Obviously, walking that fine line in the beginnings of an outreach is difficult. In the end, though, you should be a reader and the blogger should know that. Until that relationship is solid, though, it’s tricky to balance genuine interest with their perception you’re just selling something.

Thanks for the comment!

I agree with most of what you say, but the one problem I had was with your suggestion that PR people should act like they read the blog on a regular basis. While this might work for some people, some bloggers can see right through this. When I was at BlogHer last summer, one of the mommybloggers (CityMama, I believe) said that she hated when bloggers pretended like they read her blog all the time, saying things like “Oh, how was your trip to Hawaii?” She knew they didn’t actually care and were just doing it to seem friendly. So I wonder if that’s really such a smart way to go about pitching. I prefer to actually say it straight out that I know they don’t normally do product-reviews, but that I found them from X blog or while searching for X and I thought they would be interested in such-and-such’s product or event. Most seem to be pretty receptive to the fact I’m not BS-ing them.

But I agree with your research strategies and I also agree that it’s important to make it seem like you just want to share knowledge - not necessarily get a hit out of it. It seems the less pressure, the better.