The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week

Publicity Tips/Lighten Your Load April 14, 2009

2009-04-14T13:00:00.003-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #446 April 14, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 41,324

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this seine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================
********************************************

Authors, Don't Miss this One:

Jack Canfield of "Chicken Soup for the Soul" fame, learned early
how to handle rejection--and overcome it. He and Mark Victor
Hansen went on to sell more than 100 million 'Chicken Soup" books
despite the army of people who said it couldn't be done. Learn
his inside secrets during a f*ree teleseminar with Steve Harrison
on Thursday, April 16, at your choice of two times. Register at
http://budurl.com/sv7g

********************************************
================================
In This Issue
================================

1. Lighten Your Load

2. Where to Find Speaking Gigs

3. Tea Party Publicity

4. Use a Gravatar

5. Promote a Consignment Shop

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

=================================
1. Lighten Your Load
=================================

One of the biggest misconceptions of social networking is that
you must produce mountains of content--and still keep your day
job.

Yes, you need content galore for your blog, articles, Facebook
page, press releases, Squidoo lenses, HubPages and video-sharing
sites.

But here's a little secret.

You don't have to produce all of it yourself, or even most of it.
Outsource, outsource, outsource.

Thousands of competent people, many of them unemployed, would
love to work with you right now, at prices you can afford.

And smart Publicity Hounds who realize that a bad economy is the
very best time to outsource are casting their nets for the best
writers, photographers and video producers. Those include a glut
of newspaper journalists who have joined the already crowded
market for freelance writers.

Here are five tips to get started:

--Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can help you
find freelancers fairly quickly. Just let people know what you're
looking for and they'll spread the word.

--If you want a wide range of candidates from which to choose,
post your project to sites like Elance.com, Guru.com or
RentaCoder.com. They will put the fee in escrow and release it
only after you've signed off on the project, thus eliminating a
lot of squabbles. I've used Elance and RentaCoder many times with
good results.

--Hire fast, and fire faster. Never let freelancers learn on your
nickel.

--Reward outstanding work.

--Require freelancers who bid on writing projects to speak
English as a first language. I made the mistake of hiring someone
offshore and was disappointed.

Leili McKinley, one of my business coaches, says there are other
traps to avoid when working with freelancers. She explained them
all and offered dozens of helpful tips on how to keep the best
freelancers working for you when she was my guest during a
teleseminar I hosted on "Outsourcing Secrets: How to Get the Best
Quality, Price & Teamwork from Freelancers." Read more about how
to get started and how to order the CD or electronic transcript
at http://budurl.com/uw5j

Still not convinced you need to outsource? Publicity Hound Debra
Condren explains why trying to do it all yourself can actually
cost you money. Read her article at http://budurl.com/gpy4

=================================
2. Where to Find Speaking Gigs
=================================

Speakers, if you're spending hours searching for events where you
can speak for a fee, or no fee, here's a handy tool that will
make your job easier.

SpeakerLeads.com at http://www.SpeakerLeads.com is a wiki that
lets meeting planners everywhere provide information on events
that need speakers. It includes other helpful details like the
deadline for speakers to apply, the major market in case you want
to search by city, and the website where you can find more
information about the event.

You can search the database, the wiki or you can opt-in and they
will send you updates--all f*ree.

Already, the wiki has about 1,000 events, as far as three years
away, that need all types of speakers for keynotes, panels and
break-out sessions. In some cases, meeting planners want only
speakers who are already planning to attend the event. But that's
OK. Speakers who need experience on the circuit will gladly take
these gigs.

Meeting planners, add this website to the list of places where
you can promote your event.

It's brought to you by the Yearbook of Experts, the service that
provides expert sources and contact information for journalists,
as well as press release distribution services for experts.

I've subscribed to this service for several years and have
received many phone calls from reporters seeking my commentary on
publicity topics. If you're an expert, this service is for you.

Mitchell Davis and his staff answer their own phones at
202-333-5000 and can get you set up. Before you call, check out
their website at http://www.expertclick.com/ and tell them I sent
you. They'll knock $100 off the price of your subscription.

=================================
3. Tea Party Publicity
=================================

Thousands of anti-tax protesters will attend tea parties in more
than 300 cities throughout the United States tomorrow.

If you're one of them, or not, here are ways to promote your
cause:

--Provide updates throughout the day on Twitter and Facebook. Use
the hashtag "#teaparty" in your tweets. Learn more about hashtags
at http://budurl.com/b8x9

--Shoot video and offer it to your local TV stations and
newspapers. Even if you're traveling hundreds of miles to
participate, you're still the local angle to this national story.

--Provide video comments to videos that generate a lot of traffic
on sites like YouTube. David Mathison offered this tip during the
teleseminar I hosted with him last week on how to use social
media to help you "be the media." Listen to the replay at
http://budurl.com/a7p5

--Take photos and upload them to photo-sharing sites like
Photobucket and Flickr. Some tea parties are encouraging
participants to bring food for food pantries. Shoot photos and
videos when you're delivering it.

--Blog about the experience.

--Offer to be a correspondent for a media outlet or website
that's interested in covering the event. The Huffington Post is
looking for local correspondents. Sign up at
http://budurl.com/jcuz

--Call your U.S. congressmen and let them know how you feel.

--Call your local TV stations and see if they're sending
reporters. If so, offer to do an on-camera interview or be their
mini-correspondent. For inside secrets on how to contact the TV
newsroom's "Queen Bee" who decides what they will and won't
cover, read about the teleseminar I hosted with Shawne Duperon on
"How to Get on the Local TV News Tomorrow" at
http://budurl.com/y5ty

If you're on the other side and want to protest the protests,
you can use many of these tactics.

=================================
4. Use a Gravatar
=================================

Why is it that when you leave a comment at someone's blog, your
photo doesn't show up next to your comment, but photos of the
other Publicity Hounds who comment are everywhere?

Could be you don't have a gravatar.

A gravatar is a globally recognized avatar, an image that follows
you from site to site and appears beside your name when you
participate. It's a powerful tool because your smiling face might
be the first thing that catches a reader's attention.

To create your own gravatar in a few minutes, go to
http://budurl.com/ahzh

Once you've done that, it's time to set up gravatars on your blog
or forum. Plug-ins are available for leading blog software and
content management systems. Watch the tutorials at the link above
for more information.

Publicity Hound David Leonhardt wrote a great blog post on "10
Ways to Make Your Gravatar Sell" at http://budurl.com/cdet and
included my gravatar and several others as examples of those he
loves.

I prefer a gravatar of someone smiling rather than a cartoon-
character depiction, or a company logo, or an inane illustration
that has nothing to do with the person behind the curtain. Social
media is all about transparency and forming relationships with
people.

At social networking sites, people can decide within a few
seconds whether to follow you when they see your gravatar and
read your profile. Almost every profile I read can be improved.
Social networking expert Nancy Marmolejo explained what the ideal
profiles include, with step-by-step instructions on how to dress
up yours during the teleseminar I recorded with her. It's called
"Can Your Social Networking Profile Pass the 10-Second Test?" and
you can read more about it at http://budurl.com/ru5e

==================================
5. Promote a Consignment Shop
==================================

This week, nine Publicity Hounds have tips for Karen Nardella of
Conway, N.H. She owns a consignment outlet and home staging
center for high-end furniture and needs to know how to spread the
word, on a very tight budget, about what she's doing.

From Howard Pierpont:

"With your location, I would look for local coverage in the
tourist media. There is a high traffic count from the Boston and
North Shore markets. They're looking for a quality and price that
beats their neighborhood locals."

From Alan McBride:

"What about a massive upper-scale garage sale? Maybe get the
local newspaper to host it. Let them think it's their idea too.
They could hire a hall or other area, sell stalls (yours is
free), and advertising is theirs."

From Cheryl Kurland:

"Go back through your previous sales receipts and make a customer
list. Create a letter and mail it to each previous customer
offering a 10 percent discount on anything purchased between
[date] and [date]. Include two business cards--one for them, one
to pass along to a friend who might be in need of your products.

Read all the responses to this Help This Hound question at
http://tinyurl.com/dyscmt

I'm running low on HTH questions. Send yours to
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com?subject=HelpThisHound and include your city and state.

==============================
6. Help This Hound
==============================

Karen Kalisek of Escondido, Calif. writes:

"WomensMedia.com is a seven-year-old website that has undergone a
major overhaul and is in the process of relaunching.

"We pride ourselves in offering expert advice for working
women. Currently, we have 30,000 unique website followers each
month (20 percent of those are overseas), 10,000 follow the blog,
Women's Lunch Talk, and 1,000 listen to our podcast, Working in
Heels.

"We don't male bash, but do offer realistic advice concerning
working women. We also have a library with over 200 articles
written by people such as Madeline Albright, Suze Orman, and many
other notables. We also are proud of our Google ranking of 5.

"We have done all this with no advertising or sponsorship. With
the new 'look' we want to increase our followers, create revenue
channels, offer classes, provide speakers and build
relationships. Where do we start getting the word out that we
exist? Any suggestions for a media kit, PR kit, etc. would be
greatly appreciated. We have no money, but we have a great
message with a proven history."

The Publicity Hound says:

With millions of women participating in social networking sites
and just waiting to spread the word for you, you don't need a
huge budget, or any budget for that matter, to make a splash. How
about it Hounds? How can Karen use social media as well as
traditional media to promote the site? Post your best comments to
my blog at http://budurl.com/chzf

=============================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
=============================

Sign inside my hair salon: Unattended children will be given an
espresso and a f*ree puppy.

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

================================
8. And at My Blog...
================================

Hate Twitter? Claim your username to protect your brand
http://budurl.com/8a8n

Social media tips for getting email addresses & selling products
http://budurl.com/a7p5

Financial advisers, use WSJ section to market yourselves
http://budurl.com/qafa

-------------------------------------

Where to See & Hear The Publicity Hound:

Follow me on Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/PublicityHound

Friend me on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joan_Stewart/541605146

Connect with me on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/publicityhound

Permission to Reprint:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me you want to subscribe.

Privacy Statement:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity Tips/Like Rats on a Sinking Ship Apr 7, 2009

2009-04-07T18:55:00.003-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #445 April 7, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 41,324

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this seine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you
can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the
newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their
reputation, position themselves as employers of choice, sell more
products and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

*******************************************

Social Media Teleseminar Tomorrow, April 8:

Puzzled about the return on investment you'll get by
participating in social media?

David Mathison, once an unknown author, has one success story
after another to share about what has happened to him as a result
of joining the conversation at sites like Twitter, Facebook and
LinkedIn.

While writing his book "Be the Media: How to Create and
Accelerate Your Message...Your Way," he spent time on those sites
and others and has one success story after another to share with
you.

David will join me for a complimentary teleseminar from 3 to 4
p.m. Eastern Time tomorrow and explain how to use social media to
create a huge following and sell more books, products or
services. Only 200 people will be able to participate. Register
at http://www.Publicityhound.com/teleseminardavemathison.htm

********************************************
================================
In This Issue
================================

1. Like Rats on a Sinking Ship

2. Google Measures Your Influence

3. Let 'em Know You Twitter

4. Before You Write a Nonfiction Book...

5. Advice for Twitter 'Unfollowers'

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

=================================
1. Like Rats on a Sinking Ship
=================================

Those newspaper and magazine journalists you're pitching are
grumpier than ever.

You'd be grumpy, too, if you had an ax hanging over your head.

The 2009 PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey shows that half of the
2,174 journalists surveyed this year are considering careers
outside of journalism.

Doug Elfman, entertainment columnist at the Las Vegas Review-
Journal describes the situation like this:

"I know several people who have changed careers or have
considered changing their careers because they don't want to feel
like rats on a sinking ship anymore."

That confirms what I'm hearing from my friends in the newspaper
business.

PRWeek's survey results also show:

--70 percent of journalists are working harder this year than
last.

--They're taking on more work on the Web, where publishers
feel they have the best chance of recouping lost revenues.

--At magazines like Teen Vogue, journalists produce numerous
daily online-only items and blog posts to tide over readers
between issues.

--The number of journalists who have a social networking profile
has increased from 54 percent last year to 77 percent this year.
Many of them say they look for story ideas, sources and other
information on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

What this means to you:

--Pay attention to a newspaper's or magazine's website, not only
the printed edition. You might find many more opportunities for
publicity online than offline.

--The emphasis on the Web means journalists are no longer "print
journalists" or "broadcast journalists." They are all "multi-
media journalists." So think "multi-media" when you pitch by
offering a video clip for a newspaper's or TV station's website.

--If you're obsessed with generating publicity in traditional
media, you need to have a presence on the social networking
sites, where many journalists hunt for stories.

--Position yourself as a helpful source who's willing to go the
extra distance. Many journalists are still confused about how to
use sites like Facebook and Twitter. If you can help them by
showing them, in step-by-step detail, how to do something like
search Twitter by topic, you could score points.

If you're creating video for, let's say, your local newspaper,
you can recycle it in other ways for additional publicity.
Videographer John Easton does it all the time in Charlotte, North
Carolina, and the local chamber of commerce and TV stations love
him. During a teleseminar I hosted, he explained how you can do
what he does without fancy equipment or much techie know-how. "9
Clever Ways to Use Video to Become a Publicity Darling in Your
Industry or Community" is available as a CD, MP3 or electronic
transcript that you can download as soon as your order has been
approved.

Read more about how to use the power of video for publicity at
http://tinyurl.com/5pbgzn

=================================
2. Google Measures Your Influence
=================================

If you're one of the many people who thinks Twitter is a waste of
time and you refuse to participate, please reconsider.

Rumors have been circulating that Google is interested in buying
Twitter, the micro-blogging site that lets users send messages of
no more than 140 characters to everyone who follows them.

For now, it's nothing more than gossip. But if there's a nugget
of truth to the rumor, here's how it could affect you.

Google, the granddaddy of search engines, already measures your
influence.

Let's say you sell dog toys and somebody types "dog toys" into
the Google search box. Google will rank your site on the left
side of the screen according to several factors. One of the
biggest is whether your site includes those keywords in the title
bar, description, meta tags and copy on your website.

Another factor is how many other influential websites link to
yours.

It gives high ranking to videos, too. When Google bought YouTube
for $1.65 billion in October 2006, that was the company's way of
screaming "We think videos are important."

Same with Twitter.

If Google buys Twitter, chances are good that one of the factors
it will use to measure your influence is your Twitter presence,
how often you tweet and how often you join the conversation.

If your competitors are on Twitter but you're not, what kind of
message do you think that will send to Google?

At Stompernet's Internet marketing seminar in Atlanta last month,
several speakers predicted that the search engines will place a
greater emphasis on your influence in the social networking
world.

Already, you can measure your influence on Twitter with a variety
of tools and applications. One of them is Twitalyzer at
http://twitalyzer.com/twitalyzer/index.asp

Type in your Twitter name, and it will grade your impact and
success in social media according to several factors: relative
influence, signal-to-noise ratio, generosity, velocity and clout.

Compare your score to the scores of your competitors.

If you ranked really low, you can boost your score by
understanding all the ways you can join in the conversation and
be helpful to the people who follow you. Warren Whitlock
explained how to do this, and he gave dozens of tips when he was
my guest during a teleseminar on "How to Use Twitter to Amass an
Army of Followers, Customers & Valuable Contacts--and Promote."

We recorded it and it's available as a package of electronic
transcripts and your choice of CDs or MP3s that you can download
immediately. Read more about what you'll learn at
http://tinyurl.com/3lbcaw

=========================================
3. Let 'em Know You Twitter
=========================================

Hardly a day goes by when the mainstream media isn't reporting on
Twitter. It's obvious many journalists and broadcasters are still
confused about the value of this site.

If you Twitter, particularly for business, and you're seeing a
return on your investment, offer yourself as a source for this
story. Explain what has happened to you since you started
Twittering, how many followers you have, how much time you spend,
how many valuable contacts you've made, and how many clients or
customers you've generated.

Consider pitching this story to your local business journal,
daily and weekly newspapers, TV stations and even your trade
journals.

How about offering a short list of three or four Twitter tools or
apps you use that save you time and help keep you organized? I
blogged about a cool directory that separates all these tools by
category. You can find it at http://tinyurl.com/cwcnwq

===========================================
4. Before You Write a Nonfiction Book...
===========================================

Don't write one word until you've made a long list of all the
ways you can use that book as a springboard to other products and
services.

Too many authors view the book as the end product. Then, if the
book doesn't sell, they're stuck.

Smart authors use their books as calling cards. The book
"upsells" readers to a variety of other products and services.

After working with more than 9,000 authors over the last 20
years, Steve Harrison has learned that the most successful
authors simply do seven key things differently than poor authors.

Some of them are very famous bestsellers, like the creators of
the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and Rich Dad Poor Dad.

Others are happily not-so-famous but quietly raking in high six-
figure and even seven-figure annual incomes without ever being on
Oprah or hitting any bestseller list.

To learn what wildly successful authors know that poor authors
don't, join him for a free 75-minute telephone seminar at 7 p.m.
Eastern Time tonight, April 7. There's no cost to participate in
the call (except for your normal long distance charges) so go
here now and sign up:

http://www.freepublicity.com/RichAuthorSecrets/?10011

========================================
5. Advice for Twitter 'Unfollowers'
========================================

This week, eight Publicity Hounds have tips for Dan Janal of
Shorewood, Minn., owner of PRLeads.com. He subscribes to
Qwitter.com at http://UseQwitter.com and wants advice on what to
do when the service notifies him that one of his Twitter
followers has "unfollowed" him.

From David Kadavy:

"For me, it's not about reciprocity, it's about genuine
relationships and useful information. Follow that principle and
you'll know when it's right to unfollow someone."

From Gail Sideman:

"I have a small follower base compared to many of those with whom
I have Twitter relationships, but can say that all I choose to
follow are valuable minds in their industries or are lots of fun.
If they unfollow me, I'm not going to analyze why. You can't
please everybody, especially in a base as broad as social media."

From Meryl Evans:

"I signed up for Qwitter a long time ago and forgot about it.
Suddenly, it hit me with a bunch of unfollowers. Obviously, the
service was flaky. Nonetheless, I unsubscribed to the service
after that. It's just not worth getting hurt or emotional about
those who stop following you."

Read all the responses to this week's Help This Hound question
http://tinyurl.com/cnb3b2

I'm running low on HTH questions. Send your own Help this Hound
question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com?subject=HelpThisHound and include your city and state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Karen Nardella of Conway, N.H. writes:

"I am a sole proprietor who owns the Emporium Consignment Outlet
and Home Staging Center, a consignment shop for high-end
furniture in Conway, N.H.

"I sell gently-used, high-quality, brand-name furniture such as
Ethan Allan, and I pay the owner 55 percent of the sale. All the
furniture is no more than 10 years old.

"With the sagging economy, what's the best way on a very tight
budget to spread the word about what I'm doing? I need to attract
the attention of people who have furniture to sell as well as
people who can't afford new furniture. What tips can your Hounds
share with me, either through traditional marketing channels or
by generating publicity?"

The Publicity Hound says:

The bad economy presents all kinds of great tie-ins to your
pitches. Let's see how many ideas my Hounds can suggest. If you
have a great idea for Karen, post it to my blog at
http://tinyurl.com/dyscmt

===============================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
===============================

Dogs have owners. Cats have staff.

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

================================
8. And at My Blog...
================================

Massive Twitter directory lists tools, apps galore
http://tinyurl.com/cnnz6n

-------------------------------------

Where to See & Hear The Publicity Hound:

April 8, 2009

Teleseminar with David Mathison on how to use social media to
sell books and other products. 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern.
http://www.Publicityhound.com/teleseminardavemathison.htm

Follow me on Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/PublicityHound

Friend me on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joan_Stewart/541605146

Connect with me on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/publicityhound

Permission to Reprint:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me you want to subscribe.

Privacy Statement:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity Tips/Nonprofits, Speak Up Mar 31, 2009

2009-04-01T11:23:00.004-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #444 March 31, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 41,571

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this seine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound web site at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you
can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the
newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their
reputation, position themselves as employers of choice, sell more
products and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

================================
In This Issue
================================

1. Nonprofits, Speak Up

2. Journalists' Blogs a Gold Mine

3. Social Media Sells Books, Products

4. Take a Survey at Your Blog

5. How to Promote E-courses

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

=================================
1. Nonprofits, Speak Up
=================================

Many Publicity Hounds who completed my Customer Profile Survey
this month said they wanted more tips for nonprofits. Here's a
timely one.

Explain how you would be affected by President Barack Obama's
proposal to change the rules on deductions for charitable
contributions.

If passed by Congress, the budget would reduce the deductibility
of charitable contributions from 35 percent to 28 percent on
households that earn more than $250,000 a year. It also calls for
a return of the 39.6 percent tax bracket, which could affect
charitable giving.

A friend told me yesterday that an annual fund-raiser at her
church has raised only $75,000 this year, compared to the
$150,000 it had raised at the same time last year.

That's probably due to the bad economy. But how much smaller
would the revenue be if Congress changed the rules that govern
charitable giving?

The issue is being debated right now. The Center on Philanthropy
at Indiana University acknowledged that the reduced deduction
would "increase the challenges nonprofits have," but said it
would only have a moderate impact.

Even so, nonprofits are sweating.

Here are ways to piggyback onto the issue and attract attention,
whether you're for or against the proposal.

--Are your board and executives discussing the impact? What would
it mean to your nonprofit and the people you serve? Let the media
know.

--Create a short video arguing for or against Obama's plan and
upload it to the video-sharing sites.

--Write op-ed pieces for your local daily and weekly newspapers.

--Pitch bloggers who cover your topic.

--Discuss it at Twitter and link to videos, blog posts and
opinion pieces at your blog or website.

--Create a group on Facebook and keep your followers updated on
what happens with this proposal as well as other issues that
affect your nonprofit.

--If you have a good visual to offer, pitch the story to your
local TV stations.

If you're smart, you'll weave into the story information about
things like your events, fund-raisers and volunteers and explain
how they would be affected.

=================================
2. Journalists' Blogs a Gold Mine
=================================

Dying to pitch a certain journalist at a top-tier media outlet
but confused about how to make your pitch stand out among all the
others?

Keep reading for the inside secret.

I've never met Deborah Kotz, a woman's health columnist for U.S.
News & World Report.

We've never emailed each other or talked on the phone. I've never
pitched her.

Yet I know intimate details about her, including the type of
birth control she has used and whether her two sons are
circumcised.

You'll never find those kinds of details in the pricey media
databases you're buying.

But in some cases, you CAN find them buried within the bog posts
of journalists you want to pitch. Most PR people, unfortunately,
are too busy or too lazy to search for them.

To make your job easier, I've explained in step-by-step detail
how to find out if a journalist blogs and how to navigate the
blog to find all the juicy tidbits you need to customize your
pitch.

Read the blog post I wrote at http://budurl.com/l634

If you think my tips are valuable, please share that link with
your Twitter followers, Facebook friends and LinkedIn
connections.

=========================================
3. Social Media Sells Books, Products
=========================================

Puzzled about the return on investment you'll get by
participating in social media?

David Mathison, an unknown author, has one success story after
another to share about what has happened to him as a result of
joining the conversation at sites like Twitter, Facebook and
LinkedIn.

While writing his book "Be the Media: How to Create and
Accelerate Your Message...Your Way," he spent time on those sites
and others. As a result:

--He pre-sold 5,004 books in just 11 days through one Twitter
connection.

--He used Twitter to get invited to a prestigious university
symposium--and was invited back a second time.

--He collected thousands of email addresses and now markets to
those people.

--He used Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to create an unbeatable,
lead-qualifying machine.

--He made friends with more than 3,500 Facebook users and
enlisted them to help sell his book.

Not bad, and that's just for starters. David will join me for a
complimentary teleseminar from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time on
Wednesday, April 8, and explain how to use social media to create
a huge following and sell more books, products or services. Only
200 people will be able to participate. Register at
http://www.Publicityhound.com/teleseminardavemathison.htm

=======================================
4. Take a Survey at Your Blog
=======================================

If you're a blogger who wants more traffic, comments and sales
from your blog, here's a simple, inexpensive idea.

Take a survey--not like the lengthy Customer Profile Survey that
many of you completed for me recently, but a short, fun or
controversial survey you can tweet about on Twitter and refer to
on Facebook. It will help pull traffic to your blog like a
magnet.

Jeanne Hurlbert, the consultant who helped me design my survey,
is creating a video at her blog that explains how to do this. But
first, she wants to see questions you have about short blog
surveys.

She promises to answer every question and then use your questions
to guide her as she creates a video that explains how to survey
your readers.

Authors might want to know how a survey can sell more books.
Speakers might be curious about what kind of survey can help book
more speaking gigs. Other Hounds might want to share blog survey
success stories. Who knows? You might end up in her video.

You can post your question to her blog at
http://tinyurl.com/d5acwm

I'll let you know as soon as she has created the video.

P.S. Jill Cranford, who owns Stone2Furniture, a company that
makes furniture out of stone, has won the Kindle 2. Her name was
chosen from all respondents who completed my Customer Profile
Survey. I blogged about it at http://tinyurl.com/cldmec

========================================
5. How to Promote E-courses
========================================

This week, six Publicity Hounds have tips for Linda Foirmichelli
of Concord, NH and Jennifer Lawler of Lawrence, KS, both well-
established writers who offer e-courses on how writers can break
into magazines and how to write a book proposal.

From Janet Roots:

"Try connecting with people who are in touch with the same market
as you are, but offering different skills, like writers' coaches.
I'm a writer's coach and I would love to be able to refer my
clients to a trustworthy e-class on these subjects, since my
focus is writing fiction."

From Viveca Stone-Berry:

"Since you are both well-established, that means you have friends
and colleagues who are also well-established and they have
friends and colleagues.

"What about offering a 'community' discount to your contacts?
Make it at least 20 percent off. One way to do this is to post it
on ClickBank which is an affiliate program. I currently list my
fatigue recovery guide there and am putting up a duplicate page
to offer a 'community discount.'"

From Sheryl Kurland:

"You can submit course information for free to an e-newsletter
called Scribbles for writers and wanna-be writers at
http://www.sunscribbles.com. Your information should actually be
emailed to mailto:darlyn@sunscribbles.com You should also
immediately subscribe to this e-newsletter because it may contain
information on other places/opportunities to connect with to
publicize your course information.

"Be sure to include a gentle request for readers to blog about
your courses or send out your information in their respective e-
newsletters. Writers are usually always willing to help other
writers."

The Publicity Hound says:

Lots of freelancers read this newsletter and I'd love a list of
tips on how they can break into magazines. I'd share them at my
blog and then link to your course. So pitch bloggers like me.
"How to Pitch the Best Bloggers and Create a Media Explosion," a
teleseminar I did with Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, aka The
Blog Squad, explains how. Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/m7ymr

Read all the responses to this week's "Help This Hound" question
at http://tinyurl.com/dnlkd4

Send your own Help this Hound question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com?subject=HelpThisHound and include your city and state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Dan Janal of Shorewood, MN, owner of PRLeads, writes:

"I subscribe to UseQwitter.com which tells me when people stop
following me on Twitter.

"I recently became very active on Twitter and many people started
following me--more than 400 in a week. However, UseQwitter now
tells me that 20 people have stopped following me.

"Was this a scam by them to get me to follow them? Should I
'unfollow' them in return? Were they really interested in hearing
from me, or were they trying to boost their own numbers?

"What do your readers do when they find out they are no longer
being followed? I feel so used!"

The Publicity Hound says:

I don't really care about who unfollows me. If they don't like my
posts, they probably aren't good leads for me, anyway. And I
don't waste my time unfollowing. But I'll be curious to hear from
Hounds who 'unfollow.'

Share your tips for Dan at my blog at http://tinyurl.com/cnb3b2

===============================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
===============================

Kenny, a city boy, moved to the country and bought a hound dog
from an old farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the
dog the next day.

The next day the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry son, but I have
some bad news. The hound died."

"Well then, just give me my money back," Kenny said.

"Can't do that," the farmer said. "I went and spent it already."

"OK then, just unload the hound dog," Kenny suggested.

"What ya gonna do with him?" The farmer asked.

"I'm going to raffle him off," Kenny said.

"You can't raffle off a dead dog!" The farmer replied,
astonished.

"Sure I can," Kenny said. "Watch me. I just won't tell anybody
he's dead."

A month later, the farmer met up with Kenny and asked, "What
happened with that dead hound?"

"I raffled him off," Kenny said. "I sold 500 tickets at two
dollars apiece and made a profit of $898."

"Didn't anyone complain?" The farmer asked.

"Just the guy who won," Kenny said. "So I gave him his two
dollars back."

Kenny grew up and eventually became the chairman of Enron.

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

==================================
8. And at My Blog...
==================================

Jill Cranford wins Kindle2 in Publicity Hound survey drawing
http://tinyurl.com/cldmec

Social networking ROI: A testimonial more valuable than an ad
http://tinyurl.com/daolec

Hip hop magazine wants to feature women deejays with clout
http://tinyurl.com/dep49l

Writers, pitch your idea to TV producer, agents Tuesday
http://tinyurl.com/cj97on

-------------------------------------

Where to See & Hear The Publicity Hound:

April 19, 2009

Teleseminar with David Mathison on how to use social media to
sell books and other products. 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern.
http://www.Publicityhound.com/teleseminardavemathison.htm

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PublicityHound

Friend me on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joan_Stewart/541605146

Connect with me on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/publicityhound

Permission to Reprint:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me you want to subscribe.

