Policies
Want to know more about Blue Planet Green Living? Here are some important policies you might want to read. They include:
- Write for Us
- Privacy
- Product Reviews
- Affiliate Programs
- Questions?
Read on!
Write for Us
If you’d like to submit a guest post to Blue Planet Green Living, please follow these guidelines:
CONTENT
Posts must be relevant to our dual focus: the environment and social action.
You must verify by email that it is entirely your own original work and does not contain material lifted from anyone else’s work, except where appropriately quoted and attributed.
Please send only exclusive content, not a post that has been re-worked from a previous article, either yours or another writer’s. Please do not send us pre-published posts, no matter how obscure the original publication.
We do not publish “fluff.” All content should be in depth and provide interesting information that isn’t necessarily obvious to the reader.
Posts should not be of a marketing nature. If you want to advertise a service or product your business sells, then explain why there’s a need for it. Become the expert in your field by providing essential information, and people will be interested in what you have to sell.
No profanity or adult topics of a salacious nature are allowed.
Do not defame or libel another person or business. Keep your information factual and, whenever possible, positive in nature.
EDITING
We reserve the right to suggest changes to your post that will help increase your chances of being published by us; you will have the opportunity to review the changes prior to publication. If we cannot come to an agreement about the changes, we reserve the right to reject your post. In all cases, publishability is determined solely by the staff of Blue Planet Green Living.
Please feel free to suggest a headline, but we reserve the right to edit or replace it.
PHOTOS
If you provide photos (and you’re encouraged to do so), you must verify in your email that the photos are your original work. Or, if you have permission to reprint someone else’s work, you must forward to us the email or document specifying permission to reprint on Blue Planet Green Living. You do not have to submit a photo or art, but if we cannot find at least one appropriate photo to use in our slideshow, we will not be able to publish your post.
LINKS
We’re happy to include one or two links to your website in the article, if it’s logical to do so. If not, one link at the end of the article is appropriate. Links must be accurately typed and consistently maintained so that they are not hacked. If we find a link has been hacked, we will remove the link. If you learn that your site has been compromised, please let us know immediately so that we can disable the link until the problem has been remedied.
We will insert a few internal links to our own web pages as appropriate and tasteful. We do not use those annoying ad links inside a post.
Once your post is up on Blue Planet Green Living, feel free to link to it on your own website and to share it far and wide.
BENEFITS
For writers, one of the major benefits of posting on Blue Planet Green Living is that you receive clips from a respected, professional website. Selected writers will be invited to join our BPGL Crew of Contributing Writers. This allows you to post a bio and photo, along with a list of your posts on BPGL. If you are not a Contributing Writer, your posts will appear with the byline “Guest Post,” and your name will appear at the bottom of the post, along with a link to your website (if applicable).
Another important benefit is exposure of your idea, service, or product on an international forum. At the time of this writing, we are ranked a 4 of 10 on the Google toolbar, and have just shy of 2,000 fans on our Facebook fan page.
All posts appear in several social networking sites automatically, including Facebook fan page (Blue Planet Green Living), Twitter, LinkedIn, Bebo, Delicious, and others. Blue Planet Green Living participates in Networked Blogs. By posting your story on our site, you will be spreading it to thousands of readers, increasing your visibility and strengthening your branding.
Finally, and most important for less-experienced writers, if your post isn’t quite up to our standards, our veteran editorial staff may choose to work with you to craft a polished piece that will make you proud.
Privacy
Blue Planet Green Living does not collect any personal data from visitors to the site. None. Period. And since we don’t have your data, we can’t sell it or give it away.
We do track visitor numbers in the aggregate, using StatCounter and Google Analytics. But we do not know who each person is. We don’t follow your habits. We don’t know your name. We have access only to data collected by these reputable companies, though we might at some time use others of equal integrity.
If you sign up as a user on Blue Planet Green Living, we do collect your email address. We absolutely will not sell or give away your name, email, or any other information to anyone. Period.
We may use your email address to invite you to opt in to a newsletter and/or special offerings. You may decline participation and to ask us to leave you alone. If you know now that you do not want to be contacted, please tell us now. Or, if you decide not to participate in a given newsletter or offer, just let us know, and we will remove you as a user the minute we see the message.
Send your request to: Julia@blueplanetgreenliving.com. You’ll receive an email acknowledgment as soon as your request is received and processed.
Product Reviews
We post the Fine Print on each review (after December 1, 2009). This information will tell you whether we received a free sample, free service, or incentive connected with a product (or book, film, etc.) review.
Our policy is to give our honest opinions, the good and the bad. Even if we receive a free product or sample, that will not persuade us to write a good review. What we do not do is to smear or defame a product. If we do not like an item or service substantially more than we dislike it, we will not publish a review. So, yes, you’ll only see positive reviews, because we don’t publish negative ones.
If we purchase the item being reviewed with our own hard-earned cash, we’ll tell you that, too.
Affiliate Programs
We are affiliate marketers for Amazon and Commission Junction, and may add other affiliate groups in the future. This means we post ads on our site with links to other companies. If you purchase a book, a product, or a service by clicking on one of these ads on our site, we will receive a small (believe me, it’s very small) compensation for your purchase. In some cases, if you fill out an advertiser’s form, we may also receive a small compensation. Please do not click on ads that you aren’t truly interested in.
We also participate in Google AdSense. If you click on a Google link that appears on our site, we get another tiny bit of money from the advertisers. Please realize that the advertisers, like all of us, are trying to make an honest living. Please click on their links only if you are truly interested in seeing what they have to offer. It’s only fair. But if you’re interested, by all means, check them out! That’s why they advertise on the web, so they can get customers like you to find out what they’re selling.
Questions?
If you have questions — or criticisms, suggestions, you name it — please contact me directly: Julia@BluePlanetGreenLiving.com.
Thanks for reading our blog.
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