Creating Publicity Through Writing For Publication - Part Two

Here are the specific steps to landing writing gigs (and getting a great deal of free advertising and publicity) with small, local publications . . .

Step One
Find a small, local publication and offer to contribute articles or local area specific pieces. Show them samples. Establish the fact that you are a published author and can provide quality content for their magazine or newspaper (small weekly community newspapers are best for this). Contribute in trade for a blurb or for ad space.

Step Two
Write for a period of time. Establish yourself. Get comfortable with the process. Naturally you will want to keep in close contact with the editor of the publication. Solicit feedback, but don’t be a pest. Be professional in your approach.


Step Three
After establishing your credibility with the public and with the editor of the publication, ask the editor of this single publication if he or she would be willing to provide a quick reference for you. Don’t insist. Again, be professional.

Step Four
Now you know somebody. Contact other small publications and offer to contribute to their publication. You can now provide samples of your work from a PUBLICATION SIMILAR to their own, and you now have a reference from an editor. You now know somebody. Somebody in the field. Somebody who is willing to vouch for you. People only do business with people they trust.

This may take some time. Expand your horizons are far as you can and still be comfortable.

Step Five
Continue doing this and build a resume. Take on as many of these small publications as you can reasonably handle. Every one of them is providing free ad space for you. Work your way up to the larger publications. It IS best to start with small publications if you have not done this before. Once you feel comfortable with ‘writing on a deadline’, move up to those larger publications.

Nothing will get you booted faster than missing a deadline! Make certain you are capable of making those deadlines. If you miss your deadline you leave that publication in a real bind, especially the smaller pubs. This is very important. However, if you get booted from a small publication the pain will be far less than getting the ax from a larger, more widely read publication.

Step Six
Continue this until you are fabulously rich and extremely famous. The next time you are on the Oprah Winfrey Show, please be certain to mention me. My last name is spelled “M-C-C-A-U-L-E-Y”

Seriously, though, this is a fantastic tool for indirectly marketing your book or business in the public arena. And it keeps you sharp. Many writers dream of making a living writing. Very few actually achieve the goal. This is simply because they are writers, not marketers.

However, you are fast becoming a marketer.

BTW, I have just created a new e-book entitled 'The Greatest Marketing Tool Ever Created'. It is located in the free section of the Free Publicity Focus Group site at http://www.freepublicitygroup.com . This tool, used properly, holds the potential to forever change your marketing life! Enjoy . . .

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Creating Publicity Through Writing For Publication - Part One

Some of you are writers. You can write. If you can write, this is your greatest marketing tool.

Being the editor of a regional magazine, I can tell you that good writers are hard to come by. This is why so many writers receive rejection letters. That is not to say that a rejection letter means you are not a good writer. You get many rejection letters because the person sending the letter has become overwhelmed with submissions from bad writers. Trust me on this.

Good writers are hard to come by.

As an editor of a small magazine, I am ecstatic when I find a good writer. If I find a good writer and print articles by this good writer, the quality and the value of my magazine increases greatly.

I want good writers. Good writers are VERY hard to come by.

Are you getting the point yet?

The point is simply this: If you are a good writer, small publication editors want to talk to you.

A small pub editor will print you if you are a good writer.

How can you use this?

As the editor of a magazine, I want to compete with larger magazines. I want to do this because I can then attract larger advertising clients, which will increase my cash flow, the bottom line in any business. To compete with the big boys, I must have a quality piece and good content.

Only the writers produce that good content for me.

Therefore, you become very important to me.

I am being simplistic here, but for good reason. I want you to understand the opportunity you, the writer, create for small to medium size publications.

The larger publications are not in this situation. They have good writers. They don’t need you. But the smaller, competitive publications certainly do need you.

The Plan

Start by contacting smaller publications and offer to write for them.

The smaller, local magazines will be open to your suggestion. They will, of course, want to see samples of your work. It is wise to use excerpts from your book, if you can, as you have already had this professionally edited and it represents your finest work.

Try to pick an excerpt that might be relevant to local readers. If your work is fiction, this may not be possible. If not possible at all, start by writing a story about a relative or friend. Show the personal connection. You may also try local history. This will work wonders, if you can pull it off.

