If you’re a travel writer, a lifestyle blogger, or simply someone who’s recently completed an amazing adventure and wants to share it with the rest of the world, this is the perfect opportunity for you!
Little Family Adventure is looking for storytellers and contributors who can write well, and have interesting stories or ideas that they’d like to share with our readers. You’ll be read by millions of people each year, so that’s pretty fantastic!
Overview
Before you read any further, please be sure that our guest writer program is for you:
Writers must have first-hand experience with the topics and/or destinations they pitch.
We are looking for writers to cover family-friendly topics and destinations that they have personally experienced. In particular, we are looking for people who can write about authentic experiences with places, activities, events, hotels, etc, and offer advice to fellow travelers and family adventurers. If you haven’t traveled to the places or done the activities that you’re writing about, then it’s unlikely that we will accept your pitch.
Types of Articles We’re Looking For
Little Family Adventure is a place for families to learn about family travel, outdoor recreation, and food.
We want articles about off-the-beaten-path vacation ideas, inspiring destinations, family travel tips, advice on the best way to tour/hike/eat through/see a region, unique attractions, your experience (hiking, camping, kayaking, climbing, snorkeling, scuba diving, skiing, biking…) in a specific location, etc.
We like articles that inform, offer “something new”, and inspire our readers to book their next vacation or experience. We prefer long-form content with a minimum of 1500 words.
Original Material Ony
We accept original material only. Articles cannot be published elsewhere and must be exclusive to Little Family Adventure.
What’s in it for you?
You’ll be able to share your stories with readers around the world. Our readers are parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles who loves to travel, eat adventurously, and be outdoors with their family. So it goes without saying that you’ll have exposure to an enormous audience!
We do not pay our contributing writers. If you are a blogger and are interested in a do-follow backlink from us, we can link back to relevant, related articles on your blog.
This opportunity is only for fellow adventurous adults, bloggers, and writers who want to convey their amazing experiences and stories to our audience.
We’re excited to be able to help budding writers, professional travel writers, and travel bloggers by offering them the opportunity to publish content on Little Family Adventure! In addition, we are excited to publish stories from non-writers and fellow travelers who simply want experiences outside of their personal social media pages.
If you are a business seeking do-follow links
But if you are a business or reaching out on behalf of a client looking for a do-follow link to their site, that’s a sponsored post, and we do NOT offer link insertion into old content or publish sponsored posts that aren’t written by us. Emails asking for rates on link insertion or publishing prewritten content will not get a response from us. Sorry, but also, not sorry.
If you are a company with a marketing budget interested in partnering with us to publish an article about your brand or product, please head over to our Partnership page.
We don’t accept the majority of proposals we receive.
We receive a large number of proposals, and only accept a small fraction for publication. Unfortunately, unless we’ve decided to go ahead with your proposal, you won’t hear from our editorial staff.
We welcome regular contributors who want to submit on a consistent basis, or those who have been referred by a past contributor. If you’re a new author, we hope you’ll bear with us and understand that we can’t accept your proposal right now.
We may edit your post to best suit our audience.
We need to ensure that our articles are correctly positioned with respect to the material we generate and write ourselves — the stuff that keeps our readers coming back for more. This implies that your finished article may differ somewhat from the one you submitted to us before publication. We avoid this by providing comments and doing all we can to give you a clear idea of what we’re looking for before your work is accepted.
We may add recommendations based on what we know is the best fit for our readers as well as for search engine optimization.
What We’re Looking For
We are an active family lifestyle and travel website. Our definition of “family” isn’t limited to “young children and parents” – we welcome submissions from writers who have valuable information to share with “big/little” siblings, traveling with teens, multi-generation families, skip-get (grandparents traveling grandchildren), empty nesters with grown children, families who are active/on the go, etc.
We try really hard to feature posts that will appeal to a variety of ages and interests: we want writing that is entertaining, educational, and accessible. We’re not looking for overly academic, dry, stuffy pieces!
