Beginning Blogger How-To

• I started a Blog on Blogger.com (I chose that site since I have used it beforeJ)
• I opened a separate email address for my new blog
• I chose a random design and began writing about myself, my family, and my reasons for blogging… I wanted to be sure people KNEW who I was to make it more personal
• I set up a Facebook Business Page & Twitter Page
• I joined Blogger Communities
• I contacted another Mom Blogger (Mommy Rantings, which is a GREAT blog with so much information) and asked her opinions on what I should do next. (Let me take a quick moment to thank Mommy Rantings, without all of her advice, I would not be the Blogger that I am!)…
• As per Mommy Rantings advice, I wrote the first draft of my Sponsorship Letter. This is a letter that I could easily copy and paste into any email to any company. In this Sponsorship Letter I was sure to include information about my Blog and other social sites and communities. I made sure to answer the questions: why, how, what, & who…
  • Why they should sponsor a PR (not because I want free products, which by the way, I had one company tell me was in a request for PR that she had received.)
  • How they go about sponsoring a PR/ Giveaway on my Blog
  • What I will do to promote their PR/Giveaway
  • Who I am – in this I include all my stats, including: my Alexa Rating, monthly unique followers, Blog, Twitter, & Facebook Followers, etc…
• I then wrote a review on something I knew about, my own Usborne Books and More Business and promoted it, kind of as a test…
• At this time I wanted The Adventures of My Family of 8 to stand out a bit, so I upgraded my Blog design with Princess in Pigtails Designs… they were cost effective and I loved the other blogs they had designed.
• I began looking for companies to ask for PR. (This takes some time and searching.) I started with emails to PR/media people or info@companyname.com, with “May I help you with a Product Review” in the subject line but after a while I realized that was not working for me, so I changed my verbiage up… until I felt more secure. Remember you have to make it appealing so that companies want to work with you.
• I searched everywhere, through Etsy and other sites and finally started getting “okay’s” from companies.
• And away I went

• Write this – “I was wanting to know if your company would send me products to do product review on. My address is…” (Yes, this was something a Mom Blogger wrote to a company.) First of all, grammar, grammar, grammar… second, this just put a bad taste in the mouth of the company and made it seem like Mom Bloggers are only out for FREE PRODUCTS… This is so unprofessional. Thank GOD this company was ALREADY happy with my professionalism…
• Slack on follow through – I had one company who said they sent off products and the person kept putting them off for months. This is just bad taste…
• Hound companies, if a company does not get back to you, contact them once more (sometimes emails get lost) but that is it, don’t send them ten emails, LOL
• Forget to PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE… 

• Have a button you can send via HTML or attachment so that you can promote yourself
• Be organized, I tell you, I was not organized in the beginning and I was soooo overwhelmed
• Make a calendar… give yourself two weeks to a month, to try a product out! When a company agrees to a PR, this is what I do… I send them an email that says, “I have your review scheduled to run from May 1st – May 15th, so I need to receive your product by April 10th… I hope this works for you.”
• Make a document for all your sponsors to fill out so you have it on hand…I include the following on this document:
  • Contact Name
  • Contact Email
  • Company Website
  • Company Social Sites
  • Product(s) for review
  • Product(s) for giveaway
  • Discount or special for my readers
• Keep sponsors involved, let them know when:
  • Their review will be posted
  • Their review has been posted with link
  • Their review is over

I hope this helps you. I am available if you need any advice or assistance and I know many, many other Mom Bloggers are available, as well. I wish you luck and hope you will link up on my Tuesday Blog Hops so that I can follow you!