Why Pay for Online Press Release Distribution?
We've all heard that "free advice is worth what you pay for
it..." Shakespeare put it a little more eloquently in King Lear,
when the aging monarch admonished his daughter Cordelia,
"Nothing shall come of nothing..." And when it comes to distributing press releases online, I
now know from first hand personal experience that "if you're
going to play, it's best to pay." But the good news is, you don't have to pay much. In fact,
compared to the return you get, your cash outlay is
extremely well spent. Here's what I'm talking about. Last March I distributed a online press release through
PRWeb.com I paid $1.00, even though PRWeb's actual minimum is $0.00. Now, PRWeb tracks results. You can find statistics on how
many people actually accessed your press release, opened the
link, printed it out, forwarded it to someone else, etc. I was pleased with numbers. The link to the release was
opened 4780 times. Pretty good, huh? But wait!...as they like to say in all those infomercials
you watch when you have insomnia. I submitted a similar release Tuesday morning, August 23rd.
I paid $80 for it. By noon Wednesday morning, August 24th, the release had been
"accessed" 41,090 times. Plus, when you searched for the word "publicity" on Yahoo News,
links to my press release came number two *and* number three. In other words, for 80 bucks I got a chance to tell more
than 40,000 people about the Publicity Pro website. Plus, think about all the one way, incoming links I got
that will help raise Publicity Pro's search engine ranking. Not a bad return on my investment, wouldn't you say? All things considered, it's a whole lot of bang for 80
bucks. I'm not the only one who believes in the power of online
press releases.A number of friends and colleagues have
enjoyed similar success using PRWeb and similar services. All of them would agree, free is good. Free is very good. But there's another proverb that you've undoubtedly heard,
and it applies to online press release distribution. "To make money, you have to spend money." As much as I hate to admit it, I guess it's true sometimes. But here's the good news. When it comes to reaping the free publicity an online
press release can bring... A little money goes a long, long way. *** Resources: Marc Harty has a free special report called
"The 7 Deadly Sins Most People Commit When Sending Web Press
Releases And How You Can Avoid Them" Available at
http://www.strategictraffic.com/7sins Also see Shari Thurow's article on the Publicity Pro
website at
http://www.publicity-pro.com/articles/online-publicity.htm and Ted Kushner's article "Online Press Release Mistakes" at
http://www.publicity-pro.com/articles/onlineprmistakes.htm George McKenzie is a former TV news anchor and radio talk show host. During his 33 year broadcasting career, his work appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN and CNN. He currently helps people get publicity on radio, TV and in newspapers. George offers a
free 7-part email "Publicity Crash Course" at http://www.publicity-pro.com
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Sell Big Ticket Items Now! - 1 Simple Step To Keep Your Fears From Holding YOU Back
First, some background on today's topic. I've had a terrible week. Not
terrible as in I got nothing done because I did actually get quite a bit done.
But man, I struggled. And I didn't even really understand why.
I have to admit, most of what I got done happened between Thursday and Sunday.
Have you ever had a week like that where you struggled to get things done?
Or worse yet, struggled and didn't get anything done? Or maybe it just FELT LIKE
you didn't accomplish anything?
I hate weeks like that and I rarely feel that way. So why was this week
different? At first, I couldn't put my finger on anything specific. Looking back
and replaying my week in my mind didn't cause anything to stand out either. In
short, nothing really clicked as the cause for the way I was feeling and acting.
So then I decided to do what I always do when I am trying to solve a problem. I
just kinda let it go for a while and did something else.
And THEN, I finally figured out what the problem was!
It wasn't anything specific about THIS week. It was related to something I had
done several weeks ago. And it's very ironic that this was the cause of my
problem.
You see, several weeks ago I had drafted my 90 marketing plan. This document
describes what I plan to do in my Big Ticket Marketing efforts over a 3 month
period.
It's actually not that hard to figure out but it is something that you need to
track closely and see which weeks of marketing effort have the biggest payoff.
In other words, you want to track which things you did that resulted in the
biggest payoff in sales, opt-ins by potential customers, joint ventures,
branding, etc.
Basically all the stuff we need to do to as part of our Big Ticket Marketing
efforts. We want to repeat those things that give us the largest payoff in our
next 3 month marketing plans and drop those things that didn't work out. And of
course we always try new things that we think will work, as well.
Anyway, the reason that I was struggling and feeling like I wasn't accomplishing
this week was because...
I was in OVERWHELM!
