Publicity tips/Piggyback onto heat wave August 8, 2006
The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #305 - August 8, 2006
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.net (Blog)
The Publicity Hound®
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"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"
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In This Issue
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1. Piggyback onto the Heat Wave
2. Sleazy PR Website
3. Give Advice to Celebrities
4. Media Leads
5. Think Sidebars
6. Help This Hound
7. Hound Joke of the Week
8. And at My Blog...
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1. Piggyback onto the Heat Wave
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This tip is for all of you who've been grousing that you just can't score a good media hit during these dog days of summer.
Right now, as you're reading this, the media are going ga-ga over stories about the heat wave.
Want proof? Al Tompkins, whose blog gives newspaper reporters great story ideas, has a bunch of heat-related examples in his entry at http://tinyurl.com/r783g
They include:
--How Muslim and Orthodox Jewish women cope with the heat while adhering to religious rules that require things like ankle-length skirts and long-sleeved shirts.
--Sweatiquette, as in etiquette tips for those of you who are "confronted with a sweaty friend who wants to give you a bear hug after he's been percolating on a subway platform for 20 minutes. A normal greeting suddenly turns supremely awkward as you see the drops glistening on his brow and dripping down his neck. Suddenly, fear grips you, as you are forced to encounter the beast in front of you. There is no way out." The New York Daily News did an entire story on sweatiquette over the weekend. Why can't you etiquette experts come up with your own sweatiquette tips?
--The Consumer Product Safety Commission warns that, in hot weather, little kids can be burned in seconds when they sit on hot metal playground slides.
--The South Bend (Ind.) Tribune reports that ceiling fans can reduce energy bills significantly, as much as 40 percent in the summer, according to the American Lighting Association. The cost to run a fan is usually estimated at pennies per day, and fans can lower a room temperature as much as 7 degrees in the summer.
When I worked as a newspaper reporter, I remember writing heat wave stories about:
--Retail outlets that attracted customers who didn't have air-conditioning at home but wanted relief from the heat.
--"Cool" summer jobs, like working in the county morgue or the freezer aisle of the grocery store. This story in the Indianapolis Star is a great example: http://tinyurl.com/em6e5
--Products or services that will help you keep cool, from misting fans to those build-a-dinner stores like Dinner by Design where you can assemble 12 entrees or more in about two hours, package them up, take them home and heat them in the microwave.
OK, Hounds. Those are just some ideas to get you started. Want more? My "Special Report #37: How to Tie Your Product, Service, Cause or Issue to the Weather" gives you terrific ideas reporters will love 365 days a year. Only $10. Order at http://tinyurl.com/6uz9g
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2. Sleazy PR Website
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Thanks to Publicity Hound Gaye Carleton of Mantra Public Relations in New York City for tipping me off to this super-sleazy (as in dishonest) website at
http://www.in-elkhartindiana.com.
If you click on the link, it sometimes leads to an error page, which is just as well. Yesterday, I clicked on it and discovered that the site disguises itself as a website filled with PR resources. The site's owner apparently scraped content from MantraPR and other PR websites, including some from big agencies like Ketchum, and posted the content at their site so they could draw traffic when people searched on PR-related keywords. They also make money from Google AdSense ads that show up on the site.
Gaye contacted me because she noticed that one of my Google pay-per-click ads showed up there. She advised me to tell Google to block that site when showing my ad, which I've done.
Why am I telling you this? Because you should be checking your website statistics to see where your traffic is coming from. That's how Gaye stumbled upon the sleazy site--when she was routinely checking her web traffic statistics provided by Hitslink, a subscription service.
"As I was reviewing the report from Hitslink, I saw that someone came to the Mantra Public Relations site through http://www.in-elkhartindiana.com/. Since I thought that was such an odd site through which to be found, I went to the site myself and was shocked to see what was there. And that's when I began notifying the other PR firms listed on the site."
I use Hitslink, too. It's a better tracking program than what my hosting company offers, and it gives super-detailed real-time statistics like what keywords people use to get to my site, where all the traffic is coming from, what pages they leave from, and how many people are at my website at the precise moment I am reading the stats. You can learn more about it at http://tinyurl.com/ldtm8
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3. Give Advice to Celebrities
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I'm writing two new special reports and I'm looking for great examples from Publicity Hounds on:
--How to piggyback onto celebrity news. Have you tied a story idea to one of the big (or little) celebrities and gotten media hits? Have you given advice to Britney Spears on how to keep her baby out of danger? Have you chastised Tom Cruise for jumping on Oprah's couch? Have you piggybacked onto the Mel Gibson drunken-driving arrest and written a press release about what Mel should do in the area of anger management, cultural sensitivity, rehab, or crisis communications? If so, I want to know about it. Mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com?subject=Celebrities
--I'm writing a special report giving more than 40 examples of things you can offer visitors to your website in exchange for their email addresses. What does this have to do with publicity? Well, you can generate online and offline publicity by writing press releases about the give-away. I have plenty of examples of routine things like ebooks, special reports and podcasts. I'm looking for examples of more unusual things--either physical products or downloads--such as calculators, dictionaries, pocket guides, comparison charts, slide charts, tool kits, or tutorials. Let me know about what you're offering and send along a sample to me at mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com?subject=Examples
If I use your example in either report, I'll email you the completed special report as a thank-you.
