Publicity tips/Start an ezine January 30, 2007

The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week
Issue #331 - Jan. 30, 2007
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.net
(Blog) The Publicity Hound®

Circulation: 27,934
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"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"
Receive this ezine direct to your desktop
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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.

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How to Generate Publicity in Big Magazines & Newspapers:

Every smart Publicity Hound knows that one of the best ways to get into top-tier publications is to have a copy of the publication's editorial calendar, so you know months in advance what kinds of topics they'll be covering.

But don't stop there. On Thursday, Feb. 1, Steve Harrison will present a free teleseminar called "The Seven Things You Absolutely Must Know to Get Publicity In Major Magazines and Newspapers."

You'll hear from two editors from Woman’s Day and Woman's World, a top business writer who does stories for Inc., a New York Times best-selling author and four other entrepreneurs/authors who share how they got publicity in such places as Cosmopolitan, the New York Times, Entrepreneur, Parents, Family Circle, the Wall St. Journal and many other top publications.

Learn more at http://snipurl.com/MagazinePublicity
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In This Issue
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1. Start an Ezine

2. Press Release Distribution

3. Valentines & Irritable Bowels

4. What Not to Say to Journalists

5. How to Promote a Voiceover Talent

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Quote of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

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1. Start an Ezine
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If you aren't emailing tips and advice regularly to people who have given you permission to contact them, you're missing one of the most powerful ways to market your products and services.

This newsletter is like the giant jackhammer in my marketing toolbox. How do I know?
Here's what happens every Tuesday after I send it:

I'm glutted with orders and requests for speaking engagements. Subscribers email me and ask if they can reprint items they see here in their own newsletters.

Others ask if they can buy a telephone consulting session. Journalists email or call me asking for an interview.

Publishing your own email newsletter helps you stay in touch with prospects, gain "expert" status, build a massive mailing list, and attract more sales and clients.

You can also use a newsletter to attract the attention of dozens of journalists, newspaper reporters, magazine editors, freelance writers, radio talk show hosts and TV producers. If they like your topic, they'll subscribe to your newsletter to stay abreast of trends in your field, and to get ideas for stories they can cover.

But many people don't know how to start creating an ezine, and their biggest objection is time.

"Publishing a newsletter like yours would take me weeks," they complain.

Then don't publish a newsletter like this one. Instead, send a simple tip once a week, or every other week. Emailing people monthly or quarterly, like many of you do, isn't frequent enough.

Alexandria Brown, "The Ezine Queen," teaches people just like you how to start email newsletters, or weekly tips. Her ebook "Boost Your Business with Your Own Ezine" includes dozens of tips I've adopted for my own business. The ebook is one of several products she's offering during a special promotion that ends Wednesday.

Learn more at http://snipurl.com/PublishanEzine

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2. Press Release Distribution
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Don't say I didn't warn you.

If you're writing and distributing press releases online, don't rely on all those free press release distribution services.

The dirty little secret is that most of them don't distribute anything. They simply park your press release at their website, where the search engines might or might not find it.

For example, let's say you sell patio furniture. You write a press release about how to care for patio furniture and you submit it to one of those freebie sites. If somebody is searching online for "patio furniture," there's a good chance your press release won't show up on the list because it isn't in the Google or Yahoo news feeds.

Even worse, if you submit a press release to their service then suddenly discover it includes an error that you need to correct, there's usually no way to correct it because there's no customer service number you can call.

Disastrous.

In my email tutorial "89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases," I recommend two services that I've used: PRWeb and News Release Wire.

Use PRWeb at http://snipurl.com/PRWebDistribution if you're only writing a few press releases a year. But if you're an author, speaker or expert, and you regularly write press releases and post them online to be found not only by journalists but by consumers, subscribe to Expertclick at http://snipurl.com/ExpertClick and use their News Release Wire.

An Experclick subscription lets you post up to 52 press releases a year. It also includes your profile in its giant database of experts, which journalists search regularly when they're looking for sources on specific topics.

By the way, if you don't have 89 days to spend learning how to write press releases, you can buy the ebook which includes all 89 lessons. It's the second title on the list at http://www.publicityhound.com/ebooks.htm


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3. Valentines & Irritable Bowels
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Thanks to Publicity Hound Sarah Wernick for making me chuckle last week when she pointed out an online press release that tied Irritable Bowel Syndrome to Valentine's Day.

"It's tough to feel romantic when you suffer with Irritable Bowel Syndrome or Lactose Intolerance - even if it's Valentine's Day.

So along with jewelry, roses, candy and a day at the spa, give your loved ones the gift of good digestive health this Valentine's Day and the freedom to live life with passion - the freedom to feel and be romantic."

Since we're now posting press releases online where consumers can find them, the search engines probably would have found that release if somebody was searching for "irritable bowel syndrome."

But that's not the kind of story you should be pitching to the media, in hopes they'd welcome the Valentine's Day angle.

During the next two weeks, competition will be fierce among Publicity Hounds trying to tie their story idea to Valentine's Day. If you don't have a logical tie-in to this holiday, don't push it.

Instead, here's something to consider.

Lots of newspapers and magazines are looking for content for special gift sections they'll be publishing that tie into Mother's Day, Father's Day and high school and college graduations. Magazines, in particular, work months ahead, and some of them need information right now.

If your product or service, including your book, makes the perfect gift for a mom, dad or grad, start pitching the editors of these gift sections and producers at TV programs that will be featuring these kinds of gift-buying tips.