I had a lot of tasks I wanted to accomplish, because I'm an ambitious guy. I
want to do well and I have a lot of goals I want to reach. This is all fine, but
the point of having a 90 day marketing plan is so that it will be easy to focus
on the specific set of tasks that I need to accomplish each week by focusing on
ONLY ONE main area each week.
And normally, this system is very effective at keeping me focused. But,
ironically, the act of creating the 90 day marketing plan made me look at
everything I had to accomplish in the next 3 months and I was sort of stuck in
that mode. I wasn't being effective at focusing on this weeks tasks because I
was in OVERWHELM thinking about everything I had to get done, overall.
Have you ever experienced that?
I think we all have at one point or another.
However, I am disappointed that I didn't recognize what was going on sooner. My
background as a software engineer for Microsoft forced me to be pretty
disciplined about focusing on what I needed to do and what our team needed to do
every week to accomplish our goals. And sometimes the ship cycles lasted between
1.5 to 2 years.
Plus I have a black belt in Hapkido (a Korean martial art like a cross between
Tae Kwon Do and Aikido), which requires a lot of training discipline, patience,
practice and long term view. But at the same time requires you to learn and work
on smaller portions of the entire body of techniques, patterns, because that is
the only way you can really learn what you need to know.
Anyway, my point is that I should know better and yet I still fell into the fear
from OVERWHELM. And I think everyone experiences not only overwhelm but other
fears about what they want to do as well.
The title of this article promised you a simple secret to keep your fears from
holding you back - from selling Big Ticket Items. Can you guess what the secret
is?
I'll give you a hint. It's not really a secret at all. In fact everyone knows
about this but unfortunately not everyone knows what to do especially in a case
like overwhelm.
Ready... the secret is ACTION!
Yes, ACTION. Now you are probably wondering... "Hey, wait a sec, you just said
you were in overwhelm, how can action possibly be the secret for that?"
Napoleon Hill, in his book "Think and Grow Rich" said, "Action is the real
measure of intelligence". Thomas Huxley said: "The great end of life is not
knowledge but action." Intelligence means nothing, action means everything.
I knew what I had to do this week and yet I was struggling to do it. I even had
a 90 day marketing plan with each week spelled out for me and yet I was stuck. I
got unstuck when I realized I was overwhelmed and decided to do something about
it. What I decided to do was to take action. But the type of action I decided to
take was influenced by my precious experience both in software development and
martial arts.
Have you heard of Kaizen?
Kaizen is a Japanese word which basically means 'continuous and incremental
improvement'. The word came from when the Japanese were introduced to the work
of W. Edward Deming when he was stationed in Japan to help them rebuild after
World War II. While there, Deming introduced them to what later became know as
Total Quality Management.
What I like about Kaizen is that it takes small action steps over time to solve
problems. The beauty of this approach is that you can take something that
currently seems daunting or puts you in overwhelm and start by only focusing on
one small step that you can take to help improve the problem. The small step is
so easy that you bypass your overwhelm and fears and just do that one small
step. Then after a little while you introduce another small step and
continuously improve the situation or problem until it is solved.
So in this way you CAN take action, even if it is very small, and slowly over
time each action you take has an effect that builds on all the others and
creates an unstoppable force until your problem has been solved. The fact that
the action is so small makes it easy for you to do SOMETHING and not focus on
how much you have to do.
Maybe a short example will help. One of my goals is to increase the readership
of my articles and to get more people exciting about Big Ticket Marketing. One
of the best ways to do that is to get my blog and my articles out to as many
readers as I can. So this week, I wanted to get my Blog and my articles listed
in as many E-zine and Electronic List directories as possible. I even have
software to help me do this.
Guess how many directories and list locations there are?
Well... there are over 1000 just in the built in database in the software I am
using.
I kept putting this off, because I had a bunch of other stuff I needed to get
done as well. But this was a major focus for me this week. Finally, what I
decided to do was to just add my information to ONE directory or list every time
I finished another task. Breaking it down so that I only had to worry about one
entry every so often REALLY helped me make some progress in this area, without
worrying about how many there were.
I still have a long way to go, but my initial goal was to get listed in 20-25
sites and I'm currently sitting at 17. A few more sites and I will have met my
goal!
Plus, Kaizen is really how I study martial arts so the process is very familiar
to me even when applied to something else.
Ok, so the one 1 simple step you need to take anytime you have a fear to conquer
or an overwhelming situation to deal with is to decide on one simple action that
you can do in a very short amount of time that will ultimately help you solve
your problem. Do this, and then increase what you are doing in that area by a
little bit each time and before you know it you will have your problem solved.
