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Guest Post Guidelines


Interested in writing a guest post for Small Notebook? Great! Here are a few suggestions and guidelines.

Small Notebook articles are positive, encouraging, and helpful. My goal is that someone would spend a few minutes reading here, feel encouraged or inspired, and come away with practical tips. Articles related to simplifying, organizing, and home are the most popular. Topics covered less often include personal finance, healthy living, family life, and gardening, but the general theme should be living simply.

Mentioning your site or product is perfectly fine, but the purpose of your article should be to help and encourage the reader, not self-promotion.

I may edit your article for grammar,
readability, and sometimes for tone.  I might change the title or shorten a paragraph. I want to make your guest post as successful as I can.

Since I do not publish every day, I want every article to be well-written. Please don’t send me a guest post that you threw together quickly. If you are not a regular reader here, spend some time reading the archives so that you are familiar with the style and tone of this blog.

Style Guide

  • Posts should usually be 400-800 words.
  • Include at least one photo for the beginning of the post. Photos must be original or legal to use. The maximum width for photos is 500 pixels.
  • Shorter paragraphs are easier to read.
  • Lists and bullet points are visually appealing and help focus your writing.
  • Use subheadings where appropriate. (Wrap subheadings with <h4> html tags.)
  • End your article with a brief author’s bio that links to one or two websites of your choice. Also include a small (about 100 x 100 pixels) photo or image that represents you.
  • Email your article to me in a text file. If you are not familiar with html, don’t worry. It is easy for me to add html formats for you, and I am more interested in your quality writing than coding ability.

Reasons I might choose not to publish your article:

  • If the topic does not fit the theme of simple living at home.
  • If the topic has been fully covered recently.
  • If I already have a full posting schedule.
  • If the article requires more editing than I have time to do.
  • If the article is overly promotional.
  • If it has been published elsewhere. I want the content on Small Notebook to be unique.

Thank you for understanding that I cannot promise to publish an article I have not seen. You are welcome to send me an idea for a guest post before you write it. If I decide not to use your guest post, I will be sure to let you know so that you can publish it on your own blog or send it to someone else.

Questions?

Email me anytime. I know the time and care that it takes to write a guest post, and I appreciate your sharing your writing with Small Notebook readers!

Thank you,

Rachel Meeks