Pretty Opinionated loves sharing relevant content from other writers. Guests posts are a great way to bring my readers a new perspective and keep things fresh. Please, please, please take a moment to look over my guidelines before you shoot off an email. I get dozens of requests a day, and I am no longer responding to those who haven’t in some way at least made an attempt to follow my guidelines.
Types of Guest Posts I accept include:
- Author Guest Posts- I am a strong supporter of authors in general, and indie authors in particular. I welcome posts from authors about their work, or a subject that ties into their work. Feel free to promote yourselves with an “About the Author” bio and links to where we can find your books.
- Recipes- Let’s face it, no matter how hard I try, I’m never going to come close to being a culinary genius. Plain and simple, I can barely boil water. I would love to feature your recipes on Pretty Opinionated. All recipe posts must contain at least one original picture. I’ll help promote your post by pinning the picture on Pinterest, tweeting, and stumbling.
- Crafts- Like cooking, I pretty much suck at making pretty things. I love to look at cool crafts, pin them to my Pinterest boards, and pretend that someday I’ll have enough talent to actually make them. I come up with great ideas for crafts too. When it comes to the execution, however, I fall flat on my face. So send those craft posts my way please!
- Helpful tips or informational posts - Posts that offer tips on how to improve some aspect of life, activities that families can do together, and so on are definitely appreciated. While I can write this type of post myself, it’s nice to have another perspective!
What I am NOT looking for:
Purely promotional guest posts that contain little to nothing relevant to my site. Please look around. I do not post about politics and rarely post about home improvement unless offering useful, eco-friendly or budget-friendly tips that don’t require hiring a contractor of some sort.
Guidelines for guest posts – Please read this before emailing me
- Word count- Posts must be at least 300 words long. I prefer closer to 500, but 300 is the minimum that I will accept.
- Posts my be relevant to my site. Again, please take the time to look around my site and see what I usually write about. I’m not saying you have to read every post, but at least take a look at my categories and titles. This should give you an idea of what I am looking for.
- I do not allow links to spammy sites, adult sites, gambling sites, or any other site that I feel is not a good match for Pretty Opinionated.
- Post must be original and published only on my site. I will check for duplicate content through Copyscape. I also periodically go through my older guest posts to ensure that they haven’t been published elsewhere. If I do find them published again, I will remove the links and no_index the post.
- I reserve the right to format the post in a way that enhances its appearance on Pretty Opinionated. This may include adding headers, breaking up long paragraphs, and adding public domain images.
- I reserve the right to edit grammar issues, if any are found.
A few tips for getting your guest post request email noticed:
- My name is Nicole (or Nikki), not admin, site owner, or Pretty. Well, I don’t mind so much when you call me Pretty, but flattery will only get you so far! Seriously, my name is on every post I write, which is about 95% of the content on this site. Use it and I’ll be more likely to keep reading.
- Be genuine! I get a lot of guest posts requests every day, and the ones that I actually accept are those that sound like they were written by real people. I know it’s easier to use a pitch template, I use them too. Just throw in something, even a sentence, that shows you actually took the time to check out my site, and that you’re not a robot.
- Give me links to other posts you’ve written, so I can get an idea of your writing style.
These are a few of my favorite guest posts that I’ve published on Pretty Opinionated. Take a peek to see what I’m looking for in a post:
4 Ways to Avoid the Winter Blues
A Journey Into the World of ADHD
Bryan Cohen on Reason and Character: The Happiness Blog Tour
If you have read the above guidelines and feel you have an idea that would be a good fit, please either email prettyopinionated@gmail.com or use the contact form below to get in touch with me.