Publicity tips/When Newspapers Ignore You Oct 2, 2007

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #366 Oct. 2, 2007
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.com/
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)
The Publicity Hound®

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Announcements:

--James Malinchak, an expert on how to get onto the college speaking circuit and generate tons of publicity doing it, will be my guest once again during a complimentary teleseminar at 4 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, Oct. 9. This is a high-content call chock full of lists of tips that will whet your appetite for his boot camp Nov. 29-Dec. 2 in Los Angeles. Warning: I got several complaints last year that the boot camp sold out early because James lets past attendees return as many times as they wish. So if you're thinking of going, don't wait until the last minute. Sign up for the teleseminar at http://tinyurl.com/fs56k

--Don't let the November 15 deadline for "Experclick: The Online Yearbook of Experts," slip by you. If you want to be in the 2008 yearbook, that's the last day to reserve your space and take advantage of $100 off only for Publicity Hounds. Call the office in Washington, D.C., at 202-333-5000, and ask for the "Publicity Hound Discount" or order on-line at http://www.ExpertClick.com/Discount/The_Publicity_Hound Click here to continue reading about all the benefits of a membership: http://www.ExpertClick.com/Brochure

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In This Issue
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1. When Newspapers Ignore You

2. Article Writers Don't Like My Advice

3. Tie into the New Fall TV Shows

4. A Big Mistake Non-fiction Authors Make

5. Promoting a Portable Water Collector

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog...


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1. When Newspapers Ignore You
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Have you ever picked up the local newspaper and read a glowing story about one of your competitors? And told yourself that the reporter could just as well have written the story about you?

Lots of Publicity Hounds have. They throw away their newspapers, and then stomp off grumbling and groaning that their day has been ruined.

Not so fast.

Do what the folks at The Edge Salon in Fish Creek, Wisconsin did recently. When they read a story in the local Peninsula Pulse newspaper about how Willard Zak was one of the last of the old-time barbers in northern Door County, they wrote a letter to the editor that, I swear, was far better exposure than any article a staff reporter could have written.

The letter introduced Dawn Berna, a third-generation barber "who learned her trade in one of the few men-only barbershops 20 some years ago and can knock out an incredible haircut in 13 minutes or less."

It also mentioned that Dawn's chair "is one of the large, comfortable barber chairs, not the 'flimsy little chairs' that Mr. Gallagher believes is standard in salons."

It even quoted a local restaurant owner who said his weekly straight-edge shaves "are the highlight of my week."

And it issued a personal challenge to Willard Zak, who might be retiring soon:

"The Staff at The Edge challenges you to have us cut your hair....we will avoid the debate of who is the better barber."

The newspaper even included a photo of a customer having his hair trimmed at The Edge Salon.

Would you have been this gutsy if the same thing had happened to you?

If not, learn about all the ways to make the editorial pages of newspapers and magazines, which Publicity Hounds frequently ignore, really work for you. "How to Use Newspaper & Magazine Editorial Pages" shows you all the ways to use letters to the editor and opinion columns to promote a product, service, cause or issue. It even explains how to meet with the influential editorial board in hopes of swaying them over to your side.

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/5wh45


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2. Article Writers Don't Like My Advice
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Several Publicity Hounds who post their articles to online article directory sites wrote last week to chastise me for telling you to ignore website owners who take your articles and post them at their own por*n sites.

"There is indeed something you can do about it! And it is not a full-time job," wrote Leslie McKerns of Royal Palm Beach, Florida. "After a few sickening sleepless nights, I found out EXACTLY what to do about it and have shut down each and every link to inappropriate content."

She doesn't want her step-by-step directions posted here and risk tipping off the spammers, but she's willing to explain them to you if you email her. Mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com?subject=LesliesEmail and I'll send her email address.

Bette Dowdell of Glendale, Arizona has the same problem and explained what she does:

"All the disgusting websites that misused my articles are on BlogSpot, which is owned by Google. BlogSpot's terms of service say no por*n is allowed, but they don't seem to do anything to enforce their terms.

