February 7, 2012

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Guest Bloggers

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Flickr image courtesy of alamodestuff

So, you’d like to contribute a guest post to The Urban Muse. Fantastic! You won’t get rich, but it’s possible that you’ll get (a little) famous and snag some new readers for your own blog. Plus, you’ll join the ranks of esteemed writers like Peter Bowerman and many others. Here’s how to get started:

  • Email me your idea for a post and include “Guest Post: [Insert Your Proposed Title]“ in the subject line. Your proposed title should sums up your idea and incorporates a few keywords. Most of my readers are non-fiction writers, but I’ll occasionally publish posts about other genres, too.
  • If and when I greenlight your post, keep it between 250 and 750 words (or thereabouts) and focus your post on some aspect of writing and/or freelancing. Bonus points if you send me your post with basic HTML included (ordered lists, bolded subheads, that sort of thing). I prefer to receive the post in the body of an email, not as a Word document.
  • Include a 1-2 sentence bio with links to your blog, website, LinkedIn profile, etc. Also note that if you don’t have a blog yet, that’s fine, too. This is your chance to test the waters. You’re welcome to include a headshot, but please indicate if I need to include a photo credit.
  • Since the guest post is for exposure only, I’m willing to post something that has already appeared elsewhere or will appear elsewhere in the future provided you own the rights and don’t publish it yourself on the same day (how disappointing for people who click on your blog only to find the exact same thing?). We’ll tweak the title so it’s slightly different.
  • I want this to be an enjoyable experience for both of us, so I don’t set deadlines for guest posts. Send it to me when you have time and I’ll get back to you with an anticipated publish date (usually guest posts air on a Friday morning). I will generally send you the link that morning, and I’d love it if you decide to tweet your guest post, post it on Facebook and your own blog, or otherwise help me promote it.
  • Please take the time to answer questions from those who comment on your post. I will email you those questions as they come in so you don’t have to keep checking your post, but it’s disappointing to me and the commenter when a guest poster goes MIA.

That’s it! I look forward to hearing from you. In the meantime, check out the guest blog archives.

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The Urban Muse’s Top 10 Blog Posts for 2009

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Many of you are enjoying time off this week rather than reading my blog. For those of you who are reading, I’d love to give you a medal or something for your devotion.

But that’s not really practical, so here’s the obligatory end of year round-up. These are based on a combination of factors (number of comments, popularity based on site stats, and my own personal preferences as Blogger-in-Chief) and are listed in no particular order.

  1. Musings from the Past Year of Freelancing
  2. Maximizing Your Freelance Income
  3. The Paradox of Personal Essays
  4. 15 Reasons Your Idea Got Rejected (and How to Fix It)
  5. Writing Lessons from Charlotte’s Web
  6. 5 Excuses That Undermine Writing Success
  7. All About Email Week (actually 5 posts for the price of one!)
  8. 10 Things to Tweet About
  9. I Said, He Said, We Said
  10. 5 Low-Cost Ways to Market Your Freelance Business

Bonus! The list above does not include open threads or guest posts, so clicking those links will uncover even more fabulous advice for freelancers. Enjoy!

Filed Under: announcements

Calling All Guest Bloggers!

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Last February was Reader Appreciation Month here at The Urban Muse, and I’ve decided to bring it back in 2009! That means that I’ll open the floor to guest bloggers while I escape the dreary Boston winter, and if time permits, slip in a few posts of my own.

Similar to last year, here are the ground rules for guest blogging:

*Email me your idea for a post or finished post by January 25 and include “February Blogger” in the subject line.
*Keep your post between 250 and 750 words (or thereabouts) and focus your post on some aspect of writing and/or freelancing.
*Feel free to include a one sentence bio with links to your blog, website, LinkedIn profile, etc. Also note that if you don’t have a blog yet, that’s fine, too. This is your chance to test the waters.
*Since the guest post is for exposure only, I’m willing to post something that has already appeared elsewhere or will appear elsewhere in the future provided you own the rights and don’t publish it yourself on the same day (how disappointing for people who click on your blog only to find the exact same thing?).
*Lastly, please be patient with me as I set up the schedule for February. Once I get everything lined up, I’ll email you the anticipated publish date of your post so you can show it off!

In case you’re curious or need inspiration, here is a compilation of last year’s guest blog posts.

Photo courtesy of theparadigmshifter

Filed Under: announcements

Lessons from Guest Bloggers

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Last month, I opened up The Urban Muse to some guest bloggers so that I could keep the conversation going while I was on vacation. Brilliant plan, right? Well, as it turns out, hosting guest bloggers was nearly as much work as writing the posts myself. Over the course of the month, I exchanged dozens of emails with readers about finding the right topic, setting deadlines, adding links, editing their posts, etc.

Not that I’m complaining. It was something I didn’t anticipate, but it worked out really well in the end because it gave me a taste of being an editor and feeling accountable to my contributors. At first, I tried to keep all the information in my head, but the need for a formalized schedule became apparent when I assigned two people to the same topic and forgot to publish a post (which is very much out of character for me, but hey, I was on vacation part of the time). It all worked out, because the two writers brought very different insights to their topic. And since people were writing these for fun, no one got too impatient with my sometimes sluggish response times or my general forgetfulness (which I blame on all those Mai Tais consumed in Hawaii).

If anyone emailed me a guest blog post and I somehow forgot to publish it, please let me know so that I rectify the situation. Thank you to all my talented and patient guest bloggers last month!

Filed Under: blogging, guest blogs posts