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A Wikipedia listing isn’t easy, but here are 6 tips

5/13/2008 By 8 Comments

Wikipedia logoConvincing Wikipedia, the largest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet, to include a page about your company can be one of the best ways to become well-regarded, credibile in the eyes of the search engines and generate tons of traffic.

Yet a listing on Wikipedia is very difficult.  

Ralph Wilson of Web Marketing Today did a video interview with Mike Svatek who passed along six tips on how his company, Baynote.com, got listed on Wikipedia.

Tip #1: When submitting your own copy for a listing, don’t write persuasively.  Just the facts, please. For many of us who write marketing copy almost every day, this feels unnatural, sort of like a right-handed person writing with the left hand. But it works.   

A doggie treat to Publicity Hound Harry Hoover for Twittering about the video.

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Publicity on the Internet, Social media marketing

EzineArticles.com will limit writers to four links June 1

5/13/2008 By 2 Comments

If you’re sitting on a mountain of content that you’ve been wanting to submit to EzineArticles.com, do it before the end of the month.

That’s when the site will start limiting writers to no more than four links within each article—two self-serving links and two other links. (A self-serving link is a link that you own or control.)

Christopher Knight, who owns the directory, explains that existing articles will be grandfathered. That means the links can remain intact, unless you edit the article. 

Why the change?

Frequent user feedback confirms that they think articles with 3 self-serving links are perceived as spam…We want to continue to attract high profile expert authors, many of whom say they’d like to be seen in similar company.  High profile expert authors almost NEVER include 3 self-serving links.

Wise Publicity Hounds won’t simply recycle existing articles from their own websites. They’ll submit new content to keep their topics up to date and keep the search engines happy.

If you struggle coming up with ideas for articles, I’ve compiled dozens of fill-in-the-blank headlines that will spark an idea or two. See my article ”Headlines for How-to Articles.”

Now start writing! 

Filed Under: Authors & Publishers, Writing Articles

Know journalists who Twitter? Add them to this wiki

5/11/2008 By 2 Comments
Twitter logo

Everybody, it seems, is Twittering these days. And for good reason. 

You can follow your friends who are Twittering, use Twitter numerous ways in your business (more about this in a minute), and even search for other Twitterers using specific keywords.   

Last week, Publicity Hound Harry Hoover announced that he started compiling a list of Twittering journalists and media outlets that Twitter.  They include reporters at Business Week, CNET, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, FOX News and the London Times.

And why would journalists Twitter? To keep up on the competition, of course.

Yesterday, he announced he has turned the list into a wiki for the benefit of PR people and other Publicity Hounds, and he’s asking anyone who knows of other journalists or media outlets to add to it.   

harry Hoover

The list initially was compiled at our blog, THINKing, from information provided by Red66, CNET, Poynter, as well as Twitter keyword searches on terms such as “journalist” and “reporter”.

Notice how Harry used the search function within Twitter to build his list. If you’re already Twittering, plug in a few keywords or keyword phrases to see who you can find who’s Twittering about your topic. They might be worth following.  And perhaps even emailing if you have the solution to a problem they’ve mentioned in one of their posts.

In the next few weeks, I’ll be putting the finishing touches on my new special report on how to use Twitter for business.  

Filed Under: Blogs, Business Promotion, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Radio Publicity, Social networking, TV Publicity

How can Michigan promote itself to Hollywood producers?

5/6/2008 By 4 Comments

Hollywood film

Milan Stevanovich of Detroit, Michigan writes: 

“Michigan just passed a 40 percent rebate to companies filming movies and TV programs in the state.  If you use Michigan companies and labor, you get a 40 percent instant rebate after production—big savings for number-crunching entertainment financiers.

“For the last three weeks, my associates and I have schmoozed a dozen Hollywood actors, producers, and those in charge of locating properties for shoots.

“My client owns 100 buildings in Detroit and eventually will have the lion’s share of any studios built on his properties. Recently, production companies have been coming to us looking for investors for productions. The laws here make it incredibly competitive because of the rebates.

“How do we take advantage of this window of opportunity to be the epicenter of everything Hollywood in Michigan?  How do we best get the word out that my associates are one degree of separation from the best locations, investors, suppliers and vendors at the epicenter of this new burgeoning industry in our great state?”

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, The Local Angle

Bury bad news with online press releases

5/6/2008 By 2 Comments

Bury bad newsIt could be a lawsuit against your company.

Or a health department violation against your restaurant.

Or a post at somebody’s blog, written by a rabble-rouser who wants to drag your name through the mud and destroy your business.

If it’s bad news and it’s online, it could live on forever.  Anybody who uses the search engines to research companies can find it.  That is, unless you know how to bury it.

Enter Glen Selig, a former TV investigative reporter who today writes and distributes press releases for his clients to bury or “push down” the bad news on the organic search list.  That’s the list that appears on the left side of the screen when you type a keyword or keyword phrase into a search engine like Google.

“You still need something newsworthy to disseminate, but then it’s about strategy and technique,” says Glen of PressReleasePros.com.

I’d go one step further and say you don’t even need something newsworthy to write about. 

Let’s say you sell jewelry.  Three years ago, a consumer group incorrectly accused you of selling fake gems.  Their accusations appeared online and kept popping up in the searching engines when people typed certain keyword phrases about gems.

Here’s how you could bury it:

—Write and distribute a press release about your new money-back guarantee.

—Write and distribute another release about how to buy gems.

—And then another on what to do if you love jewelry, but you’re allergic to certain types of metal.

—And then another on the most popular types of gems.

—And then another on what to look for when buying gems.

Get the idea?  You aren’t writing these releases for journalists.  You’re writing them for consumers.  If journalists find them, that’s great.  But the whole point of the exercise is to bury the bad news. The more press releases you write, the further down the list the bad news will fall. Even if it ends up on page 3 or 4 in the organic search list, most consumers wouldn’t bother looking that far into the list. 

“I help large and small companies use this secret weapon all the time,” says Selig.  “And it works like a charm.”

He distributes his press releases through his own company, PRNewsChannel, so they get picked up by Google News, Ask.com, Yahoo and MSN.

You can hire someone like Glen to write and distribute press releases for you.  Or you can do it yourself with help from my free email tutorial called “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.” 

Filed Under: Blogs, Crisis Communications, PR Consultants/Publicists, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity on the Internet
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