Planning Your Publicity
by: Penny Sansevieri
Now that we're at the end of the year, it's a great time to plan your publicity for 2008.
With all the talk about the immediacy of a story, and the unbelievable speed that news pieces make it onto TV and radio, we often forget that for most media, lead times are crucial. Lead times can vary from a day to six months depending on the media you're pitching. Generally women's magazines have the longest lead times, sometimes as much as four to six months.
If you want to find out what magazine lead times are, call their advertising department and get a copy of their media kit. This will not only tell you when advertising deadlines are (signaling your submission cut-off) but it will also show you what stories to pitch when. Generally magazines will try and coordinate advertising to coincide with their themes, so if you have a story about the benefits of yoga, you might want to dig through the advertising calendar and see if they're planning to address it in a future issue.
Once you define your publicity targets and get an idea of what to pitch when, you'll want to open up a calendar and start circling dates that will matter to your story. Get creative with this! Often dates are overlooked because they may seem too small (like peanut butter and jelly day) but everyone's competing for the biggies: Valentine's Day, Christmas, etc. so why not add some off-beat holidays to your pitching calendar and see what happens? If you're looking for every holiday under the sun (including international ones) try downloading the Calgoo calendar - this is a free program used to sync Outlook with your Google calendar - but an additional benefit of it is that it comes loaded with every imaginable holiday. A great tool to start your planning session!
Once you define holidays/seasons/events you want to pitch your story to, you'll also want to be cognizant of the appropriate seasons and what the media is looking for. Here's a brief outline of all four seasons as well as suggested targets/pitches. Keep in mind that breaking news stories and global events may slant these times considerably, but barring that, the seasonal angles tend to remain fairly consistent.
January – March
The first season of the year is pretty quiet. The holidays are over and much of the media is looking ahead and looking to summer with getting fit and weight loss stories, as well as New Year's resolutions, getting organized and of course – the looming tax season. This is a very "anything goes" time of year, so if you weren't able to sell fluff pieces during the holidays, you might want to try and repitch them now.
April – June
With major companies releasing their first quarter earnings (and hogging all the news space) this could be a tough time to get in. As April 15th looms out there you'll see a lot of stories addressing taxes, saving on taxes, and everything financial, but once that date comes and goes the media will start looking ahead to summer stories and "spring fever" pieces.
July – September
With summer in full swing we'll see a lot of lighter business stories, celebrity stories, trend pieces, and back to school. This is a fantastic time to pitch since many pr firms and media folk are on vacation. They still need stories but have less people pitching and less folks to field those pitches so if you can get your story in and it needs very little work you could be a shoe-in to get some coverage.
October – December
Many pr people think that this is the heaviest time of the year, but I tend to disagree. I think that the media is hungry for anything related to the holidays, end of year perspective, getting your life in order, New Year's resolutions (yet again) as well as the next year's prediction stories, etc. You'll also see a lot of best and worst of for the prior year. Relationship experts - now is your time to shine! With all the family gatherings there’s a big call for getting along, making family relationships better/stronger as well as navigating the busy holiday season and still keeping your sanity.
Keep in mind that while we've only addressed media, these rules apply to online media as well as events you might do. It's much easier to get someone interested in something they're already interested in, and by coordinating your efforts, you'll have a much stronger and focused campaign. Planning your media for the upcoming year is one of the best things you can do before the clock strikes midnight on December 31st. It'll not only keep your campaign fresh but also tightly focused. With a plan in place, you'll be ready to hit the ground running after January 1!
Wishing you a super-successful New Year!
About The Author
Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a book marketing and media relations expert whose company has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. Visit http://www.amarketingexpert.com
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
online business - Is website need ?
Do you need a website to be successful on the Internet? If you don’t have a website and you’re trying to make money on the web this question is probably foremost in your mind.
The answer is no!
There are other ways to make money such as becoming an affiliate for various products. Becoming an affiliate simple means advertising other peoples products and receiving a commission for each sale you make. There are numerous ways to do this, you can sign up at Clickbank and sell digital downloads. Commission Junction, they have numerous items you can sell. Stores such as Walmart, Sears, and most other stores have affiliate programs. Do you need a website. No.
