Lists are everywhere these days—on TV, on Facebook, on Twitter and in your local newspapers and national magazines.

And for good reasons. Readers love lists. The end of the year is the ideal time to create your own—either by yourself or with help from your friends, followers and fans.

Nicole Nichols, a personal trainer and group fitness instructor, compiled this list of The 50 Best Workout Songs of the Year.

But your list doesn’t have to be the “best of.” It can be the “worst of” such as the 10 Worst Media Disasters of 2011 from Brad Phillips, aka @MrMediaTraining on Twitter. Also consider lists that highlight the funniest, best, zaniest, most thought-provoking or irreverent.

These lists are also perfect fodder for guest blog posts.

What year-end lists have you compiled for yourself or your PR clients? And what kind of publicity have you generated so far?

The Internet makes it possible, even for sole proprietors, to compete against their big competitors because there are so many different ways online to promote expertise.

One of them is by answering questions in your specialty area.

Yes, it’s time-consuming.  But it’s a free way to market yourself. 

Here are the five best places where you should be answering questions to make a fabulous impression and get sales leads:

1.  At Your Blog

Your are blogging, aren’t you? If not, start.

A blog is your main platform from which you can share your knowledge, answer questions, stimulate interesting conversation, and promote.

Encourage people to send you questions, which can be the basis for blog posts. Sometimes I’ll use a question someone has emailed to me, and turn it into a blog post.

     
    
2. On Twitter

Many of us are so use to sharing links to helpful information that we think people want to know about, that we seldom take the time to ask them what they need.

Go ahead. Ask your Twitter followers what’s bugging them. You’ll receive lots of clues that you can then use to create content such as articles, information products, blog posts and tips lists (“The 10 Best Ways to…”)—after you answer their question on Twitter.

The big payoff will come when you provide an answer that saves somebody thousands of dollars or hours of time, and they rave to their thousands of fans and followers about how great you are.

For example, when I tweeted that my Facebook fan page had disappeared, Dave Kerpen of Likeable Media responded, asked me to make him an administrator, logged in to my account, found a problem in the settings, fixed it, and my page was alive again! I blogged about the nightmare and the happy ending. And then I continued to sing his praises on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and in my ezine, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week.

Follow me on Twitter and ask me a question.
     
     
    

3. On Facebook

If you’re willing to spend the time, you can use your Facebook page as a town square where people hungry for content—and answers—can get them.  No one does a better job of doing this than Mari  Smith, arguably the world’s Number One Facebook expert. Almost daily, she receives doezens of questions and answers them on her page.

I receive quite a few email questions on a wide variety of social media and publicity topics. I encourage those people to post the questions to my Publicity Hound fan page, where I can answer them for the benefit of everyone who visits.  Some people don’t bother. But some do.

Follow me on Facebook and post a question on my wall.
     
     
    

    
    
    
4. On LinkedIn

There are two ways to answer questions: By using the Answers feature and within Groups you have joined.

To use the Answer feature, go to the menu bar and click on More > Answers and you’ll see questions that other LinkedIn users have asked. You can also use the search function to find questions that include certain keywords.

Within Groups, people ask questions frequently because they know that special interest Groups include other people who share their same expertise.

LinkedIn expert Wayne Breitbarth, who was my guest on two recent webinars, says answering questions within Groups is better than simply using the Q&A feature. That’s because questions within groups usually focus on specific topics that people within those groups will find of value. Using the Q&A feature can be time-consuming because you have to hunt for questions within your area of expertise.

Connect with me on LinkedIn and tell me what you need to know. I’ll be glad to help.

    
5. On Quora

Quora  is the perfect home for experts because it’s quickly gaining considerable traffic and attention. (See 6 reasons to use Quora to promote your expertise.)

Many journalists are using this site to hunt for experts and sources. Even the New York Times is using Quora so three of its writers, all authors, can answer questions about their books and subject areas.

Readers who like your answer can “vote it up” within all the other answers. They can also f0llow you on quora so that whenever you answer a question, they don’t miss a thing.

