Publicity tips/Stop doing it all yourself May 15, 2007

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #346 May 15, 2007
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)
The Publicity Hound®

Circulation: 30,766

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"Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity"
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In This Issue
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1. Stop Doing it All Yourself

2. Radio Shows Want 'Woo-woo' Topics

3. Freelancers & Inflight Magazines

4. Salsa Dancing to Set a Record

5. How to Promote Meditation, Healing

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...

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1. Stop Doing it All Yourself
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This month, Reader's Digest and the Wall Street Journal both have articles on the booming virtual assistant industry.

Stay-at-home moms and dads as well as talented but sometimes jaded employees who are tired of the corporate world are setting up shop for themselves, working for clients in their own communities or thousands of miles away.

With skills such as bookkeeping, website development and public relations, they're helping clients get speaking engagements, maintain their websites, do invoicing, compile media kits, help with other publicity tasks and do lots of other detail work that drives people like me crazy.

"There is so much work for VAs, the field is thriving, absolutely booming," said VA Diana Ennen, who was quoted in the Reader's Digest article. She is the co-author of "Virtual Assistant the Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA."

My own virtual assistant has freed me up to plan and launch three major projects that will create new revenue streams this year. Isn't it time you, too, stopped trying to do it all yourself? I'll even help you.

Diana will team up with longtime virtual assistant Cindy Greenway and join me during a teleseminar I'm hosting at 1 p.m. Eastern Time this Thursday, May 17. It's called "How to Find a Virtual Assistant to Help with Your Publicity Campaign."

We'll save you hours of time searching for a V.A. by telling you exactly where to look and what kinds of questions to ask during the interview. We'll explain how V.A.s charge for their services and share tips for smooth sailing. We'll even talk about sensitive topics like how to set boundaries with your assistant.

I first met Cindy several weeks ago when I contacted one of her clients to participate in a joint venture project. He invited Cindy, his assistant, to join the call and take notes. I assumed she worked in his office. What I didn't realize until three weeks later is that he's in Phoenix, Arizona and she's in British Columbia, Canada. That's one of the beauties of working with a V.A. They can perform most the same tasks they could perform if they were seated next to you.

If you're flirting with the idea of hiring a V.A., join us this Thursday. Registration is $39.95 which includes a recording of the call on CD that we'll mail to you about 10 days later.

After you've hired your V.A., or found a part-time assistant, join me for a one-week intensive training program June 11-15, via telephone seminars. This will be just like sending your V.A., part-time or full-time assistant, or summer intern to publicity school. I will teach them how to handle all the publicity grunt work--from researching media outlets to tracking down the most influential bloggers. They'll even learn how to help you maintain your online media room.

Several guest experts will be joining me for the calls. If you're a V.A. who completes the training, you'll have an entirely new skill set that will probably allow you to raise your fees. I'll share all the details with you in the next week or two.

Register for the May 17 call on how to find a V.A. at http://publicityhound.com/teleseminar.htm


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2. Radio shows want 'woo-woo' topics
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Not so long ago, people who were experts on topics like self-improvement, mind-body-spirit or anything inspirational--or any"woo-woo" topic that fits in the New Age category--often had a difficult time getting booked on radio shows.

Talk show hosts and producers viewed topics like reiki, energy healing, aroma therapy and feng shui as a little too weird for mainstream audiences.

Mind-body-spirit sounds too much like it's tied to religion.

And self-improvement often smacks of snake-oil salesmen.

As a result, thousands of experts who had valuable information to share with the right audiences had to pretty much scratch radio shows off their targeted media hit list.

But not anymore.

The popularity of satellite radio and the explosion of Internet radio shows has spawned a whole new group of talk show hosts and producers. They reach a targeted market that many other traditional shows don't bother with.

They're looking for guests in self-improvement, mind-body-spirit, inspirational and New Age topics. Because they have such loyal and dedicated listeners, it's likely that if you fit their category, you may get a bigger response from these shows than you might from a big mainstream general interest show with 100,000+ listeners.

Here's the best part. Because many of them host Internet radio shows, they archive the shows, and visitors can download the shows and listen months or even years after they were recorded.

