If you can’t afford your own photographer, or you take lousy photos, or you hate creating graphics, use a stock photo service to enhance everything from press releases to media kits in a PR campaign.

Royalty-free stock images can save you a lot of time and money trying to generate graphics on your own. Royalty-free means you can use the downloaded images forever and not have to worry about infringement issues.

Shutterstock has given me a complimentary subscription so I can try their service, and their photos come in handy at this blog. They’ve helped me compile this list of 13 ways you can use stock image photos in a PR campaign.

1. Blogs. Many bloggers are missing the opportunity to dress up their posts and make their blogs more attractive. Regardless of what topic I write about, I can usually find a stock image to accompany it.  
       
2. Ezines and print newsletters. Stock photos and illustrations can enhance articles in company newsletters and ezines. Now that so many ezine publishers produce HTML newsletters, stock images come in handy.
         
3. Press releases. Most press release distribution services allow customers to upload several images at no extra charge. If the headline doesn’t call attention to your release, the stock photo just might. Adding editorial stock images of premier events such as concerts or sports competitions can add weight and influence to a related press release, blog post or ezine article.
       
4. Presentations. Whether you’re submitting a proposal for a client, or you’re a speaker who’s presenting to an audience, compelling stock images used to illustrate business presentations can help capture the attention of your audience. Highlight key points with photos and illustrations in PowerPoint. 
       
5. Reports. Stock photos are a great way to add excitement to client reports and reinforce your accomplishments.
       
6. White Papers. White Papers often cry out for colorful stock imagery to break up text and hold readers’ attention. 
        
7. Media kits. Including stock photos and illustrations when designing a media kit or media kit inserts to add extra visual appeal. 
       
8. Event invitations and posters. Stock photos and illustrations allow PR professionals to create attractive event invitations. Stock images can also help create just the right mood for the event itself. Simply enlarge them to poster size and place them throughout the event location.  
       
9. Social media. Use them to enliven your your social media presence on sites such as Facebook, Twitter (Twitpic), Wikipedia, and more.  
       
10. Search engine optimization. By properly tagging a stock image within a release, blog or website, you can raise your site’s rankings. PR clients will appreciate the added value as well as your SEO savvy.
        
11. Your own website. Stock photos and illustrations are a great way to demonstrate creative flair and generate interest in your website, or your PR client’s.
        
12. Advertising.  If you’re buying an ad, a good stock photo can come in handy.
        
13. For the media. Offer stock photos to journalists if they’re coving a story about you, and the photos are a good tie-in. Sure,  the media have access to their own stock photos, but Rule #1 when working with the media is “Be helpful.” 

My ebook How to Use Photos & Graphics in Your Publicity Campaign offers thousands of helpful tips on how to  incorporate images into your publicity efforts.  

The next time you write  a press release, don’t let youself lapse into gobbledygook.

They’re annoying, overused words most people wouldn’t use when they talk, but they don’t hesitate to use them when they write because buzzwords make their releases sound ”important.”

I’ve written before about aggravating words in press releases. In this week’s Daily Dog newsletter published by Bulldog Reporter,  Ken Makovsky comments on the most annoying, overused words in the workplace. When I saw the list of words—leverage, interface, viral, cutting age—I couldn’t help but think that the list is identical to words that should be banned from press releases.

If you think I’m exaggerating, just hop on over to PRWeb and glance through some of the press releases that were posted today. (The worst examples are those from technology companies.)

Instead of relying on buyzzwords, pay more attention to keywords. That is, words and phrases that people type into the search engines when they’re looking for information. Press release specialist Janet Thaeler gave dozens of kick-butt tips when she was my guest expert on Wednesday during the teleseminar on “How to Use Keywords, the ‘Magic Magnets’ That Pull Consumers & Journalists to Your Press Releases.”  

Here are four tips from that call:

• Use keywords in the headline, the first sentence and throughout the body copy. 
    
• Use keywords in anchor text that links to your website or your blog–about one anchor text link for every 100 words of copy. For example, if one of the keyword phrases in my press release was “free publicity tips,” and I wanted people to visit my website to sign up for my free ezine called “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” I wouldn’t say “Click here to sign up for Stewart’s free ezine on publicity tips.”   I’d say “Sign up for Stewart’s free ezine on free publicity tips.” If people were searching for free publicity tips, they wouldn’t be typing “click here” into the search engines.
      
• Use the URL again in your press release but spell it out, like this: http://www.PublicityHound.com. The place to do this is in the boilerplate, also known as the “About us” paragraph at the end of your press release. If someone cuts and pastes your press release and uses it on their website, or forwards it to a friend, but doesn’t bother to make the links live, people won’t be able to find your website unless your URL is spelled out.
      