Here’s a video from Mashable on how to ask and answer questions on Quora:

That’s my list. What about you? Where do you answer questions to promote your expertise?
 

Tools That Can Help You:

33 Ways to Attract Facebook Fans, Provide Sterling Content & Keep Them Coming Back for More, with Mari Smith

Your LinkedIn Power Formula Part 1: How to Make Killer Contacts, Pull Crowds to Events, be a Star in Your Industry & Track Down Leads Like a Bloodhound, with Wayne Breitbarth

Your LinkedIn Power Formula Part 2: Advanced Strategies for Writing a Killer Profile, Cashing in on Groups and Creating Company Pages, with Wayne Breitbarth

I thought I had caught all the out-of-date products when I went through my inventory a week ago, to prepare for my close-out sale that’s been under way for a week.

But I found two more that I want to offer:

11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook (only $5, reduced from $49.95)

Because I’m planning a webinar next week with Mari Smith on The Best Ways to Attract Facebook Fans, Provide Sterling Content and Keep Them Coming Back for More (Just Like the Celebrities Do), I’m offering this title that I created a few years ago with Christine Buffaloe of Serenity Virtual Assistant Services, who manages many Facebook accounts for her clients and teaches them how to use the site. We’ve updated the handouts twice and even though some of the material is out of date, there are still plenty of gems!

Fly High with Publicity in the Inflight Magazines ($19.95, regularly $97).

The giant database of contact information, updated in March 2010,  includes contact information, pitching tips and even links for journalists’ social media profiles, where applicable, for 56 inflight magazines. The downloadable, 70-page electronic document helps you understand the inflight magazine industry, the kinds of topics they love to feature, and the many opportunities for publicity that most people don’t know about.

Did you know, for example, that many editors are almost desperate for photos and short items about tourist events and other attractions that are planned in destination cities during most months? It’s true. Many PR people submit press releases about events but fail to include colorful, compelling photos.

Those two titles are among 22 in all. Peruse the list, and shop till you drop.

If you need local publicity, and you live in one of 19 states in the United States, or the District of Columbia, Patch.com is almost begging for your pitch.

A memo from Patch editor-in-chief Brian Farnham outlines a plan to increase traffic by increasing article production.

Patch currently requires every site to post a minimum of four times per day, but many are not. Hence, the memo.

Patch covers California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

It loves news about new businesses, community events, local government, crime, items for the events calendar, columns from local residents and government officials, news tips, and the all-important and often overlooked photos and videos.

This is the perfect time to pitch Patch for another reason.  AOL Inc, which owns Patch, is launching 33 sites in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina, key states that play an early role in the U.S. presidential election.

How to Pitch Patch

1. Build a relationship with Patch writers and editors. Spend time at the Patch site for your community, and identify who is responsible for your local news. The editor’s name and email address is under the logo at the top of the page.
2. Email the editor and ask questions. I’ve found Patch writers to be incredibly helpful and friendly.
3. Many Patch writers are former journalists. And all journalists love to report news first. Keep Patch in mind when hear a newsy item about something in your community.
4. Add Patch to your media database. Every time you write a press release, ask if the content is something that Patch would like.
5. Is your business doing something new? It’s much easier to get business stories onto Patch than it is to get your story told in your local business journal, which usually requires multiple sources.
6. Don’t forget about stand-alone photos with captions, and video. (See How to Use Photos & Graphics in a Publicity Campaign)

One of the other reasons Patch is such a super tool in a publicity campaign is because people can sign up for the Patch newsletter in their community, and receive email alerts.  I’ll often stop what I’m doing when I see the Port Washington/Saukville (Wisconsin) newsletter arrive in my Inbox.

What kind of publicity have you gotten from Patch? Do you have any pitching tips to add to my list?

No more excuses about why you aren’t blogging for your business.

If 10-year-old Tyler Duswalt can start and maintain a blog, so can you.

Tyler is author of The Short Book on How to Become a Blogging Expert—A 10-Year-Old’s Top 25 Easy Tips to Help You Start an Effective Blog (Craig Duswalt International, $9.95).

