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Be a Geocaching Guest Blogger!

The Geocaching Blog tells inspiring geocaching stories, informs about happenings at Geocaching HQ and teaches geocachers about the game. 

To elevate genuine community content from all over the world, we want to share the official Geocaching Blog as a platform for many great geocaching stories. That means we want to give geocachers inside and outside the United States the opportunity to share authentic local content in their native language with a large geocaching audience.

If you have experienced a geocaching adventure worth sharing, please submit your article through this web form to be featured as a guest blogger on the official Geocaching Blog.

Guest Blogger Submission Requirements

Content

Your content must:

• Be about geocaching and/or the geocaching community and should be of an inspiring, positive, or educational nature.
• Be your own original work. Plagiarism is not permitted. When quoting others, please cite your sources accordingly.
• Be factual. You have done reasonable research to confirm its accuracy.
• Be in line with the Geocaching Terms of Use as posted on Geocaching.com. For example:
  • Content cannot be unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, profane, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, embarrassing, harmful to minors, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable to any other person or entity.
  • Content cannot solicit for any purpose or be of commercial nature.
  • Geocaches referenced must be in accordance with the Geocache Listing Requirements / Guidelines
• Be between 200 – 1,000 words. In rare cases, shorter/longer posts may be allowed in our sole discretion if the topic warrants.
• Include at least one feature image (see below for details). One image is the minimum requirement, but we encourage you to use 2-3 images per post. For examples browse The Geocaching Blog.
• Preferably never have been published on your site or elsewhere and not be published anywhere other than The Geocaching Blog for at least a week from the date of publication.
• Not show spoilers of a geocache without geocache owner permission.

Content in all languages is accepted.

Images & Video

We welcome images and/or video to accompany guest posts. We want geocachers to remember that geocaching transports them to incredible places with amazing views. Your images must:

• Be directly relevant to the post content.
• Be in full color.
• Be adventurous, inspiring, and should display some element of geocaching (e.g. object, view, or action of geocaching).
• Be your own or you must have the right to use the images and/or video and allow us to use them.
• If you’re including pictures of people, you must ensure that you have their permission to use them. Content (such as pictures) posted on geocaching.com by a user can be used on the Geocaching Blog or social media.

Image requirements

• Be a .jpg, .gif or .png file and meet our size/quality requirements:
  • Feature image (Required): width of 800px and a height of 450px.
  • Large Image (Optional): 656px by 410px. Will fill entire width of the post.
  • Medium Image (Optional): 300px by 199px. Will fill ½ the width of the post.

Video requirements

• Total film length should be between 1 and 4 minutes, including credits.
• All languages are accepted.  Non-English language films can be subtitled in English.

Links

We are pleased to give you credit as the author of your post. Your byline will be displayed at the bottom of the page below your guest post.

• We allow one link in your byline to your own blog, social media account or Geocaching profile. The link may not be an affiliate link or point to an affiliate site, such as a different cause or website other than your own blog. Geocaching HQ may add its own affiliate links without your permission.
• We don’t allow links to your site within the post content unless it is directly related to the blog post topic.
• All links must be approved by Geocaching HQ.
• All search engine optimization (“SEO”) information, such as anchor text or alt tags, will be reviewed and subject to inclusion at our sole discretion.
• Always have links open in a new tab, please. (How to format links to open in a new tab.)
• Excessive links or any links that appear commercial will be removed. We reserve the right to remove any link including your byline in our sole discretion.

Social Media Post

We want your post to be seen by as many people as possible.

• With your blog submission, you must include a separate social media post for us to post on Facebook that refers and will link to your blog post. The post you provide to us must be substantially different than any post to your or any third party’s social media account. Please keep your post text short (3-4 sentences) and include a call to action (for example, a question that provokes responses and discussion from the audience). See the Geocaching Facebook page for examples of the desired style of your post.
• We may edit your post to fit our style or tone.
• Please be available to monitor and answer any questions or comments on Facebook after your post is published. You must maintain a professional and positive tone in your responses.
• If we use your guest post, you may promote it on your own website, Facebook, Twitter or other social media forums. Promoting does not mean you post the entire article on these forums. You may include a link to your guest post and a short sentence or two explaining what the article is about.

Submission

• Submit your post using the provided submission form.
• You must agree to our Guest Blogger Agreement as part of the submission process.
• Not all submissions will be selected for publication. We expect to receive more submissions than we are able to use. Additionally, we may reject submissions that don’t meet our guidelines or we otherwise feel are not a good fit with our blog.
• Please don’t contact us to request the status of your submission. If your piece is selected, we will try to provide you with notice at least one week before the date we intend to publish your blog post and social media post so that you are available to monitor and answer questions or comments on each post.
• We do not pay for submissions. If you decide to submit a post, you do so with the knowledge that you will not be entitled to any compensation for writing the post or for any other compensation related to the post.
• You will make us aware of any actual or potential conflict of interest in connection with your submission. An example of such a conflict would be a blog post that includes a geocache container that you sell on a separate website.
• If your submission is accepted, we may require edits if we feel they are necessary to ensure that the Geocaching Blog stays congruous with our values and tone.
• We may add our own images/video if we feel they will help improve the post. This does not give you the right to use to those images/video.
• All submissions must be reviewed and approved by us prior to publication.