The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

When a blogger asks you for a free copy of your book, ebook, CD or other product, resist the urge to say, “If you want it bad enough, buy it.”

You wouldn’t say that to a journalist who called asking to review your book, or a music reviewer who called asking for your new CD to review, would you?

Jay Ehret of The Marketing Spot blog emailed me this afternoon asking if he could have a copy of my ebook “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases” to review.

 Instead of saying yes immediately, I visited his blog, took a look around and liked what I saw. I concluded rather quickly that he’s the expert he claims he is and that his readers, who follow him for his small business marketing tips, are indeed part of my target audience. 

I was having problems with my email this afternoon so I called him instead and we chatted for a few minutes. Later, I sent him the ebook. He emailed me back and told me he wrote about me on Twitter:

“Press release tutorial. Free via email or buy the ebook. http://tinyurl.com/pwnu7 Just talked to the author, Joan Stewart. Super nice.”

He hadn’t even read the ebook yet and already he’s giving me publicity on Twitter. 

Even though most bloggers don’t view themselves as journalists, you need to pay them the same courtesies you would reporters, editors and broadcasters. In some cases, publicity generated by bloggers can be more powerful than publicity in the mainstream media because unlike the MSM, bloggers love to link to each other. (See “How to Pitch the Best Bloggers and Create a Publicity Explosion.”)     

By the way, I’m always super-impressed when bloggers take the time to call and introduce themselves. The same goes for potential joint venture partners. A telephone call lets me hear the enthusiasm in their voice (or not). Even after a short phone call, I feel like I’ve really connected with them.

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Blogs, Information Products, Publicity on the Internet, Social networking
posted On: 4/23/2008: 9:28 pm: By Joan
Comments: 4 Comments

Shirley James of Ormond Beach, Florida writes:

“A partner and I have developed an activity-based trading card for tween girls (ages 7-12) called, UgoGrl at http://www.ugogrl.com/. The cards encourage them to become physically active, mentally challenged, creatively inspired, and socially responsible.  This is accomplished across six catgories of real-life fun.  Each card has a tip, suggestion or idea to try.

“Our target market loves them, but the problem is getting them into the marketplace.  The major retailers purchase trading cards through a pay-on-scan contract–a situation that requires more capital than we have, and more risk than we are willing to take.  We added a shopping cart to our website 18 months ago but the sales have been slow.  We need help developing a strategy to educate parents and tween girls about our product.

“Our second product was developed as a means to earn enough capital to advance the UgoGrl Activity Cards.  We developed a line of paper air fresheners with artwork from the cards.  We have just fulfilled a chain-wide order for Wal-Mart.  Our ‘Get Fresh’ Mood Enhancing Air Fresheners are now on the shelves!  It has been a huge success for us, but we’re faced with the same problem–how to market them on a shoestring budget.

“Hounds, please help us out!  We are two fortysomething stay-at-home moms, each with four kids.  We need a home run.”

Posted In: Business Promotion, Information Products, Publicity for Niche Markets, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 4/21/2008: 6:04 pm: By Joan
Comments: 12 Comments

One of the most important things I learned during my Internet marketing career was that people prefer different learning modalities.

Many professional speakers, for instance, are auditory learners. They like to listen to audio recordings on CD or their MP3 players. Authors, on the other hand, are wordsmiths and often prefer edited  transcripts of recordings. 

When I started creating CDs, I ignored the occasional question “Is this available as a transcript?” More and more readers kept asking it. So I finally got smart and hired a transcriber. Offering a  product in two formats—CD and electronic transcript—gave me the chance to upsell customers who bought either version.

Most CDs and transcripts sell for $39.95 each. If you buy the CD and want the transcript, too, you can have it for only $10 more, and vice-versa.  All those $10 sales really add up over time. 

That’s one of the strategies that Cathy Stucker, The Idea Lady, teaches. She’s a whizz at coming up with ways to retool and rework content to create similar or complementary products. 

She was my guest during a teleseminar recently on ”How to Turn Content into Cash” and shared lots of her tricks on how she turns one product into multiple products.

We even talked about specific vendors we both use when creating products, and time-saving tips to make the job go faster. And we had an interesting discussion about how we make money from people who get our information products for free from their friends. 

You can listen to the recording at http://www.PublicityHound.net/contentcall

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Business Promotion, Information Products, Writing Articles
posted On: 3/17/2008: 3:51 pm: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

If you’re a health professional and you want additional sources of income from the Internet, you won’t want to miss Marilee Tolen’s “Intro to Internet Marketing” teleseminar series on six consecutives Wednesdays, starting April 2.

It’s tailor-made for educators, healers, spa owners, massage therapists, nutritionists, health care business owners, network marketers, and even stay-at-home moms.

I’m part of the team of Internet marketing experts that will be teaching health professionals how to use the Internet to sell products and services, earn hefty affiliate commissions by selling other people’s products, and create a loyal following. You don’t even need a computer to start your Internet marketing business.

I’m presenting a session on “How to Create a Media Plan” from 7 to 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, April 30. 

Marilee, by the way, was in The Publicity Hound Mentor Program for many years, so she learned at my feet.  We’ve both learned under Tom Antion and attended courses at his Great Internet Marketing Retreat Center in Virginia Beach, Va.  We’re also members of the Internet Association of Information Marketers, which Tom manages with Gayle Carson.

Sign up for Marilee’s teleseminar series and you can attend future courses on this same topic for free.  I hope you can join us, and be with me when I present on April 30.   

Posted In: Blogs, Business Promotion, Information Products, Pitching the Media, Publicity for Niche Markets, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: : 1:40 pm: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Susan Payton of Egg Marketing & Public Relations interviewed me this week on how Publicity Hounds can use free ebooks to promote a product, service, cause or issue.

I told her about the success I’ve had with the free ebook I give away to my readers every Christmas. It’s called “The Best of the Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week” and my readers love it. Rather than creating new content, I simply choose the best 24 tips from my weekly ezine.

The book is filled with links to product pages at my website, as well as affiliate links to publicity-related products and services I sell for a commission and can stand behind 100 percent.

When Cathy Stucker, The Idea Lady, was a guest during a free teleseminar I hosted this week on “How to Turn Cash into Content” (we recorded it), I discussed the free ebook, which generates several thousand dollars in revenue each year. One of the secrets of promoting it is to encourage my readers to regift it to their clients, readers and friends and so on. 

I give my readers a link where they can download the ebook. It’s actually an “ad tracker” link created by my shopping cart. That  link can then track all product sales I make from the ebook. It cannot, however, track affiliate commission. 

If you’re looking for more ways to retool existing content into a revenue-generating product, listen to the teleseminar I conducted with Cathy. If you need a powerful shopping cart, download the ebook “Internet Cash Machines.”

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Business Promotion, Information Products
posted On: 3/7/2008: 8:24 am: By Joan
Comments: 2 Comments