Exciting Changes at Eden Journal and an Invitation to Guest Post

I’m excited to announce some upcoming changes here at Eden Journal.  Up to this point I have been the sole author and writer at Eden Journal.  This has been a great experience for me and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.  One of the greatest things about starting a blog has been all the other people I have met through my online interactions.  I gotten to know many great people and I read many great blogs on a daily basis.  In fact, there is so much great content out there that I am following nearly one hundred blogs in my RSS reader.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the future direction of Eden Journal.  My feeling is that I want to continue writing, but I also want to open up Eden Journal to allow others to share their voices as well.  I have decided to open up and let Eden Journal start living up to its full potential by opening the doors for guest posts. I’m not talking just a couple of guest posts to fill in the time between my posts.  I’m talking about a full on guest post bonanza.  I want to become a gateway for others to share their thoughts.  I want to become a portal through which more and more people can discover your writing and your blogs.

The Challenges

I have a few challenges to making Eden Journal a center for amazing articles and a portal for your blogs.

First and foremost, I need your guest posts.  I need you to write some wonderful and thought provoking articles to be posted here at Eden Journal.  Consider this your invitation to write a guest post at Eden Journal.

The second challenge is something I’ve been giving a lot of thought.  Many of the guest posts I’ve seen are what I would call mediocre.  They are often a rehashing of existing work and sometimes just plain boring.  The bottom line is that the guest posts I often see don’t cause me to think.  One of the core principles here at Eden Journal is to Think.  We spend enough of our day performing mundane tasks or thinking for others.  We need some time to think for ourselves.  I want Eden Journal to be a catalyst to your thinking, by providing you topics to ponder and challenge many of your ideas that have settled in over time.  The second challenge is actually a challenge for you; it’s your chance to put some good though into an article and to spark some ideas or spur some thoughts in our wonderful readers.  It’s a challenge for you to submit some of your best content to share here at Eden Journal.

The Rewards

I want to provide value to anyone that chooses to share a guest post here.  The typical reward is the increased traffic to your own blog.  I hope to provide this in the long term.  I expect the traffic reward will be small during my upcoming growth phase.  Over time this will increase and I hope to eventually send hundreds or thousands of people to visit your own blog after reading a guest post here.

During the growth phase, I’m also offering an additional incentive.  For anyone that submits a guest post here, I’ll give you free ad space in the side bar.  These ads will be in a rotation and will stay in place for 30 days from the day your guest article is posted.  You are free to advertise anything you wish in these spots.  You can include a link to your blog, link to your own products, or links to your affiliate products.  For each guest post that is approved for posting, you will receive an ad in the rotation.  So if you get three articles approved, you’ll get three ads in the rotation.  This offer is good through July 31, 2011, at which time I’ll evaluate the progress and either discontinue, extend, or modify the free ad promotion.

How to Submit an Article

I cover all the details on submitting an article on my newly created “Submit an Article” page.  Read through the info in that link and you’ll be on your way to joining the Eden Journal community.

A Specials Message to the Readers of Eden Journal

I hope the readers are as excited about the potential as I am.  I will still be writing here, so you’ll see my posts mixed in among a bunch of fantastic posts from other top notch personal growth / personal development bloggers.  The whole process has already started, and in addition to my open invitation in this post I’m personally inviting a number of my favorite bloggers.  So far I have one definite confirmation by Josh Hanagarne of World’s Strongest Librarian.  I plan to start the guest posts next week, and Josh will be the first.

I hope you are as excited about these changes as I am.  I’d love to hear what you think in the comments section.

This post was written by...

Eric Watermolen – who has written 187 posts on Eden Journal.

Eric is the founder of Eden Journal. He loves blogging about personal growth and desires to make a small difference in the world by providing a platform for bloggers to share ideas on a wide range of topics from personal development to spiritual and philosophical awakenings.