"I wrote a letter to Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, expressing, in legalese-lite, the Google liability in allowing others to steal my intellectual property.

"I also started sending emails (support@blogger.com). Each day, I add the day's offending hits (garnered from the Google Alert), add a brief note about how they are aiding and abetting the destruction of my reputation and my business. Notice I said 'add.' I always resend the same email, but with the current day's offenses at the top. That way, they always have a complete record of the fact that I intend to be a pest until they do the right thing.

"This sounds onerous, but I get one Google Alert a day and send one email a day to report the infractions. This is not overwhelming. Results to date? Google TOOK DOWN the sites that I complained about."

Thanks, Leslie and Betty.

Other Publicity Hounds who want to take the time to go after these website owners can do so. But I'm sticking to my original advice. Complaining eats up precious time. And once a site is closed down, the perpetrators can have a new one up and running the same day.

The source of this problem, by the way, is not online article directory sites. My web developer told me yesterday that he doesn't post to these directories, yet the p*orn industry has stolen many of his articles posted at his own site and reprinted them on their sites.

If you, too, are experiencing this problem and have found another solution, let me know. And if you refuse to be deterred by these scoundrels, and want to post your content to article directory sites, learn how. Small business expert Sharron Senter explains how posting articles generates from 30 to 100 sales leads a month and how she follows up. She was my guest during a teleseminar called "How to Post Online Articles That Pull Traffic to Your Website."

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. Click here to continue reading more about what you'll learn: http://tinyurl.com/5zvga


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3. Tie into the New Fall TV Shows
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Thanks to Michael Smart, president of Michael Smart PR and national news director for Brigham Young University for this tip on how to tie your story ideas to the new fall line-up of TV shows.

Michael generated fabulous publicity for the university several years ago just as the show "Survivor" was debuting on CBS.

"We had an honors class at BYU on team-building that had been taught for 13 years, and it wasn't new," he said. "The students were told they were stranded on a desert island and had to figure out ways to get off."

He pitched the story to local media, tied it to the "Survivor"debut, and ended up with publicity in the local newspaper and on the CBS affiliate station.

Then, two years ago, he did the same thing again when "Lost"debuted on ABC.

"The same media outlets did the same story on the same class simply because the pitch was tied to pop culture," he said.

He suggests businesses tie their pitches to "The Office," the mega-hit that's in its fourth season on NBC.

TV producer and reporter Shawne Duperon says TV newsrooms love stories like the ones Michael is suggesting. Shawne teamed up with me to present a teleseminar called "103 Sizzling Story Ideas from July through December." She pointed out the best ideas for TV, and I flagged listeners to the best ideas for print.

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, and each includes the handout listing all 103 ideas so you can steal them and start pitching today.

Click here to continue reading more about what you'll learn: http://tinyurl.com/54y6f


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4. A Big Mistake Non-fiction Authors Make
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It's one of the biggest boo-boos you can make if you're writing a non-fiction book. Hundreds of authors make it daily, and then suffer the consequences.

They write books without first creating spin-off products and services to sell to people who buy the book and love it.

That might not sound like a big deal. But after working with more than 9,300 authors over the last 19 years, Steve Harrison has learned rich authors simply do seven key things differently than poor authors.

One of them is that successful authors in the top echelon make most of their money from things like board games, calendars, bootcamps, consulting, membership websites, mentor programs, coaching clients, and anything else that can be tied into the topic of their books.

He'll discuss that mistake and six others during a free 75-minute teleseminar called "How to Achieve A Lot More Success As An Author By Discovering The Seven Things Rich Authors Know That Poor Authors Don't" on Thursday, Oct. 4. Choose from two times: 2p.m. Eastern (11 a.m. Pacific) or 7 p.m. Eastern (4 p.m.Pacific).

Like many free teleseminars, this call will whet your appetite for a seminar he is hosting that walks authors step-by-step through the entire process of spin-off products and services, and other success strategies.