So when it comes to your submission, your voice and the depth of the information you share is key!
Destinations We Are Interested in
We are now accepting submissions for destinations in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe.
We are open to pitches for anyplace in the United States, but we’re focusing on content about:
- Texas
- US State Parks
- Oklahoma
- California
- Florida
- Utah
- Montana
- Minnesota
- Wisconsin
- New England
- US National Parks
- Colorado
- Arizona
- Alabama
Topics & Types of Posts We Are Looking For
Here are the types of posts that we’re currently accepting:
- Day trips & Weekend getaways in/near major US cities: What are some of the most interesting locations to visit near a big city? What are the hidden gems that our readers shouldn’t miss. How can you encourage readers to get out and explore these areas. Here’s an example.
- Local’s Guides: Tell us all about your city! What should we do and see, where should we stay, what should we eat, and what insider secrets do you have that only locals would know.
- Best hikes in a city, state, or region: What are the best trails for taking in some amazing scenery, see local wildlife, or to get in a workout. We want to know why you think these are the best hikes for an active vacation. Here’s an example on Utah trails.
- Ideas for family road trips: What are your favorite destinations, great stops along the way, and attractions or activities that the kids will love? Do you have any must-see spots?
- Vacation rentals and campgrounds: We’d love to hear about the holiday homes, cabins, or campground you adore, their experiences with them, and why they’re such a fantastic recreational option for families. Include information like how many bedrooms/ bathrooms it has and where it is (region or town), whether there are kitchen appliances or not, what the facilities include, and so on, Here is an example of an all-inclusive resort in St. Lucia.
- Family Adventures: We’re searching for articles that include creative suggestions for doing fun family activities together in or around your city or state. Have you ever gone on an exciting outdoor excursion with your children? Did you and your kids all come up with an innovative notion that has turned into a family tradition? Here’s an example of a post about fantastic things to do in Oklahoma City as a family.
- Road Trip itineraries: Create the perfect road trip through your state, with details for each day about what to see, do, eat, and where to sleep. Here’s an example.
Submission Guidelines
See something on the list that you can write about? This is what a submission for Little Family Adventure needs:
- Your post idea should be relevant to our readers who are family travelers who enjoy getting outside. Your message should be something that our readers are interested in. Spend a few minutes browsing our site to get an idea of what we offer. Note: We may be a family travel and lifestyle blog, but we promote all types of adventures and vacation idea from budget friendly camping to all-inclusive Caribbean resorts.
- Your blog post should be informative. Our tagline is “No Child Left Inside.” So readers may not be interested in day trip ideas where all there is to do is sit by the pool or go shopping. Your post should inspire someone to get out and explore the world around them. Whatever you write about, make sure it covers all of the angles and doesn’t leave any unanswered questions for your audience to look for on their own.
- Your blog post should answer “why?” Why, after reading your post, should someone take a trip to the location or do the acitivity you’re writing about? We love facts and personal stories, but ultimately we want to know why we should spend our time, money, and energy on your topic.
If we love your pitch, we’ll be looking for a piece that follows these guidelines. We might request a few edits before we’re ready to publish your post on our site.
- At least 1,500 words
- Your post will need to be built around a competitive keyword. Before you start writing, we’ll work with you to determine a specific keyword based on your pitch that you’ll then design your post around. We will also provide you with a keyword outline. Please don’t start writing your post until we’ve provided you with a keyword, topic, and outline, and please don’t agree to write a post for us if you aren’t comfortable following our outline!
- A short bio about yourself. Our readers want to be introduced to you, so give them a little bio with some context about who you are and what makes you a destination or experience expert! Your bio will appear at the bottom of the article. Feel free to plug your social media, website, or blog in here as well.
- Include relevant links to other sites. If you list a business or attraction in your post, you MUST include a link to their website (or a TripAdvisor review, or some other relevant link). You should be providing enough relevant information to need lots of relevant links! Links should not be to a competitor’s site or another unrelated third party.
