Eatingcleveland.com » Food PR http://www.eatingcleveland.com Cleveland Food Blog - Cleveland's Chubbiest Blog Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:10:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 How to Contact a Food Blogger http://www.eatingcleveland.com/2009/05/04/how-to-contact-a-food-blogger/ http://www.eatingcleveland.com/2009/05/04/how-to-contact-a-food-blogger/#comments Mon, 04 May 2009 11:28:00 +0000 Mark http://www.eatingcleveland.com/2009/05/04/how-to-contact-a-food-blogger/

How to Contact a Food Blogger

]]> Running a food blog is pretty fun, except for one thing, PR people.  Like everywhere else in the world, someone’s always got something to sell and they’d all love to use this site to do it.  I get about 5 solicitations a week from PR people and if there is one thing I have learned in my years of running this site, it is that most PR people need some help in trying to pitch a food blog.  So here it goes:

How to Contact a Food Blogger

1. Do not tell me how much you love my site.  This one pisses me off more than any other.  About 95% of the emails I get from PR people start off like this: “Hey, my name is X and I love your site!  I especially like your post on (insert post topic from 3 days ago), I do that all the time too!”

Guess what?  If as many people from PR firms that told me that they read this site actually did, I be making a ton of money and I’d probably have a spot on Oprah talking to her about my weight problem.

Be straight up and tell me you found my site while doing a search for food blogs, I’ll have a lot more respect for you.

2. If your product is not related to food, don’t bother. This website is about food, not animals, not sports and certainly not cars.  If you can’t find some way to tie your product to making my belly full, you probably need to do another Google search.

3. Be brief.  I won’t recognize your name so the chances of me deleting your email are good.  The faster I can read it, the better. So spare me the history of the company you’re pimping, the amazing things your product can do and all the locations near me where I can buy it. Get to the point.

4. Tell me who you really are. Don’t hide who you are.  It’s lame and I can find out who you are in about 10 seconds.

5. Tell me what you want me to do. If I have to respond to your email to find out what exactly it is you’re looking for me to do, chances are I won’t bother.  Be upfront and tell me exactly what you’re looking for.

6. Tell me why it’s worth my time. Am I helping a good cause?  Are you going to send me some samples?  My free time is limited and most of my writing schedule is filled up for the next few weeks, why should I fit you in?

7. Be polite. But not too polite. I know we’re not friends, but that’s no reason to be rude.  At the same time, too many compliments and superlatives make me think you’re a fiduciary.  You don’t want to be a fiduciary.



How to Contact a Food Blogger


Some other posts you might enjoy:]]> http://www.eatingcleveland.com/2009/05/04/how-to-contact-a-food-blogger/feed/ 1