2006 November

Wanted: Stories from entrepreneurs

11/24/2006 By Joan Leave a Comment

One of the best ways to promote your business is to get into other people’s books, which have a long shelf life. Here’s another opportunity to do just that.

Fred Hueston and Lyna Farkas of the “Growing Your Business” radio show are writing a book, and they’re looking for stories from business people, entrepreneurs and others.

For example, can you tell a story about a unique and successful way you networked?

Are you flexible in setting goals and, as a result, did you get something better than you thought you’d get? Submit your story of any length by email.

If they use your story, they’ll include a link to your website. Deadline is December 1.

Filed Under: Authors & Publishers, Business Promotion, Media Leads

Balloon artist sculpts Borat

11/22/2006 By Joan 1 Comment

When I wrote my latest special report titled “How to Piggyback onto Celebrity News to Promote Your Product, Service, Cause or Issue,” I gave lots of examples of smart Publicity Hounds who have done just that.

Here’s another.

When Russian-born balloon artist Irina Patterson of Miami, Florida noticed that the movie “Borat” was quickly becoming a hot box office hit, she figured out a way to piggyback onto the publicity.

“I took advantage of the ‘Borat’ craze by posting a balloon art parody on Borat on my blog.

“It was picked up by the media and other blogs and the traffic on my blog increased twenty-fold. It took only a few hours to see the results. It’s a good example of what a newsworthy blog post can do.”

She mentioned the blog item as part of her pitch to the Miami Herald. They loved it, and assigned a reporter and photographer to cover her. It was the fourth time she has appeared in that newspaper. You can see previous articles here and here.

Not only that, but as a result of the online and offline publicity, Irina, who dresses in unique balloon art couture and serves as an entertaining host, even got a few paying gigs. By the way, she says she’s open to collaborative PR projects with other creative Publicity Hounds. “I have my own media contacts, and I’m able to engage them successfully and get media coverage for the events that I am a part of.” Call her at 786-301-2456 or email.

Have Irina and I convinced you that you’re leaving sales leads and money on the table if you aren’t blogging? Confused about where to start? Don’t be. You can have your own blog up and running, and your first entry posted, within half an hour.

BL Ochman, who was my guest during a teleseminar I hosted called “Blogging 101: How to Use Weblogs for Publicity,” says valuable sales leads, speaking engagements and other opportunities can be yours if you blog. Irina has proven it.

Filed Under: Blogs, Business Promotion, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, Publicity on the Internet

Book about anxiety needs marketing tips

11/21/2006 By Joan 6 Comments

Carolyn Chambers Clark of Englewood, Florida writes:

“I’ve written the book ‘Living Well with Anxiety: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell You…That You Need to Know.’

“Anxiety can take over our world, causing dizziness, stammering, heart palpitations, trembling, shaking, unreasonable fears, panic attacks that seem like heart attacks, obsessive thoughts and behaviors, discomfort in confining or public places, and other distressing symptoms in social, work, or school situations.

“The book is useful for everyone who wants to minimize anxiety and enhance peace and calm. It includes conventional psychiatric and psychological approaches, client anecdotes, and ways to use nutrition, herbs, environmental changes, exercise, stress-reduction measures and an Anxiety Success Plan.”

You can read a sample chapter and Table of Contents.

Filed Under: Authors & Publishers

Get 20 hours of free virtual assistance

11/20/2006 By Joan Leave a Comment

Danielle Keister is working on a research project for her group, the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce, and needs a volunteer for a case study.

She’s looking for one solo business owner—either a PR professional or business or marketing consultant—who is currently doing everything themselves in their business. They must not have any administrative support, and they must be willing to religiously document all their activities and time spent in their business for one month, then give that data to her.

In exchange, after that one-month period, they’ll get 20 hours of her virtual assistance service for free.

“The idea is to take someone who has no administrative support in their business, and show a picture of that business before with no support, and then after with just a bit of strategic support,” Danielle said.

She’ll be using the case study and the numbers crunched from it to help promote the virtual assistance profession. The results will be used in her media kit to show business owners how they can “create” more time for themselves to get more done and grow their business.

Interested? Contact her at email. Sounds like a great deal.

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Media Kits, PR Consultants/Publicists

Robb Report needs boating, flying leads

11/18/2006 By Joan Leave a Comment

Judy Mandell, a freelance writer for the “Robb Report,” the monthly magazine for ultra-affluent readers with an average household income of $1.18 million, is looking for aviation and boating stories for this winter and spring, but no profiles.