Privacy Statement:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

---

Publicity Tips/No Bio? No Thanks Mar 24, 2009

2009-03-24T15:35:00.004-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #443 March 24, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ Blog)

Circulation: 41,708

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you
can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the
newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their
reputation, position themselves as employers of choice, sell more
products and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

******************************************

It's Tuesday, and I'm Here to Stay:

Eight out of 10 Publicity Hounds who took my customer profile
survey want this newsletter to stay just as it is--delivered
every Tuesday instead of a sliced and diced version with tips
scattered throughout the week, like I was considering doing.

So Tuesday it is.

I've been publishing for eight and a half years and still going
strong--thanks to the helpful Hounds who share their success
stories, questions, publicity tips and, of course, dog jokes.

Next week, I'll announce the lucky winner of the Kindle 2.

*************************************************
================================
In This Issue
================================

1. No Bio? No Thanks

2. Meet Mr. Tweet

3. 10 Dead or Dying PR Tactics

4. Top Search Term: Craigslist

5. Where to Find Pro Bono PR Interns

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

=================================
1. No Bio? No Thanks
=================================

Almost two-thirds of the people who use Twitter don't have a bio
or a link listed on their profile, the 160-character description
just under their avatar.

So what's the big deal?

Does having a bio and website link in your Twitter profile really
make a difference in the number of followers you have?

Absolutely.

The Hubspot Internet Marketing Blog has crunched the numbers and
says that users with a bio have over eight times more followers,
on average, than users without a bio. Users with a link have over
7.5 times as many followers as users without.

Power users (Twitter users with high Twitter grades) are even
less likely to follow you if you don't have a bio and link.
Users with a bio have over 15.5 times more power followers than
those without a bio. Users with a link have over 22 times more
power followers than without.

You can check out all the findings at http://budurl.com/f52e

I didn't see anything about the quality of the profiles, but I'm
betting that the typical Twitter user who reads somebody else's
bio and sees nothing remotely interesting is gone in a flash
without ever clicking "Follow."

What a shame. Another potential follower--maybe even a customer--
lost forever. It doesn't have to be that way.

Social networking expert Nancy Marmolejo says your bio should
communicate immediately what you do, who your target audience is,
and how you can help people. Mix in some fun and people will
practically be begging to be part of your tribe.

During a teleseminar last month, Nancy gave tips galore on how to
customize your bios for different social networking sites so you
turn visitors into clicks and clicks into customers. "Can Your
Social Networking Profile Pass the 10-Second Test?" is available
as a CD, MP3 or electronic transcript that you can read as soon
as your order is approved.

Read more about how to get started writing a sizzling bio that
really pulls 'em in and makes 'em want to stay at
http://budurl.com/xcqh

=================================
2. Meet Mr.Tweet
=================================

Here's a way to build followers quickly on Twitter without
resorting to those obnoxious black-hat tricks that some of the
slimy Internet marketers are using--and even selling.

Meet Mr. Tweet, your new best friend, at http://mrtweet.net/

He's your personal networking agent who helps you expand your
network. To do that, he helps you regularly:

--Find relevant followers by recommending you to them.

--Discover great people relevant to your current needs.

--Improve your Twitter usage via useful statistics.

Just go to the website and click on the blue bar that says
"Follow Mr. Tweet." Since I started using him last week, I've
gained several hundred followers.

Now then, if you want to know the tactics that underhanded
Twitterers are using to add thousands of followers every day,
read blogger Chris Cree's step-by-step instructions--and his
warning--at http://budurl.com/gametwitter

I wouldn't stoop that low and prefer, instead, the five steps of
Twitter success: Follow. Reply. Retweet. Share. Repeat.

Warren Whitlock says that retweeting other people's tweets is
one of the best ways to encourage them to retweet yours--
especially if you're planning to introduce a new product or
service or you're launching a book, and you want the world to
know.

The power of retweeting was one of dozens of tips he shared
during the teleseminar on "How to Use Twitter to Amass an Army of
Followers, Customers & Valuable Contacts--and Promote." It's
available as electronic transcripts and your choice of CDs or
MP3s.

Read more about other ways to build your Twitter tribe and win
their loyalty at http://budurl.com/la38

===========================================
3. 10 Dead or Dying PR Tactics
===========================================

If you work in PR, you might be discouraged to learn that you're
spending the better part of your day on what Steve Mullen
identifies as "10 Dead or Dying PR Tactics."

He's a social media PR blogger who stirred up a controversy
recently with his list:

--Newspaper-based media relations strategy

--Deskside reporter meetings

--Media packets

--Video news releases

--Audio news releases

--Media Map

--Blast faxing

--Mailed newsletters

--Bacon's Media Guides

--Mailed reporter pitches

You can read his reasons, at http://budurl.com/mn5s

I agree with most of his choices except for mailed newsletters.
With postage skyrocketing, fewer businesses are using them.

That means top-quality newsletters packed with helpful content
can really attract attention.

My vote for the one PR tactic I wish would make the list but it
refuses to go away: those ubiquitous ground-breaking, ribbon-
cutting, check-passing photos. Will somebody please slay these
ugly dinosaurs?

No self-respecting Publicity Hound would even THINK of resorting
to them, particularly those who hear PR guy Dan Collins' ideas
for cool media events and clever publicity stunts that attract
far more attention the cliche photos.

"Fun Alternatives to Boring Ground-breakings, Ribbon-cuttings &
Check-passings" is available as a CD or electronic transcript
that you can be reading as soon as your order is approved. Read
more about your clever options at http://budurl.com/9pyj

=======================================
4. Top Search Term: Craigslist
=======================================

For the first time in three years, searches for "Craigslist," the
world's largest classified ad bulletin board, surpassed
"MySpace."

Hitwise Intelligence says "Craigslist" searches increased 105
percent for the week ending March 14, compared with the same week
last year.

The economic downturn, it says, is responsible.

That's easy to understand. People are hunting for jobs, used
cars, gently used furniture and who knows what else.

All those extra eyeballs means this is the ideal time to use
Craigslist as part of your publicity campaign.

The Community category is my favorite for publicity. Its sub-
categories include activities, artists, groups, pets, events,
musicians, local news, politics, volunteers and classes.

The Services category includes "Small Biz Ads" and "Gigs" which
are idea for people looking for clients and customers.

But remember, you can only post to the Craigslist closest to
where you live. And you can't post the same message to more than
one category, or Craig can throw you off the list.

Nancy Mills, an expert on how to use Craigslist in all sorts of
clever and creative ways, says the writing style of a Craigslist
post should be very different than the standard press release.
She explained why when she was my guest during a teleseminar on
"How to Use Craigslist as a Global Publicity Tool."

It's available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can
download and be reading as soon as your order has been approved.
Read more about how to get started using Craigslist as one of
your most valuable publicity tools at
http://budurl.com/craigslistnumberone

========================================
5. Where to Find Pro Bono PR Interns
========================================

This week, three Publicity Hounds have tips for Mitchell
Teplitsky of New York, NY, who is distributing a documentary film
himself. He is looking for suggestions on where he can find
interns or PR firms that do pro bono work.

From Kathy Magrino:

"Contact NY/NJ colleges and universities to promote and advertise
the internship opportunity."

From Bruce Jones:

"I don't know much about PR internships but I would make a
comment on the existing promotional videos. They don't say 'buy
me.' People need to be told what to do.

"YouTube can be a very effective way to promote your products. At
the end of the video, which maybe is a little too long, it should
tell people that to purchase or for more info, they should go to
http://www.soyandina.com

"The same thing on the other clips. Just having a web address
isn't enough. I have also found that different video hosting
platforms get very different results and audiences. Once the
video is done, put it up on 10 or more."

The Publicity Hound says:

Bruce is right. But posting on more than just a few of these
video sites can eat up your life because uploading takes such a
long time. Shave hundreds of hours off the task with Traffic
Geyser. With just one click, it uploads to dozens of sites. Learn
more about it at http://budurl.com/lpxg

Read all the responses to this week's "Help This Hound" question
http://tinyurl.com/cecogs

Send your own Help this Hound question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com?subject=HelpThisHound
and include your city and state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Linda Foirmichelli of Concord, NH and Jennifer Lawler of
Lawrence, KS write:

"We're both well-established writers who offer e-courses in our
areas of specialty. Linda offers a class for magazine writers on
how to break into magazines, starting April 13,and Jennifer
offers one for book authors on how to write a book proposal,
starting May 4.

"We both have been offering our e-courses for a few years and
have happy customers who can give testimonials and describe how
our courses offer results. However, we're finding it tougher and
tougher to get the word out about our e-courses.

"We both blog (Linda’s blog has more followers than Jennifer’s,
which she just started a few weeks ago). We both belong to
writers' groups and contribute to their online forums, but of
course if we're too sales-y in our approach, our posts get
deleted. We're on LinkedIn and Facebook. What are we missing?"

The Publicity Hound says:

You can pretty much kiss traditional media good-bye because both
classes are starting soon, and you'll miss many of the deadlines.
That leaves online publicity.

Hounds with quick tips for Jennifer and Susan can post them to my
blog at http://budurl.com/avpt

Here's my idea:

If you aren't Twittering yet, start today and link to tips at
your blogs or websites that tie into your courses. From the tips,
link to the registration pages. Use the search box at
http://search.twitter.com to search for freelancers, writers,
authors and anyone else who's an ideal candidate for the courses.
Follow them, retweet their tweets, and then send them a direct
message asking that they retweet one of your tweets that promotes
the tips.

Courses like these are ideal to promote on LinkedIn, too, but you
need a long lead time so you can plant the seed, so to speak, by
asking a question about a topic that ties into your course, and
then letting everyone who answers the question know about what
you're offering.

This has to be done very carefully, however. Scott Allen, one of
the foremost experts on LinkedIn, laid out an entire campaign he
designed for a friend on how she could promote something she was
sponsoring. His ideas started drawing immediate response within
48 hours.

He outlines the entire campaign in step-by-step detail and gives
you your own timeline on exactly what to do on LinkedIn, and
when, if you want to promote something. Read more about "How to
Use LinkedIn to Promote Anything--Ethically & Powerfully" at
http://budurl.com/fft3

=================================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
==================================

Cat's motto: "No matter what you've done wrong, always try to
make it look like the dog did it." -- Unknown

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

==================================
8. And at My Blog...
==================================

4 ways I censor myself in social media circles
http://budurl.com/rxmk

Pitching Hispanic radio? Tie your pitch to the geographic area
http://budurl.com/ntns

Want your own radio show? Discover how on Thursday
http://budurl.com/cxkw

---------------------------------------

Where to See & Hear The Publicity Hound:

Follow me on Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/PublicityHound

Friend me on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joan_Stewart/541605146

Connect with me on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/publicityhound

Permission to Reprint:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me you want to subscribe.

Privacy Statement:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict
Privacy Policy which you an read at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity Tips/Newspaper Closings? Ho-Hum Mar 17, 2009

2009-03-17T15:18:00.005-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #442 March 17, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 41,750

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you
can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the
newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their
reputation, position themselves as employers of choice, sell more
products and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

***********************************************

Speakers: Hit the Continuing Education Market

Many of my friends who are professional speakers says it's harder
than ever to get paying gigs because companies are trimming their
training budgets, and meeting planners are bringing in industry
experts who are often willing to waive their fees.

It's time to tap into the lucrative market of continuing
education. Tom Antion is hosting a paid teleseminar called "CEU
Secrets Revealed: How to Sell Your Knowledge for Big Bucks in the
Continuing Education Market" at 9 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, March
19. His guest is Doug Bench, a former judge who retired from law
and started teaching continuing education classes for Florida
homebuilders. He's bringing in over 7 figures in revenue each
year, and he'll share all the ins and outs of selling your
knowledge as CEU credits both online and off.

If the time is inconvenient, sign up anyway because the first 200
registrants will get a copy of the CD.

Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/ako5x7

************************************************
================================
In This Issue
================================

1. Newspaper Closings? Ho-Hum

2. Thanks for Taking My Survey

3. A Handy Twitter Formula

4. Backgrounders Educate Reporters

5. 'Window Shopping' for a Retirement Home

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

========================================
1. Newspaper Closings? Ho-Hum
========================================

Fewer than half of Americans surveyed by the Pew Research Center
say that losing their local newspaper would hurt civic life in
their community "a lot."

Even fewer, one in three people, say they would personally miss
reading the local newspaper a lot if it were no longer available.

Those are among findings of the latest weekly News Interest
Index, conducted March 6-9 by the Pew Research Center for the
People & the Press.

The survey also shows that more people say they get local news
from local television stations than any other source. About two-
thirds (68 percent) say they regularly get local news from
television reports or television station websites, 48 percent say
they regularly get news from local newspapers in print or online,
34 percent say they get local news regularly from radio, and 31
percent say they get their local news, more generally, from the
Internet.

You can read more about the survey and see all the results at
http://tinyurl.com/agy3h3

Close on the heels of the survey results was yesterday's
announcement by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that it's stopping
the presses and experimenting with a web-only edition of the
paper. The 118,000-circulation daily is keeping only 20 of its
journalists to work on the online edition, and laying off 145
others.

An article in the Wall Street Journal says the smaller digital
edition will no longer be a catch-all of local and national news
and features. Instead, it will cover local events and publish
blogs and columns from staff, readers and prominent local
citizens. It also plans to link liberally to other news sources
in the Seattle area.

What does this mean for Publicity Hounds in Seattle? (If you live
elsewhere, pay attention. The same thing might happen to your
local daily newspaper.)

--Newspapers like the Post-Intelligence will be hungry for
content, including letters, opinion columns and even video.

--They might even start calling on "citizen journalists,"
including local bloggers, to report on news and events. No longer
will you have to genuflect before the media gatekeepers. Anyone
with a computer or a camera can report the news.

--Hounds no longer will be able to rely on their local
metropolitan paper for major publicity. Consider pitching your
local business journal, which is probably on more solid footing
than your local daily. And, of course, continue to pitch local TV
stations.

--If you're not on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social
networking sites where your target audience is gathering for much
of their news, start right now.

BL Ochman, a prolific blogger who creates social networking
campaigns for her corporate clients, says "the social media train
has left the station." She was my guest during a recent
teleseminar on "How to do Social Networking, Run a Business &
Still Have a Life."

It's available as a CD, MP3 or an electronic transcript that you
can download and be reading as soon as your order has been
approved. Read more about how to chase after the train and hop
aboard at http://tinyurl.com/6kswbc

======================================
2. Thanks for Taking My Survey
======================================

If you want to know what your customers think of your products or
services, don't sit around and guess. Ask them.

That's what I did when I emailed the link to my Customer Profile
Survey to more than 50,000 Hounds this month.

The response was fabulous, and I learned that many of you who
took the survey are more patient that I'll ever be.

We chose the vendor for this survey after a lot of research. But
the company dropped the ball and threw so many technology
roadblocks in your way that many of you bailed out before
completing it. Some of you were "frozen" on a particular page and
couldn't move. Others couldn't make it onto the thank-you page to
get the code for $40 off their choice of products.

Scott Buffaloe, one of my customer service managers from Serenity
VA Services, and Jeanne Hurlbert, my wonderful consultant who
helped me write the survey, personally contacted dozens of Hounds
who emailed and called for help. We think we've resolved all the
problems but we want to be 100 percent sure. Please email Scott
at mailto:scott@serenityva.com if you had trouble using the
coupon, or Jeanne at mailto:hurlbert@optinetresources.com if you
have questions about the survey.

Just when we thought all the glitches were solved, the vendor's
entire system crashed one day last week. Miraculously, we have
retrieved all the survey results, and we're in the process of
analyzing them.

Why am I telling you this? Because 94 percent of the people who
took the survey ranked my customer service 8, 9 or 10 on a scale
of 1 to 10.

Part of good customer service, I believe, is to explain problems
that occurred, why they occurred, and what I'll do to make sure
they never happen again.

From time to time, I'll be asking you to take much shorter
surveys but I promise you I will not use the same vendor. Survey
Monkey, another popular survey service, doesn't quite fit our
needs. I'm curious about companies you recommend. If you survey
your customers regularly and you've found a great vendor, drop me
a line at mailto:jstewart@PublicityHound.com and let me know.

I'll be sharing some of the survey results through press
releases. If you take surveys, or you're thinking of taking them,
recycle the publicity over and over again. My ebook "How to be a
Kick-butt Publicity Hound" gives you hundreds of ideas on how to
generate buzz for whatever you're promoting and gives you an
excellent bird's-eye view of all your opportunities. The 2009
update includes seven new chapters on how to use social
media to promote.

Learn more about the book at
http://www.publicityhound.com/publicity/publicityhound.htm

===========================================
3. A Handy Twitter Formula
===========================================

Confused about what to tweet about on Twitter?

Do you hate those "what I ate for lunch" tweets and vow you'll
never write them, but you can't think of much else to say that
your followers would find interesting?

Here's a helpful tip from Perry Belcher, who accumulated more
than 52,000 Twitter followers in only 128 days. At the Live7
event hosted by Stompernet, the Internet marketing membership
group earlier this month, Perry shared his formula for the
content of his tweets:

--30 percent: Tips that help make people's lives better

--10 percent: Information that keeps them informed

--30 percent: Anything that makes people laugh (He says
http://www.Fark.com is a great site for humorous content)

--25 percent: Compliments and praise

--5 percent: What you're doing

Have you been writing most of your tweets about what you're
doing? If so, try this formula and see how much more quickly
people start following you.

Granted, this takes a little more time and discipline. But I'm
sure it's the reason Perry has been able to attract such a huge
following so quickly. You can follow him on Twitter at
http://Twitter.com/perrybelcher and you can follow me at
http://twitter.com/PublicityHound

Yes, you can use Twitter to promote. But you have to do it much
more subtly than the way you promote in other venues. Twitter
expert Warren Whitlock gives you the step-by-step process on "How
to Use Twitter to Amass an Army of Followers, Customers &
Valuable Contacts--and Promote." It's available as an electronic
transcript and your choice of CDs or MP3s. Publicity Hounds raved
about the two teleseminars I hosted with him several months ago
because his advice helped shorten their Twitter learning curve.

Read more about how to use Twitter to promote at
http://tinyurl.com/3lbcaw

=======================================
4. Backgrounders Educate Reporters
=======================================

If a complicated story is about to break within your industry,
consider hosting a backgrounder, a one-on-one meeting with a
journalist and others who might cover it.

The March 16 issue of PRWeek magazine says backgrounders are
particularly helpful in the health industry, where stories about
new drugs, diseases and devices can be difficult for journalists
to understand. Backgrounders help educate reporters who aren't
under the pressure of deadlines.

Radi Medical Systems, for example, invited a reporter from the
Wall Street Journal who wanted information about cardiology
procedures, to a hospital to watch a procedure and speak with
cardiologists.

AstraZeneca has been hosting media briefings on various cancer
topics the last few years.

Briefings also let companies control which reporters they speak
with and which spokespeople they provide.

You can also use briefings to educate the editorial boards of
newspapers because they're the ones who decide the positions that
the newspaper will take on certain issues. Sometimes an hour-long
briefing with a group of editors can help you gain their support
for a cause or issue you're promoting.

Afraid of meeting with a group of journalists? Don't be.

During a teleseminar I hosted, I explained exactly how to contact
them, ask for a meeting of the editorial board, what to take with
you and what to say. "How to Use Newspaper & Magazine Editorial
Boards" is available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you
can download and be reading as soon as your order has been
approved.

Read more about editorial boards and backgrounders at
http://tinyurl.com/5wh45

========================================
5. Window Shopping for a Retirement Home
========================================

This week, 10 Publicity Hounds have tips for Keri Gerlach, the
marketing director of Clement Manor, a retirement community in
Greenfield, WI. She's looking for ways to encourage families to
"window shop" now for long-term care for their aging parents.

From Barry Lebow:

"Look up http://www.seniorsrealestate.com which is the Senior
Real Estate Specialist website. It identifies Realtors who are
dedicated to working with Baby Boomers and their parents. Get a
list of members within, say, 50 miles of your location and invite
them for a special tour of your facilities. Work with the
Realtors who are in the field, create a program for them and
welcome their referrals. Make it easy for them to recommend you
by sponsoring a lunch, have a speaker on a subject relating to
seniors and real estate (will and trusts?). Keep them in the loop
and on your mailing list."

From Patricia C. Vener:

"Keri, have you heard of Eons? It?s an online social media group
for people over, I think, 50 or so. You'd be surprised at how
many early Baby Boomers are pretty computer-savvy.

"You might also look into those health fairs that are often
sponsored by newspapers, Chambers of Commerce, and other health-
oriented businesses.

Finally, offer an open house affair with a dinner (or coffee and
dessert) and a presentation, kind of like what the vacation
share companies do."

From Alan McBride:

"I worked for a radio station with a 55+ audience and we put on a
Seniors Expo. This involved all the retirement villages but it
would be just as easy to hold the event at yours. Invite funeral
parlous, local tour operators--in fact, anyone who provides a
service. Each person buys time on the radio over eight weeks and
gets a stall. Radio stations love you, providers love you. Even
invite Scouts and guides to generate goodwill to the elderly."

The Publicity Hound says:

Keri, how about using the Milwaukee Craigslist regularly to
attract the attention of Baby Boomers and others? You can share
tips on how to choose a retirement community, create short videos
and offer the links on Craigslist, and even do video interviews
with some of your residents. Nancy Mills, an expert on how to use
Craigslist, was my guest during a teleseminar and she shared all
of her time-saving tips on how to take advantage of the world's
giant classified ad bulletin board.

"How to Use Craigslist as a Global Publicity Tool" is available
as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can download and be
reading as soon as your order has been approved. Read more about
how to get started on Craigslist at http://tinyurl.com/geog2

The Publicity Hound says:

Read all the responses to this week's "Help This Hound" question
http://tinyurl.com/bgep5b

Send your own Help this Hound question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com and include your city and
state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Mitchell Teplitsky of New York, NY writes:

"I am self-distributing a documentary to the home video and
institutional markets.

"I do my own PR, but as one-man band, it's too much. I'm thinking
of trying to find an intern or PR firm pro bono. The benefit:
They'll get to work with and learn how to independently market a
film (few can do it well).

"The movie tells the story of two women raised in different
worlds--an immigrant folk dancer from the Andes, and a modern
dancer from Queens, NY--who return to Peru to reconnect with
roots and an astonishing world of traditional dance and
celebration. You can learn more about it at
http://www.soyandina.com/

"Do your Hounds have any suggestions on where I might look? Are
there any sources you can recommend to find people?"

The Publicity Hound says:

Many companies and nonprofits are looking for PR interns this
time of year, so you'll be up against some stiff competition to
lure the right person.

My Hounds who have used interns will be able to offer some great
shortcuts. Hounds with tips for Mitchell can post them to my blog
at http://tinyurl.com/cecogs

But don't just hire an intern then send them off on their own.
They need guidance, training and mentoring. I can help. My
teleseminar series on "How to Help Your Boss or Client with a
Publicity Campaign" is an in-depth course on how to do
publicity--perfect for summer interns, virtual assistants, or
anybody who works in a PR capacity and needs help understanding
fairly quickly the best ways to promote any product, service,
cause or issue.

It's available as CDs, MP3s or electronic transcripts--all with
handouts. Read more about how to train your assistant at
http://www.Publicityhound.com/PHU_AssistantsCourse.htm

==================================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
==================================

Dear God:

Why are there cars named after the jaguar, the cougar, the
mustang, the colt, the stingray, and the rabbit, but not ONE
named for a dog? How often do you see a cougar riding around?

We do love a nice ride! Would it be so hard to rename the
"Chrysler Eagle" the "Chrysler Beagle"?

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

==================================
8. And at My Blog...
==================================

Gardeners, USA Weekend wants photos of giant fruits, veggies
http://tinyurl.com/crkgkb

---------------------------------------

Permission to Reprint:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound? website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me you want to subscribe.

Privacy Statement:

The Publicity Hound? respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound?
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI
53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity Tips/Rate Cards are for Dummies Mar 10, 2009

2009-03-11T08:32:00.004-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #441 March 10, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 42,004

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you
can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the
newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their
reputation, position themselves as employers of choice, sell more
products and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

******************************************

If You Missed Taking My Survey:

If you took my customer profile survey, a thousand thank-yous. So
many of you are using your $40 coupons to order products that
it's gotten to the point where the post office clerks hate to see
my customer service people walk through the door.

If you tried to take the survey but the screen froze up or you
bailed out because of other technical glitches, you can try again
using this link. We've fixed the glitches and the survey will let
you pick up where you left off:
http://www.PublicityHound.com/customerprofilesurvey.htm

If you took it but still haven't used your $40 coupon, you have
until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, March 13, to do so.

Problem taking the survey? Email Scott, my customer service
manager, at mailto:scott@serenityva.com

In the next few weeks, I'll be digging into the data and your
comments to see what you like, what you don't like, what you
want, and where I can improve.

Your support, suggestions, ideas and loyalty make my job the best
in the world. And for that, I'm grateful--and one doggone happy
Hound.

*****************************************
================================
In This Issue
================================

1. Rate Cards are for Dummies

2. Use Twitter Hash Tags for Publicity

3. Promote Social Networking Sites Offline

4. Another Oversized Check--Ugh!

5. How to Promote 'Going Green'

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

========================================
1. Rate Cards are for Dummies
========================================

As newspapers march toward the graveyard, smart Publicity Hounds
see the parade as a golden opportunity to buy advertising at
dirt-cheap prices.

At Stompernet's Internet marketing conference in Atlanta over
the weekend, publicity expert Don Crowther reminded us that rate
cards are for dummies. Never, ever pay the full ad rate listed on
the card.

"Always negotiate," Don says.

Desperate newspapers will sometimes accept a rate far below
what's on the card. Or they'll make you pay the full rate but
give you two ads for the price of one.

Another way to save, Don says, is to buy remnant ads.

When newspapers or magazines have extra ad space at the last
minute because another advertiser has pulled out, they might let
you have it at bargain-basement prices. Don says he has bought
remnant ads in the New York Times for 10 percent the price on the
rate card.

If you're buying a remnant ad, you'll be expected to provide the
copy for it almost immediately, and you'll also have no control
over where the ad is placed.

Don's rate card tips work equally well for college newspapers
which, by the way, have a very loyal readership among an audience
that doesn't read daily and weekly papers. Since the start of the
current school year, daily newspapers at several major colleges
have cut back their publication schedule to one edition a week--
usually on Friday--because of weak advertising.

Everybody wants publicity you don't have to pay for. But when you
have to buy an ad in the traditional media, check out "Special
Report #48: Smart Tips for F~ree, Cheap and More Effective Ads."
It give you lots of value advice for only $10. Read more about it
at http://tinyurl.com/dhe7r4

======================================
2. Use Twitter Hash Tags for Publicity
======================================

If you're planning a special event like an industry convention or
a speaking engagement, even a teleseminar, invite the Twitter
community to buzz about it.

At the opening session, announce from the stage that audience
members who tweet about the event should use a hash tag, and then
tell them what it is.

A hash tag is the character # followed by a short word that
describes the event, or a particular topic, on Twitter.

For example, at the Stompernet Internet marketing event I
attended over the weekend, audience members were asked to mark
their tweets by typing "#Stompernet" within each one.

That makes it easy for other attendees, and even people who
didn't attend the event, to go to Twitter's search box at
http://search.Twitter.com and type in "#Stompernet" and find all
the tweets about the event.

You might be asking: Why would Stompernet want the rest of the
world to take advantage of information at an event that only
members and their guests can attend?

Here's why:

--It creates interest in their membership site. I guarantee that
if you search for all the "#Stompernet" tweets and read them, you
will find at least three tips you can start using today to
increase your bottom line. Membership is currently closed, but if
you go to http://tinyurl.com/a6j4pw and give them your email
address, they'll notify you when it opens.

--Of the 500+ people who attended the Stompernet event, many
tweeted about it. Each of those people has an army of followers.
Some of those followers might think the tips are so valuable that
they're worth "retweeting," thereby exposing millions more people
to Stompernet.

--No more whining that "The Daily Tattler didn't cover our event,
boo-hoo." By using hashtags, you turn your entire audience into
journalists and let THEM report on the event for you. Often,
their reach on Twitter will be far greater than the reach of many
top-tier media outlets like CNN and the New York Times. Plus,
those tweets live online forever, just waiting for the search
engines to find them.

There are lots more ways to use hash tags for publicity. Tell us
how you use them by adding comments to my blog post at
http://tinyurl.com/cjr3ot

===========================================
3. Promote Social Networking Sites Offline
===========================================

Don't get so caught up tweeting on Twitter, uploading videos to
YouTube and finding friends on Facebook that you forget to let
the offline world know where they can find you at these sites.

The next time I order business cards, I'm adding this to the back
of the card:

Follow me on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/PublicityHound

Connect with me on LinkedIn at
http://www.linkedin.com/in/publicityhound

Be my friend on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joan_Stewart/541605146

You can also add your "how to find me" social networking
information to printed brochures, paper and plastic bags,
receipts, invoices, catalogs, calendars, books, print
newsletters, stationery, postcards, handouts, product packaging,
annual reports, print media kit, CD and DVD labels, notepads and
print advertising.

I'm also adding those phrases to the bottom center of every page
at my website, along with all my other contact information.