Ebay is another way of making money, buy low and sell high, drop shipping, or sell downloadable products like ebooks. Is it easy? No! Why? Unless you have an unusual item or can buy items in large quantities at low cost the competition will wipe you out.
Do you need a website? Again the answer is no.
Would you a better chance of earning on the Internet if you had a website? Why of course you would. How many of the guru’s were successful without just one but many websites? They have a site for every product they sell. You could sell affiliate items on your site, direct ebayers to your site, or sell your own creations on your site.
What do you have to do or learn to make your own websites? Programming? Scripts? Uploading? C-Panel? Going round in circles? Pulling your hair out? The yelling? The screaming? Wooooow! Sure seems complicated. Not any more. There’s an easy way.
Profitmatic is here. I recently found this fantastic program and it’s like a weight was lifted from my shoulders. If someone had told me a program like this existed I wouldn’t have believed them. It’s so eeeasy to use. I’ve been building websites so fast I even amazed myself. Profitmatic is the answer to my prayers. I decide on a product or subject and a half hour later I have a site ready to go. No uploading, no FTP to figure out. It’s absolutely amazing.
Other benefits with this fantastic program include unlimited hosting and unlimited websites. You can build, and build, and build some more. Forms, links, html, no problem, it’s all included and they also have a great referral and profit sharing program. The creators of Profitmatic put in all the bells and whistles so a complete novice can have the whole program figured out so fast he or she will go to bed smiling.
Want to include adsense? It’s easy. Photo’s, images? No problem. Want your own list? Put a sign up on all your sites. Piece of cake. If that’s not enough you can even try it for 14 days free. That’s 2 whole weeks to check out all the features. But I must warn you, if you try it, you’ll like it, and you won’t want to give it up.
About The Author
Doug Sheridan enjoys researching and writing informational articles and testing various programs and software offered on the internet. Here is his review of the website software "Profitmatic". To see the software capabilities go to: http://zzd.in/profitmatic
The answer is no!
There are other ways to make money such as becoming an affiliate for various products. Becoming an affiliate simple means advertising other peoples products and receiving a commission for each sale you make. There are numerous ways to do this, you can sign up at Clickbank and sell digital downloads. Commission Junction, they have numerous items you can sell. Stores such as Walmart, Sears, and most other stores have affiliate programs. Do you need a website. No.
Ebay is another way of making money, buy low and sell high, drop shipping, or sell downloadable products like ebooks. Is it easy? No! Why? Unless you have an unusual item or can buy items in large quantities at low cost the competition will wipe you out.
Do you need a website? Again the answer is no.
Would you a better chance of earning on the Internet if you had a website? Why of course you would. How many of the guru’s were successful without just one but many websites? They have a site for every product they sell. You could sell affiliate items on your site, direct ebayers to your site, or sell your own creations on your site.
What do you have to do or learn to make your own websites? Programming? Scripts? Uploading? C-Panel? Going round in circles? Pulling your hair out? The yelling? The screaming? Wooooow! Sure seems complicated. Not any more. There’s an easy way.
Profitmatic is here. I recently found this fantastic program and it’s like a weight was lifted from my shoulders. If someone had told me a program like this existed I wouldn’t have believed them. It’s so eeeasy to use. I’ve been building websites so fast I even amazed myself. Profitmatic is the answer to my prayers. I decide on a product or subject and a half hour later I have a site ready to go. No uploading, no FTP to figure out. It’s absolutely amazing.
Other benefits with this fantastic program include unlimited hosting and unlimited websites. You can build, and build, and build some more. Forms, links, html, no problem, it’s all included and they also have a great referral and profit sharing program. The creators of Profitmatic put in all the bells and whistles so a complete novice can have the whole program figured out so fast he or she will go to bed smiling.
Want to include adsense? It’s easy. Photo’s, images? No problem. Want your own list? Put a sign up on all your sites. Piece of cake. If that’s not enough you can even try it for 14 days free. That’s 2 whole weeks to check out all the features. But I must warn you, if you try it, you’ll like it, and you won’t want to give it up.