HOT TIP: Do NOT ask to be paid. That is an immediate turn-off, going in. There are far too many willing contributing writers to compete with. Offer to be a contributor at first. So, you might innocently ask, why write if you are not being paid?

You are being paid. If you write a full-page article for a publication, it is essentially the same as getting a full-page ad. For you. For your book or your business. However, there is a marked difference here.

The article you write is not so much advertising as it is publicity. These lines are somewhat blurred in the minds of some. The differences between advertising and publicity are easy to understand.

Advertising is a message that is completely controlled by the creator of that message. The goal of any advertising message is to either create awareness or to create action. These messages are purchased by the advertiser.

Publicity on the other hand is not controllable. Publicity can be ‘good’ publicity or ‘bad’ publicity. In addition, the goal is to create awareness, not action. However, publicity CAN create action; occasionally even more so than a properly crafted advertising message.

This is because the public has become jaded in regards to marketing messages. Our email inboxes are jammed with spam. Our physical mailboxes are filled with advertising flyers, letters and postcards of every description. We are overwhelmed with these messages while watching television or listening to radio. Please don’t get me started on the Internet versions of advertising banners, popups, etc.

All we wish to do when going to the inbox, the mailbox, our television, radio or any web page is get the information, the CONTENT we came for. The ad we encounter is perceived to be an interruption. It is the content we came for. Therein lies the simple secret to using publicity as a marketing tool.

The content is gladly welcomed, indeed sought by the seeker. Advertisements, as a general rule, are not. Your writing, your article, will be perceived, in this scenario, as content.

This is gold to you as a writer. Large segments of the public will come to appreciate what you can do and what you might know. And guess what?

There, at the bottom of the page, for the whole world to see is a little blurb . . .

‘Mary Jones is the author of ‘Creampuffs Through The Ages : The Ultimate Guide to Creampuffs’. Her book can be purchased at www.creampuff.com”.

Your article or piece can become a full-page ad if crafted properly.

The only thing you should insist on is that the blurb be placed at the end of any article you write for the publication.

Now most publications will have no problem with this at all. It is normal business practice. This article or piece is a decided benefit for the editor, so much so that many small magazine and newspaper editors are also willing to even consider trading AD SPACE for writers who contribute.

I personally use only local writers for my magazine. I give each and every one of them a free ad for their book or business, every month, in exchange for providing a monthly article for my magazine. This is because I, as the owner of the publication, must otherwise PAY writers. If I instead get a contributor to write and simply trade ad space, I do NOT have to pay for writing.

I can fill up an entire magazine (if desired) with quality writing and never have to pay one penny. The ad space I trade costs me very little as compared to paying a writer. I save money. The contributor creates awareness. In nearly every case throughout the years, these contributors have told me that the articles they write for the magazine produce far more in the way of sales than any advertisement.

This theory will most likely work best with small to medium size publications and local or weekly or specifically targeted newspapers. Please don’t try this one with the New York Times. If you try this with the New York Times please do not mention my name.

This, of course, puts your writing into the public arena. This gets you published. This creates credibility. But there is something more here.

This creates relationships. You do remember relationships, don’t you? If you are an author, having a good relationship with an editor can pay off handsomely when it's name-dropping time.

Don't be afraid to approach these local publications. The potential payoffs are huge. Next week, I will show you specifically how to make an approach to a publication that can result in your message being placed in literally hundreds of print publications for free.

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Using Article Submission To Create Publicity - Part Two

Last week I promised specifics in regards to using article submission as a marketing tool. Here are the specifics.

Trust

I know you are getting tired of me talking about this subject, but I am attempting to reinforce this in your mind. If you are going to use article submission to put yourself out there as an 'expert' in your field, building trust with your potential client or customer is of primary importance. You begin to build that trust by being aware of the overall 'tone' or 'feel' of the article.