Social networking leaving you overwhelmed? Join the crowd. Learn
time-saving tricks and tools on "How to do Social Networking, Run
a Business & Still Have a Life." BL Ochman, a giant in social
networking circles, explained how during the teleseminar I hosted
with her a few months ago.

It's available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can
download and be reading as soon as your order has been approved.
Read more about her tips at http://tinyurl.com/6kswbc

===================================
4. Another Oversized Check---Ugh!
===================================

If I see one more oversized cardboard check in a local newspaper
or on TV or at somebody's website...I'll...I'll...

I'm not sure what I'll do, but it won't be pretty.

Please stop planning those schmaltzy check-passing ceremonies,
shooting photos of oversized checks and then offering the photos
to the media.

And while you're at it, no more boring ribbon-cutting events with
those giant cardboard scissors. You can do better.

As for ground-breaking ceremonies, nobody is breaking much ground
these days for new construction projects. But if you do, please
don't subject your audience to the equally monotonous
groundbreaking ceremony. You know the kind---a dozen suits in
hard hats, all lined up from left to right, each one posing with
a foot on the spade.

Need I say more?

Dan Collins has created dozens of fun, exciting events that
really generate buzz for Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Md.
He explains how you can take his own ideas and apply them to
whatever you're promoting. "Fun Alternatives to Boring Ground-
breakings, Ribbon-cuttings and Check-passings" is available as a
CD or electronic transcript.

Read more about how to banish these cliche events forever, even
if your boss insists that you "do what you're told," at
http://tinyurl.com/7cl6z

====================================
5. How to Promote 'Going Green'
====================================

This week, six Publicity Hounds have tips for Colleen Schmid of
Heathrow, Fla. on how she can promote her consulting business
that shows homeowners and companies how to "go green." She asked
for ideas on how she can tie in to Earth Day on April 22.

From Joel Prunty:

"Being green is a popular story line already. How about twisting
it into a St. Patrick's Day story? That way, you don't have to
compete with all the other green Earth Day stuff."

From Jeff Rutherford:

"Many politicians from the right and the left are seeing the
wisdom in going green. Why not try to coordinate with a local
politician--you'll go through their home, accompanied by a
reporter from a local TV station or newspaper, of course, and
discuss all the ways that they could improve their homes to go
green.

"If you get turned down by local politicians, what about other
local community leaders?"

From Meryl K. Evans:

"How about using Twitter to provide one green tip per day,
building up to the big reveal on Earth Day? After all, one tip
per day is doable for families and doesn't overwhelm them. With
each tip, they'll think, 'Oh, is that all it takes? I can do
that.'

"Then put all the tips in one blog post or article to distribute
in its entirety on Earth Day."

The Publicity Hound says:

Colleen, how about pitching your story on March 20, the first day
of spring? Demonstrate how people can go green while doing their
spring cleaning. Many local TV stations have those morning
news/feature shows that would welcome this story. Check out TV
producer Shawne Duperon's tips on "How to Get on the Local TV
News Tomorrow." It's available as a CD or electronic transcript
you can be reading as soon as your order is approved.

Read more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/4zpuz

Read all the answers to last week's Help This Hound question at
http://tinyurl.com/besbzg

Send your own Help this Hound question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com and include your city and
state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Keri Gerlach of Greenfield, WI writes:

"I'm the marketing director for Clement Manor, a retirement
community at http://www.ClementManor.com

"My biggest challenge is a limited budget and limited resources
targeting long-term care and assisted living. Not many folks are
out there touring facilities until they have to, and given the
economy, most are waiting even longer to sell their homes.

"More specifically, I'd like ideas on how to encourage families
to ‘window shop’ now so that when the time comes for their
parents, they've done their homework and have an idea about what
facility they might choose. The sons and daughters we are seeing
are in their mid-60s."

The Publicity Hound says:

OK, so where do people in their mid-60s hang out? How about it,
Hounds? How should Keri be directing her marketing efforts? Any
niche social networking sites for over-50 people in Wisconsin?
Share your best ideas at my blog at http://tinyurl.com/bgep5b

==================================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
==================================

Buy a dog a toy and it will play with it forever. Buy a cat a
present and it will play with the wrapper for 10 minutes.

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

==================================
8. And at My Blog...
==================================

How to use Twitter hash tags for promotion, publicity
http://tinyurl.com/cjr3ot

---------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

March 16--Teleseminar on Internet Marketing

I'll be Marilee Tolen's guest from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern Time for
her teleseminar series "Introduction to Internet Marketing" for
nurses, healers, coaches and holistic professional solopreneurs.
If this is your niche, and you're tired of running after the next
client, this is the training session for you. It starts Feb. 23.
Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/dl3xhm

PERMISSION TO REPRINT:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me you want to subscribe.

PRIVACY STATEMENT:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI
53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity Tips/How About a Little Good News? Mar 3, 2009

2009-03-04T15:38:00.005-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #440
March 3, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 42,341

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

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================================
In This Issue
================================

1. How About a Little Good News?

2. It's Square Root Day

3. 3 Teleseminars to Help You

4. The Advantage of Freelancers

5. Ugly Patio Furniture

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

====================================
1. How About a Little Good News?
====================================

You and I aren't the only ones sick of bad news.

TV news producers are sick of it too. That's what my friend, TV
producer Shawne Duperon, told me a few days ago. We were talking
about the demise of the Rocky Mountain News, one of Colorado's
two biggest daily newspapers.

"Are things as bad in the TV industry as they are at newspapers?
"I asked her.

"It's not even the same conversation," she said. "Everything is
fine. But TV people are sick of all the gloom and doom.

"What does that mean to Publicity Hounds?

Pitch good news stories:

--My local newspaper had a story on Page 1 yesterday about how a
little small-town bank, where the bosses commute to work on foot,
is doing just fine, thank you, while bigger financial
institutions are grabbing bail-outs right and left. That bank
might never have received front-page publicity in a boom economy.
But today, it's the exception to the rule.

--Has your family found creative ways to skirt high grocery
bills? Are you and the kids cooking more instead of eating out
and, in the process, learning more about each other? If so, pitch
lifestyle reporters, bloggers, and explain your own story at your
blog.

--My friend opened The Chocolate Chisel, a gourmet chocolate shop
in my town of Port Washington, Wisconsin a few weeks ago. When I
asked her if she had second thoughts about opening in this
economy, she said no. While creating her business plan with her
partner, they researched the history of chocolate and learned
that it's one product that does well during bad times. People
might not be able to afford a $300 day at the spa, but a $10
sample pack of gourmet chocolates makes the world right again. I
told her that's a terrific angle she ought to pitch.

--Moore Oil Company in Milwaukee has its own economic stimulus
plan. President Scott Haag is offering employees $2,000 if they
buy a new car, or $1,000 for a used car. "It's just a gift.
There's no there's no payback," he said. "It's tough out there,
and a little positive news today goes a long way.

"Indeed. That story made it onto the local ABC station's news last
night.What good news story can you pitch? If you're having trouble
identifying it, you can learn all their inside secrets about what
TV stations want. Shawne Duperon was my guest during a
teleseminar on "How to Get on the Local TV News Tomorrow." We
recorded it and it's available as a CD or an electronic
transcript that you can download and be reading as soon as your
order has been approved.

Read more about how to get your story onto TV at
http://tinyurl.com/4zpuz

Learn three more ideas on how to piggyback your story idea onto
the economy by joining my "Friends of The Publicity Hound"
Facebook group at http://tinyurl.com/bawp2z

In the next day or two, I'll email the group with more ideas on
how to piggyback your story ideas onto the economy.

====================================
2. It's Square Root Day
====================================

Today is Square Root Day, a holiday celebrated on dates where the
day and the month are both the square root of the last two digits
in the current year.

For example, the last square root day was March 3, 2009 (3-3-09),
and the next square root day will be April 4, 2016 (4-4-16). The
final square root day of the century will occur on September 9,
2081 (9-9-81). Square root days fall on the same nine dates each
century.

Ron Gordon, a Redwood City, California high school teacher, first
created the day for 9-9-81. He's the official PR person and sends
press releases to media outlets around the world.

There's even a Facebook group devoted to Square Root Day at
http://tinyurl.com/d7gz39 and it has more than 2,600 members.
Many of them have written wall posts that explain how they're
celebrating.

For all you foodies, one suggested way of celebrating the holiday
is by eating square radishes, or other root vegetables cut into
shapes with square cross sections.

If you think this is silly, check out the mountains of publicity
Square Root Day has received throughout the world:
http://tinyurl.com/ak4hjs

Now quite smirking. Go over to Chase's Calendar of Events at
http://www.Chases.com and create your own holiday, or your own
day, week or month of the year by clicking on "Submit an Entry"
on the left side of the screen. You have until April 15 to submit
an entry for the 2010 printed edition.

Once you've created your day, use it as a springboard to pitch to
the media. When Dan Janal interviewed me about how to pitch, I
explained all the ways sources caught my attention with their
pitches when I worked as a newspaper editor. I shared them all in
the recording "Secrets of Perfect Pitching."

It's available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can
download and be reading as soon as your order has been approved.
Read more about how to pitch the right way at
http://tinyurl.com/s3tyx

===================================
3. 3 Teleseminars to Help You
===================================

--"Media Star Power: How To Become a Celebrity and a Media
Darling All at the Same Time," with Tom Antion and Judy Jernudd.
Judy is a former Los Angeles talk show host who has interviewed
presidents, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Selleck, Tom Cruise, Regis
Philbin, Larry King, Barbara Walters and hundreds of other
superstars. At 9 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, March 5. This is a
paid teleseminar. Register at http://tinyurl.com/ako5x7

--"Best-seller Blueprint--How To Make Your Book An Almost Instant
Best-seller and Sell Tons of Copies Even if You're A Marketing
Novice," with Steve Harrison, Randy Gilbert and Peggy McColl. At
2 or 7 Eastern on Thursday, March 5. Register for this
complimentary call at http://tinyurl.com/ccdbb7

--"How to Create Your own Strong Economy This Year with Online
Information Marketing," with Alexandria Brown, The Ezine Queen,
on Thursday, March 5. Learn 5 ways to recession-proof your
business. Register for this complimentary call at
http://tinyurl.com/bnh627

=====================================
4. The Advantage of Freelancers
=====================================

How many freelance writers have you built relationships with this
past year?

How many freelancers are you trying to court this year?

Publicity Hound Pam Lontos of PR/PR at http://www.prpr.net says
getting to know freelancers has paid off big.

Her company pitched one if its clients, Dr. Kenneth Christian, a
psychologist and author of "Your Own Worst Enemy," to a writer at
Self Magazine a few years ago.

The writer, a freelancer, was going to interview Dr. Christian,
but the magazine decided to kill the story. The writer also wrote
for Parade magazine and decided to write the whole story for
Parade around Dr. Christian's new book. In fact, she needed more
sources so she ended up using another one of PR/PR's clients, Dr.
Pamela Brill, author of "The Winner's Way." The story skyrocketed
the ranking for both authors' books on Amazon.

Dr. Christian's new book jumped from 35,000 to 35. Dr. Brill's
book, which was available pre-sale, jumped to 300 before it was
even released."

Be helpful and give the media more story ideas and resources
than they ask for," Pam says. "You never know which small town
newspaper writer also writes for a major media outlet."

"Special Report #40:42 Publicity Tips for Authors and Small
Publishers" shows you how to target niche markets, position
yourself as an expert and pull the media and others to your
website. Only $10, and you can download it as soon as your order
has been approved. Read more about it at http://tinyurl.com/6uz9g

====================================
5. Ugly Patio Furniture
====================================

This week, four Publicity Hounds have tips for Jill Cranford of
Livermore, Colo., on how to publicize her "Ugly Patio Furniture"competition at http://tinyurl.com/auhj8e

From Tonya:

"I am a huge fan of design, especially green design and I have a
Google reader full of design blogs. I would recommend that Jill
put together a little blurb about the competition along with some
photos of her products, and submit them to different design
blogs. I have a bunch of them in a list if she'd like to email
me, but she can go to Google and type in 'design blog' and she
will find a ton of them."

From Hendry Lee:

"These competitions are all over the place within Twitter. Zappos
has done it successfully, as well as solopreneurs.

"Nothing allows you to interact with your target market more
directly than Twitter. With the power of retweets, your info
can go viral. Not to mention that it makes a good case study for
many bloggers to write about, increasing your publicity even
more."

The Publicity Hound says:

I love those ideas. Twitter expert Warren Whitlock shows you "How
to Use Twitter to Amass an Army of Followers, Customers &
Valuable Contacts--and Promote." My teleseminar series with him
is available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can
download and be reading as soon as your order has been approved.

Read more about all the ways you can use Twitter at
http://tinyurl.com/3lbcaw

Read all the responses to this week's Help This Hound question
http://tinyurl.com/apbzws

Send your own Help this Hound question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com and include your city and
state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Colleen Schmid of Heathrow, Fla. writes:

"I've recently started a new business teaching families how to
start going green in their homes. I go through their homes and,
room by room, show them what things they can be doing to save on
power and water bills as well as removing toxins. I will also
begin showing small businesses how to do the same.

"Earth Day is on April 22, and I'm trying to come up with a big
idea to get media attention for my business. It's so critical
that we all become aware of what we're are doing to harm our
environment, waste precious resources and pollute. It's also
important to show people how living green saves them money and
takes care of our Earth.

"Can your Hounds thing of some powerful ways for me to tie my
business into Earth Day for some publicity?" Her website is at
http://green-colleen.com

The Publicity Hound says:

Some media people say they're suspicious about green pitches
which seem to be everywhere. So my Hounds need to come up with
some really clever angles for you, Colleen. Hounds with tips for
Colleen can post them to my blog at http://tinyurl.com/besbzg

==================================
7. Hound Quote of the Week
==================================

The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.- Andy Rooney.

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

===================================
8. And at My Blog...
===================================

Hiring a VA to book speaking gigs sends a bad message
http://tinyurl.com/akmxfv

---------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

March 6-8--Atlanta, Ga.
I'll be at the Stompernet Live 7 event. If you're going, let's
meet for coffee.

March 16--Teleseminar on Internet Marketing

I'll be Marilee Tolen's guest from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern Time for
her teleseminar series "Introduction to Internet Marketing" for
nurses, healers, coaches and holistic professional solopreneurs.
If this is your niche, and you're tired of running after the next
client, this is the training session for you. It starts Feb. 23.
Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/dl3xhm

PERMISSION TO REPRINT:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
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PRIVACY STATEMENT:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
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http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity Tips/Enhance Your Pitch with Video Feb 24, 2009

2009-02-24T17:08:00.005-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #439 Feb. 24, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 42,491

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you
can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the
newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their
reputation, position themselves as employers of choice, sell more
products and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

******************************************

Complete My Survey, Get a $40 Coupon & Chance to Win a Kindle:

I'm sending 500 readers of this newsletter, chosen randomly, my
customer satisfaction survey. If you complete it, you'll get a
$40 coupon (I've increased it from 30) good for any products or
services I sell, and your name will be entered in a drawing for a
Kindle 2, the new wireless reading device that Amazon sells for
$359. If the winner doesn't want the Kindle, I'll send an Amazon
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The first batch of 500 surveys are helping me identify any
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honest feedback will help me improve this newsletter and give you
products and services I might not be aware that you need.

*****************************************
================================
In This Issue
================================

1. Enhance Your Pitch with Video

2. Target College Blogs

3. Blogrolls: Publicity Gold

4. Meet Journalists Face to Face

5. Promoting Home & Garden Shows

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

========================================
1. Enhance Your Pitch with Video
========================================

Too many Publicity Hounds are obsessed with generating coverage
in the printed versions of newspapers and magazines.

They forget that newspaper circulation is plummeting and that
things aren't exactly rosy in the magazine industry, either.

If you can make it into your local daily newspaper,
congratulations. But what about the thousands of people who have
stopped subscribing because they can read much of the content
online and not have to pay?

If your story shows up in the printed newspaper, but not at the
paper's website, you're missing the chance to be in front of all
those people who read it online.

Entice editors to publish your story in the printed and online
editions by offering them video at their website. For example:

--Let's say you're a fashion consultant. You can pitch a story
about how Casual Friday has resulted in slobs in the workplace,
and then offer a short video that shows the Top 10 Casual Friday
Fashion Mistakes. Editors will be happy to put the video at their
website and refer to it from the story in the printed edition.

--An author publicizing a recipe book for children can offer the
food editor a video that shows a child making a peanut butter and
jelly roll-up, with help from mom or dad.

--A manufacturer who's pitching a business story can offer video
that shows a product in various stages of completion, sort of a
mini version of the popular show "How it's Made" on the Science
Channel.

Print journalists love video because they're under immense
pressure to provide multi-media at their websites. Multi-media
draws visitors, and that means more people reading paid ads. So
be sure to mention video in your pitch. Lots of other Publicity
Hounds aren't using video. If you do, you'll set yourself apart
from the crowd.

Publicity Hound John Easton, a videographer, has turned into a
media darling in his own community of Charlotte, North Carolina
by cranking out videos whenever he can--for use at newspaper
websites and the local Chamber of Commerce websites, among
others.

He says you don't have to be a video professional like he is to
endear the media. With an inexpensive Flip Video camera and a few
tricks up your sleeve, you can generate mountains of publicity
far and above what every else is getting.

John explained all his tricks during a teleseminar last year on
"9 Clever Ways to Use Video to Become a Publicity Darling in Your
Industry or Community." We recorded it, and it's available as a
CD, MP3 or electronic transcript that you can download as soon as
your order has been approved. Read more about what you'll learn
at http://tinyurl.com/5pbgzn

==============================================
2. Target College Blogs
==============================================

If you're publicizing something that appeals to a college
audience, the school's newspaper and campus TV and radio stations
should be on your targeted media list.

Don't forget about the blogs associated with those media.

I picked up a copy of The Marquette Tribune, the campus paper
published by Marquette University in Milwaukee. Inside, I found
four URLs leading to the newspapers blogs. They are devoted to
student government, music and entertainment, Greek life, and club
sports. Most of them accept comments.

I'm guessing that some college students who don't read
traditional newspapers also don't read their college paper but,
instead, search for information online, including these blogs.

Including college newspapers in your publicity campaign is one of
the thousands of tips featured in the 2009 update of my ebook
"How to be a Kick-butt Publicity Hound." When co-author Tom
Antion and I updated it late last year, we added six new chapters
on social media.

This is one of my most popular learning tools because it gives
Hounds an overall view of hundreds of publicity tools and
resources, and gives specific strategies on how to use them. Our
eight new chapters include tips and strategies for using video,
MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, photo-sharing sites, and
social bookmarking. If you're late getting started with social
media, this ebook explains in easy-to-understand terms how to
incorporate these sites into a publicity campaign.

Read more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/2a3dp9

========================================
3. Blogrolls: Publicity Gold
========================================

Authors, if you want more reviews for your books, pay attention
to this tip.

Publicity Hounds everywhere, if you're trying to generate
publicity among the blogging community, and you blog, this tip
applies to you, too.

It's courtesy of Rebecca Morgan, who publishes the excellent
SpeakerNetNews ezine for speakers at
http://www.SpeakerNetNews.com

Rebecca says that since so many newspapers are discontinuing
their book review sections, Hounds need to think creatively about
ways to publicize their books.

She suggests that you hunt down bloggers who mention your blog in
their blogroll. The blogroll is the list, usually in the right or
left margin, that links to all the blogs they find interesting.

I've seen my blog listed on dozens, maybe even hundreds, of
blogrolls that deal with marketing, publicity, books and
promotion.

Rebecca suggests that you ask bloggers who list you in their
blogroll to review your book.

"You already know they are your fans. Send them an advance copy.
When they review it, put a link on your site to the review and
tell your readers to check it out."

She also suggests:

--Add a quote from their review on your book description page
with a link to the full review.

--Ask other bloggers or sites that focus on your book's topic for
a review, even if your site isn't on their blogroll.

--Offer five f~ree books to their site to use as awards for a
contest they may want to run. Thus your book's title stays in
front of key buyers.

--Provide bloggers with a jpg of the book cover to post with the
review.

--If you have an affiliate program, invite them to join so they
earn commissions from orders coming from their readers. Many of
these folks will also invite you to appear as a guest on their
podcasts or Internet radio shows.

Her ideas could work for many other products, not just books. To
find blogrolls that mention your blog, you can use
http://blogsearch.google.com or http://www.Technorati.com

P.S. If you list me in your blogroll and want to review the 2009
edition of "How to be a Kick-butt Publicity Hound," or if you're
a blogger or ezine editor who wants to review the book, let
Christine Buffaloe, my customer service manager, know.
Mailto:Chris@serenityva.com

Authors, if your book sales have fallen flat, do NOT give up and
start writing your next book. That's a big mistake. Instead,
start applying the same strategies that book publicist Lissa
Warren uses when her clients' book sales hit the skids. She
details them all during the teleseminar we conducted on "How to
Revive a Dying Book Marketing Campaign." It's available as a CD
or electronic transcript that you can read as soon as your order
has been approved.

Read more about how to jump-start dying book campaigns at
http://tinyurl.com/67bhu

==========================================
4. Meet Journalists Face to Face
==========================================

More than 100 journalists from media outlets large and small will
meet Publicity Hounds face to face at the National Publicity
Summit April 22-25 in New York.

The journalists will sit across from authors, speakers,
consultants, experts and others who will be pitching their ideas
to get onto shows like "48 Hours," ABC's "The View," Fox News and
the "Today" show.

Hounds will be delivering succinct, 10- or 15-second pitches and
including all the enticing little "extras" that encourage a media
person to say "tell me more."

Each year, only 100 people are accepted at the summit so that
each can have enough face time with journalists.

In years past, the summit has produced dozens of success stories
that include:

--Ron & Lisa Beres's appearance on the "Today" show.

--Steve Shapiro's big write-up in "O the Oprah Magazine" after
meeting the writer at the publicity summit.

--Barry Spilchuk's interview on the Fox News Channel within just
five hours of meeting the producer at the summit!

--Sandy Clemmons's stories in Health Magazine, Money Magazine and
TV Guide, all from meeting journalists face to face at this
event.

You'll have to complete an application before you're accepted.
Visit http://www.NationalPublicitySummit.com/?10011 for all the
details.

==========================================
5. Promoting Home & Garden Shows
==========================================

This week, eight Publicity Hounds have tips on how Lori Feldman
of St. Louis, Mo. can promote home & garden shows in four cities
throughout the United States.

From Jeff Rutherford:

"There has been so much media coverage of the impact of the
economy on people’s day-to-day lives, why not pitch reporters on
the idea that more people will be gardening this year? It's
relatively low-cost fun, and some of those people may very well
be growing their own food. You could offer spokespeople from the
show as experts on the power of gardening--to help feed people
and promote family bonding."

From Holly Miller:

"Get in touch with your local Master Gardeners, Cooperative
Extension Office, and any regional government groups that promote
water conservation, beautification, or storm water management
through rain gardens. For examples, see http://www.hrwet.org,
http://www.hrclean.org, and http://www.hrstorm.org.

"Additionally, check http://www.meetup.com for environmental or
gardening groups in your target area. You'll be amazed at how
many resources there are for finding your target audience. And,
a give-away targeting a specific green initiative wouldn't hurt.
Think about free rain barrels or installation of a rain garden."

From Catherine McVicker:

"Get a garden center to contribute the creation of a pint-size
victory garden for four people as a prize. They get publicity at
the show, get to put a sign at the street like painters do, and,
hopefully, get word of mouth exposure as the family of four eats
its way through the garden produce during the summer."

The Publicity Hound says:

These ideas are fabulous. The first one, about promoting
gardening during a bad economy, is perfect for TV because there
will be so many great visuals at the show. I'd pitch it to local
TV stations a day or two before the show opens in each city. If
you can find local people who preserve their garden vegetables,
that would be a great local tie-in.

TV producer Shawne Duperon gave step-by-step directions on how to
contact local TV newsrooms and pitch ideas when she was a guest
on my teleseminar "How to Get on the Local TV News Tomorrow."

It's available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can
download and be reading as soon as your order has been approved.
Read more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/yjrktx

Read all the responses to this week's Help This Hound question at
http://tinyurl.com/atm843

Send your own Help This Hound question to
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Jill Cranford of Livermore, Colo. writes:

"My company, Stone2Furniture, which makes outdoor furniture from
stone, is having an Ugly Patio Furniture Contest at
http://www.stone2furniture.com/contest.htm and we'll be giving
away a set of our stone furniture valued at $4,100.

"So here I am with the rules drawn up, and it's live on our
website and in the Media Room. I sent out 130 snail-mail flyers
and emails to editors.

"My next step is getting it to the local news channels. But I am
wondering if I am missing a step? I haven't heard from any
editors. I know this will be fun but I'm just not sure how to
launch it."

The Publicity Hound says:

I love these "ugliest" contests and other journalists do, too!
Sometimes a photo can tell a story far better than a press
release or a brochure. You already have two photos of entries at
the link above. The photo that shows the ugly patio table made
out of two rubber storage containers will really attract a lot of
attention when you're pitching this story.

I'm leaving it up to my Hounds to offer suggestions on how to use
that photo, and any other ideas they have on how to promote your
contest. Hounds, you can post your ideas to my blog at
http://tinyurl.com/apbzws

==================================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
==================================

Today is Mardi Gras Day.

To celebrate, Jeanne Hurlbert of Baton Rouge, La., shares this
video of the Mardi Gras Dog Parade, an annual event where she and
her family "throw beads and dog treats and have a great time."
(If the video won't load, come back in an hour or so because too
many people might be trying to watch it.)

http://tinyurl.com/d2am2b

Jeanne is the survey consultant I hired to help me create the
survey that you'll be getting from me soon.

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

===================================
8. And at My Blog...
===================================

Increase your web sales: 27 ways to get 'em to buy
http://tinyurl.com/bmdfo7

More publicity for Dallas hardware store after Bush visits
http://tinyurl.com/blaz7p

Real estate magazine needs expert articles
http://tinyurl.com/cz8vpu

A journalist's tips for pitching story ideas about your business
http://tinyurl.com/agzdkf

---------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

March 6-8--Atlanta, Ga.

I'll be at the Stompernet Live 7 event. If you're going, let's
meet for coffee.

March 16--Teleseminar on Internet Marketing

I'll be Marilee Tolen's guest from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern Time for
her teleseminar series "Introduction to Internet Marketing" for
nurses, healers, coaches and holistic professional solopreneurs.
If this is your niche, and you're tired of running after the next
client, this is the training session for you. It starts Feb. 23.
Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/dl3xhm

PERMISSION TO REPRINT:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me you want to subscribe.

PRIVACY STATEMENT:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity tips/Grand Slam Giveaway Feb 17, 2009

2009-02-18T13:58:00.006-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #438 Feb. 17, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 42,573

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you
can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the
newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their
reputation, position themselves as employers of choice, sell more
products and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

******************************************

Complete My Survey, Get a $30 Coupon & Chance to Win a
Kindle:

I'll be sending 500 readers of this newsletter, chosen randomly,
my customer satisfaction survey as soon as it's ready later this
week. If you complete it, you'll get a $30 coupon good for any
products or services I sell, and your name will be entered in a
drawing for a Kindle 2, the new wireless reading device that
Amazon sells for $359.

The first batch of 500 surveys will help me identify any glitches
I need to fix before sending it to everyone else. Your honest
feedback will help me improve this newsletter and give you
products and services I might not be aware that you need.

*****************************************
================================
In This Issue
================================

1. Grand Slam Giveaway

2. Don't Ask to Review an Article

3. How to Recycle Publicity

4. 2 Events for Hounds

5. Promoting a Farmer's Market

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

========================================
1. Grand Slam Giveaway
========================================

Call it what you want--a handout, a sample, a giveaway.

When the economy is tanking, consumers want a good deal. That's
exactly what Denny's restaurant delivered two days after the
Super Bowl when it gave away 2 million of its signature Grand
Slam Breakfasts.

Denny's reported that its $3 million commercial drew that many
people to its 1,600 outlets in North America and Puerto Rico. The
company spent $5 million for the promotion that generated $50
million in news coverage.

"A lot of people have forgotten what Denny's is, or they think
they know, while we've come out with a whole lot of new products.
We felt like we needed to jump start the brand," said Mark
Chmiel, Denny's chief marketing and innovation officer.

Mitchell Davis, who owns Expertclick.com and
NewsReleaseWire.com, loved the Denny's promotion.
If it could work for people who needto eat breakfast,
why can't it work for Publicity Hounds who need to
write press releases, he reasoned.

Mitch wants you to "taste his service" and send news releases
this week without cost or obligation.

"I got the idea after seeing Denny's give out 2 million Grand
Slam breakfasts and thought more people should see how good our
News Release Wire service works--and understand our
commitment to customer service," he said.

So here's the deal. For one week, you can test-drive his service
by sending press releases and creating a Press Room Page about
your business. Watch his video about how it all works at
http://www.ExpertClick.com/brochure

I subscribe to the service, which helps me claim the first three
spots on Google for the keyword phrase "publicity expert" and
drives my competitors crazy.

Don't expect those kinds of results within one week, however,
because Google probably won't index your pages that quickly. But
if you call Mitch at 202-333-5000 and ask him for The Publicity
Hound special, he'll set it up for you so you can see how the
service works--with no commitments to subscribe. I love the fact
that they answer their own phones and jump through hoops for
their customers--like the time I spotted a heinous typo after I
posted my release. I called them, and they corrected it within
minutes.

