Action Sports Hub is looking for action sports enthusiasts who can write articles.

You can work you own hours from your home and at your own pace.

Email samples. Write to them at Action Sports Hub Inc., 7071 Warner Ave., Suite F-416 Huntington Beach, CA 92647.

If you’ve never written an article, see “How to Write How-to Articles.”

I’m looking for about 10 Publicity Hounds to test my newsletter, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week, before I start distributing it through AWeber, my new list management company, next week.

If you’re on a Mac and you also use MacMail, Eudora or Entourage, I need you as part of my test group. What’s in it for you? Two free special reports of your choosing, a $20 value, if you help with the test. I’m looking for testers to receive the newsletter in HTML, not plain text.

Interested? Email Scott Buffaloe, my assistant, and he’ll get back to you with details.     

I’m eternally grateful to the thousands of Publicity Hounds who read “The Publicity Hound’s  Tips of the Week,” my free ezine, every week.

You contribute incredible tips, helpful links, intelligent questions and doggone good dog jokes and videos, one of the most popular parts of the ezine. 

It’s time for me to change over to a AWeber, the company that will manage my email list. 

The switch to a new company will also let you choose whether you want to receive my ezine in HTML, or plain text.

 If you already subscribe,
I don’t want to lose you!

You must complete a two-step process for staying on my list.

First, subscribe to the new version of the newsletter by entering your name and email address into this form. Specify if you want the newsletter in plain text or HMTL.

Second, check your email inbox for a message with this subject line:

Click on the link inside the email.  If you miss this step, you’ll miss receiving the weekly tips and you’ll be like a lost puppy wandering the streets, looking for its mama.

If you have any questions about this process, please email me. If you ever suddenly stop receiving the newsletter, let me know and I’ll make sure you’re back on the list.

If you have a publicity dilemma you’d like help with, email the question to me and tell me where you live. I’ll consider it for the Help This Hound section of the newsletter. Each week, I include a question from a reader and invite my other Hounds to offer their best solutions and ideas.

And, of course, I’m always on the lookout for good, clean dog jokes, photos and videos for the “Hound Joke of the Week” section of the newsletter. If I use what you’ve submitted, I’ll thank you publicly.  

If you’re on Twitter or Facebook, how about giving your friends and followers a treat? Tell them about the ezine, and encourage them to subscribe at  http://www.PublicityHound.com/aweber/optin.htm. If they don’t care about receiving free publicity tips, they’ll love the dog jokes.

Cynthia Flash of Bellevue, Wash. writes this question in the Help This Hound section of the July 14, 2009 issue of The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week:

“I’m looking for a way to put a dollar value on web hits I get for my PR clients.

“For example, if a client is mentioned in a blog, is that worth anything in terms of dollar equivalents (like having an article appear in a newspaper)?  If an online-only newspaper does a story about the client, how much is that worth?  Certainly increased sales to the client is a great way to tell, but it’s difficult to know if that’s directly a result of the web publicity. 

“Are PR people putting dollar values on web placements or is that only something reserved for traditional media?  Thanks for the continued discussion.”

(If you need help with your own publicity problem or another issue related to publicity, email it to me, and it may appear at this blog, where my readers can help you.)

Thousands of people who are being downsized, right-sized and capsized during this bad economy aren’t waiting around for a job offer. They’re looking to the Web for their next career—and maybe even riches.

Enter e-Riches 2.0–Next-Generation Marketing Strategies for Making Millions Online, a new book by Internet success coach Scott Fox.

If you’re one of the victims of this economy and you want to start selling online, or you’re new to Internet marketing, you can learn all about the basics of what it takes to create a successful business online. If you’ve been selling online for several years, the book will bring you up to speed quickly on how to add social media to your marketing mix.

Here are Scott’s 10 recommendations on how to use social networking as a marketing tool.

1. Invite a half-dozen or more friends to get your network started. Practice using the tools of the social network to communicate with them. For example, you can “add” friends on MySpace, “poke” or “write on the walls” of Facebook connections, or respond to some questions in the LinkedIn “Answers” section. (See Social networking ROI: A testimonial more valuable than an ad.)
              
