The Publicity Hound’s
\nTips of the Week
\nIssue #446 April 14, 2009<\/p>\n
Publisher: Joan Stewart<\/p>\n
==========================================<\/p>\n
“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
\n==========================================<\/p>\n
In This Issue
\n================================<\/p>\n
1. Lighten Your Load<\/p>\n
2. Where to Find Speaking Gigs<\/p>\n
3. Tea Party Publicity<\/p>\n
4. Use a Gravatar<\/p>\n
5. Promote a Consignment Shop<\/p>\n
6. Help This Hound<\/p>\n
7. Hound Joke of the Week<\/p>\n
8. And at My Blog…<\/p>\n
=================================
\n1. Lighten Your Load
\n=================================<\/p>\n
One of the biggest misconceptions of social networking is that
\nyou must produce mountains of content–and still keep your day
\njob.<\/p>\n
Yes, you need content galore for your blog, articles, Facebook
\npage, press releases, Squidoo lenses, HubPages and video-sharing
\nsites.<\/p>\n
But here’s a little secret.<\/p>\n
You don’t have to produce all of it yourself, or even most of it.
\nOutsource, outsource, outsource.<\/p>\n
Thousands of competent people, many of them unemployed, would
\nlove to work with you right now, at prices you can afford.<\/p>\n
And smart Publicity Hounds who realize that a bad economy is the
\nvery best time to outsource are casting their nets for the best
\nwriters, photographers and video producers. Those include a glut
\nof newspaper journalists who have joined the already crowded
\nmarket for freelance writers.<\/p>\n
Here are five tips to get started:<\/p>\n
–Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can help you
\nfind freelancers fairly quickly. Just let people know what you’re
\nlooking for and they’ll spread the word.<\/p>\n
–If you want a wide range of candidates from which to choose,
\npost your project to sites like Elance.com, Guru.com or
\nRentaCoder.com. They will put the fee in escrow and release it
\nonly after you’ve signed off on the project, thus eliminating a
\nlot of squabbles. I’ve used Elance and RentaCoder many times with
\ngood results.<\/p>\n
–Hire fast, and fire faster. Never let freelancers learn on your
\nnickel.<\/p>\n
–Reward outstanding work.<\/p>\n
–Require freelancers who bid on writing projects to speak
\nEnglish as a first language. I made the mistake of hiring someone
\noffshore and was disappointed.<\/p>\n
Leili McKinley, one of my business coaches, says there are other
\ntraps to avoid when working with freelancers. She explained them
\nall and offered dozens of helpful tips on how to keep the best
\nfreelancers working for you when she was my guest during a
\nteleseminar I hosted on “Outsourcing Secrets: How to Get the Best
\nQuality, Price & Teamwork from Freelancers.”<\/p>\n
=================================
\n2. Where to Find Speaking Gigs
\n=================================<\/p>\n
Speakers, if you’re spending hours searching for events where you
\ncan speak for a fee, or no fee, here’s a handy tool that will
\nmake your job easier.<\/p>\n
SpeakerLeads.com<\/a> is a wiki that lets meeting planners everywhere provide You can search the database, the wiki or you can opt-in and they Already, the wiki has about 1,000 events, as far as three years Meeting planners, add this website to the list of places where It’s brought to you by the Yearbook of Experts, the service that I’ve subscribed to this service for several years and have Mitchell Davis and his staff answer their own phones at ================================= Thousands of anti-tax protesters will attend tea parties in more If you’re one of them, or not, here are ways to promote your –Provide updates throughout the day on Twitter and Facebook. Use –Shoot video and offer it to your local TV stations and –Provide video comments to videos that generate a lot of traffic –Take photos and upload them to photo-sharing sites like –Blog about the experience.<\/p>\n –Offer to be a correspondent for a media outlet or website –Call your U.S. congressmen and let them know how you feel.<\/p>\n –Call your local TV stations and see if they’re sending If you’re on the other side and want to protest the protests, ================================= Why is it that when you leave a comment at someone’s blog, your Could be you don’t have a gravatar.