PR Mondays: How To Host a Blog Giveaway

I know I promised you great advice from my blogging buds this month but I am going to break from that schedule due to some computer issues I have been having this past week.

Last week, my real life friend, Lori, held her first blog giveaway. She had lots of questions and I think that makes a great topic for PR Mondays.

Giveaways, hmmmm, lots to say. First off, I almost always charge to run a giveaway these days. Do a few and realize how much time they take and you will too. BUT, when you are first starting out your blog (or you are having a particularly slow month) running a giveaway at no charge can be a real benefit to you and your loyal readers.

There are two (at least) schools of thought on giveaways: keep them on the DL so that your loyal readers benefit only or go all out and use them to help promote your blog. I understand the point of few of both camps and have been in one or the other at various times but I am going to talk today about running a giveaway as a way to promo your blog.

So, if you are growing your blog and currently do reviews for free, you may want to consider running  a few well placed giveaway. If you are doing a review for something cool, just ask the PR rep to provide one as a giveaway. It is rare they say no.

I usually run a giveaway by first talking about the product (review) and then let my readers know I have one to giveaway. I ask readers to leave a comment for their initial entry. The comment question usually has something to do with the product (how you would use it, why you want it, visit the brands site and tell me what you learned are all ideas for the initial comment). Next, I offer ‘additional’ entries and here is the part where I get to use the giveaway to build my blog. It gives entrants extra chances to win. Common extra entry chances are:

• subscribe to my feed
• follow me on twitter
• tweet about the giveaway with my link
• add my link to giveaway linkys
• become a facebook fan
• share on facebook with their readers

I used to ask people to stumble or digg the post but that is against their terms of service and can get you and your site banned now. Each extra entry needs to be in a separate comment to count. Looking at how this benefits me, the readers are promoting my blog, upping my feed and comment counts. All of these things allow me to better pitch my blog for future pr opps.

Before you post make sure you add the word “giveaway” in your title and tag it as well. Once my giveaway is running, I promote it on twitter and by adding my link to all the various giveaway linkys out there. I have a linky post that you are welcome to use any time. There is also an amazing list on MommySnacks site. People looking to enter giveaways check these lists often. Great, free link promo for you! Yee haw!

I usually let giveaways run for 1 week. I choose an end time that works for me and usually announce the winner within that week. In order to pick a winner I go to random.org and use the random number generator on the right side. If you have 100 comments you would put 1 in the top field and 100 in the bottom. Click ‘generate’. That is the comment number that wins. This is where having a theme or plugin that numbers your comments rock. I don’t have this so I have to do it the old fashioned way, count. I always screen shot the generated number page so that I have proof in case someone claims foul play (yes, people can get really emotional about some giveaways so protect yourself).

Announce your winner (if you want) or just contact them. State in your rules that they have a certain time to claim. I give 72 hours. Get their mailing address and pass on to the PR rep. Oh, did I forget to say that I ask all my pr reps to fulfill the mailing??? Postage can get really expensive. Leave this cost to them whenever possible. They don’t usually care because they would have to mail it to you anyway so most are more than happy to just mail to the winner.The others, I just don’t work with.

Post rules. Here are my generic ones:

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY

Promotion is open to U.S. residents 18 years of age or older as of  (date of giveaway) except employees and their immediate families of Chaotic Communications, LLC (my company) .

Void where prohibited. All federal, state and local laws apply. All taxes are the sole responsibility of winners.

Sponsor is not responsible  for any technical problems, malfunctions of any telephone lines, computer systems, servers, providers, hardware/software, lost or unavailable network connections or failed, incomplete, garbled or delayed computer transmission or any combination thereof. If, in the Judging Agency’s opinion, there is any suspected or actual evidence of tampering with any portion of the sweepstakes, or if technical difficulties compromise the integrity of the sweepstakes, the Judging Agency reserve the right to modify the sweepstakes in a manner deemed appropriate by the Judging Agency, in its sole discretion. By participating in this promotion, entrants agree to be bound by the Official Rules and the decisions of the Judging Agency.

JUDGING: Chaotic Communications, LLC (”Judging Agency”) will choose a winner based on a random drawing of all qualifying comments.   Agency reserves the right to disqualify any entry that, in the sole opinion of the judges, refers, depicts or in any way reflects negatively upon the sponsor, the promotion or any other person or entity.

