A big value proposition that comes with Browse My Stuff is that it provides a great opportunity to build a relationship with bloggers in a particular field. In Learning, Extended Brain and Topic Hubs, I discussed my experience in launching Speaking Pro Central.  I realized that I should know a lot more about professional speaking and thought that it would make sense to create a Topic Hub that around professional speaking to help my own speaking services.  It also helped me meet many of the top players in that space.

Along the way, I’ve come to realize that there’s quite a bit to learn about how to effectively work with other bloggers.  I’ve been collecting information on this topic for a bit and some of the best resources on Blogger Outreach, Blogger Relations, Blogger PR and Blogger Buzz are:

1. How to Suck Up to a Blogger
2. Blogger Relations: Two Approaches For PR
3. How to launch a successful blogger-outreach program in one day - The Viral Garden
4. Enough With Blogger Strategies!
5. Blogger Relations Series: Bloggers Talk To Agencies and Brands
6. Conversation Agent: Blogger Outreach - it’s not Your Program, it’s their Content
7. Blogger Outreach: New Research Study Attempts to Define Success
8. 10 Tips for a Successful Blogger Outreach Campaign
9. Marketing blogs and corporate social media strategies for innovative companies
10. Do Your Homework BEFORE You Reach Out to Bloggers
11. When is it a Good Idea to Include Bloggers in Your Media Outreach?
12. Online Publishers: Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow
13. The SEO benefits of blogger outreach
14. 5 Tips for Blogger Outreach
15. Blogger Outreach
16. Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media: blogger outreach
17. Pitching Bloggers
18. PR and Blogging Outreach: Practical Tips
19. Using Social Media: Part 5 Blogger Relations
20. Just what is blogger relations anyway?
21. Blogger Relations 101
22. Rethinking Blogger Relations
23. Blogger Relations: Two Approaches For PR
24. Six Steps to Better Blogger Relations
25. The Secret Sauce for the Perfect Pitch - Blog Outreach
26. Enough With Blogger Strategies!
27. Top Ten Things You Can Do To Get Blogged
28. What I Want PR and Marketing Professionals To Know
29. 20 Tips for Pitching Bloggers
30. 5 Effective Linkbait And Link Generation Strategies

Some suggestions from these resources and based on what I’ve done in the past:

1. Search for related bloggers via Google Blog Search or by using delicious and the tag “blog” in addition to keywords.  For example: http://delicious.com/tag/blog+elearning
2. Scan the blog first to make sure it’s a good fit
3. Search for past discussion of the topic
4. Collect some of those discussions so you can add value later
5. I keep this list in a Google Spreadsheet.  It contains the blog names, URL, where I found the blog, name of the blogger, and their email address, status information, last contact date, next step, date of next step and notes.
6. Subscribe to the blog - it’s best if you can read it for a while to get to know the blogger before you ever contact them.
7. Comment on the blog while you are getting to know them.
8. Be transparent in your communications
9. Customize your emails
10. Grammar and spelling do count
11. Don’t disregard smaller bloggers
12. Add value when you write to them, provide interesting information and show you’ve done your homework
13. Give bloggers link love - often the best way to engage them is through a blog post that links to them
14. I personally like to set up a 30 minute call if it’s appropriate.  Most often it is for what I’m doing, but it’s different in different situations.

Problems I still have:

1. Many bloggers make it hard to contact them.  It’s easiest when there’s an email address, but often you are left with a contact form or by leaving comments.  These sometimes seem to go into a black hole.
2. Sometimes it can even be hard to find their name.