2. Start engaging, publishing, and interacting. Get to know some people—that’s  why you’re here.
       
3. Be authentic. A big part of being authentic is letting the “real you” out to play. Nobody wants to play with a “suit,” so don’t be afraid to be yourself (within professional and legal limits, of course). Mixing the personal and business sides of your life is more common than it used to be.
       
4. Only try to connect with others with whom you really do have common ground. Indiscriminate friend requests are “friend spam.” They are  no more appreciated than email spam or junk mail in the real world. (And if people you don’t know starting linking with you, your own network will soon be less valuable, too.)
                
5. Ask for help. Most social network users are online to be social, and most are happy to help by sharing their knowledge about how the systems work.
              
6. Use feeds to keep up with your friends’ activities and broadcast your own. Posting your own status constantly and cleverly is a great distributed engagement marketing tactic. This is one of the “missed opportunities” I discussed during the teleseminar I hosted this month on 11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook. 
      
7. If you have a blog, feed its posts into your profile page. This will automatically help keep your pages fresh and share your writings with a new audience, too.
      
8. Join some groups—learn the lingo and the tools of the network by using them and observing how others use them, too. Joining groups will also begin to create a natural dialogue with other users that will grow over time.
      
9. Be a good and involved citizen in those groups to cultivate new friends. There’s no better way to gain the respect of any community than adding value by sharing info, support, or companionship—and these tools will amplify the effect. If you are an expert, social networks are a great way to spread your reputation cloud for that expertise.
     
10. Create your own group. Once you are comfortable, start a group around your product or brand. Position yourself as an expert resource and offer to help and facilitate community. Members usually proudly display the names of the groups to which they belong on their profile pages. This can lead to lots more clicks (and members) as others see your group’s name or logo on friends’ pages and in their feeds.

Scott’s book includes more than a dozen examples  of real-life Internet marketing success stories, from a North Carolina furniture store that profitably captures high-end customers using pay-per-click search engine text ads on Google, Yahoo! andMSN (Chapter 21), to the article syndication strategy that has helped a Christian stay-at-home mom to attract lots of profitable traffic for her blog (Chapter 16).

The book  is $25 and published by AMACOM, the American Management Association.

Oprah, make your 53rd birthday your best ever today!

To celebrate, many of my Publicity Hounds will be devoting 90 minutes to learning what they must do to land a spot on your show as a guest WITHOUT pestering your producers. 

They’ll be participating in a call that Steve Harrison is hosting with Michelle Anton, your former guest booker. It’s called “The 3 Big Secrets for Getting Free Publicity as a Guest on America’s Top National TV Shows ?” at their choice of two times—2 or 7 p.m. Eastern. 

We suspect you’re either off celebrating somewhere, or you’re preparing for your TV show. You’ll be happy to know, however, that Hounds who participate in today’s call will learn:

• Why they MUST stop pitching ideas that aren’t a good fit with your audience. 
• How to deliver pitches that are spot-on, succinctly and with passion
• What NOT to say when they pitch
• What NOT to send when they pitch
• How to be a great guest on your show
• How to get on the Fox News Channel, CNN, the “Today” show and other top shows. (Sorry. We know your producers are picky and if you don’t want them, somebody else might.)
• What they should send to national TV producers (and what they shouldn’t).
• An important lesson from one author who you interviewed on your show and saw sales soar as a result.
• The most important question people must be able to answer when talking to a guest booker.
• Case histories of four other authors and entrepreneurs and the strategies they used to get onto your show and others.

So enjoy your special day, and look forward to interviewing lots of interesting Publicity Hounds who have wonderful advice, ideas and stories to share with the world.

Michele Lessirard of Vero Beach, Fla. writes:

“I have been blogging for more than seven years at New Moon Journal and my blog.

