Become a blogger – win this Leatherman

CONTACT has a Blog Spot where fans and budding writers can air their thoughts and scratch a writing itch – and maybe win a Leatherman in the process (competition closes 10 March 2017).

We invite Guest Bloggers with military leanings to contribute on a regular, semi-regular or one-off basis to the CONTACT Blog Spot.

And this time, we have a Leatherman Skeletool RX Rescue valued at $184 to give away as a prize to the best blog received before midnight on 10 March 2017.

Anyone can be a blogger – but, you must be 18 or older to win the Leatherman – AND you must be a subscriber to our YouTube Channel (growing this audience is our number one New Year’s Resolution).

The winner will be chosen by CONTACT staff, judged on writing style, readability and entertainment or information value. The winning blog will simply and subjectively be “our favourite” – and no arguments or objections will be entertained – unless they are entertaining.

 

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Competition now closed:

And the winner was Peter Rewko of Beaudesert, Queensland, for this entry… A Matter of Perspective

Thank you and well done to everyone else who entered.

You are still welcome to ‘blog’ for us, even if there’s currently no prize (except the kudos and bragging rights of the ‘by line’).

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What to write:

Essentially, what we’re looking for is anything and everything – even poetry (see caveat below)! – that may be relevant or interesting to the CONTACT audience, which is 97% over 18, 95% male and 79% military experienced.

It doesn’t have to be ‘about’ military stuff – just relevant or interesting to a military audience.

There are no deadlines. This is an open invitation to anyone who wants to write for the CONTACT web site. You can write when you want – and as long or as short as you want – fact, fiction, satire, comedy, educational – even games, movies, cars, bikes or product reviews.

You can be a hobbyist individual or represent a company with a product to sell (though we do have strict rules/guidelines covering the latter category).

You can write whenever you want and contribute as often (or a little) as you like.

 

The Rules:

We reserve the right to edit or ‘polish’ your words (if required) before we publish them. We also reserve the right to refuse to publish. In either case, we may offer feedback and advice. Then again, if it’s beyond help, we might not 🙂

Rest assured, we are pretty good at editing/polishing submissions without wrecking your message or intent. Most editing is mainly just spelling and grammar etc anyway, but we do also look out for and delete or reject anything that’s racist, sexist, abusive, slanderous, libellous, ranting, overly negative, immoral or illegal (including breaches of copyright, privacy, defamation etc etc), and blatantly commercial/advertorial. These are our ‘rules’.

However, if you are ‘precious’ about your writing, you must let us know in advance – but be warned that if you bar us from editing your words, the chances of rejection are greatly increased. It’s our web site and our reputation, which we will defend aggressively.

 

What else?

We would also like you to submit (though it is not compulsory) a short biography and ‘selfie’ with your first submission. This will be included at the end of each of your blogs, just so the audience knows who’s talking to them.

It would also be helpful if you could supply at least one supporting photo with each blog – or point us in the direction of a photo on the Internet that we’d be allowed to use (i.e. copyright free). This is not essential, however – if you can’t supply, we’ll find or design something relevant or generic.

As a guide, blogs can be anything from 50 to 500 words (see more than 80 samples already published in our Blog Spot – less than half of which were written by me).

If we accept your submission for publication, we will publish it as soon as we can. That’s usually within hours. However, sometimes (but rarely) it could be up to 72 hours after submission, depending on how busy we are.

If you have any questions or concerns about any of this – and if we have not scared you off already – we look forward to receiving your first submission.

BTW – this competition is also open to all our ‘lapsed’ Guest Bloggers too. We’d love to see you active again 🙂

 

SUBMISSIONS:

Submissions for this competition (and all future blogging) should be sent to editor@militarycontact.com

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Poetry caveat:

Poets be warned that I, Brian Hartigan, CONTACT Editor, only like ‘good’ poetry – whatever that means!

Poetry, like art, is a very subjective thing.

Some people like one style, others like a completely different style. And while one particular poem might stink in one reader’s opinion, it could be awesome in someone else’s.

I have always found it very hard – and it’s sometimes hurtful for both parties – to tell a passionate poet that I don’t like his work.

Because I’m a coward in this regard, CONTACT has, up to now, had a blanket ban on poetry – a ‘rule’ I actually learnt at ARMY Newspaper.

But now I’m lifting that ban.

If I haven’t already offended you, you are more than welcome to contribute your poems to the CONTACT Blog Spot – where you will be published in our new “Poet’s Corner”.

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