<\/p>\n A gravatar is a globally recognized avatar, an image that follows Create your own gravatar<\/a> in a few minutes.<\/p>\n Once you’ve done that, it’s time to set up gravatars on your blog Publicity Hound David Leonhardt wrote a great blog post on “10<\/a> I prefer a gravatar of someone smiling rather than a cartoon- At social networking sites, people can decide within a few ================================== This week, nine Publicity Hounds have tips for Karen Nardella of From Howard Pierpont:<\/p>\n “With your location, I would look for local coverage in the From Alan McBride:<\/p>\n “What about a massive upper-scale garage sale? Maybe get the From Cheryl Kurland:<\/p>\n “Go back through your previous sales receipts and make a customer Read all the responses to this Help This Hound question.<\/a><\/p>\n I’m running low on HTH questions. Send yours to and include your city ============================== Karen Kalisek of Escondido, Calif. writes:<\/p>\n “WomensMedia.com is a seven-year-old website that has undergone a “We pride ourselves in offering expert advice for working “We don’t male bash, but do offer realistic advice concerning “We have done all this with no advertising or sponsorship. With The Publicity Hound says:<\/p>\n With millions of women participating in social networking sites ============================= Sign inside my hair salon: Unattended children will be given an ================================ Hate Twitter? Claim your username to protect your brand<\/a><\/p>\n Financial advisers, use WSJ section to market yourselves<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week Issue #446 April 14, 2009 Publisher: Joan Stewart ========================================== “Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity” ========================================== In This Issue ================================ 1. Lighten Your Load 2. Where to Find Speaking Gigs 3. Tea Party Publicity 4. Use a Gravatar 5. Promote a Consignment Shop 6. Help This Hound\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":1,"wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[34,35,36,37],"class_list":{"0":"post-34","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tips-of-the-week","7":"tag-help-this-hound","8":"tag-images-and-graphics","9":"tag-pitching-the-media","10":"tag-pubicity-for-niche-markets","11":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43253,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/43253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\ninformation on events that need speakers. It includes other helpful details like
\nthe deadline for speakers to apply, the major market in case you want
\nto search by city, and the website where you can find more
\ninformation about the event.<\/p>\n
\nwill send you updates–all free.<\/p>\n
\naway, that need all types of speakers for keynotes, panels and
\nbreak-out sessions. In some cases, meeting planners want only
\nspeakers who are already planning to attend the event. But that’s
\nOK. Speakers who need experience on the circuit will gladly take
\nthese gigs.<\/p>\n
\nyou can promote your event.<\/p>\n
\nprovides expert sources and contact information for journalists,
\nas well as press release distribution services for experts.<\/p>\n
\nreceived many phone calls from reporters seeking my commentary on
\npublicity topics. If you’re an expert, this service is for you.<\/p>\n
\n202-333-5000 and can get you set up. Before you call, check out<\/a>
\n their website<\/a> and tell them I sent you. They’ll knock $100 off the price
\nof your subscription.<\/p>\n
\n3. Tea Party Publicity
\n=================================<\/p>\n
\nthan 300 cities throughout the United States tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\ncause:<\/p>\n
\nthe hashtag “#teaparty” in your tweets. Learn more about hashtags. <\/a><\/p>\n
\nnewspapers. Even if you’re traveling hundreds of miles to
\nparticipate, you’re still the local angle to this national story.<\/p>\n
\non sites like YouTube. David Mathison offered this tip during the
\nteleseminar I hosted with him last week on how to use social