You can use a search engine like Google and search for "Mother's Day Gift Guide." Or you can save yourself hours of tedious searching online. The Gift List, a subscription service, offers contact information for media outlets and TV and radio programs that will feature special gifts for these occasions.

You won't find trade magazines like Nursing Science Quarterly on the list. You will find magazines like Redbook, Allure, Wired, Stereophile, Fast Company, Teen People, Organic Gardening, Cooking Light, Shape, Atlanta Magazine, Cottage Living, Cookie, Elite Traveler, and hundreds more like these.

Take a test drive at http://snipurl.com/GiftListMedia


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4. What Not to Say to Journalists
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If you see an interesting media lead in this newsletter and you respond to the journalist, please give them only the kind of information they requested. Don't badger them with other things you're selling.

A few weeks ago, I included a media lead from Donna Maria Coles who was looking for guests for her radio show.

"I booked one of the people who responded with great info about her book and speaking topics," Donna said. "After we booked the show, she sent me an email asking if I had ever heard of a networking marking company (which I assume she is a member of) and whether she could send me some samples of the products.

"I told her I want to focus on her book and expertise in that area, and do not plan to mention the network marketing company, and that she should let me know if that will be a problem for her and we can always change plans."

Donna hasn't heard back from the woman.

Bottom line: Don't answer a media lead if your motive is to promote something else you sell. Savvy Publicity Hounds know how to build strong relationships with media people without resorting to that kind of trickery.

"Special Report #49: 17 Ways to Build Valuable Relationships with Media People" shows you how. Learn more at http://publicityhound.com/publicity-products/reports.html


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5. How to Promote a Voiceover Talent
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This week, three Publicity Hounds have tips for Ginger Bell of Tyler, Texas. She wants ideas on how her husband, Bobby Bell, can market his company, a production studio that creates radio and TV commercials, provides voiceovers and serves the advertising industry.

From Karen Commins:

"As another voice-over talent, many newcomers to the industry ask me the same question. I have written essays on my blog http://www.karenblogs.com/ in which I point out that voice-over is a business that requires a marketing plan. It can include:

--Creating and maintaining a personal website

--Making phone calls to casting directors, producers, directors

--Networking at industry meetings and events

--Sending direct mail (postcards, newsletters, etc.)

--Auditioning for one or more agents

--Joining on-line casting services and submitting auditions

--Writing postings in forums to show your expertise"


From Lois Carter Fay at MarketingIdeaShop.com:

"Create a viral marketing campaign that is funny. People love to pass on the commercials that have been made, especially for web viewing and listening. If he’s been in the radio business, I’m sure he knows people who can create a funny spot that people will want to pass on to everyone they know."


From The Publicity Hound:

"Ginger, your husband should be podcasting--one of the best ways to show off that terrific voice.

"What should he podcast about? Topics that are of interest to the kinds of people who he wants as clients. Those could include marketing, broadcasting and advertising. Or how about informative, funny behind-the-scenes stories about what happens while he and others are producing radio commercials?

"He can also discuss ways that people can save money when they’re buying radio advertising."

Read all the responses at http://tinyurl.com/3dfn9h


Small business is the fuel that drives the economy of many countries. And if you know what small-business reporters are looking for, it's easier to encourage them to write about you.

Jeff Zbar, a Business Journalist of the Year for the U.S. Small Business Administration, discussed exactly how small businesses can generate fabulous publicity when he was my guest during a teleseminar called "The Fastest, Cheapest, Easiest Ways to Publicize Your Small Business." We recorded it and it's available as a CD or electronic transcript that you can download and be reading in a few minutes.

Read more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/3tbbp


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6. Help This Hound
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Marcus Simmons of Southfield, Michigan writes:

"The Motown Automotive Professionals nonprofit is in its start-up stage. We will provide no-cost automotive vocational training for socially and economically deprived youths as they emerge from high school.

"I have been on the 6 o'clock news on two channels so far, and we have a website at http://www.map-n.org/ We need more ways to get donations and support from corporate America. Can your Hounds help?


The Publicity Hound says:

You bet they can, Marcus. Many Hounds who read this newsletter are experts at recruiting corporate sponsors, as well as getting publicity. Hounds with terrific ideas for Marcus can post them to my blog at http://tinyurl.com/2htmxa

In the meantime, publicity expert Paul Hartunian has dozens of great tips for nonprofits that want publicity--particularly nonprofits on a shoestring budget. "Failproof Publicity Tips for Your Nonprofit" is available as a CD or electronic transcript that you can be reading as soon as your order is approved.

Read more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/29dba

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7. Hound Quote of the Week
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You know you're a dog person when you and your dog both have symptoms that resemble the flu. You take your dog to the vet while you settle for an over-the-counter remedy from the drugstore.

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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Press releases: How to make old news sound new
http://tinyurl.com/33nk9m

AP to carry bloggers' coverage of Libby trial
http://tinyurl.com/2u2pmv

Pitching tip: Join the conversation first
http://tinyurl.com/35yck7

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®

March 17, 2007: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

"Savvy Media Relations: How to Get Free Print, Broadcast and Online Publicity." 8 a.m. to noon. Learn more at http://www.nsapittsburgh.com/calendar.htm


May 12, 2007: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Florida Speakers Association: "Savvy Media Relations: How to Get Free Print, Broadcast & Online Publicity." 9 a.m. to noon. "Sleeping with the Competition: How to Collaborate with Other Speakers to Create Profitable Products and Programs." 2 to 4 p. m. For more information, call 561-630-7766 or visit http://www.florida-speakers.org


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 list "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® will never distribute your address to anyone.
Period. Promise.

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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