Publicity tips/Be the next Rachael Ray December 19, 2006

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #324 - Dec. 19, 2006
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.net (Blog)
The Publicity Hound®

Circulation: 27,207

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"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"
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A Gift for Your Artist:

Everybody, it seems, knows somebody who's an artist. That somebody, unfortunately, is probably struggling to sell paintings, artistic clothing, photos, lawn sculptures, etchings, garden art, jewelry, furniture, folk art, prints or carvings.

Give the artist in your life a special gift this year--admission to the smARTist Tele-summit 2007, a series of telephone conferences with a dozen art experts who will explain how to turn a struggling art business into a thriving revenue stream.

It's hosted by art marketing expert Ariane Goodwin, and I'm one of the 12 experts who will be sharing our best tips. If you don't know your artist well enough to buy admission to the conference, at least tell them about tonight's complimentary telephone call with Ariane and her guest, Michael Woodward, the mover and shaker who created and sold the concept of art licensing to corporations in the 1970s. Without him, Hallmark would still be sitting on millions of dollars of original art.

Another complimentary call, this time with The Publicity Hound, will be on Thursday, Jan. 11. Your artist can sign up for either call and download a list of 61 art marketing tips at http://tinyurl.com/yxopuo
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In This Issue
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1. Be the Next Rachael Ray

2. Travel Publicity

3. Your 2007 Media Plan

4. Media Leads

5. Promoting a Horticulture Degree

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Quote of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

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1. Be the Next Rachael Ray
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If I could die and come back as somebody else, I'd come back as Rachael Ray.

I'm not much of a TV watcher, but I'm a diehard foodie. And I'm in love with The Food Network and its cute, perky and most popular personality. At a wedding shower I attended Sunday, everybody was yacking about her. It was Rachael this and Rachael that, much of the afternoon.

Like most TV celebs, she worked her way up, first as a clerk at the candy counter at Macy's to a variety of food-related jobs. In Schenectady, New York, she started teaching classes on the concept of getting dinner on the table in half an hour. It caught on, and the classes moved to a chain of local grocery stores, then onto the set of a Schenectady television station.

In 2001, a Food Network executive heard Rachael on an upstate public radio show, then saw her that same week on the "Today" show when she launched her first book. After the "Today" appearance, the Food Network signed her to a $360,000 contract to teach America what she had been teaching the folks upstate.

Today, at age 38, Rachael Ray has four TV shows on the Food Network, a daytime talk show, her own magazine, 11 books with more than 4.5 million in print, and her own line of olive oil and kitchen gear. In May, Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People.

Oh, I forgot to mention her mentor--Oprah Winfrey. Oprah seldom appears on other people's shows but paid a surprise visit on the set when Rachael's talk show debuted in September.

It proves what I've been hearing for years--that the networks go trolling for new personalities by checking out local TV shows even in small markets. And that public radio can serve as a great launching pad for someone who dreams of having a show in one of the Top 20 markets.

If TV and radio execs go looking for the next Rachael Ray in your community, will you be among the contestants? If not, create your own TV show. Then, if your topic is a good fit, try to get booked as a guest on National Public Radio.

I interviewed two experts who know how to do just that.

Publicist Robert Smith of Rockford, Illinois explained how hec reated his own national TV show on a tight budget, chose which markets he wanted it aired in, and used the show to lure PR clients. You can learn all his tricks on the CD or electronic transcript called "How to Get Your Own National TV Show for Less Than $400 a Month" at http://tinyurl.com/y4by43

If you want to get onto NPR, check out the helpful tips from book publicist Lissa Warren, who explains how to navigate the public radio labyrinth and pinpoint exactly which shows feature guests with your expertise. It's called "How to Get Booked on National Public Radio" and you can read more about it at http://tinyurl.com/ayms6

Both interviews are available as CDs or electronic transcripts that you can download and be reading as soon as your order is approved.

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2. Travel Publicity
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Here's a valuable tip for anyone who has a product, service, cause, issue or destination that would be of interest to tourists, or people who travel. Pitch journalists, websites and publishing companies that serve this audience.

