Since more and more brands are finally recognizing blogs as a powerful avenue for publicity; I wanted to mention the easiest way to ensure your client or product will never end up on my <a href="http://www.savvymommy.com/">website</a>, <a href="http://www.veepveep.com/">blog</a> or included in one of the many lifestyle segments I do each week is to annoy me.

In the spirit of the holiday season, I’ve decided to share with you my list of the Top 12 Ways to Annoy This Mommy Blogger. It is safe to say if you manage to not do any of the wrong things on this list, you will find other mommy bloggers (and bloggers or editors in general) more receptive to your pitches.

So read on and then be a shining star in your office instead of someone who wrote the pitch that ended up in the deleted folder, or worse, on the <a href="http://badpitch.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Bad Pitch Blog</a>.

<strong>1. You call me by a name other than mine.</strong>

It goes without saying, you should always spell someone’s name correctly, but you should also use the right name. My name is not Vicki nor is it Veronica. Simply starting an email with Hi Victoria or Good Morning Victoria is the way to go. The impersonal salutation Dear Editor is not.

<strong>2. You brag about the other places you’ve been featured.</strong>

If 40 other blogs and three morning shows in the same market have already featured the product or talked about your service, why would I want to tell my producer you should be included in my segment? There’s no need for me to show the same product again when there are thousands of useful products that can be highlighted.

<strong>3. You don’t respect my time.</strong>

You follow up all the time. Every other email is from you. My office voicemail is full so you start leaving voicemails on my cell phone. And then you email telling me you left the messages. Or you send me a message on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/savvymommy">Twitter</a> or Facebook including your Off Topic pitch. C’mon, really? I receive a few thousand new emails every day. If I’m interested, I promise I will contact you by email or phone. Cross my heart.

<strong>4. You offer me a product on loan.</strong>

I travel a lot to television stations in different cities. In between writing, I also host events for companies and speak on panels at marketing conferences. My time to test unsolicited products is limited. If you send me a product on loan with a week time limit, you should know I will not have time to review it. Products in my sample closet get reviewed because they are within reach when segments are assigned to me.

<strong>5. You offer me a product but then don’t send it.</strong>

Why bother send me a pitch for a national morning show segment when you aren’t going to send me the product after I request it? Or you send it, but you send it ground shipping after I have specifically requested it be sent overnight since the segment is last minute and I want to make sure I get the product in time. I don’t understand the thinking behind saying you will send something and not sending it. So you don’t want your client on a national morning show? OK, then don’t pitch me.

<strong>6. You send me photos of an event that happened in the city I live in, don’t invite me to the event but then ask me to post the event photos or video on my website or blog.</strong>

If my website/blog is part of your client’s target audience, then send an invite. I get invited to many events every day and I cannot attend even a tenth of them but asking me to post photos or video when I wasn’t invited to the event or even sent a media alert beforehand is just a little too ballsy.

<strong>7. You send your product to another address besides the one I have listed on my website and then get upset when I say I have not received your product.</strong>

If you follow directions, everyone wins. The <a href="http://www.savvymommy.com/communicate/submit_a_product_for_review.html">mailing address</a> listed on my website is the best address to send your product to me. While we are on topic of mailing me things then please refrain from sending me products at the various stations you my segments air on.

<strong>8. You show up unannounced and unexpected to my office or to a station I’m appearing on wanting to demonstrate a product. Or you harass a producer I work with with idiotic questions before a segment airs.</strong>

If you’ve done your job and have sent me a one sheet and the product, I am sure I can figure everything out and if not, that’s what instructions and your phone number is for. Nothing I talk about on air comes close to rocket science so there is no need to show up and page a producer. It’s not a nice thing to do and producers always have the last say about what is included in my segment – please remember that.

<strong>9. You offer to do a contest and then don’t send the prizes to the winners.</strong>

That is just so wrong on so many levels. Whether the product offered is worth $5 or $500, you really should keep your word and not disappoint the winners of the contest or freebie you offered. If I get an email from a contest winner saying they never received their prize, please have a very good reason.

<strong>10. You ask me to do your job.</strong>

After I show your product/talk about your service on-air, you ask me to get you a tape of the segment. I’m not a clipping service and I don’t work for any. All you have to do is Google “clipping serviceâ€ and you will find several. If you are not a publicist and want a recommendation of which clipping service to use and you email me, that’s one thing but I’m not clipping segments for anyone. Another favorite is after I show your product on air, you ask which other stations I will be featuring your product on. Not my job. Go pitch to other stations and other segment contributors.

<strong>11. You use a dull template for your pitch. Or you unnecessarily use the word mom in your pitch in hopes it will seem like it is relevant to moms.</strong>

Yawn. Toilet paper is for everyone. You don’t have to target every single pitch to mothers. And be careful making assumptions about all mothers. My favorite was a pitch on moms never wearing high heels. Never? Well, what about the four inch heels I wear to work every single day.

<strong>12. You pretend to read my blog.</strong>

I’m a happy camper when someone just uses the right name when they <a href="http://www.savvymommy.com/communicate/savvy_mommy.html">email me</a>. There’s no need to pull a random sentence from my <a href="http://www.veepveep.com/100-things-about-me/">100 Things About Me</a> list and say it made you laugh so hard and you are big fan of mine. Because more often than not, what follows is a pitch on a topic I would never cover. And that’s hard to imagine considering I cover all women’s lifestyle topics but it happens. ALOT. Just pitch on topic and things will be alright. No need for flattery. Unless you really mean it. <img class="wp-smiley" src="http://www.veepveep.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif" alt=";)" />

Happy Holidays.

<strong>I invite other mommy bloggers to post below an annoying thing a company has done. You can post anonymously if you wish.</strong>