Here are my Top 10 tweets from this past week, great for retweeting! If you missed these, follow @PublicityHound on Twitter.

Twitter and Facebook tips for food trucks.  http://ow.ly/7MOeO RT@mysurveyexpert #foodtrucks

Are women in PR just grown up “mean girls”? Weigh in athttp://ow.ly/7LXGe

Want a story in Fast Company? Writer says you must answer these 4 questions first: http://ow.ly/7LaI1

How to bait your hook for retweets. http://ow.ly/7JrsU

Why You Can’t Read a Kindle During Take-off—4 Theories.http://ow.ly/7IWGf

7 reasons to embrace nasty comments at your blog.http://ow.ly/7HZZI #blogging

10 types of writer’s block and how to overcome them.http://ow.ly/7HdpL #writingtips

Top 15 tech bloggers and tweeters in 2011. (PR people, save this list.) http://ow.ly/7JS8m

Pitching journalists? Google their name. You’ll find valuable tidbits you can weave into yr pitch. #publicity

Website traffic shouldn’t be the goal of your blog. [I disagree! Read my comment] http://ow.ly/7MO6R #seo #blogs

The next time a reporter interviews you, and you don’t know the answer to a question, resist the urge to panic.

Too many interview subjects think reporters expect them to know all the answers to every potential question.

Reporters don’t. All they want is a good story. 

Here, then, are five reasons why it’s OK to say “I don’t know” during an interview and how that simple little phrase can actually keep you out of trouble.
     
     
1. Reporters, particularly TV reporters, sometimes know very little about the topic of their story and need you to educate them.

They often don’t have time to do research. Sometimes they’re covering the beat as a fill-in for another reporter who’s on vacation and they’re clueless about the subject matter. If they ask  you a question and you say “I don’t know,” they won’t hold it against you if they’re in the dark, too. 
     
    
2. The phrase “I don’t know” is a boring sound bite.

I can’t remember the last time I saw that phrase printed in a news story, or lifted from a broadcast interview and played on the air. That’s because it adds absolutely nothing to the story. Reporters want the sizzling, sexy sound bites.    
     
    
3. The question might be completely irrelevant to the story.

When I started working as a reporter and lacked confidence, one of my worst fears was looking dumb in front of news sources. Rather than just saying, “I really don’t know a lot about this topic. Can you help me understand it?,” I’d ask any question that I thought was relevant, or stall for time until I could think of a better one. 

If the question is irrelevant to the story, you can say so. And then come back with “A far better question is….” or “What people really want to know is…”

That little technique, by the way, is a wonderful way to bridge from a question you really don’t want to answer to your key message. Smart reporters might not let you get away with it, but novice reporters probably will.    
     
    
4. If you try to pretend like you know what you’re talking about, and you don’t, your answer  can include wrong information that comes back to haunt you.

The reporter asks a tough question. You panic and start babbling. The reporter includes a quote from you, and quotes from several others who refute what you just said. Embarrassing. 
     
     
5.  The urge to respond to every question can lead to little white lies.

Of course you’d never lie to a reporter. You’re not that dumb.

But I’ve seen case after case in which intertiew subjects think they owe reporters an answer to every question. “The qustion must be important or the reporter would never have asked it,” they think. So they say something—anything—and pretty soon they’re stretching the truth.

If the reporter asks a question and you don’t know the answer, you can always say, “I don’t know. But I can find out the answer to that question and get back to you. When’s your deadline?”

What about you? If you’ve been interviewed, what have you said when you didn’t know the answer to a question?

If you’re a journalist, I’d love to see any other tips you can add to this list.

Publicists, share this post with your clients. And, as always, share this on the social media sites.

Barbara Roy

This week’s Help this Hound question is from Barbara Roy, a communications specialist  in Oakland City, IN:

“I  need ideas on how to promote an upcoming charity car raffle in 2012 through the Mad Mac Foundation, a group that sponsors educational programs for at-risk youth.

“Proceeds from the raffle will be used to get teenagers, who illegally race their cars on street, into the classroom where they can learn how to build tuner cars from the ground up. The training will help them transfer their skills, which they’ve been using illegally, into career paths that might include auto engineering and design, auto repair, and creating video games that involve cars.  The curriculum includes science, technology, engineering and math.

“Two cars will be given away during the July raffle.

“The winter months will be spent on materials prep and strategy. But beginning in January, we’ll focus more on going after sponsors and businesses to carry the raffle tickets.  I could really use recommendations on how to gain mass awareness for this nationwide event. 