• Janet’s favorite keyword research tools are the Google keyword tool and Wordtracker’s free tool.

Using keywords in press releases might feel strange at first because we’ve all been taught to concentrate on things like the headline, a great “hook” in the first paragraph and powerful quotes within the release. But the more you practice using keywords, the easier it becomes. And the more skilled you become at using keywords, the easier it is for people to find your release.

Most people who email me with questions about how to write press releases ask the least important questions:

• How many words should my release be?
     
• What’s the best free press release distribution service?
      
• Can you take a look at my release and tell me if it has the right “tone”?
    
• Should my name and phone number go on the top or at the bottom?

All good questions, actually. But no one has ever asked the most important one: ”How do I research and use keywords in my press releases so the search engines can find them and bring targeted traffic to the release, and then, to my website?”

Bingo. 

Most press release writers have a vague understanding or no understanding of how to use keywords. They think a tantalizing headline, scrumptious sub-head, enticing copy, kick-butt quote and even a call to action will pull traffic and convert to sales.

Problem is, if  their press releases don’t include the same keywords that people are typing into Google when they want a problem solved, those people might never find their releases. That’s the biggest mistake I see in press releases that people ask me to review.

How press releases have changed

Press release specialist Janet Thaeler, an expert at optimizing releases for the search engines, says  most people don’t realize that the world of press releases has changed considerably.

“The press release, as a way to reach the media, is essentially dead,” she said. “There are far better ways than sending out a press release to get traditional media coverage.”

Most of that includes responding to inquiries and building relationships with journalists. Online, you can get visibility through social media, your own blog and by using online distribution services to spread the news.

“Where online releases really shine is in getting you noticed online in search engines where it’s easier for people to find your news and therefore  your businesses…Many time the coverage you get online will take you much further than a great story in a newspaper or magazine. You can trace sales directly from a press release.”
     
    
Learn more about keywords Oct. 21

Janet will be my guest during a teleseminar at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, Oct. 21. She will discuss “How to Use Keywords: The ‘Magic Magnets’ That Pull Consumers and Journalists to Your Press Releases.”

Did you know, for example, that another big boo-boo in press releases is mentioning your company’s name in the headline? That’s the most valuable piece of real estate on the release, and one of the first places search engines look for keywords.

If you sell environmentally friendly baby clothing, and somebody is looking for what you sell, they won’t type your company’s name into a search engine unless they already know about you. They are more likely to type ”environmentally friendly baby clothing” or “green baby products” or “organic kids clothing.” Those keywords should be in the headline, and throughout the press release. 
     

5 tips for optimizing press releases

Here are only 5 of the many tips we’ll discuss during the Oct. 21 call: 

1. Before you write, do keyword research to learn what words or phrases relate to your news, industry or brand.  Wordtracker and Google’s Wonder Wheel help simplify and arrange search results.
      
2. Identify from one to three different but related keyword phrases to use, and include them within your release.
       
3. If your business serves a local area, use regional keywords.  For example: “Los Angeles yoga studio.”
       
4. Don’t assume you must use your company name in the headline.  That’s one of the first places the search engines look for keywords.  People who are searching for the type of product or service you sell, and don’t know about your company, won’t type your company name into the search engines.  Use the same keywords they’d use, based on your research.
       
5. Use keywords in the first paragraph of your press release.

Hope to see you on the call Oct. 21!

With all the focus on social media, you’re probably scampering to create new content for sites like EzineArticles.com, Facebook and Twitter. 

You may be writing articles, creating tips lists, and offering quizzes.

That’s great. But don’t make the mistake of abandoning online press releases, which is all too easy to do when you’re consumed with posting every day to Facebook and Twitter.

Here are eight reasons why you should continue posting them to your website:

1. Optimized press releases pull in traffic. 
   Make sure you use relevant keywords in the headline and throughout the body copy.  But don’t stuff the release with keywords, or that will be a red flag to the search engines. Take advantage of StomperNet’s excellent seven-day free email course on search engine optimization. Each lesson in “7 Deadly SEO Mistakes” takes just a few minutes to review. 
            
2. They save time for visitors.
   It’s a great way to show journalists, bloggers and others what’s new and important, without making them spend a lot of time investigating your site.  New product launch?  They’ll find it in a press release.  New CEO?  There should be a release at your site that announces that.  Special promotion under way at your company?  Write a release that explains it.  Put a link to all your releases in your online pressroom.
           
