The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #528 Oct. 26, 2010
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. Protect Your Online Reputation
2. Blog Comments Can Invite a Lawsuit
3. Colleges Need Speakers on 17 Topics
4. A Cosmetic Surgeon’s Tips
5. Help This Hound
6. Hound Video of the Week
7. And at My Blogs & Mobile Site…
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1. Protect Your Online Reputation
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You can’t prevent a disgruntled employee, an angry customer or a
jealous competitor from writing nasty things about you online and
negating all the great publicity you’ve received elsewhere.
But you CAN make it more difficult for those comments to show up
on the first page of Google by flooding the Internet with so much
favorable information about you that it practically drowns out
the nasty stuff. In some cases, you can even “push” a bad comment
from the first page of Google onto the second or third page. A
whopping 94 percent of people who type keywords into Google never
click onto the second page of the organic listings.
That’s only one of many things you can do to protect your online
reputation. Here are others:
–Create your own profiles at high-ranking sites like Amazon.com,
BarnesandNoble.com, Borders.com and BooksaMillion.com. Some of
these sites allow you to do that, even if you’re not an author.
–Encourage your customers to post reviews of your products or
services on sites like Yelp.com, CitySearch.com, InsiderPages.com
and SuperPages.com, or on niche sites like FindLaw.com for
attorneys and TripAdvisor.com for travel-related businesses.
–Create a profile on Ebay and link back to your own websites and
blog from the “About Me” page.
I learned all this from Tom Antion, one of my Internet marketing
teachers, on the 2-CD set he published recently, “Reputation
Management: How to Build and Protect a Great Reputation Online.”
I listened to it for the third time over the weekend, took
copious notes, prioritized everything, and I’ve already started
using many of his tips.
One of Tom’s most valuable tidbits was the incredibly easy way to
find .edu and .gov websites or blogs, related to your topic, that
allow you to post comments and get links back to your own site or
blog. Google views .edu and .gov sites as authoritative and will
give you extra points for all those links. (Nine out of 10
Internet marketers don’t know this trick, but now I do, and I’ve
been busy commenting at these sites and getting lots of backlinks
to my own site and blog.)
Nobody can protect your good online reputation except you. Learn
more about what Tom can teach you at http://tinyurl.com/2eyyljb
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2. Blog Comments Can Invite a Lawsuit
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If your blog is automatically publishing comments every time a
visitor writes one, you could be opening yourself up to a libel
suit.
So says PR expert Shel Holtz, who found a nasty comment recently
at his blog that could have gotten him sued. Read about it, and
about other reasons why you should be moderating comments at your
blog:
http://blog.holtz.com/index.php/weblog/libel_threat_a_good_reason_to_moderate_comments/
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3. Colleges Need Speakers on 17 Topics
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Colleges have something that most other companies and nonprofits
don’t have: a recession-proof pot of money known as student
activity fees.
Those fees are used to pay speakers who come to campus and host
workshops, deliver keynotes, and train officers in fraternities
and sororities.
If you speak for free or for a fee, James Malinchak says there’s
a pretty good chance that you can tweak your topic for the
college speaking circuit–and get paid handsomely.
I’m hosting a free call with him this afternoon on how to get
onto the college speaking circuit. He’ll tick off the long list
of 17 topic areas that are in demand. Here are three of them:
leadership, diversity, and recruitment and retention. Learn the
other 14, and the list of staff members at colleges who are in
the best position to hire you, at 3 p.m. Eastern today. Register
at http://www.CollegeSpeakingSuccess.com/joan.html
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4. A Cosmetic Surgeon’s Tips
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This week, seven Publicity Hounds have tips for Dr. Robert
Kotler, a Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon, on how he can build his
email list for his beauty “Tips of the Month.”
From Janine Libbey:
“He could expand his target audience to include men.”
From Sonia:
“Host a Patient Appreciation Day in-office. Invite clients to
attend and bring a guest. Have snacks, a few email sign-up sheets
around the lobby and a five-minute ‘quick tip’ presentation. At
the end of the presentation, invite people to sign up and offer a
free consultation to all sign-ups.”
From The Publicity Hound:
“At your website, include a box that bounces down from the top of
the screen and tells visitors about the emailed tips, and asks
for their name and email address. When I added this to my website
at PublicityHound.com, it at least tripled the number of opt-
ins.”
Send your own “Help This Hound” question to me at
JStewart@PublicityHound.com and include your city and state.
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5. Help This Hound
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This week’s “Help This Hound” question is from Timothy Nishimoto,
owner of Vino Paradiso Wine Bar & Bistro, in Portland, Oregon:
“My business is known as a wine bar, but we are trying to
transition into more of a restaurant, meaning we have a full
dinner menu, bigger than ever.
“But many people in town still don’t know we even have food. The
local media people tell me they need stories about new places,
not places like mine that have been around for five years.
“Our chef is new, our happy hour menu is new, our larger menu is
new, we now have a cocktail menu—so much is new, and we’ve
never gotten a full restaurant review!
“That seems like a lot of new stuff, so what can I say to the
media besides just that?”
The Publicity Hound says:
Judging from what I see at your website, Timothy, your bistro is
hip and part of the nightlife scene in Portland. Yet, many of the
younger clientele that frequent your restaurant don’t read
newspapers. But they ARE looking for things to do and reviews
online.
So here’s the challenge to my Hounds. Give Timothy some ideas on
how he can entice the restaurant reviewers or business or
lifestyle reporters. But also make suggestions on what he can do
online to reach his target audience in Portland. I have several
ideas that I’ll share later in the week. Post your best ideas to
my blog at http://publicityhound.net/?p=7232
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6. Hound Video of the Week
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Thanks to Dan Poynter of Santa Barbara, Calif., for this great
video of The Dolphin and The Dog. It’s about four minutes long,
but well worth it.
http://www.dogwork.com/ddcv4/
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://publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/
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7. And at My Blogs & Mobile Site…
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You can now sign up to receive email notifications every time I
publish a new blog post. Submit your email address to “Subscribe
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How to avoid choosing the wrong day for your event
http://publicityhound.net/?p=7176
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Joan Stewart
The Publicity Hound
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