Lois Kirkpatrick of Fairfax, Va., writes:   

“I work for a large county government that has a variety of groundbreaking/grand opening events.   

“The facilities range from libraries, parks and public safety buildings to homeless shelters and mental health centers.  

“What are some things we can do instead of the dreaded VIPs-holding-shovels groundbreakings and VIPs-holding-scissors ribbon-cuttings?  I’m looking for general ideas that can be applied to most types of facilities.”

The next time you’re looking for a topic for your blog, ask yourself these three questions, suggested by small business marketing coach Sydni Craig-Hart in 5 Simple Steps to Generate Relevant Content for Your Blog:

1. What’s keeping your clients up at night?
 
2. What’s the biggest challenge or problem they’re facing right now?

 3. What information and resources do you have to share to make their lives easier?

Here’s what I love about those questions. 

For each one, you can probably come up with more than one answer. Three answers equals three blog separate blog posts. Eight answers? Eight posts. 

Here are four more questions I’d like you to consider when trying to find content:

4. What question have I received from someone recently in my email?

Pay attention to ALL questions in your email. When you answer, cut and paste it into a new blog entry, and then elaborate and, if appropriate, link to resources.  

5. What’s the most frequent question beginners in my niche are asking? If I’m a speaker, I’d ask myself, what’s the Number One question that beginners in my audiences are asking? 

Keep a running tally of all these questions, and use them when you need blog content. Never assume that just because you know the answer, it isn’t interesting to others who follow you.

6. What’s the one issue I’m struggling with right now and searching for the answer?  

When I can’t find the answer to a question, I go to LinkedIn and ask. Sometimes, only one or two people respond. But often, I receive several great answers that can be woven into a blog post. I’m suddenly smarter, and so are my readers.  I’m careful to explain within the LinkedIn question that I want to blog about the issue.

7. What’s the “hot new thing” or controversial topic in my industry that everybody wants to know about? For example, people in my audience, mostly self-promoters, want to know what they need to do to get a great return on their investment of time with social media. They might know how to use Facebook. But they want to know how to use Facebook to make money. 

Patsi Krakoff, who was my guest expert on the teleseminar Time-saving Tips for Smart Business Blogging, partnered with me to create a list of 101 ways to find content for your blog, a handout we offered to teleseminar participants.

Here’s a sneek peek at six more ideas on that handout:

8. Invite your followers to ask you questions. Answer them at your blog. Become “The Answer Man” or “The Answer Woman.”  

9. Find inspiration in photos. Browse through photos on a site like iStockPhoto.com. Look for a cute animal photo, or a funny image, or a photo that makes you think, and write a post around it.

10. Industry definitions. Create a list of industry definitions, particularly those that confuse people.

11. Visit Craigslist. You might find interesting workshops, press releases or other material worth a comment in the small business, community or events categories for the cities nearest you. (See How to Use Craigslist as a Global Publicity Tool.)

12. Don’t do it all yourself. Recruit a guest blogger on BloggerLinkup.com.

13. Show readers both sides of an issue. Write about the advantages/disadvantages of something.

How about adding to the list? How do you find content for your blog?

How do you feel when you see the name McDonald’s?

In my mind, I see the Golden Arches. And I think “cheap, fattening food I can’t stomach.”  Others love Mickey D’s because they know the Big Mac tastes the same, whether they’re eating it in Peoria or Paris.  And that’s reassuring.

Hate your logo?  Find a good designer on Elance.com. My logo evolved with help from a graphic designer and clip art.

• My customer service manager’s name and telephone number everywhere. “If you need help, call Christine Buffaloe at 619-955-5772. Or me at 262-284-7451.”
    
•  My personal replies to emails, even if people need help and I don’t know them. (They get a free tip, and often a link to a product I sell where they can find more.)
    
•  Little surprises sometimes tucked inside product packages, from gourmet dog treats to Publicity Hound notepads.
      
•  Humorous dog videos, jokes and quotes I share in my ezine and on the social media sites, just to keep things fun.
      
• A free special report or CD of the customer’s choosing when we screw up and ship the wrong order.
      