Alex Carroll, who has been a guest on more than 1,200 radio shows and sold a quarter of a million books in the process, has created a new database of radio shows that welcome guests in those categories. For the next 7 days, you get your hands on the list and save $78 before the price goes up.

Get all the details here:

http://publicityhound.com/newageradioresources.htm


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3. Freelancers and Inflight Magazines
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One of the big advantages to forming relationships with freelancers is that most of them write for multiple publications. So if they sell a story that includes you as a source, there's a good chance they'll interview you again for another story for a different publication.

Stacy DeBroff, also known as The Mommy Expert, got a nice spike in book sales at Amazon, and traffic to her website, this month when her book "The Mom Book" appeared in the May issue of Go, the inflight magazine for Airtran.

Her publicist, Christine Hohlbaum of Wasabi Publicity Inc., started pitching a freelancer who submits to inflight magazines several months ago. They stayed in touch periodically. Christine took advantage of the special contact management function that's part of Press Kit 24/7, a PR product that lets Publicity Hounds create and maintain their own online press room, even if they don't know HTML coding or the first thing about managing a website.

Christine's follow-up is quick, and reporters love that. The freelancer interviewed Stacy for a story titled "Mind Your Manners" about how parents can teach manners and etiquette to their children by setting a good example. The pitch met quick deadlines and was well-organized--complete with a link to Stacy's online press kit--making for a perfect placement around Mother's Day.

Christine says many freelancers write for inflight magazines, a coveted placement for publicists because you have a captive audience. For example, just one inflight freelancer Christine knows writes for San Francisco Chronicle, Sights Magazine, MyMidwest (another inflight mag), Bottom Line Personal, Sales and Marketing Magazine, Incentive Magazine, Hemispheres (yet another inflight mag) and North Bay Biz.

See how valuable a source freelancers can be? Especially if they are good enough to sell to inflight magazines.

If you want to check out the really cool Press Kit 24/7 software package that also keeps track of who you pitched, when you pitched them and when you need to follow up, learn more here: http://www.presskit247.com/

Then save yourself hundreds of hours of research on inflight magazines. My special report "Fly High with Publicity in the In-flight Magazines" includes pitching tips and contact information for 42 inflight magazines. Read more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/n3pk4


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4. Salsa Dancing to Set a Record
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The same issue of the Go inflight magazine I wrote about in the previous item has a short article about Philadelphia's annual Fiesta on the Parkway, part of the Sunoco Welcome America!Independence Day festivities.

Everybody is involved with Latino culture on July 3, even if they aren't Latino. And the organizers have planned an incredibly fun event that will give them gobs of free publicity.

They will assemble as many as 4,200 salsa dancers on the parkway at once and try to break the Guinness World Record for the number of dancers performing the salsa at once.

More than 400 local dance studios will offer free classes, both in person and via the Internet, to participants in advance of the choreographed dance event. You can learn more about it at http://www.AmericasBirthday.com

The next time you plan a major special event, figure out a fun publicity stunt like this one, and try to break the Guinness World Record.

Debra J. Schmidt and I can give you 847 ideas on how to plan and promote fun, creative events while avoiding the land mines that can ruin the entire event, not to mention your reputation. We teamed up to present "How to Plan & Promote Sizzling special Events," a series of 6 audio CDs. It's also available as an ebook. Both versions come with a handy list of 15 can't-do-without checklists for event planners.

You can read more about what you'll learn and download three complimentary checklists at http://tinyurl.com/46jzg


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5. How to Promote Meditation, Healing
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This week, eight Publicity Hounds have advice for Mike New of Beverly Hills, California. He needs ideas on how to promote a spiritual healing and teaching practice. It provides guided meditation classes and personal healing sessions.


From Nancy Gillespie:

"Yes, continue with the spiritual bookshop--also contact spiritual retreat centers, yoga studios, churches such as Unity and Religious Science that might be more open to this type of thing. Instead of supermarkets, how about health food stores? Advertise in your local spiritual/New Thought newspaper."