He published it last year, after his blog, CPCheats, became a go-to source for kids who wanted to cheat at Club Penguin. The online role-playing game, published by Disney Online Studios, involves a virtual world containing a range of online games and activities.  Players use cartoon penguin-avatars and play in a winter-set virtual world.

One of the criticisms of the game is that it allows players to cheat. Hence, Tyler’s blog which has had more than 85,000 views.

I learned about Tyler recently when I spoke at Author U in Denver and met his dad, Craig Duswalt, who also was on the program and taught authors about how to market like a rock star.

Craig says Tyler wrote the book himself. No professional editors. No book coaches. No picky proofreaders. Just sage advice from a 10-year old blogging expert who use phrases like “And that’s all I have to say about that” at the end of a chapter.

Here are some of the questions that people typically ask about blogging, and Tyler’s responses, excerpted from the book:

Q.  How many times should you post to your blog?

A.  ”As much as you can every week. Try to post at least once a day. I post about three times a day…But here is one thing not to do: do NOT Blog if you know you won’t have enough time to make posts. It’s useless.”

Q.  How can you get traffic to a blog?

A.  ”One way to get more hits is to Comment on other blogs and typing in your blog’s domain name at the end of your comment.”

Q.  What’s the very best way to get traffic?

A.  ”Contests! You can make a POST for a contest that will go on for a certain amount of time. I had one before. I used to play an online game called Club Penguin (Disney MMO game) and I bought a gift card for a membership. Then I had a contest where if you commented on my blog you would get entered in a drawing. Very fun. I got 1,000 hits in one day because of that contest.”

Q.  What does a blogger need to do so that the search engines can find a blog post?

A.  ”When finished with a post, and before publishing it, go to the area that says tags, and type in a few things that will get people to find you on the search eninges.”

Q.  How do you sell products on a blog?

A. “All you need to do is to set up a lnk to the website where you want to sell the thing that you are selling. For example, your post might look like this:

TITLE: Buy my product!

POST: Hello! I just bought a T-shirt and was wondering if you guys want to buy  it. If you want it, click the link: http://ebay.com/pinktshirt

Tyler also covers polls, how to post photos and audio, how to add pages,  copyright, video/picture galleries, widgets, blogrolls and more.

He doesn’t blog anymore because he doesn’t play Club Penguin. But his tips are perfect for anyone who wants a quick overview of what’s possible with a blog.

Yes, it’s a lot of work. But as Tyler explains in the Bonus Tip on the last page of his book:

“Have Fun With Your Blog! Well, this is the end of the book. I hope you enjoyed these easy tips, and I wish you luck on your blog.”

Convinced? Ready to start your own blog? See “Time-saving Tips for Smart Business Blogging,” a grown-up’s guide to blogging. It comes with 23 pages of handouts that include 101 ways to find content for your blog, and tips for writing better and faster.

If you want to write a guest blog post at your favorite blog, and you’re writing the pitch,  don’t make the five mistakes this blogger made when he emailed me today.

Can you guess what they are?

Here’s the entire pitch:

OK, what did the blogger do wrong? But let’s be fair. What two things did he do right?

Comment below. I’ll return here a week from today and share my thoughts.

Whoever comes closest to identifying the five mistakes, and the two things he did right, wins a $100 coupon good for Publicity Hound products.

Go to it, Hounds!

One of the questions a professional speaker never wants to hear is, “What’s wrong with your voice?”

My friends in the Wisconsin chapter of the National Speakers Association started asking that more than a decade ago.

They could hear me straining, almost as though I was tightening my throat muscles. I felt it, too, and tried everything I could to make the words come out smooth, but to no avail.

The voice coaches were beside themselves.

“You talk lazy,” one coach kept chastising me. “Use your diaphragm when you talk.” So I signed up for a series of voice coaching lessons with her. They didn’t help.

An ear, nose and throat specialist examined me and couldn’t find anything wrong. She concluded it was a mild case of acid reflux, even though I didn’t have any of the symptoms.

She referred me to a physical therapist for voice. That coaching, which included a series of voice exercises three times a day, didn’t work either.