“We will have branding, messaging and content on the website by January, as well as a Facebook event page.  Can your Hounds offer their best ideas?”

If you have ideas, please comment.

At least once a seek, somebody asks, “Where can I find a good publicist?”

A far more important question should be, “What are the most important qualities I should look for in a publicist?”

Once you know that, then you can start looking.

Here are 15 qualities I’ve identified, with help from my readers. Use them as a checklist when looking for your candidates, and ranking them. The publicist you choose might not have all of these traits, but do your best to make sure that the person you eventually choose has most of them:  

1. Experience, with a strong track record of successes. This is at the top of the list for a good reason.
     
2. Impeccable oral and written communication skills.
     
3. They are well-groomed and present themselves well.  Remember that they will be representing YOU in front of the media.
     
4. Creative. They should suggest one idea after another on an ongoing basis, even after you’ve been working with them for months. How do you find this out during the interview? Ask them to describe for you several things they did they’re proudest of—things that took real creativity to accomlish. But also ask their references.  
     

     And ask them what they do once they’ve scored a major media hit for you. Here are 15 ways that publicist Michelle Tennant publicizes her clients’ publicity.

  
1. Curious. Make note of how many questions the publicist asks you during the interview. They should be curious about your background, experience, business philosophies—things that might lend themselves to story ideas later. Beware of the publicists who seem disinterested in you and talk only about themselves.
     
2. A sense of urgency. Make note of how quickly the candidate responds to your phone calls and emails. Do you have to wait a day or two for the publicist to get back to you? If so, that kind of responsiveness to media requests will be deadly.
     
3. Disciplined follow-up. If your interview process is slower than you had hoped, and they don’t hear from you for a week or two, do they follow up with you to see where the project stands—and do so without being a pest? When working with the media, follow-up is critical.
     
4. Outgoing, energetic and determined. These should be given more points than “a big name.” I’ve met a few well-known public relations people whose names I had heard for years. But when I met them, they looked tired and listless, as though they wished they were working in any job other than P.R. Maybe they had a bad day. Or maybe they’re always like this.
     
5. Honest. You can ask question designed to get them to talk honestly about themselves and their past experiences. (“What’s the worst mistake you ever made when working for a client?” “What kind of client isn’t a good fit for you?”) If they dodge the questions, beware. The perfect publicist will be honest with you.   
     
6. They offer value beyond what you would expect. You can find out more about this when you check references.
     
7. Friendly. This is imperative. They don’t need to be chummy with you or with their media contacts. But they must be open and approachable. And they must know how to accept “no” gracefully from gruff reporters.
     
8. Professional from start to finish. Your reputation with the media hinges on how your publicist performs.
     
9. Trustworthy. Was the publicist able to earn your trust without making outrageous claims or promises? If so, she can probably earn the media’s trust, too.     
     
10. Confident. Publicists deal with rejection almost daily. They have to bounce back from every “no thanks” they hear, knowing they’re that much closer to a “yes.” 
      
11. Enthusiastic. I wouldn’t hire someone to promote me who was less than enthusiastic about me or my business. You shouldn’t either. 

Now that you know the 11 traits to look for, consider the one thing that you can’t research, look for, or ask about. Instead, you feel it in your gut. It’s chemistry.

If, during an interview with a candidate, you just can’t see yourself taking direction from him, that’s a red flag. So is the feeling that “there’s something about her that bothers me, but I can’t pinpoint it.”

If you’ve hired a publicist who’s darn near close to perfect,  what traits did you notice that you’d add to this list? Publicists, am I wrong about any of these?

It used to be easy to find the movers and shakers who were the most influential people within their topic areas. But not anymore, thanks to social media.

PR and marketing pros who need to find the heavy-hitter  journalists, talk show hosts, bloggers, authors, experts and Facebook users who are discussing a particular topic right now, can slog their way through a variety of tools.

They can use Klout, which measures online influence, but only for those who are on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Klout’s generic score ignores how often that person is quoted or discussed in traditional media.

Google Alerts can tell you instantly which bloggers are discussing certain topics. But the alerts don’t measure the blogger’s influence.

A new tool from Appinions, a New York company, tracks traditional and social media to round out a true picture of influence. It’s a subscription-based service that matches influencers to specific topics, based on opinions it finds from news reports, blogs, tweets, TV transcripts and social networks.
     
