Contributor Program | Trip Pilot

Contributor (BETA) Program

Hi!

Thanks for digging in. We are looking for inspiring individuals to help us build out a content library to support our community of adventure-minded go-getters. If you have a special skill, inspiring story, insight, or key tip, we want to give you the platform to tell it. With your help, we will build a resource to help every level of adventurer get out more confidently and frequently.

BETA: This is a beta program. We are still working on it, still tuning it, and ultimately looking for you and our community to help us mold it. The program is raw and malleable. Expect us to polish it up as the snow begins to melt. For instance, we will soon get out of the way and let you post directly to the community. The feed will become more personalized and tuned for each individual. This is all to say that we are a work in progress (aren't we all!), so hang with us as we go through this journey together.

What we want to showcase:

Trips/locations - Tell a great location or adventure in your area, teach the Trip Pilot community what to expect and how to adventure there. Inspiring your peers to get outside uplifts the entire industry through awareness and activism. You take care of the inspiration we will advocate for the activism.
Story - Stories are a free platform for you to teach and inspire. This is an open avenue to speak to like-minded adventurers. Tell of the salmon runs of yesteryear, the importance of camas root in the area, your journey across the tundra.
Guides/Tools - become a teacher. If you have a special skill or knowledge, share it, pass it on, and help the next wave of outdoorists level their skill set. Gaining confidence in one's skills fosters better experiences and greater connections to the outside world.
Cooking/Recipes - We are searching for all you camp chefs. Those that don't leave gourmet behind when they head outside. Ever wonder if you're getting invited on a trip just to make dinner. Food preparation in the outdoors can be a scary affair for many people. Break the stigma of chili dogs and burgers in the outdoors. This is your venue to shine and share your craft with the Trip Pilot community.

Rewards Program:

Our rewards program is for the contributors who actively participate in the creation of useful and inspiring content. The ones that seed the next adventure level up skillsets and inspire the next chapter. We have different reward levels based on your contributions and our reward points.

Reward points:

For each post you submit that meets the criteria and gets published to the feed, you will receive 1 reward point. Occasionally we will offer bonus reward points for certain types of content. Each quarter, we will offer a prize to the best contributors based on their posts' value and success in terms of user engagement.

Spark - 5 Points - Trip Pilot Schwag - Trip Pilot Schwag pack, and Pro Upgrade

Flame - 10 Points - Spark + T-shirt, Hat, Stickers

Blaze - 15 - Points - Flame + membership in our PRO Deal Program - gain access to over 50 brands under our pro program, giving you up to 60% savings on your favorite outdoor brands.

Giveaways, Bounties, and Prizes:

We will periodically post contests with prizes to the winner. It could be a photo contest, the best trip plan, or the dutch oven recipe that leaves us drooling. We may even put a bounty on a particular piece of content that we want, in which case we will offer a reward to the best submission. All such events can be found by going to the feed in the Trip Pilot App.

Trip/Locations Guidelines

Your mission is to inspire wanderlust getting the community excited about the next trip outside. Ideally, recruit people to follow your adventures because you are the keeper of great fun and freedom from city life. This isn't writing. It's inspiring. All trip and location guides must consist of the following elements:

1) An engaging description of the location, event, hike, float, boat, drive, etc. A well-composed banner image for the post. The description should lay the foundation for the rest of the plan. If you are at a lake with 2 to 3 locations nearby, you can focus on 1 but mention more than one and say something about the others. Instead, you may also choose to make the lake the focus of the guide, in which case you would mention all the campsites.

2) For every trip or location, you should mention all the main activities available to users and information about each one. Mention a trail or trail system and some information regarding them. If there are boat rentals or important things to know, mention these with hyperlinks where appropriate.

Example: This lake is great for canoes and paddle-boarding; you can find rentals at the Elk Lake Resort find them online here https://elklakeresort.net/

3) Tagging, all posts should be tagged at the end of the description as many tags as are appropriate are recommended (more is better). The convention is #tag, or for multi-word tags, bracket the words by #s.