I spent a small fortune on expensive throat sprays, Throat Coat teabags, CDs, tapes, books and other sources of information on how to improve my voice. Eventually, I gave up in frustration and got off the speaking circuit because my voice never improved and because I had become weary of all the travel hassles.

A Voice ‘Like a Little Old Lady’

Over the years, my voice slowly worsened, and my customers noticed. Several people who bought recordings of teleseminars I hosted said, “You sound like you’re nervous” or “You sound like a little old lady.”

On one of my YouTube videos, someone commented, “She sounds like she’s talking from the inside of a toilet.”

Maybe those stories in People magazine about Michael Douglas battling throat cancer were the push I needed.

In February, my internist referred me to Dr. Joel Blumin, chief of Laryngology and Professional Voice at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He diagnosed spasmodic dysphonia, a rare voice disorder that starts in the base of the brain and affects about 50,000 people in North America.

When a person with SD tries to speak, the brain sends signals that cause involuntary spasms in the tiny muscles of the larynx, making the voice sound tight, strangled, breathy, whispery or—in my case—strained. The spasms often interrupt the sound, squeezing the voice so that words and sentences are broken up.

Researchers don’t know what causes SD and there’s no cure for it. Voice coaching does little good. Surgery often isn’t effective.

Botox to the Rescue

But for most SD patients, botox injections, into one or both vocal chords, stop the spasms and improve the voice temporarily. Dr. Blumin injected one unit of botox into each vocal chord, through my neck, on March 16. The anticipation was 10 times worse than the treatment. It’s no more painful than a flu shot.

The next day, my voice was perfect. The day after that, I sounded like Betty Boop or Minnie Mouse on helium. My voice improves little by little each day and, some days, sounds worse than the day before.

Here’s what I sound like now.

I’m in Elite Company

Turns out I’m in elite company.

NPR talk show host Diane Rehm was diagnosed with SD in 1998. In this video, she discusses her four-month absence from her radio show, the diagnosis, the depression that followed, and how she has recovered:

She eventually wrote a book about it called Finding My Voice.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also has SD. When he appeared on “Larry King Live” three years ago, the blogs and discussion boards were filled with comments the next day from people wondering if he had, among other things, lung cancer. Here’s a video of the interview:

Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert cartoons, has SD, too, and describes how it has actually changed his personality.

How I’m Recovering

I’m taking no medication for my SD and plan to continue with the botox injections about every three months. My throat has never hurt from SD, and it still doesn’t.

I’ll schedule coaching, training, teleseminars and webinars around my treatments, relying mostly on guest experts and giving my voice about three weeks recovery time after each $2,500 treatment. If necessary, I’ll hire voiceover talent when I’m creating screen-capture videos.

I don’t know if I’ll recover enough to go back onto the speaking circuit regularly.

My doctor says it will take about three treatments before he knows exactly how much botox to inject so that it lasts long enough without making my voice sound “breathy.” He says people who use their voice professionally—like speakers, singers, attorneys and the clergy—can often do just fine with the botox injections, once they and their doctors hit on the exact dosage.

Several months ago, before I saw Dr. Blumin, I committed to speaking at Author U on May 7 in Denver, Colorado. Judith Briles, the gracious event planner who invited me, knows about my SD and says “on with the show.” She’s confident I’ll be OK. I am, too.

Depending on how this all turns out, I might return to a voice coach who has experience with SD patients.

Where to Find Help

If you know someone who is concerned about their voice, please show them the National Spasmodic Dysphonia Association website and this blog post. Because SD is so rare, many doctors and voice coaches still don’t know about it.

Since my diagnosis, I’ve contacted many SD patients throughout the U.S. A few don’t talk on the phone, so we email back and forth.

Some were misdiagnosed. A man in Milwaukee told me his doctor said his voice problem was nothing more than stage fright. Another woman was misdiagnosed with acid reflux, like I was. Another SD patient was told “it’s all in your head” and she was referred to a psychiatrist.