    
Give Your Clients an Edge

Within seconds, PR and marketing people can identify the most influential people who can move the needles of influence. Then, they can lead their clients to those experts to comment on a blog post, write a letter to the editor, pitch a story, offer background information for a journalist’s article, or offer commentary for an author’s forthcoming book—long before the client’s competitors are even aware that there’s a hot topic being discussed.

Watch this short video to see how it works.

Larry Levy, CEO of Appinions, will give you a free demonstration, perfect for PR and marketing pros, during a webinar I’m hosting from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Oct. 13. Register today because we have room for only 50 people.

Levy will explain the three key elements that the service measures to determine influence:

• Are trusted writers and publications covering the influencer’s opinions?
      
• Is the influencer’s opinion being shared, retweeted, quoted, requoted and linked?
    
• When did a certain topic or issue first emerge, and who introduced it?

The ideal company for this service is a PR or marketing agency that has multiple clients and does at least $5 million a year in revenue.

One of the biggest myths of press releases is that they must contain news.

That was true two decades ago when we wrote press releases primarily for journalists and we had to worry about insulting them with trivia about our business.

But now that we post them online, mostly to pull traffic to our websites, we’re free to write about whatever we wish.

Here, then, are 13 press release topics when your pockets are empty and there’s absolutely nothing newsworthy to write about. They’re excerpted from my free email course on 89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases. (PR people, take the course to sharpen your press release skills. And then use the tips below when you’re scrounging for ideas to publicize your clients.)

Publicity Hounds who have a subscription to Expertclick, The Yearbook of Experts, which lets you post up to 52 press releases a year, will find these tips particularly helpful.

1.  Take a Stand on a Controversial Topic

Controversial topics can include everything from the old standbys such as abortion and gun control to local issues like proposed zoning laws.

When you’re done with the press release, generate extra publicity by writing a letter to the editor of your local or national newspaper. How to Use Newspaper & Magazine Editorial Pages shows you all the ways you can rally support for your cause or issue by using editorial pages, from writing letters to asking for a meeting with the newspaper editorial board.

2.  Write About Your Blog 

If you’ve started blogging for business, write a press release about it so people who want information on your topic can find it. Or devote the release to some of the things you mentioned in a specific post.

This blog, for example, helps people solve problems writing press releases, and I encourage people to submit questions to me. It also teaches people how to use social media sites to self-promote. I could write two press releases, or more, just telling reades about ways they can use this blog. You can, too.

Visit other bloggers who blog on the same topic, or a similar topic, and post comments at their blogs. By linking back to your blog from your comments, you will improve the page ranking of your own blog.

3. Lead Readers to Free Articles at Your Website

If you have free articles that solve people’s problems, or entertain them, say so.

Are your articles arranged by category? Are they updated monthly? Do you let the media, ezine publishers, newsletter editors and bloggers reprint them? Do you feature articles from other industry experts?

4. Tell People Where to Find You on Social Media Sites

Smart Publicity Hounds use Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Quora profiles to position themselves as the go-to sources in their industries.

Do you post your photos and videos to Flickr? Do you have a YouTube channel chock full of helpful how-to videos? (Here’s mine.)

5.  Create Your Own Holiday

Create your own day, week or month of the year, or your own holiday, at Chases Calendar of Events. The listing is free. You can then use that holiday as a springboard to even more publicity.

The topic doesn’t have to be serious. In fact, the more fun, the better. I love Doing Business in Your Bathrobe Day.

6. Make a Prediction

Predict something that ties into your area of expertise—or not.

Predict when gasoline prices, the stock market or interest rates will rise and fall. For fun, predict who will win the Super Bowl or when the first snowfall will occur in your area. Predict the winner of local or national elections.

7. Issue a Proclamation

Congratulate the local high school football team for winning a state title, or a local business for celebrating its 10th anniversary.

8. Write Tips That Tie into an Upcoming Holiday

Professional orgnizers can write about how to stay organized during the Christmas holidays. A child safety expert can offer tips on how to keep kids safe during fireworks season on the Fourth of July.

9.  Identify A Trend You’re Seeing in Your Business or Industry

You don’t even have to think very hard to identify a trend you’re seeing. How has your customers’ behavior changed the way you do business? What’s happening with your orders? Is your nonprofit serving more people in a particular age group or income level?

If you want to cheat, Google “Top trends in the (fill in the blank) industry” and write about one of those.

