Publicity tips/Brett Favre's Retirement Mar 4, 2008

The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #388 March 4, 2008
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. Brett Favre's Retirement

2. 10 Dirtiest Hotels

3. Turn Content into Cash

4. Media Leads

5. How to Promote an ACT! Contest

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. At My Blog...


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1. Brett Favre's Retirement
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You don't have to be a Cheesehead like I am to mourn the announcement just a few hours ago that Brett Favre is retiring as quarterback of the Green Bay Packers after 17 seasons.

Gail Sideman of PubliSide Personal Publicity in Milwaukee, who comes from a sports publicity background, says she thinks this is an ideal time for Publicity Hounds everywhere to piggyback off this news. I agree.

The news media's 24-hour news cycle, she says, combined with its insatiable appetite for copy and film footage, means sports shows like those on ESPN and CNN, as well as other non-sports programs and news shows right in your own community, will be looking for experts who can comment on the retirement. I asked her to brainstorm with me ways that experts can piggyback onto this news.

Here are our ideas:

- -Authors, speakers and experts on the topic of leadership can comment on what made Favre such a great leader.

- -Are you an expert on grief? If so, comment on Favre's amazing performance on "Monday Night Football" on December 21, 2003, the day after his father died of a heart attack and drove his car into a ditch in Kiln, Mississippi. Favre decided to play the game, and passed for four touchdowns in the first half and 399 total yards in a 41-7 victory over the Raiders on international television.

- -What can kids learn from Favre's well-publicized problems with drugs and alcohol? And his rehab?

- -Despite their fame and fortune, Favre and his wife, Deanna, together have experienced more horrific events in just a few years than most people experience in a lifetime. His problems with drugs and booze. Her b~reast cancer. A marriage that almost fell apart. His father's death. The death of Deanna's brother in an ATV accident in Mississippi. The Favre family home in Mississippi that was destroyed in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. Brett and Deanna's property in Hattiesburg, Mississippi that was extensively damaged by the storm. Yet Favre chose to continue to play. And his wife wrote a book and has established her own fund-raising foundation to support women with b~reast cancer. What lessons can we learn from their resiliency?

- -Sports experts can comment on whether Favre is the greatest quarterback of all time. Or one of the top three, or the top five.

- -Bloggers, can your readers learn a lesson about a particular topic from Favre's long career?

- -PR people, how about commenting on Favre's and the Packers' botched PR moves? Just last week, for example, a Packers exec was quoted as saying he's confident Favre will return this fall.

Regardless of where you live, commenting on topics such as these can make you the local angle to this national story. That means your local TV station might jump at the chance to interview you. TV producer Shawne Duperon explains the step-by-step process of "How to Get onto the Local TV News Tomorrow" on a CD or electronic transcript that you can be reading as soon as your order has been approved.

Read more about what you'll learn at http://publicityhound.net/cdgetlocaltvpublicity


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2. 10 Dirtiest Hotels
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TripAdvisor.com has released this year's list of the "10 Dirtiest Hotels"--one list each for the U.S. and the UK.

"The grossest thing...was the drain clogged with years worth of hair. It literally came out in a solid mass. I gagged," said one hotel visitor, whose comment is among thousands at the company's website at http://www.tripadvisor.com/DirtyHotels?nl=MU&pid=831

Other comments, some with photos and videos, include complaints about bad plumbing, mold, crumbling ceilings and walls, no heating or air conditioning, peeling paint, broken locks on the doors, elevators that don't work, broken windows, used tissues under the bed, and even one room where the headboard fell off the bed.

Consumers are invited to weigh in with their own comments. As of this morning, more than 600 people had commented on Hotel Carter in New York City, which made the Hotels from Hell list.

Do a search for "10 Dirtiest Hotels" and you'll see that the contest provides great fodder for the bloggers and for consumers who participate in a variety of forums.

The annual contest draws attention to TripAdvisor's "Travelers' Choice Award Winners" in 10 categories, from the Best Luxury Hotels to the Best Inns and B&Bs.