I promise to keep you updated as my treatments progress. And even though I’m not a doctor, I’ll answer any questions you might have about SD, or refer you to other experts who can help. I remain eternally grateful, and thank God every day, for my otherwise perfect health.

As for that photo at the top of this post, that’s my Betty Boop bookend, one of about a dozen Betty Boop items, from buttons and dolls to ankle socks and T-shirts, I’ve been collecting over the years so I can keep my favorite cartoon character nearby. Hmmmm.
 
 
Update on April 7, 2011:

Thank you, everyone, for the outpouring of support.

I especially want to thank several wonderful women:

• Vicki Orazem,  an SD patient who I tracked down after I saw her name in the SD newsletter a few months ago. Vicki, an adjunct professor in education and child and human development at Montana State University, has been living with SD for several years.
   
  “I changed my career from that of being a higher education administrator to teaching as a distance educator— primarily because it was how I could best express myself. I prepare the content and have learned how to present it online, through the use of creative media techniques, most of which are non-verbal.”
   
  It sounded like we’d be a perfect fit. So I reached out to Vicki, without ever having met her, and asked her to be my “SD sponsor.” She said yes,  took me under her wing, and answered questions like, “Will I fly off the table when I feel the needle go in?” (“No, it’s really not bad at all.”)

 

• Chris Clarke-Epstein, CSP, a past president of the National Speakers Association and certified speaking professional, one of the first people I confided in a few months ago when I decided to seek a second diagnosis for my voice problem. She told me about Diane Rehm. Chris also helped me work through what we call “Plan B” for my business, just in case my voice isn’t strong enough to continue my training.

 

• Nancy Mills of The SpirtedWoman.com, who introduced me to Linda Jay Geldens, a copywriter and editor and SD patient who wrote this post, at Nancy’s blog, about living with SD. Linda called, we traded SD stories, and she actually made me laugh.

The list will continue to grow. For that, too, I am grateful.

Stop waiting for your ideal customers and clients to invite you to connect with them on LinkedIn.

Go find them!

LinkedIn’s Advanced Search feature is like having your own Lt. Columbo right at your fingertips.

And it could very well be the most powerful feature on the world’s largest business networking site.  If you know how to search correctly, your efforts just might lead you to a company that’s looking for what you’re selling.

Tracking Down Leads

Wayne Breitbarth, who sells office furniture in Milwaukee, told me two amazing stories of the Power of Advanced Search.

His company used it to track down a Milwaukee company that needs to buy a truckload of office furniture.  One thing led to another, and now Wayne’s company is vying with one other vendor for the contract, thanks to LinkedIn.

In another instance, one of Wayne’s friends who sells promotional items was trying to get into a sizable company in the Madison area for years but direct mail and phone calls proved futile.  Using LinkedIn Advanced Search function, Wayne was able to track down the correct department that was looking for vendors.

But who within that department was the right person to contact?  Advanced Search to the rescue once again!  He found the right person, and his friend was able to submit a bid for a $1 million contract.

Wayne has become such an expert on LinkedIn, that he’ll be speaking at Inc. magazine’s Growco conference in Las Vegas in April.

Learn Advanced Search and More

He’s also agreed to demonstrate how to use Advanced Search, and many other LinkedIn features, when he’s my guest during a webinar at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, March 3.  It’s called Your LinkedIn Power Formula: How to Make Killer Contacts, Pull Crowds to Events, be a Star in Your Industry & Track Down Leads Like a Bloodhound.  His handouts include 12 ways to use LinkedIn to promote live or virtual events.

Learn more about the LinkedIn webinar, how to register and how to participate.  If you have questions about the program, ask them here in the Comments section.

Judith Bron of Spring Valley, NY, writes:

“I’m not the only blind person in the world, nor am I the only one who doesn’t have a Facebook account.

“However, I wouldn’t mind having Facebook and Twitter accounts or an active LinkedIn account.  The problem is that whenever I go to these sites, I’m asked to identify something visually.  Like the deaf can’t hear, the blind can’t see.  What can be done with social networking sites to make them accessible to everyone? 

“And does anyone have any suggestions on how I can get around this problem?”