Here we go!
Oct 11, 2006 Blogging
This is the deal. I’m putting together a database of bloggers who are ready, willing and able to get FREE STUFF in exchange for reviewing said stuff on their blog. I decided to do this after goodies started coming in via my blog (books, CDs, DVDs and a couple hundred dollars worth of toys). I want to share the wealth. A lot of the pitches I get (and maybe that you get) aren’t even relevant to my audience, which told me that PR people need help finding the right venue for their product/service reviews.
My goal is to eventually have a more complete database with different kinds of bloggers but to help me with my learning curve, I’m starting out with parenting bloggers.
Bloggers will fill out a form and I will input their info to a database. Bloggers do NOT have to share their real names, addresses or contact info with me to participate. You can blog anonymously and be represented anonymously as long as you have an email address to share with me (it will NOT be listed on the database).
I will invite PR people (I have a rolodex full of them from my ePregnancy days) to use the database to find people to check out their stuff. They will choose how every many bloggers and send me their choices along with their pitch. I will forward the info to the bloggers (because PR people will NOT have access to your email) and you will then be able to contact the PR person directly if you’re interested. (In other words, you will never need to out yourself to me or to other bloggers but you would need to be comfortable sharing contact info with PR people.)
So what do you do when you get the stuff? You write it up to the tune of about 200 words (more is good but 200-ish is fine). Make it an honest review — you don’t have to say nice things if you don’t mean them. However, the PR people will be able to dictate that you, say, link their product’s name to its page or link a certain term — like “baby bath toy” — to their web page. Or they might ask you to include an image of the product that they will send you. (You will know this up front so it will already be part of your decision-making process when you get the pitch.) (Oh and this paragraph here? A little over 100 words so that gives you an idea.)
To make the database useable I need a bunch of bloggers. GetThemBlogging.com
If you fill it out, I’ll start collecting info and then next week I’ll get the database up and running. (I’m using a modified shopping cart script and that’s why it’s taking so long.) The database will be password protected so other bloggers will not be able to get in there and dig around. PR people will have to register to use it.
I want to start pushing some press about the database by early November so that I can convince PR people that they simply MUST get their toys, books, and gifts into our hot little hands to take advantage of holiday shopping. The success of this thing depends on getting enough bloggers and that’s where YOU come in. Please fill out the form if you’re interested. It doesn’t obligate you to a thing (except to put up with occasional pitches from PR people). We’re in beta now so I’m not advertising yet but you’re welcome to invite your friends.
If you’ve got questions about it, please let me know!! Meanwhile, pretty PLEASE fill out survey! (Also people who use livejournal or myspace or the like are welcome to participate. I’m working on a FAQ now.)
edited to add: I totally forgot parents of multiples as a category! I’m a twit! So if you’re the parent of multiples, please make note of that somewhere in the survey. There will definitely be a category for it.
October 11th, 2006 at 9:10 pm
Cool! I’m not a parent, but if you need a different demographic (24, grad student, outdoorsy, bookish), let me know and I am in!
October 11th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
Dawn, this is a brilliant idea! I’ve secretly been dying to know what you were working on that involved coding PHP and so on. I’m impressed! And I have to say that considering I work with so many PR people in my line, it sounds like a winner of an idea.
You can count me in, but I have to get robertsaintjohn.com up and running first (also around 11/1). I had to take a break after doing Barbe’s site, but am starting to feel ready to dig back in and move my blog from LJ along with some other stuff over to the new site. I’d fill out the survey, but I probably don’t have the data you need right now. But I’ll keep in touch on it, and if you think a 41 year old male child in SFO who has no kids but cats and a chihuahua would fit into this, I’d be happy to participate for no other reason than to help it succeed!
October 12th, 2006 at 1:37 am
What a great idea. I already submitted it.
October 12th, 2006 at 6:01 am
Oh how awesome!! I’ve been dying to know what you were doing over here. Going to feel out the survey now.
October 12th, 2006 at 8:12 pm
I am not a mother yet but I am trying! I am also a former nanny to six children (one family, including two sets of twins under the age of 3) and I am very similar to someone you might know as super nanny. Plus I love a good kids read or new kids toy, that way I can talk it up when I go to mom’s groups.
October 12th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Fantastic idea!
So…totally missed the part about writing in somewhere that I’m a parent of multiples. But…well…I’m a parent of multiples. How do I add that into the survey now, after the fact?