The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

Almost every Tuesday during the last decade, my readers and I have been sharing our best tips in “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week.”

If it’s Tuesday, and it’s Christmas, the ezine arrives via email on Christmas Day and the other 51 weeks of the year.

On April 16 this year, I’ll published Edition Number 500, and I’m looking for a clever promotion or contest that will engage current readers, create a buzz on the social media sites, and attract new subscribers.

Because I’m knee-deep in three other projects, I’m not even sure I’ll have time to pull this off. But I’d be crazy not to ask my Hounds for help.

What can I do to promote the newsletter, pull in new readers, attract attention for the archived issues, encourage people to submit questions for Help this Hound, and make this a really fun celebration?

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Business Promotion, Contests, Publicity Resources, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 3/16/2010: 11:26 am: By Joan
Comments: 6 Comments

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.

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Business Promotion, How to Interview, Media Leads, PR Consultants/Publicists, Pitching the Media, Publicity Resources, Radio Publicity, Social media marketing, TV Publicity
posted On: 2/11/2010: 9:29 am: By Joan
Comments: 9 Comments

Struggling to find a good story idea to pitch to the business reporter at your daily newspaper?

Wondering how to use your Facebook Fan page to promote your product or service?

Trying to catch the attention of the editors at Oprah’s magazine?

Help is on the way. Actually, it’s called “Help This Hound,” and it’s one of the most popular features in my weekly ezine, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week, delivered every Tuesday.

      
Here’s how it works

Anyone who needs help with publicity or marketing can email a question to me, along with their name and town. If I use your question, I’ll post it here at my blog, and then print the question in my ezine.

Readers who are willing to help can offer their best ideas as blog comments.  I choose the best ideas and print them in the following week’s newsletter. Authors, small business owners, PR people, publicists and nonprofits submit the most questions.

  
Here’s why “Help This Hound” is so popular

• Most of us are too close to our own businesses to be able to see clever angles or unusual hooks that can catch a journalist’s attention.
    
• Many Publicity Hounds are on razor-thin or non-existent publicity and marketing budgets. They appreciate the free ideas.
     
• The blog posts live forever. That means that as the search engines pull in traffic, ideas will be accumulating here over several months or years. If I use your question, check back every few weeks to see who else has commented.
     
• Even though I created this service to help you solve a problem, your question exposes you to my audience. Several people who have submitted questions over the years have gotten calls from journalists and bloggers who read about them in my newsletter. Others have even received additional business.

No anonymous questions, please. Be sure to offer enough information in your question so that my readers fully understand the problem. Explain what you’ve done that has or hasn’t worked. And include a link to your website. If appropriate, attach a photo of your product.

Right now, I’m short on questions, and I could really use yours. But don’t just email it to me. Help other Hounds by contibuting your best ideas when you see a question in my newsletter that you can answer.

  
How to subscribe

If you don’t subscribe to my newsletter, you can do so by typing your name and email address into the box on the right side of this screen, under my photo. Then check your email box (or spam folder) and click on the confirmation link.  

By the way, have you downloaded the five free publicity ebooks that include the best publicity tips from my ezine in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009? They’re chock full of ideas, and there’s something there for everyone. 

As you’ll notice in the ebooks, many of the best publicity tips, success stories, and dog jokes and videos come directly from my readers, with attribution. 

I’d love to see yours.  Bring ‘em on!

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Business Promotion, Facebook, Nonprofits, PR Consultants/Publicists, Pitching the Media, Publicity Resources
posted On: 1/26/2010: 10:16 am: By Joan
Comments: 6 Comments

If you’re looking for publicity from bloggers or traditional media but can’t think of an idea to pitch to them, here’s a quick way to find several. 

Longtime Publicity Hound Norman Lieberman reminded me about this yesterday when he emailed me to see if I had a list of questions that Publicity Hounds can ask themselves, designed to uncover nuggets of information that are possible story ideas.

I gave Norm two resources. The first is my “Story Idea Tickler List,” part of the handouts for my “Savvy Media Relations” workshop: 

1. What’s new or unique about your business?
      
2. What do you offer that your competitors don’t?                                                   
         
3. How do you help people solve problems, save time or save money?
       
4. What business mistakes have you made that you learned from?
      
5. What new trends have you spotted in your industry?
      
6. Is there a social or political issue you feel strongly about? (Write an opinion column, letter to the editor or blog post.) 
       
7. Are you sponsoring a contest or an award?
       
8. Can you piggyback your topic off a holiday or anniversary?
       
9. How are you using technology in your business?
       
10. Do you have any good visuals that tie into your story idea for television?
        
11. What about your personal life? (Hobbies, travels, food, clothing, etc.)
        
12. Have you formed an interesting partnership or alliance?
        
13. What how-to articles could you write?
             
14. What topics are good fodder for a tip sheet? (9 tips for….)
        
15. On what radio talk shows would you be a good fit and what’s the hot story of the day that ties into your expertise?
        
16. Are you the local angle to a national or regional story?
           
17. How are you using social media in your business? 
       
18. How can you piggyback onto celebrity news? For example, here are 10 ways to generate publicity from the Tiger Woods mess and here’s how Connie Dieken, a Cleveland TV personality and media trainer, got publicity by piggybacking onto celebrity outbursts.
       
