In my 6 years of blogging, I’ve had some pretty terrible pitches.
There’s often talk on the blogging community over at Twitter at some of the terrible pitches and offers we get as bloggers. Some are funny, some are a bit cringy and some are downright insulting.
Here are some pitches and collaboration offers I’ve had over the past few years and how they’ve made me react.
The ‘link to me’ emails.
I get dozens of these types of emails every week. Someone has written an article on something similar to one of mine and they want me to link to it.
The trouble is, they expect this for nothing. They try to act like me linking to their article will be good for me because it’s a good resource. When really they are link building. I get why they would want to try and get a link from my website that has a high DA. It’s a tough one really because I don’t want to sound all bitter like I am keeping all my success to myself, but I have spent 6 years building my blog and working on my SEO and domain authority – why should I link to someone who has never even spoken to me before to ask for a free link?
I’m pretty easy going when it comes to giving links to people I know and love though. Just a hint there…
I ignore these emails. If you want me to link to you, try the following:
- Have a relationship with me. I am all over social media. I have a blog comment section. How you tried talking to me and building a trusted relationship over time before asking me for a favour?
- Offer me some form of compensation. Tweeting the link to your 74 followers is not compensation!
Following up and following up.
Once I have ignored your email, please stop following up.
If you have to start an email with
‘I’m sorry if I’m bugging you but…’
Then you are probably bugging me so don’t press send!
Just got two emails from different people like that!
Not being upfront about the collaboration.
Yikes, this one is a toughie.
Can I just start and say the best emails to get are the ones that are direct and to the point?
Email me and say:
I have this campaign that requires you to do XYZ and the budget is £XYZ.
Want to go one better? Tell me the deadline for the campaign too! This makes things so easy because I am often checking my emails on the go when I’m trying to do a million different things at once. If I’m able to see what you need and confirm I can work with you there and then, its perfect!
The worst type of pitches are those that allude to form of compensation but don’t really say what. Sometimes they are actually sponsored posts with a budget, sometimes they are product reviews and other times they are just… well a big disappointment.
I understand that sometimes PRs and brands want to have a bit of a chat before jumping into the nitty gritty – but please, jump right in. I am sure you are probably just as busy as me and surely you would like me to just say ‘this one isn’t for me’ if it’s under budget or the deadline is too tight? Then you can spend your time on something more worthwhile like finding other bloggers and I can go back to mindlessness scrolling Instagram wishing I was being more productive.
Asking too much.
If you want to work with me, a brief or idea of what angle you want to go at is fine. But you know what isn’t fine?
- Two blog posts
- An Instagram post
- 3 Instagram stories
- A YouTube Video
- Two tweets
- At least 10 images
I have had requests asking for very specific things like the above. If you are requesting so an in-depth amount of coverage, you need to have the budget to justify it as that is a lot of work!
Q1: Why was Get Blogged created?
Eventually, we had too many bloggers and too many brands to continue doing this with our sanity intact! Our team sat down and planned the creation of a platform that would allow bloggers, influencers, brands and site owners to all work together – hassle free!
Q2: What are your core values?
Q3: What type of collaborations do you offer?
Firstly, we offer brands the opportunity to build their own blogger list by placing an ad. This is where Bloggers apply directly to the brand. This is good for those who need Bloggers to review their products. We offer a managed link building/blogger outreach service, which cuts out the need for the business owner to do the legwork of link building. Lastly, there are Social Shoutouts. This is where a brand would commission us to find Bloggers willing to promote their business on their social networks.
Q4: How valuable do you think bloggers are to marketing?
So, so valuable. We have many conversations with business and brand owners who are so enlightened when we show them the benefits of working with Bloggers. Benefits would include increased traffic, better brand awareness, increased site authority and better search engine rankings.
Q5: What things a blogger does make you want to work with bloggers time and time again?
Q6: What things types of things make you never want to work with a blogger again?
Missing deadlines, no apologies and being blasé about it. A quick note to say the assignment will be late goes so much further with us than someone we have to chase multiple times. We have a blacklist button, and we’re not afraid to use it! The deadlines are created by our clients, so we’re letting them down if work isn’t submitted on time.
PR companies really need to see this. I’m so sick of the link to me emails as ones as the ones offering me their posts. It’s like I know you just want to use my blog to post your own links. I also hate it when their tone acts like they’re doing me a favor and they can’t bothered to figure out my name before writing to me.
Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday and a very happy new year!
You’ve got some really good points here.
This was interesting to read! It’s silly for them to expect something for nothing. Like those crap comments that say, “Nice post darling, I loved reading it. Kiss Kiss. Follow for follow?” Er- no, sod off!
As a communications student I’ve learned that you are 100% correct, but a lot of people don’t see that. They don’t really know how these types of things work. If anybody sees this comment the best thing to know when trying to collaborate/work with other bloggers is TELL THEM WHAT’S IN IT FOR THEM!! Show people what they get out of it first, don’t waste their time.