SPONSOR: (name sponsor)

What advice do you have for a new blogger hosting their first giveaway?

PR Mondays: What Do YOU Bring To The Table

Last week I reached out to some of my amazing blogger friends that I feel have ‘made it’ in a way that I would be proud to tell you about. My friends ROCKED with their advice and I will be sharing that here over the next few weeks. But one of my friends wrote back a mini post with what she is passionate about. It was written roughly, as an email between friends usually is, but I wanted to share it because I think the questions she poses are so valuable. This is one blogger who I personally really look up to so I hope that you all can glean some wonderful advice from her.

So much talk is going on about monetization. The conversation is good, because strong and honest dialogue between bloggers and brands is key to building successful relationships. However, without assessing what you, as a blogger—regardless of how long you’ve been blogging—can offer the brand and the ways in which you can track your success measures, how can you really demand compensation for your time?

I think it’s important to ask yourself: What are you offering? What is your unique difference? Do you have reach and influence? If so, what is it? Are you passionate about the product or have a unique way in which your service (blog/business) and a brand’s product/service couples to combine potentially amazing results? If so, how? Are you a social media extrovert who can get the word out even though Alexa and Technorati aren’t ranking you high? If so, in what ways? Do you have an offline presence that can be combined with your online influence to produce even more amazing results than from purely online outreach?

If we, as bloggers, are going to say: “Show me the money,” I think we need to be prepared to answer those questions and help brands understand the unique value we bring to the table that will help them get a return on their investment.

Soon we will be talking about how to build a media kit and I think these are perfect questions for you to ask yourself before we get started. Your media kit has to be much more than your ad rates. You need to be able to say “Show me the money and here is WHY”. It is a good time to go back and revisit your stats. Do you have a specific niche developing? A super low bounce rate? What stands out in your stats?

I, also, wanted to let you know that I was asked by a good friend who is a PR rep in the mom blogging world to do a monthly twitter chat. The Blog Frog will be there participating as well.  More info to follow but save April 5th at 9 pm EST for our first #prmonday chat. This is NOT a prize twitter party. It is a conversation about PR that you can openly ask your questions and get some advice.

So, lets get that conversation going…What is it that you bring to the table??? Let’s brainstorm how to answer this together. *I do answer a lot of comments so make sure you hit the subscribe button after leaving a comment or check back*

PR Monday: Blogging To A Niche Audience

I have been busy interviewing lots of amazing bloggers who monetize and work with PR well over the last week (in between being sick, house hunting with my mom and attending services). So, I am THRILLED to have Rachel back with us this week talking about her AHA! Moment in how to stand out from the crowd.

There are hundreds and hundreds of mommy blogs out there, blogs filled with griping, blogs filled with humorous stories, blogs filled with delicious looking food and recipes.  There are so many blogs out there.  How can we make our blog stand out?
This is the question I asked myself for a number of weeks.  I worked on my layout, on my fan pages, on interaction… and then I realized I missed the point!  What will make my blog stand-out from the masses is finding a niche and building in it.

To do this I first have to ask myself, what am I interested in?  What would be the easiest thing for me to write about.  I obviously picked my kids, that is why I am a stay-at-home-mom, right?  Now in the realm of kids – that’s a really big market of moms who are also interested in “kids”.  How can I narrow down the field of my “niche”, all mommy bloggers have kids!  Can I limit it by age range?  How about by a special circumstance (like raising a child with food allergies or step-children, etc)?  Can I narrow my focus in my presentation style (ex: mommy-goof ups, or expert tips, or photo documentation)?  Once you have an idea of your niche or what the purpose of your blog is going to be you should come up with several search-able phrases that fit your niche.  I like to think of myself as a blogger to moms of preschoolers.  The search-able phrases that I came up with are: “Fun learning activities” or “learning activities for preschoolers” or “preschool arts and crafts”.  Now is the fun part.   We get to figure out if people even care about that niche.  It is one thing to create a niche about “learning activities for preschoolers” but if no one wants to read it, I might as well just keep a private notebook at home, rather than maintain a public blog!