For example, when the Nebraska Division of Tourism learned that author Janet Friedman was looking for information about quirky, offbeat attractions for her guidebook called "Eccentric America--Weird, Wacky, and Outrageously Fun Things to See and Do in theUSA," they contacted her immediately. As a result, the book features 13 Nebraska sites and garnered fabulous publicity for a destination many people consider nothing more than a fly-over state.

The department learned about her guidebook through Travel Publicity Leads, a subscription service that passes along weekly leads from a wide variety of journalists, freelancers, authors and others looking for travel-related sources and photos.

Subscribers also have access to the 2007 editorial calendars for 125 consumer and trade travel publications around the world, including detailed contact information and deadlines.

A subscription includes the "Top 100 Travel Media Directory" on CD. Not sure if you want to subscribe? Take a test drive by signing up for 10 free issues, then decide if you like it.

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


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3. Your 2007 Media Plan
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Many of you have emailed me the last few weeks asking for guidance on how to create a 2007 media plan.

Here's the 60-second answer:

--Create what I call your "Top 25 Media Hit List." These are online and offline media that reach your target audience and are a perfect fit with your topic. You might have fewer or more than 25. The number isn't important. But it's better to target fewer media outlets instead of more, so you can spend time forming strong relationships with media people.

--Identify one person at each outlet as your main contact.

--Research each media outlet by visiting their websites, watching the programs or reading the publications. For newspapers and magazines, refer to their 2007 editorial calendars.

--Create a list of story ideas that each media outlet would be interested in and customize each idea as much as possible.

--Then start pitching.

For most Publicity Hounds, the hardest part is creating the list of story ideas. Help is on the way.

My friend, TV reporter Shawne Duperon, joined me during two teleseminars in which we brainstormed a total of 219 story ideas from January through December. Some of them work better for TV, and some work better for print. Many of the ideas apply across all industries. Some are industry-specific.

We encourage you to steal as many ideas as you need so you can create a 2007 media plan fairly quickly and get a jump on your competitors. Each recording is available as a CD and comes with a downloadable list of all the ideas for those six months, for easy reference.

116 WOW! Story Ideas from January through June
http://tinyurl.com/6k7zk

103 Sizzling Story Ideas from July through December
http://tinyurl.com/54y6f


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4. Media Leads
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--The Wisconsin Alumni Association is looking for people with degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison who have jobs or do work that benefit the state's economy. The stories will appear either in On Wisconsin, the alumni magazine, or at the Alumni for Wisconsin website. Contact Candice Gaukel-Andrews at mailto:CandyAndrews@uwalumni.com


--Candice Gaukel-Andrews is also an author and freelance nature/travel writer who needs sources for her second book called "Exploring Wisconsin's Forests." She wants to hear from people who work in the forests, or from anyone who has had a great forest experience while hiking, skiing or hunting. Mailto:CandyAndrews@uwalumni.com

--Donna Maria Coles Johnson is looking for guests for her weekly radio show, the "Lifestyle CEO Show," which airs each Monday at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on GlobalTalkRadio.com. She wants to hear from guests who can share practical advice for women entrepreneurs who are also mothers. Mailto:donnamaria@windstream.net You can see a sample of past shows at http://www.lifestyleceo.com/radiotv/radio.asp


--Marie Y. Lemelle, a columnist for Save the Date magazine in southern California, says she got great response from Hounds when I posted her query for interesting products to review for its "Lifestyle Section" several weeks ago. But now she needs more products for Valentine's Day such as unusual shoes, watches, cute tech gadgets, and practical tech gadgets (compact) like cameras, videocameras, clock radios, Ipods, MP3s, car radios, DVD players, laptops for travel, etc. She's also seeking fashion, jewelry and gadgets for men. Read more about the magazine at http://tinyurl.com/yfx7l4 and contact her at mailto:platinumstarpr@aol.com


--Paul Thornton is writing a book on "Dealing with Difficult People." He's focusing on six types of people including the aggressive, perfectionist, rescuer, pessimist, victim and procrastinator, and including comments from people who have used an effective approach or technique when dealing with each type. Send your comments to Mailto:PThornton@stcc.edu


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5. Promoting a Horticulture Program
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This week, seven Publicity Hounds have tips for Elaine Grassbaugh of Columbus, Ohio. Elaine asked for advice on how to market the 4-year bachelor's degree in horticulture at Ohio State University. It's competing with two-year colleges that also offer horticulture degrees.