If you don't want to call Mitch, you can create the test-drive
yourself at https://www.ExpertClick.com/create

Choose the Gold Level at $995. Then scroll down and complete
the "Participant" information (who the account will be about)
and the "Subscriber" info (for the person in charge of the
account).

Check the credit card box but don't enter your number because you
aren't paying for this.

In the "Special Offer" box enter:"F*ree Week from Publicity
Hound." Then click on "Create Your Press Room Page" and you'll
be able to edit instantly. Once they approve your account, you'll
be able to start sending press releases instantly. Their standard
editorial policies at http://www.TermsandConditions.com apply, so
be sure to read them.

Try it for a week and let me know how you like it.

==============================================
2. Don't Ask to Review an Article
==============================================

Publicity Hound Gail Sideman saw a Twitter post that caught her
attention recently.

It was from someone who said that Inc. magazine was doing a
feature on him until he asked the magazine to let him review the
article for his final approval.

"Was I wrong to ask? Yes or no?"

She replied and told the guy he was wrong. That led to a spirited
debate on Twitter. So she emailed me and several others in the
journalism world and asked our opinions.

Here's what I told her:

--You were right. He was wrong. By asking that question, he
showed he wasn't media-savvy, and it sounds as though it cost him
publicity in Inc. magazine.

--He certainly could have asked the writer, "Would you be willing
to run by me any direct quotes you are attributing to me?" Some
journalists will say yes, some will say no. It never hurts to ask
because some journalists will want to make sure their quotes are
accurate. But the deal is, if you hear the quote and you know you
said it, but you don't like the sound of it, you can't ask the
writer to change it. That's one of the ground rules they never
teach you.

--He could also have asked if the magazine will fact-check the
story. Inc. most likely has its own fact-check department and
would do this anyway. But again, it never hurts to ask.

Bottom line: Never ask a journalist to show you a story before
it's printed so you can "approve" it. For sensitive interviews,
you can negotiate the terms of the interview, but little else.

I devoted an entire chapter of my ebook "How to be a Kick-butt
Publicity Hound" to what you should do before, during and after
an interview. These are the ground rules the media never tell you
about and hope you never learn. The ebook is the most
comprehensive product I offer on all aspects of generating free
publicity. The 2009 update includes six new chapters on social
media.

Read more about what you'll learn at
http://www.publicityhound.com/publicity/publicityhound.htm

========================================
3. How to Recycle Publicity
========================================

When you generate a publicity hit in a newspaper or magazine, on
a TV or radio station, or in the social media, don't be
satisfied.

Try to recycle that hit into multiple hits, or multiple
promotions.

I'm one of three experts featured in the January/February issue
of SUCCESS magazine, offering my advice on how to promote
online.
You can read more about it at my blog at
http://tinyurl.com/bg33ml

Here are six ways I've already recycled that publicity:

--I tweeted about it at Twitter.

--I included some of the tips that didn't make it into the
magazine in the "What's New" section of my Facebook group
called Friends of The Publicity Hound. If you already have a Facebook
profile, join the group by logging into Facebook, then pasting
this link into your browser and join: http://tinyurl.com/d2h8gk
I'll be sharing more tips over there and I might not always
remember to share them here.

--I went to the blog of Joel Comm, who was featured along with me
in the article. I posted a comment to an unrelated blog post and
then mentioned in a "P.S." how interesting it was to read his
advice alongside mine in SUCCESS.

--Ditto for Scott Fox, the other Internet marketer featured in
the article.

--I added a line to my email signature that lets people know I
was in the magazine, and I linked to the article.

--I'm writing about it here.

That's only six ways! And I know you Hounds can think of many
others. Add them to my blog at http://tinyurl.com/bg33ml

Recycling publicity is an important part of a media plan because
you must follow up, follow up and follow up. I explain in step-
by-step detail how to create a yearlong plan, follow up, and take
advantage of every publicity opportunity in front of you. The
teleseminar series "How to Create a Media Plan" is available as
CDs, MP3s and electronic transcripts. Read more about why you
need a plan and how to create one at
http://www.publicityhound.com/mediaplan.htm

==========================================
4. 2 Events for Hounds
==========================================

Event #1: Teleseminar on how to start a coaching program

Do you offer coaching services? If not, consider it.

Coaching is one of the quickest ways almost any non-fiction
author or anyone with expertise can make more while also helping
a lot of people. For example, I have three types of coaching
programs: one-on-one coaching over the phone, my group mentor
program at
http://www.publicityhound.com/mentorprogram/intro.html
and teleseminar series devoted to specific topics.

You'll be surprised how much others will gladly pay for what you
know, even though you take it for granted.

To discover how to get started offering coaching services, you're
invited to a free telephone seminar on Thursday, February 19.
Hear Steve Harrison interview Tim Paulson, an author, speaker and
coaching expert who's helped many people start thriving coaching
practices. You'll learn how to get others to pay you from $100 to
$1,000 an hour, or more, for your expertise.

Register for the call at
http://www.CoachingTrainingTeleseminar.com/?10011

If you have another commitment, register anyway and recruit
somebody to take notes for you. Steve doesn't record most of
these teleseminars and if you miss it, it's gone.

Event #2: Media event for products tied to celebrities or good
causes.

If you have a consumer product that's tied to a celebrity or a
good cause, consider displaying it at the annual Celebrity
Connections Media Event and the Good Causes Media Event, to be
held April 1 in New York City.

Journalists are always looking for a great angle when it comes to
covering new products, and many journalists are looking for
products with either a celebrity connection or products that help
worthy causes. The events draw an impressive list of top-tier
media.

Read more about them at my blog at http://tinyurl.com/awdwlx

==========================================
5. Promoting a Farmer's Market
==========================================

This week, 12 Publicity Hounds have tips for Rose Strong of
Springtown, Pa. on how to publicize a local farmer's market.

From LisaMarie Dias:

"Send an online newsletter through a company like Constant
Contact. You could profile the vendors, post a calendar and
include recipes. If you send the newsletter out monthly, you
could do weekly reminders in a smaller form--with links back to
your website. You could have prizes and giveaways to gather email
addresses."

From Michael Carr:

"Invite local chefs to create an ongoing set of promotional
opportunities. Book your chefs in advance and publicize their
participation. Your chefs can shop the market to select fresh
produce to use in their demonstrations. Customers will appreciate
sampling what the chef has made as well as learning about using
fresh seasonal ingredients at home."

From Tara Bright:

"Kick off your season with a Raw Food Uncook-off. Host a Green
Foodie Contest. Join forces or initiate a "Buy Local, Live
Sustainable" group. Host weekly potlucks on a day you are closed.

"Why not set aside a space where children can start seeds while
their parents shop? They will need to come back every week to
check the progress and water their little sprouts. Also, do a
comparison shopping trip at a local chain grocer. If your cart
ends up costing less at the farmer's market, publicize it."

The Publicity Hound says:

Team up with local artists, musicians and other entertainers. One
week, feature an art show and let the artists manage it. The
next week, how about a bluegrass band? The following week,
feature arts and crafts vendors. All would provide one more
reason to shop the farmer's market.

The teleseminar I hosted on "Publicity Tips for Restaurants,
Chefs & Foodies" offers 51 ideas you can use for almost any food-
related story. The recording is available as a CD or electronic
transcript that you can download as soon as your order has been
approved. Each includes a downloadable list of all 51 ideas.

Read more about how to generate food publicity at
http://tinyurl.com/clr26

Read all the responses to this week's Help This Hound question at
http://tinyurl.com/bayg2c

Send your own Help this Hound question to
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com and be sure to mention your
city and state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Lori Feldman of St. Louis, Mo. writes:

"My client is a home and garden show that's produced in four
cities--Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Portland from
late February through early March.

"We're launching a social media plan for this company that has
done nothing but traditional advertising for the last 50 years!
Last year was the first time they even attempted to collect email
addresses from attendees, so we have a list of 20,000 we can use.

"As you can imagine, ad costs significantly increase each year
with significantly declining ROI. So the challenge was to find
alternative media to combat the ineffectiveness of old media.
They also face these hurdles: Home starts and real estate are way
down. Young people have not supported these live shows (but this
could be due to a lack of an online presence). All marketing is
local--you're not going to jump on a plane to attend.

"Because time is short, I'd like to get as many suggestions from
your readers as possible to consider every option to increase
traffic. The pre-show promotions site is
http://www.ImproveYourHomeAndGarden.com We'll be press
releasing, tweeting, and social networking between now and show day.
I can do a shopping spree contest winner. Thoughts?"

The Publicity Hound says:

You--and my Hounds--are up against a tough deadline. But that's
when my Hounds are most creative! I know a lot of them publicize
events, so they'll post their best ideas to my blog at
http://tinyurl.com/atm843

Don't have time to wait to hear their ideas? "How to Plan &
Promote Sizzling Special Events" will give you hundreds of ideas.
Read more about what you'll learn at
http://publicityhound.com/publicity/promote.html

==================================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
==================================

Thanks to Publicity Hound Kerry Hargraves of Oakland, Calif. for
this one:

Little Harold was practicing the violin in the living room while
his father was trying to read in the den.

The family dog was lying in the den, and as the screeching sounds
of little Harold's violin reached the dog's ears, it began to
howl loudly. The father listened to the dog and the violin as
long as he could. Then he jumped up, slammed his paper to the
floor and yelled above the noise, "For Pete's sake, can't you
play something the dog doesn't know?"

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and
quotes, perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

===================================
8. And at My Blog...
===================================

Online promotion tips in Jan/Feb issue of SUCCESS magazine
http://tinyurl.com/bg33ml

The Number One mistake of online press releases
http://tinyurl.com/d86hxx

Media event to feature products tied to celebs, good causes
http://tinyurl.com/awdwlx

---------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

March 6-8--Atlanta, Ga.

I'll be at the Stompernet Live 7 event. If you're going, let's
meet for coffee.

March 16--Teleseminar on Internet Marketing

I'll be Marilee Tolen's guest from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern Time for
her teleseminar series "Introduction to Internet Marketing" for
nurses, healers, coaches and holistic professional solopreneurs.
If this is your niche, and you're tired of running after the next
client, this is the training session for you. It starts Feb. 23.
Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/dl3xhm

PERMISSION TO REPRINT:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me you want to subscribe.

PRIVACY STATEMENT:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity tips/Don't Make Yourself Sound So Boring Feb 10, 2009

2009-02-10T17:37:00.006-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #437 Feb. 10, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 42,567

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you
can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the
newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their
reputation, position themselves as employers of choice, sell more
products and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

******************************************

Last Call for the National Publicity Summit:

Thursday, Feb. 12, is the last day for the early-bird
registration for Steve Harrison's National Publicity Summit in
New York April 22-25. This is the event where you can meet
journalists from top-tier publications and TV and radio shows
face to face and pitch them. Steve will even provide coaching on
how to deliver your pitch so you make a great first impression.

You can learn more about the event here:
http://www.NationalPublicitySummit.com/?10011

*****************************************
================================
In This Issue
================================

1. Don't Make Yourself Sound So Boring

2. Cool Tool for Hounds & Journalists

3. 5 Tips for Hiring Interns

4. Bloggers Gush About Cleaning Products

5. How to Piggyback onto Book Publicity

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

========================================
1. Don't Make Yourself Sound So Boring
========================================

I'm not mentioning any names.

But when I read the social networking profiles of some of my
friends and business associates, I think to myself: "You're
really interesting. And you're lots of fun. You even have unusual
hobbies. So why are you making yourself sound so boring?"

Yes, that little snippet of information just below your photo on
your Twitter or Facebook profiles can determine whether a visitor
follows you, friends you, or decides that you have nothing to
offer and leaves in search of somebody else who does.

On LinkedIn, that much longer profile will determine whether
somebody wants to connect with you, or forget you.

I can't begin to count the number of Twitter replies and direct
messages from my followers who comment on my love for the Food
Network and motorcycles, which I've mentioned in my profile at
http://Twitter.com/PublicityHound

What does that have to do with publicity?

Absolutely nothing. But if a fellow Food Network junkie follows
me, and then one day hopes to generate publicity, she might look
to me for advice, my products, or my mentor program.

Consider adding these topics to your social networking profiles,
depending on the type of people you're hoping to attract:

--Your hobbies

--Your pets

--Your favorite TV shows

--Your favorite movies and music

--The most unusual thing you've ever done

--Your biggest business accomplishment

--Your most unusual personal accomplishment

--What makes you an expert

--Humor!

A word of caution: Don't treat all your profiles the same.

Social networking expert Nancy Marmolejo will be my guest during
a 70-minute teleseminar at 4 p.m. Eastern Time tomorrow. It's
called "Can Your Social Networking Profile Pass the 10-Second
Test?" In addition to tips galore on how to write your profiles,
you can listen as Nancy remakes the profile of one lucky
participant. If the time is inconvenient for you, sign up anyway
because I'll send you the link for the MP3 recording and the link
for a webinar Nancy hosted that goes into even greater detail.

Learn more about the topic at my blog and register at
http://tinyurl.com/blvdby

============================================
2. Cool Tool for Hounds & Journalists
============================================

I just discovered a new service that costs you nothing and helps
connect Publicity Hounds with journalists who are looking for
specific types of sources.

It's called PitchRate.com and here's how it works.

--Journalists write a query explaining the types of sources
they're seeking. If they're from a top-tier media outlet, they
have the option of cloaking their query and not revealing exactly
where they work. When you sign up for the service, you can see
all the journalist queries and decide which ones you want to
respond to.

--The technology behind the platform automatically rates your
pitch on a five-star scale. It then delivers all the pitches from
a particular query to that journalist, who can then sort them
according to how many stars each receives.

--Journalists will open the five- and four-star pitches first
and, most likely, disregard all the others. This saves them
valuable time.

--If they contact you for an interview, they can then rate your
interview on your PitchRate.com profile so other journalists can
tell instantly if you're helpful and worth contacting.

Is that cool or what?

I've already signed up as both an expert and a journalist.
Bloggers and newsletter editors, I suggest you sign up as a
journalist, too. This is a terrific place to find sources.

Drew Gerber, who owns the site, tells me it's in its infancy but
that response from journalists has been so overwhelming that the
site doesn't have enough experts to respond to all the queries.
So sign up NOW while there's less competition among experts.

Go to http://www.pitchrate.com/publicityhound

========================================
3. 5 Tips for Hiring Interns
========================================

If you're laying off employees at your PR agency or in your
corporate PR department, why not rely on a few interns to pick up
the slack?

The current issue of My Midwest inflight magazine offers several
suggestions for making the most of your interns:

--Determine beforehand exactly what you want them to do for you,
and then choose the best candidate according to their skills that
dovetail with your goals.

--Consider paying them. This widens your pool of applicants
simply because many young people can't afford to work for
nothing.

--Don't waste talent by using them to bring you coffee or pick up
your dry cleaning. They won't learn much and you won't benefit.
(The Publicity Hound's idea: How about using them to research
media outlets whose audiences are a perfect match with your
pitch? This one task will help you save time because you won't be
pitching media that have no interest in your topic. And that
means you'll have time to customize those pitches.)

--Help them make connections at your company and at other
companies, and introduce them to possible mentors. Long after
they're gone, they might return the favor and refer job
candidates who would be a perfect fit.

Once you've chosen an intern, let me provide a large part of the
training. My teleseminar series "How to Help Your Boss or Client
with a Publicity Campaign" is perfect for any company or
nonprofit that hires interns or assistants. It's also ideal
for virtual assistants who want to add PR skills to their
services.

It's available as CDs, MP3 recordings and electronic transcripts
that you can download as soon as your order has been approved.
Read more about how to shorten the learning curve of your
assistants or interns at
http://www.publicityhound.com/PHU_AssistantsCourse.htm

==========================================
4. Bloggers Gush About Cleaning Products
==========================================

Household cleaning products don't seem to be the kinds of things
that would get the blogging community all excited, especially
during the holidays, right?

But if bloggers happen to be stay-at-home moms who spend a good
part of the day cleaning up after their toddlers, or bloggers who
care about environmentally friendly products, offering a product
sample to them can bring hundreds more moms to your website.

That's what happened just before the Christmas holidays when
Sweeney public relations launched a publicity campaign for Weiman
Products, a cleaning products manufacturer.

Publicity Hound Jennifer Manocchio, a Sweeney VP, said the
campaign invited bloggers to review products that help keep the
home clean. Sweeney offered each participating blogger
samples of products such as stainless steel wipes that can be
used to make kitchen faucets shiny, and Weiman E-tronic Wipes
that can be used to remove fingerprints from computer screens.

The campaign resulted in a whopping 44 positive reviews from
bloggers, like this one from the My Trendy Tykes blog:

"Weiman Stainless Steel Wipes shine, polish and protect all
stainless steel surfaces. They leave NO streaks, and the strong
odor?? Well, it's not there. It's actually a pleasant smell for
my nose. Oh, and get this...It actually repels fingerprints,
water marks and dirt. Now that's what I'm talking about!"

Blogger Rockin' Mama gushed about how the floor polish made her
laminate floors super-shiny. And at the Chocolate Fingerprints
blog, Andrea McMann said she could tell the e-tronic wipes are "a
high-quality product" and my screens still aren't dusty or
smudgy."

The campaign also resulted in 172 clips, 196 direct links to the
Weiman website, and 772 website visitors who stayed an average of
two minutes and five seconds.

When you launch a publicity campaign, are you targeting bloggers
who reach your ideal customers? If not, you're leaving money on
the table. Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff can show you in step-
by-step detail how to identify bloggers who reach your target
audience, pitch them, interest them, and encourage them to
review your product or service. They were my guests during a
teleseminar on "How to Pitch the Best Bloggers & Create a
Publicity Explosion."

It's available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can
download as soon as your order has been approved. Read more about
how to entice bloggers at http://tinyurl.com/m7ymr

==========================================
5. How to Piggyback onto Book Publicity
==========================================

This week, three Publicity Hounds have tips for astrology blogger
Michele Lessirard of Vero Beach, Fla. who wants to know how to
ride on the coattails of author Stephanie Myers' popular series
of vampire novels and the upcoming movie.

From Dal Jeanis:

"Be very careful of attempting to ride the coattails of a popular
hit, especially without knowing what it's really about...Before
doing anything else, find out what it is that you are attempting
to leverage off of. See the first movie, at the very least.

"From understanding the phenomenon, you can then move to figuring
out what products or services you can provide to that
demographic. Next, you can research to create a list of the
keywords in the Meyers books, obviously including vampire,
sparkle, romance, and so on, and figure out to what degree you
can use those keywords in your own astrology posts to increase
accidental traffic to your site.

"You could do mock-horoscopes for the characters just for fun,
although that's a lot of work and might not get you anything in
return. The key to doing that well would be to get copies of the
books and read them, picking incidents to warn about."

From Christine Buffaloe:

"Create Google Alerts for keywords that relate to both Stephanie
Myers' topics and yours. You can do this at
http://www.Google.com/alerts

"Tell Google you want to receive the alerts once a day. Then
follow them and see what Google delivers to you in the way of
news stories, videos, blog posts, etc. In some cases, if a
blogger is discussing Myers’ books, you can post a comment and
you'll get a link back to your website or blog."

From The Publicity Hound:

Go over to Amazon.com and review Stephanie's books, which will
let you link back to your blogs. You can also create "best of"
lists dealing with your topic and all kinds of other content to
attract the attention of her readers.

Randy Gilbert and Don Mitchell are all over that website and pull
in tons of traffic to their own sites as a result. They were my
guests during a teleseminar on "How to Make Amazon a River of
Gold (for Authors, Speakers & Experts)."

It's available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can
download and be reading as soon as your order has been approved.

Read more about how to piggyback off the popularity of other
best-selling authors or products at http://tinyurl.com/7u76e

And then read the complete responses to this week's Help This
Hound question, or add your own, at http://tinyurl.com/dmzml4

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Rose Strong of Springtown, Pa. writes:

"I am a volunteer for the Springtown Farmers Market and I'm
looking for some marketing and publicity ideas.

"We started off with a bang last year but for some reason we lost
our shoppers, and our vendors sort of dwindled down a bit. One
week there'd be lots of customers, but not too many vendors, the
next week it was a good vendor attendance and a lack of shoppers.

"This year, we were fortunate to receive a $10,000 donation from
a local resident as well as applying for a Dept. of Agriculture
grant. So we are planning a website, major advertising in a
local weekly newspaper and rack cards for local businesses to
have on their counters and hand out.

"What other inexpensive, creative ideas can your Hounds suggest
to help us promote this year’s market from May 20 to Oct 28?"

The Publicity Hound says:

The bad economy should certainly be a springboard from which you
can pitch all kinds of interesting story ideas to your local
media. Let's see what other ideas my Hounds can suggest. Hounds
with suggestions for Rose can post them to my blog at
http://tinyurl.com/bayg2c

==================================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
==================================

A client brought a litter of Golden Retriever puppies to the
local veterinary clinic for inoculations and worming. As the
look-alike pups squirmed over and under one another in their box,
the vet realized it would be difficult to tell the treated ones
from the rest. So he turned on the water faucet, wet his fingers,
and moistened each dog's head when he had finished treating them.

After the fourth puppy, the vet noticed the hitherto talkative
client had grown silent. As he sprinkled the last pup's head, the
woman leaned forward and whispered, "I didn't know they had to be
baptized."

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

===================================
8. And at My Blog...
===================================

Workplace columnist needs sources in South Florida
http://tinyurl.com/cq8tct

Speakers, use local stories in towns where you speak
http://tinyurl.com/apmdgu

How a Dallas hardware store generated national publicity
http://tinyurl.com/am8bbm

--------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

"Boost Your Biz with a Blog Teleseminar Replay"

Listen to the replay of "Boost Your Biz with a Blog," the
teleseminar I hosted on Jan. 26 with Denise Wakeman and Patsi
Krakoff, aka The Blog Squad. They explained how to draw more
traffic and boost more sales from a blog. You can hear the replay
at http://blogsquad.audioacrobat.com/download/bizblog_012609.mp3
by cutting and pasting this link into your browser window.

Wednesday, Feb. 11--Teleseminar

"Can Your Social Networking Profile Pass the 10-Second Test?"
with Nancy Marmolejo. From 4 to 5:10 p.m. on the telephone. All
participants will receive the electronic transcript, the MP3
recording and a one-hour webinar on the same topic that goes into
even greater depth on how to write social networking bios.
Register at http://tinyurl.com/blvdby

March 6-8--Atlanta, Ga.

I'll be at the Stompernet's Live 7 event. If you're going, let's
meet for coffee.

PERMISSION TO REPRINT:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me you want to subscribe.

PRIVACY STATEMENT:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity tips/Vanishing PR Clients Feb 3, 2009

2009-02-03T15:04:00.004-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #436 Feb. 3, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 43,345

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you
can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the
newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their
reputation, position themselves as employers of choice, sell more
products and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

******************************************

I Don't Want to Lose You:

I recently changed servers at the list management company that
distributes this newsletter, and I don't want you to drop off my
list. Please add galaxy.sparklist.com to your Friends list or
Whitelist and contact me immediately if you suddenly stop
receiving the newsletter so we can find out what went wrong.

You can find back issue you have missed in the archives at
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

*****************************************

================================
In This Issue
================================

1. Vanishing PR Clients

2. Grade Your Facebook Profile

3. Get Out of the Pile

4. Beware of the Shock Jocks

5. Formula Five Sweetens the Deal

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

===================================
1. Vanishing PR Clients
===================================

On the message boards, PR pros and publicists are lamenting the
fact that the lousy economy has forced companies to slash their
budgets for PR like never before.

In some cases, their client base has dried up completely.
Projects they were counting on this year have been canceled. And
they have no fresh leads coming into the funnel.

If you want to avoid that happening to you, here are four tips on
how to pull in PR prospects and convert them to clients:

--Hit the public speaking circuit and talk about how companies
can use traditional and social media to promote when lots of
other companies, paralyzed with fear, are doing nothing to market
themselves. Explain the value of the publicity and what happened
as a result of that front-page story you got for your client in
the local business journal, or that two-minute interview with the
local TV station.

--If you're looking for local clients, and you're a member of the
Chamber of Commerce, start shooting video of chamber events all
over town, and offer it to the chamber for use on their website.
The chamber will let its members know, and turn you into a star.
Also submit the video to local newspapers and TV stations, for
their websites. Guess who the chamber will recommend when a
company calls asking for a referral to a good PR person?

--Create a presence on the social networking sites. Use the
question-and-answer feature on LinkedIn to promote your expertise
and answer questions about PR. Create a group of fans on Facebook
and share PR tips with them regularly. On Twitter, refer your
followers to interesting articles and tips about PR and
publicity.

--Form alliances with local delivery services and ask them to
drop off your brochure with each package they deliver. If you
must, bribe the driver with a $20 bill. You never know who might

be looking for a PR person.

That last tip is courtesy of Illinois publicist Robert Smith, who
built his PR business from scratch in 1998, in part, by forming
alliances with a local shipping company and actually paying the
drivers to drop off his brochures. He has resorted to lots of
other off-the-wall tactics, like buying and selling leads, to
acquire clients.

He explained them all when he was my guest during a teleseminar
last summer on "How to Make an Extra $100,000 a Year as a
Publicist--Even in a Bad Economy." We recorded it, and it's
available as a CD, MP3 or an electronic transcript that you can
download and be reading as soon as your order has been approved.

Read more about Robert's ideas (some of them really wacky but
effective) at http://tinyurl.com/PRclients

=======================================
2. Grade Your Facebook Profile
=======================================

If you're on Facebook, find out how well your profile stacks up
against the profiles of the millions of other Facebook users.

Go to http://facebook.grader.com

It's a fun little application that will instantly calculate your
"grade" based on things like how many friends you have, the power
and reach of those friends, how many groups you have joined, how
many wall posts you've written, and whether the information is
complete.

There's one problem with the grader, however.

It doesn't accurately reflect the appeal of the thumbnail bio
that appears under your photo. An app like this one can't
possibly determine whether or not you sound interesting. That's
up to the reader to decide.

After you've graded yourself, go back and review your thumbnail
bio. Does it encourage your target audience to connect with you?
Does it convey a little about your personality? Does it encourage
visitors to friend you and stay to read more?

What about your bio on LinkedIn? I can't count the number of bios
I see on that site that are as potent as sleeping pills, even
though LinkedIn users can use as much space as they need to
describe themselves.

As for Twitter, few profiles I see actually make me smile or
visit the person's website.

Join social networking expert Nancy Marmolejo and me on
Wednesday, Feb. 11, during a 70-minute teleseminar called "Can
Your Social Networking Bio Pass the 10-Second Test?" We'll
explain the key elements of your profiles on the major sites like
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and explain the three traffic-
killing mistakes that even the professionals are making.

Nancy will make over the bio of one lucky participant. Read more
about what you'll learn and register for the session at
http://tinyurl.com/blvdby

While you're there, check out Publicity Hound Judy Lederman's
incredibly clever Twitter bio.

========================================
3. Get Out of the Pile
========================================

It's the Number One Secret of Publicity Hounds who want big-time
publicity.

And it starts with getting out of the pile.

"The pile" refers to the mountain of boring press releases,
bulging media kits, books with chintzy covers that scream "self
published!", product samples in hard-to-open packages, folders,
catalogs, brochures, videos and other unsolicited junk that
people send to newspaper editors and TV show guest bookers.

Journalists HATE digging into the pile each day because so much
of what's there is awful.

So how do you get out of the pile?

One of the very best ways is to meet journalists face to face at
an event they're attending with one purpose in mind--to find
interesting people to write about in their newspapers and
magazines or feature on their radio and TV programs. A face-to-
face meeting lets them hear the enthusiasm in your voice and see
the sparkle in your eye as you're delivering your 15-second
pitch.

Steve Harrison's National Publicity Summit has been introducing
journalists at top-tier media to Publicity Hounds who have
interesting stories to tell. As a result:

--Ron & Lisa Beres were booked on the "Today" show.

--Steve Shapiro was the subject of a big story in
"O the Oprah Magazine" after meeting the writer
at the summit.

--Lauri Loewenberg appeared on ABC's "The View" and
"Good Morning America."

--Jim Vonmier got on the "CBS Evening News" and "The Early Show"
as a result of the training and contacts he got at the summit.

--Kelly McCloskey used what she learned to get booked
on "Oprah."

--Barry Spilchuk was interviewed on Fox News Channel within
just five hours of meeting the producer at the summit.

--Sandy Clemmons was written-up in Health Magazine, Money
Magazine and TV Guide--all from meeting journalists
face-to-face at the summit.

Only 100 attendees will be admitted and the early-bird
registration deal goes away after Wednesday,
February 11. If you're interested in joining, go here now:
http://www.thebigsecrettogettingpublicity.com/?10011

If you're not interested in attending, watch Steve's video anyway
and learn about two other great ways to meet journalists face to
face.

=======================================
4. Beware of the Shock Jocks
=======================================

Before pitching a radio show, research the show and know what
you're getting into.

Publicity Hound Kristie Tamsevicius, a work-at-home expert, is
downright proud of the mountains of favorable publicity she
generates each year in the week leading up to "Doing Business in
Your Bathrobe Day" on Feb. 9.

Until yesterday.

A guest booker for WKLS-FM in Atlanta called Kristie and invited
her to be a guest on the morning drive-time show to talk about
her special holiday.

"When I called in and heard heavy metal music, I wondered what I
was in for," she said.

