Guest Post Guidelines

Submit A Guest post – Guidelines for Fishbowl Family

Are you interested in being featured on Fishbowl Family?

We love hosting other pastor’s wives on our website, however, we do have a few guidelines we ask our contributors to follow. But first, we think it’s important for you to know why we write.

Why We Write

We write to know that we are not alone. As isolating as being married to a man in vocational ministry can feel, we are not alone. And I don’t just mean in the way that Jesus is with you always. There is an entire community of women working alongside their husbands to minister to the church.

Sometimes that is incredibly rewarding. Sometimes it is exhausting.

We write so that we can share the lessons and laughter of this journey that we are on together.

Our community needs your voice.

(Plus we pay our writers! Keep reading to find out more about our compensation schedule.)

Guest Post Guidelines

Write for Our Target Audience

Our target audience is women who are married to pastors. They can be Youth, Children’s, NextGen, KidsMin, Executive, Associate, Senior, Teaching, or whatever word you want to put before the word “pastor.” What matters to us is that they are married to a man that has surrendered his life to vocational ministry. While being a lay leader has its own stresses and problems, they’re not the same as the burdens that families in vocational ministry face.

Our target audience isn’t the woman who is completely comfortable in her role as a pastor’s wife. She is the wife who sometimes (or often) questions why in the world God would call her to be the wife of a pastor because she totally doesn’t feel cut out for it. She is a pastor’s wife who is trying her best but is tired. She loves her husband and church fiercely but wants to run away from it all some days.

Our goal is to solve the real problems that all pastor’s wives face. For example:

What does every pastor’s wife need to know about pastor suicide?

What can pastor’s wives do with their kids after church when every church member wants to talk to her and her kids are running wild?

Do pastors need to tithe on housing allowance?

Give Real Solutions – Not Platitudes

It is very important to us that when women come to our site, they leave with real applicable information.

We are all capable of reading uplifting devotionals and Christian books. We know that we need to trust God in the waiting, pray without ceasing, and stay grounded in the Word. Our readers need a solution to their problem from someone who has already walked the road they are traveling.

We ask that each post includes a personal struggle and some type of solution. Please don’t choose a topic that hasn’t been a struggle for you or that you don’t have a solution for. We will reject posts that are just platitudes about how we should pray harder, love others, and wait on God’s timing. We all know to do those things. We need to know how to actually be hospitable if we’re an introverted pastor’s wife.

We prefer posts that are formatted like this:

Intro – relatable, engaging story.

1-3 reasons why your topic is a problem that needs to be solved.

(At least) Three ways to solve the problem.

Conclusion

Content Must Be Original & Exclusive

We ask that posts are a minimum of 1,000 words and original content that is published exclusively on Fishbowl Family. If you have your own blog or website we will gladly link back to your site, but Google dings sites for duplicate content, so it will hurt us both to repost the article on another site.

Engage and Share

If accepted, all guest bloggers are required to share the article with at least one social media channel and respond to comments.

Post Ideas

Tips/tricks/hacks for being a pastor’s wife

Marriage tips for ministry

Raising the pastor’s kids

Balancing family and ministry

Money tips for ministry life

Self-care for pastor’s wives

Solutions for specific church-related problems i.e. training volunteers, nursery renovation, dealing with difficult church members, etc.

Best books/podcasts/Bible studies for pastor’s wives

**** This list is by no means exhaustive. We know that there are many, many more things that need to be addressed to help pastors’ wives. If you have an original post idea, shoot us an email! We can work together to make sure it’s a great fit for our audience.

Compensation Schedule

For each submitted post that meets our guidelines, standards, and theology, we will pay you an initial $25 payment. We will then pay you a $10 bonus for every 1,000 views your post receives in the first 90 days. (So if your post gets 5,000 views, we’ll pay you a $50 bonus!!)

Want to connect with other pastors’ wives? Join our exclusive Facebook group at:

Wife in the Fishbowl

We look forward to hearing from you!

Still not sure?

Here are some frequently asked questions.

Do I have to have a blog to guest post?

Nope! We accept posts from all pastor’s wives. You may not have a designated platform of your own to share your wisdom, so feel free to use the Fishbowl Family as a way to help other pastor’s wives.

Can I post anonymously?

Of course! We understand that the personal nature of some content may not be something you want everyone at your church/in your family/on Facebook/etc to know. That’s fine. We’ll post your article anonymously and wave the social sharing requirements.

Can I write more than one article?

Sure! If you’ve got a couple of things you’d like to write about, that’s great! In fact, we have a select few spots available for regular contributors. If this is something you’re interested in, let us know. We’re looking for a couple of women who write in a way that resonates with our audience and who consistently write great content that solves our readers’ problems.

What if I’m not a seasoned pastor’s wife?

That’s okay! Do you have a story you’d like to tell or some advice that will help others? If so, we don’t care how many years you’ve held the pastor’s wife title. We just want women who want to encourage and help other pastor’s wives to share their wisdom.

What if I’m not a good writer?

Well, first of all, you’re probably a lot better than you’re giving yourself credit for. But, if grammar isn’t your thing, don’t worry! It’s mine. I taught English for six years and am a pro at editing. We will work together to make sure that your article conveys the exact message you want it to and follows all the millions of writing rules we have in English.

Do I need to make images for my post?

Nope! We’ll handle all the social media graphics to make sure they match our brand. If you have a personal photo you’d like to include that will strengthen your article, we’ll be more than happy to include it. 🙂

Want to join our Facebook group just for pastors’ wives?

Check it out at Wife in the Fishbowl. It’s filled with curated content and encouragement for the problems we face in ministry life.

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