10.  Comment on Breaking News

This one’s easy. The news can tie into your business or industry—or not. If you’re an expert who welcomes interview requests for radio talk shows, say so in the release. See 6 ways to tie your pitch to breaking news for PR and publicity.

11. What Event Are You Attending?

Most people don’t think it’s a big deal if they attend a trade show or industry conference. But why not turn this into a publicity opportunity?

Write a press release telling people that you’d welcome meeting them. Encourage them to ask you questions about problems they’re facing.

12. Take a Poll or Survey

Sites like Survey Monkey make simple polling a breeze.  You can also take a poll on Facebook. Don’t forget to write a follow-up press release that reports on the results of the poll.

13. Explain How to Solve a Problem

Press releases offering tips and advice are often the very best for pulling traffic to your website. That’s becauase you can dazzle readers with your expertise, help them solve their problem, and then link to a website where they can find more information about a product or service you sell that can help them even more.

What topics do you write about when the idea well is dry?

Tools to Help You:    

How to be a Kick-butt Publicity Hound

Keywords: The Magic Magnets That Pull Journalists & Consumes to Your Press Releases

The New Rules of Press Releases: How to Write them for Consumers, Not Only for Journalists

The Big Press Release Samples Ebook: Press Releases for Every Occasion and Industry

If you’re in the path of massive Hurricane Irene, and the home or office that houses your PR business is severely damaged or wiped out by the 115-mph winds and torrential rains, could you continue to conduct business?

How to prepare for natural disasters is the stuff they teach in Crisis Communications 101. But many of us took that course ages ago.

As PR pros, some of us even teach it. And we’re apt to forget it when bad news happens to us.

What better time than now for a refresher—just after an earthquake hit this week near Washington, D.C., and the Eastern Seaboard of the United States is bracing this weekend for Hurricane Irene and its life-threatening waves and winds?

Howard Lewinter, a business management specialist who works with CEOs, business owners and company presidents, says the time to prepare  is long before disaster strikes. Having an emergency plan and knowing exactly what to do when you’re in a crisis, will put you in a far better position than thinking on the fly, while the disaster—or hurricane—is swirling around you.

“That’s because most people panic when something bad happens,” he said. “If you think clearly, you can probably solve the problem.”
     
    
Safety First
    
Most important is making  sure you’re safe, he said. That includes heeding calls to evacuate, and doing it early enough so that you have time to leave the area that’s in danger. If you’re in a large metropolitan area like New York City, know what to do and review your city’s Hurricane Evacuation Plan.

“Make sure that you’ve brought enough food, water and ice,” Lewinter said.
     
     
Employees Next
     
“Know the phone numbers of all of your employees, and keep them in a safe, secure offsite location,” he said.

The list should include their home addresses, home phone numbers, email addresses and a friend or relatives to call in case of an emergency.

If you won’t be able to return to your office for days, or even weeks, how will your employees be paid? Have a contingency plan for payroll. 

How will you communicate with them during the disaster? Create procedures for keeping them informed. 

“Remember that you’ll have to make sure your cell phones are fully charged,” he said.  “You can charge them in your car if you have a battery charger, or you can charge them from the USB port on your computer.”

Have support systems, such as counselors, in place just in case employees may need them. 
     
     
Have an Emergency Plan  
      
“If you can’t operate from your office because of a power outage, or flooding, or whatever the damage happens to be,  you’ll need to retrieve all your data. Back it up daily—not just on site but also to a secure location off-site.” 

What if you’ve backed up your data offsite, but your office building was demolished during an earthquake, or it was so severely damaged by a hurricane that it will take months to repair?

Have a contingency plan. Call your insurance agent and ask if you’re fully protected under your current policy. Do you have enough insurance protection? Does your policy cover earthquake damage?  Some policies don’t.

Is there another office building you can use temporarily? How much would it cost to relocate your business, or even to suspend it temporarily? Seek multiple opinions from the experts so you can make the right decision.

Do you lease your office, or the building? If so, you must know what the lease agreement says about emergencies and who is responsible for what, Lewinter cautions. 

Confused about something in the lease?  Make sure you understand anything that’s vague. If necessary, get it in writing.

If your building is still intact, but you’re without Internet or telephone service, have a contingency plan for that, too. Should your business have its own backup generator to produce electric power?  Make that decision BEFORE a disaster, not after.
     
     
Take Care of Your Customers

Keep a current list of customers and all contact information—again, at an off-site location.

“After a disaster, call or email them and let them know what’s happening,” Lewinter said. “Be as accommodating as possible so that they can continue to do business with you once your business has returned to normal.”