19. Do you have an interesting  stand-alone photo you can offer the media? Newspapers and magazines often use these photos as fillers.

If those aren’t enough, you can check out the free sample chapter of my ebook, “How to be a Kick-butt Publicity Hound” where you’ll find more ideas, and a fuller explanation of some of the ideas listed above. 

What ideas have you pitched recently that other Publicity Hounds could also use? Share them here.

Posted In: Blogs, Business Promotion, Contests, Holidays, PR Consultants/Publicists, Photos & Graphics, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity Resources, Social media marketing, TV Publicity, Writing Articles
posted On: 1/14/2010: 11:20 am: By Joan
Comments: 4 Comments

If you’re trying to get onto radio talk shows to promote your book, product, service, cause or issue—and you’re on a tight budget—a series of inexpensive ebooks will help you locate the contact information for shows in specific niches. 

Talk radio advocate Francine Silverman has based the ebooks on her book, Talk Radio Wants You: An Intimate Guide to 700 Shows and How to Get Invited (McFarland & Co.  2009).

The ebooks include the show theme and guest criteria, which is usually missing from radio websites, in addition to title of show, name of host, email, phone (optional), website, best method of contact, and where the show is aired. You’ll also find information on Internet radio shows.

“Naturally, there are more shows in the book in every category, but as more questionnaires are returned, the number of shows in the ebooks are likely to surpass the book’s,” Silverman says.  “The business ebook, for example, has 53 shows, compared to the book’s 49.”

Even though some of these shows are small, Publicity Hounds can use these gigs as practice sessions. Appearing on TV and radio talk shows in smaller markets lets you make your mistakes, and learn from them, in front of much smaller audiences. Then, and only then, will you be ready to hit the big-time talk shows in the top markets. 

The ebooks include information for these niches:

Business
53 shows, ($20). Covers workplace issues, innovation, entrepreneurship, business strategies, careers, finance, small business, sales, home-based businesses, investments, insurance, money management and real estate. 

Entertainment
30 shows ($12). Covers art, fashion, movies, music and comedy.

Politics
25 shows ($12). Covers conservative, liberal and Libertarian politics; current events; the Constitution; and pop culture.

Self-Help
27 shows ($12). Covers overs personal and professional goals, growth and empowerment, emotional freedom techniques, motivation, creativity, living one’s calling, making for a better world, transforming your life, and self-realization.

Health
20 shows ($12). Covers healthy living and lifestyles, fitness, health as a business advantage, natural healing, alternative medicine, medical travel, issues, education and treatment, and overcoming adversities.

New Age
35 shows ($15). Covers astrology, metaphysics, Tarot, Angels, psychic development, paranormal, parapsychology, holistic health, healing, mysticism, occult, mediums and more.

Customers will receive five free updates when Silverman gets information on five new shows in that niche.

To buy the book, pay by PayPal to franalive@optonline.net. Or send a check payable to Francine Silverman to P.O. Box 1333, Riverdale, New York, NY 10471.  She’ll email you your book when she receives your check.
  
I asked Francine for three sample listings, and here’s what she gave me.

Bob Hardcastle’s Money Talk

Name of Host: Bob Hardcastle

Theme: Financial

Where Aired: KFNS 590, St. Louis, Missouri

Guest Profile: Banking & Finance, Investment, Real estate, Commodities professionals

Email: delta@moneytalk.org

Website: http://www.moneytalk.org

Phone: 636-532-0484

Best Method of Contact: Phone
        
       
The Art Rocks! 

Talk Show Name of Host: Philly Joe Swendoza & Co-Host Alexandra Rosa (Executive Producer)

Where Aired: WS Radio

Theme: “Where art, fashion and Lifestyles collide”

Guest Profile: Someone in our related genre, rock stars, celebrities, people who want to showcase their product or service on our show as it takes the form of an Infomercial. 

Email: alexandra@artrocks247.com

Website: http://www.artrocks247.com and http://www.wsradio.com/artrocks

Phone: 619-890-254

Best Method of Contact: Email
   
   
Mission Unstoppable Radio

Name of Host: Unstoppable Frankie Picasso

Theme: Inspiring stories to help folks be Unstoppable

Where Aired: Blog Talk Radio

Guest Profile: Authors (preferred) who have been unstopppable in their lives, attaining their goals, overcoming tragedy or who help others, i.e., business, crime, music, religion, spouse abuse; all categories are open.

Email: coachpicasso@rogers.com

Website: http://www.instituteforquantumliving.com and http://www.unstoppableplanet.com

Phone: 519-267-2493

Best Method of Contact: Send books to 839 Avenue Rd, Cambridge, Ontario, N1R 5S4 Intiial contact. Email is best.

Posted In: How to Interview, Pitching the Media, Publicity Resources, Radio Publicity
posted On: 12/1/2009: 8:44 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments