.
   1. Write a clear README to make sure that another person can easily set up the project.
   2. Make sure your code is clean, well-indented, well linted, and does not have extraneous files.
5. Make a write-up on your project in the following format. If you are doing a video project then you should cover these topics in your video presentation, if they are applicable.
   1. The title should be “How to [what you are teaching the reader]” or “How I learned [what you learned]”
   2. [Photo Preview] Provide a public domain photo (see other blogs) or a self-taken photo related to what you have built so that learners will be interested in reading the step-by-step tutorial.
      1. In the article, include a citation for the photo as a link or reference.
   3. Stick to H2 for the following section headers and H4 for any other subheaders. Nothing else. Do not bold the headers. Do not excessively bold or excessively format regular content either. Keep it clean. (Note: Not applicable to videos.)
   4. [Hire the author: First Name Last Initial (linked to LD Profile)], followed by profile description (example)
   5. [Introduction] Introduce the project and why it is important and interesting.
      1. Say why you were motivated to do the project.
      2. Say what was your goal when embarking on the project.
   6. [Glossary of Terms Learned] Provide a glossary of the terms you learned during the project.
   7. [Step-by-step Procedure] Provide a numbered (i.e. 1, 2, 3) step-by-step tutorial that will help the reader produce exactly what you made.
      1. For each of the figures/visuals you present, are you using the most appropriate visualization?
      2. Can one other person understand them?
   8. [Learning Tools] Describe interesting learning tools (i.e. other tutorials, StackExchange posts, other software packages, and tools) that helped you learn what you learn.
   9. [Learning Strategy] Describe what obstacles you faced and how you overcame them when learning skills or building the project. For instance:
      1. Did you need to search online to find a solution to a problem? If so, which search terms were useful?
      2. Did you need to use a workaround? If so, please describe the workaround.
   10. [Reflective Analysis] Reflect on your experience learning skills and building the project.
       1. What specific things do you know now that you did not know before?
       2. What specific things are you able to do now that you could not do before?
       3. How has your perspective on the skill/technology and its usefulness evolved?
       4. What distinguishes an average talent in the skill/technology from a true expert?
   11. [Conclusions and Future Directions] Write a short conclusion of your contribution and describe future work that you or others can do to extend this work.
   12. Make sure the images you use have an SEO-optimized alt and description text set. Often it's best to just use the title of the article as the alt text of the images.
   13. Finally, make sure you pass all the Yoast SEO plugin checks (click it at the top right of page and bottom of the page). You should enter 2-3 key phrases based on your title (and add key phrase synonyms). (Note: Not applicable to videos.)
       1. Note: You will need to link from your blog post to at least one prior blog post on the LD Talent blog and draw some connection, similarity, or further contribution.
   14. [Hire the author: First Name Last Initial (linked to LD Profile)], followed by profile description
6. If the theme and language of your article overlap with the culture of the LD Talent brand, then all the better. The culture of LD Talent includes emphasis on learning, training, Computer Science, jobs, international development, digital nomad lifestyle, remote work, entrepreneurship, scalability, mass education, productivity tools, design, human-computer interaction, and general geekiness.
7. Once you have a working tutorial and git repo solution, make sure to link the git repo at the beginning and end of the blog article.
8. Report how much time you estimated for the project and how much it actually took for you to make the project in hours.
9. If you are going to use an image, make sure it's high resolution and use “Google Image Search => Tools => Labeled for Reuse with Modification” to make sure we have the right to use it.
   1. If you use images found on the internet, add a section at the end of your article called “Citations:” and list the links for each image used (one line per link).
   2. Make sure the image shows up only once in the article and not in a duplicated fashion -- i.e. both at the top and in the text of the article.
   3. The images should be thematically relevant to your article. Or if you'd like, you can include a picture of yourself, the author.
10. Add your photo to your LD Talent WordPress profile. Make sure your name on the profile is exactly your “[First Name] [Last Initial]” (i.e. Gobi D, Girija M) Your WordPress handle should also be exactly [firstname][lastinitial] (i.e. gobid, girijam) (Note: Not applicable to videos.)
11. Run each paragraph of your article through the grammar checker on grammarly.com. Make sure your spelling and grammar are accurate.
12. Please format code fragments nicely using github gists. Please see this blog article example for how to do this correctly.
    1. Also, please make sure all the links in your article open in a new tab.
    2. If you are looking to use github gist on WordPress this guide on gist was really helpful.
13. Please do not publish the post or add categories. Request the CMO to publish the blog article.
14. Another person will be asked to review your GitHub + Blog project and provide you feedback.
15. Please make the fixes and improvements as needed. Once the reviewer confirms you have addressed the feedback, both you and the reviewer will receive the payment.
16. Some rules that we adhere to strictly:
    1. no multi-part projects/articles
    2. you can only propose a new article after you have finished and been paid for the last one
    3. the article must offer learners something that they cannot find online (a new way of explaining things, a new combination of different technologies, etc.)

We encourage you to respond to comments you receive on your Blog article, GitHub project, and Q&A answers.

1. Find a question on StackOverflow, other StackExchange sites, Quora, Medium, Reddit, or any other technology Q&A platform that asks a specific question about the technology that you answer in your blog article.
2. Answer the question in the most helpful way you can.
3. At the end of your answer write: “Reference: [link to your blog article].”
4. Add as a comment on the blog article: “This article was referenced in [link to your answer on StackOverflow / StackExchange / Quora / Medium / Reddit / Other]”.

• Post the question and answer. You don’t need to include all the sections described in Step 2 above since this is a Q&A project. However, you do need to do the following.
• Complete the general post guidelines such as:
  • Step 2.5.k (images SEO)
  • Step 2.5.l (Yoast)
  • Step 2.10 (your photo and profile name)
  • Step 2.11 (grammar)
  • Step 2.12 (github gists)
  • Step 2.13 (posting logistics)