3. You can use them to reach consumers directly–and promote.
   Years ago, we had to write printed press releases and cleanse them of anything that sounded like hype or promotion before sending them to journalists.  Gone are the days, thankfully, when we had to genuflect at the altar of traditional media, say a prayer and hope they covered our story.  Online press releases let us reach consumers directly without relying on the media gatekeepers.
            
4. Video and audio links.
   Video and audio links  can lead visitors to content that goes into more depth on a particular topic.  It’s a convenient way to get that information in front of visitors instead of making them wade through page after page at your website.
           
5. They help bloggers.
   Online press releases make it easy for bloggers to provide more information for their readers.  All they have to do is link to the release from within their posts.
            
6. Links to landing pages.
   From an online release, you can link to specific landing pages at your website where readers can find more information.  Yes, you can even link to sales pages where you list all the benefits of the product you’re selling, and then ask readers to hit the “Buy Now” button.  How cool is that?
       
7. They keep your site looking fresh and updated.
   This is assuming that you post them regularly. It just dawned on me that it’s been several months since I’ve posted a new release, and I’ve just added that to my “to-do” list for today.  
            
8. They can help you build your tribe on social networking sites.
   From the releases, you can provide links so readers can connect with you at social networking sites. Why not include a link to your Facebook Fan Page, like I have here?
         

Two tips that will help anyone who wants to post online releases:

From the press room at my website, I link to my at ExpertClick.com: The Online Yearbook of Experts.  This subscription service lets me post up to 52 press releases a year with no additional per-release fee.  It also gives me a page in their online database of experts, which journalists search frequently when looking for sources for articles. If you subscribe, tell them I sent you and they’ll knock $100 off the subscription.

If you want to learn more about how to write and distribute online press releases, you can opt into the free 12-week tutorial I created on “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.”  More than 6,000 people have taken the course.

If a journalist uses the search engines to search for a source with your expertise, Google may return to her a long list of possibilities on the left side of the screen.

There’s a clever trick you can use to prod that journalist into picking up the phone and calling you—even if she’s on deadline and she doesn’t have time to review each website one by one.

When I discovered this trick, it was one of those “duh” moments.  I slapped my forehead, and yelled “Of course!”  I was embarrassed that I hadn’t been doing this.

Here’s the best part.

This trick works just as well if you’re trying to encourage potential customers and clients, joint venture partners, book buyers, meeting planners looking for speakers, or anyone else to call YOU instead of your competitors.  Get a prospect on the phone and they’re as good as closed.

This is Mistake #3 in the complimentary email course “7 Deadly SEO Mistakes” from StomperNet.  Each email lesson, delivered over seven days, is a quick read.

If you don’t like getting your hands dirty with this technical stuff, forward the lessons to whoever manages your website.  Better yet, read these tips, and then see how many of the mistakes your webmaster is making.

Let’s see a show of hands.

How many of you like receiving cold calls from people selling ink cartridges, aluminum siding or ads in your local Yellow Pages?

That’s what I thought.

That’s why a speaker should think twice about hiring an assistant or virtual assistant to cold call meeting planners. It sends the message, “I’m too important or too busy to call you myself, so I’m sending my assistant to bother you with an annoying cold call.” 

Why are cold calls bad? 

Because way too many speakers—and their assistants—are making them. I made hundreds of cold calls myself when I was on the speaking circuit, before I knew any better.

The best speaking engagements I booked weren’t from cold calls. They were the result of meeting planners finding out about me from somebody else, or reading an article I wrote for their industry publication and calling me. When a meeting planner calls you to ask about your availability, you’re in a much better position to command the fee you want.

If a VA is making calls for you, she probably can’t answer all the questions meeting planners might ask about things like negotiating your fee, speaking about a topic that’s not part of your repertoire, altering the content of a particular keynote or workshop, doing a webinar instead of an in-person program, and many other unexpected subjects.

That’s why asking an assistant to cold-call meeting planners is a lousy idea for most speakers.  I said MOST speakers.  I’m sure some of friends in the National Speakers Association have assistants who make these calls for them—but only after they’ve done extensive training with an assistant who already knows their business intimately.  Expecting a $40- or $60-an-hour VA to present you to meeting planners puts you at a disadvantage.

             
6 ways to use publicity to book gigs

Here are six ways to use publicity to help you book speaking engagements—and ways to involve your virtual assistant in each:

—Write articles to attract the attention of meeting planners. If you’re trying to speak before a particular trade association, contact the editor of the group’s magazine or newsletter and ask if they accept articles from experts. If your article appears in that industry’s trade magazine, the meeting planner who hires speakers might see it. If you make a cold call after the article appears, you can mention the article. Your VA can research industry publications and order back issues.

