I wanted to post this blog’s official guest post policy because of the number of inquiries I receive each week.
I do have a guest post policy here at Patrick’s Place. The policy 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.
Guest Post Policy
I do not accept unsolicited guest posts.
My contact form says, in large type:
I am not accepting solicitations from writers looking to have a guest post published at this time.
Let me explain.
Most of the “guest posts” pitched to this site are not written in a way that’s compatible with the style of this site. That’s because the style of this site is dictated by me.
Don’t take it personally. I’m happy to admit that some of my posts aren’t the best-written pieces on the internet.
But I’m talking about the kind of writing you can tell is engineered for search-engine optimization. Most bloggers call it SEO. In a nutshell, it means efforts made to make sure when someone searches Google for a topic, your blog posts related to that topic reach the top of the results.
To boost their SEO, those guest posts are often full of links. They’re full of keywords.
Very often, they can be difficult to get through. Most are not enjoyable to read.
When you read one, they don’t usually fit into the flow of the site. The topics may relate in a roundabout way to the kind of topics a blog owner writes about. But they usually aren’t a perfect match. (In fact, they usually aren’t even a decent match.)
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 felt it was interesting enough that you should read it.
But I asked them; they didn’t ask me.
I remain grateful that they agreed to write for this site.
No, I am not accepting solicitations from writers looking to have a guest post published at this time.
I appreciate your interest. But for now, I will respectfully decline your offer for a guest post.
Please don’t let that offend you. I’m not accepting offers from anyone.
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.
Until then, if you still send me a message asking about guest posting or what my guest policy is, if I answer you at all, I’ll simply respond with a link to this page.
Thanks for reading.
