First off, Darren, thank you for publishing my post!

We do approach more than just “mommy blogs”… I just used that term in a generic sense to cover blogs and web sites that would be a good fit. Some were definitely “daddy blogs”, which, being a daddy, I particular like to see those!

Using a third-party service to manage your advertising does not, and should not, stop you from suggesting to someone, who has contacted you directly, that they should advertise: give them the info that they need to place an ad. Quite frankly, it shouldn’t matter if you handle your own advertising, use a service, or a mix of the two. It’s true that most people you contact won’t advertise. It’s just like getting people to sign up to your email list, most won’t, but some will. You never know until you try. One thing is certain: if you do nothing, they will most likely do the same!

For those bloggers who are successful enough to get an overwhelming amount of review requests, some automation may help. Setup a “review” email address; on your contact page have that address listed separately. Have an automatic reply message sent back to the sender stating that you get an overwhelming amount of review requests and that you will read their email, however it may take some time. Suggest that they consider placing an ad on your site and give them the information they need to do so. This frees you up to respond to the requests you would like to respond to, and at the same time, may result in additional ad revenue. I know what some of you are saying, and you are correct, most won’t advertise, but some may, and you’ve done nothing but setup an auto-responder… that works 24/7… even when you’re sleeping! You can do the same thing with a separate address for advertising as well (if you don’t sell “inconspicuous text links” put that information in the auto-responder email along with the types of ads you do sell, and how to advertise).

Don’t rely on a third-party ad service to the exclusion of not replying to people. If you have people contacting you directly, respond. Even if you’re small you can setup an auto-responder, like I just described, to funnel those contacts to your service. Once it’s setup, it takes none of your time.

Remember, copy is important. When you create your “canned” reply template, or, when you setup your auto-responder email, take the time to make it a good sales tool, after all, that’s what it is. Don’t just fire an email back saying you’re too busy, but here’s the link to advertise. Thank them for contacting you, explain a little about you and your blog, give some information on the types of traffic you get, etc. Just as if you were writing an ad yourself, you’re trying to increase the conversion ratio of tire-kickers and freebie seekers into ad buyers.

Sincerely,
Fred Black

P.S. In the original article, I mention a photo… I guess that didn’t make it to Darren. It was a photo of a group of birds sitting on a power line: all the birds were facing the same way, except for one!

90% of the people who contact me assume that I’ll just be wetting my pants at the thought of getting something like a free DVD and of course it won’t be a problem for me to watch it, love it, and write a long post extolling its virtues.

When I instead propose that they purchase an ad they either never respond or say that they have no budget for it. And I know that they don’t really want an ad because ads are more expensive and much less effective than a blog post.

I think your vision of herds of people out there waiting to throw money at mommy bloggers is cute but nowhere close to reality.

On the other hand, if I’m wrong about that, please feel free to throw money at me and my mommy blog. I’d be happy to sell you ad space.

I’ll be sure to remember this post next time something like that happens, thanks.

Maybe it’s because I have a coblogger that it’s not as big a deal for me. Maybe being a newer mommyblogger I’m just excited that people care what I think…but really, it’s not in my nature to be jaded (mostly) so I don’t think I’ll be changing my approach anytime soon.

At some point, we plan on putting a Featured Product of the Month on the blog and letting that be the only paid advertisement, but really, we’re having so much fun with mommyblog reviews that I cannot imagine just ignoring a request.

There are people behind those emails, and like Gary V. said when he was asked how he deals with all the noise, “There is no noise.” I refuse to believe that just because someone is from a PR firm it somehow makes them less human. We all want to be treated decently! No one wants to be noise that gets filtered or deleted without a second thought.

Unless you’re giving me a hundred million dollars from a lottery I never entered. Then I won’t respond :-)

Fred – thanks for the upsell suggestion. While we thought of putting up ad space, it was still such a new idea I never thought of upselling the people I was already talking to.

The majority of mom blogs I’ve seen are using an ad-management tool, often run by someone else. so they don;t deal with advertisers directly, and in a lot of cases are really unsure as to how they would go about it, what they would charge, etc…

But you still have excellent points, I think they’re right on.

Having said that, I think the writer needs a little lesson in marketing – why only target ‘mommy’ blogs – there are a lot of ‘daddy’ blogs like mine out there – we are just as proud of our children and a review from some of these sites may have been interesting.

We no longer live by the old stereotypes – dads are now stay at home parents whilst mom goes out to work.

Good Luck

Good Luck

Leon

jess

By the way…if I ever get famous (chances of that happening are highly unlikely considering I am completely talentless –except I can do a pretty good kookaburra impersonation)…I will never ever forget the little people……ever ; )

By the way…if miss famous is reading this (chances of that are highly unlikely cause she’s probably too busy being famous) you have 24 hours till I put my post up….max.

Small and mid-size blogs would actually be “putting cash in the trash” by negotiating this way, as the time spent would not justify the money earned.

I think your point is valid, but it just doesn’t apply to many of us.

Or we get 20 requests like this per week and find that 90% of them are not a good fit for our audience, and 90% of them offer us an insultingly low fee for ads. Half of them want “inconspicuous text links,” which we don’t sell.

I’d love to take advantage of every sincere, appropriate offer like yours, but sometimes finding them is like finding a needle in a haystack.

If I could only send that pitch to all of the gazillions of people that request reviews. 80-90% of them completely miss the mark when it comes to thinking our readers would be interested in their products.

Kudos to you for at least targeting your PR efforts! Wish more people would do the same!