Here's what Publicity Hounds can learn from this contest:

- -Know what consumers are saying about you online. Create Google Alerts for your own name, your URL and the name of your company.

- -Respond to bad reviews and explain what you're doing to solve the problem. If you hide in the shadows when the news is bad, the conversation will continue without you.

- -The best way to avoid being nominated for these "10 Worst" lists is to clean up your act and provide outstanding customer service and a great product.

Let's see how sharp you are. What else does this contest teach you? Post your comments to my blog at http://publicityhound.net/10dirtiesthotels

Crisis counselor Jonathan Bernstein has fabulous tips for responding to the media when the news is bad. He explained them all, including the tip about the one sure-fire way to ensure the media quote you accurately, on the CD "How to Keep the Media Wolves at Bay." 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/b8wcy


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3. Turn Content into Cash
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Most authors, speakers and experts are sitting on a gold mine, and they don't even know it. Chances are, you're not getting all you can out of the knowledge you have and the content you have already created.

Have you written a book? Or articles for a newsletter or ezine? Do you blog?

Do you present speeches or workshops? Or teleseminars? Have you created handouts or workbooks?

Do you ever respond to emailed questions, or post to forums?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you may have a wealth of content ready to start making more money for you.

Even if you don't have a lot of existing content, there are ways to quickly and easily create products using what you know.

Using the content you already have--and learning simple, fast ways to create new, quality content--will get you off the hours-for-dollars treadmill and empower you to create multiple streams of passive income. It will also attract the attention of the traditional media, bloggers, and many others who will invite you to share your expertise.

Cathy Stucker--one of the foremost experts on how to create, package, repurpose and market content--will by my guest on a free 60-minute teleseminar at 3 p.m. Eastern Time tomorrow, March 5.

I'll be picking her brain about her time-saving tips and asking her to explain how she earns a six-figure income with her information empire and how you can, too.

We only have 250 slots available, so if you aren't prompt, you might not get onto the line. You pay your own long-distance charges. Call 1-218-486-1300. The access code is 1-8-2-2-2-2#.


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4. Media Leads
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- -Do you know a great military dad? For Father's Day, USA WEEKEND magazine is planning a cover story that will show the commitment of countless military dads to their families even as they serve thousands of miles away. Thanks to improved technology, dads can now be "with" their kids, no matter where they're serving. Submissions also will be considered for publication in both "Army Times" and "Navy Times." Nominate your favorite dad at http://publicityhound.net/militarydads


- -CD Vann, editor of Magazine SOHO, a Milwaukee-based magazine, is looking for experts who live anywhere and who can write a monthly column for a new website specifically for entrepreneurs. She needs an entrepreneurial mom to write a column called "Baby and Me, and Business Makes Three" which will offer tips and advice on how to balance work duties and mom duties. She needs an expert who can comment on dating at any age. She also needs a writer for a column called "Soho Today" which will highlight news topics of the day that affect a SOHO's business and personal life. All columns should be 500 words and must be submitted before the 25th of each month. "We are looking for a conversational writing style--writers who are well-versed, and can reach out to our audience and inspire or inform them with words." Submit at least two writing samples in Microsoft Word to mailto:cdvann@sohobusinessmagazine.com


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5. How to Promote an ACT! Contest
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This week, three Publicity Hounds have tips for Lori Feldman of St. Louis, Missouri on how to publicize a contest in which people can register to win ACT! Software and training.


From Gail Sideman:

"You need to publicize this as a traditional group of news stories during the course of the contest. Each service that ACT! Software provides should be molded into story angles to be pitched to media. Highlight the benefits of each one of the services and provide comments from people whose sales have increased and time has been better managed as a result of using it. Since ACT! profits from its software sales, the mention of the contest should be introduced through the 'back door'--via details at the end of your press releases."


From Chelsea Quinn:

"Search online for work-at-home and small business ezine publishers who might be willing to get the word out for you. Telling their members about your drawing gives the ezine publisher owner something new, free and practical to offer their readers."


