The document provides tips and strategies for bloggers to get coverage from traditional publishers and media outlets. It discusses developing your brand and authority, creating compelling content, and building relationships with reporters. Some key tactics include perfecting your message and image, building a targeted publications list, crafting effective pitches, newsjacking on timely topics, and measuring results from coverage. The overall message is that with focused effort on quality over quantity and providing value to journalists, bloggers can have their voices heard more broadly through traditional media coverage.

1. News Jack City
Explore the Ways Bloggers Can
Have Their Voices Heard by
Traditional Publishers

2. Public Relations is just one of
those things.
“The ones who don’t get coverage will quickly dismiss it as useless and a waste of time and
money to pursue, while the ones who regularly get coverage just smile and hope that you
keep thinking that way...”

3. there’s hope as
Bootstrapping PR does
work.
Big Picture Day-to-Day Tactics
1. Perfecting your brand 1. Building your message
2. Creating content that 2. Creating a Publications
drives inbound Links Relations List
3. Building relationships with 3. Pitch, tweak and repeat
reporters

4. Why Traditional
PR matters? Improved
Employee
Clients
Morale
Partnerships Publicity
Money
Traffic
Credibility
Links

5. People Trust it More:
trust information on social
30 % networks.
71 % for newspapers.
70
trust cable news networks and 64 percent
% for network news.
34 % trusted blogs.

6. Everything Gets
Covered,
Everyone Writes
the Same Thing.

7. Becoming an Authority
In the last 3 years, MyBankTracker
has become a leading source and
authority in the personal-finance
space, as seen by our extensive
press coverage.

8. The Mirror Check -
Creating a Brand / Image
Do you blog or do you cover news?
Know who you are and what
you want.
Determine your image
by answering the following questions:
1. What’s different about you or your company?
2. What are you the expert of?
3. What makes you better than your competitors?
4. What’s your “Unique Selling Proposition” (USP)?

9. Publications that have created an image that
resonates well with Traditional Media:
DepositAccounts.com
1. Expert in Deposits and Interest Rates
2. Offers a POV that is timely and relevant
3. Scores for keywords on product vs
content specific
NerdWallet.com
1. Heavily focused on Credit Cards
2. Conduct surveys and opinion polls
3. Publish’s compelling case studies

10. Build Your
Publication List
It's important to note that PR isn't a numbers game,
as many think. It's a quality and relevance game.
1. Determine if you want national or local coverage (or
both).
2. Create a list of everywhere you want to be covered:
newspapers, radio, blogs, trade journals, etc.
3. Break it into larger categories, such as tech blogs,
mainstream media, local press, niché publications and
so on. Not just about the New York times, but
specific sections, such as the bucks blog
4. To determine relevance, read at least 5 articles. Truly
understand the writing style and typical news they
cover.

11. Find the Right
Contact
It's all about relevance, even more so
when you're looking for the right person
to pitch your story to.

12. A good way of finding the right person to pitch
your story to, is to go to the publication and
search for relevant content.
Unable able to track down
their email address:

13. The Drifting Technique
Step 1
Make a list of 5-15 competitors. You don’t have
to compete directly, but instead they can be in a
similar world as you.
Step 2
Find where they have been mentioned in the
media. If they haven’t been mentioned, find
competitors or related companies who have.

14. Step 3
Time to build out your Contact list. Here's the info
that my list usually contains:
Gain a good understanding of their personality.

15. The Power of HARO
HARO, an acronym for Help A Reporter Out. It is
one of the largest free source repository, sending
out over 1,500 queries from worldwide media
each week.
30,000 journalists use HARO to locate experts
for on-air interviews and articles.

16. Are you news worthy?
News is…
1. Some item of interest to the person reading the newspaper or
listening to the news.
2. Interesting information about your company and its activities.
3. Whatever the editor says it is.
4. Information that is timely, unique and local to the readership.

17. Are you news worthy?
Answer is…
It’s the reason McDonald’s McRib
#3 Whatever the continues to get coverage.
editor says it is.

18. Crafting The
Perfect Pitch
The pitch needs to show relevance, be
compelling and maintain brevity.

19. Some General Don’ts.
Avoiding the big Screw Ups
1. Avoid the Embargo - Generally speaking, 4. Skip the General Address - Most
writers don't like embargoes. It's a liability publications recommend that you send to
and a pain in the ass that many would like a generic email address like
to avoid. news@publication.com, it's the catch-all
for poor pitches.
2. Lose the Press Release - They're
bloated, impersonal and a thing of the 5. Put Down the Phone - We live in a digital
past. If you just want links on Yahoo! age, where phones are a secondary thing.
news, sure, go for it.
6. Don't Suck - Most importantly, don't
3. Don't Double Pitch - Don't send the suck. Be a good person, not someone
same pitch to multiple people at the same that's just on the hunt for links. Provide
publication. the writer with value, help them do their
job and be awesome. It's amazing what
good intent can do.