\nmedia to help you “be the media.”<\/p>\n
\nPhotobucket and Flickr. Some tea parties are encouraging
\nparticipants to bring food for food pantries. Shoot photos and
\nvideos when you’re delivering it.<\/p>\n
\nthat’s interested in covering the event. The Huffington Post is
\nlooking for local correspondents.<\/p>\n
\nreporters. If so, offer to do an on-camera interview or be their
\nmini-correspondent. For inside secrets on how to contact the TV
\nnewsroom’s “Queen Bee” who decides what they will and won’t
\ncover, read about the teleseminar I hosted with Shawne Duperon on
\n“How to Get on the Local TV News Tomorrow.” <\/a><\/p>\n
\nyou can use many of these tactics.<\/p>\n
\n4. Use a Gravatar
\n=================================<\/p>\n
\nphoto doesn’t show up next to your comment, but photos of the
\nother Publicity Hounds who comment are everywhere?<\/p>\n
\nyou from site to site and appears beside your name when you
\nparticipate. It’s a powerful tool because your smiling face might
\nbe the first thing that catches a reader’s attention.<\/p>\n
\nor forum. Plug-ins are available for leading blog software and
\ncontent management systems. Watch the tutorials at the link above
\nfor more information.<\/p>\n
\n Ways to Make Your Gravatar Sell”<\/a> and included my gravatar and
\nseveral others as examples of those he loves.<\/p>\n
\ncharacter depiction, or a company logo, or an inane illustration
\nthat has nothing to do with the person behind the curtain. Social
\nmedia is all about transparency and forming relationships with
\npeople.<\/p>\n
\nseconds whether to follow you when they see your gravatar and
\nread your profile. Almost every profile I read can be improved.
\nSocial networking expert Nancy Marmolejo explained what the ideal
\nprofiles include, with step-by-step instructions on how to dress
\nup yours during the teleseminar I recorded with her. It’s called
\n“Can Your Social Networking Profile Pass the 10-Second Test?”<\/p>\n
\n5. Promote a Consignment Shop
\n==================================<\/p>\n
\nConway, N.H. She owns a consignment outlet and home staging<\/a>
\n center for high-end furniture<\/a> and needs to know how to spread the
\nword, on a very tight budget, about what she’s doing.<\/p>\n
\ntourist media. There is a high traffic count from the Boston and
\nNorth Shore markets. They’re looking for a quality and price that
\nbeats their neighborhood locals.”<\/p>\n
\nlocal newspaper to host it. Let them think it’s their idea too.
\nThey could hire a hall or other area, sell stalls (yours is
\nfree), and advertising is theirs.”<\/p>\n
\nlist. Create a letter and mail it to each previous customer
\noffering a 10 percent discount on anything purchased between
\n[date] and [date]. Include two business cards–one for them, one
\nto pass along to a friend who might be in need of your products.<\/p>\n
\nand state.<\/p>\n
\n6. Help This Hound
\n==============================<\/p>\n
\nmajor overhaul and is in the process of relaunching.<\/p>\n
\nwomen. Currently, we have 30,000 unique website followers each
\nmonth (20 percent of those are overseas), 10,000 follow the blog,
\nWomen’s Lunch Talk, and 1,000 listen to our podcast, Working in
\nHeels.<\/p>\n
\nworking women. We also have a library with over 200 articles
\nwritten by people such as Madeline Albright, Suze Orman, and many
\nother notables. We also are proud of our Google ranking of 5.<\/p>\n
\nthe new ‘look’ we want to increase our followers, create revenue
\nchannels, offer classes, provide speakers and build
\nrelationships. Where do we start getting the word out that we
\nexist? Any suggestions for a media kit, PR kit, etc. would be
\ngreatly appreciated. We have no money, but we have a great
\nmessage with a proven history.”<\/p>\n
\nand just waiting to spread the word for you, you don’t need a
\nhuge budget, or any budget for that matter, to make a splash. How
\nabout it Hounds? How can Karen use social media as well as
\ntraditional media to promote the site? Post your best comments to<\/a>
\n my blog.<\/a><\/p>\n
\n7. Hound Joke of the Week
\n=============================<\/p>\n
\nespresso and a free puppy.<\/p>\n
\n8. And at My Blog…
\n================================<\/p>\n