Breaking news is news in the truest sense of the word — from “hard” news about national and world events, politics or major scientific breakthroughs, to entertainment news about celebrities or sports stars. Breaking news is what drives the media; and tying your pitches to breaking news is a great way to grab the media’s attention for you or your client. What’s great about breaking news is that it answers the “Why now?” question for the media and increases your chances to...

Have you ever had someone tell you they were slammed with work only to find their Facebook page full of frequent frivolous activity? Or maybe you have been surprised by a rude, off-the-cuff remark on Twitter? Social networking offers boundless potential for authors and writers to promote their works to a wide audience online. Just remember to avoid some common etiquette pitfalls. Keeping a personalized touch makes all the difference. Let the Golden Rule govern your behavior online, and treat people and situations as...

Giving a media interview is like going on a first date: It will lay the groundwork for your relationship with the journalist interviewing you and make you attractive for future interviews with other media. You’ve caught their attention. Now you need to show them you can deliver a professional interview that meets their needs and exceeds their expectations. Do that, and you are on your way to a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship that will pay returns in publicity results for years to...

When it comes to promoting your book you can’t forget about bloggers. Successful bloggers have a targeted and engaged audience that you would love the opportunity to reach out to. Whether it’s self-help, green-living, finance — you name it — the people who follow these blogs look to the blogger as someone who represents their voice and provides new and cool insights into what’s cutting-edge in their niche. Before you begin pitching bloggers, you’ll have to find them first. It’s easy...

Marketing your book should be a fun endeavor, but most importantly it needs to be cost-effective. When you use the Internet as your platform, the possibilities are endless. Increasing your customer base and book sales is all about getting the word out. Awareness is key and all you have to do is pick up the megaphone! Here are a few tips you can use: Free media leads Free services such as http://www.PitchRate.com can help you get valuable media coverage. This is a great...

Getting national media coverage in top print, broadcast or online media can boost your business in ways it is hard to imagine. A single placement in a glossy national magazine is worth tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes a lot more, and not just in the value of ad space in the publication. Getting covered by national media lends a level of credibility, prestige and buzz that money cannot buy. At Wasabi Publicity Inc., we sent out a pitch that landed author...

Marketing your small or home-based business should be a fun endeavor, but most importantly it needs to be cost-effective. When you use the Internet as your platform, the possibilities are endless. Increasing your customer base is all about getting the word out. Awareness is key and all you have to do is pick up the megaphone! Here are a few tips you can use: Free media leads Free services such as http://www.PitchRate.com can help you get valuable media coverage. This is a great...

If you’re an author, media coverage is the best and most cost-effective way to increase your book’s sales. What media coverage does, that no ad can do, is build your credibility among your target audience. When they hear an interview with you on a local radio program, read a newspaper article where you’ve been used as an expert source or watch a television segment featuring you, your book and your expertise, the audience is engaged. And an engaged audience is who...

PitchRate.com, which connects journalists with expert sources, is getting more traffic than ever these days as more reporters discover the free service. Less than 10 months after we launched it in February, PitchRate.com passed a major milestone with more than 100 active requests from journalists on the site. “There is now a request at PitchRate for almost anyone to pitch,” says Shannon Nicholson, vice-president of sales for Blue Kangaroo, Inc., our web products company. At the same time, our new Publicity Results Web...

There’s no question you aspire to take your business to the next level. But where the doubt lies is in how to do it. You may have tried networking, Internet marketing or advertising only to come out in the end with fewer clients than you expected and more expenses than you anticipated. You want to attract loyal customers and increase your profits — that’s part of the equation — but you long for some magical solution. It’s no secret that media...

Any publicist in the midst of a PR campaign for a client has probably asked him- or herself this question: “Is my PR working?” And for a client who’s invested their money in your services, they’re probably asking the same question. Sometimes as publicists, we forget how PR works. Evaluating a PR campaign based on sales or rate of return is all too typical. But here’s the thing: PR doesn’t work like that; it’s a long-term investment. As a publicist you know...

The biggest difference between pitching the media and pitching to a Major League slugger is that the Major League slugger will hit your bad pitches out of the park. When pitching the media, you have to throw perfect pitches to the media every time. No curve, breaking or knuckle balls — they have to be right down the center of the plate. Since the use of human growth hormones and steroids hasn’t caught on in the media, you’ll want to make...

To stay ahead of your competition in today’s business world you practically need a Ouija Board. Successfully navigating a business takes a delicate mix of reading signs, being sensitive to the cultural zeitgeist, and good intuition. It seems an impossible task until you realize there’s a single source that can act as your map, compass and oracle, all wrapped into one: Your market. All you have to do is look at recent business headlines to see what I mean. Giants like General...