- You may include links to shops and products. You may link to locations where our visitors can conveniently purchase the goods you discuss in your article. For example, if you discussed a certain type of travel equipment in your post, readers might like to go to a website and buy it from there. If we’re an affiliate for that brand or site, we’ll replace our affiliate link with one that earns
- Include photos, either sourced or your own unedited photos. Your post should contain plenty of pictures. We love travel pictures, especially when they help illustrate your points. We will provide proper image credit. Our preferred sizes are 1000×667 and 1500×3000 in PNG or JPEG format.
- Make sure your photos are a good fit for the subject of your post and visually appealing – their purpose is to help people understand a location through pictures. We’ll need you to find copyright-free stock images if this is something you’re not big on or don’t have any photographs for your article (and we’ll assist with that process if necessary).
- You’ll work with us through 2 rounds of edits. Our editorial team is committed to helping you perfect your work so that it meets Little Family Adventure’s standards. You’ll know exactly what to modify and why. Working through the editing process with us is our objective: to assist you in learning and even improving your writing abilities!
Things to Avoid When you Travel Write for Us
Do you want a better chance of your idea being accepted? Here are a few things we look for that cause us to side-eye and hover our mouse over the “delete” button. Please avoid these in your presentation and proposal!
- Activities that aren’t unique to your destination. Whether you’re proposing a restaurant, museum, or trip, make sure it’s unique to your location. Please avoid suggesting non-local chains, and please refrain from proposing something generic like a skating rink or zoo unless the location or is distinct and well-known in your destination, such as the San Diego Wild Animal Park or Central Park in New York City.
- The phrase “truly something for everyone.” Don’t tell us how your destination is for everyone. We don’t want that! Tell us how it’s perfect for OUR READERS specifically. (Little Family Adventure readers = women ages 24-54. They are interested in family travel, cruises, theme parks, soft adventure, unique experiences, outdoor recreation, and foodie travel.) So, if you catch yourself typing the phrase “something for everyone,” immediately delete it and rewrite that sentence.
- The phrase “if you’re searching for” or “if you want” is used. Assume that our readers are unfamiliar with the term “microblogging” and have no idea what they’re looking for or what they want. That’s where you come in: your duty is to tell them precisely what they should do in a certain location, not what they want to do. You are the expert; be confident in your suggestions!
Send Us a Pitch!
Have an idea? We want to hear it! You can pitch us using the form below.
We prefer receiving drafts as a shared Google document rather than a single PDF, and we’d want you to create a shared Google Drive folder for your photos even better! You may include those in the body of your email.
Here’s what to expect when you email us:
- If your pitch is a good fit, our editorial team will be in touch to let you know we’d like to move forward. We will provide you with a keyword and an outline to create your post around. Please make sure your post fits this keyword and the outline we’ve provided, otherwise, we won’t be able to publish it.
- Our editorial staff will go through 1-2 rounds of edits to ensure that your post is suitable for our needs. We won’t be able to move forward if your article isn’t where we need it by round 2. If we don’t intend on publishing your piece, we try to avoid making you jump through hoops, but please keep in mind that our turnaround time is usually about 5-7 business days.
- After you’re finished with your edits, sit back and relax! We are hard at work putting the finishing touches on your post. We’ll be in touch when it’s live, and you can share it with everyone you know 😉
- After the post is published, it will be up forever and ever. Chances are we’ll be going into edit it regularly to keep things up to date. Spot an inaccuracy or want us to make a change? We can’t make any promises, but please just let us know and we’ll do our best!
Please keep in mind that we will do our best to limit edits to your post as much as possible, but we reserve the right to make changes consistent with the tone, voice, or narrative flow of your message in order to meet our site’s requirements. Before making any changes ourselves, we’ll usually ask you for input.
Oh, and there’s one more thing: once you’ve written a post for us, you can’t re-post it anywhere else, even on your own website.
What’s next? Okay—I believe we’ve covered everything. Still with us? Yes! We’re excited to read your pitch!
