Issue #839 Aug. 2, 2014
Publisher: Joan Stewart
“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
In This Issue
- Cruise Your Reviews
- Danger: Guest Blog Post Links
- Lots of Help for My Slogan
- Hound Video of the Week
This Weekend in the Hound House:
We had a blast at the Wisconsin State Fair yesterday. My favorites: The Wisconsin products building (lots of cheese), the vendor building where they hawk mops and ginsu knives, the roosters that show off their crimson tails, and all the people watching. The best part: The Cream Puff Pavilion. I ate only one but craved two.
1. Cruise Your Reviews
If you’re launching a product or a book, keep track of all the websites that are writing good reviews.
“Cruise your reviews,” says book shepherd Judith Briles.
She recommends you create a Word document and, every week or two, cruise the websites you’re pitching.
Cut and paste every good review you find into a Word document so you have a permanent record of it to use later in your marketing materials. Some websites, like Amazon, will remove reviews if they suspect that there’s anything underhanded about how you got them.
For example, Judith says Amazon doesn’t like word “free” as in “The Publicity Hound sent me a free copy of her book and I couldn’t put it down.”
Without contacting the author, they’ll simply remove the review. Other websites change URLs. You never know when that five-star review for your product or book will suddenly disappear.
Judith shared that great tip during the free training session we hosted Wednesday “Book Blurbs, Endorsements & Reviews — How to Get Them and Where to Use Them.” Learn how many people you should be pitching for reviews and what to do when you get one that’s just plain nasty.
Register to listen to the replay.
You can also register for our free webinar at 6 p.m. Eastern on Wednseday, Aug. 6, on “Book Publishing Costs and Critical Timelines: What to Expect When You Are Expecting.” Don’t be caught off-guard with unexpected tasks and costs to publish your book. Register here.
2. Still Not Using Hashtags?
When I want a video for the Hound Video of the Week, I go to Google and type “#cutedogvideo”.
Because I use a hashtag and don’t include spaces, Google delivers a list of videos that other people have mentioned on Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Google+ and Tumblr–and branded with that identical hashtag. Often, the list is very different than if I had simply searched for “cute dog video.”
You can learn two things from this:
–If you aren’t using hashtags when you search, you’re missing content that might be exactly what you’re looking for.
–If you aren’t using hashtags when you post your own content online, you aren’t making it easy for people to find it. That’s because they might be searching using a hashtag, like I did in the example above.
Hashtags aren’t as complicated as you might think. I’ve removed the mystery for you in the video “How to Use Hashtags: The New Search Tool.” The paid webinar replay comes with a checklist of questions to ask yourself before creating your own hashtags, and examples of some of the most successful hashtags used in marketing campaigns.
Learn how to create a branded hashtag for your business, how to use hashtags to fill seats at live events, and best practices for using them correctly.
3. Free Ebooks That Go ‘Ka-ching’
Here it is, August, and I’m already thinking about the gift I’m giving you in December.
It’s “The Best of The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week of 2014,” my annual gift to thank you for being one of my loyal Publicity Hounds.
But I have to confess. I have another motive besides holiday cheer.
I generate publicity galore and make a bundle from those free ebooks. My best year was in 2007 when I raked in $9,693.01 from products I promoted in that ebook. That amount doesn’t include affiliate commission I made from readers who clicked on affiliate links throughout the book and bought products and services from other companies.
The added bonus comes when hundreds of readers regift that ebook, at my urging, to their friends, followers and fans. Hundreds of people meet me for the first time through that book.
Steal my idea, OK?
If you don’t have an ezine like I do, you can use content from old blog posts, guest blog posts, articles, speaking engagements and coaching programs.
In the guest post I wrote for The Future of Ink blog, I explain in step-by-step detail exactly what I do to publish the book.
4. Hound Video of the Week
“If it fits, I sits,” includes mostly cute cats. But it features enough cute dogs to earn a spot here. Watch our furry friends stuff themselves into vases, cardboard boxes, baskets, bowls and other objects. You’ll love the ending.
Share Your Two Cents