When I first launched my name bracelet shop, Alphabitsy, I sought out parenting blogs as places to advertise, and also experimented with giveaways. I still do occasional giveaways here on my own blog, but I’m no longer seeking out publicity from others’ blogs. Why? I don’t feel that it’s a good use of my time and resources.
Here is the problem, as I see it. Most of the blogs I receive pitches for do nothing but product reviews and giveaways. Blogging is supposed to be about original content or value-added aggregation and, if you’re lucky, building a community for people who enjoy that content. Blogging only when someone gives you free stuff or money is fun (I did PayPerPost when I was unemployed!) but not all that interesting to read.
I have received very, very little traffic from giveaways I’ve done. Sometimes no referrals to my pages from a given blog at all. And even though these are supposed to be “reviews,” in cases where I’ve made an error in the order or been late in shipping. the reviewer doesn’t mention it. That’s not a review–that’s, at best, an advertorial.
Here, for what it’s worth, are this micro-business owner’s tips for pitching to business owners.
I want to see your numbers. Some how-tos I’ve read instruct bloggers pitching businesses to demurely leave out their traffic and audience numbers if they’re low. That’s crap. Don’t waste my time if your blog has no traffic. How many daily pageviews do you get, on average? How many unique visitors? How many entries does your typical giveaway have?
Show that you know what the company you’re pitching actually sells. The pitches I get don’t acknowledge my business’s name or what it is that I sell. I get it, you’re using a form e-mail. That’s fine. But my products are usually bought for girls ages 0-10. Guides to pitching instruct bloggers to tell the company something about themselves and their families. But if you don’t have any daughters in that age group, I’m curious why you’re interested in my products.
Each of my items is handmade by me: why am I taking the time to make it for you? Why are you interested? How do I know you’re not just going down a list of places that have given other bloggers samples in the past, without any regard for what they actually sell?
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