Just a little general help

icb01co2 · #1 (**permalink**) 04-18-2005, 10:49 PM

Hi all,
I am about to launch a blog where a group of us will honestly review a bunch of products. No real theme as such were gonna discuss anything from music to gadgets etc. Were using amazons affiliate program to link to the products after each review. This is more of a mess around for me to enhance my development skills and learn a little about affiliate marketing. Having said that i will be using this a learning curve on getting traffic to a site as well.

I will be spending a little on google adwords but i really dont know what keywords i should be pusing, aside from the variations of the specific products we will be reviewing. Aside from that im interested in the press release thing. The problem here is that i think of a press release as information about a new product or service. Would it be at all possiable to create a press release for such a general blog type site?

I'd like to mass mail people, probably in the age range 18-30 as that will probably be the target group. But how can i do that prior to building up a mail list? Is it possiable to buy email addresses and is it considered spam to send a one off introductory email without prior opt-in from the people?

Any thoughts, ideas?

icb01co2 · #2 (**permalink**) 04-19-2005, 02:06 PM

Anyone?

labeler2003 · #3 (**permalink**) 04-20-2005, 02:48 PM

Build up significant content first, give visitors something to comment on when they arrive to check out your site/blog. Then send out a press release. Until you "prove" you are for real, the press (and most visitors) will ignore your release.

Don't ignore your local newspaper when sending out a press release. Most local papers put their stories online--and that's good exposure for you.

I don't like sending emails to people who have not opted in. Write an article about what you are doing and look for emailed newsletters (or even printed newsletters) that might be interested in publishing it.

m4K · #4 (**permalink**) 04-22-2005, 04:16 PM

I personally think if you people havent asked you directly to use their details for promotional features (ie, mass emailing) then you should stear clear, iv seen far to many people buy mailing lists from "reliable" sources and end up getting in trouble with spam cops and resulting in their ISP ip block being black listed. Never a pretty thing when your intentions are honest.

your name icb01 rings a bell. which university did you study internet computing at?

- Mark