Pitching Bloggers: 15 Rules to Obey

As a result of our very successful teleseminar on how to pitch bloggers that we presented with Joan Stewart, we've developed a couple of articles we want to share with you.  The first is Pitching Bloggers: 15 Rules to Obey.

Pitching Bloggers: 15 Rules to Obey
©2006 Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. & Denise Wakeman, The Blog Squad

Creating BR (blogger relations) instead of PR is practically a new profession, as more publicity buzz gets started by prominent bloggers. Publicists trying to get media attention for a new product, book or service are now pitching bloggers in addition to journalists and the press.

But pitching bloggers is vastly different from traditional press relations. New rules apply. If you pitch a blogger the wrong way, you could get written up and publicly slammed by the blogger for everyone on the Internet to see. So how do you go about getting a publicity explosion without it blowing up in your face? Here are a few "do's" and "don'ts" for getting good blog attention.

1. Don't leave your pitch in the comments of a blog post. Send a personal email. Leave comments on blog posts, but only to participate in the conversation, not to pitch or talk about you and your products, services or book.

2. Do target your pitch to the interests and niche covered by the blogger. There's nothing a blogger hates more than receiving pitches completely unrelated to their subject.

3. Don't send a mass mailing press release.

4. Do personalize any pitch or press release with the blogger's name, spelled correctly of course.

5. Don't ask for links. Invite the blogger to review your material. They'll do the rest if they think your pitch is right for their audience.

6. Do develop a relationship with bloggers by reading and commenting on their blogs before you ever pitch them. Subscribe to the RSS feed so you'll stay current on blog posts.

7. Know who else is talking about you. Research your area of expertise through blog searches on Technorati.com, Blogsearch.google.com, and Google alerts.

8. Offer valuable content. Don't announce your product, book, or services as if they were the greatest thing to be created. Instead tell the blogger how you can solve a problem for their readers. Then mention the book, product or service.

9. Build relationships. Do this over the course of a couple of weeks by participating in the conversations on the bloggers' blogs.

10. Have your own blog to show bloggers you "get it."  And use trackbacks so they know you're commenting about them at your own blog before you pitch them. (Trackbacks are an automated blogging feature that notifies a blog when another blog talks about them.)

11. Don't waste bloggers' time on something that isn't relevant to their blog.

12. Don't use crude language or four-letter words. We see this in a lot in blogs written by professionals who would never dream of using this same language in their clients' offices.

13. Remember that anything you say to a blogger might be seen by journalists because many journalists read blogs on topics they cover.

14. Certainly, never chastise a blogger for not accepting comments at their blog. Contact them by email if you have comments, feedback or praise about their content.

15. Don't point out typos at a blogger's blog. When we find our own typos, we sometimes don't bother correcting them, because it would go out into the RSS feed again.

For more leading edge Internet Marketing tips go to www.biztipsblog.com. Subscribe to The Blog Squad's ezine Savvy eBiz Tips at www.savvyebiztips.com. To learn about using social media tools like blogs, go to www.buildabetterblog.com.  Denise Wakeman & Patsi Krakoff are known as The Blog Squad.

Comments

[Jim Shea]

Ladies,

You are strongly supporting TypePad for blogging, but if I read the regulations properly, they have the right to place advertising on your blog without your control. Please address this issue and let me know if I have misread TypePad's rules and regulations.

Kindest regards,

Jim Shea

[Denise aka The Blog Squad]

Jim,

I do not recall seeing this in TypePad's terms and I've never seen TypePad ads on a TypePad blog. Since you are paying for their service, that generally means that the company does NOT place advertisements on your site. That is usually the game played by free sites, like Blogger. You can place ads that are delivered by TypePad on your site and get the pay per click revenue, but I'm not aware of what you're referring to. If you have a link you can supply to support that, please post it here.

Thanks,
Denise