This past year was tough on tech PR -- no need to recount the details. But in the nick of time IDG Insider Pro has breezed into town. Though it does run product reviews that appear on other IDG sites, it's no mere roll-up. It's got unique analysis and contributed content and much that other sites do not have -- and it's pitchable like the old days.

If you've got the right kind of story, Protocol is bound to excite you. Announced last week and built by the founders of Politico, the forthcoming tech publication will launch in Q1 of perhaps the most important Presidential election year since 1860.

To nail that elusive company profile, make sure you’re studying the lists. Yes, one can apply for inclusion and what happens after that is something of a mystery. One can glean a lot from list results, however. For example, we recently studied a list within a list — the 20-company Rising Stars list within Forbes’s Cloud 100 — and here’s what we learned.

What makes for a smart approach to contributed content? Answer: something that you know has worked. A Sept. 25 Enterprisers Project piece called "Beware the dark side of agile project management" drew more page views than anything else TEP published that month. Let's deconstruct why.