pitch policy

[last updated June 2010]

Dear Public Relations and Marketing types,

Hello!

I hope you read this before you hit the send button on your press release, I really do, because this is going to save us both whole lot of time.  

As a blogger who has thousands of visitors reading along every week and has cultivated a lot of great relationships based on genuine trust and friendship, I’m having a harder and harder time dealing with all of the requests I’m getting. I receive an average of four or five pitches every week. That’s why this pitch policy came to be!

So let’s get down to business.

If you’d like to advertise here at the Fishbowl, please contact me.

If this is about pitching your product or service, please read on. 

My name is Andrea and this is my personal website. I’m a writer and sometime photographer. I’ve been maintaining this little corner of the internet for over 11 years and the views I express here are entirely my own.

I’m often asked what this site is about. It’s a tough question to answer because I have so many interests, but if I had to narrow it down to one wee catchphrase I’d have to say that this site is a “family lifestyle blog” with a specific focus on healthy living and parenting life in the Ottawa area. Some people might even call this a MOMMY BLOG. Gack! (Free tip: please don’t start your email with “Dear Mommy blogger” … thank you!)

• My email address is andrea AT quietfish DOT com. You can also use this form to contact me.
• Your email should be brief, but contain enough information so I know what is being asked of me. I’d prefer not to receive a one-liner just asking for my mailing address.  
• I am located in Ottawa, Canada.
• I honestly don’t expect you to pretend that you’re a regular reader, but I do hope that you’ll have at least read enough to determine whether I’m the kind of person who would be interested in your offer. Your product has to be the right fit for me and my readers. 
• My readers are incredibly important to me and I value these individuals greatly. I am very selective about the products I write about. I don’t accept products or services just for the sake of getting free stuff. That’s not the main purpose of this website. I only accept products and services I will love and know my readers will love too.
• I cannot write about something I can’t personally recommend. It’s really not fair to my readers.
• Please keep in mind that I run advertising on this site. My patrons are good people and they’re helping keep this boat afloat. It’s not cool if Big Corporation sends me a three-dollar box of cereal in hopes that I blog about it.
• Your product or service must be easily available to Canadians. A U.S. based e-tailer with $35.00 shipping to Canada doesn’t count.
• Form letters! Ack! Please don’t just email me your press release. That is spammy. I prefer people to robots! I’m a person, you’re a person, so why not send me an original email? :) 
• Social media releases - I love it when PR people make it easy for me to get the information I need.
• My goal is always to be genuine and absolutely honest about everything I review. I don’t accept payment for writing about a particular product and I always clearly disclose whether I am writing about a product I have been given for free. If the product is useful to me or my family I will keep the product I have been given. I do not accept loaners.
• If your email is regarding a something for SavvyMom please say so in the subject line so your email doesn’t get lost in the pile.
• I receive many press releases and email notices and can’t respond to every one of them, sorry!
• Packaging! Eek! Think about the environment and please don’t overpackage your goods.
• Job offers are always welcome. ;)
• I’ve had inquiries from major ad agencies asking if they could pick my brain about blogger outreach. I love talking about social media marketing and mommy blogging and I’m happy to share my experience about what works and what doesn’t work. Contact me for details and info about my rates.

Things I will likely write about here or for SavvyMom (based on pitch emails to which I’ve responded) include:

• Special events, especially kid-friendly ones in the Ottawa area
• Family-friendly vacation destinations (like this one)
• Home decor, home furnishings (like this, for example)
• Great gear for families/kids
• Some charitable causes (like this one and this one and this one)
• Various gadgets and geekery (like this)
• Photography gear
• Film screenings/theatre events (like this one)
• Books. (Please email first. Reading time is limited to one chapter before I fall asleep at night!)
• Healthy living, healthy initiatives (like this one)
• Relevant websites/services to me and my readers (tricky, I know, but there it is!)

I do host occasional giveaways. Yippee for giveaways! I’ve done lots of them. (Here’s one I did with 3 Little Monkeys.) But hold on a sec, does your product match the criteria as above? Hint: It should! Contact me for details.

I’ve had the good fortune of being given the opportunity to participate in some fun social media marketing campaigns:

• Loblaw paid for my family’s groceries for a month so I could try some of their new products. Read the kickoff post here. Some of the resulting posts are here, here and here. The wrap-up post is here.
• I was flown down to Toronto by Hellman’s in order to participate in a discussion about their Real Food campaign. You can read about that here.
• I went to Disney World for the day
• Canadian Tire redecorated my back porch. Now I’m hoping someone to take on our basement. (HA!)

Things I will likely NOT respond to (a.k.a. pitch emails I’ve deleted):

• Events in Toronto (I live in Ottawa! Unless you’re planning on flying me down there I cannot attend your event.)
• Chemical household cleaners
• Junky convenience foods. Emails about frozen pizzas, mini-yogurts, single-serving overpackaged snacks, frozen turkeys, and sliced ham are deleted without pause.
• Anything that begins with “Dear Parenting Blogger”

That’s it for now. I expect this document to change over time, but I hope this provides a good starting point.

Any questions? Please contact me.

Thank you!!

p.s. Props to Kate Trgovac from whom I swiped this idea!