The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

Most small-business owners whose businesses are on the fast track usually have one thing in common. They all outsource work they either hate to do, or work that requires a skill set or talents they don’t have. 

They outsource bookkeeping, writing and editing, proofreading, graphics and artwork, search engine optimization, website design and management, and more. It lets them complete far more projects in far less time, and it saves their sanity. 

Outsourcing is a valuable skill—yes a skill—that can help anyone who wants online and offline publicity. You could be outsourcing things like press release writing and distribution, press kit updates, video creation, writing and editing marketing materials, and even blogging.

Why is outsourcing a skill? Because most people who have done it have made mistakes. Me included. I’ve hired someone who speaks English as a second language to write an article. But I never knew that until I saw the finished product.

Far worse things have happened to other business owners. Some have hired freelancers who stole work from other writers and passed it off as their own. Others have had legal disputes with freelancers over things like the terms of service. Open yourself up to those kinds of problems and could be spending days in a courtroom.

Leili McKinley, one of my business coaches, has worked with many independent contractors with great success. But she, too, has made mistakes. She will explain some of them and offer valuable tips that will help you understand the world of outsourcing and sidestep the land mines that await you if you don’t understand the best ways to find independent contractors. 

She will be my guest during a teleseminar at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, June 18. It’s called Outsourcing Secrets: Your Guide to Getting the Best Quality, Price and Teamwork from Freelancers.” Who should attend? Anyone who can’t do it all and needs help growing their business.

Register for the teleseminar and check out Leili’s video. She’ll tell you how to get five free outsourcing tips you can start using immediately.

Posted In: General
posted On: 5/31/2008: 8:21 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

Of all the people who need to promote what they’re sellings, artists are among those who have the most difficult time.

I don’t know why. But Nicolette Tallmadge, who blogs at The Crafted Webmaster, offers 10 tips on How to Use Online video to Promote Your Art. She makes an interesting point. People who buy artwork love to watch artists at work. They’re also curious about things like what inspired the artwork, if the artist sells fulltime or has another job, and if more works are being created.

“Those who attend craft shows say that meeting the artists and talking with them about their artwork is part of what makes the whole experience fun. If you sell exclusively to galleries or exclusively online…this is an important piece of promotion that you are missing.” 

That’s where video comes in. Create a video showing your artwork in various stages of completion. Or talk about what inspired you to create it, how long it took, and even stories about problems or challenges you encountered along the way (people love this stuff!). 

In additon to Nicollete’s many great ideas, I think artists—and anyone else for that matter—should embed video links within press releases. They make the releases more interseting and will help them rank higher in the search engines. My free email tutorial ”89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases” explains everything you need to know about how to write and distribute direct-to-consumer releases.

That’s the topic I discussed during the second annual smARTist™ Telesummit in January. Artists from 35 states in the U.S. and 12 countries participated in the art career conference that taught artists about topics like marketing, how to sell more artwork and how to license their work. Ariane Goodwin, who sponsored the telesummit, is offering all the conference materials for sale at her website.

The testimonials from artists who already have seen great results from the telesummit and the line-up of guest experts ought to convince any artist that the materials can turn “just a hobby” into a thriving business.  Artists, you have until June 16 to take advantage of the early-bird special.

Posted In: Business Promotion, Press Releases/News Releases, Video
posted On: 5/30/2008: 10:24 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Your ezine might be packed with free content and do excellent job promoting your expertise.

But it’s worthless if it ends up in the recipient’s spam folder, or in one of several other spam traps that have been set by Internet service providers.

That’s why it’s worth the extra time to run your ezine or important email you’re sending, like pitches to bloggers and journalists, through a spam-checker. Ditto for emailed press releases. Just one little innocent-looking word or phrase can send your email into a big black hole.

Here are four spam checkers:

EzineCheck is very easy to use but flags fewer words than some others.

SpamCheck will give you a report within seconds, but make sure you follow the directions exactly.

Lyris’ content checker gives you your score within seconds, and then emails you a list of offending words that need to be removed from the newsletter. This is the service I use, and I wish they were a little more specific when flagging words and phrases. Sometimes it isn’t apparent what they’re objecting to.    

Kick-start Cart, the shopping cart I use, has a built-in spam checker but it doesn’t seem to be as strict as some of the others.  (If you’re in the market for a shopping cart, check out the free ebook Internet Cash Machines: How to Pick a Shopping Cart System That Makes You Money.)

During the teleseminar I conducted a few years ago on “How to Turn Your Ezine into a Cash Machine,” I mentioned that run my ezine through two spam checkers: the one from Lyris and the one from Kick-start Cart, just to play it safe.  

Posted In: Blogs, Pitching the Media, Press Releases/News Releases
posted On: 5/27/2008: 11:12 am: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

Lynne Scheible of Big Rapids, Michigan writes:

“Leadership Mecosta, our community leadership program, is sponsoring a community art project.

“Area businesses and organizations are sponsoring fiberglass statues of more than 30 bulldogs, 3 by 4 feet.  We chose a bulldog because it’s the mascot of Ferris State University, our local college.

“Our job now is to promote the heck out of this so that people will come to Big Rapids and the surrounding area to see these dogs artistically designed by local artists.  Our web page is at http://www.yearofthedawg.com

“Other communities have done similar projects.  Chicago did cows.  South Haven, Michigan did bears.  And Midland, Michigan did Trolls.

“Can your Hounds come up with some promotion ideas to pull tourists to Big Rapids to see these dawgs?”

Posted In: Special Events
posted On: 5/26/2008: 10:31 pm: By Joan
Comments: 7 Comments

Even the most carefully written publicity plan can be downright frustrating if you pitch journalist after journalist  and you hear nothing back. 

I just finished a free article Find Journalists Using These 7 Resources. It lists seven resources that Publicity Hounds can use to get in front of journalists.

• One is a free leads service.
• Four are subscirption-based leads services.
• Two are free ezines that include leads from journalists, bloggers, podcasters, authors and others.

I’ve heard great comments from Publicity Hounds about all seven services. (Journalists like them, too!)

Posted In: General
posted On: 5/25/2008: 9:44 am: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment