Article Submission Guidelines

Calling all experts in your fields! Parents Guide Illawarra wants you! 

Our online Articles Page is both very popular with parents AND it gives business owners the opportunity to promote their business for FREE! And you don’t have to be a professional writer or editor to participate. 

So if you have something to write about that you believe Illawarra parents want to know about, then keep reading! We are open always for article submissions! 

In turn, your article will feature not only on our Articles Page, but on our Home Page and in both our Weekly E-Newsletter and Facebook page! And did we mention it’s FREE? 

So if you would like your article published on Parents Guide Illawarra or are keen to become an ongoing or regular contributor, please refer to our article submission guidelines below. 

BUT FIRST…. 

Only original content will be accepted and you must be the author of the article you are submitting.  To be relevant to our demographic, you need to be an Illawarra-based business, event or service (please contact us if you require confirmation on whether you meet this geographic requirement).

WHAT CAN I WRITE ABOUT? 

We accept articles that are informative, inspirational, topical or give advice to parents of kids of all ages. We do not however accept articles that are purely about a product or service that you are offering – your article is not a sales pitch for your business (however if an increase in sales is what you want you have still come to the right place – run don’t walk to our List With Us Page for our awesome advertising packages).

Our community of parents enjoy articles that are easy to read, funny, honest, informative and love to have the stats and sources to back up what you are writing about.

You are also welcome to include your business and contact details and any web links at the end of the article. It is important that parents are able to follow up or find out more information from you about your article. 

IS THERE A WORD LIMIT? 

To be honest, we don’t like to set a definitive word limit, however, the Google gods state that online, readers like to read between 500- 750 words. Any more than this and they get bored and move onto something else. This is why we recommend around 600 words as a maximum. 

AN IMAGE NEEDS TO ACCOMPANY YOUR ARTICLE 

All submitted articles need to have an accompanying image. You are welcome to submit an image of your own choosing however your image must meet the following requirements:

• Must be a high resolution jpeg file within the following size specifications: 700 pixels long x 350 pixels wide (please don’t hesitate to contact us if you require assistance resizing your image).
• You must have permission to use the image or your image must be from an accredited stock image site.
• If you are unable to supply a suitable image, Parents Guide Illawarra reserves the right to select an image from our own stock image supplier. 

THE LAST WORD 

Please note that your article will only be published subject to the approval of Parents Guide Illawarra and in meeting the guidelines outlined above. We will edit your article if necessary for grammar, structure and clarity. Before we go live with your article, we will email you a ‘draft’ (url link) for your review.  Please note also that the maximum number of articles that we can accept from you within one year is three articles – anymore than this and we will require you to come onboard with us as a Featured Business (and then you are welcome to submit as many articles as you would like).

SO WHAT’S FOR FREE AGAIN?

In addition to your Article being published on our Articles Page, your article will also feature on our Home Page under our Latest Articles banner (showcases the four most recent articles). We will also advertise your article for two weeks from the date your article goes live in our Weekly E-Newsletter (goes out every Friday evening) and you will receive one post for each of the two weeks on our Facebook page. Your article will also be automatically included in our Phone and Tablet App.

LET’S DO THIS! 

To get started, submit your article to [email protected]  

For more information on our Articles submission process, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]u