“Now, there’s a high-profile Harry Potter-type author named Stephanie Myer Meyer who’s written a series of vampire novels. One best-seller is New Moon. Of course, I am competing now for search engine optimization with her New Moon book and soon-to-be movie.  The New Moon Journal is an astrology blog dedicated to creativity and personal growth using the lunar cycles for power, healing and problem solving.

“How can I use this name recognition and ride on the coattails of her book. Is it possible?”

If you’ve done something dumb and bad publicity results, the quickest way to make the story go away is to apologize.

But not in Attleboro, Mass. where the city has threatened to place a lien on the home of Eileen Wilbur, a 72-year-old blind woman because she has failed to pay a past-due water bill of 1 cent. 

The charge was from the previous fiscal year, which ran from July 2007 to July 2008. A computer automatically prints letters for accounts with an overdue balance, but no human reviews them before mailing them. The city paid 42 cents to send the letter which also warned of a lien and a $48 penalty if the bill isn’t paid by Dec. 10. 

City Collector Debora Marcoccio said she received a fax from the woman’s daughter but it didn’t include a phone number. “If I had received a phone call, I would have been able to talk to the resident and hopefully resolve the issue,” Marcoccio said, “But I wasn’t given that opportunity.”

Why not just check the computer records, find out who had a past-due bill of a penny, and do something about it?

Imagine the goodwill that could have resulted had Marcoccio, or the town’s mayor, hand-delivered a food basket to the elderly woman on behalf of the city, along with an apology. Talk about a great photo op! The TV cameras could have been there and it would have been on that night’s evening news.        

Instead, the city let this story grow legs until it became the kind of David vs. Goliath saga the media love.  The story first appeared in the Sun Chronicle of Attleboro. The Associated Press picked it up and distributed it nationwide. 

Former Attleboro City Councillor Antonio Viveiros stepped forward and paid the bill, but he did so with a check to underline the absurdity of what he termed an “idiotic” bureaucratic snafu.

A doggie treat to Viveiros and to Publicity Hound Sonia Coleman for tipping me off to this one. And a trip to the dog house for the folks at Attleboro City Hall.

It’s called the International Association of Writers. But don’t let that name fool you.

The new association created by Fern Reiss, the “Expertizing” expert, offers the kinds of services that are also perfect for speakers, experts and business owners. For example, membership includes information and support in the areas of literary agents and publishing contracts, self-publishing and print-on-demand, ebooks, article syndication, speaking, media, book promotion, freelance writing, blogging and business, as well as a myriad of special offers on everything from books to press releases to writing conferences.

Looking for speaking opportunities? As a member, you’ll be part of the group’s program that promotes qualified experts for speaking engagements worldwide.

Have articles you want others to reprint? You’ll have the opportunity to syndicate your articles and columns to newspapers, magazines, websites and ezines via an articles directory.

Most authors are experts on a particular topic. Many experts are also speakers. As for business owners, most of them are experts and many are also speakers.

Because I’m a member of her contributors’ panel, you’ll see articles and audio lessons from me on publicity-related topics and social media marketing.

Fern’s site launches in just a few weeks and if you register now, for only $149 a year, you’ll get lots of extra benefits for free, plus two of my special reports of your choosing. Just use promo code “JS” when you sign up.

This is an inexpensive way to publicize almost any business.

Here’s another great resource for Publicity Hounds who need to outsource work to freelancers.

Consult the Society of Professional Journalists’ online freelancer directory, a listing of more than 600 members. You can search by state or specialty. Members include writers, photographers and graphic artists.

The trade group also has a new “Editor of the Moment” feature on its freelancer blog, The Independent Journalist, that connects editors and journalists.

During the teleseminar I hosted on Outsourcing Secrets: How to Find the Best Quality, Price & Teamwork from Freelancers, Leili McKinley mentioned several online services like Elance.com and Guru.com. I’ve used Elance.com several times and have found great writers and a few clunkers.

If you have a project that requires research or reporting, and you want journalists who speak English as a first lanuage, SPJ’s freelance directory is a great resource. SPJ members also agree to abide by the society’s Code of Ethics.