If you’re a guest expert, or a PR person who represents an expert, and you’re looking for radio talk shows and podcasts that need guests, don’t pitch only the big shows.

Many of them are difficult to book, and you might be far better off trying to get onto shows that reach niched audiences.

Check out RadioGuestList.com.  You can use this site several ways.
       
      

How to be on a show

Experts, authors and PR firms searching for the right shows can sign up here. Whenever a talk show is looking for guests, RadioGuestList will notify you.
  
     
How to find guests for your show

If you’re a radio show booker, podcaster, talk radio host or TV producer who needs guests, submit your talk show booking opportunities here. RadioGuesetList will email its list of guest experts, authors and PR firms so that experts who are a good fit for your show can email you directly.
     
    
How to see which shows are available 

On the homepage, you can see a list of categories on the right side. I clicked on a few of them and saw lots of opportunities for authors, musicians, small business people and Internet marketers to appear as guests. If you have an area of expertise, you’ll find something here that’s a good fit.

The site is maintained by Scott Fox, an author and Internet marketer. Check out his 10 tips on how to use social networking to market your product or service. You can also follow RadioGuestList on Twitter.

Never done a radio interview before? George McKenzie, a former radio talk show host, offered tips galore when I interviewed him about how to get onto drive-time radio shows and ace the interview so that the host invites you back.

Have you used RadioGuestList.com? Share your success stories here.

If you sell a consumer product or service that would make a great gift for the holidays, this is the perfect time to take advantage of a 25 percent discount to The Gift List, a subscription service that provides pitching tips and contact information for hundreds of media outlets that are planning special gift coverage.  

“This year more than ever, we’ve seen later deadlines at some very large national outlets,” says Amy Bates Stumpf. “And if you haven’t already noticed, the short leads for print outlets, including weekly national publications like People and US Weekly, regional publications, weekly and daily newspapers, are starting to show up online as we talk to editors about their upcoming plans for the holidays.”

Her media lists deliver contacts for national and regional magazines, the top 250 daily newspapers, news wires and syndicates, national television, and national radio, as well as a list for websites and blogs.

Amy says it’s still early for some newspapers and regional publications, which is why you’ll see additions to the list throughout the end of October.  “We’ve also started hearing from our broadcast outlets and will continue to load these as they make the decisions for holiday content.”

She’s offering the discouint for either the Print & Broadcast list or the Web & Blog list because Publicity Hounds might feel like they’ve missed out on the call for early pitches.

If you have advice, opinions, story ideas or a question related to small business for BusinessWeek.com, a high-traffic destination for anyone looking for business tips, check out their frequently asked questions.

It includes tips on how to contact Karen Klein,  who writes the Smart Answers column, and has a weekly podcast series.  I suggest you contact Karen and offer yourself as a source.  Let her know your area of expertise.

Karen, by the way, interviewed me yesterday to get my best tips on how a start-up small business can promote their new health product. The column should be posted today or tomorrow.

You can also check the FAQ page for tips on how to submit a Viewpoint column to Small Biz Channel editor Nick Leiber.    

Here are some ideas you can pitch:

• How small businesses can save money during this bad economy.
      
• Opportunities to use Facebook and other social media sites to sell a product or service. How are you using your Fan Pages, for example,  to promote and sell? Are you offering coupons or freebies?  
     
•  Tips and tricks on how to save time and money managing any aspect of a small business.
           
• How to find and keep great employees.

When pitching ideas and Viewpoint columns, remember that you should never overtly promote your pr0duct or service. If you can provide helpful tips and advice, BusinessWeek will be more open to your pitch.

If you’re a man 60 or older and your career is taking on a striking new dimension, from a career change to national recognition, here’s a chance for some super publicity.

Mildred Culp, who writes Workwise, a syndicated column, might want to interview you for a column. These people are disqualified:

• Women (already represented)
• Business owners or other self-employed workers
• Men in education

She’d like public relations, advertising and marketing firms to promote their clients.

WorkWise is syndicated to national media, uncovering emerging trends in the workplace. Its papers range from The Miami Herald, a major daily, to Four Corners Business Journal in Farmington, N.M.

If you haven’t subscribed to the free media leads courtesy of PitchRate.com, you could be missing the chance to score a big hit in a top-tier media outlet, or reach your target audience with your message in a niche media outlet. You can read more about this media leads service that matches sources with journalists. 

Of the many leads posted at the site this week, here are four I’ve plucked out for Publicity Hounds:

Life coaches:

Dr. Dan, who has an Internet TV show, is doing a segment called Living Life Like a Rock Star. He’s looking for experts in self development, life coaches, leaders and anyone who is passionate about living life like a rock star.  ”We want to hear how you’ve created the life you have, what principles you live your life by, and what it is that you want to contribute to the world.” The deadline for responding is June 8.

Faith-based franchises:

Reuters.com wants to talk to operators and others who have worked with faith-based franchise companies. “How does it affect the culture of the company? How do customer perceive the business?” Deadline for responding is June 10.

   
Virginia brides:

Virginia Bride magazine is doing an article on do-it-yourself weddings and wants to know about trends. ”How popular are DIY weddings? What should a bride know before planning one? How can they save money without looking like they skimped on things? What shouldn’t ever be DIY when it comes to weddings?” Deadline for responding is June 11.

