Guest Blogging
We’re always looking for good storytellers and want to hear from you if you’re a UT employee and interested in sharing your expertise or personal experiences. Researchers, teachers, parents, survivors—we all have something to share. Diversity in backgrounds, perspectives, writing styles and individual characteristics is encouraged. Take a look at the editorial calendar and guidelines and reach out if you have any questions.
2018 Editorial Calendar
We’re always accepting proposals and posts but publish according to an editorial calendar. Below are some topics we hope to inspire you. If you’ve got a story to share but don’t see it on the list, make a suggestion. We’ll find room!
| Month | Seeking Blogs by Topic | Submission Deadline |
| January | Diversity, leadership, warm beverages, ways to stay fit when it’s cold, new beginnings, simple indoor workouts, how to stay motivated, goal setting, starting up | Jan. 29 |
| February | American Heart Month, creative romance, library lovers, healthy snack foods, cozy retreats, stress relievers, depression, anxiety, the skinny on chocolate | Feb. 26 |
| March | Fantastic frozen foods, crafting, caffeine, life-long learning, rainy day exercise, spring activities, self-evaluation, organizing tips, nutrition, detox your life | March 26 |
| April | Healthy smoothies, gardening, humor, new ways to stay active at work, music appreciation, autism awareness, spring cleaning tips, graduation, fresh food | April 23 |
| May | Healthy barbecue options, cutting your sugar intake, dangers of the industrial chemical BPA, arthritis, biking, family board games, end-of-school activities, summer camps for kids, sleep deprivation, skin care, juice cleanses | May 28 |
| June | Zika virus, national cancer survivors day, seasonal allergies, headaches, camping, making the perfect ice tea, summer activities, vitamin D, facts about lightning and lightning safety, 30-minute exercise routines | June 25 |
| July | Water safety, skin cancer, cleanses, hydration, teeth whitening, biking, postpartum depression, happiness, dating after divorce, photography, alternate work schedules, screen time for children, organization, caring for aging parents, summer reading | July 27 |
| August | Vaccines, strength training for your brain, concentration, clean eating, bad breath, vegetable and herb gardening, couponing, stress management | Aug. 27 |
| September | Childhood obesity, infertility, heart attack, microwave facts/safety, ergonomic workstations, stress reduction, weekend getaways, relationships, fall foliage, crock pot cooking, health insurace | Sept. 24 |
| October | Best snacks and recipes for kids, breast cancer, sugar, fighting fatigue, flu season, LASIK surgery, supporting a spouse with dementia, volunteering, canning and preserving | Oct. 29 |
| November | Diabetes, weight gain during the holidays, quitting smoking, veterans, division of household chores, genealogy, adoption, Alzheimer’s, | Nov. 26 |
| December | Superfoods, winter exercise, back pain, seasonal affective disorder, budgeting, holidays, gift giving, retirement living, goal setting | Dec. 16 |
You’re encouraged to interpret these themes as broadly as you’d like.
For instance, posts about breast cancer could include personal survival stories, tips for caregivers and new research findings. Posts about exercise could include reviews of new gadgets, advice on deciding between team sports for children and experiences using adaptive equipment from employees with different abilities.
Guest Blogging Guidelines
- The blog’s purpose is twofold: to share information that will help UT employees reach their physical and mental health and work-life balance goals and to create a system-wide community for learning from and supporting one another. Please keep this in mind when dreaming up ideas for posts.
- Guest bloggers must be UT employees, graduate or Ph.D. students, on the recommendation of a faculty member.
- Posts must be original, meaning that you haven’t and won’t publish them anywhere else. Promoting and linking to posts published by Work Healthy UT are fine.
- Posts must fall into one of three categories:
* Health promotion (physical activity, healthy eating and tobacco cessation)
* Work-life balance
* Mental health - There’s no required word count for submitted posts, but please be mindful of what makes a good read: personal insight or experience, passion, good writing, useful takeaways and photos. A recommended range is 400 to 700 words. For longer posts, consider a series, subsections and bulleted lists.
- Always display civility and respect.
- Properly attribute data, quotations and other third-party content referenced.
- Save self-promotion for your bio and location-specific events for campus calendars.
- Stay engaged by responding to reader comments and questions.
Submitting Proposals and Posts
All posts will be reviewed and only those that help achieve the blog’s purpose will be published. You can either submit a proposal or a completed post for consideration.
Your bio (maximum of 100 words) should explain who you are as a person—your interests, priorities, expertise, etc. Take a look at the bios already featured on the blog if you have any questions.
Images must be uploaded separately as .jpg files and must be properly credited if taken by someone else. If you don’t submit a photo, we’ll find one to be used as a feature image.
Please upload a headshot to accompany your bio. Headshots can be professional or casual–that’s up to you.
If your idea or post isn’t the right fit, we’ll let you know why in case you’d like to make some tweaks. If it is accepted, we’ll let you know when it will be published.
Accepted posts will be edited for clarity and AP Style.