Issue #854 Sept. 27, 2014
Publisher: Joan Stewart
“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
In This Issue
- Share a Fun Fact About You
- Humiliating Typos
- Your Bad Email Address
- Hound Video of the Week
This Weekend in the Hound House:
I’d been hunting all over town for Walden Farms Pancake Syrup. If you’re watching your weight and don’t want those sickening sweet syrups, this is a tasty alternative. No sugar. No carbs. No calories. No I’ve been using it for years but it has disappeared from store shelves. Lucky me. I found it at Walden Farms website and am enjoying it this morning with oatmeal.
1. Share a Fun Fact About You
In December 1984, I almost froze my feet off while riding in a sleigh being pulled by reindeer above the Arctic Circle in Finland.
It was a travel tip for journalists, hosted by Finland’s department of tourism. Instead of dressing for the occasion, I wore a stylish pair of flimsy red leather boots. What was I thinking? I kept praying the sleigh ride would end and that I wouldn’t up in a Finnish hospital with frostbite.
That’s my fun fact. What’s yours?
Fun facts can be included at the end of your bio inside your media Kit, or in the “About Me” section of your website. They help readers connect with you emotionally. Readers who see my fun facts sometimes email me to comment on them, even though the facts have nothing to do with my business. I love when that happens!
Include not one, but four bios in different sizes inside your media kit. Don’t make busy journalists wade through a 500-word bio when they only need 50 words.
Learn how long each bio should be when you listen to the free video replay of a webinar I hosted this week on “The Indie Author’s Guide for Creating a Killer Media Kit.” If you’re not an author, watch it anyway because you’ll learn dozens of other tips on what to include in your media Kit and how to use it to promote you and your business.
Can’t bear the thought of building a media kit yourself?
I created a package of 15 templates that do most of the work for you. You can grab hem all for only $67 but only until midnight on Tuesday night. Go directly to the sales page where you’ll also find several videos from happy customers who used my templates and got publicity and speaking engagements.
The templates include a speaker one-sheet that you can send to meeting planners who can hire you.
2. Humiliating Typos
You’ve written a killer press release about a new product.
You’ve invested several hundred dollars to have the release distributed to thousands of media outlets. Finally, the phone rings!
It’s a woman who says she’s inundated with calls that should be going to you.
Turns out you transposed two digits in your own phone number. It’s a mistake that could cost you several thousand dollars in sales.
And you’re not alone. Other companies have lost far more money than that–or faced public ridicule for proofreading errors in their marketing copy.
That’s why it’s necessary to proofread any and all tickets, ads, flyers, signs and email promotions, as well as your website copy and any social media items you’re sharing.
In one of my latest articles for Entrepreneur.com, I explain “How to Avoid 7 of the Most Humiliating Proofreading Mishaps.”
3. Your Bad Email Address
It’s time to change your email address if it includes info@, support@, contact@, webmaster@, admin@ or similar generic addresses.
They have the highest reports of spam. As a result, some email management programs like AWeber, which I use for this ezine, won’t accept them anymore.
If you signed up for this newsletter awhile ago using one of those addresses, AWeber tells me it’s OK. You’ll continue to hear from me.
But you’d be wise to create another email address that you use for your incoming and outgoing emails so they don’t get flagged as spam.
Aweber explains more about this in an article.
4. Hound Video of the Week
Thanks to Publicity Hound Kathleen Mahan of San Juan Capistrano, Calif., for sharing this precious 13-second video that shows what a dog does when it gets cold.
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