She soon found out when "Giant Brian," the host, welcomed her and
asked the standard questions. Then he took a call from "Bruce"
who threw Kristie a curve and started talking about some yucky
topics she would rather have not discussed. Kristie details the
whole ugly episode at her blog at http://tinyurl.com/dzzsqt

"I should have done more homework about the station before the
interview," she writes. "I asked about the audience and
demographics...should have insisted on getting info about the
host and their website to research."

Lesson learned.

If this ever happens to you, and you need information quickly on
a particular radio show or media outlet, ask your Twitter
followers. I'm astounded at how quickly my own followers answer
questions I throw out, or retweet the questions to their
followers. You can follow me on Twitter at
http://www.twitter.com/PublicityHound

Kristie, by the way, encourages work-at-home Hounds to piggyback
onto "Do Business in Your Bathrobe Day." Red Deer College in
Canada is using her holiday to promote its classes for
entrepreneurs. Two professors are even sponsoring a contest in
which work-at-homers can submit YouTube videos of themselves in
their bathrobes. Is that fun or what?

Despite Kristie's bad experience, big radio shows can be a gold
mine for Publicity Hounds. Alex Carroll has done more than 1,264
radio interviews, grabbed more than $4.5 million worth of free
radio airtime and raked in $1.2 million in direct sales in the
process. He was my guest expert during a teleseminar called "Get
Booked on Big Radio Shows in the Top 20 Markets" and he revealed
the step-by-step process involved in identifying the biggest
shows, pitching them, and then being the kind of guest who hosts
invite back.

It's available as a CD. Read more about how to get onto the
biggest and best shows at http://tinyurl.com/asgyx

==========================================
5. Formula Five Sweetens the Deal
==========================================

If you've been on the fence about Stompernet's Formula Five, the
business-building program I've been raving about, and price was a
factor, you'll want to know about several new enticements that
really sweeten the deal and make it well within the budget of
almost any business.

People said they love the idea behind the program but can't
commit to paying for it all up front.

Here's how Stompernet responded:

--They've lowered the price.

--They're offering a new payment plan that spreads payments over
12 months.

--They're adding a sixth module on how to create products,
regardless of whether you're a chiropractor, window cleaning
company, Internet marketer or a publicist.

You can read more about it here:
http://tinyurl.com/PaulLembergFormulaFive

Formula Five will be available for just a few more days, and then
the shopping cart closes down, so grab yours now. I've reviewed
the entire product and give it my highest recommendation.

P.S. If you've already purchased FormulaFive, Stompernet
is going to be rewarding you with some really sweet extras that
you're going to love.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Yikes! I accidentally wiped out my entire blog last week,
including the Help This Hound question from Michele Lessirard of
Vero Beach, Fla.

But my webmaster, Jason Saeler, backs up my blog weekly and had
the entire thing back online within minutes.

I'm using last week's question again this week in case you wanted
to contribute an idea but couldn't find the post--or the blog.

Michele writes:

"I have been blogging for more than seven years at New Moon
Journal http://www.newmoonjournal.com and my blog
http://newmoonjournal.blogs.com

"Now, there's a high-profile Harry Potter-type author named
Stephanie Myer who's written a series of vampire novels. One
best-seller is New Moon. Of course, I am competing now for search
engine optimization with her New Moon book and soon-to-be movie.
The New Moon Journal is an astrology blog dedicated to creativity
and personal growth using the lunar cycles for power, healing and
problem solving.

"How can I use this name recognition and ride on the coattails of
her book. Is it possible?"

The Publicity Hound says:

It sure is. The many authors, publishers and book publicity
experts who read this newsletter can post their best ideas to my
blog at http://tinyurl.com/dmzml4

Here's my idea. Go over to Amazon.com and review Stephanie's
books, which will let you link back to your blogs. You can also
create "best of" lists dealing with your topic and all kinds of
other content to attract the attention of her readers.

Randy Gilbert and Don Mitchell are all over that website and pull
in tons of traffic to their own sites as a result. They were my
guests during a teleseminar on "How to Make Amazon a River of
Gold (for Authors, Speakers & Experts)."

It's available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can
download and be reading as soon as your order has been approved.

Read more about how to piggyback off the popularity of other
best-selling authors or products at http://tinyurl.com/7u76e

==================================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
==================================

Who needs cats?

Dogs will look at you intensely and try to understand every word
you utter. Cats will ignore you and go to sleep.

When you come home from work, your dog will be pleased and lick
your hand. Cats will still be cross at you for going out to begin
with.

Dogs will give you unconditional love until the day they pass on.
Cats will make you pay for every mistake you've made since the
day they arrived at your home.

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

===================================
8. And at My Blog...
===================================

Publish an ezine? Submit it to BestEzines.com
http://tinyurl.com/bl9pzg

PR, marketing, comms article writers: Submit to Cision ezine
http://tinyurl.com/cg7g7a

--------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

Monday, Jan. 26--Teleseminar Replay

Listen to the replay of "Boost Your Biz with a Blog," the
teleseminar I hosted on Jan. 26 with Denise Wakeman and Patsi
Krakoff, aka The Blog Squad. They explained how to draw more
traffic and boost more sales from a blog. You can hear the replay
at http://blogsquad.audioacrobat.com/download/bizblog_012609.mp3

Wednesday, Feb. 11--Teleseminar

"Can Your Social Networking Profile Pass the 10-Second Test?"
with Nancy Marmolejo. From 4 to 5:10 p.m. on the telephone. All
participants will receive the electronic transcript, the MP3
recording and a one-hour webinar on the same topic that goes into
even greater depth on how to write social networking bios.
Register at http://tinyurl.com/blvdby

March 6-8--Atlanta, Ga.

I'll be at the Stompernet's Live 7 event. If you're going, let's
meet for coffee.

PERMISSION TO REPRINT:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me you want to subscribe.

PRIVACY STATEMENT:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity tips/When Oprah Calls on Sunday Jan 27, 2009

2009-01-27T19:26:00.008-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #435 Jan. 27, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 43,505

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you
can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the
newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their
reputation, position themselves as employers of choice, sell more
products and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

******************************************

New Teleseminar:

Can Your Social Networking Profile Pass the 10-Second Test?

Next time you're surfing around Facebook or LinkedIn, pay
attention to how much time you spend on other people's profiles
before you click away.

Then, be honest. How boring is your own? Online decisions are
made with clicks, and if your profile isn't creating clicks TO
you instead of clicks AWAY from you, then chances are you have a
social networking profile that spells B-O-R-I-N-G.

Join Nancy Marmolejo and me for a paid teleseminar on Wednesday,
Feb. 11, when we ask the question "Can Your Social Networking
Profile Pass the 10-Second Test?"

Read about what you'll learn, register for the session, and tell
us why Nancy should remake YOUR profile during the call. All the
details are at my blog at http://tinyurl.com/blvdby

*****************************************

================================
In This Issue
================================

1. When Oprah Calls on Sunday

2. 5 Big Blogging Boo-boos

3. Pitch Spring Gifts Now

4. I Don't Want You to Disappear

5. Promoting Abstract Art

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

===================================
1. When Oprah Calls on Sunday
===================================

So there you are on a Sunday afternoon, watching TV with the
kids.

The phone rings. It's one of Oprah's producers, following up on a
pitch you sent several months ago.

Panic time! You can't remember the details. You can't even
remember the pitch!

That's what happens when you send a story idea to Oprah or one of
the big TV talk shows and mistakenly assume that if they don't
bite within a month or two, they're not interested.

Big mistake.

Oprah's producers work insane hours, including Sunday afternoons.
That's why you must be ready at a moment's notice to discuss your
story succinctly and with passion, even when the kids are
screaming and the dog is barking in the background.

But before you receive that phone call, your pitch has to catch
the producer's attention. It's one of the most difficult feats to
accomplish because it must be compelling enough to pique their
curiosity, but not so long that it's rambling.

Michele Anton, a former guest booker for "Oprah," has accepted
and rejected hundreds of pitches. She knows what works and what
doesn't, and she'll share her tips during a complimentary
teleseminar that my friend, Steve Harrison, is hosting on
Thursday, Jan. 29, at your choice of two times.

Michele will explain what NOT to send to producers, what NOT to
pitch to guest bookers, and mistakes you should never make, or
the decision-makers will blackball you forever.

Then, she'll explain the three big secrets for doing it the right
way. You'll also hear from other veteran TV producers and
surprise guests.

Register at http://tinyurl.com/Oprahcall

Then, read about my Number One tip for getting onto Oprah and the
other big TV talk shows. It's at my blog at
http://tinyurl.com/ab9lkh

=======================================
2. 5 Big Blogging Boo-boos
=======================================

Working too hard on your blog and seeing little traffic, hardly
any comments and zero sales?

If so, Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, aka the Blog Squad, say
it might be because you're making one of these five frequent
mistakes:

--You're not blogging often enough, usually because you don't
have time. Here's my solution. Each week, I'm trying to reduce by
at least one hour the time I spend answering email (unproductive)
and using it instead to write on my blog.

--Your blog isn't focused on a topic, or a series of related
topics. If your content is all over the landscape, you can't get
the Google juice necessary to pull in traffic for specific
keywords.

--Your readers don't know who you are because your name, or your
photo, or both, are missing from your blog. If they don't know
who you are, how in the world can they eventually like and trust
you?

--There's no way for your readers to subscribe to your blog
updates. Either you aren't offering an RSS feed, or you're not
letting readers subscribe to automatic email alerts each time you
post.

--You aren't engaging your readers and making them part of the
conversation. Instead, you're writing only about topics you like.
Offer quizzes, write about controversial topics and ask for their
opinions, find out what topics they what to read about, or
challenge them to do something that will improve their lives.
Keep them engaged, and they'll keep coming back.

Those are only five little morsels from the dozens of tips The
Blog Squad shared during yesterday's teleseminar on how to "Build
Your Biz with a Blog: It's Not an Option Anymore!--How to Build a
Professional Blog that Turns Prospects into Clients."

You can listen to the replay at
http://blogsquad.audioacrobat.com/download/bizblog_012609.mp3

Important Note: Wednesday night, Jan. 28, at midnight is the
deadline for The Blog Squad's special offer for Publicity Hounds
who want to take 20 percent off the price of any of their three
levels of coaching. That means that if you want them to do
everything for you, including setting up your blog so you don't
have to bother with all that techie stuff, you can save $400.

Go to http://www.theblogsquad.net/joan and at check-out, use the
code js20 so you don't have to pay full price.

Grab it now, or kick yourself later.

========================================
3. Pitch Spring Gifts Now
========================================

With all the shake-ups in the newspaper, magazine, TV and radio
industries the last few months, you can't afford to rely on
outdated reference materials.

If you sell a consumer product, including a book, that would make
a great gift for Mother's Day, Father's Day, Graduation Day, a
prom, a wedding, or any other event taking place in April, May or
June, you must know about the Gift List. It's a subscription
service that provides contact information and leads for more than
1,000 media outlets.

It profiles new product editors from a range of national
magazines, regional publications, news wires and syndicates,
national broadcast television, syndicated television, national
radio, and the top daily newspapers.

The Gift List interviews them and profiles their interests from
fashion, beauty, tech, home, fitness and more. This is the time
to kick your spring publicity campaign into high gear because
deadlines are now for major national magazines.

Nobody produces a more extensive list of consumer product media
interests, submission guidelines, contact preferences, deadlines
and more.

Learn more about the service and take a test drive at
http://tinyurl.com/9es8y

=======================================
4. I Don't Want You to Disappear
=======================================

I recently changed servers at the list management company that
distributes this newsletter, and I don't want you to drop off my
list.

Please add galaxy.sparklist.com to your Friends list or Whitelist
and contact me immediately if you suddenly stop receiving the
newsletter so we can find out what went wrong.

You can find back issue you have missed in the archives at
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

Thanks for your loyalty, Hounds, and for your great ideas,
publicity success stories and other content for this newsletter.

Making sure readers continue receiving your newsletters is a
major problem, but the rewards are worth it. You will increase
your chances of generating publicity if you have both a blog and
an ezine, and cross-promote from each.

I interviewed online marketing expert Don Crowther, who is a
stickler for testing, on all the ways to cross-promote. He
explained the results of his tests during our teleseminar on "How
to Use a Blog and an Ezine Together to Grow Your Business." It's
available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can
download and be reading as soon as your order has been approved.

Read more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/79383q

Coming soon: My survey, asking you about what you want to read
here, how I can serve you better, and what products and services
you need that I don't offer. And you'll love the way I'll say
"thanks" to everyone who completes it.

==========================================
5. Promoting Abstract Art
==========================================

This week, three Publicity Hounds have tips for Beth Stafford of
Concord, N.C., an abstract artist who is looking for a few quick,
simple ways to promote her website at
http://www.bethstafford.com/ and her blog at
http://www.airedale-art.blogspot.com/

From Michele Bailey-Lessirard:

"Your art and website are beautiful. My first reaction is why not
blog more. The last post was back in October. It's about UFOs
which was very interesting and leaves me wanting to know more
about you--and then there is nothing...Join Facebook. Start
twittering in your dog Cassie's voice, from Cassie's perspective.
Play up the PiCassieO angle. It's original and fun."

From Shelli Johannes-Wells:

"Market to dog organizations, hotels that allow dogs, pet stores,
veterinarians, etc..."

From The Publicity Hound:

Dive into social networking right now, or leave a lot of money on
the table. Here are three of my best tips:

--Create a profile on Facebook and build one or more fan pages.
This is the place to display and promote your artwork. Fans do
not have to be followers. That's why these pages are so valuable.

--Also, start uploading photos of your artwork to Flickr, the
photo-sharing site.

--Create videos, or an entire series of short videos (about 2
min, 30 seconds each) of you, dog Cassie and your artwork, and
upload to YouTube and the other video-sharing sites. These will
bring tons of traffic to your website.

If you're new to social networking, find a teen-ager to walk you
through how to do all of the above. For many more tips, check out
"How Artists Can Sell More Artwork through Online & Offline
Publicity," a recording of a teleseminar I did with art marketing
expert Ariane Goodwin, at http://tinyurl.com/yvewm8

Read all the responses to this week's Help This Hound question
http://tinyurl.com/7jqucq

Send your own Help this Hound question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com and include your city and
state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Michele Lessirard of Vero Beach, Fla. writes:

"I have been blogging for more than seven years at New Moon
Journal http://www.newmoonjournal.com and my blog
http://newmoonjournal.blogs.com

"Now, there's a high-profile Harry Potter-type author named
Stephanie Myer who's written a series of vampire novels. One
best-seller is New Moon. Of course, I am competing now for search
engine optimization with her New Moon book and soon-to-be movie.
The New Moon Journal is an astrology blog dedicated to creativity
and personal growth using the lunar cycles for power, healing and
problem solving.

"How can I use this name recognition and ride on the coattails of
her book. Is it possible?"

The Publicity Hound says:

It sure is. The many authors, publishers and book publicity
experts who read this newsletter can post their best ideas to my
blog at http://tinyurl.com/dnju3x

Here's my idea. Go over to Amazon.com and review Stephanie's
books, which will let you link back to your blogs. You can also
create "best of" lists dealing with your topic and all kinds of
other content to attract the attention of her readers.

Randy Gilbert and Don Mitchell are all over that website and pull
in tons of traffic to their own sites as a result. They were my
guests during a teleseminar on "How to Make Amazon a River of
Gold (for Authors, Speakers & Experts)."

It's available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can
download and be reading as soon as your order has been approved.

Read more about how to piggyback onto the popularity of other
best-selling authors or products at http://tinyurl.com/7u76e

==================================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
==================================

Thanks to Elaine Grassbaugh of Columbus, Ohio for this one, which
I ran by the censorship police. They said go for it.

Yesterday I was buying a two large bags of Purina Dog Chow at
Wal-Mart for my dogs Dexter, Gypsy, Sky, & Blade. I was about to
check out when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog. (What did
she think, that I had an elephant?)

Since I had little else to do, on impulse I told her that no, I
didn't have a dog, and that I was starting the Purina eating plan
again, although I probably shouldn't because I ended up in the
hospital last time. On the bright side, though, I'd shaved off 50
p~ounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes
coming out of every hole in my body and IVs in both arms.

I told her that the way it works is to load your pockets with
Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel
hungry, and that the food is nutritionally complete so I was
going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically
everyone in the line was enthralled with my story by now.)

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the
dog food had poisoned me. I told her no--a car hit me after I had
stopped in the middle of the parking lot to lick my butt.

I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack, he
was laughing so hard! Wal-Mart won't let me shop there anymore.

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

===================================
8. And at My Blog...
===================================

Show both sides of your life at social networking sites
http://tinyurl.com/cygctz

Here's another keyword density tool for press releases
http://tinyurl.com/ca7haw

My #1 tip for getting onto 'Oprah' and other big TV shows
http://tinyurl.com/ab9lkh

Can your social networking profile pass the 10-second test?
http://tinyurl.com/blvdby

--------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

Monday, Jan. 26--Teleseminar Replay

During yesterday's "Boost Your Biz with a Blog" teleseminar,
Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, aka The Blog Squad,
explained how to draw more traffic and boost more sales from a
blog. Listen to the replay at
http://blogsquad.audioacrobat.com/download/bizblog_012609.mp3

March 6-8--Atlanta, Ga.

I'll be at the Stompernet's Live7 event. If you're going, let's
meet for coffee.

PERMISSION TO REPRINT:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me you want to subscribe.

PRIVACY STATEMENT:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity tips/Put Your Pet in the White House Jan 20, 2009

2009-01-20T16:41:00.005-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #434 Jan. 20, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 43,628

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you
can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the
newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their
reputation, position themselves as employers of choice, sell more
products and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

================================
In This Issue
================================

1. Put Your Pet in the White House

2. The Real Power of Your Press Release

3. Formula Five is Live

4. Still Not Blogging?

5. Promoting Sensitivity Training

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Video of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

===================================
1. Put Your Pet in the White House
===================================

When the party's over tonight, you just know that Malia and Sasha
will start pestering mom and dad for that puppy.

How about giving the First Family a taste of what the White House
will look like if they choose a pet just like yours? Heck, let's
make your pet the Official Obama Pet--right now!

Head over to Pawfun.com, a new custom photo T-shirt site for pet
lovers and participate in the Obama spoof that lets you super-
impose a photo of your pet, and then send it as an e-card.

That's what I did this morning. You can see Bogie, my German
Shorthaired Pointer, peeking out from under the president's
outstretched arm, to the left of the photo, at
http://www.pawfun.com/ecards/?c=210

While you're at the site, how about ordering a T-shirt that shows
your pet with its new owners?

Talk about perfect timing. Social media expert BL Ochman and her
partner, Caimin Jones, launched the site late Saturday night.
Since then, eager pet lovers have sent the e-cards more than
4,500 times.

Create your own card at http://www.pawfun.com/promo/

"While there's no shortage of T-shirt sites, our goal is to make
ours more fun than the rest," BL said. "And we've picked a niche
we'll go deep into instead of trying to be all things to all
people. That's because the Internet, and increasingly the world,
is a niche-or-be-niched place these days."

She and her partner will be using all the social media tools on
Pawfun.com that they're always trying to get their Fortune 500
clients to try--but now they're the client.

What an incredibly clever tie-in to today's world event. BL
always keeps me posted on what she's doing, and I'll share her
success stories with social networking, and anybody else's, here.
(Hint: Send me your success stories.)

BL, by the way, presented a content-rich teleseminar a few months
ago on "How to do Social Networking, Run a Business & Still Have
a Life." If you follow her on Twitter at @whatsnext, you'd swear
she spends all her waking hours tweeting. But launching a
business eats up hours upon hours, so BL has had to create
shortcuts for keeping Twitter and the other social networking
sites in which she participates within her control--so they don't
control her.

You can order the electronic transcript or MP3 audio of our
teleseminar and download them as soon as your order has been
approved, or you can choose the CD. Read more about how to save
time and your sanity during social networking at
http://tinyurl.com/a6guxq

=======================================
2. The Real Power of Your Press Release
=======================================

How much power do you really have to promote your product,
service, cause or issue with the lowly press release?

If you're hoping to generate a major story in the traditional
media, not much. That's because journalists despise them and
delete nine out of 10 press releases. A big story usually
requires a customized pitch, not a one-size-fits-all press
release.

If you're hoping to catch the attention of bloggers, consumers
and those on the social media landscape, quite a bit. But only if
you throw most of the old press release writing rules out the
window.

For example, in the old days, we absolutely could NOT write a
press release that smacked of promotion or it would repel
journalists. Today, however, smart Publicity Hounds use the press
release to give away information and tips, and then link to what
they're promoting at their websites--not with just one link high
in the release but with several links throughout.

That tactic means you can completely bypass traditional media and
go straight to the decision-makers who will find your release, if
you've written it correctly, when Googling.

If you're new to releases, or you've been writing them for years,
sign up for my free email tutorial "89 Ways to Write Powerful
Press Releases." It's an intensive 12-week course delivered by
email. Stick with it right to end and it will be like you've
earned a master's degree in writing and distributing releases.
You'll know more about the topic than most professional PR
people.

I'm honored that the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary under the
Department of Homeland Security is using the course to train its
communications officers at the grassroots level through an online
training site. Deputy Chief Tom Nunes of the Public Affairs
Department says they're even creating quizzes for students as
part of the course. Cool!

Haven't taken the tutorial yet? Sign up at
http://tinyurl.com/pressreleasetutorial or buy the entire course
in a handy ebook for only $27. You can read the long, long list
of glowing testimonials from happy Hounds who loved it and are
already generating fabulous publicity as a result.

========================================
3. Formula Five is Live
========================================

For the last several weeks, I've been raving about "Formula
Five," the business building program that's perfect for any
business, regardless of what you're selling.

Now, the wait is over.

The shopping cart opened yesterday for "Formula Five." It was
created by Paul Lemberg, who shared dozens of take-away tips
during the teleseminar with him that I hosted for several hundred
Publicity Hounds on Jan. 8.

You can pick up your copy of Formula Five here:
http://tinyurl.com/PaulLembergFormulaFive

Because the package includes ongoing support, there are limited
spots in the program.

Business owners just like you have already earned tens of
thousands of dollars only using 1/20th of Formula Five. Today,
you can be one of the first to get the whole enchilada so you
can start doubling your business this year.

Even if Formula Five isn't within your budget right now, at
least check out the package of videos on the page, take good
notes and start tweaking your business to make more money
starting today.

P.S. This is a no-brainer. Just hope your competitors haven't
heard about it.

=======================================
4. Still Not Blogging?
=======================================

Attention bloggers, or those who are just creating a blog.

Learn proven tips on how to drive thousands more visitors to your
blog, sell your products and services there, and write compelling
posts that build a loyal customer following and position you as
an expert.

Here's the best part. You don't have to be a techie.

Join me as I interview Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, aka The
Blog Squad, during a free teleseminar called "Boost Your Biz with
a Blog" from 4 to 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, Jan. 26.
Register at http://www.blogsquadteleseminars.com/joan/

==========================================
5. Promoting Sensitivity Training
==========================================

This week, five Publicity Hounds have tips for Pegine Echevarria
of Jacksonville, FL, who is launching a licensed training program
called "White Guys Are Diverse Too!" She is looking for ideas to
capture the interest of corporate and government chief diversity
officers.

From Candy Tutt:

"In all honesty, I would recommend changing the title of the
project. While it is catchy, it will be perceived as separatist
and off-putting to many people. Our society still tends to tip
the scales in favor of "white guys" and the program title
perpetuates a feeling of cultural superiority.

"If, in your experience white guys tend to walk out of D&I
programs thinking they are excluded and not valued for the unique
individualized impact that they bring, perhaps the D&I sessions
are not geared to reaching the very people at whom they are
aimed."

From Kevin Gaydosh:

"Constant portrayals by the news media and popular culture as
Walter Kowalskis or Archie Bunkers displays a prejudice--yes,
prejudice--that is perhaps the biggest fear/largest turn-off that
the target audience has with much diversity training.

"Also, I'm not in HR, but an earlier Hound might be correct in
suggesting a name change. While an arresting, attention-getting
and (to some) a cute/funny title, it's doubtful that many Fortune
500 companies are going to post that seminar up on their Intranet
or in the employee break rooms precisely because of the title.

"Perhaps it would be best if you pitched your program under a new
(PC) moniker but touted it as being better than the competition
because you do pay particular attention to this often
'overlooked, under appreciated' group."

From Dal Jeanis:

"You might want to contact companies, especially minority-owned
companies, that do diversity (or cultural sensitivity) training.
Provide each company with two f~ree copies of your book. If they
add your book in as, say, one-third of a course, then you're
golden.

"One current events hook you can use to promote your mix is the
following: With Obama's success, pre-existing diversity programs
are going to need major retooling. Are they needed at all?
Diversity trainers say yes, some pundits say no, and Pegine
Echevarria says no, but they need to address all the
consistencies of diversity."

The Publicity Hound says:

Pegine, how about going over to LinkedIn and using the question
and answer feature to generate some additional feedback and
exposure for your training? I wouldn't post the identical
question you asked in Help This Hound, but there are lots of
other things you could ask about.

Scott Allen, a LinkedIn expert, says the Q&A feature is a
fabulous way collect information and let the world know what
you're doing. But you have to use it correctly. He explained how
during the teleseminar I hosted with him on "How to Use LinkedIn
to Promote Anything--Ethically & Powerfully."

It's available as electronic transcripts and your choice of MP3
audios or CDs. Read more about what you'll learn at
http://tinyurl.com/5zvzyd

Read all the responses to this week's Help This Hound question
at http://tinyurl.com/829jv3

Send your own Help this Hound question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com and include your city and state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Beth Stafford of Concord, N.C. writes:

"I am an artist working in collaboration with my dog to produce
some of the wildest, most colorful and joyous abstract art
around.

"Our label is 'PiCassieO,' combining her name (Cassie) with an
artist name (obviously) who represents the human half of the team
(me). We have a store at CafePress which opened in July. It is
so far non-profit, even though the merchandise is really great!

"I have been attempting to promote it on my own website and
through our blog, but am spending too much time on nonproductive
promotion and not enough on the art. I need a few quick, simple
tips to get the ball rolling.

"Warning: My budget is 'thread' instead of 'shoestring,' and I'm
a disaster at social networking on the web. Help!"

The Publicity Hound says:

To quote BL Ochman, mentioned in item Number One above, the
social networking train has already left the station. If you're
not onboard now, you'll get eaten alive by your competitors who
are. I highly suggest you read the transcript or listen to the
audio recording of the teleseminar I conducted with BL on "How to
do Social Networking, Run a Business & Still Have a Life" at
http://tinyurl.com/a6guxq

But that's not all you can do. Hounds with great ideas for Beth
can post them to my blog at http://tinyurl.com/7jqucq

==================================
7. Hound Video of the Week
==================================

Save this video to watch on one of those Days from Hell when you
need a pick-me-up or something to make you smile.

It's a CBS report from a few weeks ago on the Animal Odd Couple--
an 8,700-pound elephant named Tarra and her best friend, Bella
the dog.

http://tinyurl.com/8v2bza

Thanks to Publicity Hound Kim Condrin for sending it.

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

===================================
8. And at My Blog...
===================================

Let's meet at Stompernet event March 5-8 in Atlanta
http://tinyurl.com/94vmvn

How Twitter can help you fix your toilet
http://tinyurl.com/8lcjvt

--------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

Wednesday, Jan. 21--Teleseminar

Join me for the third annual smARTist telesummit where
photographers, jewelers, potters, painters, metalworkers,
woodworkers and other artists will learn all the secrets for
growing their art business. I'm presenting a session on how to
use social networking, from 2 to 2:45 Eastern Time on Wednesday,
Jan. 21. Sorry, but registration is closed. You'll have to wait
until Ariane Goodwin offers the training as a product.

Monday, Jan. 26--Teleseminar

"Boost Your Biz with a Blog," from 4 to 5 p.m. Eastern on Monday,
Jan. 26. Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, aka The Blog Squad,
will explain how to draw more traffic and boost more sales from a
blog. You'll also learn about the biggest mistakes bloggers make
and how they sabotage their own success. Register at
http://www.blogsquadteleseminars.com/joan/

PERMISSION TO REPRINT:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me you want to subscribe.

PRIVACY STATEMENT:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity tips/It's Not About You Jan 14, 2009

2009-01-14T10:04:00.005-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #433 Jan. 14, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 43,767

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The Publicity
Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you told me
that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you can
unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their reputation,
position themselves as employers of choice, sell more products
and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

******************************************

Teleseminar: Build a Better Blog

Attention bloggers, or those who are just creating a blog. Learn
proven tips on how to drive thousands more visitors to your blog,
sell your products and services there, and write compelling posts
that build a loyal customer following and position you as an expert.

Here's the best part. You don't have to be a techie. Join me as I
interview Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, aka The Blog Squad,
during a free teleseminar called "Boost Your Biz with a Blog"
from 4 to 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, Jan. 26. Register at
http://www.blogsquadteleseminars.com/joan/

*****************************************

================================
In This Issue
================================

1. It's Not About You

2. The Power of Surveys

3. Sell Books by the Truckload

4. Create Your Own Holiday

5. Promoting a Book on Marriage

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Quote of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

===================================
1. It's Not About You
===================================

Trusting the wrong doctor almost killed motivational speaker
Edward Leigh of Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1997, at age 39, Edward started having abdominal pains. His
doctor prescribed Pepto-Bismol. The doctor then performed a
sigmoidoscopy, which came back normal.

