The Publicity Hound’s Blog

Tom Wray of Chicago, Illinois writes:

“I run a small webmagazine that covers a portion of the gay community in the Great Lakes area. My core coverage area is Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan with some coverage of Ohio, Minnesota and other states near the region. I’ve had it for four years, and the last year it’s been called the Great Lakes Den.

“What are some good ways to publicize a publication that doesn’t have a print edition? I have a pretty decent readership–about 2,000 hits a month. But I would like to expand the readership so I can sell more ads, encourage groups to send me press releases, approach print publications and increase sales from the web storefront I have in conjunction with the magazine. I have good coverage and I’m already considered one of the best resources for news in this community for the region. The problem is getting more people to know it.

“I have almost no budget until I can start selling more ads. Also, the community I cover can be hard to reach. It’s the niche of a niche of a niche, with people often in isolated areas away from large cities and who may not want to advertise their membership. Any suggestions?”

Posted In: Business Promotion, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 2/27/2006: 10:42 pm: By Joan
Comments:

3 Responses

Pat Luebke Says:
March 1st, 2006 at 2:28 am

In regard to encouraging companies and organizations to send you news releases, I’d go out there and ask yourself. I’d just go from site to site — tourist bureaus, museums, hotels, whatever and write a note asking to be added to their media list. Include a sentence or two about your site, and you’ll very quickly have lots of news.

Nina Says:
March 1st, 2006 at 11:01 am

What about running some kind of contest on your website? A prize awarded to the winner may generate some interest in checking out what the site has to offer. Also, how about having local DJ’s at gay night clubs talk your site up while they’re spinning tunes or even asking the club manager to let you hand out uniquely designed post cards? Finally, if you have a local gay health clinic that offers free STD testing or any other health services see if they are looking for ways to advertise themselves & maybe you can promote for each other.

Joan Says:
March 7th, 2006 at 8:40 am

Tom, you’d be smart to invest your time posting items to Craigslist at http://www.Craigslist.org

My recent teleseminar with Nancy Mills on “How to Use Craigslist as a Global Publicity Tool” at http://tinyurl.com/geog2 explains how to do this. But if I were you, I wouldn’t publicize the website. Instead, publicize the fact you are looking for news about certain topics, and encourage people to send the news to you. Then slip in a reference to your website.

Craigslist has lists for many cities in the region you serve: Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Madison, Detroit, Indianapolis, etc.

I’m not sure what categories you would post under. Probably the “community” and “gig” categories. Review various categories in each city and see what seems to be the best fit for your news. Also note that your posts last only 30 days, so you have to repost after the original post expires.

Be careful not to post identical items in more than one city or you’ll be kicked off. You have to tweak each posting to fit the needs of that particular city.

This is time-consuming. But it’s incredibly powerful, and it’s free.

Tips, Tricks & Tools for Free Publicity

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