Review Requirements
Thank you for having an interest in writing for beachaddiction.com! We are looking for people like you to help us get this website off the ground. At the moment, we cannot offer anything in return for your time except an email address and a sincere “Thank You!” We will be incorporating an author bio page and blog for each of our writers in the near future. Once the site starts gaining advertisers and revenue, we will begin to pay for the reviews you write. The only problem is, we cant get revenue until we get visitors…we can’t get visitors until we have content. Our plan is to eventually contract with hotels, resorts, restaurants, surf shops, and the like to offer our readers discounts and possibly even a greater discount for reviewers. We have BIG plans for beachaddiction.com. It may take a while, but with your help, we can get the ball rolling sooner.
Overview. Beachaddiction.com offers its readers something that most other sites do not: honesty. We will only post pictures taken by our writers and will only post beach reviews written by people who have been to the beach and can offer a word picture of the beach and what makes it unique. Our goal is to offer the most extensive beach review website on the internet to give our readers one-stop-shopping for beach reviews for every public beach access in the world (yes, we have big aspirations!), though that might take some time!
If you would like to become a reviewer for beachaddiction.com, please register with us then email us and tell us why. We know that the following requirements seem long, but it really boils down to: we want honest reviews and pictures of the beach. Please take a moment and read below.
Requirements. We require all reviews to include the following:
- The Review. The review should be the first thing the reader sees and should offer a word picture of the beach you are reviewing. Be honest! If the beach is dirty or unkempt, tell us that! If the beach is more broken shells than sand making it uncomfortable to walk on, that is something our readers want to know! If it is overly crowded, making it hard to find a place to settle, say so, but if this is the case, please comment on the day of week and time of your visit so the reader can try to gauge the crowd. For example, most beaches are more crowded on Saturday at 2:00 pm than they are at 9:00 am on a Wednesday! Tell us why this beach is unique. Ideas for things to write about are water clarity, sand color, amenities offered, number of shark teeth you found (if that is something you did), length of time it took you to walk from your car to the water…literally everything you think is important or would make a reader visit or not visit this access. Try to avoid commenting on the actions of the other beach patrons, as this will change from day to day. However, if the beach is overran by unsavory individuals, that might be something to mention. Use your best judgment. Try to think about the things you would like to read about if you were using beachaddiction.com to select your next beach trip. That is, after all, the our goal…to give our readers a means to choose which beach they are going to take their family to on their vacation. Nothing is quite as irritating as going to the beach on vacation only to find out later on that there was a much nicer beach just down the road.
- Pictures. Pictures of the beach you are reviewing from the following angles are required and should be added after the review in the following order:
- Parking. Try to get the whole lot in the picture. If necessary, take pictures from different angles. If there is no parking available, this requirement may be omitted, but the review MUST state there is no parking available. Available parking is defined by beachaddiction.com as parking spaces available to the public where the closest spot is within reasonable walking distance. Keep in mind, most beach patrons are usually carrying quite a load (i.e. cooler, beach umbrella, beach chairs, mats, fishing equipment, children, etc.) If the walk to and from the closest parking spot is a good distance, be sure to put a comment in your review.
- The Walk. The walk is the path/trail/bridge that takes you from one side of the dune to the other. Try to get a picture that shows as much of the walk as possible. If the walk is long or scenic, try to get shots that show the reader the whole thing. If you are at an open beach (no dune, going straight from parking/street directly to the sand, try to get a shot that compliments the beach, yet shows the open walk (i.e. pictures with trash cans/dumpsters are not flattering).
- The Beach. The beach shot should be taken from the end of the walk. Try to get a shot that visibly shows the end of the walk along with as much of the sand and water as possible. If you are at an open beach, this picture can be omitted.
- Beach Left. Take a picture from the end of the walk facing left to show the reader what the beach looks like from that public access walking to the left from the walk. If you are at an open beach, the picture should be taken while standing in the sand and should show more beach than parking/street.
- Beach Right. The same as Beach Left, except for facing right from the end of the walk.
- Additional Pictures. Try to get shots of things that make the beach you are at unique. If there is a bench or a picnic table, get pictures of them. If there is a lifeguard, try to give the reader a feel for where it is located on the beach from where the walk ends. If there is a pier, try to get angles that give the reader a feel for what the pier looks like. If possible, get shots from the pier looking left and right down the beach. Anything that you think is picture worthy, don’t hesitate to include it.
- Categories. The categories are set up in a way that you shoulld be able to select at least one of the subcategories from each of the main category headings. The exception is the Amenities category. Not every public beach access offers one of the subcategories listed. You MUST select all that apply. For example, every review should include multiple subcategories from the Parking list. the exception being if there is no parking available. If there is parking available, our readers want to know if it is paid or free…if there are 1-10 spaces available or if there are 51+. We do not expect you to count every space. Your best guess is fine.
Thank you for taking the time to read this through. We look forward to hearing from you. And as always…happy beach day!!
This page was last updated on September 27, 2009.