Types of content we seek

These are the content sites currently open to freelancers:

SheKnows.com
If she wants to know it, we want to cover it! Originality, creativity and interactive twists on more usual topics are encouraged. We really encourage a “how-to, can-do” angle for our articles, by including step-by-step guides, bulleted or numbered lists, related links, checklists, etc. [Visit this site]

Here are some recent articles we especially liked, so you can get a sense of content and feel:

• Fitness that’s fun: The hula hoop revival
• A year of stress-busters: 52 relaxing ideas
• Go on a treasure hunt: A geocaching primer
• 9 reasons why you should have a passport
• Fake a tan year-round: Get a golden glow that’s healthy and beautiful
• White-hot spring and summer fashions

At the moment, we’re most interested buying material on the following topics:

* entertainment/celebrities
* food and cooking, recipes
* beauty and style
* shopping, budgeting, etc.
* love & sex

And then, secondary topics include:

* dating, coupletime and romance
* home decor, improvement & moving
* money, finances & budgeting
* weddings
* travel or destinations
* crafts/hobbies
* womens’ and family health
* diet and fitness

We also want to find people to create fun, interactive quizzes (10 questions, each with 4 possible answers, and five levels of scoring).

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For all sites
When it comes to new articles for our sites, generally, we are looking for information from experts in a variety of fields as well as features written by journalists and others with appropriate writing skills and style. Our content is primarily freelance written.

We like articles that are based on research and interviews, presented with a friendly, accessible approach, and — of course — written for our audience. We are particularly interested in including bullet-pointed five or more item “action lists” to summarize/augment the piece.

Our features run anywhere from 500-1500 words (750 on average), depending on the subject and on a case-by-case basis, and may be serialized.

We are not seeking any fiction, personal essays or opinion pieces at this time.

The best guides for writers are the sites themselves — not just for style and tone, but also because we have have covered a lot of topics over the years (and currently have more than 9000 articles online). So please check them out, and let us know what you think we don’t yet have but should!

We do work with some previously unpublished writers.

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The SheKnows.com site includes these specialized content areas:

* Parenting/Toddler to Teen: Parenting ideas, advice, interactive features and information
* Real Moms’ Guide: Lifestyle and living for women who are also mothers — though not always focusing on parenting

Other network sites…

Pregnancy & Baby
Topics related to preconception, pregnancy and postpartum is the focus here. Again, originality and creativity — even a unique twist on a more typical topic — are encouraged, as we have covered a lot of ground over the years. We are not seeking any additional personal essays or opinion pieces at this time. [Visit this site]

Showing @ PregnancyFashion.com
All about pregnancy style, beauty, wellness — all presented with flair and fun. Think of it as a guide to all the good stuff in pregnancy, and the go-to spot for some real girlfriend-to-girlfriend advice. [Visit this site]

For ChefMom.com
This site offers recipe features, cooking tips and information, nutrition advice and other helpful ideas for the family chef. Various features will be considered, including those including recipes, however, we do not pay for individual recipe submissions. [Visit this site]

GeoParent.com
See “Parenting/Toddler to Teen” under SheKnows.com and also PregnancyAndBaby.com. [Visit this site]

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Article formatting guidelines

Use of symbols
Please, please, please do not use any special formatting or symbol characters — or search and replace them before submitting your work.

What to look for: We specifically do not want “curly” quotation marks and apostrophes (automatically inserted by some word processing programs, although you can disable this replacement feature), fraction symbols (instead use 1/2, 1/4, etc.) ampersands (& to and), ellipses and both en and em dashes. (Please use — for a dash.)

Why? HTML is somewhat limited and displays differently on various systems and browsers, so we like to use only standard ASCII characters that don’t display only as blanks or little black-bordered boxes.

Other formatting issues
Doublespacing: Only one space is needed before a new sentence. Please avoid doublespacing after periods.

Paragraph breaks: Please do not indent any text in your submitted work, and separate paragraphs with a single blank line.

Bullet points: Please use * to signify bulleting.

Emphasis: If italics or bold are needed for emphasis, please use asterisks: “She said that *usually* pregnant women…” We will properly code it before publication.

Lists and commas: We do not use serial commas.

Usage: Some of our punctuation is somewhat European in style. We do not use the period after Dr, Mrs, Mr, etc., or in names (Michael J Fox, Christine S Thompson), or in other abbreviations, preferring MD, CNM, RN, LC, ACOG, etc. Please spell out numbers under 10, except for weights and measures. Please spell out most abbreviations, including pounds, ounces, centimeters. Please spell out all states — we don’t use postal abbreviations (CA, NY, FL) nor do we want AP-style state abbreviations (Calif., Mass.).

One last note: We prefer the word “websites” to the early-Internet “Web sites.” (Even Google agrees with us, suggesting “website” as the corrected spelling of “web site.”)

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