Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion brought up “The Underground Blogosphere”, the world of email communication that transpires daily between bloggers. Kent of Newsome.org took this a step farther and created 5 rules for emailing another blogger about your post, or bloggers emailing bloggers in general. TDavid of Make You Go Hmm added “How to Get a Blogger’s Attention” with 4 more rules.
A lot of bloggers email each other with the hope that they will encourage the other blogger to write about what they are writing about. Others are seeking mentors, helpful support along the blogging path.
On the issue of emailing another blogger to encourage them to write about your blog or your post, I agree with these rules whole heartedly. In brief, they are:
- Develop a relationship with the blogger before you email.
- Don’t just start sending indiscriminate emails to people who don’t know you.
- Be brief, kind, and appreciative.
- State why the post might be of interest to the recipient.
- Be patient.
- Contact people the way they prefer to be contacted (not everyone likes email – IM, IRC, blog comment, etc.).
- Be sure the person hasn’t already written about the same thing.
- Random selfless acts communicated separately. [Say thank you in a separate email.]
- Be sure it is among your best stuff and in the blogger’s field of interest.
These are fabulous, and while it is said buried in these rules, I’d like to add number ten.
10. Have No Expectations and Silence Is Not An Answer.
Just because you went out of your way to contact the blogger, don’t expect them to respond, react, or do anything. Expect nothing and be pleasantly surprised when you get something.
If the blogger has not responded, do not make crap up in your head about what they are thinking or feeling about your email.
Silence is not an answer. It is merely the sound of nothing. Honor nothing as nothing until you have more information.
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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network
Lorelle on WordPress 
5 Comments
First: I LOVE your #10. Perfect.
To further ad: I find a lot of times that while I do NOT receive an email reply, I do see eventually that the blogger has indeed done a post on what I wrote them about and has credited me. So I then send a separate, short and sweet email just to say thanks and so the blogger knows that I wasn’t just hitting them up as a one time thing and that I actually read their blog regularly.
Lorelle,
Just found this post through Neil Patel’s site. Great post! A friend and I were just talking about this the other day because some take the stance that communicating with bloggers about link exchanges and content sharing etc is very much different than a ‘regular’ business communication/relationship.
The core remains the same though doesn’t it. It’s all about respect, giving before receiving, being friendly and in it for the long-term relationship. Trust is key too.
Too many people disregard common courtesy, and often seem to have their brains switched off as they run frantically to ‘connect’ with anyone they can – trying to make a quick buck or see instant results.
It just doesn’t work that way. Your last point is huge. A persistent push done in the right way to check in can and usually does pay off. For some reason many minds have been programmed to think that no answer means failure – when really that isn’t the case – it can simply mean the other party is busy or forgot.
Thanks Lorelle – this is a very relevant topic.
-Mike
Thats a really smart tips for sending an e-mail to a blogger. Thanks for sharing them. It will really help both the bloggers conversating. Thank You!
But the question is how do we find the email address if they have not mentioned it? To be on a safer side No spamming intended.
You should not be looking for their email address. Look for a contact form or their social media channels and connect that way. Get to know them, participate in comments, become known before you ever ask anything of them for yourself. That will always get you further.
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[…] Rules on How to Email a Blogger Seems that I am late to the game here as Lorelle goes over a list slowly being created on Rules on How to E-mail a Blogger. Kent of Newsome.org started the list with five items, TDavid of Make You Go Hmm added four more rules, and Lorelle added a final rule, rounding out the list to ten. […]
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