—Create short videos that tie into your topics. Have your VA upload them to the video-sharing sites. Meeting planners who are using the search engines to find speakers will find the videos. If they like what they see, they might call you. Your VA can do keyword research for you and tag the videos.

—Answer questions on LinkedIn. Create a profile on LinkedIn and spend time each week answering questions that pertain to the topics on which you speak. This is a powerful way to promote your expertise. Each person who asks a question can flag one of the answers as a “best answer.” The number of “best answer” designations you’ve received shows up on your LinkedIn profile. Your VA can look for questions that pertain to your expertise and call them to your attention. See my article on other ways to use LinkedIn to promote.

—Actively seek recommendations on LinkedIn. If a meeting planner is considering you and another speaker for her group’s annual keynote, and the other speaker has more recommenations than you do at LinkedIn, guess who will probably get the job? Ask every meeting planner who has been thrilled with your work to recommend you there. Ditto for every editor who has published your articles and has a strong relationship with you. Ask your VA to remind you to ask for recommendaitons. 

—Tweet about your topic at Twitter. Link to helpful articles and blog posts you have written. Share other articles you’ve found online. Ask compelling questions that lead to lively conversations. And, of course, tweet about your speaking gigs. Your VA can peform a variety of searches on Twitter to find people who might be in a positin to hire you and who you would want to follow. (See “How to Use Twitter to Amass an Army of Followers, Customers & Valuable Contacts—and Promote.”)  

—Blog about your topic. Use keywords that meeting planners would use if they’re searching for someone with your expertise. Listen to the teleseminar I conducted with The Blog Squad on how to “Build Your Biz with a Blog: It’s Not an Option Anymore!–How to Build a Professional Blog that Turns Prospects into Clients.”

            
Leave your footprints

All those tasks will take  time. But the big advantage of all of them over cold calling is that you’re leaving your footprint at every step along the way, building a trail of expertise that will live online forever, and making it easy for meeting planners to find you.     

Finally, spend some time in the Compilations category at the SpeakerNetNews website to learn about some of the more innovative ways that speakers book gigs. 

Here’s an article that will help you find a virtual assistant to help with publicity. When you’ve found an assistant, it’s time for training. Here are tips on how to train your VA to help with publicity.

If you want to promote anything online, be sure to check out the January/February issue of SUCCESS magazine, on newsstands now.

I’m featured along with Internet marketers Joel Comm and Scott Fox in the Ask the Experts column. Here are the topics we discussed and a few snippets of advice from the article.

—Blogs: If you aren’t blogging, start now.

—Websites:  Update content regularly.

—Video: It’s the best free way to pull traffic.

—Generating more traffic: Produce interesting, targeted and timely information for your customers.

—Search engine optimization: Use keywords and phrases that emphasize your product offerings.

The online version of the article, by the way, is slightly different than the printed version, so buy the magazine and get even more tips. In fact, why not subscribe and get 65 percent off the news stand price.

Little time to read? Every issue includes a Dual Disc (CD AND DVD) inserted into the magazine. The March issue, for example, includes audio and video tracks from Seth Godin, Napoleon Hill, Harvey McKay and SUCCESS publisher Darren Hardy.

Tomorrow, I’ll be including in my ezine, “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Weeks,” ways to recycle this kind of publicity. Whenever you’re mentioned in a newspaper or magazine, NEVER be content with just one media hit. Already, I’ve recycled this publicity into four other ways to promote my business. I’ll explain them all tomorrow, add them here after I email tomorrow’s newsletter, and then ask my readers to list their favorite ways of recycling in the comments section.  See “Special Report #13: How to Recycle Your Publicity (for Serious Publicity Hounds Only).

If you have valuable advice to share on any aspect of  PR, marking and communications, submit your articles to the The Navigator, the email newsletter that Cision will relaunch in a few weeks.

Cision makes media relations software and other tools, so any tips you can offer for the company’s target audience could bring you some decent online exposure. I’ve been submitting articles to Cision for the past few years and have always gotten great feedback from its readers. The ezine includes the latest media news, new placement opportunities, profiles of top media contacts, and in-depth articles from industry experts.

It wants bylined articles about media relations, the intersection of public relations and Web 2.0, press release writing, public relations technology, consumer marketing, branding, event planning, product marketing, search engine optimization, writing and speaking skills, best practices, strategy and trend stories.  The Navigator will also consider articles on any topic that will benefit its audience.