To find out if your niche has any value, check out the Keyword tool from Google Adwords.  It is free!  Type in your key phrases and add the cost per click (CPC) function.  Then look, are people searching for that phrase?  My keyword phrase “learning activities for preschoolers” is rarely ever searched and when it is the CPC is low, meaning it is not a valuable term for me to be investing my time and energies on – I probably won’t be able to find advertisers willing to sponsor my posts.  I can change it to “kids learning activities” or to “preschool learning games” and suddenly people are actually looking for the information.  For me, I blog so people can read it!  By tuning my blog towards a niche market I am able to get traffic that is looking for what I have to offer and will hopefully come back as I fulfilled their informational need.

The final step, once you have figured out what niche would interest you and what phrases you would target, is to come up with 50 potential posts.  Just brainstorm and fill up a notebook sheet.  Are you having problems coming up with 50 ideas?  Well, maybe you should change your niche to something more interesting to you.  Happy blogging!

Rachel is mommy to three preschoolers and blogs about their learning adventures, fun kids activities and tips that help her keep her sanity at Quirky Momma.  Have any blogging questions?  Feel free to contact her via twitter @quirkymommasite

Future of Mom Blogging & PR

Wrapping up February’s Straight Talk From PR series, I think it is important to hear how they see our future relationships evolving. One has to wonder with the statistic that Holly shared that 120,000 new blogs are created EVERY DAY, when does market saturation begin? Has it already? I think in a lot of ways, yes, it has. The old model of product review/giveaway is tired in my opinion. I think moving forward brands and bloggers are going to have to come up with more innovative ways to leverage our influence. But, alas, February is not about what I think, it is what actual PR reps think and so I will conclude this month with a few more great answers.

What do you want mom bloggers to most understand about your position?

I serve almost as a middle man between bloggers and my clients. It’s my job to bring both parties together so they can do mutually beneficial work and build relationships. Plus, I’m a nice, normal person, so you should get to know me and not think of me just as a “pr flack.” =)

Do you like being pitched (moms seeking you out) ?

I definitely like when mom bloggers proactively contact me to express interest in working with my clients or to even get to know me better.

I love it!

What do you foresee in the future in terms of mom bloggers and PR?

I think 2010 is going to be a deciding year for mom bloggers and PR. The relationship has evolved over the last few years and will continue to do so. With the FTC involvement and the upswing of “sponsored” posts, I think companies are really going to start analyzing how effective mom blogs are in relation to their bottom line.

As for the PR relationship, there will continue to be less “traditional” media outlets, and it will be interesting to see how much the lines between a “blogger” and a “reporter” begin to blur.

I think working with mom bloggers will remain very important to brands trying to reach moms. I hope that we can find more ways to work together that is mutually beneficial for both our clients and the bloggers whether that is with more paid spokesperson gigs or bringing bloggers in for counsel. It’s still a bit murky with the FTC guidelines, but I think the relationship between bloggers and PR people will continue to evolve.

What do you think? How do you see the relationship between mom bloggers and brands evolving?

Biggest Mistakes Mom Bloggers Make

Hi All! Continuing on from last weeks Straight Talk From PR we are going to talk  today about common mistakes and missteps that mom bloggers make in working with PR. Hopefully by hearing from them directly we can all avoid some of these and keep building professional, lasting relationships!

What is the biggest mistake mom bloggers make in working with you?

“I would say it’s being difficult to work with. Not answering emails, not meeting deadlines, or just not being nice. As a PR person, I often hear horror stories from my blogger friends about PR folks who are rude and unprofessional. It works both ways though. If I have a bad experience working with you, it’s likely I won’t include you in future outreach even if your numbers are high.”

“What a great question! Usually we only hear about the mistakes PR people make in communicating with bloggers.

One of the biggest mistakes is lack of communication. I understand bloggers are really busy (I am really busy too!) and that e-mails can get lost. However, when a blogger requests a product to review, then I send the blogger product, and then I never hear from them again – that is a big no-no. If you don’t like the product, let me know. If you can’t review the product due to time constraints, etc., let me know. All I’m really looking for is communication and feedback.

Also I think that bloggers should remember to always act professionally. If you have a conflict or issue with a particular PR person, you should take it up with them on an individual basis”

What turns you off of a mom blog?

