Five Things to Know About Blogging for Patch

Things change fast on Cranberry Patch. Until now, we've primarily been a news operation with our staff and freelancers writing for us. Starting today, we're hoping to add a new voice to the site: yours.

Do you have something to say about life in the Cranberry area or news to spread? Do you need a forum for your community group? Do you want to teach something? Are you eager to share your views? Read on and see if a Cranberry Patch blog is right for you

1. What is a Cranberry Patch Blog?: We don't have a lot of set rules about what we're looking for in a blog outside of this: It's just got to be interesting to Cranberry area residents. Maybe you're talking about our local politics. Maybe you're spreading news about community projects. Maybe you're the local authority on golf, gardening, children or pets. If Cranberry area residents feel more plugged into their community after reading your blog, you've hit the nail on the head.

2. You Need to Know What Kind of Blogs We're Looking For: Well, just about anything, if there's a local hook. Got perspective on how the community's changed over the years? Want a place to showcase your cool photos from around town? Need a de-facto online newsletter for your community group? Got favorite recipes to share or books to recommend? All of those sound like contenders to us.

3. You Need to Know What We Consider Responsible: Opinions are awesome, particularly well-thought-out ones, backed up with facts. Personal insults, unfounded claims and defamation aren't what we're looking for. When opinions get strong and contentious, it's not always clear where the fine lines are drawn, but we're more than happy to help guide you through those murky waters, and as long as your intention is to keep things above-board, we're happy to have you on the site.

4. You Need to Know We're Paying in Gratitude: You might get fame but not fortune from your Cranberry Patch blog. Here's the deal: It's your voice, and it's free. You get to put your ideas on a site that's serving as a community hub, where more and more people will have the opportunity to discover your ideas all the time. We're part of the Huffington Post Media Group, which means we might occasionally be able to put your submission in front of an even bigger audience. You can write as often (or as infrequently) as you'd like, though we'd love it if you’d come back again and again.

5. You Need to Know You'll Have a Lot of Freedom: We see our coming blogs as a bit different than our staff- and freelancer-produced content. We don't expect to do a lot of heavy editing. We'll be keeping an eye out for anything inappropriate and try to cultivate an atmosphere that's constructive, with a lot of diverse views aired in useful ways, but we're not planning to do a lot of line-by-line tweaking of your material. If we've got a serious concern with a submission, we'll let you know. Other than that, it's your words coming through, not ours.

If that sounds good to you, e-mail jessica.sinichak@patch.com today, and we'll get talking about how to make it happen. If you've got a sample of the type of writing you'd like to do, send it along as well.