Issue #915 May 13, 2015
\nPublisher: Joan Stewart<\/p>\n
This Week in the Hound House:<\/strong><\/p>\n
I’m still smiling from the phone call I got on Sunday, Mother’s Day. It was from a friend who’s a dog breeder and knows how to communicate with dogs. She knows I don’t have kids. And she told me my dog, Bogie, asked her to call and wish me Happy Mother’s Day. Isn’t that sweet?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
1. Why Email Lists Are Like Gold<\/h3>\n
Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, knows the value of an email list.<\/p>\n
For three years, he did nothing with his list that eventually grew to 250,000 fans.<\/p>\n
When he finally started emailing regularly, he realized that he had been sitting on Fort Knox.<\/p>\n
Hunter Boyle, who worked at AWeber, the email management company I use to deliver these tips to you, told that story last week when he spoke at the Author U Extravaganza in Denver. He said other successful authors who are AWeber clients made the same mistake Ferriss did.<\/p>\n
“They told us that if there’s one thing they would have done differently, it’s that they would have learned about email marketing earlier,” Boyle said.<\/p>\n
Of all the marketing tools, my email list is, by far, my biggest revenue generator. All my fans, and my SuperFans, are in one place. I can send them free tips whenever I want, as well as a promotion or two. Ka-ching. Ka-ching.<\/p>\n
Give your readers high value, and you can turn them into SuperFans who are happy to buy every book, product and service you offer–and tell the world about you.<\/p>\n
Yet most authors don’t have a clue about email marketing. That’s why I created a cheat sheet “10 Profitable Ways to Use Email Marketing to Create SuperFans Who Help You Sell Books.”<\/a> You can opt in with your name and email address.<\/p>\n
Let me know what you think of it, and feel free to email me with questions about email marketing. I’ll be happy to help.<\/p>\n
2. How to Use HARO<\/h3>\n
Savvy Publicity Hounds already know about HARO, short for Help a Reporter Out.<\/p>\n
It’s a free service that delivers dozens of media leads from live, breathing journalists and bloggers three times a day, Monday through Friday. All of them need specific types of sources for stories they’re covering. You respond with a short pitch on why you’d be an ideal source, and then hope they call or email you.<\/p>\n
But do you know all the ways to use this service not only for publicity but for search engine optimization?<\/p>\n
Jarred Carrizales, the founder of Heroic Search, has written the ultimate guide to How to Use HARO to Earn Valuable Mentions and Links.<\/a> He explains how the service works, the nitty-gritty of getting your pitches to journalists accepted, how to research journalists before you respond to a query, and examples of perfect pitches that led to valuable publicity.<\/p>\n
If you don’t have time to wade through all these HARO leads, Dan Janal offers a similar paid service that will send you only leads that pertain to you. Go to PRLeads.com.<\/a><\/p>\n
3. #DomainGate and You<\/h3>\n
Here’s what you can learn from #DomainGate.<\/p>\n
That’s the the dust-up between GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina on one side and Chuck Todd from “Meet the Press” and late-night talk show host Seth Meyers on the other.<\/p>\n
When Fiorina failed to buy CarlyFiorina.org, and was roundly criticized in the media because one of her detractors did, she bought ChuckTodd.org and SethMeyers.org before going onto their shows.<\/p>\n
HillaryClinton.org, by the way, also directs to Fiorina’s website.<\/p>\n
Lesson: Buy your domain names .com, .net and .org before someone else does. And keep buying them. At less than $10 each per year, failing to do so can turn into an expensive and embarrassing mistake.<\/p>\n
4. Hound Video of the Week<\/h3>\n
There’s no water in the wading pool. But these 5-week-old Golden Retriever pups<\/a> don’t seem to mind. I tried counting them all but they’re moving too fast.<\/p>\n[Tweet “Why Email Lists Are Like Gold #Authorcheatsheets #PublicityTips”]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week<\/h2>\n
– Issue #915 May 13, 2015<\/h3>\n
\n
- Why Email Lists Are Like Gold<\/li>\n
- How to Use HARO<\/li>\n
- #DomainGate and You<\/li>\n
- Hound Video of the Week<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n