Emailing Your Favorite Blogger
I get a ton of emails everyday. I’m sure that is the same with other big bloggers like Shoemoney and Problogger. Have you ever sent an email to your favorite blogger and got nothing in return? Want to improve your odds of getting a reply? Then follow these simple steps.
Put Yourself In The Blogger’s Shoe
You need to tailor your email to the blogger you are targeting. The bigger they are, the less time they have to read a long email. A minute or two to read an email doesn’t sound like much, but when you multiply that by hundreds of emails, you’re looking at several hours of work. That makes it very hard to do a 4-hour work week. The less work you create for the target blog, the higher the chance of getting a reply.
Don’t Ask First, Just Do
You want to interview a professional blogger like Shoemoney? Don’t ask for an interview. Just send it. I’ve received countless emails asking for interviews. The author ask if I agree, they will email me the questions. You would get a much better chance of getting a reply if you send the questions with the email. The last interview I did, the blogger had the five questions right in the email.
I’ve also received emails asking if I would like hear a business idea but the person doesn’t offer any detail on what the idea is. I’m always open to new business ideas. There is no need to email me (or any other blogger) asking if I am interested. Just state the idea in the first email and I can give you an answer right away instead of playing email tag.
Get To The Point
Checking emails is one of the most time consuming task I do. I get hundreds of emails everyday. The faster I can go thought them, the better. When sending an email to a big name blogger, make it as short as possible. Don’t chic chat, just get to the point. Your chances of getting a reply is in direct relation to the length of your email - the longer the email, the less chance of a reply. As a general rule; if you can’t get your point across in three paragraphs, don’t brother sending until you do.
I’ve received long details emails from reader telling me they did a review on my blog and how much they enjoyed doing it and how they plan to make money online, etc. Then they get taken a back when the only reply they get from me is, “Batch 92.” I like people to get to the point so I do my replies the same way. That’s why many emails will just get an URL in their reply when they ask me a question that has already been answered in the blog. Lately, I’ve been sending the URL to the ebook.
Get to the point. Emails are for conducting business. Save the chic chat for MSN.
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So the 14 page email I sent didn’t get read?
Reply to this commentunlikely…
Reply to this commentMost likely filtered straight to the trash.
Reply to this comment14 is too short. He said: keep short, but not that short
Reply to this comment14 might be a little too much; keeping it under a dozen pages should be just right.
Reply to this commentI’m sure he printed it out, put it in a spiral bound book, and is just carrying it around with him waiting for the best chance to crack into it
Reply to this commentDang, I was gonna send him a 59-page PDF. Since he gave us one, I wanted to return the favor.
Reply to this commentGreat tips. I will email You John, shortly
Reply to this commentif i do email john, I Will keep it short
Reply to this commentI followed a bunch of the tips above and it ended up working out for me
Reply to this commentI emailed you once and was surprised at how fast you replied ^^
And “Don’t ask, just do” - that’s actually a good tip. I never thought about that before, but it does make sense, especially with the interview thing.
If they don’t reply, then no, you can’t interview them. If they do reply, the yes and you have all your answers right there instead of having to wait for another email.
Very nice tip.
Reply to this commentjohn is getting another interview?
Reply to this commentdid you send you questions already?
Reply to this commentI agree that sending along potential interview questions with the e-mail asking if they’d like to be interviewed is a great idea. I’ve done interviews with another site of mine and I only recently learned that little trick. I can only imagine the number of interviews I missed out on before!
Reply to this commentI think this goes along with doing something that no one else think about doing. Now since everyone is thinking about doing this, I wonder what the next thing will be?
Reply to this commentI was going to email you some picks of hot “chicks” but, oh well.
Michael
Reply to this commentBut that would be straight to the point!
Reply to this commentHaha no words necessary — it can’t get more straight-to-the-point than that.
Reply to this commentOr you can send them to google with site search “site:johnchow.com”
Reply to this commentlol, I made a typo too.
replace picks with pics
Reply to this commentTypos — happens to the best of us, so don’t worry about them next time. Cheers!
Reply to this commentIt does, I wish there was a way to edit comments, even if it was just for 10 minutes after you posted your comment. I hate hitting submit and then seeing a silly typo…
Reply to this commentI hear you. BlogCatalog has that feature in their discussions. Doesn’t Wordpress have something like it? Them being great and all, I’d imagine they would’ve come up with something brilliant like it a long time ago.
Reply to this comment@John Chow
Reply to this commentAnswer my interview
Why don’t you write me back anymore John? I thought you loved me? lol…
I get a bunch of email everyday from readers and others. Some of it is unreadable due to poor grammar and spelling.
I recently decided to open up some forums on my site. I figure if people take the time to leave a question in the forums I can answer it once and hopefully future readers will look there first before asking me the same question.
Reply to this commentWhat percentage of your e-mails are worthy of a reply John? I imagine most of them just get trashed.
Reply to this comment20% maybe, there are far too many junk mails nowadays
Reply to this commentBlogebrity or not, I’m afraid a person has their “unfair” share of spam and nonsensical emails. Whether it’s just one or 100, they’re a pain nevertheless.
Reply to this commentI must say John has always replied promptly to all my emails. Thanks John!!
Reply to this commentI sent him one email and got a surprisingly quick response, too. Looks like short and unsweetened correspondence works quite well in this case.
Reply to this commentMan, I need to think of something to send to John so that I can get a response quickly like y’all have!