It can be a turn off when I get emails from bloggers just to ask for free product or sponsorship without expressing interest in my clients, campaigns or even just me personally. It’s the same feeling I’m sure many bloggers get when PR people blast pitch them without any personalization or knowledge of their content/audience. Plus it’s hard for us because most times we don’t have samples laying around we can give out.

It’s much better for the bloggers and for me to email me or tweet me to start a relationship. Even just asking what I’m working on and what’s in the pipeline. Then when I’m working on an outreach plan for a specific program I can say “I should include XX in that school supplies campaign, because she mentioned her kids are getting ready for back to school.”

The only thing that turns me off is a cluttered blog. As an avid blog reader, I dislike going to a blog and not being able to find the actual content amongst all the blog flair. Whether it’s flashy buttons or advertisements, sometimes I find it hard to focus on the actual content of a blog amongst all the flair.

I work on a lot of family friendly campaigns so I tend to pass over bloggers that use foul language excessively or discuss r-rated or politically incorrect topics. It is not that I personally am offended by it but I could never sell that blogger to my clients.

So, there ya have it folks. Some landmines you can now thankfully avoid thanks to our fabulous PR friends.

I am curious, though. What about you? What turns you off of a blog??

PR Monday: Straight Talk From PR

Hey everyone! In Feb I am going to use this space to highlight straight talk from PR reps. I sent out a survey to some of the reps that I really respect and enjoy working with. In the interest of getting the most candid answers from them I am going to post their comments as anonymous. Lets face it, I can blab all day long about what I think but wouldn’t you rather know what they have to say?

So, here are a few questions and answers for them.

How does a mom blogger gain your attention? What puts them on your radar?

“If a mom blogger reaches out to me directly, I always make sure to check out her blog. I also discover a lot of great bloggers via Twitter. Whether it’s a new blog post on recipes or an industry-related article, I’m always reading everything I can (or that time allows!)”

“Honestly, someone who I know and interact with via Twitter, my blog or who emails me to keep a relationship going. If I know you, know you write great content and are fun to work with, I’ll likely include you in all the outreach I do for my clients and also recommend you to my colleagues.

Beyond that, bloggers who are regularly included in other high-profile campaigns (Walmart Eleven Moms, Lifetime Moms ect) it will catch my attention. It also helps us sell you in to our clients as bloggers we should reach out to.”

Check out this post if you are looking for the names of PR Reps that would like to work with mom bloggers.

How important are statistics in your campaigns? Can you give me the min. stats you are looking for?

“The quality of your content and how connected you are with other bloggers is most important. However, I do look at unique visitors per month to gauge whether to include bloggers into bigger campaigns like trips and larger giveaways.”

“Unfortunately, statistics do matter for the most part. In an ideal world, I would love to work with every single blogger. The reality is companies need results in the form of measurement. However, statistics are not the end all be all of working with a blogger. If a blogger has a niche audience (ex. coupons/frugal or cooking) and I’m working with a client that is relevant to that specific audience, then there’s more value in who’s reading the blog than how many people are reading the blog.
Keep in mind that just because I might not be able to work with you right now, doesn’t mean we can’t work together in the future. I love hearing from brand new bloggers; we all have to start somewhere!”

Looking to learn more about stats? Check out this post on Understanding Your Blog Statistics.

How important is a mom bloggers social media reach to you? What social media outlets are most important to you?

“Social media reach is pretty important. In addition to looking at blog outreach, we also look at how influential that reach is. Is the blogger on Twitter? Does the blogger enjoy going to events? Is the blogger active in the mom blogging community? Is the blogger active in his/her own community? Does the blogger contribute to other blogs/web sites?”

“It’s important for bloggers to be very well-connected to other bloggers and moms via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube ect. We typically will vet every blogger to see what their presence is like in those outlets. Plus if we know that your friends/followers are highly engaged with your content and will respond with comments, votes, entries ect. we’re more likely to reach out to you.”

As you can see from the above comments your social media (especially twitter) presence is very important to PR. If you are new to twitter, here is a post I wrote on Getting Started on Twitter.

If you are a PR rep and would like to participate in answering, email me and I will send you over the survey. Here is your chance to tell us mom bloggers what we need to know about you.

