How to Get Bloggers to Mention You Without Paying Them
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
Blogs are a great place to get some publicity and create incoming links to your own website, but how do you get the blogger to mention you? The value is tied to the fact that it isn’t a paid post, so you want your site mentioned on blogs that aren’t charging for posts (or at least one’s that are not strictly in the business of charging for posts). You want recognition that says that the blogger genuinely likes you and your site.
Send a Press Release
The simplest way to is to send a press release to carefully selected blogs. This is often overlooked by many PR agencies, but if the information is interesting and relevant, the blogger just might write about it. The key is keeping the material in your PR fresh, timely and pertinent to the particular blogs you are targeting. You should also send press releases out sparingly – remember, press releases are supposed to reflect genuine news, so reserve them for really timely announcements, not just advertising or articles.
Some tips to keep in mind when writing a press release:
- Grab readers with an interesting title of seven words or less
- Summarize the story in the first paragraph with a powerful hook – why is this news so important – what makes this newsworthy to readers?
- Make sure you include the who, what, where, when and why
- Stick to facts, not fluff
- Avoid sounding like advertising – this is news, not a sales pitch
- Include your contact information and a link at the end of the press release
Finding the right blogs will require some research on your part. Do searches that involve combinations of keyword phrases on both Technorati and Google blog search. This kind of surfing can turn up some wonderful, popular blogs. Remember, niche sites are your best bet for getting a press release accepted and these are the sites that often have an extremely loyal following which leads to even more website publicity.
Direct Contact
Directly contacting a website or blog with your pitch is a bit riskier, but sometimes it can pay off in a big way. This works best if you aren’t just sending them an email that says, “Hey, I like your site; how about featuring mine?” They’ve heard that a million times before and it comes off as insincere and all about you. I just delete all those requests.
If you can comment on their site and demonstrate a real appreciation for it, however, they will sit up and take notice. Everyone responds to a bit of recognition. Below is an example from a site called This Is Just Cool. They received the email below from an SEO company on behalf of their client. Notice how personalized it is?
“Hi –
Oh man, thank you SO much for finding that “My Love” poem video…hilarious!
I know what it’s like spending all day in front of the computer, getting things done and sharing the cool things you find online. I bet it’s hard to fit in all of the other stuff that needs to get done away from the screen.
Well, now you can get one thing out of the way without even getting up from your chair – therapy. Share your innermost secrets and fears with shrink to the stars Dr. Goode from the new Starz show “Head Case.” The site is quirky, weird and sometimes a little bit raunchy – but aren’t we all?
See what the Doctor has to say about you: www.GoodeTherapy.com
You can even embed your diagnosis to show just how normal you really are. Don’t you feel better already?
Let me know what you think!
Michelle
For more info on Head Case, visit www.starz.com/starzheadcase. New episodes are Wed. nights, 10p EST on Starz.”
Here is the resulting post on Just Cool. Not bad! And guess what, they just got another link here, Even better!
Just remember to comment first on what you like about their site, then mention your own and invite them to take a look. It’s a soft sell approach that’s incredibly effective.
[tags] PR agencies, press release, blogger, technorati, SEO company, website publicity [/tags]