• My own vocabulary tied to The Publicity Hound theme. I call my followers my “Hounds” with a capital H.  People who don’t know the correct publicity techniques are “media mutts.” And when I do something dumb, I’m “sent to the dog house without my dinner.” That’s called sub-branding, and I learned it from marketing strategist Tom Winninger. How do you know when it’s working? When your customers start using the same words and phrases, and suggest others.

The bi-monthly newsletter turned out to be the worst product I ever created because it never gained traction. It bled red ink and consumed my schedule. I kept it on life support far longer than I should have. But the good news is that people who saw the name loved it.

• Choose a theme, something obvious that can be associated with your signature product or business.  If your theme plays off the name of your cat, and your business has nothing to do with cats, go back and start over.
    
•  If you’re having a difficult time thinking of a creative name for your business, don’t force it. Instead, go for a walk, or take a swim or shower. Water and exercise invite creative ideas. “The Publicity Hound” came to me during a six-mile walk.
     
• When you hit on a successful brand and get great feedback from your market, spend the money to trademark your company name and logo.
      
• Be consistent. Use the same photo, tagline, logo, colors, style and design in everything you do, from your website to printed materials.
    
• If you’re not sure what your customers think of your brand, ask. Consider a customer profile survey.
    
• Listen to what your customers say about your brand. If they aren’t saying anything, it’s probably not a brand.
    
• Remember that reputation absolutely supersedes everything.

News is breaking all around you.

Here are 6 tips on how to generate publicity from breaking news.

Update: We’ll be discussing these tips and many others during the webinar “How to Tie Your Story Pitch to Breaking News and Make the Media Interview YOU” tomorrow, Wednesday, July 21.

1. The local angle. If you’re the “local angle” to a national breaking news story, let the media know.  Example: Coffee prices nationwide skyrocket.  You own a coffee bar.  How will you deal with the price increase?  Let your local newspapers and TV stations know. (This blog has an entire sub-category on the local angle.)

Fast Company magazine wants to include your photo in the November 2010 issue, as part of a neat project it calls the “2010 Most Influential People.”

This is a terrific chance to generate publicity from a magazine with a circulation of more than 538,000, as well as knowing how influential you really are.

If you’re patient and willing to wait a few minutes for the site to load,  go here now to get a unique URL which you can then share with your followers via email, at your website and blog, and on the social media sites.

It took me only a minute to sign up, insert my short bio and upload my photo.

After you’ve registered, you can track how your influence has grown and where you stand at any time on the site.  You’ll also get a welcome message from Fast Company telling you that your photo will be in the November issue.

Let’s see how many Publicity Hounds we can get into the magazine!

This month’s guest blog post was written byJames Nissen. Last week, I shared James’ pitch and wrote about How a guest blogger pitched me and made me say ‘yes’

*     *     *      

By James Nissen

    

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” — Confucius

   

One of the greatest things about promoting a brand online today is how low the cost really is.  I have helped to market SecretintheDirt.com over the past two years, and it has grown from a single ebook to a thriving golf community.  Over 8,000 golfers have now joined our community at Secret in the Dirt, despite having launched only two months ago.  

    

Granted, we did have a strong buzz before the launch of the site, but the great part about this adventure was the fact that it cost us almost nothing to build the brand up to what it is today.  Allow me to use a cliché metaphor, but one that I think applies to building your brand.  

    

I want you imagine that before you have a “brand,” your idea is just a bunch of car parts.  Everything you do to promote your idea is like adding a new part to the car.  At some point, you will have built the body of the car, the engine, put on the tires, added the interior, and checked all the wiring.  There is nothing left to do; the car is ready to run.  You will have maintenance from time to time, but the hardest part is over.  

   

At this point, your brand can go places it never could go before when it was just a bunch of parts waiting to be used.  Your brand will never get that way if you expect it to run when you’re only halfway complete with the job.  So start building the car today.  Here are 13 cost-effective resources we used in building our brand online.

    

1. YouTube. 

  

Our greatest asset in the beginning was a set of golf videos that Mike Maves aka “Sevam1″ put together on YouTube.  A friend of his asked for some advice on golf, and he put the videos together simply to help his friend’s game improve.  The videos ending up attracting over 500,000 views in a short time and people began to talk about them.  