PR Mondays: Blog Frog

Can you believe that it has been a whole month of PR Mondays already? In January we concentrated on getting your ways to get exposure to your blog and we have one more awesome article for you on that from Holly. I have been busy interviewing PR reps for major companies and for the rest of Feb I will share their thoughts directly with you. If you missed any of the Jan posts make sure to go back and get your blog ready!

By Holly Hamann, 1.30.2010

holly@theblogfrog.com

What is BlogFrog and how did it all start?

Every wonder how BlogFrog got its start?  I’m delighted to be guest blogging for Barb and I thought I’d share a little bit of background on what BlogFrog is and how it all got started.

BlogFrog is the brainchild of Rustin Banks, who developed the beta product in 2008 during nights and weekends while still a full-time engineer at a local Aerospace company.  Banks said he got the idea from his wife, a casual blogger who used her blog to keep their friends and family updated.  There was no simple way for blog authors to have real discussions with readers and interact on their blogs. “A blog might have thousands of like-minded readers but what if I want to ask another reader a question or share my own blog content?” he used to ask his wife, Tara.

Rusty recruited me to help build the company and launch the service to the blogosphere. In early 2009, we both quit our jobs to run BlogFrog full-time.  Within months, BlogFrog’s social widgets had struck a chord with mom bloggers, who have become the company’s largest market.

People often ask us why women and mom bloggers have become such big fans. Our social features really resonate with them because women are inherently community and service oriented.  Women and moms tend to be more social online than men and also tend to form stronger online relationships.

There are 120,000 new blogs created every day and the total number of people engaging with blogs is expected to reach 150 million by 2012 (source: Technorati).  Every person has a unique story to tell and people are gravitating to blogs as a way to share what they know.  The social web is evolving from large, single-destination social sites to an integrated network of millions of smaller, niche blogs, all connected by a common platform.  Our vision is to be the common social platform that connects all blogs.

By cross-pollinating content within a single network of blogs via the social widgets, BlogFrog helps bloggers increase exposure and traffic for their blogs.

So how exactly does it work?

BlogFrog serves both bloggers and blog readers.  Blog authors can add widgets to their blogs that let them see who visits their blogs (the Recent Visitors widget) and they can let their readers interact with each other by adding a community (Community widget).  The Community widget lets readers ask each others questions, see each others’ blog posts, and each other’s content from social networks like Twitter.  You can see what these widgets look like here:

BlogFrog has quickly grown to over 25,000 members, making it the largest, integrated network of mom blogs on the internet. The network grows because whenever a member visits another BlogFrog blog or community, their profile picture and blog URL shows up for all visitors to see. So the more BlogFrog sites and communities a member visits, the more exposure their own blog gets.  You could also call this “viral growth”. BlogFrog has taken off as the best way to create a way for blog readers to interact.

You can learn more by visiting BlogFrog!

Increasing Your Blog Reach With Links

I am grateful to have Rachel from QuirkyMomma.com post today on how links can increase your blogs reach. One of the things that PR people use to evaluate your potential involvement in campaigns is your ‘reach’. They want to know how influencial your voice is beyond the blog. Rachel has a great way of explaining the different types of links and their value to you. Thanks Rachel!

Linking is often a confusing and frustrating part of blogging, and yet, links can be a very fruitful way to increase your blog’s credibility and traffic as more people are able to find you!  I credit the growth of links as the reason my blog has grown.  A lot of my readers would not have heard of my Preschool Activities Blog if it weren’t for another site advising that they come check me out.  My page rank (where I show up on Google searches) would have remained low (ummm, non-existent) and I wouldn’t be getting any search engine traffic if it weren’t for links, as Google would not have seen me as a valuable site.  There are several different types of links, I thought it would be handy to explain the various types of links, the perks and some of the negatives of getting or making them:

* What are incoming links? These are links that others make to your site.  They are highly ranked from search engines if they come from the first page of a blog, with in-content links rated higher than links coming from the side-bar, but really, we can’t be too picky!  Any incoming link is a good one!  You can find what links you have coming into your site either in your dashboard, if you have that capability, or by creating a Google webmaster account.  With Webmaster you can see exactly what Google thinks about you.