From Miriam Silverberg:

"Contact spas, many of which are New Agey and would find it appealing. Also, fitness clubs which are also New Agey to a degree."


From Michele Lessirard:

"In checking out your site, what strikes me is that everything you offer as a product is audio, yet there is nothing on the site that offers a sampling of your voice. Maybe introduce your concepts via an audio file that integrates into the website.

"There isn’t a hook, and nothing captures me so I want to return to your site (even though it is beautiful). How about personal stories--why do I want what you have to offer? Share mini insights through a blog so people get to ‘know’ you."


The Publicity Hound says:

What a coincidence that I learned about Alex Carroll's new database of radio programs, mentioned in Item #2 above. It sounds like a perfect fit for Mike and lots of other Hounds on this list. Learn more about the database at http://publicityhound.com/newageradioresources.htm


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6. Help This Hound
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Janice Roberts of Woodmere, New York asks:

"I created a new kind of greeting card company called Happy 2BMusic, Inc. We create and produce original music relating to various themes for particular niches of people, such as brides, moms-to-be, and pet lovers.

"Each CD contains four original songs in a cute and colorful self-mailer with the lyrics printed on the package and space for your personalized message.

"These do not sell well in stores because people cannot hear them. We feel these make great promotional items for businesses to advertise on by giving discounts for future business. It's also a great way for a business to say "thank you" or a fun way to ask for referral business.

"We would also like to concentrate on the pet industry, because there are more and more pet parties and "yappy" hours (bars where people bring their pets and have a drink) and these would make a great addition to a goody bag.

"What can we do to promote these ideas? The website is http://www.happy2bmusic.com/ where you can hear samples. We are looking for an effective way to get our prospective clients to think out of the box, when it comes to marketing."


The Publicity Hound says:

I love it when my two-legged Hounds submit questions that tie into the four-legged kind. Two-legged Hounds with great ideas can post them to my blog at http://tinyurl.com/39rpl7


In the meantime, Janice, do you have a good audio program that will let you do all kinds of cool things, like record audio and then send an "audio note" email message to your customers? If not, check out Audio Acrobat. It's the audio program I use--much cheaper than Audio Generator, and their customer service is a thousand times better. Check it out at http://tinyurl.com/phau3


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7. Hound Joke of the Week
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Thanks to Publicity Hound Burgundy Olivier of Rayne, Louisiana for this one:


What does a man do standing up...and a woman do sitting down...and a dog do on three legs?


Shake hands.


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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Realtors, stop whining about bad publicity
http://tinyurl.com/2dek47


Freelancer needs sources for orthodontic PR article
http://tinyurl.com/2t6eva


Is Atlanta Dog Magazine still publishing?
http://tinyurl.com/2x29zt


Authors, thank bloggers when your book is published
http://tinyurl.com/2bzkx9


David Meerman Scott thanked these 163 bloggers
http://tinyurl.com/yr3b4e


The Publicity Hound featured on That Marketing Show
http://tinyurl.com/29kalu


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Where to Meet or Hear The Publicity Hound®

May 21, 2007: Teleseminar on How to Write Articles

I'll be the guest expert during a teleseminar with Sugar Shock expert Connie Bennett on "How to Write How-to Articles to Get Credibility, Visibility & Clients." It's at 2 PM Eastern Time. If you're an author, holistic health counselor, entrepreneur, or anyone who needs lots of shortcuts on how to write a simple 600-word article, this is for you. You'll get a handout that includes a template for a how-to article. I created it, and I invite you to steal my format and use it for your own articles. Read more about what you'll learn and register at http://tinyurl.com/37f7ee


June 6, 2007: Teleseminar for Attorneys

Save this date. I'll be the guest expert on Steven Farley's teleseminar at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on how attorneys can generate free publicity. Details pending.


June 7, 2007: Teleseminar on Press Releases

I'll be the guest expert on Debra J. Schmidt teleseminar at noon Eastern Time on "The New Rules of Press Releases: How to Write Them for Consumers, not Only for Journalists." Noon Eastern Time. Register at http://loyaltyleader.com/live_teleseminar.iml?id=81


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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