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4. Media Leads
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--Leah Ingram is writing a roundup for Executive Travel magazine on technology-related products and services that can save the small business person money. She needs to hear about new gadgets and tools (both offline and online) that people haven't heard alot about and are relatively new to the market. Additionally, if you can hook her up with a real-life small business owner who has benefited from a certain money-saving technology--and is willing to do a phone interview--that would be great. You may overnight press kits and samples to her at: 106 Summer Lea Ct., New Hope,PA 18938. Please include a shipping number or form if you need the item returned. Email pitches tomailto:leah.ingram@comcast.net?subject=ExecutiveTravel with no attachments. If you want to send detailed documents, do so overnight. Her deadline is immediate. Executive Travel is a magazine from American Express Publishing for small business owners who are frequent business travelers.
--OverTime Magazine, the leading business and lifestyle publication for professional athletes and sports industry insiders, is developing a package that will be about current or former professional athletes who are business partners. The story will profile a yet-to-be determined number of athletes who have been in business together and document their high points, low points, and lessons learned. The purpose of the article is to help other athletes who may be thinking about partnering with another athlete. The athletes must be willing to be interviewed over the phone. This is for OT's winter issue, which is distributed at the Super Bowl. If you know of athletes who fit the bill, send the names of the athletes, sports/years/teams played, years in business, and type/name of business to Melissa Gillespie at mailto:mgillespie@ot-magazine.com
Several journalists who provide media leads here complain that some of you pitch ideas that aren't what they've asked for. Or, your pitches are rambling and don't get to the point quickly. If you're one of the guilty parties, you need to know how to pitch succinctly. In "Secrets of Perfect Pitching to Reporters," Dan Janal interviewed me about the very best ways to deliver your pitch. It includes the worst mistake people make when pitching, and the four key elements of a good pitch. It's available as a CD or electronic transcript that you can download as soon as your order is approved. Read more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/s3tyx
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5. Think Sidebars
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If you're pitching a story idea to journalists, give them a little something extra that will prompt them to say, "tell me more."
I'm referring specifically to what's called a sidebar. It's a short, often boxed auxiliary news story that's printed alongside the longer article and typically presents additional information such as statistics or bullet points.
Let's say you're pitching a story about the heat wave that I discussed earlier, and you're issuing tips for parents on how to keep their kids safe on playgrounds, where the temperature on sliding boards can burn kids' legs. You could offer a sidebar that shows the exact temperature of a metal sliding board on an 85-degree day, a 90-degree day, a 95-degree day, and so on.
Sidebars can also include things like industry definitions, timelines, examples, step-by-step instructions, a quiz, etc.
Journalists especially love quizzes because they engage readers, and they're fun. Learn more about "Briefs, Fillers & Quizzes: How to Write Them and Why Editors Love Them." I explain the 9 different kinds of briefs and give you lots of examples on how you can use them not only as sidebars, but as stand-alone pieces. 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 what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/d74h7
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6. Help This Hound
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A glitch somewhere in my blog is creating problems with the comments function, and I'm working on fixing it. Until then, I won't be posting Help This Hound questions.
When it's fixed, I'll repost Kit Behling's question from last week about how to promote her "Single Married Widowed Divorced" podcast.
So here's a tip to replace what you usually see here:
If you're writing an article for article directories, or a print publication, write a negative headline. "The 7 Worst Mistakes New-Car Buyers Make" is so much more compelling than "7 Ways to Save Money on Your New Car."
If you disagree with me, just take a look at the covers of magazines. Most headlines try to push the reader's panic button by making them so frightened or paranoid that they buy the magazine and turn to the story inside so they avoid making the same mistake.
Learn more about how to write great headlines for your articles with "Special Report #39: How to Write Eye-Catching Headlines for Your News Releases and Articles." Only $10. Order at http://tinyurl.com/6uz9g
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7. Hound Joke of the Week
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Thanks to Publicity Hound Meredith Hamilton for this video, complete with sound, of a dog laughing.
Maybe this is the sound most of you Hounds make when you read the Hound Joke of the Week (not!). But I think it sounds more like the grunting I heard last week in the Swine Barn at the Wisconsin State Fair. Scroll down to where you see the photo of the tan dog with big ears and the words "Watch video."
http://tinyurl.com/llzs5
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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Gifts for print journalists? Don't you dare
http://tinyurl.com/nt6kf
Need publicity for a charity?
Former WSJ reporter offers tips
http://tinyurl.com/glxl3
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