* What are outgoing links? These are links leaving your site.  Examples: links on your blog rolls, links to advertisers, links to authority sites, etc.  You want to be careful to not link to a spammy site (check google’s list) and links to higher ranked pages are better than to lower ranked ones, but Google says on their webmaster course/videos that “link bleeding” is a myth.  You are not penalized for linking too-often as long as those links are relevant (aka have similar keywords that you have in your site).  It can actually help you to link to authority sites.  Many times they are checking their incoming links and can find out about you (maybe even give you a curtesy link back), also, it makes you look like you know what you are talking about.  Like a research paper, Google likes it when we credit our sources.  Examples of “linking up”:  You write an article about a great cookie recipe that you adapted.  The original recipe was on Food Network, but you substituted a few ingredients and changed a few things making the recipe yours.  By linking to the original you are showing that you are “on par” with the Food Network.

* An Explanation of NoFollow/DoFollow links:
NoFollow is the default method of linking used by the majority of blogs.  NoFollow is essentially a code that Blogger, Wordpress and other platforms have added making comments, and sometimes sidebars, not crawl-able to search engines.  These links Google “supposedly” does not travel from.  When the Google bot gets to your site they crawl all your pages, when they come to a NoFollow link they “supposedly” do not follow it to that site in an effort to make their bots more efficient.  NoFollow is good for the blog owner as it means they do not have to moderate links as heavily, however, it is not giving a “vote of confidence” to the sites you’re linking to.  Are NoFollow links worthless?  I don’t think so (but I am not an expert).  I find it hard to believe that Google doesn’t keep track of NoFollow links, they just may not weigh them as heavily as other links.  The easiest way to gain NoFollow links is by leaving comments on other people’s sites or by being in blogrolls (many of these are not crawl-able either).

DoFollow links are the ones where the bots come across the link and then go scout out the site that you are mentioning – these are also called “backlinks” or “incoming” links as the bot comes “back” (or “in”) to you.  Bloggers and webmasters alike obviously want more of these types of links as they increase credibility.  The more sites sending “backlinks” to you, the more you look credible or like an authority according to Google.  The easiest way to gain DoFollow links is by guest posting on another person’s blog.  Most blogs do not have “NoFollow” codes over their content area.  Some blogs (like Barb’s and my kid activity site) are DoFollow in their comment area as well.  The perk of this is that you get to reward the people who comment on your site with link juice, the negative is that you have to moderate comments a bit more and delete ones that are irrelevant or from “spammy” sites.  If you want to know if a site is DoFollow in their links, check out this FireFox Add-on (I love firefox!!!).  If you do have a DoFollow blog, there are a few things you don’t want to link out to (ex: giveaways, paid advertisers, etc.), but that list is for another day and another post!

Leave a comment if you have any questions I’d love to answer them as best as I can. I have not been blogging for long, but I love jumping in head-first and learning everything I can about whatever it is that I am doing.  These were just the meanderings of my blogging journey!  If any of you want me to share some link juice with you, feel free to stop by Quirky Momma.  I love to feature other relevant blogs!

Rachel

Understanding Your Blog Statistics

Please welcome today’s guest poster, Tara Anderson. She is one very smart cookie and has some amazing advice for you on getting to know your readers. Knowing who your readers are is very important when working with PR! You will need this information when pitching and determining which pitches will work well on your blog. Let’s give our guest lots of comment love-which by the way is now do-follow:) Our guest blogger next week will explain why that really helps you!

My name is Tara and I’m a stats junkie. While acknowledging is the first and most difficult step, I haven’t always been this way. It really started when I took a job at Lijit and began to understand the power that useful analytics have. There is no excuse, in this new decade, not to know as much as possible about your blog readers.

[Disclaimer: I work for Lijit. I check Google Analytics occasionally and only understand them at the most basic level. If you’re looking for an explanation of GA, I’m the wrong person. And this is the wrong post.]

You might have heard some talk or read some posts about “reader intent”. The most basic definition of this is exactly what you might think: what is a reader doing on my site. I hope they’re laughing at my most recent attempt at humor, but I don’t know that for sure. I also want them to get a better feeling of who I am, but that’s another thing I can’t be certain is happening. What I do know, if I have Lijit installed on my blog, is what my readers are doing with that search box.

