The second edition of WordCamp Montreal will happen this weekend at Agora Hydro-Quebec located at UQAM Coeur des Sciences. You get a chance to learn from twenty speakers that will share tips on how to make the best of WordPress.
Media Sidekick’s technical advisor Jerome Paradis is one of the speakers. In case you did not know, Jerome is also my wonderful husband. Jerome will talk about best practices regarding:
How to integrate Facebook and Twitter to WordPress comments and login
The Facebook Open Graph and what it means for bloggers
How, when (and when not) to use shortlinks
How to build new relationships through your blog
How to track your blog’s influence
Most of his findings are based on on-going experiments that we run on my lifestyle blog At Home with Kim Vallee. Do not miss his session. It’s called “Raise and measure your blog’s influence with Twitter and Facebook”.
The $40 registration fee gives access to 2 days of expert talks, a t-shirt, lunch, and your participation to giveaways for a chance to win Abode products and 2 iPads. Register now!
I founded Media Sidekick because I believe that the future of blog monetization is not in banner ads. Brands and agencies are looking for something else. And influential bloggers can charge more if they can differentiate themselves with added services instead of depending on their number of page views to make money. Over the last two years, I saw many initiatives driven by women, design and lifestyle bloggers.
On September 11th, 2010 at 13:30, I will show you good examples of what is happening right now. This session will explore ethical monetization trends from no nonsense ideas to recent techniques that popped out across Canada and the United States. I invite you to join me. PodCamp Montreal 2010 changed venue this year. It will be held for the first time at the UQAM’s Cœur des sciences located in downtown Montreal.
If you have not registered yet for PodCamp Montreal, you still have time. It costs only $20 to attend. The topics are diverse from Life after journalism by Bruno Guglielminetti (in French) to How an artist and gallery owner makes the most of blogging, Facebook, and Twitter
As a lifestyle blogger, I receive every day my share of PR pitches. But not many of them reach the right target or provide the information I need to write a story about it. I evaluate that on my blog At Home with Kim Vallee, not even 0.1% of my stories originate from press releases. I would love to hear scoops from many companies that do not pitch to me. And at the same time, I get pitches for products that will never make the cut of my editorial.
Another common mistake is the press release written to please the company who emitted the press release. These press releases are filled with useless facts. They provide no useful information for the bloggers and their readers. They failed to answer three critical questions:
What is the captivating story?
Why should I would care to write about it?
Can the story capture the attention of my audience?
Many bloggers, including top bloggers, share my level of disappointment regarding PR pitches. At first, I thought that it is the nature of blogging that changed the expectations of the recipients. But after further thinking, it became obvious that the blogger’s needs are similar in many points to the needs of journalists and columnists who cover the same topics. Therefore, I am more puzzled than before about this mystery.
Why the PR industry is so inefficient in reaching out and pitching to bloggers fascinates me since the solutions are filled with common sense. Let’s me share my wish list with you. And feel free to add yours in the comments.
Include a few large pictures, the price, where to buy information in your email. Ideally, you would mention that additional pictures are ready to be downloaded from a special Web site. It dilutes your story on the blogosphere, through a sense of déjà vu, when every blogger use the same pictures.
Be prepared to offer to a few bloggers exclusive pictures, content or an interview with the designer.
Forget the one-to-many approach and write tailored pitches that will fit selected groups of bloggers. Then, send the press release version that fits their niche.
Go with a top-notch email marketing services. And always give the option to remove their name from your mailing lists. The longer period acceptable for the removal to take effect is 24 hours. Ideally, it should be immediately.
Aim for quality versus quantity. Forget buying cheap email lists to target bloggers. Let go the mass press releases that seems to have become the norm over the last years.
Do not send a press release every week. And if you do, ask for permission first.
Bloggers do not have the time to respond to your unsolicited press releases. So do not expect us to respond, unless we need something from you.
Accept that bloggers write under their own schedule. Therefore, if you pitch them for a Christmas story in August, do not expect them to write about it before Halloween.