The Publicity Hound says:

You have almost two months to promote this. A more time-consuming but very effective way to pull traffic to the contest page is to create a Squidoo lens at http://www.squidoo.com/ or a HubPage at http://www.hubpages.com/ and fill it with original content. The search engines love these two content-sharing sites and will bring lots of traffic to you.


Read all the responses to this Help This Hound question at http://tinyurl.com/2wcw9g


Send your own Help this Hound question to: mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com?subject=HelpThisHound


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6. Help This Hound
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Marna A. Krajewski of Wakefield, Rhode Island writes:

"I am an Army wife who had her first book published in May 2006 (HOUSEHOLD BAGGAGE: The Moving Life of a Soldier's Wife). It's a collection of first-person stories about Army family life.

"My next book, HOUSEHOLD BAGGAGE HANDLERS: Celebrating the Lives of Military Wives, is coming out in May. This one is an anthology which I compiled and edited. A good friend tells me marketing it only to the military community is a mistake, yet this is my niche.

"Should I broaden my intended market, and if so, what are your publicity ideas?"


The Publicity Hound says:

The more niched your topic, or the more niched your audience, the easier your job of promoting it will be. But I'm curious. Does anyone out there who is not a military wife have any interest in reading a book like this one? If so, where should Marna promote it? Hounds with ideas for Marna can post them to my blog at http://publicityhound.net/militarywives

Marna, National Public Radio interviews hundreds of authors each year. Go to their website at http://www.npr.org/ and type "military wives" into the search box at the top of the screen and you can see a list of programs that have included information about your topic.

For the inside scoop on how to find out which shows are perfect for you, and how to pitch them, see "How to Get Booked on National Public Radio" at http://tinyurl.com/ayms6


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7. Hound Joke of the Week
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Thanks to Darlene Arden of Framingham, Massachusetts for this one.

A man wrote a letter to a small hotel in a Midwest town he planned to visit on his vacation. He wrote:

Dear Hotel,

I would very much like to bring my dog with me. He is well- groomed and very well-behaved. Would you be willing to permit me to keep him in my room with me at night?

An immediate reply came from the hotel owner, who said, "I've been operating this hotel for many years. In all that time, I've never had a dog steal towels, bedclothes, silverware or pictures off the walls. I've never had to evict a dog in the middle of the night for being drunk and disorderly. And I've never had a dog run out on a hotel bill. Yes, indeed, your dog is welcome at my hotel. And, if your dog will vouch for you, you're welcome to stay here, too."


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. At My Blog...
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TV interview tip: Don't use the anchor's name
http://publicityhound.net/anchorname


Zvents sends your calendar listings to local, national media
http://publicityhound.net/zvents


Get your products into celebrities' hands
http://publicityhound.net/sendproductstocelebrities


Comment on popular videos with your own video comment http://publicityhound.net/videocomments


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Where to See or Hear The Publicity Hound


March 5: Teleseminar on "How to Turn Your Content into Cash"

Join me for a free teleseminar at 3 p.m. Eastern Time with Cathy Stucker. This one-hour call is perfect for authors, speakers and experts who have handouts in their file cabinets and on their bookshelves and hard drives. Cathy will show you how to take your content and spin, retool or tweak it to create information products and lots more. She promises a teleseminar packed with content, and she'll take your questions, too. This call is limited to the first 250 people. You don't have to sign up. Simply call 1-218-486-1300. The access code is 1-8-2-2-2-2#.


March 27: Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin

"Red Hot Tips to Set Your Publicity Campaign on Fire," Menomonee Falls, Sussex and Germantown Business to Business Networking Breakfast; networking and breakfast from 7:30 to 8, presentation from 8 to 8:45 a.m. Tickets are $15. Guests welcome. For reservations, call Diane Henning at the Menomonee Falls Chamber at 262-251-2430.


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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
U. S.A.
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central) Fax: 262-284-1737