And that, my friends, is where the power of the Lijit stats comes into play. Let me show you what I mean…

Think you don’t have readers in other countries?

Think again. With the world getting smaller, chances are better than ever that your page views are coming from a variety of places around the globe. Turns out I have way more readers in Spain than I ever thought.  Also…with this stat, I ALWAYS know when my mom has been reading my blog. Tell me, that’s not useful information.

Curious about how people are finding your blog?

Who isn’t? This list tells you exactly what people are typing into Google, Bing or Yahoo in order to end up on your site. In addition to being highly entertaining, it gives you a window into what people, or at least the search engines, think you’re an expert in. (And in case you’re wondering, yes, I was an extra in the movie Office Space.)

Care about community?

What kind of a blogger would you be if you didn’t? We let you know what other blogrolls you’re showing up on so that you can return the favor, or at least send a note of thanks. Lijit has over 2 million blogs in our network, so while there might be a few omissions from that list, we know about a LOT of blogs. We probably have you covered.

At this point, you might be scratching your head and wondering to yourself, “Doesn’t Lijit provide search for my readers?” Yes, in fact we do, and that is where the analytics around reader intent become most interesting. Especially if you’re a stats junkie like me.

What are people searching for on my blog?

This is the bucket o’gold, folks. Unless you’re paying big money for a stats package, you’re not going to be able to find this information anywhere else. Your readers are actually typing terms into your Lijit search box…this is ENGAGEMENT at its finest. (Well, besides comments, which we all love…) But taking the energy to find out more about your content means that your readers are actually doing something other than just reading your blog—perfect example of intent. They are looking for more and Lijit is helping them to find it.

What should I be writing about?

The million dollar question, right? While my personal Lijit stat doesn’t include anything on the above list, let’s say that the term “blogging” was on there. If someone is searching for blogging on my site and not getting any results, that’s a huge lightbulb and the very next thing I should be writing about. Because I care about my audience and because they think I know something about blogging…which may or may not be true. J

In the interest of space, I’ve shown only five examples from the many different stats we provide. We also let you know what search results your readers are clicking on the most, what search engine they’re most frequently coming from and how much money you’re making on ads. You didn’t think I was going to skip over the money part, did you?

Our service definitely helps your readers to find even more of the awesome stuff. That’s important. But, in my opinion, our true value lies in how we can help you, the blogger, to be an even better blogger. You don’t have to pay anything for Lijit and the information we give you…priceless. (Not to mention that we make things super easy by emailing you a weekly stats summary every Sunday night!)

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment (we listen!) or tweet something out (we care!). I’m happy to help as well, so shoot me an email (tara@lijit.com).

It’s easy to sign up and install Lijit. You can do so here, if you’re interested: www.lijit.com

I appreciate Barb giving me a chance to explain a bit about the stats that Lijit offers and if you’re still wondering about Lijit, give our search a try at the top of her blog. She’s using our Wordpress plugin, which allows you to hijack your default Wordpress search bar. (Insert blog terrorist joke here.)

Thanks again and I hope to see you all Lijit soon!

About Tara:
Tara’s been a public school teacher, restaurant manager, stand-up comedienne, massage therapist, and is now the Marketing Manager for Lijit. She spends her days reaching out to new and potential Lijit users along with maintaining the company’s blog and Twitter account. When not figuring out new ways of growing the Lijit community, she enjoys backpacking, running and writing about funny things that happen to her over at her personal blog, TallTara.com.

Would you like to be a guest blogger for PR Mondays? Send me an email.

Sample PR Pitches to Bloggers

Yes, I do know it is Tuesday….

Yesterdays discussion on PR Goals is so important and I want to discuss a little more in detail when a pitch is worth your time and when it just isn’t. We have some wonderful guest bloggers in the next few weeks so I need take an extra day to make sure we are all on the same page as far as knowing what your pr goals are.

What is your time worth? Only you can determine that. I have a ballpark hourly rate in my head of what mine is.

Lets look at some recent pitch offers from my inbox and see what you think. It is important to note, no money is exchanged in this pitches. This is a ‘value trade’. Is the value of what is being traded worth your blogging time?