Opportunity doesn’t always loudly knock. Sometimes it whispers in plain sight, but we may not see it. We all have preconceived notions about what business success or failure looks like. We are all bombarded with constant news about the state of the economy, good or bad. It is all too easy to get caught up in worry or elation and forget the most important thing about opportunity — it’s up to us to seize it. It may seem counterintuitive. Our tendency during lean...

Landing a television interview is an exciting achievement for anyone doing his or her own PR. Many times people believe landing a segment is out of their grasp or they don’t know how to go about getting this type of coverage. But just like scoring any other media coverage, whether radio, print or online, the secret lies in the pitch. Remember, national or local, TV is always looking for “real people” to illustrate the stories and trends in their reports. But before...

Hiring a publicist or doing your own PR isn’t something most small business owners or entrepreneurs really want to do. You’re busy running the day-to-day operations that keep the doors to your business open and investing the little time and money you may have just doesn’t seem feasible or realistic. Sound familiar? But think about this. Whether you’re just starting out or have been in business for a few years, media exposure is valuable to your success —...

It’s no secret that the PR and marketing game is ever changing and that positioning yourself to be found online is becoming more and more important. Ninety percent of journalists are finding all their information and sources online, and your potential clients are doing the same thing. No one flips through the Yellow Pages anymore. If they have a problem they need solved, they're searching the web for a solution. So building a foundation online should be at the top of...

Imagine you could publicize your company or product to countless potential customers at no cost. You can. PR, both online and in traditional media, offers the ultimate stimulus package for small businesses seeking to jumpstart their recovery. Marketing on the Internet can also help level the playing field between small companies and their larger competitors. The key is to carefully craft and target messages about your brand to the most likely potential customers. Now, more than ever, the Internet offers ways to connect with...

Writing a book is hard work, and even more difficult is finding an audience for it. These days, publishers and literary agents are often finding new talent and signing book deals with bloggers — people who already have a large following and are consistently sharing their ideas and thoughts with the world. (It makes sense: If a blogger has 2,000 daily readers, then he or she probably has 2,000 people interested in reading/buying their book.) As an author, you probably have...

There’s nothing quite like the exposure you get appearing before the 44 million viewers who tune into Oprah each week. The “Oprah Effect” is famous for its ability to boost national sales, making millionaires out of some and saving others from bankruptcy. Getting your book or product reviewed on Oprah is considered the Holy Grail of PR accomplishments. Susan Harrow, who recently appeared on the CNBC documentary, The Oprah Effect, studied “The Oprah Winfrey Show” over 15 years and interviewed prestigious publicists and...

Have you ever had someone in a business relationship tell you they were slammed with work only to find their Facebook page full of frequent frivolous activity? Or maybe you have been on Twitter and been surprised by a rude, off-the-cuff remark. Those are a couple of problems to watch out for in the world of social networking etiquette. Sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook offer boundless potential for companies to promote and build their businesses online. But savvy business people should remember that...

When I got ready to launch my latest business, PitchRate.com, the economic news fell into two categories: grim and grimmer. Economists had not yet seen the bottom of the recession back in February. Even now, as they begin whispering the word recovery, job losses continue. Some experts predict slow economic growth will continue for years. But those of us starting new businesses can’t wait for the gloomy economic forecasts to abate, nor can existing businesses drop anchor and wait for the storms to...

I recently saw on the news that the recession has prompted more and more people to go into business for themselves. In the automotive, newspaper, banking industries and many others, the story is the same. The jobs Americans thought would always be there no longer seem so secure. The end result is that many employees feel working for themselves may provide a more secure financial future in the long run than staying with their long-time employers. Not everyone, however, is cut out to be...

Whether you are looking for a job, thinking of starting your own business or even steadily working for someone else, this is a good time to start marketing and branding yourself. Companies have long known the importance of making a name for their products and services to set themselves apart from their competition. Today’s rapidly shifting economy combined with our increasingly Web-driven communications make it essential for individuals to constantly assess, update and promote their skills. OK, you say, I understand why Microsoft,...

Atlanta, Georgia — PitchRate.com now offers an expanded article database giving experts and publicists the ability to upload bylined articles to the PitchRate.com site for journalists and media outlets to access. Articles in the database are searchable by topic categories and keywords and can be easily copied and pasted by journalists to create the perfect story and still meet their deadline. Journalists also have the option of contacting article authors through the database to schedule an interview. “We’re excited to launch...