Don’t Rule out Press Releases

Issue #827 June 17, 2014
Publisher: Joan Stewart

“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”

In This Issue

Don’t Rule out Press Releases
What to Do When You Have No News
Secrets of Publicity Superstars
Hound Video of the Week

This Week in the Hound House:

I feel like an archaeologist when I dig around in the soil. This week, I’ve uncovered marbles, a 5-inch rusted metal stake, and pieces of glass from what look to be an old milk bottles. But that’s nothing compared to what I found in a baseboard vent when I moved into my old house: a handwritten receipt, dated 1948, from what used to be the corner grocery store. A loaf of bread was 24 cents. I found another handwritten receipt from the 40s from a tailor who hemmed a man’s “trousers.”

1. Don’t Rule Out Press Releases

“The press release is dead.”

That’s what the so-called experts have proclaimed since Google’s last major update to its algorithm.

Truth is, the press release is NOT dead. But its ability to increase your search ranking by providing more incoming links to your website certainly is.

Google has slammed the major press release sites and kicked many of their releases off page 1 of search results. If you’ve been using the press release distribution sites for link building, that’s bad news.

Here’s the good news.

Google is now giving you credit for what it calls implied links.

“When someone mentions your brand name, without even linking to your site, Google will pick it up and factor it into your search rankings,” writes Mickie Kennedy of eReleases.com in a guest post he wrote for my blog. “What this does is open the door for companies to focus on what they should have been focusing on all along-—building buzz about their company. In other words, more traditional PR.”

It also means that you shouldn’t be writing press releases unless you have something important or interesting to say.

Read his entire post at my blog.

2. What to Do When You Have No News

You know the feeling.

You can’t find a morsel of news about your business anywhere. Absolutely nothing.

Don’t despair. I have three ideas for generating publicity by piggybacking onto popular TV shows, movies and celebrities.

One of the easiest ways is to offer advice in your area of expertise to a celebrity who’s struggling with a problem. Luckily, you don’t have to look far.

Authors, if you’ve written about anger management, how about sharing some tips with Alex Baldwin? If you speaking on parenting, offer advice for parents whose little girls idolize Mylie Cyrus. The tabloids are full of celebrities who have health issues, money problems and marriage break-ups or are in trouble with the law.

If you piggyback off trending topics and hot celebrity gossip, like the rumors of impending divorce between Barbra Streisand and James Brolin, you can get more exposure and traffic because millions of people will be searching for any scrap of news they can find.

I offer several more ideas in my article “How to Get Publicity When You Have No News to Share” for Entrepreneur.com. I’ll be writing twice a month for Entrepreneur and I’ll share the links here. Please share the article. And if you disagree with me, explain why in the comments section.

3. Secrets of Publicity Superstars

Don’t miss Thursday’s free webinar on “How To Become A Regular Guest On National TV And Other Secrets Of The Publicity Superstars” at 2 and 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 19, with Steve Harrison.

He’ll explain why most authors and experts fail to make the leap from just getting local publicity to scoring big-time national media coverage. And he’ll show you what the more successful superstars have done to get into the spotlight by getting booked on big shows.

4. Hound Video of the Week

Thanks to Publicity Hound Belle Whittington of Willis, Texas for this video of Dogs Annoying Cats with Their Friendship.