How to Get An Inside Source

I own a gadget blog, but it is hardly at the level of engadget or gizmodo at the moment.

Since they are the top blogs they always seem to have "exclusive info": nice pics of rumoured prouducts and basically the inside story.

Now how do I go about grabbing an inside source. I doubt talking to PR would be any help.

So, do you just have to wait until someone e-mails you a scoop?

Anyone have any experience in getting and dealing with sources?

Skinny

 

I think mostly the companies contact the top magazines, blogs in there niche and give them the info to publish to create some buzz before the launch. Probably some do have some connections though that leak info to them but i dont know how you would go about finding someone to leak info to you.

 

Work on building your number of visitors. Once it's high enough, companies can be extremely receptive to a simple letter or email. And often, the PR person is exactly who you should talk to. At very least, contact them and ask to be added to their press release mailing lists, so you'll receive their latest news immediately before other bloggers have scavenged the news off the Web. But until you have enough visitors to make them care, you won't get much more than that from them. Keep plugging away though, and eventually you'll get review copies of products before they're released to the public. Maybe offer to do a special write up or something if the PR person will talk to you about a product or the company. It could be a way to start building a good network... the key for getting any kind of niche information. A lot of the time, info "leaked" about new products and such are actually a PR move, where it's targeted towards specific contacts with a large audience (not always the case, but more often than you might think). The point is to generate a buzz before a release. So you need to be making "nice" with those people and adding them to your media contacts. Then as your site grows, you may start to become more privvy to "insider information."

Jenn

 

Nice info. Yea I have a few contacts but probably should be making more.

Keep the suggestions coming.

Skinny

 

As a bonus, if you get these contacts built, you can most likely get them to send you free stuff. i.e. "Send me a new Turbo6000 and I will review it."