Keep the Tail Wagging Guest Posting Guidelines

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Guest Posting Guidelines

I only accept guest posts from dog parents / pet bloggers who maintain active blogs of their own.   If you are promoting a business, service or product, please scroll to the bottom for the hosting fee for your content.  Thank you.

Thank you for your interest in submitting a guest post to my blog!  It’s fantastic to introduce a voice to my readers and I always learn something too.  To help you get the best experience possible, here are a few guidelines for you…

Please Read a Few Posts – I only accept articles from dog parents.  I ask that they be written as a dog parent sharing their experience on a topic; please do not submit How To articles, they will not be accepted.

Original Content Only - Currently, Keep the Tail Wagging has one sydnicated column and I’d like to keep it at one.  Please submit original content only.

Length of Post – If you submit a post that’s longer than 500 words, then I recommend that you include headers for each section to break it up; this will allow readers who don’t have a lot of time to catch your general point.  I would love it if people read every word that I write, but I understand that we all have busy schedules.

YouTube Videos - If you decide to submit a video, it must be in the body of a written post.  Please keep the video under 3 minutes, remain on topic, and only reference your blog in any notes/annotations.

Subjects – Keep the Tail Wagging’s most popular topics are about dog health, dog nutrition, dog behavior, dog training, dog safety, and dog products.  Please do not submit any pornographic material or content that involves animal cruelty.  Posts that are heavy into profanity aren’t a good fit for my blog.  Please do not submit an article that soley promotes your business or product.  Keep the Tail Wagging is an upbeat site.

Bios - Please include a bio so that people can learn more about you and visit your blog.  Any submissions where the bio is from a person other than the person submitting the content will be rejected.  Articles that don’t include a bio will also be rejected.

Back Links – One of the benefits of submitted a guest post is the incoming links to your site.  I allow up to 3 back links to your blog (2 in the body, 1 in the bio).  I do not allow affiliate links or links to a site that isn’t related to my blog’s subject.  I am building a relationship with my readers based on trust and I would be remiss to inadvertently promote businesses with whom I have no experience.  Guest posts submissions that don’t honor this will be rejected.  If you are linking back to a business, this is a sponsored post.  Please see my Services page for pricing options.

Submit via Email – Please email your article in a Word document to kimberly@keepthetailwagging.com.  I no longer accept images unless it’s a How To post due to the recent SOPA scare; I’ll provide images for each guest post.  If you’re post is a “how to” article, you can submit more images if they’re screen shots showing the steps in a process.

Comments – I require people who guest post for my site to reply to all thoughtful comments from my readers; I know that life can get in the way, but if you would pop in for a few days after your post goes live (see Google Alerts tip below), that will suffice.  Not only is responding polite, it does a great job bringing traffic back to your site and will introduce you to a great group of people.  If you don’t intend to respond to comments, please do not submit a guest post.

Publishing Date – Depending on my editorial calendar, your article will be posted within 30-35 days.  Once I’ve read and accepted your guest post, I will contact you with an estimated publish date; please note that the publishing date is subject to change.  I recommend that you create a Google Alert with your name or the title of your article to be notified of when your post has been indexed by Google.  I reserve the right to edit guest contributions for search engine optimization purposes.

PR Professionals / Freelance Writers -  I charge a fee of $100 payable via PayPal to kimberlymgauthier@gmail.com.  The fee is to cover promotion of the article on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Stumble Upon, and Tumbler.  The fee also covers moderation of comments the article receives.

• The article must be written from the perspective of a dog parent and not as a how to piece.
• The article will be noted as a sponsored post.
• You are allowed one link in the bio of the article; a bio is required.
• I do not accept articles from companies promoting dog breeding, training collars, or fenceless systems.

 

Thanks for your interest and I look forward to working with you!