And don’t forget your vendors such as freelance writers and photographers, artists, printers, and even ad agencies.  
     
    
Take an Inventory of What You Have
     
Lewinter loves lists because they’re stress-reducers in times of emergency and they help you to think first, panic later.

“Create a list of equipment and services you need to run your business such as computers and furniture,” he said. ”Your insurance agent may ask for it. Your banker might, too, if you need to borrow money. This list will also give you an idea of what it will cost to keep the business going until normal business resumes. ”

Take photographs for insurance purposes.

Have contact information for utilities, all services you outsource, and emergency numbers you may need, like your insurance company. 

Keep a list of current PR projects and delivery dates.  

Copy all important business papers and keep them in a fireproof filing cabinet, or offsite. During a hurricane, important papers should be stored in an airtight, zip-lock bag, even if you’re taking them with you when you’re evacuating. 
     
    
If You Don’t Have Time for All This
     
Many of the items on this list can take weeks to accomplish.

If the hurricane is just a few days or hours away, where do you start? At the top of the list.

Also see Ben Silverman’s excellent Disaster Preparation Tips for PR Firms. It’s as beneficial today as it was when he wrote it more than two years ago. 
     
    
My Own Tips

Use your company blog as your main communication tool. Most PR firms probably blog, but I’ll bet some sole practitioners don’t. If you’re not blogging yet, you should be. See Time-saving Tips for Smart Business Blogging. 

Make maximum use of all your social media sites. Keep your connections informed on LinkedIn and use the Q&A feature when you need help. People will come to the rescue. You can also seek help by asking questions on Quora.

Use Twitter to communicate with your followers, vendors, employees and customers. Use hash tags to make it easy for people to find updates about how the company is doing. Don’t forget Google+.

Post photos to sites like your Facebook page and Flickr account.

As you rebuild and get back on your feet, consider documenting your progess via videos and uploading them to YouTube.

And, finally, don’t forget to publicize your own story! You have loads of journalist contacts and you know how to pitch the media. Use them.

Write letters to the editor and op-eds, if appropriate. Comment at other blogs, too.

Those are our tips. Now what about yours?

What have you done to minimize the risk to your own company from a natural disaster, regardless of whether you specialize in PR? What tips can you add to this long list?

When I worked as a reporter and someone would pitch me, I recoiled when I heard one word in their pitch:

“I own a candy store in the Tuttle Street Mall, and I’m trying to get a little publicity for it.”

Here’s an even more egregious sin:

“I own a candy store in the Tuttle Street Mall. All of the other candy store owners in this town have gotten free publicity from your newspaper, except me.”

I could have asked, “What’s special about your candy store?” or “Why would my readers be interested in your story?”

But because the caller broke the Golden Rule and uttered the dreaded word publicity, I’d grumble something into the phone like, “If you want to buy an ad, I can transfer you to the ad department.”

That’s what we did back in the 1980s and 90s when I worked at newspapers. But today, you wouldn’t be nearly as lucky. Today, reporters would be so busy that they’d write you off as a pest.  Perhaps they would even blackball you.

Because most of them don’t even answer their phones, you’d have to pitch by email. And they could mark your email as spam, thus prohibiting you from ever getting through to them again.

You could face the same consequences if you use the “spray and pray” technique and pitch the same one-size-fits-all story idea to multiple media outlets, thus robbing your pitch of the customization needed to prompt the journalist to read it and think, “This is PERFECT for our audience!” I wrote more about “spray and pray” here.

Here’s a Better Pitch for the Candy Store

“Your story in last Sunday’s paper about how local retail sales have really dropped because of the slumping economy caught my eye because my candy store is experiencing just the opposite. Our sales have gone up each year, and I suspect it’s because in bad economic times, people turn to chocolate. That’s what I found when I thoroughly researched the chocolate industry five years ago before opening my store.

“If you’re planning a follow-up story on the mall, or you’d be interested in talking to other chocolatiers in town who I know are also experiencing the same sales trends I’m seeing, I can provide contact information. You also might be interested in a White Paper from the American Chocolate Association that gives a brief history of chocolate in bad economic times.”

