2 - 1 - 20151213_072432[1] wall of reserve coffeeI’m looking for guest bloggers. Just throwing out that idea. Please read this fully before considering if this is for you.

First off, briefly, I’m going to talk about blogging. Sometimes it feels there aren’t that many people out there who actively and regularly update a blog as a hobby. Most people, truth be told, are not content creators. And well, you’d have to be crazy to want to do this. Why would you want to spend an hour hovering over a computer or a laptop when you could be making a cup of coffee, outside in the rain, or doing any fun thing you like. Blogging is a strange hobby.

For most people, IF they have a personal blog, it’s not getting very many readers either. That’s just the reality of the world wide web. I’m probably crushing your hope of starting a personal blog. Don’t let me discourage you.

A traditional blog:

A traditional, old-school, blog is simply a sequence of articles, layered one right after another. Actually, if you take a look at the Starbucks Ideas In Action official blog, you’ll see it is formatted totally as a traditional blog: One article after another, in chronological order. It’s possible to have a wildly popular, brilliant blog in a very traditional format: The Bloggess does it brilliantly. She’s an amazing writer and probably gets tens of millions of page views every year. You can tiny and have a traditional blog. Years ago, via a Twitter blog chat, I found this tiny blog, and I still check it now and then.

In fact, in the year 2016, it’s not obvious always what’s a blog and what’s not. There IS a blur between larger media and blogs. Where you draw the line isn’t clear at all. About a fourth of the web runs on the WordPress blogging format, including sites like CNN and Reuters run on WordPress. StarbucksMelody is one of bazillion WordPress blogs.

A magazine blog:

What’s interesting here is that StarbucksMelody no longer has a traditional blogging format. Look around. It’s not necessarily just one article after another, in perfect chronological order. It means that I can possibly publish this article and NOT have it show up in the latest category. This format, while technically still a blog, is what is sometimes called a “magazine” style blog. It’s a format typically used by larger blogs with many contributors publishing multiple articles a day, across many categories.

This means also that some categories are stagnant. Unless I post something new, the front page always shows that article for that category. If you want to see all of StarbucksMelody’s articles in blogging format, you have to click on the “Latest” category.

Some categories rarely change. I intentionally almost never disturb the 1912 Pike Place category because I want people to read the old history of 1912 Pike Place Starbucks.

Other front page categories include:

Starbucks Test Products

Frappuccino

Coffee Education

Starbucks History Lessons

The Roastery

Separately, I have an entire blog about Teavana, called TeavanaMelody.com.

What is Melody looking for in a guest blog post?

I’m looking for something that is anywhere from 500 to 2,000 words that fits squarely in one of those above 6 categories. (Starbucks Test Products, Frappuccino, Coffee Education, Starbucks History Lessons, the Roastery, and Teavana.) It has to be well written. For example, maybe you are in a city testing the Milk Chocolate Mocha. I would LOVE an article on that. Or maybe you want to talk about your favorite core or Reserve coffee – it could be that you’re an expert on Breakfast Blend. Maybe you want to write about your favorite Frappuccino creation. I personally find it a challenge to write about Frappuccinos because I’m not even a huge fan of them.

You must include at least one high resolution photo to accompany your article. Please do not send the photo separately from your article submission.

I recognize this isn’t easy. I’m not looking for photos of your mug collection, Bearista collection, or photos of your neighborhood store.

Email me at Melody@StarbucksMelody.com if you want to guest blog for me. The perks for you? If you do have a blog, I’ll link to you, which is a benefit to you. If I publish your article, I’ll send you a $50 Roastery card. I recommend that you email me to at least run an article idea by me, if this is something you are interested in.

I know this isn’t easy. Seriously doubt I’ll get any takers.

There you have it.