Where to Find Guest Bloggers

The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #472 Oct. 6, 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. Where to Find Guest Bloggers

2. Free Press Release Distribution

3. Media Lead: Animal Planet

4. For Authors Only

5. When Journalists Ignore Your Releases

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

8. And at My Blog…

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1. Where to Find Guest Bloggers
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If you’re weary of cranking out quality content for your blog,
consider recruiting an occasional guest blogger.

Guest bloggers expose your readers to new opinions, topics and
perspectives.

They give you a break. And they give other writers and experts
exposure to your audience.

Here’s the best part. They don’t even have to have their own
blog. If they can write well, they can guest blog.

Here are five ways to find guest bloggers:

–Invite bloggers whose opinions you admire. Ask them to write
original content, because the search engines don’t look favorably
on duplicate content. Stress that they’ll have the chance to be
in front of a new audience and that you’ll give them a link back
to their website or blog.

–Invite some of the most frequent commenters at your own blog–
writers whose opinions and writing you admire.

–Consider inviting publishers or editors of some of your
favorite ezines, as long as their topic is related to the topics
you write about.

–If you’re on LinkedIn, pay attention to the question-and-answer
feature. I found a great answer to a question, and asked the
writer if I could print her answer as a guest blog post. She said
yes.

–Ask your readers to contribute their best posts–again,
original content. It’s best that readers pitch an idea for your
approval, just like they’d pitch a story to journalists.

Want to be a guest blogger for my blog at
http://www.publicityhound.net/? Send your idea to
JStewart@PublicityHound.com

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2. Free Press Release Distribution
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Here’s the dirty little secret of most free press release
distribution services.

Most of them don’t distribute anything. They simply take your
press release and park it at their website. They exist primarily
to get revenue from Google AdSense ads, which show up on the same
page as your release.

There’s more you need to know.

If you discover that the press release you just submitted
includes a typo–like a wrong phone number or a bad URL–you’re
usually stuck with the error forever. Most of these services
don’t have help desks.

Paid services like PRWeb and Expertclick.com have help desks that
can spring into action within minutes after you call.

Janet Thaeler, a press release specialist and an expert at search
engine optimization, says that if press release writers insist on
using one of the free services, there are three she recommends.
She’ll discuss them when she’s a guest on a teleseminar I’m
hosting on Wednesday, Oct. 21, from 3 to 4:10 p.m. Eastern Time.
It’s on “How to Use Keywords, the Magic Magnets that Pull
Consumers and Journalists to Your Press Releases.”

If your competitors are using keywords correctly in their
releases, and you aren’t, they win and you lose.

Everyone who registers for the call will have the chance to win a
press release written by Janet, and distributed through PRWeb.
Read more about what you’ll learn, and register at
http://tinyurl.com/yeygbqb

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3. Media Lead: Animal Planet
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For all you Publicity Hounds out there who want a new best friend
AND want great PR at the same time, PitchRate.com has a unique
request from Animal Planet.

Their show, “Underdog to Wonderdog,” is looking for loving
families, couples or singles in the New England area to adopt an
unloved shelter dog. These once-neglected and forgotten shelter
dogs will be made over, trained and given a second chance at life
by being placed in a home on this second-season program.

If you or someone you know wants their very own hound to love,
visit http://www.pitchrate.com/ and make a pitch to Animal
Planet’s request, “Animal Planet – adopt an unwanted shelter
dog,” right away.

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4. For Authors Only
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If you’ve written a book or you’re thinking of writing one, learn
what 7 things rich authors do differently than poor authors.

Steve Harrison will discuss them when he hosts a free teleseminar
called “What do Rich Authors Know That Poor Authors Don’t?” on
Thursday, Oct. 8, at your choice of two times.

After working with more than 9,000 authors over the last two
decades, Steve has discovered that successful, best-selling
authors do 7 things differently. Find out what they are by
registering for the call at http://tinyurl.com/2onv6b and
listening at either 2 or 7 p.m. Eastern.

If these times are inconvenient, recruit somebody to listen for
you and take notes. These calls are seldom recorded.

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5. When Journalists Ignore Your Releases
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This week, seven Publicity Hounds have tips for Joel Kweskin of
Charlotte, NC, who needs advice on how to get his press releases
published. He has sent many releases to journalists, with little
success.

From J. Reeder, a former newspaper editor:

“One of the best things you can do is include a usable photo at
300 dpi and about 4-by-6 size. Make sure to include a caption
identifying anyone in the photo. Then write your release to sell
that photo. Most editors are looking for art to go with anything
canned to lay out a page.”

From Connie Oswald Stofko:

“Just pick up the phone and call the newspaper. It could be
you’re not meeting their deadlines. Or you’re faxing the press
release when they want it e-mailed, or vice versa. One paper
didn’t use a great story I sent them, because they never got it?-
their email was down.”

From Paul Furiga:

“The most important thing you can do is to get to know the people
who decide whether your news gets printed. They call it public
relations because it?s about relationships. And you build a media
relationship that leads to placements by initiating a dialogue
with the people who decide what?s news and what?s not. Buy the
appropriate editor or reporter coffee. Visit them in the
newsroom. Ask them this most important question: ‘How can I help
YOU?'”

The Publicity Hound says:

Read all the responses to this week?s ?Help This Hound” question
at http://budurl.com/85lh

Send your own Help this Hound question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
and include your city, state or province.

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6. Help This Hound
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Joel Kweskin of Charlotte, NC, asks another question this week:

“I’d like to hear your Hounds’ opinions on how to compensate
publicists.

“Some press releases result in a little blurb in a publication,
which can be considered satisfactory. And then there’s a query to
a business publication that results in a full feature article,
which I’ve gotten a few times.

“Shouldn’t there be a different compensation ‘adjustment’ for an
effort on the publicist’s part that results in fairly major
coverage?”

The Publicity Hound says:

Publicists charge for their services several ways, Joel. The way
you’re referring to is called pay-per-placement. The client
doesn’t pay unless the publicist generates publicity. Fees are
determined by the size and reach of the media hit. You can read
more about it at BL Ochman’s blog at http://budurl.com/2wgt

How about it, publicists? Do you do pay-per-placement? If not,
are you compensated for bigger publicity hits? If not, why not?
And how can a client know which method of payment is better? Post
your comments to my blog at http://budurl.com/9h2q

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7. Hound Joke of the Week
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Actual classified ad that appeared in a weekly newspaper in Ohio:

FREE to a good home: Domestic tan male. Neutered and declawed.
Has shots.

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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8. And at My Blog…
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NPR says pitch your idea to one show at a time
http://budurl.com/qh7v

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Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound