Issue #873 Nov. 29, 2014
Publisher: Joan Stewart
“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
In This Issue
- Profitable Vanity License Plates
- Help Journalists Find You
- Wanted: Fiction Authors
- Hound Story of the Week
This Weekend in the Hound House:
I need a bumper sticker that says, “I brake for consignment shops.” I found a new Columbia winter jacket priced at $24, and got a 40 percent discount on top of that. I snatched up a pair of comfortable Maple Leaf rubber boots with an inner liner, guaranteed to 20 degrees below 0, for only $12. All that money saved let me buy a $135 pair of new shoes from The Walking Company. The store put me through meticulous testing to make sure I got the right size. I’ve had those shoes only five weeks and the seam around the toe on the left shoe is already coming apart. So much for “you get what you pay for.”
1. Profitable Vanity License Plates
Looking for one more way to brand your business and bring in more leads?
How about reserving a vanity license plate?
A few weeks ago, when I called on you to let me know if you have a vanity license plate that you use for business, I assumed most of the responses would be from Publicity Hounds who had a clever plate that they used to brand themselves.
I was surprised to see that several sources for my story actually reported more leads, more sales and a higher bottom line as a direct result of their plates.
I also found an author who holds a master’s degree in advanced positive psychology and tells her clients to invest in vanity plates as a way to become more successful professionally.
Read the entire story at the Entrepreneur site.
If you have a vanity plate, please let us know in the Comments and explain how it’s helped you.
2. Help Journalists Find You
If a journalist hears about you and wants to check your credentials before interviewing you for a story, she might have to visit several different sites before she sees a complete picture of all that you have to offer.
She’d have to visit your website, your LinkedIn profile, read your press releases, go over to YouTube to watch your videos, and then visit your Twitter profile.
That takes valuable time.
But The Yearbook of Experts has made it much easier for journalists, bloggers and others to see all that information in one neat package by showing them a social media platform page of each expert.
The page also includes handy contact information like a phone number and email address so they don’t have to spend even more time tracking that down. I’m astonished at how many people who beg for publicity don’t include a phone number at their website.
The deadline to be in the 31st annual Yearbook of Experts’ directory for 2015 is Dec. 31.
Mitchell Davis, who owns the site, says one of the other big benefits to reserving space is that you can upload press releases at no additional per-release fee. He then pushes out each release to journalists and bloggers who have asked to receive them, as well as to Google News and Lexis Nexis.
This paid service works best for experts with hard topics, not authors of children’s books and fiction. Expertclick, by the way, researches your expertise before including you in the directory. It turns down many people every year if they don’t have true expert credentials.
Mitch has created a video that explains more about the service. He even tells you which experts have received fabulous publicity from
The Wall Street Journal, Oprah, The Today show, Inside Edition, ESPN, MSNBC and CNN. One expert, author Paul Dickson, got publicity in Business Week, the Associated Press, FOX News and Bloomberg Radio, from just one press release.
Watch the video Mitch created for you.
He has a special $100 discount for you if you tell him you’re one of my Publicity Hounds. Call him directly at 202-333-5000 or go to Expertclick.com. This is an affiliate link, and I earn a commission from Mitch if you buy. Because I send him so many people who turn into clients, he has given me my own page that I can use to tell my Hounds about his service.
3. Wanted: Fiction Authors
If you’re a fiction author who blogs, I’d like to tell you about two projects I’m working on and see if you’d like to be included in either or both.
I’m looking specifically for authors who have interesting ways they write about their fiction. Examples:
–Writing a post in the voice of one of your fictional characters.
–Explaining the process of how you write fiction.
–Explaining where you write.
–Asking your own readers for input about your story line.
If this sounds like you, email me a link to one or more posts you’d like me to review. I’ll take a look and let you know if you’d be a good candidate for my project. Please put “Fiction Author” in the subject line and send to JStewart@PublicityHound.com.
4. Hound Story of the Week
Thanks to Publicity Hound Dan Poynter of Santa Barbara, Calif., for this heartwarming story of Arthur, a stray dog that adopted an extreme sports team and raced along with the team 430 miles to a better home.
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