Sign up for the teleseminar at http://tinyurl.com/2onv6b


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5. Promoting a Portable Water Collector
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This week, six Publicity Hounds have advice for Brian James of Melbourne, Australia on how to promote The Water-Leech, a portable water collector that sucks up water from showers, baths and washing machines. The water can then be recycled to water gardens and wash cars.


From Robert Schmidt:

"Piggyback onto bad-news stories about drought and watering restrictions that are geographically based. Be ready to provide a unit and a press release to any city that enforces a watering ban. Look for endorsements from a 'green' celebrity like Governor Schwarzenegger. Start by finding a few outspoken promoters and get some units into their hands so they can become Water-Leech evangelists."


From Marcia Clark:

"Contact the Green Building Council at http://www.usgbc.org/. The organization is getting a tremendous amount of publicity as are companies, builders and vendors who attain their special LEED designation. This is a perfect time for him to promote his device. If you create a Google Alert for 'Green Building,' your email box will be full all day every day. (I have had great success finding opportunities for several clients who are in someway involved in green building.)"


From Jessica Satterfield:

"Check out the site http://www.livingwithed.net/. This is the official website for a popular reality TV show on the Home and Garden network (HGTV). The show chronicles the life of Ed Begley, Jr., who lives 'green,' but his wife says he goes overboard. You can contact him via the site (the email address is mailto:livingwithed@sbcglobal.net), and offer to send Ed one of your products for free. With any luck, it will be included in one of the shows or reviewed on his site."


Read all the responses to this Help This Hound question at
http://tinyurl.com/3884v8


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6. Help This Hound
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Nancy Hayssen of Sonoma County, California writes:

"I am a local private pilot and web entrepreneur who has launched a website at http://www.sonomacountyairport.com/. It targets Sonoma County residents and visitors who are traveling to the area from L.A., Seattle and Portland to visit the Wine Country. The site features things to see and do while here.

"The site recently has been taking off, and I’d love your Hounds' help. I’m looking for ways to improve my site, increase traffic as much as possible, unusual PR ideas, ways to build my email subscriber list even more."


The Publicity Hound says:

One of the biggest problems I see will be differentiating your website from the Sonoma County Airport's official website. Let's see what my Hounds can offer. If you have a helpful idea for Nancy, post it to my blog at http://tinyurl.com/2jqwf3

In the meantime, Nancy, you might want to know about a helpful teleseminar that Bulldog Reporter is sponsoring called "Pitching Travel & Tourism: How to Ride New Trends and Topics to Widespread Coverage in Top Travel Media." It will be held at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Oct. 4. You'll hear from journalists representing the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, AAA Going Places Magazine and Travel News Network. Continue reading more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/3xmnkt


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7. Hound Joke of the Week
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A woman 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/


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8. And at My Blog...
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How to market a YouTube campaign
http://tinyurl.com/35etdy


Social media: How to measure your marketing efforts
http://tinyurl.com/2s2yze


Social media 'Unconference' off to a fast start
http://tinyurl.com/3ahlvf


Meet reporters at 'New York’s Funniest Reporter' contest
http://tinyurl.com/2vssw8


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Where to Meet or Hear The Publicity Hound®

Oct. 2: Teleseminar on Promoting Your Expertise Online

Marilee Tolen will present "Intro to Internet Marketing," a series of telephone seminars for holistic health counselors, nurses, doctors, therapists, educators, healers, massage therapists, nutritionists, spa owners and health care business owners how to create a huge presence for themselves online. I'm her guest from 7 to 8:15 PM Eastern Time. And I'll teach you how to become an expert in your field, and then promote your expertise online to pull traffic, including journalists, to your website. Click to continue reading about what else you'll learn: http://tinyurl.com/3xmbfb


Oct. 9: Teleseminar on "How to Get onto the College Speaking Circuit"

With James Malinchak, 4 to 5 p.m. Eastern Time. This complimentary, high-content call will be chock full of lists of tips on how to make a bundle speaking at colleges. It will whet your appetite for his boot camp Nov. 29-Dec. 2 in Los Angeles. Sign up for the teleseminar at http://tinyurl.com/fs56k


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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 handy list "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
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Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central)
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