During the next two and a half years, his condition worsened and
included nausea, dizziness and rectal bleeding. His doctor
recommended that Edward continue with over-the-counter
medication.

When his symptoms became so severe that he collapsed on the
bathroom floor, he sought help from another doctor who ordered a
colonoscopy. The diagnosis: Stage III Colon Cancer.

The initial test he had, a sigmoidoscopy, is a partial colon exam
that views only the left portion of the colon. The complete colon
exam, the colonoscopy, found his right-sided tumor.

After his surgery and chemotherapy, Edward joined the Colon
Cancer Alliance and later joined a colon cancer listserv via the
Association of Cancer Online Resources.

In March 2000, when "Today" show host Katie Couric was creating
her series called "Confronting Colon Cancer" following the death of
her husband from that disease, Katie's producer contacted the
Colon Cancer Alliance seeking people who had been diagnosed
and survived.

Edward stepped forward.

"The producer interviewed me, checked back with Katie who was
the decision maker, and she said 'Bring him to New York.' A week
later, we did the taping and I was part of Katie's week-long series
that won a Peabody Award."

From there, the publicity snowballed to include:

--An appearance on "Mystery Diagnosis" on the Discovery Health
Channel which is now being repeated on the Learning Channel.

--An interview with Montel Williams in March last year. You can see
it at http://tinyurl.com/9xsvy3

--Numerous requests for speaking engagements and consulting for
the health care industry. Today, Edward teaches doctors how to
communicate better with their patients. He also helps patients
become their own health care advocates.

He said he uses many of the tips he reads in this newsletter to
pitch media large and small. Even though he has a compelling
story to tell, he follows his own advice when pitching.

"Don't be focused on your own agenda. You have to be focused on
your topic and the media outlet's audience when you're talking to a
producer. It's not all about you. If you make it all about you, that's a
death sentence as far as the media is concerned."

Ditto when the cameras are rolling. TV talk show host Connie
Dieken, who also hails from Cleveland, says that if you're bombing
on the air, producers will cut the interview short and hustle you out
of the studio--pronto--before you can do any more damage.

But why take that chance?

Know exactly how to endear yourself to the host and the producers
and get invited back. Connie explained how when she was my
guest during a teleseminar on "How to be a TV Talk Show Host's
Dream Date." It's available as a CD or an electronic transcript that
you can download and be reading as soon as your order has been
approved.

Read more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/3z7ut

Edward, by the way, says he'll be glad to answer colon questions
from Publicity Hounds if you contact him at
mailto:Edward@EdwardLeigh.com

===================================
2. The Power of Surveys
===================================

If knowledge is power, then surveys are like a giant jackhammer in
your marketing toolbox.

You can take a fun, controversial or timely survey and report results
to the media and to consumers.

Or, you can do what I'm doing and survey your customers to see
what else they need from you that you're not currently providing.
That survey should be ready for you in a few weeks, and I'll even
reward you with some cool stuff to encourage you to complete it.

Business consultant Paul Lemberg says too many business
owners are obsessed with chasing down new leads when they
should be spending some of that time also figuring out how to sell
more products and services to their existing customers. That's one
of his five formulas for any business that wants to double its
business this year: sell more stuff to the same people.

During last week's teleseminar on "5 Ways to Double Your
Business in 2009," Paul explained that you don't need an elaborate
survey like the one I'm creating. Instead, one phone call to just one
customer can result in valuable information that can lead to new
products and services.

In fact, he suggests just one short question and he tells you
exactly how to word it. About 200 people joined us on last week's
call and heard Paul's other valuable advice on how to raise prices in
a meltdown economy, one task to do at the beginning of every day
that will make your business soar, and a really clever way to reward
your customers for bringing you new leads, without breaking the
bank.

You can read more about his tips and listen to the replay at my
blog at http://tinyurl.com/9fzrq9

Paul's Formula Five series of videos and checklists will be available
soon from Stompernet at http://tinyurl.com/a6j4pw where you'll find
an entire series of videos on this program, and dozens of take-away
tips you can start using today.

========================================
3. Sell Books by the Truckload
========================================

Too many authors try to sell books the hard way. They look for
10,000 customers so they can sell 10,000 books.

It's sometimes a lot easier to sell all those books--or even 100,000
books--to only one customer.

How? By searching for companies that typically buy books in mass
quantity and give them away as free "premium incentives" to
encourage people to buy their products. Many of these same
companies:

--Give away the books as thank-you gifts to people who buy other
products and services.

--Use the book to thank members or subscribers who renew.

--Rely on the book to help train their employees.

Matthew Bennett has used this simple strategy as an unknown,
self-published author to sell more than 5 million books.

He has written books on health, pets, fitness and inspiration and
then sold them in quantity to companies like Disney, Reebok,
NBC, Abbot Labs, Pfizer, US Healthplans and Subway.

Steve Harrison is hosting a free one-hour teleseminar with Matthew
on Thursday, Jan. 15, at your choice of two times. If you cannot
make either call, find someone who can listen and take notes for
you.

Matthew will share his tips on how he sold more than 80,000
copies of an inspirational book in just one phone conversation.
He'll also explain how you can tie in with major charities like the
March of Dimes and the American Heart Association to sell
truckloads of books and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for
charity. You'll also learn the three things you absolutely must arm
yourself with before ever pitching your book.

Like most free teleseminars, Steve is hoping that after you listen to
the call, you'll buy their consulting services to learn how to do this
in detail. So just sit back, relax and listen.

Click here to continue reading about what you'll learn and to sign
up: http://www.freepublicity.com/mattbennett/?10011

=======================================
4. Create Your Own Holiday
=======================================

If you haven't created your own holiday, or your own day, week or
month of the year, you're missing out on the chance to generate
tons of print, broadcast and online publicity.

Take a look at some of the cool holidays that members of the
National Speakers Association have created. I found this list in the
current issue of NSA's Speaker magazine:

--Steve Hughes created "Be Kind to Lawyers Day" the second
Tuesday in April.

--Laura Stack created "National Leave the Office Earlier Day" on
June 2 to promote her book, Leave the Office Earlier. It coincides
with her birthday. Problem is, so many media outlets want to
interview her that she ends up working 12 hours on her birthday just
to accommodate them all.

--Publicity Hound Michelle Nichols created a wildly successful
nationwide campaign to promote National Hug Your Kids Day, the
third Monday in July. She convinced Clear Channel Outdoor to
donate 135 digital billboards, eight Gannett newspapers to run
"Citymoms.com" contests, and three Major League baseball teams
to announce it on their Jumbotrons.

--Publicity Hound Carol Copeland has christened June as Student
Safety Month.

--Marilee Driscoll has designated October Long-Term Care Planning
Month.

What are you waiting for? Now, it's your turn.

If you're on LinkedIn, you can use that popular social networking
site to actually promote your holiday, just like Michelle Nichols did.
Scott Allen, an expert on LinkedIn, critiqued Michelle's LinkedIn
campaign and made several suggestions which she used.
They resulted in instant feedback from the LinkedIn community
within only 48 hours.

Scott explained her campaign when he was my guest during a
teleseminar on "How to Use LinkedIn to Promote Anything--
Ethically & Powerfully." It's available as electronic transcripts and
your choice of MP3s or CDs. Read more about how to launch a
publicity campaign on the world's largest business networking site
at http://tinyurl.com/5zvzyd

==========================================
5. Promoting a Book on Marriage
==========================================

This week, 11 Publicity Hounds have tips for Sheryl P. Kurland of
Orlando, FL, author of Everlasting Matrimony: Pearls of Wisdom
from Couples Married 50 Years or More. She needs new ideas to
stimulate sales of the book in time for Valentine's Day.

From Lisa Lockwood:

"Announce your book in a press release on PR Web. I'm self-
published and landed a spot on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch
just by announcing that I was launching my book tour."

From Cheryl Pickett:

"I suggest you check out the book The Daughter-in-Law Rules at
http://www.thedilrules.com. Author Sally Shields lists some of the
publicity success she's had with her self-published book, and you
share a similar audience. I also know she'd be willing to share more
help if you contacted her."

From Bonnie Lowe:

"Can you jump on the 'bad economy' bandwagon? Are there any
stories in your book that might show readers how to be romantic
without spending much money? Could you do a press release on
'How to spend less on your Valentine without looking cheap' or
something like that, and tie it into your book?"

The Publicity Hound says:

Sheryl, if you could round up a few couples who would be willing to
be interviewed, this would make a great segment for National Public
Radio. Go to the NPR site at http://www.npr.org and use the search
box at the top of the screen to search for words like "marriage" and
"matrimony" and see what you find. You can listen to many of the
shows in the archives before you pitch the producers.

But before you do, follow Lissa Warren's tips on how to navigate the
NPR labyrinth because it can get confusing. Lissa, a book
publicist, has successfully pitched dozens of her clients to NPR,
and she shared all her secrets during a teleseminar I conducted
with her on "How to Get Booked on National Public Radio."

It's available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can
download and be reading as soon as your order has been approved.

Read more about what you need to get onto NPR at
http://tinyurl.com/ayms6

Read all the responses to this week's Help This Hound question
http://tinyurl.com/832mpk

Send your own Help this Hound question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
and include your city and state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Pegine Echevarria of Jacksonville, Fla. writes:

"I am launching a licensed training program called 'White Guys Are
Diverse Too!'

"I want to capture the interest of corporate and government chief
diversity offers, chief learning officers and senior leadership of large
corporations who can purchase this program to spread the word to
their employees.

"The topic is controversial. In large organizations, Diversity and
Inclusion (D&I) programs are part of everyone's training.
However, white guys tend to walk out of D&I programs thinking they
are excluded and not valued for the unique individualized impact
that they bring.

"'White Guys Are Diverse Too!' celebrates the diversity among white
guys, the value they bring to their organizations and teams along
with how managers can engage, motivate and inspire their white
male team members.

"I need ideas, help to get the word out that 'White Guys are Diverse
Too!' The website at http://www.WhiteGuysAreDiverse.com
offers a no-obligation special report. Can you give me some no
cost/low cost ideas?

P.S. I've spent my life savings on this product. It has to reach the
masses.

The Publicity Hound says:

See the fabulous movie "Gran Torino" in which Clint Eastwood
plays the racist Walt Kowalski, a tough, gruff, crotchety old man
who hates everybody who isn't white--or at least thinks he does.

Start writing press releases and articles and using the social
networking sites to write about "What Would Walt Kowalski Do?"
and then tie it into your training. Piggybacking off celebrities and
red-hot movies (this one is a contender for several Oscars) is a
fabulous way to pull in traffic from the search engines.

My "Special Report #50: How to Piggyback onto Celebrity News to
Promote Your Product, Service, Cause or Issue" gives you lots
more ideas. Only $10. Order at http://tinyurl.com/gy6bd

Hounds with other ideas for Pegine can post them to my blog at
http://tinyurl.com/829jv3

==================================
7. Hound Quote of the Week
==================================

"I know that dogs are pack animals, but it is difficult to imagine a
pack of standard poodles...and if there was such a thing as a pack
of standard poodles, where would they rove to?
Bloomingdale's?

--Yvonne Clifford, American actress

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and
quotes, perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

===================================
8. And at My Blog...
===================================

Why lowering your prices can ruin your business
http://tinyurl.com/9fzrq9

--------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

Wednesday, Jan. 21--Teleseminar

Join me for the third annual smARTist telesummit where
photographers, jewelers, potters, painters, metalworkers,
woodworkers and other artists will learn all the secrets for growing
their art business. I'm presenting a session on how to use social
networking, from 2 to 2:45 Eastern Time on Wednesday, Jan. 21.
Register for the telesummit at http://tinyurl.com/5axy3x

Monday, Jan. 26--Teleseminar

"Boost Your Biz with a Blog," from 4 to 5 p.m. Eastern on Monday,
Jan. 26. Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, aka The Blog Squad,
will explain how to draw more traffic and boost more sales from a
blog. You'll also learn about the biggest mistakes bloggers make
and how they sabotage their own success. Register at
http://www.blogsquadteleseminars.com/joan/

PERMISSION TO REPRINT:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the
following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends, clients
and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The Publicity
Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you told me
you want to subscribe.

PRIVACY STATEMENT:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity tips/Don't Let Blog Content Confuse You Jan 6, 2009

2009-01-06T17:44:00.010-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #432 Jan. 6, 2008
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 43,872

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The Publicity
Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you told me
that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you can
unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their reputation,
position themselves as employers of choice, sell more products
and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

******************************************

Still Time to Download 'Best of 2008' Ebook

More than 3,000 Publicity Hounds have claimed their copy of "The
Best of The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week of 2008," the free
ebook that's my holiday gift to you. Lots of Hounds have tweeted
about it on Twitter, shared it on Facebook, and encouraged their
followers to claim their copy. It isn't too late to regift it.

Please use this link when sharing the book with your own readers,
followers and connections: http://tinyurl.com/Bestof2008Tips And if
you'd like to download the "Best of" books from previous years, you
can do so at http://tinyurl.com/bestofebooks

Thanks to all of my loyal Publicity Hounds for your continued
support. You make my job the best in the world.

*****************************************

================================
In This Issue
================================

1. Don't Let Blog Content Confuse You

2. How About a Little Good News?

3. How Could I be So Dumb?

4. Beware of this Twitter Scam

5. Promoting a Christmas Tree Accessory

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

=====================================
1. Don't Let Blog Content Confuse You
=====================================

If you're an expert, you'd better be cranking out lots of content in
these formats:

Blogs. Ezines. Twitter posts. Facebook notes. Articles at article
directory sites. Articles at your own website.

Yet some Publicity Hounds are easily confused about what kinds of
topics to write in which types of formats, particularly when writing
for their blogs.

Over the weekend, Publicity Hound Michele Nightengale, who
teaches bricks-and-mortar businesses how to market online, told
me she's going to start blogging. But she's confused about the
difference between content for her blog and content for articles at
her website.

"I can't seem to differentiate them in my mind," she said. "The
ideas for my articles page and my blog are identical. I can only
think to post my articles on my blog. How do you treat them
separately and without too much duplicate content?"

She's right. There's a lot of overlap. Here's how I differentiate the
two:

Articles posted at article directory sites like
http://www.EzineArticles.com generally focus on helping people solve
a particular problem. The structure of these articles can follow various
formats. But in general, they offer solutions to a problem. And
they're about 500-700 words. Examples:

--TV Publicity: 6 ways to find your way onto the local evening news

--Inflight magazines: 8 topics editors love to write about

--Hiring a publicist? Know the 4 ways they charge for their services

--Public service announcements have these 6 elements

Almost everything else, I told her, is fodder for a blog. Think of
blogging as journaling, or keeping a business diary. It usually
includes much more opinion than how-to articles do. And the
writing can be a little more personal and informal. You can use a
blog to:

--State an opinion on a topic.

--Comment on somebody else's blog post or article and link to it.

--Comment on something happening in the news.

--Offer a quiz for a reader.

--Present a question from a reader and then offer the answer.

--Present a case study.

--Disagree with somebody else's position on a topic, and explain
why.

--Discuss something in your personal life that relates to something
in your professional life.

--Review a book, home study course or other product you've
bought.

--Comment on a service you have used.

The ideas for blog content are endless. If you're still short on ideas,
create several Google Alerts at http://www.Google.com/alerts for
topics you want to blog about.

Google will then email you as often as you wish and let you know
what articles, videos, news stories and other content about those
topics appear online.

I'll address the topic of avoiding duplicate content in an upcoming
issue of this newsletter. But in general, you don't want to use
identical content at your website, blog and article directory sites.

If you're new to blogging, or if your current blog isn't generating the
traffic or sales you had hoped, you'll learn some quick tips from
Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, aka The Blog Squad, during a
f~ree teleseminar from 4 to 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 26. It's called
"Boost Your Biz with a Blog" and Denise and Patsi will explain how
they differentiate blog content from all the other kinds of content
they produce. You'll also learn about the biggest mistakes bloggers
make and how beginning bloggers can sabotage their own
success.

Register at http://www.blogsquadteleseminars.com/joan/

===================================
2. How About a Little Good News?
===================================

All those bad news stories about the economy that the media love
will soon turn into old news. And when the economy worsens this
year, as predicted, that old news will be downright depressing.

It's time to start thinking about a few good news ideas to pitch.
TV producer Shawne Duperon offers these ideas:

--Credit unions in four Midwestern states are generating fabulous
publicity in top-tier media outlets like USA Today by pledging $10
billion in loans to car buyers and teaming with General Motors to
offer special deals to boost car sales. You can read the USA Today
story at http://tinyurl.com/9lyes7

--How are retailers using tough times as an asset to sell products?
Some car companies launched new campaigns that guarantee if
you buy a car and lose your job within the year, you can return the
car. How effective will strategies like this be?

--How are you making the most of the economic downturn in your
business? Are you investing more in marketing? If so, let the media
know.

--Are you in an industry or niche that, so far, has been unaffected?
Many Internet marketers, for example, particularly those who sell
training on how to build a business, are reporting increased sales,
and have the shopping cart statistics to prove it.

If you have little good news to report but you still want to pitch, let
Shawne and me help you. We brainstormed "116 WOW!
Story Ideas from January through June" when we teamed up for a
teleseminar for Publicity Hounds. We recorded it, and it's available
as a CD complete with a handout of all 116 ideas. You can
download the handout as soon as your order has been approved.

There's something for everybody, and you can borrow all of our
ideas, starting today, by going to http://tinyurl.com/6k7zk

========================================
3. How Could I be So Dumb?
========================================

If you've already made a list of the top five or six goals you want to
achieve this year in your business, make sure they're the types of
goals in which you can measure their success.

I have five goals for this year. Each one, if achieved, will help me
build my business by at least 15 percent. If I succeed at them all,
I'll double my business.

All five are recommended by Paul Lemberg, a business coach who
created the Formula 5 system, a package of videos, checklists,
worksheets and mastermind coaching groups that provide ongoing
support. I've been devouring all of it the last several weeks, and I
already have the wheels in motion to survey Publicity Hounds in the
next few weeks about what they want and need--a technique that
will shorten my learning curve even more.

Several times during the course, when Paul explained a great
strategy, I slapped my palm against my forehead and asked out
loud, "Why am I not doing this? How could I be so dumb????"

One of the most valuable tips I learned is that the onslaught of
emails I'm receiving from business people offering cut-rate prices on
their products and services is, for them, the quickest way to the
poor house. In fact, raising prices, even in a meltdown economy, is
one of the fastest ways to success.

Interested? If not, move onto the next item. If so, here are two ways
to learn more about each of the five Formula 5 elements:

--Watch the first of three Stompernet videos that explains more
about Formula 5 and offers startling results of what can happen
when you raise the price of an ebook by a paltry $7, from $47 to
$54: http://tinyurl.com/PaulLembergFormula5

--Get direct access to Paul during a f~ree teleseminar I'm hosting
with him from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, January 8.
He'll explain the five elements of Formula 5 in more detail, and you
can even email questions to us during the call.
Sign up at
http://www.Publicityhound.com/teleseminar/formulafive.htm

Don't miss this one. And for heaven's sake, don't fall into the trap of
lowering your prices without understanding the consequences.

===================================
4. Beware of this Twitter Scam
===================================

Are you receiving strange email messages from people referring
you to photos and other posts about you at Twitter.com?

I am. The messages are a scam.

Here's how it works. This particular scam sends out emails
resembling those you might receive from Twitter if you get email
notifications of your Direct Messages. The email says something
like, "Hey! Check out this funny blog about you..." and provides a
link. That link redirects to a site masquerading as the Twitter front
page. Look closely at the URL field. If it's different than Twitter's
URL at http://Twitter.com, leave the site immediately.

Do not enter your username or password. If you do, the scam
artists can use that information to send out direct messages on
your behalf which could trick your followers. Read this post at
Twitter's blog to find out what else you should do if this happens to
you:
http://blog.twitter.com/2009/01/gone-phishing.html

Not Twittering yet because the site is too confusing? Join the
crowd. Most of us who Twitter felt the same way when we started.

But don't give up on what has become one of the most powerful
communication and promotion tools for business. Learn in step-by-
step detail how to navigate the site, and how to adopt smart
strategies that will save you hours of time.

Twitter expert Warren Whitlock explained "How to Use Twitter to
Amass an Army of Followers, Customers & Valuable Contacts--and
Promote." It's available as electronic transcripts and your choice of
MP3s or CDs. Read more about the power of Twitter at
http://tinyurl.com/3lbcaw

==========================================
5. Promoting a Christmas Tree Accessory
==========================================

This week, five Publicity Hounds have tips for Shannon Hein of Fort
Collins, Colorado, who needs ideas on how to promote "Branchies,"
a product that helps you hang heavy objects on your Christmas
tree.

From Shirley George Frazier:

"My suggestion is to 'branch out' to other reasons for people to buy
Branchies: Easter ornaments, gardening tools, every day uses, etc.

"If you only focus on Christmas buying reasons, you won't sell all
year long, and that's a disservice to a great product and customers
who'll benefit every day."

From Dale W. Hutchings:

"I think your target market for these giant ornaments is not the
typical homeowner, but the commercial market. These massive
ornaments would look so much better on the giant trees that are
put up every year in city parks, government offices, large bank
lobbies, and shopping malls, among other venues. I would
recommend that you target the commercial market through a
holiday decorative contest."

From Barbara:

"For Christmas next year: send some to major consumer magazine
editors in June or so. If they like them, they may feature them in
the Christmas issues of their magazines. There are always articles
about gift giving and how to decorate for the holidays."

The Publicity Hound says:

Send a press release and generic photo showing garden tools used
as ornaments to gardening magazines. Send a press release and
photo showing heavy sports-related ornaments like football helmets
to sports magazines. Just change the ornaments in each photo to
match the needs of various niche audiences. Your goal is to make
every magazine editor say "Aha! this is PERFECT for our readers."

And don't forget to create videos that demonstrate how to trim a
tree with Branchies. Videographer John Easton shows you dozens
of ways to use quick videos to promote what you're selling. He
explained them all during the teleseminar on "9 Clever Ways to Use
Video to Become a Publicity Darling in Your Industry or
Community." We recorded it and it's available as a CD, MP3, or
electronic transcript.

Read more about how to start using video at
http://tinyurl.com/5pbgzn

Send your own Help this Hound question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
and include your city and state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Publicity Hound Sheryl P. Kurland of Orlando, FL writes:

"With Valentine's Day just around the corner, which is a logical tie-
in to my product, I need some new, exciting, low-cost ideas prior to
the holiday to stimulate Valentine's Day book sales.

"I'm the author of the self-published Everlasting Matrimony:
Pearls Of Wisdom From Couples Married 50 Years Or More, an
elegant coffee-table book in which I interviewed 75 couples married
50+ years. The first run was published four years ago.
You can learn more about it at
http://www.everlastingmatrimony.com/. My background is
Marketing/PR, so I've done just about everything---all on my own
and on a shoestring budget.

"What can I do that I haven't already done to get big publicity a few
weeks before Valentine's Day, using Valentine's Day as the tie-in,
obviously, to significantly stimulate book sales? Shows like
"Today," "Good Morning America," etc., won't talk to me because
I'm self-published. Also, I am not interested in teleseminars,
teaching a course, or creating CDs to sell."

The Publicity Hound says:

I spoke with Sheryl and told her the long list her media successes
at my blog at http://tinyurl.com/832mpk is obviously missing social
networking.

She told me she's starting to Twitter. How about giving Sheryl some
quick tips on traditional media she might pursue, in addition to
some ideas on how to pull traffic from the social networking sites.
She doesn't yet have a Facebook profile but could create one fairly
quickly.

Also, we'd like to hear tips from self-published authors on how to
get onto the big morning TV talk shows. Eli Davidson, a member of
The Publicity Hound Mentor Program, is self-published, and she
appeared on the "Today" show, so I know it can be done.

Post your ideas to my blog at http://tinyurl.com/832mpk

==================================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
==================================

"Dogs have no money. Isn't that amazing? They're broke their entire
lives. But they get through. You know why dogs have no money?
No pockets."

--Comedian Jerry Seinfeld

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and
quotes, perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

===================================
8. And at My Blog...
===================================

Write an unsolicited testimonial for additional publicity
http://tinyurl.com/7qlp2v

--------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

Thursday, Jan. 8--Teleseminar

"Formula Five: 5 Ways to Double Your Business in 2009" with my
guest expert Paul Lemberg. From 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time, he will
explain five ways every business person can double their business.
This is perfect for anyone who is frightened by all the gloom-and-
doom talk about the bad economy. This is a free teleseminar.
Register at
http://www.Publicityhound.com/teleseminar/formulafive.htm

Wednesday, Jan. 21--Teleseminar

Join me for the third annual smARTist telesummit where
photographers, jewelers, potters, painters, metalworkers,
woodworkers and other artists will learn all the secrets for growing
their art business. I'm presenting a session on how to use social
networking, from 2 to 2:45 Eastern Time on Wednesday, Jan. 21.
Register for the telesummit at http://tinyurl.com/5axy3x

Monday, Jan. 26--Teleseminar

"Boost Your Biz with a Blog," from 4 to 5 p.m. Eastern on Monday,
Jan. 26. Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, aka The Blog Squad,
will explain how to draw more traffic and boost more sales from a
blog. You'll also learn about the biggest mistakes bloggers make
and how they sabotage their own success. Register at
http://www.blogsquadteleseminars.com/joan/

March 6-10--Atlanta

I'll be at the Stompernet convention in Atlanta from Thursday until
Sunday. Let me know if you're attending and we'll have lunch.

PERMISSION TO REPRINT:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the
following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends, clients
and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The Publicity
Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you told me
you want to subscribe.

PRIVACY STATEMENT:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity tips/Twitter Leads to TV Publicity Dec 30, 2008

2008-12-31T18:24:00.007-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #431 Dec. 30, 2008
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 44,446

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The Publicity Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you told me that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their reputation, position themselves as employers of choice, sell more products and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

******************************************

Did You Download My Holiday Gift to You?

More than 2,500 Publicity Hounds have already downloaded my "Best of the Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week of 2008," the free ebook that's my holiday gift to you. Lots of Hounds are tweeting about it on Twitter and offering the book to their followers, too. Yes, I am encouraging you to regift it.

You can claim your copy here. Please use this link when sharing the book with your own readers, followers and connections: http://tinyurl.com/Bestof2008Tips And if you'd like to download the "Best of" books from previous years, you can do so at http://tinyurl.com/bestofebooks

Thanks to all of my loyal Publicity Hounds for your continued support. May you have a safe and happy New Year.

*****************************************

================================
In This Issue
================================

1. Twitter Leads to TV Publicity

2. 5 Formulas for Doubling Your Business

3. Wanted: Your Opinions & Ideas

4. How to Get Corporate Sponsors

5. How to Find a Ghostwriter

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

===================================
1. Twitter Leads to TV Publicity
===================================

This is for all you Twitter naysayers who think you're far too busy, or too important, or too disinterested to participate on Twitter, the red-hot social networking site.

Twitter, it turns out, is attracting the attention of many journalists and broadcasters who are actually using it to look for sources for their stories and guests for their shows. For patient Publicity Hounds on Twitter, that means big-time media hits in traditional media outlets if you're following these journalists and you can provide what they need. You can find a list of journalists who Twitter at http://tinyurl.com/a8xsqo

Rebecca Shapiro, an artist in Portland, Oregon, landed her own spot on a popular TV show in Portland as a result of Twitter.

It all started several weeks ago when one of Rebecca's Twitter buddies told her that "AM Northwest," the most widely watched morning TV show in Oregon, was looking for somebody to come to the studio and tape a segment demonstrating how children can make inexpensive holiday gifts. Rebecca, who teaches crafts in addition to working as an artist, responded immediately, and the producers said yes.

During the segment, she demonstrated how kids can make votive candle holders, gift tags, and a pinch pot made with Sharpie markers. The producers loved it.

"Now, they want me to submit ideas for a series of segments for 2009," Rebecca said.

Her second media hit as a result of Twitter occurred about six weeks ago when her 5-year-old daughter bundled up in a snowsuit to go out to play and got stuck crawling through the cat door. Rebecca tweeted about it. One of her followers is Stephanie Stricklen, a producer for "Live at 7," a TV show on Channel 8 in Portland. When Stephanie saw Rebecca's tweet, she replied and asked her to submit a photo of her daughter in the snowsuit so Stephanie could put it on "Live at 7."

But that's not all. Rebecca's biggest Twitter success has been building relationships with art galleries and submitting her artwork to the well-respected Tinku Gallery in Toronto, which has a huge presence on Twitter and elsewhere online.

"The gallery owner sent out a call for artists, and I never would have known about it had it not been for Twitter," Rebecca said.

If you've been reluctant to Twitter, it's finally time to join the millions of Twitterers who are making valuable connections, friends and joint venture partners on this site.

Warren Whitlock, one of the most well-respected Twitterers, was my guest during a series of teleseminars on "How to Use Twitter to Amass an Army of Followers, Customers & Valuable Contacts--and Promote."

The recording is available as electronic transcripts and your choice of Cds or MP3s. Learn more about how to start building a huge following on Twitter at http://tinyurl.com/3lbcaw

If you're an artist, you can hear my presentation on social networking, part of the 2009 smARTist teleseummit. Register at http://tinyurl.com/5axy3x and learn how to grow your art business.

========================================
2. 5 Formulas to Double Your Business
========================================

Have you noticed the gazillion emails from authors, Internet marketers, coaches, consultants, publicists and others who are lowering their prices so drastically that they're practically giving away the store?

