2007 March

Photo tips to make your product look its best

3/18/2007 By Joan 3 Comments

If you need a photo of something you’re selling on eBay, or a product photo for your media kit or website, and you don’t have a bucket of money to spend on a professional photographer, check out this great list of photo tips courtesy of AuctionBytes.com.

They explain how to buy inexpensive lights and other gadgets that will help you take good-looking photos. If you have Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher, you can see the nifty demonstration that shows what a product photo looks like if you use a technique called “three-point lighting” which requires three lights positioned at different angles. (Netscape may not work with this demo.)

The tips are targeted to those who sell items on eBay, but I think they’re just as valuable for do-it-yourself photographers who need photos for other purposes.

As I explained in my ebook “How to Use Photos & Graphics in Your Publicity Campaign,” today’s digital cameras make it fairly easy for anybody to take great-looking photos that you can even submit to the media. Trade magazines, in particular, need product photos. So sure that your press releases on new products link to high-resolution photos (300 dots per inch) that can be downloaded at your website.

Filed Under: Magazine Publicity, Photos & Graphics, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity on the Internet

Campaign gives tampons to homeless shelters

3/16/2007 By Joan Leave a Comment

Seventh Generation, which sells non-toxic household products and other supplies, recently halted a successful online promotion in which it donated free, environmentally-friendly tampons and sanitary pads to homeless shelters throughout the world.

The company sent a package of organic cotton tampons or chlorine-free pads to a shelter if a visitor to the website clicked on a heart and dragged it into a picture of a shelter. The campaign was so successful that Seventh Generation put it on hold this past week.

Publicity Hound Ina Steiner, editor of AuctionBytes.com, told me about the promotion.

“It’s a great marketing strategy,” she said. “Now I know about a product and company I had never heard of before, and it was something I never would have clicked on without the charity aspect. I thought you would find it interesting.”

I found equally fascinating the dozens of responses people have submitted to the company, which is compiling a list of euphemisms for menstruation. (Don’t bother reader the list if you’re easily offended.) I don’t know how much publicity the euphemisms have gotten in women’s magazines. But if I were an editor. I’d do something with this. A Top 10 list, maybe?

Those Top 10 lists, by the way, are called briefs, and they’re one of nine types of briefs, fillers and quizzes the media love. Briefs are one of the best ways to get into big national magazines.

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Magazine Publicity, Publicity on the Internet

YachtBuddy.com wants news about sailing events

3/16/2007 By Joan Leave a Comment

Do you have news about sailing events, boat shows, yacht launches or speedboat trials? If so, YachtBuddy.com, based in Antigua, wants it, as well as yacht brokerage news.

“We would like yacht and marine product reviews and articles too. If it would fit in a yacht magazine it would be suitable. Photos are encouraged.” Go to its website and click “Register.” Register with your email address and receive a confirmation link. Once you have registered, go back to the same website and log in. You will reach a page with a dark blue header. On the left side you will see “Write Post.”

Type your information into the box. Or email your news.

Filed Under: Media Leads, Publicity for Niche Markets, Special Events

Capture email addresses, publicity with these 55 freebies

3/16/2007 By Joan Leave a Comment

Are you letting visitors come to your website, look around, then leave without asking them for their email addresses?

If so, shame on you. That’s no different than a stopkeeper letting customers
walk into the store without asking, “Is there something I help you find?”

Some of those visitors, by the way, might be journalists doing research for an article. They might like what they see, like your free articles. And they might be looking for a way to hear from you on a regular basis. If you aren’t capturing email addresses, all those visitors might leave for good—and you’ll never hear from them again.

When I was in Perry Marshall’s coaching circle last year, he opened my eyes to
the dozens of ways you can capture email addresses. For example, he offers a free 5-day email course on how to write short White Papers that you can then offer to your customers (for free, of course) or send to the media along with a press release. He gave me permission to include them in “Special Report #51: 55 Free Things You Can Offer to Generate Publicity or Capture Email Addresses.”

They include things like an article, ebook, tutorial, return-on-investment calculator, case study, checklist, industry survey, pocket guide and webinar. You can even let people test drive a service you’re offering so they can decide if they want to buy it or subscribe to it.

The report also includes examples on how several Publicity Hounds offer particular freebies to promote their product, service, cause or issue.

What freebie can you create quickly, today, so you can pull in traffic to your website, or encourage journalists to write aobut you? Offering something for free is one of the 89 reasons to write a press release, included in my free email tutorial “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.”

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Information Products, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity on the Internet, Writing Articles

Harvard Business Review pitching tips

3/16/2007 By Joan Leave a Comment

If you or the boss are aching to get into the Harvard Business Review, the management bible, check out these pitching tips from Deputy Editor Karen Dillon, courtesty of Marketing Sherpa.

You have until March 23 to read the interview for free.

Here’s the bad news: Dillon says you have a 2 percent chance of making it into the monthly if you pitch an unsolicited idea. But lucky for Publicity Hounds, the magazine offers detailed guidelines including the six questions you must answer when you submit a proposal.

Yes, a proposal. Then you must write a two-to-three page (500–750 word) narrative outline laying out the structure of your article and describing each important point in a separate paragraph. (You didn’t think this was going to be easy did you?)

I wish more magazines would be this detailed when explaining the kinds of articles and content they want.

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Magazine Publicity, Pitching the Media