Business owners:

Blog Talk Radio is looking for successful business owners for a series its featuring during the entire month of June on Empowering You Radio. ”We are running a series during the month of June to discuss today’s business challenges and needs. I am looking for successful business owners who would like to chat about their needs, challenges and struggles. Focusing on finding solutions for the listener base and encouraging them to step out. No experts needed, I am looking for real people with real experiences to share.” Deadline for responding is June 8.

If any of these media leads are perfect for you or someone you know, you can get contact information, more details, and more leads at PitchRate.com.

Street Report Magazine is looking for women DJs to feature in its ”DJs With Clout” section in the April issue.

The magazine is a Southern-based hip hop publication that gives exposure to independent artists. Send a press kit to Kim Ellis. She urges you to spread the word about this media lead.

If you live in South Florida and you’d be willing to be a source for Mildred L. Culp, who writes the syndicated column called Workwise,  please email her. 

She’s looking for sources for upcoming columns, which are featured in The Miami Herald and elsewhere. Sources must represent the diverse ethnic community.

Now is the time to start pitching if you’re hoping to convince journalists to feature your consumer product or service in holiday gift coverage.

Gift guides appear in many forms:

—As special sections in newspapers, like holiday gift guides printed by USA Today and the Wall Street Journal.

—As special holiday features in magazines like Redbook, Allure, Wired, Stereophile, Fast Company, Organic Gardening, Cooking Light, Shape, Atlanta Magazine, Cottage Living and Elite Traveler. Because many of these magazines have early deadlines, you must start pitching now.

—As special segments on TV such as Oprah’s “Favorite Things” show each year in which she lists her favorite holiday gifts.

—As special radio promotions.

—As columns, reviews or special holiday features in online magazines.

—Even bloggers feature their favorite things to give as holiday gifts.

If your consumer product or service would make the perfect gift, getting a placement in some of these media is easy—but only if you know where to look, whom to pitch, when to contact them, and if they want photos.

The Gift List can make your job easy.  Its staff contacts the top 250 daily newspapers, all the major wire services, and television shows like “Filter,” “The Look for Less,” and, of course, MTV, “Ellen,” “The View,” and hundreds more.

It doesn’t bother with media outlets that won’t mention products by name or those with circulations under 25,000.  Broadcast outlets must reach a national or significant regional audience.

Already, The Gift List has compiled a whopping 400 leads for this year’s features.  You can buy a subscription to either the Gift List for Holiday 2008 Print & Broadcast, or The Gift List for Holiday 2008 Web & Blog, or both.

What if “Oprah” or USA Today changes its feature focus the week before a deadline?  Not to worry.  The Gift List will notify subscribers who sign up for their ezine and email alerts.  You won’t miss a beat.  And you’ll be miles ahead of the competition.

Take a free test drive.

If you’re a member of your local chamber of commerce and the only thing you have to show for it is the receipt for your annual dues, don’t even think about dropping out.

Because you’re a smart Publicity Hound, you have an opportunity right at your fingertips to be a star in the organization and generate so much publicity for yourself that all the other members will be scratching their heads, wondering how in the world you’ve done it. Nonprofits, this applies to you, too.

Here’s what to do.

The next time the chamber has an event that the local media won’t cover, act like a reporter and cover it yourself. Buy an inexpensive Flip video camera and interview people at the event. (The camera shown in the photo above isn’t a Flip.)

If it’s a routine chamber breakfast meeting with a speaker, interview the speaker after the presentation for a segment of two to three minutes. At the same breakfast, create another short video. Ask the chamber president to provide a brief infomercial of upcoming chamber events like the annual golf outing or street festival.

At bigger events, like the annual awards banquet, interview the Business Person of the Year. If you really want to create a stir, choose a controversial topic that chamber members are buzzing about, like a proposed sales tax increase in your state. Interview one person on each side of the issue. You’ve just created two more videos.

Import the videos into your computer, which takes a minute or two, edit them, upload them to your website, give the chamber the links to the videos, and then watch what happens.

The chamber will probably email all its members and tell them to go to your website. Many of those members will share the links with their friends. The links will end up in the next chamber newsletter. And who knows where else.

Here’s the best part. You can offer that same videos to the local newspaper, magazine and TV and radio stations for use at their websites. Print media, in particular, are hungry for user-generated video, even if it’s of events that they’ve decided not to cover.

That’s what videographer John Easton does in Charlotte, North Carolina. He covers local business events and uploads them to his blog, or to his own streaming video channel, sort of like his own TV station, and then he offers the video to local media.

Too busy to fuss with all these details?

John says every community is teaming with people who you can hire for next to nothing to shoot and edit the video for you. He explained how to find them when he was a guest on a teleseminar I conducted recently on “9 Clever Ways to Use Video to Become a Publicity Darling in Your Industry or Community.”

If you’re not a member of a chamber of commerce, you can still cover events in your community and submit the video to local media that are hungry for user-generated content.

Are you a business owner who’s happy as a clam after returning to traditional employment?

Mildred L. Culp, who writes the column WorkWise which is syndicated in print and online in such newspapers as The Dallas Morning News and Hartford Courant, is looking for sources. If this doesn’t apply to you but you know somebody who fits this description, would agree to be interviewed and wants some publicity, forward it on to them.

Sources can email Mildred.