I love scenarios. So let us look at two scenarios to illustrate my point:

Scenario One

Suppose for a moment you are standing at a party. One of your friends points to an extremely well dressed man across the room who is surrounded by a group of people hanging on his every word, some even taking notes. 'That is Joe Smith," says your friend. "He is an author. He shows people how to sell millions of books on the Internet. He has done it for others 1000 times over."

So you saunter on over to the crowd surrounding Mr. Smith. Eventually you get a word in edgewise, introduce yourself and coyly ask, "So how does one sell a million copies of a book on the Internet?"

"Oh, it's very simple," replies Mr. Smith, "ridiculously simple. It can be done in with very little effort whatsoever and takes no time at all. All you must do is . . " Just then someone taps Mr. Smith on the shoulder and whispers in his ear. "Sorry, I must leave," states Mr. Smith, "it was nice meeting you." He walks away.

How would you feel?

You might feel like kicking yourself for not getting to Mr. Smith sooner. You might stay awake all night, tossing and turning. Mr. Smith has the answer and it is very simple. He was willing to give you the answer, the answer you want, the answer you need! But now it is too late.

Come Monday, you call Mr. Smith's office and are informed that it takes 18 months to get an appointment. You offer to pay a little extra, if you can be squeezed in somehow. The answer is a firm no. Now how do you feel?

Mr. Smith has the answer. The answer you want! The answer you need! But now it will be at least 18 months before you can get it.

You have been left hanging. You are in a state of extreme curiosity. You are ready to take action.

Scenario Two

You are sitting in your office when the phone rings.

"Hello," says a voice on the other end, "my name is Fred Jones. I show people how to sell millions of books using the Internet. I would like to show you how. The cost is only $400 per month, this week only!"

"No, thank you," you reply politely.

"But wait," says Mr. Jones, a hint of desperation in the voice, "I have done this for many of my clients. I have had a lot of training. I go to great lengths and offer many free services. Just tell me what you need and I promise I will be able to help you. . . "

"No, thank you," you reply, a bit more forcefully. "But wait, you don't understand . . . " you hear Mr. Jones saying as you hang up the phone . . .

Now think about it for a moment. If you were going to have surgery, would you choose a surgeon who:

a. has a waiting list a month long OR

b. calls you every day and begs you to use his services?

You want to give the reader the impression that you are Mr. Smith, NOT Mr. Jones. The sad fact is that most of the articles I read give the impression that the writer is Mr. Jones. This is not an impression you want to create, either in your articles or on your website. Giving TOO MUCH information creates the impression of ‘neediness’. Your potential buyers pick up on this quite quickly and simply click away.

Trust is created by the attitude, the tone, the feel of your writing.

All other things being equal, people will only do business with people they trust. What is being sold matters not at all. And, conversely, if a potential buyer does not trust you, they will NEVER do business with you. YOU MAKE OR BREAK THAT TRUST IMMEDIATELY IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OF THE FIRST ARTICLE your potential buyer reads. You make or break that trust INSTANTANEOUSLY when your website flickers onto the screen. If your article and/or your website does not create INSTANT TRUST and CREDIBILITY, you are dead in the water.

Assuming that you are savvy enough to get beyond the initial trust hurdle, everything you present from this point on will either ADD TO or SUBTRACT FROM the initial trust created.

OK. Let's assume you have fine-tuned the article to not only create trust, but also to not SUBTRACT from it. Let us also assume your article contains the all-important, subtle calls to further action. What then? I have spent a good deal of time conversing with site owners. Here are some other important considerations.

How Many Sites and/or Postings?

As many as reasonably possible. As mentioned previously, submitting articles is extremely time intensive. Submit one article to one hundred sites. You will see what I mean. Your fingers are going to hurt before it's all over.

A good rule of thumb is this: Submit ¾ of your articles to the top 5 to 7 article sites. These are sites that have high Google page rank. Submit the other ¼ of your articles to 30-40 medium to high page rank sites.

The advantage to doing this is that it will keep duplication to a minimum, but will initially give you a quick boost in the number of readers hitting your site. (see next topic)

Different Versions of the Same Article?

Are you penalized for redundant content by the search engines? Do you want to have 15 articles on page 93 of the search engine results? Or would you rather have 1 article listed many times on the first page of the search engine results?

