Issue #817 May 13, 2014
Publisher: Joan Stewart
“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
In This Issue
- When Good Publicity Backfires
- Avoid These 9 Writing Mistakes
- Online Media Kits for Books
- Hound Video of the Week
This Week in the Hound House:
In addition to doing battle with the rabbits, I’m waging a one-woman war against garlic mustard. The invasive plant grows up to 4 feet tall. By the time the pretty white blossoms appear, it’s almost too late because they sow seeds everywhere. Garden mustard is so harmful to the soil that the municipal dump even has a special dumpster for it. Sigh.
1. When Good Publicity Backfires
If potential clients see your smiling face on the cover of a magazine, or an article about you on the homepage of a big news portal, they might decide immediately not to do business with you.
Wait!
Haven’t I been telling you repeatedly how profitable free publicity can be?
Marking expert Marcia Yudkin has some surprising results from a survey she took recently among her readers. It was about the importance of “social proof” in marketing.
She asked: Would seeing that a local financial advisor had received publicity in national media outlets make them more or less interested in hiring the advisor? Almost half of the respondents said they wouldn’t be impressed, and that the news coverage would have no impact on their buying decisions.
Eleven percent said they wouldn’t be impressed and would be less likely to buy the expert’s book or hire the expert as a consultant.
The comments revealed three interesting reasons why they reacted negatively.
Some respondents assumed that this advisor’s rates would be much higher than they would be willing or able to pay.
“With all that fancy-schmancy media coverage, I probably wouldn’t be able to afford him,” one person wrote. “So I’d tend to look for someone else.” Another said, “They would probably charge more than someone who wasn’t an ‘expert.'”
Can you guess the other two reasons?Marcia explains them all in the guest post she wrote at my blog and gives you three suggestions for avoiding the type of good publicity that can backfire. See “3 surprising drawbacks to publicity – and how to tamp down their impact” at . Let us know what you think in the Comments section.
2. Avoid These 9 Writing Mistakes
Now that you’re creating much more content than you produced a decade ago, it’s more difficult to write well.
That’s because you’re writing fast and have little time to proofread. I’m just as guilty.
My worst sins:
–Overusing various forms of the lazy verb “is.” Want proof? Look at the first three sentences in this item.
-Writing long sentences.
–Relying on too many adverbs.
–Using the passive voice when I’m in a hurry.
Those four writing mistakes appear on the list of the most common writing mistakes I’ve identified. I discuss them all, and tell you how to avoid them, in the guest post I wrote for The Future of Ink blog. See “The Top 9 Writing Mistakes and How to Fix Them.”
3. Online Media Kits for Books
Thanks to the more than 30 Publicity Hounds who responded to my request to test-drive my new product: a bundle of templates that shows you, step by step, how to create an online media kit for a book.
Writing a press release for a fiction novel ranks right up there as one of the most difficult pieces of the kit. But I wrote it for you. All you have to do is fill in the blanks.
Did you know that you can also create a “sell sheet” that serves as an order form when you do book signings and speaking engagements?
You can struggle with your own order form and forget about important things like tax, shipping and volume discounts. Or you can do it the easy way and use the template I created for you.
I’m hosting a free webinar next week, on Wednesday, May 21. I’ll give you a sneak peek at what the bundle includes and show you how to use it. Look for details on how to register in Saturday’s email tips.
4. Hound Video of the Week
You’ll find some groaners in this compilation of Vine videos, each 6 seconds. But a few made me howl.
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