From Natalie Nathan:

"As a movie buff, I was fascinated to learn in the movie 'Sideways' that wine making was a study in the field of horticulture. There are many wine makers in New England, with more establishing themselves as winemakers every year. This field must be booming in other parts of the U.S. Perhaps if you provided more information as to the possibilities in the field of horticulture, people would pursue degrees in this area."


From Gary Knowles:

"Given the enormous success of your football team and the millions of dollars in TV exposure it brings your school, I'd suggest you mount a popular petition campaign to rename your mascot after some good-for-you vegetable--like carrots, brussels sprouts or kidney beans. There's no color commentator alive who could resist an extended discussion of why OSU changed its mascot...Of course, they'd have lots of fun with it. You'd have to learn to believe that playing the Ohio State Sprouts, or Beaners, or Niblets would put fear in your opponents' hearts."


From Mark Forstneger:

"Perhaps there is a 'green' environmental tie-in? I have a good friend who is a landscape architect and has a degree in horticulture. He says most landscape architects and/or the landscape companies people hire to landscape their yards, don't have this degree and don't understand the science behind plants. Here in Chicago, 'the city in a garden,' there is a big push for environmental landscaping such as 'green roofs' and efforts to transform former industrial sites into green areas. This might bean emerging occupation in the future and something you can tie into? Just a thought."


The Publicity Hound says: Set up one or more Google Alerts for keyword phrases that tie into your horticulture program. If you don't know how to do this, Terry Brock provides instructions in this short video at http://tinyurl.com/c82rm Once you know which bloggers are writing about these topics, you can post comments to their blogs, or pitch information that ties into your horticulture program. See "How to Pitch the Best Bloggers & Create a Publicity Explosion" at http://tinyurl.com/m7ymr

Read all the responses at http://tinyurl.com/w7yb5


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6. Help This Hound
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Lois Carter Fay of Massanutten, Virginia writes:

"I just started a new blog, BoomerWomenBlog.com, that combines marketing ideas with Boomer Women. It's also set up to maintain contact with a women's group, Women's Forum, that I run in my local community. What's the best way to publicize my new blog and to generate heaps of traffic?"


The Publicity Hound says: If you recognize Lois' name, it's probably because she's one of the most frequent contributors to this section of the newsletter. She has helped dozens and maybe even hundreds of Hounds. So it would be nice to repay her with some of your great ideas. You can post them to my blog at http://tinyurl.com/y3qzd7

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7. Hound Joke of the Week
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Thanks to John Ross of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin for this one:

"I don't eat anything that a dog won't eat. Like sushi. Ever see a dog eat sushi? He just sniffs it and says, 'I don't think so.' And this is an animal that licks between its legs and sniffs fire hydrants."

-- Billiam Coronel


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/


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8. And at My Blog...
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John Kremer offers media contacts
http://tinyurl.com/ygxft7

Publicity for dancers:
Online and offline tips
http://tinyurl.com/ylye8n


On my blog at http://www.publicityhound.net/, I've made it easy for you to find what you're looking for by dividing my posts into more than 20 categories. Look under the "Topics" arrow on the right side of the blog to find the category you need.
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Where to Meet or Hear The Publicity Hound®

January 22, 2007:

Attention Artists--Frustrated that your art "business" is nothing more than an expensive hobby? Worried about how to become recognized, exhibited, and paid for your art? Feel like there's too much competition, too few buyers and not enough energy left at the end of the day to market like you need to?

You're not alone. That's why Ariane Goodwin will be hosting the global smARTist TeleSummit 2007, a week-long teleconference in January with a dozen art-career experts telling artists everything they need to know about marketing, from exactly when and how to sneak up on a museum for an exhibition, to which presentation materials mark you as a creative professional and which ones scream "amateur." I'm presenting from 2 to 2:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, Jan. 22. For complete information on how you can participate, go to http://tinyurl.com/ymcvu8 Spaces arealready filling up fast.


March 17, 2007: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

"Savvy Media Relations: How to Get Print, Broadcast and Online Publicity." 8 a.m. to noon. Details pending.

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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 handylist "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

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Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
U.S.A.

Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737