Once Cision launches its redesigned website, you’ll be able to submit articles via a form on the website.  Before the launch, send articles directly to Editorial Director Kim Roberts. She hasn’t even completed the launch issue, so don’t hesitate to send her articles immediately.

Can’t think of an idea? Read my long list of suggested headlines for how-to articles. When you see a headline that leads to an idea, just fill in the blank, and then start writing.

Newsletters like The Navigator usually don’t pay for these kinds of articles, so be sure they let you maintain the copyright. That was one of the piece of advice from Patricia Eyres, an intellectual property attorney who was my guest expert during a teleseminar I hosted on Legal Issues You Must Know When Writing Articles for Fee or for Free.

Search engine optimization experts don’t like the keyword density checkers that help you determine if you’re using keywords often enough in your press releases.

Keywords should appear naturally, they say, and if you’ve written the release correctly—without stuffing keywords into the copy arbitrarily—the search engines will find it and reward you.

They’re right, of course. But I still think those tools can be very helpful. Long before we started posting press releases online, writing releases has always been a monumental and confusing task for many people. They have a hard enough time deciding on a headline, the first paragraph and the “hook.” Using keywords and keyword phrases throughout the release complicates it further.

Thanks to Publicity Hound Jennifer Filgate of ETrafficSolutions.com for letting me know about PR Newswire’s Keyword Density Tool: 

Simply paste the text of your news release into the box on the page, and then enter up to three separate keywords or phrases in the fields on the left side. Click the “Calculate Term” button and view your results.  PRNewswire suggests you aim for a keyword density of 1.5 to 2.5 percent. SEO gurus suggest 1.5 percent might be too low, so I’d shoot for closer to 2.5 percent.  

At this point, you can make changes to your release if necessary, before uploading the release. You don’t need to buy PRNewswire’s service to use this tool. It’s similar to the Live Keyword Analysis tool I discuss in my free tutorial 89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases, which explains how to write a press release. 

If you’re a member of Stompernet, the world’s largest membership site for Internet marketers, and you’re attending the Stompernet LIVE 7 event March 5-8 in Atlanta—or if you’re attending as a member’s guest—let me know. I’d love to meet you, say hi and maybe even buy you coffee.

I’ve cut back drastically on travel because I hate airport hassles, but this event is well worth it. It’s a chance to:

Be a human sponge for three days.

I soaked up so much valuable information last April at the Stompernet Live 5 event that I couldn’t figure out how I’d ever do it all. (Hint: don’t even try to do it all. Choose what’s best for you and leave the rest.) The Stompernet faculty members and other speakers are among the most successful and creative Internet marketers in the business.

Meet joint venture partners

In April, I finally met and had dinner with Mike Stewart who I’ve known for several years.  We ended up collaborating on a teleseminar that taught Publicity Hounds how to use video at a website, blog or in a video sales letter, and the best camera and video-ediitng software to use. You can listen to the 67-minute recording here. 

I also met Lynn Terry. I’ve been recommending her dirt-cheap 13-page report Easy Fast Cash Strategies. The report teaches you how to market a special report that you’ve written for a niche audience, even if you don’t have a website, shopping cart, or email addresses of people who have given you permission to market to them.  

I met Publicity Hound Leili McKinley, a business coach who I invited to be my guest expert during a teleseminar on Outsourcing Secrets: How to Get the Best Quality, Price & Teamwork from Freelancers.  

Hear a website critique

Brad Fallon, who founded Stompernet with Andy Jenkins, critiqued my website. All members get a website critique and you can attend the critique sessions even if you don’t want a faculty member to review your site.

 
Network

Some of the most valuable relationships aren’t made in the meeting room, but in the hallways, at the coffee table, and during the breaks. Go out of your way to invite interesting people you’ve met to lunch or dinner. That’s where a lot of the deals are made.

Find out what’s new

You’ll learn what’s new in social networking, blogging, podcasting and search engine optimization.

One of the speakers will be business coach and Stompernet member Paul Lemberg. He’s the creator of Forumla Five, the package of videos, checklists and coaching that teaches you how to follow five simple formulas to double your business this year. Stompernet asked me to review the product, and I’ve been devouring the videos the last several weeks. Be sure to check out the five free videos about Formula Five as well as the webinar. But make sure you have a pen and paper close at hand, or sit at another computer and take notes. You’ll come away with dozens of tips and ideas you can start applying to your business today, regardless of what you sell. 

Hope to see you in March in Atlanta! If you’re going, let me know.  I’m bringing Chris Buffaloe, my assistant, and she’d love to meet you too.