Redundancy is an important topic in regards to article submission. I read posts over and over from those who believe that posting the same article to hundreds of sites results in hundreds of backlinks to YOUR site, raising your ranking in the search engines. Well, yes and no.

Remember always that the purpose of the search engines is to help people find what they are searching FOR. Suppose the above theory were to hold true, and you posted several hundred versions of the exact same article with the term ‘Widget’ in the title.

Joe Citizen now goes to Google and types in the search term ‘widget’. The search engine then returns page after page after page of nothing but YOUR article. How do you think Joe might feel?

Not happy. The search engine is not going to index your article hundreds of times. It will index a few and then simply drop the rest, as this information IS redundant. If you went searching for ‘widget’, would you appreciate seeing your competitions listing over and over again on page after page of search engine results? No indeed.

This is why you want to post that article to only 5-7 of the top sites. This is all that will be indexed and ‘stick’ anyway. When you post the other 25% of your articles in the same vein, there will be a short period of time when they will all be indexed. These will drop away quickly as the search engine catches up. In the meantime, you WILL get traffic from these redundant articles.

To clarify, lets suppose you post 4 articles per week (or per month). Post article 1, 2, and 3 to the top 5-7 sites. Post article 4 to 30-40 mid to highly ranked sites. Then begin a new round of articles.

Submission Software?

There are advantages and disadvantages here. Submission software takes you from site to site, automatically logs you on, sends the article to the site, enters all other information and then logs off and moves to the next site. This is great, in theory. The problem is that most don’t work too well. Some sites flat out refuse to accept articles from authors using these programs. The computer cannot think. It can only do. For this reason, some of these programs can cause nightmares for the person using them.

I am personally of the opinion that you should retain complete control of each submission. This allows you to fine tune the article specifically for the given site and for the given categories on the myriad number of sites out there.

The subtle change of a word or two here or there can make a major difference in the message to the highly targeted audience.

Sites?

Different sites cater to different audiences. Don't submit a self-improvement article to a marketing site.

Categories?

Different sites have differently targeted categories. One of the major beefs site owners have is incorrect category submission (putting a religious article in a transmission repair category). Remember that your article will be reviewed for quality, content, categorization, etc.

Site 'popularity'

This matters a bit. However, these numbers change nearly as quickly as search engine rankings. However the top sites generally do not change much. They are very quick to get your article out there. They are perceived to be expert sites. The links THESE sites create back to your site are valuable indeed.

How often?

Regularly and continually, keeping in mind that the process is somewhat akin to planting seeds. You may not see immediate results, but eventually you will have a field full of plants. Some will be annuals, some biennials, and some perennials.

'Quality' of the article

Nothing will kill the trust and credibility factor more quickly than a shoddily written article, catchy, worn out industry specific phrasing, insincere language or an article containing a blatant sales pitch. Try this experiment. Visit an article site, pick a topic and read through 5-10 articles. Notice anything? What you will notice is that you will have an intuitive impression that will tell you whether a particular writer truly knows the topic. Remember that this is what people will be doing with YOUR article.

PLEASE don't pretend to be an expert if you are not an expert. If you really don't know what you are writing about, nothing will destroy trust more quickly than the fact that you really don't know what you are writing about. Be honest at all times. If you don't know something, say so. If you do know, say so.

And Finally . . .

Article submission, done properly, is a valuable tool in your free marketing arsenal. There are other free marketing tools you will also want to utilize. Press releases, used correctly (see previous posts) may lead to your article being submitted for publication in newspapers or magazines, (also radio interviews, television coverage, etc.). This concept can lead to you being chosen as a regular contributor.

Don't ignore that large segment of the population that, (believe it or not), does not yet own a computer or perhaps owns a computer and simply does not know how to operate the thing. These are the folks who, when looking for a life-coach, will type in the search phrase 'coach' rather than the phrase 'life coach specialization depression'.

So, how does one use article submission to drive insane traffic to one's website?

"Oh, it's very simple, ridiculously simple. It can be done easily and takes practically no time at all. All you must do is . . "

Sorry. . . I have to go . . .

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