There is a much more affordable option for small businesses. It is called PRLeads. For much less money you sign up for just the topic you want and get actual ProfNet leads.

In my non-blogging life I am a book marketer and we highly recommend PRLeads and I personally know Dan Janal who runs this service. It is the real deal.

What happened was I saw that she had written a post in which she said that being a problogger was like being an astronaut–it’s shockingly cool, but no one actually makes a living blogging. So, knowing that this wasn’t the case ;-), I wrote a post politely countering that point of view and included a link back to Penelope’s post.

She came to my blog to see who was linking to her, saw what I did for a living (virtual assistant working with folks with virtual internet companies) and thought that also sounded like a “shockingly cool” job (although nowhere near as cool as being a problogger ;-)).

So, she contacted me and told me she’d like to find a way to feature me in one of her articles. We did the interview, and Penelope’s article was syndicated in 20+ newspapers, which pleases me excessively!

As Darren pointed out, there isn’t necessarily a huge upsurge of traffic after being mentioned in mainstream print, but it does help establish you as an expert in your field, and if you’re featured in one print article, then it’s more likely that you’ll become known to other journalists and seen as reliable resource for their articles. This is what happened with me–a few days after Penelope’s article was published, another journalist contacted me saying she had seen me mentioned in Penelope’s article and wanted to interview me too.

As part of my work, I’ve also deliberately tried to get publicity for clients and their blogs by pitching story ideas to mainstream media folks, and to tell you the truth, it’s never worked.

What seems to work better is letting things happen naturally, just being engaged in the blogging community, being focussing on being really excellent at what you do, and then when you come into contact with a journalist, to be as helpful and friendly to them as possible.

Also, one thing I’ve seen some bloggers do is set up “Press Rooms” on their blogs with detailed contact info, a short bio, possible story angles, and a list of their previous media appearances. The easier you make things for the journalist, the better!

Good advice.

Its a good idea to catch hold of a journalist.Guess one more thing i will try to do in 2007.Thx for the tip

If your trying to get your blog noticed then be brief but to the point, if your trying to promote an article you have written that you think they would find useful, write an extract and link to the article on your blog, so that if they like the extract they can read the rest of the article online.

Reporters are busy people :)

Thank you.

That’s how I made it anyway. :)

brem