Blogger outreach is hard work. Don't try it unless you are willing to spend the hours necessary to get it right, as there are no short-cuts in the blogosphere.

First, build your list. Finding blogs worth your client's time is hard to do. Start with the basics including using:

• MyBlogLog
• Technorati
• Google Blog Search
• Super Search Engines (engines compiling search results from multiple engines). Dogpile, Metacrawler, etc.
  

When you find a blog you like in a Google search, click on "similar pages" to further dig. Don't forget sites like Alexa and Compete as good blog resources. Pay particular attention to blogs at the top of searches; these blogs are likely recognized by engines as credible for a reason.

And when you finally find that golden nugget of a site valuable to your cause, use that blog's links to further build your blogger list. Read your target's blog roll and dig, dig, and then dig a bit more. By now you are tired, but . . .

Now you have your list: Read the blogs you wish to pitch. I'll say it again. Read the blogs you wish to target with your pitch. Bloggers are a finicky bunch and hate spam and mis-directed pitches. An experienced blogger can smell your phony pitch a million miles away. Be honest, be genuine, and know who it is you are pitching.

As BL says, "Read 50 blogs a day for a month before you send me your stupid pitch." She's right - send a blogger an irrelevant pitch and expect to be blocked, and your emails to be forever deleted.

When you are ready to actually pitch bloggers, do so in a natural and transparent fashion. Be conversational. Tell the blogger who you are, and why they should care about your story in a sentence.

You know what really helps with blogger relations? Blog yourself. I'm a strong advocate for PR pros who also blog. Learn what it takes to implement an RSS feed, learn some html, and what it takes to actually sustain a blog long-term. If you blog and pitch a blogger, your street cred will skyrocket.

Final thought: Know your target. Back to the point of my blog - traditional PR tactics don't ever die regardless of the social medium you target. Pitching bloggers takes a real time investment and commitment, but the payoff for getting the attention of bloggers is worth the time for you and your clients. They are an influential group capable of spreading your news quickly around the web, so ignore them at your own peril.