2008 April

Artists, photographers: Comment on Miley Cyrus photo

4/30/2008 By Joan 3 Comments

Vanity Fair Miley Cyrus The it-borders-on-kiddie-porn photo of Miley Cyrus in the current issue of Vanity Fair magazine screams for comment from artists, photographers, parents, teens, and anybody else who wants to jump onto this controversy.

Miley, who was photographed by Annie Leibovitz, has issued a statement saying she’s embarrassed by the way the photo turned out. And her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, is reportedly upset.

Hollywood types have already weighed in with their “what’s the big deal?” comments.

Parents, what do you do you think?

Artists, is the photo truly art, as the Vanity Fair editors claim?

Photographers, if given the opportunity, would you have shot a famous 15-year-old half nude?

Bloggers, bring it on.

Artists often comment about how difficult it is to generate publicity for themselves. Commenting on controversial topics is one of the best ways. During the teleseminar I hosted on “How Artists Can Sell More Artwork from Online and Offline Publicity,” I suggested artists create a Google Alert for topics they want to follow.

Google Alerts will keep you updated weekly, daily, or several times a day about when that topic appears someplace online, either in a blog post or video or news story.

Filed Under: Blogs, Celebrity tie-ins, Magazine Publicity, Photos & Graphics, Publicity on the Internet

Professional organizer needs promotion ideas

4/29/2008 By Joan 10 Comments

Debbie Jordan Kravitz of York, Pa. writes:

Debbie Jordan Kravitz “I’m a professional organizer. I also blog weekly at http://OnlineOrganizing.com, which has been going really well and leading to lots of website hits from all over the country.

“To capitalize on this broad audience, and since I can’t physically organize these people, I have added virtual organizing consultation programs to my list of services. This allows me to consult with clients from any part of the country via email and phone calls regarding their problems.

“Aside from pitching this service through my blog, though, how can I market this service to my target audience (Internet-savvy, time-crunched individuals who are capable of implementing organizational instructions and strategies, but are looking for customized plans, ideas and guidance?”

Filed Under: Blogs, Business Promotion, Writing Articles

‘The Takeaway’ competes with ‘Morning Edition’ on NPR

4/29/2008 By Joan Leave a Comment

Publicity Hounds, you have a new program on National Public Radio to add to your publicity toolbox.

It’s called “The Takeaway,” a rival to “The Morning Edition.” It’s a chatty, less-formal, more interactive program that launched yesterday on PBS in New York, Boston, Baltimore and several smaller cities.

Hosted by John Hockenberry and Adaora Udoji, the new show in the morning timeslot will allow listeners to weigh in via the Internet, in real time, on what subjects the they should cover next or examine in greater detail. Listeners can participate in on-air discussions.

Read the details in the article New Rival for ‘Morning Edition’ in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.

You can learn more about the show, including the names of all the “Takeaway” producers, and then submit your own comments on topics such as photo IDs, Atlanta hip-hop and the rebate checks.

Book publicist Lissa Warren says National Public Radio can be a gold mine for Publicity Hounds who are targeting a better-educated, more upscale audience—but only if you understand how the NPR labyrinth works and you know how to navigate it. She was my guest on a teleseminar called “How to Get Booked on National Public Radio.”

Filed Under: Pitching the Media, Publicity on the Internet, Radio Publicity

Web video pulls traffic, raises your search rankings

4/29/2008 By Joan 4 Comments

Stop wasting time trading links with other websites, posting the same how-to article to a gazillion article directory sites, and doing sneaky little things at your own website to try to trick the search engines.

Those strategies can actually hurt you.

Spend your time instead creating video, one of the most powerful ways to pull traffic to your website or blog. It can boost your position in the search engine rankings and, in some cases, take tons of business away from your competitors. Do it right, and they’ll be so shell-shocked they’ll pack up and go home.

During my 70-minute teleseminar “How to Use Web Video for Your Website to Pull Traffic, Impress Visitors, Make the Phone Ring and Close the Sale” with video expert Mike Stewart earlier this month, the 400 people who were on the line listened as Mike outlined lots of creative, powerful ways to use video in your publicity campaign, or to sell a products or services.

We’re not talking about full-length productions here. Just short clips of about two minutes or less.

Here are our ideas on how to use video in a publicity or marketing campaign:

—-Create short videos about your products and services, upload them to your website, and include video links in your press releases.

—Speakers, create short video snippets of your presentations and post them at your website.

—Use videos to demonstrate how to use your product.

—Authors, create short little videos that discuss portions of your books.

—Take visitors on a tour of your website using a screen-capture software program like Camtasia.

—Shoot your own video of events the media won’t cover, and submit the video to local newspapers and TV stations, many of which offer consumer-generated video at their websites.

—Use video on a one-page sales letter. If a picture is worth a thousand words, video can close the sale.

—Generate leads and pull traffic by creating videos and posting them to YouTube and other video-sharing sites.

—Use video at your blog, or create a video blog on a free WordPress platform like I’m doing. (I should be ready to introduce it to you next week.)

If you missed last week’s call, you can hear the replay by clicking the link above.

Mike will show you the absolute easiest-to-use equipment you’ll need to start producing video that will turn you into the type of marketing warrior that will send your competitors running home to mommy.

P. S. Many of you who participated in the call emailed me, asking if Mike and I could give you more options in terms of buying a camera, the editing software and the training tutorials. You said you want to get comfortable shooting and editing video first before you create a video blog or a one-page sales letter. We have. Now you can get what you want when you want it. Take another look here.

Filed Under: Blogs, Business Promotion, Video