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tiptoe.jpgLest you think blogs are a mere blip in the landscape, consider that Slashdot, and a growing number of influential blogs, have millions of unique readers per month. These top blogs are attracting national advertisers. They also offer many excellent opportunities for pitching your ideas or products.
Blogging software provider Blogger.com alone has more than 2 million registered users, and LiveJournal.com reports 1.5 million. No one actually knows how many active blogs there are worldwide, but Blogcount (really, there is a blog that counts blogs) estimates between 3.5 million and 4 million.
As Maureen Ryan pointed out in The Chicago Tribune, advertisers have started to realize that some of their most well-heeled customers spend a decent chunk of their Web time reading such blogs as the politically obsessed Eschaton, the Washington, D.C., gossip site Wonkette and the cell-phone fanatic blog HowardForums.
Blogads, which brings together advertisers and bloggers, offers ad rates tied to its clients’ Internet traffic — the more visitors, the higher the rate for an ad on that site. Given that some sites have been running as many as 15 ads at a time, Ryan notes, a little back-of-an-envelope math shows that several of Blogads’ top clients are likely clearing as much as $3,000-$5,000 a month.
What impact and relevance can a press release, press conference, press kit, or any other tool of traditional PR have in the face of this communication revolution? Very little, according to many observers including influential San Jose Mercury News technical columnist Dan Gillmor, an active blogger “When the audience can use these tools,” Gillmor blogged, “the emergent journalism that follows will barely resemble what we do today.”
Maybe, but my bet is that bloggers, like any journalists, will always need news and good sources.
Put Bloggers on Your Media List
Bloggers need to be in the radar of anyone who wants publicity. When pitching bloggers, follow the advice of the late blues queen Sippie Wallace who noted,