The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #440
March 3, 2009
Publisher: Joan Stewart
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“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
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In This Issue
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1. How About a Little Good News?
2. It’s Square Root Day
3. 3 Teleseminars to Help You
4. The Advantage of Freelancers
5. Ugly Patio Furniture
6. Help This Hound
7. Hound Joke of the Week
8. And at My Blog…
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1. How About a Little Good News?
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You and I aren’t the only ones sick of bad news.
TV news producers are sick of it too. That’s what my friend, TV
producer Shawne Duperon, told me a few days ago. We were talking
about the demise of the Rocky Mountain News, one of Colorado’s
two biggest daily newspapers.
“Are things as bad in the TV industry as they are at newspapers?
“I asked her.
“It’s not even the same conversation,” she said. “Everything is
fine. But TV people are sick of all the gloom and doom.
“What does that mean to Publicity Hounds?
Pitch good news stories:
–My local newspaper had a story on Page 1 yesterday about how a
little small-town bank, where the bosses commute to work on foot,
is doing just fine, thank you, while bigger financial
institutions are grabbing bail-outs right and left. That bank
might never have received front-page publicity in a boom economy.
But today, it’s the exception to the rule.
–Has your family found creative ways to skirt high grocery
bills? Are you and the kids cooking more instead of eating out
and, in the process, learning more about each other? If so, pitch
lifestyle reporters, bloggers, and explain your own story at your
blog.
–My friend opened The Chocolate Chisel, a gourmet chocolate shop
in my town of Port Washington, Wisconsin a few weeks ago. When I
asked her if she had second thoughts about opening in this
economy, she said no. While creating her business plan with her
partner, they researched the history of chocolate and learned
that it’s one product that does well during bad times. People
might not be able to afford a $300 day at the spa, but a $10
sample pack of gourmet chocolates makes the world right again. I
told her that’s a terrific angle she ought to pitch.
–Moore Oil Company in Milwaukee has its own economic stimulus
plan. President Scott Haag is offering employees $2,000 if they
buy a new car, or $1,000 for a used car. “It’s just a gift.
There’s no there’s no payback,” he said. “It’s tough out there,
and a little positive news today goes a long way.
“Indeed. That story made it onto the local ABC station’s news last
night.What good news story can you pitch? If you’re having trouble
identifying it, you can learn all their inside secrets about what
TV stations want. Shawne Duperon was my guest during a
teleseminar on “How to Get on the Local TV News Tomorrow.” 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.
In the next day or two, I’ll email the group with more ideas on
how to piggyback your story ideas onto the economy.
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2. It’s Square Root Day
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Today is Square Root Day, a holiday celebrated on dates where the
day and the month are both the square root of the last two digits
in the current year.
For example, the last square root day was March 3, 2009 (3-3-09),
and the next square root day will be April 4, 2016 (4-4-16). The
final square root day of the century will occur on September 9,
2081 (9-9-81). Square root days fall on the same nine dates each
century.
Ron Gordon, a Redwood City, California high school teacher, first
created the day for 9-9-81. He’s the official PR person and sends
press releases to media outlets around the world.
There’s even a Facebook group devoted to Square Root Day and it
has more than 2,600 members. Many of them have written wall posts
that explain how they’re celebrating.
For all you foodies, one suggested way of celebrating the holiday
is by eating square radishes, or other root vegetables cut into
shapes with square cross sections.
If you think this is silly, check out the mountains of publicity
Square Root Day has received throughout the world.
Now quite smirking. Go over to Chase’s Calendar of Events and
create your own holiday, or your own day, week or month of the
year by clicking on “Submit an Entry” on the left side of the screen.
You have until April 15 to submit an entry for the 2010 printed edition.
Once you’ve created your day, use it as a springboard to pitch to
the media. When Dan Janal interviewed me about how to pitch, I
explained all the ways sources caught my attention with their
pitches when I worked as a newspaper editor. I shared them all in
the recording “Secrets of Perfect Pitching.”
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3. 3 Teleseminars to Help You
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–“Media Star Power: How To Become a Celebrity and a Media
Darling All at the Same Time,” with Tom Antion and Judy Jernudd.