Try this! It works amazingly well with very little effort. And you get a huge
amount of satisfaction knowing that you are taking steps to accomplish what you
want to get done... and you'll be doing it almost effortlessly.
By the way, if you want a great little resource on how to apply Kaizen, you
should get The Kaizen Way - One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert
Maurer. It's a relatively recent book and a quick read at 182 pages. You can
find it on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble online. Maybe this is your first small
action step.
Also, check out the resource box below for some websites that will give you some
resources you can really use related to your Big Ticket Marketing efforts!
What Does Your Business Card Say About You? - Making A Great First Impression!
Interesting article in USA Today that I read this week that I've also read about on Scott Ginsberg's blog. Think about this: What does your business card say about you? If you work in a company that requires you to conform to the corporate standard, obviously you don't have much choice. For the rest, what are you doing to stand out in a crowd of many?
Linking Features & Benefits
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30-Minute Marketing
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What to Include in Your Marketing Plan Write-Up
For those new to marketing planning, the thought of completing a plan from start to finish may feel daunting. It need not. The level of detail you choose to include in your marketing plan will depend on your resources and situation. If you have extremely limited manpower or other resources, you may be constrained to a "broad brush" approach. If your plan must support your Website's validity to others in the company, a lot of back-up detail may be appropriate.
Another Commercial? Dont Touch That Dial! Watch & Learn
When commercials come on the television do you get up and head for the kitchen to get a snack? Do you tune out the radio when commercials start? Do you skip over advertisements in newspapers and magazines?
Guerilla Marketing Lesson 2: Why Do People Call Me?
Before we begin, I want you to think about how many times you actually sought out an advertisement. How did you know where to look for it? Why did you choose that one? Whether you know it or not, the number of times you were exposed to the message has a huge impact on you. Also, the message and how it made you feel had a large influence on your response.
The Art Of Writing Classified Ads
The writing of good classified ads truly is an art that needs to be learned and perfected. Depending on the type of business you run, the development of a good classified ad can boost your annual sales by an average of £5,000 to £20,000 or more.
How To Get Business With Your Business Card?
So, you have a business card? And you have given it to a few of your friends as well? Great! But did you get those cards to give to your acquaintances or to get business? Are they getting business for you?? That is the key question.
Discovering The Benefits That Hook Your Prospect
Benefits! They're what marketing is all about. No doubt you've heard the mantra over and over: "Benefits, not features.. Benefits, not features."
Marketing Brain Trust
Rest assured that no matter how smart you are, you do not know everything about marketing. You don't even know anything about marketing your product! You can't figure everything out yourself, or see all the angles, or provide every bit of critical thinking.
Chill Out With A Summer Time Marketing Plan
Is your business experiencing a summer time slump? Traditionally only industries related to travel enjoy a boost in business during the warmer months. The rest of us tend to take vacations, clean up our desk and while away the time playing computer games while we wait for business to pick up.
Effective List Management Can Save You Big
Let's talk about how to keep your postage costs down.
Business Leads
Anyone who runs their own business can tell you how
challenging it is to generate business leads on a consistent
basis. Finding good leads and generating more sales is vital
to the long term growth of any business. There are many well
documented sources of business leads ? we will try to cover
some of the best in this article.
Let Your Survey Write Your Business Plan
Most entrepreneurs first write their business plan and then
develop their services or products. This causes them to
generate and fulfill a marketing plan that requires them to
swim upstream using the backstroke. To save the stress,
consider placing the business plan on hold until first
completing a few customer surveys. Okay, some of you are
saying, "Catherine, how can you do a survey before you know
who your market is?" Yes, this is one challenging double
edge sword, that is, if you're mindset is set there.
Radio Advertising Works With These Tips!
Advertising on the radio can be an effective lead generation strategy. But like all marketing tactics, success or failure lies in its implementation. Here are 15 important tips to help make your radio advertising more profitable.
Real Estate Investing - Writing Killer Postcards to Attract Motivated Sellers!
So many of you have been telling us that you're ready to get started investing, but "you can't find any deals! and what are the steps and secrets to finding great deals?" Some of you have even written asking us if there still ARE any deals left? OF COURSE there are! We find them all the time. But you ain't gonna find them looking at for-sale ads in the paper, for-sale signs in the yard, or by concentrating solely on short sales, foreclosures, REOs and agent-listed properties.
Flesh Eating Spiders And Other Marketing Horrors
After a friend was bitten by a spider, I decided to do
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