Reply to this commentWell just make sure it’s something useful to both you and him. The shortest thing would probably be “Hi!” and his reply would probably be “Hi!”
Reply to this commentThanks for the great information
Reply to this commentChit chat, John. It’s chit chat.
And you shouldn’t tell readers to save the chit chat for MSN, because now you’re going to get emails asking for your MSN.
Reply to this commentI quite like like the sound of chic chat though. Sounds high-class…almost French….
Reply to this commentChic chat — sounds like something off Project Runway or ANTM.
Reply to this commentIf I ever e-mail you I now know what to do.
Reply to this commentSpeaking of Batches. When can we expect Batch 89 & 90?
Reply to this commentYep I have emailed many top bloggers and have recieved the reply from them.
Subject: To the point
Body: Concise message inline with subject
Thanking them for their time and energy.
Vijay
Reply to this commentThat template should work, I think. It would definitely get the blogger’s attention and maybe even elicit a response.
Reply to this commentAgreed, most people like stuff that doesn’t muck around and gets straight to the point.
Reply to this commentI enjoy the occasional frills, but never on business or formal correspondence, that’s for sure.
Reply to this commentWhat do people email you about? It seems like you put a lot of great information on your site everyday!
Reply to this commentOh, you know how people are, always curious and ever so relentless. I’d imagine those emails to be made up of mostly business proposals and how-to questions. Also, as John mentioned, a few interview requests.
Reply to this commentCan’t forget the few beggars. People wanting John to buy them a new car for example
Reply to this commentOh definitely can’t forget about those. To me, desperation and quick-passes get you almost nothing, so might as well work hard for it.
Reply to this commentI wonder if anyone who lived near to him requested to spend a day with him? That also might be a good idea for a contest! That might be like a grand prize.
Reply to this commentThis is great advice. Its the same sort of teaching that you find in a business writing course. Be it business memos, emails to your favorite blogger, or most forms of written communication, you need to get to the point quickly, as people these days are more busy and distracted than ever.
Reply to this commentI have business idea which would realy work because it is unique and I havent seen it on Internet (or I dont know the right search term) problem is that I am scared to tell about it anyone like this.
Reply to this commentThe Idea could be stolen.
Is there a way how to protect it?
Thanks for the tips John. Surely these could be applied when emailing anyone regardless of how busy they are? It’s good communication all round.
Reply to this commentHey John, I think you will have more tons-of-emails in your e-mail inbox soon. :))
My e-mail will be the shortest and the most targeted you’ve ever seen!
Reply to this commentWell put
Reply to this commentKeep It Simple Stupid.
K.I.S.S.
It’s always worked for me….
Reply to this commentLOL kiss, I like that. It should work for most business/personal correspondences, I think.
Reply to this commentThat’s how I do it when contacting someone that is popular and probably busy. I remember one time you talked about how you had a backup on e-mails to read, and you were only at e-mails from months ago. That’s a lot of e-mails!
Reply to this commentI strongly believe in what John said. In professional communication the mails should be specific and to the point. Long mails are well suited for your girlfriends or boyfriends (although the communication is getting shorter and specific in that case as well :razz:) - Info4BeingRich - Earning Money Online Made Easy
Reply to this commentI agree. Did you receive my e-mail about making translation of some of your posts in the brazilian portuguese language?
Please let me know.
Reply to this commentGreat advice, unfortunately received just a day or so late… I emailed an artist I really like with the dumb, can I interview question! Haven’t heard back.
Hmmm, wonder how long I should wait before I just send the questions??
Thanks John.
Reply to this commentI say go for it and ask away — if you’re lucky, they’ll read it before the interview request email you just sent.
Reply to this commentGreat tips john
Reply to this commentI guess it’s safe to assume that you’re going to get short-but-sweet emails from now on, John. I don’t think you’re getting any less of them though, that’s for sure.
Reply to this commentYou are 100 percent right about short and sweet. There is nothing worse than wanting to read all your email, but simply not having the time. Short emails make things much easier!
Reply to this commentIt should be short but you shouldn’t “get right to the point”. It always helps to sound friendly instead of getting in there and say in the email.
“I want a link back” which is short and sweet
Reply to this commentIt is short and sweet, but put yourself in the blogger’s shoes…
If I received an e-mail like that (I get some, but they’re never that brief), I’d just think “nope” and delete the e-mail
Reply to this commentI don’t think that’s sweet at all LOL. You could always say, “Hey, John, how about a link back?” See the difference?
Reply to this commentJohn, you are awesome!
Reply to this commentHi John,
I think there is a typo error :
“The faster I can go thought them, the better.”
THROUGH - not thought ! Am I right?
Thks
Reply to this commentEven with my 60+ subscribers and 500 hits a day… I feel slaughtered by emails. I can’t imagine what 100x that must feel like and how time consuming it must be.
Reply to this commentEver thought of hiring a personal assistant, John? Like a dot com protégé you can take under your wing…who happens to check all your email as part of their “training” LOL. Could be fun, no?
Reply to this commentHi John - The problem is, people don’t realise how much of your time they are taking up. A good while ago, I got to the point where I just started deleting my emails, and I would only return calls between 3 and 4pm.
Many people thought I was being unreasonable, but you simply can’t spend your working day replying to routine correspondence. I have been checking out some of the links in the four hour week book, and it is so inexpensive to get a virtual assistant. Maybe it will be worthwhile for you?
Reply to this comment