   

Find a way to talk about your product or service in the form of a video, and put up as many videos as you can.  Other great videos sites include DailyMotion, Vimeo, Viddler and Twitvid.

    

2. Bloggers.

Many people have blogs, but how focused are they?  How big of a following do they have?  How often do they update the blog?

  

I’ll never forget a quote I read by Jeremy Schoemaker from the very successful site ShoeMoney.com that said he would continue to update his blog even if nobody read it.  You obviously want your followers to read it, but there is a tremendous power in that kind of mentality.  Other blogging services include WordPress and Tumblr.

    

3. Twitter.

    

Twitter has not brought the highest amount of traffic to our site of any source, but I still believe it should be part of the online arsenal.

  

Sites like Twitpic and Twitvid allow you to share pictures and videos with your Twitter followers, and it makes it easy to start conversations online with people who want to learn more about your brand.  You can even hold contests for your Twitter followers and keep them up to date on important changes to your website or business.

   

4. Niche Forums

  

One of the biggest sources of buzz for the Secret in the Dirt ebook came from Golfwrx.com, a forum devoted to talking about golf-related products and topics.  Mike posted in the forum constantly, answering questions about the YouTube videos and the golf swing.  I have seen forums in every conceivable niche, and if you can find one or two big ones relating to your company, posting to the forum regularly will go a long way in building up your credibility.
    

5. Squidoo

    

Seth Godin hit the nail on the head when he helped to create this site.  It allows anyone to create a mini-site (called a “lens”) about any conceivable topic in a very short amount of time.  We used this site as an opportunity to create sites about golf and golf history, which in turn brings traffic back to our site.  Another site similar to Squidoo is HubPages.

   

6. Facebook Fan Pages
  

These pages are great because they are indexed by Google, and people may find them just by doing searches about your topic.  They don’t allow for as much customization as a normal web page or blog, but with over 300 million users on Facebook, you can be sure there are many people who will be interested in the products and services you offer.  They offer a great way to keep in touch with your loyal followers.

  

7. Simple Scripts

   

At some point, you will have to invest in hosting for your website.  If you don’t hage hosting yet, I recommend a hosting service that uses Simple Scripts.  

   

It’s a user interface that comes installed when you by hosting from Bluehost, Hostgator, and a few others.  The great thing about Simple Scripts is that with just a few clicks (literally), you can have your blog or website up and running, without having to worry about installing it yourself the hard way.  It makes it a lot less scary if you are new to the web.  You can also point as many domain names as you want to the same hosting plan (it’s around $100 a year).

   

8. EzineArticles.com

   

This service allows authors to submit articles on every topic imaginable, and is great for establishing credibility in your niche and getting your thoughts clear about your topic. We have seen thousands of people view our articles, and all of that traffic is free.  Other great services include ArticlesBase and ArticleDashboard.

    

9. Flickr

    

If your niche involves art or pictures of some type, consider using Flickr.  It’s a great service that allows you to create photo albums that you can share with others for free.  

  

Even if your niche does not involve photography, posting photos from industry events and appearances is often great material to share with your loyal fans.  Another great photo site to use is Twitpic, which links up with your twitter account.

   

10. Google Analytics

   

I can’t speak highly enough of Google Analytics.  This is a free service that takes minutes to install onto your website or blog.  You can see where your traffic is coming from, how much traffic you had, how effective your affiliates are, what countries your visitors are coming from, how long they stay on each page, and a lot more.  Testing is critical to refining your website.

    

11. Cold-Emailing

   

I was surprised to see how many bloggers, radio talk show hosts and newspapers are hungry for good content.  Don’t be afraid to contact successful people in your niche and ask if you can write a guest post for their blog.

   

 BlogTalkRadio lets you create your own radio shows for free, and these talk show hosts always need new guests and experts to have on their show.

  

Last but not least, don’t forget the almighty newspaper.  Contact the smaller ones in your town or neighborhood first, because they like to highlight “local stories” and things going on in that part of town.  If you’re giving a free seminar or making an appearance somewhere, odds are one of the writers would love to spotlight it.