Business coach Paul Lemberg says that if you're selling refrigerators, or other consumer durables, dropping your prices might make sense during tough economic times.

But if you're selling books, information products, consulting services or coaching programs--even publicity services like writing press releases or pitching the media on a client's behalf--lowering your prices is the quickest way to see your revenues plummet.

That's because a higher profit margin is critical to becoming more profitable. And you can increase profit margin only two ways. You can cut expenses. Or, you can take the counter- intuitive step of raising your prices, even in competitive markets and even in a bad economy.

Increasing profit margin is one of five formulas that Paul says are critical to growing your business during 2009.

In fact, by increasing business just 15 percent in each of the five areas, the "compounding effect" will double the size of your business in a short time. Formula Five, a 15-week coaching and study program with five distinct modules, will be released Jan. 15 through Stompernet, the membership site for Internet marketers.

Stompernet asked me to review the product, and even though I haven't completed all five modules, I've already started following a series of action steps to grow my own business. I'll explain some of what I'm doing during a free teleseminar from 3 to 4 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 8. But you'll mostly hear from Paul, who will explain all five formulas and how to integrate them into your business. You can sign up for the teleseminar at http://www.Publicityhound.com/teleseminar/formulafive.htm

In the meantime, you can see testimonials from a beta test group, and sign up for a series of three free Stompernet videos that explain more about how to use Formula Five to grow your business. The first video will arrive via email on Monday, Jan. 5. Go to http://tinyurl.com/PaulLembergFormula5 to sign up for the videos.

Formula Five is brilliant--so you and I don't have to be. Hope to see you on the call Jan. 8.

===================================
3. Wanted: Your Opinions & Ideas
===================================

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to keep in closer touch with all of you and regularly ask for your opinions and ideas (this is one action step recommended in the Formula Five strategy mentioned above).

I want to know about how satisfied you are with my products and services, improvements you'd like to see in this newsletter, what you need that I'm not providing, and other issues that will help me help you.

I'm putting a system in place to survey you regularly, and you'll even be rewarded for completing each survey. The first survey should be ready in a few weeks.

In the meantime, jot a few notes to yourself and be ready to share them with me when the first survey arrives.

Let's make 2009 our best year ever, and let's help each other to make it happen.

Surveys--not the customer surveys I'm referring to above, but surveys on fun, controversial or compelling topics--are a powerful publicity tool. One of my favorites was the survey the Iams pet food company took about eight years ago in which it asked its customers about their relationship with their pets. The survey showed that more than 93 percent of those surveyed admitted saying "I love you" to their pets. Results were publicized several weeks before Valentine's Day, a brilliant PR move.

The updated edition of my ebook "How to be a Kick-butt Publicity Hound," gives you lots of ideas on how to use surveys and other tools such as quizzes, briefs and contests to generate publicity for just about any product, service, cause or issue.

The 2008-2009 edition includes seven new chapters on social networking and social media marketing. Read all about the book at http://www.publicityhound.com/publicity/publicityhound.htm

===================================
4. How to Get Corporate Sponsors
===================================

This is a quick reminder that Steve Harrison is hosting today's teleseminar on "How to Get Major Companies And Nonprofits To Sponsor The Promotion of Your Book, Product or Service" at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.

If this time is inconvenient for you, ask someone to listen and take notes for you.

Even speakers, authors and experts who have very niched topics are in a perfect position to find corporate sponsors--if the people who are already in your target market want or need the products or services that company provides.

Brendon Burchard, an author and speaker, has figured out some really ingenious ways to land corporate and non-profit promotional sponsorships and use them to fund his marketing efforts, and he'll explain them on today's call.

To discover how you can use his methods to promote your own book, product or business, you can sign up for today's call at http://www.SponsorshipTrainingTeleseminar.com/?10011

Here's just some of what you'll learn:

* What to do step-by-step to get a major company to sponsor your national promotional tour and pay for everything!

* Why the current economic downturn means more big companies and non-profits sponsoring authors, speakers and entrepreneurs--even if they're not famous.

* A website you can use to find potential sponsors and promotional partners.

* The "secret phrase" which gets big nonprofit organizations to endorse your book and promote it to their members.

* The title of the BEST person to contact with your proposal and why you should never send one written in Microsoft Word.

* The Number One fatal mistake to avoid when trying to land a sponsorship deal with a Fortune 500 company.

* How to write a short proposal that gets huge companies to sponsor you--even if you're an unknown, self-published author (HINT: there are five elements and he'll reveal all five on the call.)

Again, to sign up for the call, go here now: http://www.SponsorshipTrainingTeleseminar.com/?10011

==========================================
5. How to Find a Ghostwriter
==========================================

This week, six Publicity Hounds have tips for Nancy Wurtzel of Thousand Oaks, California, whose client, a physician, needs a ghostwriter for a book on brain health for Baby Boomers.

From Dorothy Pedersen:

"Look for a writer who has (a) a successful track record with published books, (b) a good track record of meeting, or beating, deadlines, and (c) who has a personality that's a good match with yours, your client, and the physician."

From Linda Adams:

"Try contacting the American Independent Writers (formerly Washington Independent Writers). It's the largest regional writing organization in the United States and is primarily made up of freelancers. They have a job bank for writers at http://washwriter.org/ It's a little hard to find. Look in the right column."

From Madisen Harper:

"I know a number of people, including myself, who have had great success finding ghost writers on http://www.Elance.com.

"You can post a job, get writing examples and receive competitive quotes. I've been impressed at the quality of writing and range of expertise."

The Publicity Hound says:

Elance.com and some of the other freelance sites like it are great for outsourcing projects like ghostwriting. But make sure you understand how these sites work, and what to do to ensure you're getting the best freelancers available. A low bid often means you're getting what you pay for. Trust me. I've made this mistake.

Leili McKinley, one of my business coaches, is an expert at outsourcing work. She was my guest during a teleseminar on "Outsourcing Secrets: How to get the Best Quality, Price & Teamwork from Freelancers." It's available as a CD, or as an MP3 or electronic transcript that you can download as soon as your order has been approved.

Read more about how to hire freelancers at http://tinyurl.com/7r793b

Read all the responses to this week's Help This Hound question at http://tinyurl.com/994lwl

Send your own Help this Hound question to: mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com and include your city and state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Shannon Hein of Fort Collins, Colorado writes:

"I am helping a friend promote Branchies, a product she invented that lets people hang heavy objects on their Christmas trees. It's at http://www.Branchies.com

"They attach easily to the trunk of your Christmas tree and support very heavy and bulky ornaments. They are a great way to transform your tree using themes you've never been able to create before. For example, you can decorate your tree with your favorite football helmets if you want!

"Of course, Christmas is over, but we want to get a jump on promoting this next year. What ideas do your Hounds have for promoting Branchies?"

The Publicity Hound says:

I'm using this question this week because many Christmas trees are still up, and they might help spark some great ideas from my Hounds. If you have a suggestion for Shannon, you can post it to my blog at http://tinyurl.com/8k25hc

==================================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
==================================

A New York City yupette was shopping in an upscale pet center.

"I want a dog of which I can be proud," she told the salesman. "Does that one have a good pedigree?"

"Miss," declared the clerk, "if she could speak, she wouldn't talk to either one of us."

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes, perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50 best websites for dog humor.

Http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

===================================
8. And at My Blog...
===================================

Obama inauguration donors: Pitch to your local media
http://tinyurl.com/6wnkd2

Artists, learn the 10 qualities of a marketing plan
http://tinyurl.com/6w3t2o

--------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

Thursday, Jan. 8--Teleseminar

"Formula Five: 5 Ways to Double Your Business in 2009" with my guest expert Paul Lemberg. From 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time, he will explain five ways every business person can double their business. This is perfect for anyone who is frightened by all the gloom-and-doom talk about the bad economy. This is a free teleseminar. Register at http://www.Publicityhound.com/teleseminar/formulafive.htm

Wednesday, Jan. 21--Teleseminar

Join me for the third annual smARTist telesummit where photographers, jewelers, potters, painters, metalworkers, woodworkers and other artists will learn all the secrets for growing their art business. I'm presenting a session on how to use social networking, from 2 to 2:45 Eastern Time on Wednesday, Jan. 21. Register for the telesummit at http://tinyurl.com/5axy3x

PERMISSION TO REPRINT:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity. Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends, clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The Publicity Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you told me you want to subscribe.

PRIVACY STATEMENT:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti- spam policy. Read my privacy policy at http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a. k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

2008-12-23T16:31:00.006-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #430 Dec. 23, 2008
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 44,446

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The Publicity
Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you told me
that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you can
unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their reputation,
position themselves as employers of choice, sell more products and
services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

******************************************

My Holiday Gift to You:

More than 2,000 Publicity Hounds have already download my "Best
of the Publicity Hound's tips of the Week of 2008," the free ebook
that's my holiday gift to you. Lots of Hounds are tweeting about it
on Twitter and offering the book to their followers, too. Yes, I am
encouraging you to regift it.

You can claim your copy here. Please use this link when sharing the
book with your own readers, followers and connections:

http://tinyurl.com/Bestof2008Tips

Thanks to all of my loyal Publicity Hounds for your continued
support. May you have a safe and happy Christmas, Hanukkah,
Kwanzaa and New Year's.

*****************************************
================================

In This Issue
================================

1. Holiday Weather Stories

2. No More Cardboard Checks

3. The Secret to Corporate Sponsorships

4. 6 Critical Elements of Video

5. How to Promote a Fine Art Exhibit

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

===================================

1. Holiday Weather Stories

===================================

Here's an almost guaranteed way to make it onto TV, into your local
newspaper, or onto a drive-time radio show during the holidays.

Comment on how the weather is affecting you during Christmas and
New Year's.

Here in Wisconsin, we're being pounded with up to a foot more of
snow in the next 24 hours--on top of the foot of snow that's
already on the ground.

Up and down the middle of the U.S., watches and advisories for
snow and freezing rain are already in effect from the Upper Midwest
and Great Lakes southward to northern Texas.

O'Hare and Midway airports in Chicago are a mess. In Maine, ski
areas are kicking into overdrive following the state's first major
snow storm of the winter season.

Here are some ways to get publicity for your product, service,
cause or issue during the holidays, when news departments are on
the lookout for anybody who can tie into the weather.

--Home improvement and hardware stores that sell salt, snow rakes
and snow blowers should let news departments know if they still
have these products in stock. Any other time of year, you'd have to
buy expensive advertising. This time of year, it's called free
publicity because it's part of a major news story.

--How is the bad weather affecting nonprofits like the Salvation
Army's red kettle bell ringers? Or the local food pantry's ability to
get food to the needy?

--Hospitals and clinics, are you seeing more patients who have
fallen on the ice or suffered from frostbite?

--Veterinarians, how can we keep our four-legged hounds safe
while walking them in bitter-cold weather? Or should we keep them
indoors?

--Chiropractors, are more people throwing out their backs and
shoulders from shoveling snow?

--Garden centers and nurseries, can you offer tips on how to
provide seed and water for the birds?

--Therapists, how can people in cold-weather states like Wisconsin
where I live, keep their sanity during a treacherous winter?

--Companies, are you letting workers go home early? Or are you the
type of business that needs to schedule additional employees during
bad weather?

Even if the weather is great in your neck of the woods, your local
news departments will still be reporting on it.

The media HATE making cold calls to search for these kinds of
sources who can round out the obligatory weather stories. So start
pitching NOW, when everyone else is shopping, wrapping, cooking,
salting and shoveling.

"Special Report #37: How to Tie Your Product, Service, Cause or
Issue to the Weather" offers many more ideas on how to piggyback
onto weather stories 365 days a year. Only $10 Order at
http://www.publicityhound.com/publicity-products/reports.html

========================================

2. No More Cardboard Checks

========================================

If you're raising money this holiday season for a worthy cause,
promise me you'll also make this New Year's resolution.

You will NOT publicize the donation by asking the media to cover a
"check passing," in which two people pose, one on each side of an
oversized cardboard check.

You've seen a million of these obnoxious check-passing photos, and
they all look alike. Instead, think of creative ways to generate
publicity for your donation. Here are three ideas:

--If you're raising money for a food pantry, invite the TV cameras
and newspaper photographers to join you when you unload dozens
of boxes of food from a truck into the pantry or warehouse.

--Buying toys for needy kids? Invite the media to accompany your
volunteers on a shopping trip.

--If your company is foregoing the annual Christmas party and,
instead, donating money to a worthy cause like a local homeless
shelter, go one step further. Ask employees to donate small bottles
of shampoo and mouthwash, similar to the ones hotels provide, and
invite the media to shoot them packing the samples into gift bags.

The teleseminar "Fun Alternatives to Boring Ground-breakings,
Ribbon-cuttings and Check-passings" provides lots of great ideas
that will help you generate mountains of publicity instead of falling
back on the same old cliche photos. It's available as a CD or an
electronic transcript that you can download and be reading as soon
as your order has been approved.

Read more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/7cl6z

==========================================

3. The Secret to Corporate Sponsorships

==========================================

One of the most frequent questions I receive from Publicity Hounds
is "How do I get a corporate sponsor to pay for my (fill in the
blank)?"

Too often, people go fishing for corporate sponsors by sending blast
emails and form letters to any old company they think might have
some extra money to throw around. Then they wonder why they
receive no replies.

That's the wrong approach.

You must find a company that's a perfect fit with the audiences
you already have in place. Even speakers, authors and experts who
have very niched topics are in a perfect position to find corporate
sponsors--if the people who are already in your target market want
or need the products or services that company provides.

Brendon Burchard, an author and speaker, has figured out some
really ingenious ways to land corporate and non-profit promotional
sponsorships and use them to fund his marketing efforts.

In less than 18 months, he has:

--Had a major PR firm representing him and getting him booked on
ABC World News, National Public Radio, Oprah & Friends, and 63
major radio stations.

--Had companies like Coca-Cola, Wachovia, Yahoo, Toyota, Sony
Pictures and other leading Fortune 500s and leading non-profits
offer to buy up to 50,000 copies of his self-published book every
year,

--Had those same companies make it possible for him to get
$500,000 in advances for his next book,

--Gotten fat speaking fees for 65 speaking engagements,

--Received testimonials from their CEOs.

--Had those same companies send emails to 100,000+ of their
customers or volunteers promoting his book, cause or business,

--Gotten at least 5 million impressions from visitors sent to his
website by those companies.

That's because his topic meshes PERFECTLY with what those
companies sell.

To discover how you can use his methods to promote your own
book, product or business, you're invited to a free telephone
seminar on Tuesday, December 30, hosted by Steve Harrison. It's a
repeat of a teleseminar he had several weeks ago that sold out,
and Publicity Hounds have begged him to repeat it. You can sign up
at http://www.SponsorshipTrainingTeleseminar.com/?10011

Here's just some of what you'll learn on next Tuesday's call:

* What to do step-by-step to get a major company to sponsor your
national promotional tour and pay for everything!

* Why the current economic downturn means more big companies
and non-profits sponsoring authors, speakers and entrepreneurs--
even if they're not famous.

* A website you can use to find potential sponsors and promotional
partners.

* The "secret phrase" which gets big nonprofit organizations to
endorse your book and promote it to their members.

* The title of the BEST person to contact with your proposal and
why you should never send one done with Microsoft Word.

* The Number One fatal mistake to avoid making when trying to
land a deal a sponsorship deal with a Fortune 500 company.

* How to write a short proposal that gets huge companies to
sponsor you--even if you're an unknown, self-published author
(HINT: there are five elements and he'll reveal all five on the call.)

Again, to sign up for next Tuesday's call, go here now:

http://www.SponsorshipTrainingTeleseminar.com/?10011

===================================

4. 6 Critical Elements of a Video

===================================

When you're creating video for the video-sharing sites like YouTube,
be sure your video includes six critical elements:

--The title. This is normally located above the video and it's
searchable. The first words of your title should be the most
important keywords of your video. Instead of "6 Powerful Tips for
TV Publicity," my video would say "TV Publicity--6 Powerful Tips."

--The description. This tells viewers what the video is about and it
should include keywords. Write two descriptions--one of less than
200 characters and one of more than 200 characters because some
video sites take only short descriptions.

--Tags, or keywords. When you upload a video, they ask you for
the title, the description and the tags. Don't go overboard repeating
the same keywords you put in the title and description.

Think about other keywords that might apply. Also, you can put
common misspellings in these tags.

--When you shoot your video, refer to your keywords in the video
and make them part of your script. Also mention your website by
name. here's a website called EveryZing.com. It has the capability
of listening to your words in a video and turning them into text and
making the text searchable. It will probably be awhile before
everybody starts using EveryZing, but your videos will be ready if
you mention your keywords and website in them.

--An open and closing slide, both of which should include your
website URL to make it easy for viewers to find you.

--A watermark. This usually appears at the bottom of the video.

It can include your URL, or the name of your company or your brand.

Viewers can see it the entire time they are watching your video.

These tips are excerpted from the chapter "Tom's How-to Video
Guide," a new addition to the 2008-2009 version of my ebook "How
to be a Kick-butt Publicity Hound," which I co-wrote with Tom
Antion. He gives you step-by-step instructions on how to shoot and
produce video that pulls a ton of traffic to your website.

The updated version of the ebook also includes chapters on
MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and social bookmarking.

The ebook is one of my most popular products, sort of a one-stop-
shop on how to generate thousands of dollars in online and offline
publicity. Read more about what it includes at
http://www.publicityhound.com/publicity/publicityhound.htm

==========================================

5. How to Promote a Fine Art Exhibit

==========================================

This week, three Publicity Hounds have tips for Kendra Hinzmann of
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the director for a fine art exhibit space within
an upscale retirement community. Kendra is looking for ideas on how
to do a second round of promotion for the show because it didn't
pull the crowds she had hoped for during its first showing.

From Sarah Adams:

"I, too, own an upscale gallery, and unfortunately, I think your
show may have become a two-fold victim of a poor economy and a
tough time of year, depending upon what day in November you
scheduled.

"I suggest trying after the New Year. I tend to promote a "Last
Chance" private invitation to everyone, including those that did
show up. Be sure to include a link to your press release and
newspaper/magazine review of the show, quotes from the artist on
the opening. They will feel like they really missed a great event, and
are more likely to show up for the last week of the show!"

From Robyn Davis Sekula:

"The last week of December, your community is likely to be filled
with a lot of visitors who are sick of being locked inside with their
relatives and want something to do that can include the whole
family. I'd try to find a way to market to that audience-- 'here's
something great to do that's inexpensive and fun (especially if it is
free).' The first two weeks of January are also dead times in the
media world. That's another good time to try to drive in some
business.

"Ask the TV folks if you can come on and talk about the show and
bring a piece of art with you that last week of December or first
week of January. Or, if they'll do a live shot from the gallery, tie it
to the economy. We're all looking for inexpensive things to do with
our families, etc."

From Shel Horowitz:

Develop local contacts on Twitter and Facebook and send a string
of interest-building notices there.

The Publicity Hound says:

Since we're getting another foot of snow, call the local newspaper
and TV stations and suggest a story about fun things happening in
the community for winter-weary Cheeseheads. Mention your own
art show and a few more events you know about. If you pitch this
as a "series" of fun things to do instead of a story only about your
art show, they might be more inclined to cover it.

Read all the responses to this week’s Help This Hound question
http://tinyurl.com/6eafms

Send your own Help this Hound question to:

mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com?subject=HelpThisHound
and include your city and state.

==================================

6. Help This Hound

==================================

Nancy Wurtzel of Thousand Oaks, California writes:

"I have a client who is interested in writing a book on brain health,
targeted to Baby Boomers. My idea is to take the book in an
entirely different direction so it will stand out from the dozens of
other books that have already been published on this subject.

"We need a ghost writer to help us refine the book concept, write a
great outline and a dynamite pitch letter to publishers.

"I can provide direction, and the physician I work with is bright,
funny and reasonable. He can supply all medical information and
research that will be needed--he simply does not have the time to
pen the book word-for-word.

"Can your Hounds explain the best way for us to find a ghost-
writer who's a good fit for this topic? Any tips and resources they
could provide would be greatly appreciated."

The Publicity Hound says:

Many writers, authors and publishers read this newsletter, and I
know they'll be able to help you. Hounds with suggestions for Nancy
on how to find a ghostwriter can post them to my blog at
http://tinyurl.com/994lwl

==================================

7. Hound Joke of the Week

==================================

Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled
through snow.

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few good
laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

===================================

8. And at My Blog...

===================================

How to sell how-to reports without a website, shopping cart, or
hassles
http://tinyurl.com/9dbv7p

EzineArticles.com adds 17 new niche-market categories
http://tinyurl.com/5c44gm

--------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

Wednesday, Jan. 21--Teleseminar

Join me for the third annual smARTist telesummit where
photographers, jewelers, potters, painters, metalworkers,
woodworkers and other artists will learn all the secrets for growing
their art business. I'm presenting a session on how to use social
networking, from 2 to 2:45 Eastern Time on Wednesday, Jan. 21.
Register for the telesummit at http://tinyurl.com/5axy3x

PERMISSION TO REPRINT:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the
following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.

Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends, clients
and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The Publicity
Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you told me
you want to subscribe.

PRIVACY STATEMENT:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity tips/My Gift to You Dec 17, 2008

2008-12-17T18:50:00.006-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #429 Dec. 17, 2008
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 44,601

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The Publicity
Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you told me
that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you can
unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their reputation,
position themselves as employers of choice, sell more products and
services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

================================
In This Issue
================================

1. My Gift to You

2. 'I Blogged About You'

3. Choose the Right TV Show

4. Google Alerts for Twitter

5. How to Keep Track of Media Contacts

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

================================
1. My Gift to You
================================

This is the time of year when smart Publicity Hounds are creating
"Best of 2008" lists to squeeze a few more publicity hits into 2008.

As for me, it's time for my annual "Best of the Publicity Hound's Tips
of the Week" ebook, my gift to you at Christmas, Hanukkah and
New Year's. The ebook includes the best 24 tips from this past
year, or tips that generated a lot of response from readers.

I encourage you to regift it to your own blog readers, newsletter
subscribers, clients, customers, Twitter followers, and MySpace and
Facebook friends.

This year's book includes tips on:

--A fast, inexpensive way to catch the attention of journalists in
your community.

--A clever way to get onto the morning TV talk shows by
suggesting something out-of-the-ordinary.

--A place where you can connect daily with journalists who are
looking for sources. And it won't cost you a penny.

--What to do when you're tempted to strangle a reporter for
wasting your time interviewing you, and then leaving your name out
of the story.

--A news story that appears several times a year in almost every
community and is PERFECT for piggybacking onto.

--9 ways to use video to pull more traffic to your website, sell more
products, generate publicity, and build the buzz about your
product, service, cause or issue.

--11 ways to use a paid or unpaid assistant to help with publicity-
related tasks.

--How to make your local Chamber of Commerce one of your
biggest promoters.

--A f~ree tool that tell you whether your press release gets a
passing grade or falls flat on its face.

--How to use a popular social networking site to snoop on your
competitors

--What writers can learn from a beloved dog's obit.

--How to claim the Number 1 spot on Google.

--A publicity mistake that most companies make, and it kills their
chances of ever getting covered

You can get the ebook here, save it to your hard drive and then
share it on the social networking sites:
http://tinyurl.com/Bestof2008Tips

If you'd like to excerpt content from the ebook and then link to the
book, let me know and I'll send you the item as a Word document
so you can cut and paste.

Thanks to all of you for being loyal readers and to many of you for
being active participants in this newsletter. Each week, I receive
dozens of emails from Hounds who share publicity success stories,
contrarian viewpoints, helpful publicity tips, time- saving tools and
shortcuts and, of course, Hound jokes, quotes and hysterical
videos.

Thanks, too, for correcting me when I goof. I'm grateful that you're
part of my community, and it's because of you that I have the best
job in the world.

P.S. Regifting this ebook is entirely appropriate. Share this link:
http://tinyurl.com/Bestof2008Tips

====================================
2. 'I Blogged About You'
====================================

If you're following journalists or bloggers who are in an ideal position
to give you publicity, here's a great way to get their attention.

Set up a Google alert at http://www.Google.com/alerts for their
names. Every time you see that they've written a blog post or an
article that fits in with the content at your blog, comment on it at
your own blog and link to it.

Then send an email with the subject line "I blogged about you"
and provide the link. Every time I see subject lines like that one, I
open the email immediately, then I jump to the blog to see what
somebody said about me. I can almost guarantee they'll open your
email. And they might even reply.

You can keep the conversation going by:

--Inviting the blogger to write a guest post at your blog. don't
bother asking journalists who are too busy. You can, however, ask
permission to reprint a post from their blog on your own blog.

--Posting comments on the blogger's or journalist's blog. This is a
powerful way to get onto their radar screens BEFORE you pitch
them. In fact, comment several times over a few weeks and
chances are good they'll remember you when they see your pitch.

--Search for them on Twitter, follow them, and reply to their
tweets. Check out the Journalists Who Twitter wiki at
http://tinyurl.com/3erv9s

--Friend them on Facebook.

--Connect with them on LinkedIn. When extending an invitation, be
sure to mention you read their blog regularly. Some people, me
included, won't accept invitations from strangers who are trolling for
connections.

Now, for the hard part. None of this is much good if your blog
stinks.

My heart breaks when Publicity Hounds tell me they've stopped
blogging because they don't have time or can't think of anything to
write about. Or they've been blogging for two months and quit
because traffic is sparse and nobody bothers to comment.

Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, aka The Blog Squad, are
releasing their "Build a Better Blog" training system that helps you
create a blog from scratch, or shows you how to make over an
existing blog and pull traffic like a magnet. You can do most of the
work yourself using their step-by-step instructions, or let them build
the entire blog for you.

Read more about the three levels of training for "the best marketing
tool on the planet," offered by the two best blog teachers on the
planet, at http://tinyurl.com/ydew4w

===================================
3. Choose the Right TV Show
===================================

If you're angling to get onto TV, your pitch had better be a perfect
match with the content and tone of the show, its hosts and its
interviewers.

Take, for example, these five TV shows, all of which are very
different:

--ABC's "20/20"

--C-span's "Book TV"

--"The Ellen DeGeneres Show"

--"Hannity & Colmes" on Fox News

--"The Rachael Ray Show"

Ready for some tough questions? Then you might welcome a
chance to sit across from tough interviewers on "20/20."

Standing firm on the left or right of a political issue?
"Hannity & Colmes" (soon to be without Alan Colmes) might be
perfect for you.

Or do you prefer fun and games and an unpredictable host? If so,
you'll love Ellen, who features a mix of celebs, entertainers and
everyday people with extraordinary stories and talents.

If your product or service ties into food, there might be a spot for
you on the set of "Rachael Ray."

If you're an author, "Book TV" is one of the best media outlets
where you can feature your book and your expertise.

Even if you were only pitching two of those five shows, you must
customize your pitch, and then make sure it's delivered to the
correct person. Sometimes it's a guest booker, and sometimes it's
an assistant producer. Unless you have specific pitching
instructions and contact information, you can never know for sure.

Steve Harrison will give you exact pitching instructions for each of
those five shows, if you go to
http://www.freepublicity.com/freetvlistings/?10011

The listings are from "Harrison's Guide to the Top National TV Talk &
Interview Programs" database which gives you
1,122 key contacts at the top 323 national TV and cable shows
that interview guests.

If you like the samples and want the entire database, grab it before
6 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, Dec. 19, and get up to $200 off,
depending on which option you choose. You'll also get the next
edition when it comes out in March.

===================================
4. Google Alerts for Twitter
===================================

Frustrated because you can't keep up with the waves of
information washing over you each day on Twitter? But you don't
want to miss who's talking about you and your products?

Welcome to TweetBeep, sort of a Google Alerts for Twitter.

It helps you keep track of conversations that mention you, your
products, your company or anything else you want to follow. You
can even keep track of who's tweeting your website or blog, even if
they use a Tiny URL.

This is a great service for reputation management, catching all
your replies, finding job/networking opportunities, and keeping up on
your favorite hobbies and TV programs.

Sign up for TweetBeep at http://TweetBeep.com

Then learn many more ways to use Twitter to promote whatever it
is you're selling, without being an obnoxious pest. Warren Whitlock,
one of the most well-respected Twitterers, walks you step by step
through the process of "How to Use Twitter to Amass an Army of
Followers, Customers & Valuable contacts--and Promote."

It's available as electronic transcripts and your choice of CDs or
MP3 downloads. Read more about how Twitter will make your
marketing and your life a lot easier at http://tinyurl.com/3lbcaw

==========================================
5. How to Keep Track of Media Contacts
==========================================

This week, nine Publicity Hounds have tips for Erin Portman of
Austin, Texas, a freelance writer, who is asking for ideas for a
better way to keep track of media contacts.

From Barbara Florio Graham:

"I use ClipMate at http://www.thornsoft.com to keep media contact
info on hand for insertion into email, letters, and my label program.
It allows you to store an unlimited amount of information, in an
assortment of categories, and I find it invaluable."

From Jeff "SKI" Kinsey:

"Please do not use MS Outlook on a Mac.

"For each person, there is a best solution. We don't know enough
about your needs to make recommendations. And wisely, you did
not ask for any.

"You simply asked what we use.