About The Author
Doug Sheridan enjoys researching and writing informational articles and testing various programs and software offered on the internet. Here is his review of the website software "Profitmatic". To see the software capabilities go to: http://zzd.in/profitmatic
online Marketing
Tip #1: Set specific goals that are realistic. When you are first starting out very hopeful and bright-eyed, it may be easy to put on paper every goal that comes to your mind – big or small, and then set out to change the world. Though this isn’t exactly a terrible idea, you don’t want to get caught up in setting goals that are unrealistic or too broad. Prioritize your list of goals, then take the top ones and brainstorm how they can be attained. It is so rewarding to be able to set and achieve goals. This will build confidence in yourself and your business. Those who have a tendency to set unattainable goals will often become discouraged time and time again, which leads to thoughts of hopelessness and an attitude that wants to give up. With a realistic mindset you can guard yourself against this from happening.
Tip#2: Find a product that is truly unique. Take time to research what’s out there. If you find a product that you can call your own, your chances of success are much greater. The best thing about having a unique product is that you hold the power of affiliate marketing in your hands. Once you have many more marketers that promote your product, your efforts can be greatly multiplied.
Tip#3: Be diligent in your commitment to success. Success won’t happen overnight, and that’s a good thing. Though the road to success takes effort on your part, it produces great character and a wealth of experience. Start by being disciplined in your daily work routine. Take time out of each workday to dedicate to your Internet marketing activities. A commitment to success will also require a step of action to complete what you’ve set out to do each day.
Tip #4: Put your plans into action. Sometimes beginner Internet marketers will never complete a single plan because they spend all their time analyzing and reworking their ideas over and over. This is known as paralysis by analysis. Once you have a plan that is ready to go, take the next step and implement it. This doesn’t mean that you won’t want to give a second thought to your marketing plan. It will require careful consideration, but there comes a time when the analyzing is over and the action needs to happen. Don’t shy away from taking the first action. You’ll be surprised to see how it becomes easier each time.
Tip#5: Don’t try to do everything yourself. If you set out to complete every detail of your business on your own, you will soon discover the point of exhaustion. Focus your efforts on the things that you do well. As for the rest, look to the help of others. You can find help online that is quite inexpensive and will work by a per-project basis. For example, if you are an expert at copywriting, then do that part on your own. But, if you don’t know a thing about graphics programs, contract that portion out to maximize your time and efforts. Your time is valuable. Use it for the things that you do best.
By using the tips above you will surely set up a good foundation and starting place for your business. Be steadfast in your endeavors and it won’t be long before you find the success you’re looking for.
About The Author
Jason Pearson is an online marketing expert who wants to share his secrets with the world. To find out more visit...
http://www.thewinningbusiness.com
Tip#2: Find a product that is truly unique. Take time to research what’s out there. If you find a product that you can call your own, your chances of success are much greater. The best thing about having a unique product is that you hold the power of affiliate marketing in your hands. Once you have many more marketers that promote your product, your efforts can be greatly multiplied.
Tip#3: Be diligent in your commitment to success. Success won’t happen overnight, and that’s a good thing. Though the road to success takes effort on your part, it produces great character and a wealth of experience. Start by being disciplined in your daily work routine. Take time out of each workday to dedicate to your Internet marketing activities. A commitment to success will also require a step of action to complete what you’ve set out to do each day.
Tip #4: Put your plans into action. Sometimes beginner Internet marketers will never complete a single plan because they spend all their time analyzing and reworking their ideas over and over. This is known as paralysis by analysis. Once you have a plan that is ready to go, take the next step and implement it. This doesn’t mean that you won’t want to give a second thought to your marketing plan. It will require careful consideration, but there comes a time when the analyzing is over and the action needs to happen. Don’t shy away from taking the first action. You’ll be surprised to see how it becomes easier each time.
Tip#5: Don’t try to do everything yourself. If you set out to complete every detail of your business on your own, you will soon discover the point of exhaustion. Focus your efforts on the things that you do well. As for the rest, look to the help of others. You can find help online that is quite inexpensive and will work by a per-project basis. For example, if you are an expert at copywriting, then do that part on your own. But, if you don’t know a thing about graphics programs, contract that portion out to maximize your time and efforts. Your time is valuable. Use it for the things that you do best.
By using the tips above you will surely set up a good foundation and starting place for your business. Be steadfast in your endeavors and it won’t be long before you find the success you’re looking for.
About The Author
Jason Pearson is an online marketing expert who wants to share his secrets with the world. To find out more visit...
http://www.thewinningbusiness.com
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