20. Were we mess up on the pitch. We get wordy, dance around the purpose of the
email, attach a press release and ultimately fail miserably.
Focus on driving those clicks and Keep it brief and call out the important
1 extra page views. A Subject line is the 2 parts.
title to your article.
• Start with a single sentence that
• Tip: Most journalists have (at least) two explains your angle up front. In some
email addresses. One for the public cases try bolding this sentence.
(the catch-all) and one that they
actually use.
Try and add a little personality to it that
• Tip: Journalists look for quick facts / 3 matches up well with the personality of
tips, while publications (FastCompany) the writer.
look for stories / experiences.
• As we learned from their social profiles.

21. “
The story will be about the efficiencies that 7-Eleven
brings to the convenience store as a result of its
massive scale and business innovations, and how their
expansion plans (up to 100 new Manhattan locations in
the next five years) might pose a threat to a mainstay of
”
New York life: the corner bodega.

22. The Journalist Formula
Reporters and Producers follow a formula that will
usually include:
A Hero A Bad Guy An Authority
Consumer or those Big corporation YOU from
affected (in most cases) yourwebsite.com

23. Make it Rain
Sunday evening is a great time to pitch. Most folks are
lazy, and aren't willing to put in the time on a Sunday.
Be ready for a response - The phone interview:
1. Know what you’re talking about.
2. Be energetic and positive.
• Tip: Smile while you’re on the phone. It automatically makes you
sound friendlier.
3. Always tell the reporter something unusual or unexpected that will
make you stick out.
4. Be definitive. Have a clear opinion on the subject. This is going to
help them get that quote they need.

24. Growing Your Relationship
All it takes is one reporter.
Treat each of these relationships like gold,
and you can count on constant coverage.
Ways I keep myself top of mind:
Adaptable. Some opportunities won’t Help them formulate ideas.
always be perfect. Stay flexible and you Remember there isn’t a story that
will be seen as a dependable source. doesn’t get coverage. Offer story ideas
in which you have expertise.
Going above and beyond. Make their
job easier. After a call or interview, send Promote and drive traffic.
follow up info such as links, supporting If you contribute to the success of a
materials, etc. piece, the reporter will be more willing
to talk to you again.

25. News Jacking
The Art of News Jacking is all about trying
to get quoted on timely topics.

26. Once you’ve built a relationship, email them when
breaking news happens and give your own unique
perspective. Keep it short and sweet.
Find News to Jack Formulate a Strategy Instantly get your Take in
REAL-TIME TO-DO LIST in Real-Time the Market
STRATEGY QUESTIONS POSSIBLE ACTIONS
1. Be open to serendipity
(happy accidents) 1. Focus on a topic that you 1. Directly contact a journalist who
can act in real-time might be interested
2. Monitor keywords,
phrases & trending word 2. How are you related to 2. Blog your take on the news
clouds the breaking news?
3. Tweet is using an established
3. Track journalists & 3. Why should the media hashtag
media outlets care?
4. Follow Twitter hashtags

27. Example of News Jacking
1
Bankrate.com releases a study on
free checking still alive at CU’s.
2 A research firm Aite Group also
released a study about banks
and credit unions that is relevant.
Pitch: Free checking is still alive.
3 Just have to switch to a Credit Union.
Great, except Aite Group says those
Formulate our own story by
combining the two points.
offering it are underserving consumers.
Therefore is free checking worth it?

28. Ways Measure Results
Key metrics like: social shares, links, referral
traffic, and lead generation.

29. Keep track of the number of
links to your coverage
Pay attention to your organic traffic for searches
leading to your site that relate to the topic discussed
in your coverage.
Use tools such as Topsy (free) Trackur ($),
Sprout Social ($) or Radian6 ($$) to monitor
buzz across the social web.
Try to understand how customers heard
about you. Include a “how did you hear about
us” option in your contact forms.

30. Do This to Get
News Coverage:
Fit any of these Categories - Big money, hot investing trends,
1 health issues, seasonal stories, underdogs, technology, political,
flavor of the month (bank fees).
2 Make it Timely - Make it feel as if it is happening right now.
Be always Available - The Journalist Formula. Remember reporters
3 are always need an expert.

31. Q&A