Guest Post Policy
Hey bloggers, if you have great stories, tips, and advice, we want to hear from you. We are looking to increase the content available to our readers, and we can’t keep up! So, we are opening up to guest bloggers who have cool and interesting things to say and perspectives to share.
Who Qualifies
Independent bloggers writing on behalf of their personal/independent blog are eligible to submit stories and pitches. Bloggers for corporate sites are not eligible. If you want to write something for our audience, check out our sponsored post policy to see if you qualify.
Topics for Posts
For our audience, we are looking for very specific topics. If what you have does not conform to these topics, please do not submit. If you have an idea and aren’t sure how it might fit into our needs, feel free to submit it according to the process below and we’ll take it from there. Feel free to be controversial, just make sure you can back up your fire!
Here is what we are looking for.
Topic 1: Career Break stories. Your post can cover
- Advice for deciding to take a break, planning a break or reentry after a break
- Personal stories about why you took a break, a travel tale from your break, costs and or benefits of you taking your break
Topic 2: Travel stories and advice from Spain, South Africa, New Zealand, Patagonia or Colombia.
Right now we are focusing on a few key countries. It’s not that we don’t care about the rest of the world. Give us time, we’ll get there! The post should fit into one of two types: Advice- or tips-oriented and long-form travel prose
- Travel advice or tips about the basics: flights, transportation, lodging, safety, planning, budgeting. Remember that a could post could be something like ¨Why You Shouldn’t Do X¨. Sometimes the best advice is what not to do, not merely what someone should do. Finally, a long-term travel or career break twist is preferred, but not required depending on the topic.
- Ways to get around. Did you have a story about a cool hike, bike ride, train trip or other cool way you got to see the country? Maybe you have a cool story about getting around one of the cities in one of our targeted countries.
- Volunteering. Do you have a cool volunteering experience and want to tell your story? Or, maybe based on your experience, you have some great tips on how to get more out of a volunteering experience.
- Learning something new. Did you learn to cook, taking a language class, learn to paraglide, or some other cool activity you’ve always wanted to do? We’d love to get your perspective and advice for others interested in doing the same thing.
- Photo essays. Have some cool photos you want to show off?
- Videos. Have a knack for video? So do we. Let us know what you have in mind. If you already have something on the web, why not write about the background story of the video and then we can link in the video from YouTube, Vimeo, or whatever other service you’re using.
A final note about list posts. A ¨Top 5¨ or ¨Top 10¨ list can be a great, informative and entertaining. But, we do require that your list be based on your experience, not a generic list of places or experiences about which you have no first-hand experience.
Submission Process
To make this easy for you and for us, please follow the directions below.
- Send the pitch to info @ careerbreaksecrets.net (remove the spaces). In your pitch, please include the title of the post, 3-5 bullets detailing the major chunks of the content
- After review by Jeff, he will respond with his thoughts and comments. If no further information is required, then the post is approved and off you go. We’ll also work out the timeline and go live dates.
- Submit draft for review. Jeff will review and provide feedback for any final modifications.
- Submit your photos. If you use Flickr or SmugMug, you can submit the links and not the originals. Feel free to submit watermarked photos if you prefer.
- Go live and promote!
Final Things to Know
- Only original content will be accepted. We will not accept content that has been posted elsewhere.
- Relevant links within the story should be included. Know that all will be checked prior to posting.
- No paid links will be accepted or published in your post…Period. Trying to sneak those through are grounds for denying the entire post
- Final editorial decisions rest with us. Jeff will read each post and edit to ensure consistency and quality with the rest of the site. We don’t want to mess with content or your story or your voice, we just want to make sure it shines when it goes live.
- The post should be roughly 800-1000 words. Take that as a guideline. If the story’s good and doesn’t drag on, we’re happy to post longer stories. Or, if the point of the story should be short and sweet, that’s fine too.
- If you gathered the content from a sponsored trip or press trip, it’s fine. But, that must be disclosed in the post. We follow the FTC blogger guidelines and expect you to do the same.
- We prefer posts with photos, so please plan to include 5-7 with your final submission. Make sure the photos are relevant to the post. If you need to use ¨Creative Commons¨ photos, let us know so you can select the right type of photos.
What You Get
Unfortunately, we aren’t in a position to pay you. But, we can offer you the following
- ¨Follow¨ link back to your site
- Brief bio (30-50 words) with photo at the bottom of the post so people know where to find more of your great writing
- Social media promotion of your posts on Facebook, Twitter and StumbleUpon. If it’s really good, we may include it in our monthly newsletter.
- Link exchange with us on our site.
- You will retain the copyright for the photos we use and will cite the copyright in any photos we use.
- You will also be cited as the writer. It’s your content. We’re just happy that you shared it with us!