“I can be reached at…”

Why That Pitch Works 

If I were the reporter, I’d jump at that story. Here’s why the pitch worked:

• The store owner let the reporter know that she read last Sunday’s story on small businesses. She was smart enough to let the reporter know she reads the paper and she knows what the reporter covers.
• She used the word “follow up.” That’s newspaper lingo.
• The story highlights a trend. Even if your candy store sales aren’t up, you could mention something you’re doing to make that happen, like hosting children’s birthday parties and wedding showers within the store.
• The store owner offered two extras: contact information for other chocolate retailers, and the White Paper.

Delivering succinct pitches is one of the most difficult parts of the job for professional PR people. If you don’t have their background and experience, knowing what the media want and how to deliver it can be next impossible.

But it doesn’t have to be.

If you’re lucky enough to be hiring a PR intern this summer, don’t fall into the trap of letting them learn on the client’s nickel.

There’s a good discussion at the Get Social PR blog where Rodger Johnson, a PR counselor and blogger, argues in favor of letting interns pitch, with supervision.

“Interns need to learn how to pitch and the best way to do that is to pitch,” he says.

I disagree.

Here are seven reasons why interns shouldn’t be pitching the media:

1. Pitching is difficult enough for PR people who have been doing it for many years. It’s the one skill that takes most professionals several years to learn, and several more to hone.
2. Most interns, who don’t know the client’s company intimately, are ill-equipped to answer a reporter’s question about the client. An intern who’s caught off-guard might not know how to respond, particularly if the question deals with a bad-news situation on a topic that’s a lot juicier than the topic of the pitch.
3. Put yourself in the client’s place. What would you think if you knew that an amateur college student was representing you and your brand in front of the media and bloggers?
4. Guarding and protecting the client’s reputation is a lot more important than letting an intern stumble and fall and “learn from the experience.”
5. Pitching is all about building relationships with the media. Interns typically arrive in May or June and they’re gone by September. Work on building the relationships between the media and YOU.

Am I wrong?

Do you let interns pitch with supervision? What kinds of results have you seen? And what do you tell your client about the process?

Tom Antion, My Internet Marketing Mentor

Publicists, how many more clients do you think you can attract if your name comes up on the first page of Google every time someone searches for a PR person with your expertise?

Tom Antion, my Internet marketing mentor, can help.

Tom is looking for four select people who have expert skills in certain areas of PR and who are willing to work 10 to 15 hours a week in exchange for a scholarship to his new, licensed Internet Marketing certificate school.

Tom is the real deal, and you’d be crazy to pass up this offer. When he called me this week and asked me if I’d extend it to you, I said I would, but only if he promised to give my Publicity Hounds first crack at applying and being considered.

Hundreds of publicists and PR people follow me, so he could find exactly who he needs within a few days. Snooze, and you’ll lose. 
   
  
What Tom Has Taught Me

The training I’ve received from Tom has allowed me to enjoy a great income for many years from my home office. Much of it comes from my more than 150 products which I sell online, even on days when I don’t feel like working, or when I have a doctor’s appointment or other family obligations.  

Tom taught me the secret of how to capture the Number 1 and Number 2 spots on Google for the phrase “publicity expert”:

He also taught me how to earn affiliate commission promoting other people’s top-quality products and services that I can stand behind. I’ve done it so well, that I couldn’t stop the commission checks from arriving in my mailbox even if I tried.

Tom showed me, step by step, how to publish a profitable electronic newsletter. As  a result, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week has been going strong, for more than 10 years. You can learn what I learned and lots more. And if you’re chosen, you can spend a day with him at the Great Internet Marketing Retreat Center at his home in Virginia Beach. I’ve been there four or five times.
     
    
How to Apply for a Scholarship

Tom is looking for the following publicity experts:

• A print specialist
    
• A radio specialist
    
• A TV specialist
    
• An online specialist

As you can imagine, there will be fierce competition for these spots because people pay Tom $58,000.00 to work with him personally for a year and $9,100.00 for tuition to his school.  He’s a cut-to-the-chase guy who doesn’t have time for busywork. And he knows you don’t either.

You don’t need a portfolio or even a resume. Just email him with a quick synopsis of your experience and publicity successes and explain what you want to accomplish on the Internet. He’ll follow up with you by phone.

Check out all the details.
   
  
But Is He a Good Media Interview?

Tom is an excellent media guest and has done more than 1,000 radio interviews and many for TV, newspapers and magazines. So if you know what you’re doing, generating publicity for him will be a piece of cake.

He’s also got the credentials. The Internet Marketing Training Center is currently the only licensed Internet marketing school in the United States. 

If you aren’t interested, but you know a crackerjack publicist who is, let them know about this. And spread the word on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.