Write for The Guitar Answer Guy – Guest Posting Guidelines

Updated: August 8, 2022

Are you a guitar player, guitar tech, or luthier who is interested in writing a guest post for The Guitar Answer Guy blog? Excellent! However, before you fill out the form at the bottom of this page, I do have some rules and guidelines you should be familiar with before you pitch your idea (please don’t send finished blog posts). These guidelines ensure that my readers are getting the best information possible, but also ensure you and I don’t violate any of Google’s rules and get ourselves penalized.

If You Read Nothing Else on This Page, Read This

As I alluded to in the 1st sentence above, you MUST be a guitar player, guitar tech, or guitar builder (luthier). I will not accept articles from non-guitarists, even if you claim to be writing “on behalf of” a guitarist. You need to be passionate about playing or working on guitars (or both) and have first-hand knowledge of the instrument.

Still with me? Great! Read on…

What You Get in Return (a.k.a. “Payment”)

All guest posts will include your photo, bio, and a (nofollow) link back to the URL of your choosing, which means you will be seen by my audience of over 50k visitors per month (and that number continues to grow). The only rule is that your URL must link to a guitar-related or music-related website. For example, your bio link can not link back to… say… a real estate website, travel website, etc. Currently, I can not offer monetary payment for guest posts, but if this blog ever begins to generate significant income, I certainly will.

My Audience

Readers of The Guitar Answer Guy blog tend to have some combination of these traits:

Primary Audience:

Guitar owners who…

• Want to learn how to do their own basic guitar care and maintenance.
• Have a specific technical problem or question related to guitar care and maintenance.
• Have guitar DIY experience ranging from none to an intermediate level.
• Are primarily living in the United States, UK, and Canada.

Secondary Audience:

Non-guitar owners who…

• Haven’t bought a guitar yet, but are looking/shopping for one
• Are not guitarists themselves, but are wanting to buy a guitar (or guitar accessories) for a friend or family member who plays guitar.

Types of Topics I’ll Consider

Now that you know a bit about my readers, you should have a better idea of potential topics you could write about. I’ll accept product reviews, top [x] lists, how-to’s and demonstrations, technical articles, etc. Some examples include:

• Guitar String Materials and How Each Affects Your Sound
• How to Remove Light Scratches From a Gloss Finish
• Top [X] Easy Upgrades to Improve Your Guitar’s Sound
• Product reviews (see “Special Guidelines for Product Reviews” below)

Types of Topics I Will NOT Consider

I want to keep my blog focused on guitar care and maintenance. So, even though you’ll find articles on my blog about the following topics, I am no longer accepting posts about:

• Guitar lessons or similar “lesson-type” topics
• Music theory
• General-interest topics such as, “Why you should learn guitar”, “The health benefits of guitar”, or “Are you too old to learn guitar?” I could list more, but you get the idea.

Quality Requirements

We’ve all heard the advice: “Don’t write above a 4th grade level.” I disagree, but I don’t want a college-level dissertation here either. At a minimum, you should understand the rules of basic punctuation and grammar, and should be someone who’d generally describe yourself as a good (or better) writer. When you fill out the form below, please include links to other articles you have written.

A few other points to note:

• Minimum word count is 1000 words.
• Demonstration (how-to) topics must include photos illustrating what you’re talking about. These must be your own, self-taken photos, not stock (purchased) photos or photos from other websites.
• No profanity. I want to keep the blog Rated G.
• Scientific or medical claims need to be backed by sources. Please provide 1-2 external articles (preferably reputable medical websites, not other blogs) that support such claims.

Special Guidelines for Product Reviews

I hold product reviews to a very high standard–a standard I’ve created by writing my own awesome, in-depth product reviews. So, a great way for you to get a sense of what I’m after is to look at some of my own product reviews: Product review ex. 1 and Product review ex. 2

Here’s a high level summary:

• You must have actually used, with your own two hands, the product you’re reviewing.
• Product must be available on the U.S. Amazon.com store so that readers can read peer reviews and easily purchase the product if they’d like.
• You must include your own, self-shot photos (or screenshots if it’s software) of the product. The more, the better.
• If absolutely necessary, only 1-2 commercial product photos (from the manufacturer) may be used.
• No need to create the “summary” infographic that appears at the top of my reviews. I will create those for you as long as you provide me with the info, star ratings, etc.
• You are allowed to include other people’s videos, as long as they are relevant and reinforce the review.

If none of that worries you and you think you’d like to write an equally awesome product review, definitely reach out to me.

Linking Policies

You may not…

• You may not link to your own content/website within the blog post itself. The exception is your bio at the end of the post (see “You may…” section below). I can be flexible here, so if you have something in mind just run it past me.
• You may not place your own affiliate links into your guest post.

You may…

• You may include your photo/logo, short bio, and a single link back to a URL of your choosing at the end of the post. This link will be a nofollow link, and the destination must be a guitar or music-related website, blog, etc.
• You may reference and link to other posts on my blog. In fact, I love it when guest authors do this!
• You may link externally to other relevant content that you do not own (and have not written), but must check with me first for approval.

You must consent to…

• I may add my own links into your article.
• I may add my own affiliate links, banners, or product images into your article.
• I may add images into your article.
• As you can see, there is 3rd party advertising on my blog, so there will be ads throughout your article as well.

Image Policy

Please do include images with your article. However, be sure…

• The images are as large as possible and uncropped. A nice, big image allows me to size and crop as necessary.
• The images are well-lit and in-focus, and are of a similar style to those I’ve used in other blog posts.
• The image is your own, original photo, artwork, etc. or you otherwise own the rights/license to use the image and, more importantly, own a license that allows ME to use it as well.

When you submit images with your article, I may ask you to provide proof of the above.

Republishing Policy

Please do not submit an article that is already published somewhere else. Your article should be original and unique–written specifically and only for The Guitar Answer Guy blog. It can not exist somewhere else on the Internet or in print. Likewise, after I have published your article on my blog, you can not publish it anywhere else. However…

Your blog post is your intellectual property. I won’t hold it hostage. If you ever wish to publish your post somewhere else, notify me at least 2 months in advance. This gives me enough time to remove it form my blog first and put proper URL redirects in place, as well as notify any external websites that may be linking to your article.

Editorial Policy

I’m not a control freak, but don’t be offended if we go through 1-2 rounds of revisions, especially when it comes to the title of the post.

After your final article is submitted, I may make last-minute corrections if I happen to see a punctuation or spelling error. This is simply because it’s easier for me to just do it on-the-spot rather than asking you to resubmit the article every time. I will never make major changes to the article. If major changes are needed, I’ll let you now and leave that up to you.

How to Submit a Guest Post Idea