The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

Jennifer Melnick Carota of Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania writes:

“I am an expert bargain shopper and ‘give-ologist’ known as the Gift Therapist. I have a ton of fun teaching folks how find fabulous gifts on a shoestring budget.

“I recently combined all of my bargain shopping tips and gifting advice into my first book titled ‘Shop Smart, GIVE MORE’ and I  have been asked to speak about it next month at a regional Women’s Expo in the Pittsburgh area.

“I have purchased table space where I will sign my books throughout the two-day event, but wondered if your Hounds had any creative ideas on what other types of informational products I could develop and sell at the Expo, as well as the upcoming gift giving season. 

“The event begins October 11th. Yikes!

Posted In: Business Promotion, Information Products, Publicity for Niche Markets, Special Events
posted On: 9/23/2008: 11:52 am: By Joan
Comments: 14 Comments

Perez Hilton,  the Hollywood gossip blogger named the #1 most influential “web celeb” by Forbes.com, tells Martha Stewart his top three secrets for creating a profitable blog.

He blogs several times a day and gets an astounding 9 million visitors to his blog each day. Advertising at the site has made him a millionaire, although he won’t tell Martha exactly how much it rakes in. 

His advice for success?

1. Find a niche (”Ya gotta get a gimmick.”)

2. Find ways to make your blog different. His signature ”white chalk” drawings, sometimes humorous and often crude, appear frequently on top of photos of celebrities that accompany his posts.

3. Be prepared to work hard. He works on his blog 14 to 16 hours a day, Sunday through Thursday. Watch the interview here:

This blog, by the way, is a great place to search for the hottest celebrity news. See (Special Report #50: How to Piggyback onto Celebrity News to Promote Your Product, Service, Cause or Issue.”)

Posted In: Advertising, Blogs, Celebrity tie-ins, Photos & Graphics, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 9/18/2008: 12:16 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

These are gloomy times for many Publicity Hounds who are corporate speakers and rely primarily on speaking fees and back-of-the-room product sales.

Some companies, faced with huge expenses they can’t control such as the skyrocketing cost of gasoline, are slashing training budgets. Corporate speakers, competing with thousands of other speakers for gigs, are finding that the pot of money available to pay them has shrunk.

4 ways to tweak your topic  

If I relied on most of my revenue from speaking, which I don’t, one of the first things I’d do is figure out a way to tweak my topic for the college market. Unlike private companies, colleges and universities have several sources of money, such as student activity fees, that are recession-proof. That means the college speaking market doesn’t go south when the economy does.

Here are four examples of how you can tweak your topic for colleges:

1. A speaker who trains corporate executives on leadership can take the fundamental points of the presentation and teach college stuents how to be leaders, whether it’s within their fraternities or sororities, or student government, or within a special-interest group on campus.

2. An expert on corporate recruiting and retention can teach college fraternities and sororities how to recruit and retain members. Greeks, by the way, have their own budgets for hiring speakers, yet another recession-proof pot of money.

3. Speakers who specialize in motivating corporate audiences as convention keynoters can take their message to college campuses, where motivational speakers are in high demand.

4. Diversity trainers who target corporate America should start thinking about how they can teach college faculty, staff and students about diversity. At a four-year collge, a kid from the inner-city and a farm kid from Kansas can suddenly find themselves roommates, with all kinds of potential problems.

Where to learn more about speaking at colleges

Leadership, fraternity and sorority issues, motivational and inspirational messages, and diversity are among the 17 categories of topics that are in demand at colleges, universities, two-year colleges and tech schools. James Malinchak, ”King of the College Speaking Circuit,” reviewed them all during a teleseminar I conducted with him today.  You can listen here.

It’s a preview for his College Speaking Success Boot Camp Dec. 4-7 in Los Angeles, and attendees can save $750 if they register by Sept. 30.

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Special Events
posted On: : 8:23 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Publicity Hound Holly Miller of Chesapeake, Virginia emailed me this morning and and asked if it’s proper to include a Twitter address within a press release.

It’s a great idea, and it got me thinking about other ways to let people know where they can find you online.

—If you’re on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, do you include links to your profile pages in press releases? What about other social networking sites your followers might want to know about?

—Do you cross-promote from every social networking site? for example, can people find your Twitter address on your LinkedIn profile? 

—Does the home page of your website include links to your social networking profiles?

—What about your email signature?

—What special applications do you use at social networking sites that help pull traffic to your profile?

Let’s see how many ideas Publicity Hounds can suggest.

Posted In: Blogs, Business Promotion, LinkedIn, Publicity on the Internet, Social media marketing, Social networking, Twitter
posted On: 9/16/2008: 12:07 pm: By Joan
Comments: 15 Comments

I’ve gotten so many requests for this recipe that I’m offering it here.

My sister makes the low-cal version with low-fat cheese and mayo. This pie also makes great leftovers. And it’s a quick dish to take to a potluck. (Make two–they’ll love it!) 

You can use any kind of tomatoes. I like Romas because they aren’t as watery. I’ll bet orange and yellow tomatoes would be fabulous, too.

The Publicity Hound’s Tomato Pie

1 regular or deep-dish piecrust in tin (In frozen food section)
6 or 7 tomatoes, sliced, with skins on or off
1/2 cup fresh basil
oregano
salt and pepper
onion powder
dill
1 cup mayo
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Let pie crust defrost for about 15 minutes. Prick bottom of crust with a fork. Bake in oven for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Remove from oven. Place one layer of tomoatoes on bottom of crust. Sprinkle with onion powder, oregano, and salt and pepper. Cover with a layer of fresh basil.

Repeat until you’ve used all the tomatoes, and make sure tomatoes (not basil) are on the top. I usually end up with 3 layers in a deep-dish pie crust, or 2 to 3 layers in a regular crust.

Mix the mayo and shredded cheese in a bowl and spread on top of the pie, like icing. Sprinkle dill on top.

Bake in 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool for about 20-30 minutes before eating so it isn’t runny.

(While you’re waiting for it cool, click on the Topics arrow on the right side of this blog, choose a topic of interrest, and wee what I’ve written about it.)

Posted In: General
posted On: : 10:43 am: By Joan
Comments: 2 Comments