Everyone wants major placements on big name blogs —and understandably. Not only does a positive feature from them hold weight with their audience, but it’s a pretty big ego boost for the indie band that gets featured. The problem? The likelihood of a truly indie band getting featured is pretty slim.

But before you get too deflated, or angry, or go through the myriad of emotions you’re likely feeling when you accept that and let it sink in, I want to re-introduce you to something you’ve probably given very little thought, but is in fact your best shot at long term success: small blogs.

While indie hopefuls may view smaller blogs as beneath them, insisting they’re destined for great things (and they might be), they’re missing out on a crucial player in the music industry if they skip them. As both a blogger (for small and high tier sites) as well as a publicist that has placed my artists on both, I want to let you in on the secret of just why small blogs are the missing ingredient to your music career.