DVD: $20 (this is one my kids absolutely want)

* Time to watch: 90 minutes
* Time to post: 30 minutes (to get all the embedded files and photos in as well as my view)
* Time in contact with PR: 10 minutes (emails)
* Package pickup: 20 minutes (I use a UPS box. I never give my home address)
* Total time invested: 130 minutes, 2 hours, 10 minutes.
* What I am working for: roughly $9.50 an hour

Is this worth my time? Yes….

In the case of a kids movie that I am most likely going to buy and watch with the kids anyway that is worth it to me. I would have spent that time (and money to buy it) anyway! If it was a pitch on a movie that I would not have normally purchased, I would turn this down. No way is my time worth $9.50 an hour (that is MY individual take, yours could be completely different, especially as you are starting out).

Is it worth your time?

Look at this pitch: A company wanted to send 5 free product coupons for a food item in exchange for running a review post AND a giveaway of 2 coupons to the winner.The cost of this product was .99-$3 depending where you got it and the size.

* Time to pick up product from store: 20 minutes
* Time to post: 30 minutes (to get all the embedded files and photos in as well as my view)
* Time in contact with PR: 10 minutes (emails)
* Package pickup: 20 minutes (I use a UPS box. I never give my home address)
*Time to run giveway: 5 hours min.
* Total time invested: 7 hours
*Cost to mail coupons to winner: $1
* What I am working for: assuming the product costs me $3 (the max allowed on the coupon) I am making $2 per hour.

Is this worth my time? NO!

Is this worth your time?

Of course you get to determine that. One thing I see ‘newer’ bloggers doing is taking the offers as a way to get ‘in’ with a company. I have been guilty of it but one thing I have learned is that the reps that send these pitches never have better ones come along. This is the caliber of pitch you can count on getting in the future, especially since you have now just shown you are willing to work for that amount. I asked several blogging buddies and they all agree this has been the case for them as well.

Now, here is different spin on the above pitch. A company asks you to do essentially the same pitch as above BUT they want you to really get to know their company so they would like to fly you out and take you and several other bloggers on a tour. Typically these trips cover the cost of transportation to the airport, your flight, room for 1-2 nights, food and drink during your stay, and gift cards to cover any incidentals you incur. You also usually leave with some very nice swag (gifts).

Is this worth my time? Absolutely and not necessarily because of the free trip to meet up with blogging buds (although that certainly helps). These are the types of companies that are looking to form long term relationships! They have invested a great deal of time researching the bloggers they want to work with. These companies (from personal experience) return time and time again throughout the year with interesting pitches. They send you little goody bags when you least expect it. The reps call to check on your kids when you post they are sick (no kidding!) and these companies and reps are the first to pass your name on to their peers and include you in premium opportunities.

Everyone wants to know, what are some of the bigger items bloggers have obtained through PR. This past year I saw bloggers receive leased cars, a household full of major appliances, family trips to Disney (and lots of other destinations), cruises, and red carpet events to name a few. Of course, these go to select few but if this part of your pr goals it is certainly possible. Especially as I have heard from several pr reps that in 2010 companies will be looking outside the box of already known bloggers.

Hopefully determining your ‘hourly’ rate has helped you determine what pitches you are willing to work on and those you are not. I want to throw a word of caution in here about giveaways as a lot of pitches will offer to send you the product and one to giveaway. Giveaways take a tremendous amount of time to run correctly! Next week we are going to be talking about traffic to your blog and giveaways may be worth the time in terms of traffic for you but we really need to talk down the line on thinking through giveaway offers.

Next Monday, Tara from Lijit will be here to talk about stats. She is going to help us analyze and decipher all those numbers so that we can see where we are and where we would like to be! It may be useful for you to install a Lijit widget on your site to gather info this week. I use 4 different stat programs: Google Analytics, Lijit, Compete, and AWStats. This gives me a pretty complete picture of what is happening on my sites.

Until then, get those goals written down and catch up on the series by reading these:

Product Reviews: How To Get Started

PR Peeps I Recommend

Finding Public Relations Contacts

*PR Monday graphic made by Toni-Lynn at Delightful Chaos. Visit her, she is cool!

I would love to hear your thoughts on pitches and what you will and won’t accept in the comments!

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