   

12. Karma

   

Aside from the fact that people enjoy getting things for free, it never hurts to have karma on your side.  When we launched the Secret in the Dirt E-Book, we gave away several chapters for free as a bonus for signing up to our email newsletter.  

    

Posting videos and blogging regularly has the same effect.  Give people a chance to get to know you on a personal level, and make it a habit to answer questions emailed to you about your topic.  Give them some real value.  If what you say gets them hooked, they will be back for more.

   

13. Elance.com

   

When we ever ran into a problem that we could not solve ourselves, we used Elance. They have professionals who can help you out with logo design, banner ad design, web programming, blog layouts, troubleshooting, writing, video editing, and a lot more.  The turnaround time is pretty quick, and since professionals bid for jobs, you are sure to get the best price.

  

Even though you now have the right tools, when you make a habit of using them day in and day out, you will start to see success.  It will feel like a slow climb at first, but that’s part of the journey, right?  

   

Take what applies to your business and throw the rest out.  Focus on one tool at a time, and build upon that.  Get creative, think outside of the box, take action, and add parts to your car.  It will be up and running before you know it.

    

    

James Nissen, head of marketing for SecretintheDirt.com, loves golf, espresso, and the outdoors. He also may be found reading the occasional book or playing guitar.  He is a graduate of the University of Redlands with a degree in accounting.

The next time a journalist is interviewing you, or a blogger is interested in an idea you’re pitching, ask this question: “Do you need other sources?”

If you live in or near a city served by Southwest Airlines, your dog’s photo could be included in the June issue of Spirit, the airlines’ in-flight magazine.

Send snapshots taken of your dog, near Southwest destinations, and upload or snail-mail them to the magazine.  The best ones will be printed in the June issue, which will be dedicated to dogs.

Uploaded photos must be in jpeg format.

Read more about the feature.  You can see the airlines’ route map here.

I stumbled across this publicity tips while doing research for my special report on how to get publicity in the in-flight magazines.

This year’s update includes contact information and pitching tips for 52 56 magazines (we found four more).  It also includes lots of links to profiles on  Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook where you can find editors, reporters, freelancers and correspondents who write for these magazines, and join the airline’s or the magazine’s Facebook Fan Page.

Update: The report even includes links to a video where you can listen as the editor for one of the biggest in-flight magazines talks about the state of the travel publishing industry. We also included one of the

If the media, bloggers or anyone else come to your website looking for the navigational button that will give them all the background information about your company, what will they find?

If you’re trying to be  clever and call that part of your website an “asset library” or “company press club,” visitors will find utter confusion, says publicity expert Marcia Yudkin. In this week’s issue of her ezine, Marketing Minute, Marcia correctly points out that an organization’s attempt to be creative can backfire.

She says she found one company that called its online media room an “asset library,” a phrase that stonewalls the visitor. She Googled “asset library” and discovered that other companies are using it, too. She also found a company that calls its online media room a “company press club.”

“Press Club implies a clique of media followers who clink glasses with each other,” she said.

What should you call it?

So what SHOULD you call that part of your website that helps the media and other  visitors find your bio, photos, background material, press releases and contact information?

I like “Press Room,” which is what I use, or “For the Media.” ”Media Kit” is OK, too, although a media kit can sometimes be part of an online press room. ”Media Room” is OK but some people don’t like it because they think it sounds too much like a home entertainment center.

If you REALLY want people to click on that navigational button, you can call it “For the Media Only.”

Yikes! I  just noticed my online press room is horribly out of date. I need to add links to my profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube, as well as information about my new company, My Social Media Solution.   (See “Special Report #22: How to Create an Online Media Room and Keep the Media Coming Back.”)

  
What do you call it?

What do you call that part of your website designed spcifically for journalists, bloggers, or anyone else who wants background information? What names have you found that are too confusing?

And how long has it been since you visited your own Press Room? How much of the content there needs to be updated?

I’d also love to hear your comments about features in your own online press room that have proven helpful to the media and other visitors.