"Me? Apple Mac Mini and its Address Book and iCal plus my iPod
touch which syncs nicely, so I ALWAYS have all details with me at
all times. For those urgent interactions while enjoying a Frappuccino
at Starbucks, it offers free WiFi to card carrying fans, which allows
me to check (and send) emails from my iPod while on the road."

From Denise Dorman:

"I may be unique in my method because I have ADD, but for me,
once something is out of sight and touch, such as tucked away in
an Excel program or on an electronic hand held-device, I will never
think of it ever again. My system is tactile, visual, and cannot be
easily lost, flushed down a toilet or lost by electronics gone
haywire.

"I create old-fashioned, handwritten Rolodexes for each client's
media list. I also have an Excel sheet backup for email blasts, etc.,
and a Google shared document spreadsheet to share with my
cohorts, but I've found that for someone like me with ADD, I need
to see and touch those Rolodex cards to keep those journalists top
of mind."

The Publicity Hound says:

Because I'm not a publicist, I don't have a lot of use for a media
database. So I use ACT. My series of teleseminars on "How to
Create a Media Plan" includes a template for a 12-month plan, sort
of a "fill in the blanks" document that tells you exactly what kind of
information you need to keep on hand for every media outlet you
are target, regardless of which program you are using.

The package includes more than 200 story ideas for all 12 months
of the year. You'll also get a half-hour consultation with me to help
you get a running start.

Read more about the value of a plan and why you need one at
http://publicityhound.com/mediaplan.htm

Read all the responses to this week's Help This Hound question
http://tinyurl.com/5vf9pq

Send your own Help this Hound question to
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com and include your city and
state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Kendra Hinzmann of Oshkosh, Wisconsin writes:

"I am the director for a fine art exhibit space within an upscale
retirement community. This new venture was mostly set in place as
life enrichment for the residents, but I really wanted to include the
community as well.

"I got on board with the local Gallery Walks (over 40 local
businesses) that occur monthly. That proved to be a good move
and attendance had been building with the last shows at 80 and
100 (including public) respectively. I was thrilled to have booked an
internationally known artist for November. He is very prestigious in
the art world and thought the community would be as ecstatic as
we were to have him. He generously donated his time for a great
presentation and an art piece for a silent auction that would benefit
our nonprofit.

"I feel like I used all the correct avenues--tying it to another
community event that pertained to the show’s holiday theme,
printed press releases, inviting pillars of the community, Chamber of
Commerce advertising that went out to 1,600 recipients, and on
and on. I was shocked at our lowest turnout yet!

"Do your readers have any ideas to salvage and re-promote this
show (without the artist present) that ends Jan. 15?"

The Publicity Hound says: My Hounds ALWAYS have a few last-
minute ideas up their sleeves and they'll post them to my blog at
http://tinyurl.com/6eafms

Speaking of art, artists won't want to miss the 2008 smARTist
Telesummit, a series of teleseminars that teach you how to turn an
art hobby into an art career. I'm presenting a segment on how to
use social networking on Jan. 21. Learn more at
http://tinyurl.com/5axy3x

==================================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
==================================

Top 10 things heard at Fido's office Christmas party:

10. "Wow! Check out the hot poodle with Rover."

9. "So I says to him, throw in toilet bowl privileges, and you
got yourself a deal."

8. "Look, I gotta go chase a cab..."

7. "Hey you--cat! You work here?"

6. "Not the Macarena again! Somebody cut off the boss' bar
tab..."

5. "Did you see the neat photocopies of Bowser's rear end?"

4. "Hey, good lookin'. Wanna swing by the ol' doghouse later?"

3. "Who ordered the hot dog pizza with everything?"

2. "Dead Cats--We're Still for 'Em!"

1. "Gainesburgers? Who catered this disaster?"

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few good
laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

===================================
8. And at My Blog...
===================================

NPR canceling 'Day to Day,' 'News & Notes'
http://tinyurl.com/6f968j

How to write a guest post for Copyblogger.com
http://tinyurl.com/5wgytc

--------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

Wednesday, Jan. 21--Teleseminar

Join me for the third annual smARTist telesummit where
photographers, jewelers, potters, painters, metalworkers,
woodworkers and other artists will learn all the secrets for growing
their art business. I'm presenting a session on how to use social
networking, from 2 to 2:45 Eastern Time on Wednesday, Jan. 21.
Register for the telesummit at http://tinyurl.com/5axy3x

PERMISSION TO REPRINT:

You may reprint any items from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the
Week" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the
following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends, clients
and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The Publicity
Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you told me
you want to subscribe.

PRIVACY STATEMENT:

The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and has a strict anti-
spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

==================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity tips/A Publicity Miracle Dec 9, 2008

2008-12-09T15:18:00.005-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #428 Dec. 9, 2008
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 50,513

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you
can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the
newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their
reputation, position themselves as employers of choice, sell more
products and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

**********************************************

Announcements:

--Publicity Hounds have chosen Patricia Reszetylo the winner of
the $50 Amazon.com gift certificate for her idea of promoting an
ebook by hosting teleseminars that tie into the topic of the
book. You can see all the ideas at http://tinyurl.com/64jkzq
Thanks to everyone who voted.

--If you're new to the publicity game, here's a must-attend
teleseminar, join Steve Harrison for a free teleseminar on
Thursday, December 11, on "Practical Ways To Get More F~ree
Publicity In Top Magazines, Newspapers And On Radio/TV Shows," at
2 or 7 p.m. Eastern. He isn't recording it so if you can't
attend, recruit someone to listen and take notes for you. The
teleseminar includes a handout that will be available on
Thursday. Sign up at http://tinyurl.com/6cfrsn

**********************************************

================================
In This Issue
================================

1. A Publicity Miracle

2. Be the Expert in a Niche

3. Oprah Does it Again

4. PR Tips for Nonprofits

5. How to Promote Medical Guides

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

=====================================
1. A Publicity Miracle
=====================================

One of the best ways to generate publicity is to be willing to
discuss your business problems and ways you are trying to solve
them, even if the solutions are so bizarre that people think
you're nuts.

For years, the real estate industry has known about the practice
of burying a St. Joseph statue upside down in your yard if
you want to sell your house.

In the mid-90s, my husband and I were so desperate to sell our
four-bedroom Colonial in Pennsylvania that had been on the market
for 14 months that we, too, buried a statue. Several weeks later,
we received three offers in one day and sold the house. I wrote
about it this week in my blog at http://tinyurl.com/6rkm75

I'm not alone.

The St. Joseph practice is so widespread that an entire industry
has been built around this superstition. Do a search for "St.
Joseph statue" and you'll find Phil Cates' website at
http://tinyurl.com/5lhyrg at the top of the list.

Phil, who has been in the real estate industry for 22 years, now
works full time selling a "St. Joseph Statue Home Sale Kit" that
includes a complementary online listing of the house you're
trying to sell. His website includes more than $2.7 billion in
real estate listings--all from people who have bought his home
sale kits.

"We've polled people who have bought our statues and 50 percent
of the real estate agents don't even tell their sellers that
they're burying it," Phil says. "And 50 percent of the sellers
don't tell their real estate agents they're burying the statues."

That means two St. Joseph statues, not one, are buried in
thousands of yards throughout the world.

This year alone, Phil has racked up publicity for his company in
more than 44 media outlets, blogs and social networking sites,
including the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, the
Dallas Morning News and Consumer Reports.

If you're a real estate agent or a home-seller willing to discuss
your experiences with the St. Joseph statue, publicity is almost
yours for the asking, particularly since the housing market is so
dismal. If you're pitching this fun story to TV stations, be sure
to have your own St. Joseph statue as a prop. You can get just
the statue or the entire kit at http://tinyurl.com/5lhyrg

Real estate agents, I know dozens of other ways to generate
publicity, and I shared them all during the interview I did with
real estate coach Jim Gillespie, available as a CD.

Read more about how to stop relying exclusively on expensive
newspaper classified ads at http://tinyurl.com/56waoa

=========================================
2. Be the Expert in a Niche
=========================================

A super way to promote your expertise within a niche and generate
publicity is to write a content-rich report that walks people
through the steps of how to solve a problem.

You can give it away if you wish and offer it to journalists who
write about topics within that niche.

Or sell the report for a low price. I sell 52 special reports on
all aspects of free publicity for only $10 each at
http://tinyurl.com/6uz9g

But what if you don't have a website, a shopping cart, or email
addresses from people who have given you permission to market to
them? What if you don't want the hassle of creating a website,
processing the payments or delivering the product?

Problem solved.

Lynn Terry, who I met in Stompernet, the membership site for
Internet marketers, has figured out a way for anyone to sell
practically any product without email subscribers, without a
website and without a shopping cart--even in super-competitive
niches.

You only need two things: an email address and a PayPal account.

It's an easy seven-step process that she explains thoroughly in
her 13-page report called "Easy 7-Step Fast C*ash Strategy."
You'll also learn how to sell the product quietly before you
launch it, so you can get feedback and testimonials from happy
customers in time for the official launch.

It's perfect for:

--Consultants who want to promote their expertise within a niche.

--Authors who want to create a quick product that upsells people
to their printed book or ebook. Or create it as a spin-off
product for people who buy the book.

--Speakers who want speaking engagements in a particular
industry.

--Small-business owners who can explain a problem, and the
solution, that relates to a product or service they sell. The
report can generate leads that turn into paying customers.

--Publicists and PR agency owners who want more clients. Show how
much you know by concentrating on one aspect of PR. You can sell
the report from your blog and on the social networking sites, or
simply use Lynn's seven-step formula.

In some cases, you can create the report and start selling it in
well under a week. And if you have questions, go over to Lynne's
discussion forum where she'll be happy to help you.

The report is a steal at only $10, and she's offering it
exclusively to Publicity Hounds. Read more about it at
http://www.fastcashstrategy.com/PHprivateoffer.htm

========================================
3. Oprah Does it Again
========================================

If your Christmas list includes a Kindle, that nifty hand-held,
wireless portable reading device that has access to more than
200,000 books, sorry.

You'll have to wait until February to get one because they've
sold out. Blame Oprah Winfrey for the delay.

Amazon was confident that it had enough Kindles in stock for the
2009 holidays, but then along comes Oprah in late October,
christening the Kindle as her "favorite new gadget" on her TV
show, and then gushing about it at her blog at
http://tinyurl.com/5p9hlx

Now, the shelves are bare.

That's what happens when the most powerful woman celebrity
endorses your product. Just ask the numerous authors whose books
have catapulted to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list
after Oprah chose them for her book club.

And that's why authors, speakers, experts, nonprofits and
millions of others are hankering to get onto her show.

Did you know, however, that one of the best ways to get the
attention of Oprah's producers is to first get mentioned in O,
the Oprah Magazine? If you can get into the magazine, it's almost
as though you've already passed inspection, and her TV producers
will be more inclined to take a second look when they get your
pitch.

Or they might hand-pick you for the show, based on the story they
read in the magazine.

That's what happened to Genevieve Piturro. She's the founder of
The Pajama Program, a charity that gives new pajamas to needy
children.

Genevieve first appeared in O Magazine, and then on the TV show
two years ago. That one segment resulted in more than 32,000
pairs of pajamas being raised for charity. Producers at Oprah &
Friends XM radio booked Piturro for an interview on the radio
show--so it was a triple whammy in Oprah Land.

Sometimes it works the other way around. You can get onto the TV
show first, and then appear in the magazine. But because
competition for the TV show is so intense, it's often better to
try to get into the magazine first.

Read about the 12 topics the editors love at
http://tinyurl.com/6c6nsc

Then grab Susan Harrow's ebook "Get into O Magazine" at $100 off
the regular price, now through Dec. 18. But you must use this
coupon code: oprah

Susan explains how at http://tinyurl.com/fuxmn

=========================================
4. PR Tips for Nonprofits
=========================================

Publicity Hound Bob Crawshaw from Australia has come up with a
creative way to market his business, help his community and give
a special holiday gift to the nonprofit world:

"We deal a lot with community groups and to help them out, we're
compiling a list of practical PR tips for challenging times. We
intend to circulate this f~ree to community groups in the next
couple of weeks.

"We've started out with some ideas in our latest post. You're
invited to add to this list. And in return, we'll share the
gathered ideas with you (or groups you nominate) before
Christmas."

Publicity Hounds can contribute ideas for low-cost PR tools and
tactics at http://tinyurl.com/6y56jz

If you don't want to wait to see what will be added to his list,
Paul Hartunian has dozens of tips on how nonprofits can generate
publicity, even on a shoestring budget. He shared them during the
teleseminar on "Failproof Publicity Tips for Your Nonprofit."
It's available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can
download and be reading as soon as your order has been approved.

Read more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/29dba

==========================================
5. How to Promote Medical Guides
==========================================

This week, four Publicity Hounds have tips for Winthrop Morgan of
Bethesda, Maryland, on how to raise awareness of a government
agency's comparative effectiveness summary guides for clinicians.

From Karen Cook:

"I have been creating a ton of podcasts and downloadable books
and seminars, even yoga classes for this generation of web-savvy
clients. We have found that it creates a buzz passed on by email
and Twitter/Facebook type applications. After the initial cost of
digitizing it, it's free advertising. You can attach these links
to every piece of correspondence."

From Bruce Jones:

"I would say produce some quick video guides and place them on
the popular web video hosting sites with links back to the
government sites. Promote that people can download them as PDF
files. You don't even have to use a camera. You can create four
or five slide presentations in PowerPoint and save them as a
movie, add a little music or see if you can read the copy into
your computer. Make sure you use keywords in the description and
title and add a link back to your website."

"Do an email blast to as many health sites as you can, offering
free publications that they can place on their site. Everyone is
looking for content.

"Set up a website with the copy of each book on a page, plus the
PDF download. Google loves good relevant copy."

From Paulette Ensign:

"Start by giving those PDFs and MP3s to every relevant
professional association for the association to provide to its
members. This is viral marketing at its finest, and costs zip!
The associations will be delighted, too, since they are always
looking for more member benefits to provide, as inexpensively as
possible. It doesn't get more inexpensive than free.

"The same is true for every relevant publication and website, for
each of them to use as bonuses to bring more traffic. "Visit our
site and get a free..."

The Publicity Hound says:

Winthrop, you should be reaching out to bloggers who write about
medical issues. They would love to know about your resources. See
"How to Pitch the Best Bloggers & Create a Publicity Explosion"
at http://tinyurl.com/m7ymr

Read all the responses to this week’s “Help This Hound question
http://tinyurl.com/65dltt

Send your own Help this Hound question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com?subject=HelpThisHound
and include your city and state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Publicity Hound Erin Portman of Austin, Texas writes:

"I am a freelancer and have a ton of media contacts. My New
Year's resolution this year was to find a better way to track and
capture information about the media I work with. Excel
spreadsheets are getting old. Also, I should note that I use a
Mac, which may be limiting in some instances.

"I’d be interested to hear about how other Publicity Hounds keep
track of their media contacts."

The Publicity Hound says:

This is a great question because a media contact list is an
important part of any media plan. Hounds with tips for Erin can
post them to my blog at http://tinyurl.com/5vf9pq

Time's a wastin' if you haven't created your media plan for 2009.
Wait until next year and you might miss opportunities to get into
the spring issues of national magazines. My training program "How
to Create a Media Plan" comes with a half-hour of telephone
consulting. Let me critique your media kit, your online press
room or your press releases, or give you creative ideas to work
into the plan. Read more about how to create a plan that keeps
you on track, month by month:
http://www.publicityhound.com/mediaplan.htm

==================================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
==================================

"If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs
I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons."

--James Thurber

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

Http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

===================================
8. And at My Blog...
===================================

Can't sell your house? Bury St. Joseph for an offer & publicity
http://tinyurl.com/6rkm75

How to persuade newspaper editorial boards
http://tinyurl.com/5keakz

How to get Google juice from your LinkedIn profile
http://tinyurl.com/5wxnz9

When radio/TV talk show guests cancel, hosts need fill-ins
http://tinyurl.com/6cfpch

--------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

Wednesday, Jan. 21--Teleseminar

Join me for the third annual smARTist telesummit where
photographers, jewelers, potters, painters, metalworkers,
woodworkers and other artists will learn all the secrets for
growing their art business. I'm presenting a session on how to
use social networking, from 2 to 2:45 Eastern Time on Wednesday,
Jan. 21. Register for the Virtual Opening Day Reception from 7
to 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Dec. 4. It's a free
teleseminar leading up to the telesummit, in which all the
speakers offer a few of their best tips. Register for Thursday's
free call at http://tinyurl.com/5haqs5 or for the telesummit at
http://tinyurl.com/5axy3x

PERMISSION TO REPRINT: You may reprint any items from "The
Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week" in your print or electronic
newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me you want to subscribe.

PRIVACY STATEMENT: The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and
has a strict anti-spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737

Publicity tips/LinkedIn: Your Trump Card Dec 2, 2008

2008-12-02T18:44:00.004-06:00

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #427 Dec. 2, 2008
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

Circulation: 50,513

==========================================

"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"

Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
http://www.publicityarticles.net/archive/

==========================================

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me that you want to subscribe. If you didn't subscribe, you
can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of the
newsletter.

Please forward this ezine to anyone you know who needs free
publicity to establish their credibility, enhance their
reputation, position themselves as employers of choice, sell more
products and services, or promote a favorite cause or issue.

**********************************************

Cast a Vote, Choose a Free Special Report

Lots of Publicity Hounds submitted ideas on how to promote an
ebook, and I want you to help me decide which of the 10 people
who commented at my blog wins a $50 Amazon gift certificate.

Read the responses in the comments section at
http://tinyurl.com/64jkzq

Then email me at JStewart@PublicityHound.com and put "Amazon" in
the subject line, and tell me which idea you like the best. Also
give me the number of the free special report you've chosen from
the list at http://tinyurl.com/6uz9g and I'll email it to you.
Thanks to everyone who responded and is helping choose the
winner.

**********************************************
================================
In This Issue
================================

1. LinkedIn: Your Trump Card

2. Best Time to Pitch is Now

3. ...And Build the Relationship

4. A Gift for Your Artist

5. How to Promote a Jewelry Trunk Show

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

========================================
1. LinkedIn: Your Trump Card
========================================

If you work for someone else, you're probably more vulnerable
than ever to losing your job.

If you work for yourself, simply treading water during this
recession isn't good enough. You need every tactic possible to
outsmart your competitors.

In both cases, a long list of glowing recommendations on your
LinkedIn profile can be a valuable trump card--the difference
between landing another position in a glutted job market, or
not. Or getting a big client whose project will carry you through
the next six months, or not.

LinkedIn recommendations carry a LOT of weight. Hiring managers
are reading them closely to make absolutely sure they hire the
best candidates. So are decision-makers who are in a position to
give you business.

Don't sit around waiting to accumulate recommendations. Here
are eight circumstances when it's entirely appropriate for you to
ask for one on LinkedIn:

--Someone calls or emails you to compliment you on your blog,
newsletter, an article you've written, a story about you that
they read in the newspaper, or any other facet of your work. (If
you love this newsletter, I'd welcome a recommendation at
http://www.linkedin.com/in/publicityhound )

--A past or current client or customer comments about how much
they enjoy working with you.

--You make contact with a former co-worker who you haven't seen
in awhile. If you like and trust each other, ask!

--You offer free professional advice for someone who comes to you
with a problem and they reply, "How can I return the favor?"

--A meeting planner who has hired you to speak is delighted with
your presentation.

--You offer professional advice via email to someone you don't
know, and you notice the same person has come to you several
times.

--You refer a friend or business associate to someone else who
can help solve a problem, or they end up working together.
(Ask both to recommend you.)

--You write a LinkedIn recommendation for someone who you know
and who knows you, and you're confident the person will
reciprocate.

Don't wait until you're unemployed, or you have no clients in the
funnel. Start using LinkedIn right now as your safety net.

And while you're there, don't forget to promote, too. Social
networking expert Scott Allen, who has an impressive 63
recommendations at his profile at
http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottallen, explains how he got them
and how he uses the site to promote his consulting practice, his
book, joint ventures with other entrepreneurs, and his speaking
engagements.

He was my guest during two teleseminars on "How to Use LinkedIn
to Promote Anything--Ethically & Powerfully." His advice includes
an entire timeline of exactly what to do on LinkedIn when you
want to promote something. It's available as electronic
transcripts and your choice of MP3s or CDs.

Read more about how to use LinkedIn to enhance your reputation at
http://tinyurl.com/5zvzyd

=========================================
2. Best Time to Pitch is Now
=========================================

When I host a private teleseminar on Dec. 15 for Publicity Hounds
in my mentor program, I'll spend almost an entire hour coaching
them on how to pitch the media, particularly during the holidays.

In my blog, in this newsletter and during my speaking
engagements, I stress that now through Jan. 4 is the very best
time of year to pitch ideas because good sources are in short
supply.

Some companies close for Christmas vacation. Schools and colleges
are on break. People are busying shopping, cooking and traveling.
The last thing most of them think about is pitching.

That means lots of opportunities for smart Hounds. Here are three
tips I'll share with people in my mentor program:

--When you pitch, let journalists and bloggers know you're
familiar with their work. Suggest your idea for a specific
section of the newspaper, or a pre- or post-holiday TV talk show
segment. I'll explain six ways to research journalists before
pitching.

--Suggest at least two other sources, with phone numbers and
email addresses, who can round out the story.

--If you're trying to get onto TV, mention enticing visuals. A
pet expert might suggest bringing to the studio six types of
holiday decorations that can be harmful to pets if swallowed. And
bring along a favorite cute four-legged hound or cat, too, as a
prop. The TV cameras LOVE cute pets.

If you're dying to hear the rest of my tips, you'll first have to
find out if you're a good candidate for the mentor program by
reading more about it at
http://www.publicityhound.com/mentorprogram/intro.html

If we're not a good match, or the time isn't right, and you're
still looking for holiday-related ideas to pitch, you're welcome
to steal the ideas I brainstormed with TV producer Shawne Duperon
when she was my guest during a teleseminar on "103 Sizzling Story
Ideas from July through December." It's available on CD and comes
with a seven-page handout listing all 103 ideas. You can download
it as soon as your order is approved.

Read more about the kinds of ideas that will get you onto TV or
into your local newspaper at http://tinyurl.com/54y6f

Or check out the follow-up teleseminar on "116 WOW Story Ideas
from January through June at http://tinyurl.com/6k7zk

========================================
3. ...And Build the Relationship
========================================

Whenever you pitch, your Number One goal should never be to
generate publicity.

Rather, your goal should be to help journalists as much as you
can. Help them do their jobs and you might not generate a
publicity hit immediately. But they'll view you as a golden
source, and they might return later asking you for an interview
for an even bigger story. Or a blogger might invite you to guest-
blog.

Here are three other tips for building relationships:

--Offer to fill in at the last minute if a TV or radio talk show
host needs someone to interview, or a guest cancels due to
illness. Extend this offer over the holidays, particularly during
the weeks before and after Christmas.

--Tip off your contacts to what the bloggers are writing about.
Help journalists be "in the know."

--If you're a blogger and you link to a particular news story
from within one of your postings, let the reporter know. You
might be a potential interview subject.

"Special Report #49: 17 Ways to Build Valuable Relationships with
Media People" offers many more suggestions on how to cut through
the noise, make your initial contact with journalists enticing,
and start a relationship that can pay huge dividends for years.
Only $10. Read more about it at http://tinyurl.com/6uz9g

=========================================
4. A Gift for Your Artist
=========================================

If you're looking for a special gift for the artist in your life,
I have the perfect suggestion.

Treat your favorite potter, photographer, sculpture, jeweler or
wood carver to the smARTist Tele-summit 2008, a series of
telephone conferences with a dozen art experts who will explain
how to turn an art hobby into an art business.

It's hosted by art marketing expert Ariane Goodwin, and I'm one
of the 11 experts or artists who will be sharing our best tips.
Last year, the telesummit included some super tips on how to sell
more artwork. Two of my favorites:

--Offer your artwork for sale on eBay, either as "Buy Now" or
auction items. That's what Susan Greaves, an oil painter in
Redding, California, does. She ropes in all sorts of buyers she
might never otherwise meet. A floral painting brought in a high
bid of $800 from Sen. John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth.

--Create videos of your artwork in various stages of completion
and post them on YouTube and the other video sharing sites. Some
artists have done this so successfully that their buyers are
eager to see their next video and get a sneak peek at the
artwork-in-progress.

If you don't know your artist well enough to buy admission to the
smARTist telesummit, at least mention Thursday's complimentary
telephone call with Ariane. All the experts, including me, will
be on the call, enticing audience members with a few nuggets from
our longer presentations.

New this year are sessions on how to identify your most likely
art buyers, sell to corporations, use social networking sites to
promote artwork, and avoid the biggest blunders artists make when
building their portfolios.

Register for Thursday's free call at http://tinyurl.com/5haqs5 or
for the telesummit at http://tinyurl.com/5axy3x

==========================================
5. How to Promote a Jewelry Trunk Show
==========================================

This week, four Publicity Hounds have tips for Rachel Mielke of
New York, New York, who wants ideas on how to generate publicity
for a trunk show she is participating in at Bloomingdale's in New
York City this month.

From Joel Heffner:

"Since you have so little time to do something special, I
strongly suggest that you contact someone who has the right
connections and a proven track record of making a big splash. My
suggestion is to contact Peter Shankman at
http://www.shankman.com

"He's a New York City-based PR guru. If anyone can put you on the
map fast, he can."

From Susan:

"How about approaching the morning news programs and offering to
outfit the female broadcasters for the week? Maybe you could also
offer each of them a pair of earrings to keep? Let them know that
this jewelry is brand new to the U.S. market and the trunk show
is a unique opportunity for shoppers."

From Margaret:

"As a former PR Director for Bloomingdale's/Short Hills,
Bloomie's PR department should be giving you plenty of publicity.
Since you are at the eleventh hour for huge self-promotion, go
through Bloomie's to see if they can schedule a personal
appearance for you on one of the major TV network morning shows."

The Publicity Hound says:

I love the idea of trying to get onto the big morning shows. If
Bloomingdale's can't help, Rachel, try to do it yourself. "How to
Get Booked on the Morning TV Talk Shows" is a how-to guide for
getting onto shows like the "Today" show, "Fox & Friends" and
"Good Morning, America." It's available as a CD or an electronic
transcript you can download as soon as your order has been
approved.

Read more about what else you'll learn at
http://tinyurl.com/ab86x

Read all the responses to this week's Help This Hound question
at http://tinyurl.com/6b5b5l

Send your own Help this Hound question to
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com and include your city and state.

==================================
6. Help This Hound
==================================

Winthrop Morgan of Bethesda, Maryland:

"A well-known and respected U.S. Government agency has a program
which distills the findings from high-quality research into
short, comprehensive Summary Guides for clinicians. The guides
provide reliable and practical data that can inform, but do not
attempt to influence, physician therapy decisions.

To date, nine guides have been produced, ranging in subject areas
from comparing oral medications for adults with type 2 diabetes
to off-label use of atypical anti-psychotic drugs. The guides
are available, without charge, in print, pdf, html, and .mp3.
Each is about four pages long.

"Recently, clinicians involved in family/general practice were
asked if they are aware of these resources. They are not. The
agency has a small marketing budget of less than $150,000 to
promote awareness of these materials. What ideas do your Hounds
have on how to best use this money to market the guides?"

The Publicity Hound says:

Their budget of "less than $150,000" is inconsequential because
of the many online opportunities to promote the guides. Let's see
how many ideas my Hounds can come up with. If you have a great
suggestion for Winthrop, post it to my blog at
http://tinyurl.com/65dltt

==================================
7. Hound Joke of the Week
==================================

A little girl goes into the garage and asks her father, "Dad, can
I take the dog for a walk around the block? I asked Mom but she
said Susie was in heat and I should ask you."

"Bring Susie over here," her Dad says.

He took a rag, soaked it with gasoline and scrubbed the dog's
rear end with it and said, "OK, you can go now. But keep Susie
on the leash and only go one time around the block."

The little girl left, and then returned a few minutes later
without the dog.

Her dad asked, "Where's Susie?"

"Susie ran out of gas about halfway down the block and there's
another dog pushing her home!"

DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.

BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.

http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/

===================================
8. And at My Blog...
===================================

Thank book, food, music reviewers who write about you
http://tinyurl.com/5fdf47

--------------------------------------

WHERE TO SEE AND HEAR THE PUBLICITY HOUND:

Wednesday, Jan. 21--Teleseminar

Join me for the third annual smARTist telesummit where
photographers, jewelers, potters, painters, metalworkers,
woodworkers and other artists will learn all the secrets for
growing their art business. I'm presenting a session on how to
use social networking, from 2 to 2:45 Eastern Time on Wednesday,
Jan. 21. Register for the Virtual Opening Day Reception from 7 to
8 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Dec. 4. It's a free teleseminar
leading up to the telesummit, in which all the speakers offer a
few of their best tips. Register for Thursday's free call at
http://tinyurl.com/5haqs5 or for the telesummit at
http://tinyurl.com/5axy3x

PERMISSION TO REPRINT: You may reprint any items from "The
Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week" in your print or electronic
newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine
featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity.
Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email
the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

If you like these tips please pass them on to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

You are receiving this because you signed up for it at The
Publicity Hound® website at http://www.publicityhound.com/ or you
told me you want to subscribe.

PRIVACY STATEMENT: The Publicity Hound® respects your privacy and
has a strict anti-spam policy. Read my privacy policy at
http://www.publicityhound.com/privacypolicy.htm

=======================================================
Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
USA
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737