Judy is a former Los Angeles talk show host who has interviewed
presidents, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Selleck, Tom Cruise, Regis
Philbin, Larry King, Barbara Walters and hundreds of other
superstars. At 9 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, March 5. This is a
paid teleseminar.
–“Best-seller Blueprint–How To Make Your Book An Almost Instant
Best-seller and Sell Tons of Copies Even if You’re A Marketing
Novice,” with Steve Harrison, Randy Gilbert and Peggy McColl. At
2 or 7 Eastern on Thursday, March 5.
–“How to Create Your own Strong Economy This Year with Online
Information Marketing,” with Alexandria Brown, The Ezine Queen,
on Thursday, March 5. Learn 5 ways to recession-proof your
business.
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4. The Advantage of Freelancers
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How many freelance writers have you built relationships with this
past year?
How many freelancers are you trying to court this year?
Publicity Hound Pam Lontos of PR/PR says getting to know
freelancers has paid off big.
Her company pitched one if its clients, Dr. Kenneth Christian, a
psychologist and author of “Your Own Worst Enemy,” to a writer at
Self Magazine a few years ago.
The writer, a freelancer, was going to interview Dr. Christian,
but the magazine decided to kill the story. The writer also wrote
for Parade magazine and decided to write the whole story for
Parade around Dr. Christian’s new book. In fact, she needed more
sources so she ended up using another one of PR/PR’s clients, Dr.
Pamela Brill, author of “The Winner’s Way.” The story skyrocketed
the ranking for both authors’ books on Amazon.
Dr. Christian’s new book jumped from 35,000 to 35. Dr. Brill’s
book, which was available pre-sale, jumped to 300 before it was
even released.”
Be helpful and give the media more story ideas and resources
than they ask for,” Pam says. “You never know which small town
newspaper writer also writes for a major media outlet.”
“Special Report #40:42 Publicity Tips for Authors and Small
Publishers” shows you how to target niche markets, position
yourself as an expert and pull the media and others to your
website. Only $15, and you can download it as soon as your order
has been approved.
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5. Ugly Patio Furniture
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This week, four Publicity Hounds have tips for Jill Cranford of
Livermore, Colo., on how to publicize her “Ugly Patio Furniture”
competition.
From Tonya:
“I am a huge fan of design, especially green design and I have a
Google reader full of design blogs. I would recommend that Jill
put together a little blurb about the competition along with some
photos of her products, and submit them to different design
blogs. I have a bunch of them in a list if she’d like to email
me, but she can go to Google and type in ‘design blog’ and she
will find a ton of them.”
From Hendry Lee:
“These competitions are all over the place within Twitter. Zappos
has done it successfully, as well as solopreneurs.
“Nothing allows you to interact with your target market more
directly than Twitter. With the power of retweets, your info
can go viral. Not to mention that it makes a good case study for
many bloggers to write about, increasing your publicity even
more.”
The Publicity Hound says:
I love those ideas. Twitter expert Warren Whitlock shows you “How
to Use Twitter to Amass an Army of Followers, Customers &
Valuable Contacts–and Promote.” My teleseminar series with him
is available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can
download and be reading as soon as your order has been approved.
Read all the responses to this week’s Help This Hound question.
Send your own Help this Hound question to me and include your city and
state.
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6. Help This Hound
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Colleen Schmid of Heathrow, Fla. writes:
“I’ve recently started a new business teaching families how to
start going green in their homes. I go through their homes and,
room by room, show them what things they can be doing to save on
power and water bills as well as removing toxins. I will also
begin showing small businesses how to do the same.
“Earth Day is on April 22, and I’m trying to come up with a big
idea to get media attention for my business. It’s so critical
that we all become aware of what we’re are doing to harm our
environment, waste precious resources and pollute. It’s also
important to show people how living green saves them money and
takes care of our Earth.
“Can your Hounds thing of some powerful ways for me to tie my
business into Earth Day for some publicity?” Her website is at
The Publicity Hound says:
Some media people say they’re suspicious about green pitches
which seem to be everywhere. So my Hounds need to come up with
some really clever angles for you, Colleen. Hounds with tips for
Colleen can post them to my blog.
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7. Hound Quote of the Week
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The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.- Andy Rooney.
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8. And at My Blog…
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