Examples: #skivacation and #ski vacation# may both be used

4) Give credit to the indigenous people that came before us by attributing the lands to the correct tribal nation.

Example: This land originally was part of the Navajo nation, and the XXX trail system was used in their trading routes. Where possible, find the indigenous names of places and monuments.

5) Lastly, where applicable, we want to pay credit to the people or organizations responsible for maintaining the recreational zones we utilize and provide links to support them.

Example: These trails are maintained by the Central Oregon Trail Alliance (COTA) - consider providing a donation here https://app.moonclerk.com/pay/gy9fjiffw55

Guides and tools are the heart of our content library. These components foster a lifetime of self-improvement for our users. Our beginners will enjoy reading and experimenting with the basics like fire-starting techniques, blister care, breaking in the first pair of boots, or packing a backpack. Our more advanced users are looking for new knowledge to enhance their connection with the outdoors, animal tracking guides, advanced knots, constellation identification, and whatever else you can fill in the gaps and lead their experience. They should contain the following wherever appropriate:

1) Thorough and clear description of what is being taught/shared with an associated well-composed image.

2) Pictures appropriate to the content. Where step by step instructions are necessary to explain content provide images to support the instructions. If you need/want stock photos please find them on Adobe Stock Photo and include the links when submitting the post. If necessary we can have custom artwork provided but need direction there.

3) Critical gear lists are beneficial but not necessary to our users, include where appropriate.

4) Further readings are great for our users that want to continue to dig in. Provide a link to further reading where a book or article can be suggested.

5) Same tagging rules as in trip locations bullet 3.

Guides/Tools Guidelines

Cooking/Recipes Guidelines

Cooking in the outdoors can be a wonderful pleasure or a source of great fear and anxiety. Again, the cooking guides should enhance people's outdoor experience, especially as it applies to food. If you have the perfect kitchen setup, we want you to show it off. If you have the best breakfast burrito, share it here. Additionally, if you want to talk about calories per ounce for your ultralight blast over the past, we'll take it. Food is such a critical component of our outdoor experience, and we hope you will help us all level up. Cooking guides contain:

1) A story component, make it feel personal and show us who you are, include a well-composed food shot of the finished dish.

2) When you talk about a specific meal or recipe, include a bulleted list of ingredients with measurements, how many if feeds, and cook/prep time (estimates are ok). Then provide a step by step instructional piece with periodic images showing the progress. We may break up the story and the recipe into different components so users can download and save to their library.

3) If you're talking gear, provide us a pack list and links to the website.

4) Any historical facts are always welcome.

5) If you have a favorite cooking resource, provide a link to a book or website. We love to point our users to further reading.

With all the guidelines on other categories we thought we needed a place without too many boundaries, a place for you to jam. There is little criteria other than to send something to the community that they will love. Criteria:

1) Same tagging rules as in trip locations bullet 3.

2) Pictures appropriate to the content. If you need/want stock photos please find them on Adobe Stock Photo and include the links when submitting the post. If necessary we can have custom artwork provided but need direction there.

3) Critical gear lists are beneficial but not necessary to our users, include where appropriate.

4) Further readings are great for our users that want to continue to dig in. Provide a link to further reading where a book or article can be suggested.

Story Guidelines

How to Submit

All posts should be created in a common word processor like word, google doc, or pages. Our favorite format is markdown if you are familiar, otherwise, just go with what you know. Once your piece is finished send via email or link to contact@trippilot.com. We will get back to you with any questions or comments. Shortly thereafter we will put it into both our website and the in-app feed. We reserve the right to modify edit and link out from your original submission. By submitting you are granting Trip Pilot joint rights to the content. We do not restrict you from publishing elsewhere, but we do ask for full rights for use on our assets to support the community.

Send content to contact@trippilot.com