Write for Biofortified

Why contribute?

Agriculture and food are important issues, and their public discussion needs people with first-hand knowledge of the science, politics, social issues, ethics, economics, and more. One of the goals of the Biofortified Blog is to give such people the opportunity to write about what they know and what they believe, and know that their thoughts will reach a wide audience. For people that want to learn about these issues, Biofortified offers a unique opportunity to take part in a two-way discussion, and be part of a community of writers and readers that want to give these topics the attention they deserves. For more information, see our Guest Post FAQ, and What to Write About.

Guest Posts

We are always on the lookout for guest posts written by scientists, doctors, farmers, chefs, and anyone else who eats food. This possibility is open to anyone. If you are interested in writing, here’s how it works:

  1. Register for the blog with a valid email address. We strive to keep everything as transparent and open as possible on Biofortified, so make sure to put your real name in your profile. Anonymous guest posts will only be accepted under very special circumstances, contact us for details.
  2. Send us a message on our Contact page with the same email address to let us know that you are interested. Tell us a little about yourself. If you have a website or public profile somewhere, that will help us get to know you. Due to the nature of spam “guest post” requests, we will not reply to any emails that appear spammy. If you are a real person, show it! If you work for a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company, forget about it. We take pride in what we write and publish, and we are not interested in empty filler posts designed to boost the search engine hits for other sites.
  3. We will then upgrade the status of your user account to a Contributor so you can log in and write posts. We prefer to manage guest posts through the blog system, and not by text documents sent via email.
  4. When you have logged in, go to posts on the top left and click on “Add New” to begin. Start writing! If you would like some ideas on what you could write about, see What to Write About. For more information on writing posts in WordPress, consult the Guest Post Tutorial and the WordPress Codex. When adding images, please upload the images and display thumbnails of them instead of “hotlinking” to them on other sites. That way, the images will always display on the page. Make sure to secure permission to use images you want to use in your post. You can also add images from our huge photo album, just look for the blue and pink circles above the editing box.
  5. When you are finished writing your post and making it look the way you want to, make sure you have a Bio paragraph in your profile so that readers can know more about you. This is also a good opportunity to link to your own site or profile so readers can learn more about you or get in touch with you.  Extra points if it is funny!  Here are some good examples: 1 2 3 Or you could go completely serious like these two. Make sure to also add a profile picture for more information on how to do this, please see the Community Tutorial.
  6. You may add tags on the right side of the editing window. There are many commonly used tags which will appear as you write in the tag box, which will help readers find similar posts. It is best to use an already existing tag rather than add a new one that may be synonymous with it. Don’t worry about putting your post in any categories. We are in the process of paring down the long list of categories to just a few. An editor will put it in the right category when they review the post.
  7. You may edit and save your draft(s) to finish them at your leisure. Once a post is complete, just click on the submit button on the right. Send an editor another email to let them know that you have a post ready, and they will review it in short order. Writing a post is not a guarantee that it will be published, but so far all guest posts have made the cut!
  8. Join in on the discussion as people read and respond to your post!

How do I join Biofortified?

This is a group blog, and its strength lies in its regular authors who donate their time to help people learn about the issues involved in plant genetics. If you are an expert in some of these issues and would like to become a regular contributor, consider writing a few guest posts for the blog. If you like it, and we like you, then let us know that you would like to join and we’ll go from there!

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