I am posting the guest post and advertising policies for this blog based on the number of inquiries I receive each month.
This policy covers guest posts, advertising, sponsored posts, affiliate link posts and paid collaborations.
Guest Post Policy
The guest post policy here at Patrick’s Place has been the same since the day I started this blog in February 2004.
Many of the queries I receive claim to have been sent through this blog’s “contact form.” The only way to reach that contact form is through my “Contact” page. The only way to reach the contact form on that page is to scroll through my guest post policy.
For some reason, the super-large type on that page must be difficult to read. So I hope this will clear up any confusion:
I do not accept unsolicited guest posts.
I am not accepting solicitations from writers looking to have a guest post published at this time. Over 17 years, I think I published a total of three or four guest posts.
That handful of posts all have one thing in common. For each one, I approached the writer and asked them to write for this blog. They were people I knew. They were people I trusted.
Even so, I reserved the write to edit if I felt that to be necessary. I didn’t pay them for the posts. We discussed the topic in advance. I valued their opinion on the given topic. For that reason, I gave them latitude to write what they felt.
But of course, I knew going in what their opinion already was. On some level, I either agreed with it or disagreed but felt it was interesting enough that you should read it.
But I asked them; they didn’t ask me.
I appreciate your interest. But for now, I will respectfully decline your offer for a guest post.
Sponsored Posts
I don’t accept sponsored posts. The people who propose them honestly never have actually read one. I’m convinced of that. Most sponsored posts are written horribly. To make my life easier, I just don’t accept them.
Unlabled Sponsored Posts
If sponsored posts were an option, or if you wanted to “sponsor” a post already written in an effort to get me to boost it, it would have to be labeled as “sponsored,” which I don’t do. If you want someone to publish a sponsored post without indicating to the audience that it is, in fact, sponsored, I would absolutely decline. I would also question the credibility of your organization.
Link Insertion
I do not offer link insertion, paid or unpaid. If I didn’t refer to a page when I wrote the original post, I’m not going to go back weeks, months or years later and add a link to yours. I understand you want the backlink for your SEO efforts. I appreciate the reasoning. But I don’t do that.
Paid Collaborations
Paid Collaborations can fall under the same conditions as guest posts and sponsored posts. That’s why I do not accept offers for paid collaborations or “collabs.”
Advertising
At this point, the limited ads that appear on this blog go through Google AdSense. I do not offer separate advertising for the site as a whole or individual posts or pages within it. If you want to buy an ad here, Google is, at this point, the only way to go.
It’s not you, as the old saying goes. It’s me…all me.
Feel free to check back with this page from time to time. If that policy changes, I’ll note that change here first.
I don’t have time to manage advertising or the inclination to partner on guest posts, sponsored posts or collaboration. Maybe someday when I retire, I’ll have enough time on my hands to make that more attractive. Until then, they aren’t options here.
Thanks for reading.
