Need free help with publicity? Let my readers help you


By Joan Stewart
The Publicity Hound

Are you struggling to find a way to promote your next event?

Wondering, perhaps, how to use your Facebook Fan pages to promote your product or service?

Are you trying to catch the attention of the TV newsrooms at your local TV stations so they'll cover your event?

Help is on the way.

Actually, it's called "Help This Hound," and it's one of the most popular features in my weekly ezine, "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," delivered every Tuesday. 

Here's how it works. Anyone who needs help with a publicity or marketing problem can email a question to me, along with their name and town. If I use your question, I'll post it at my blog at PublicityHound.net, and then print the question in my ezine. 

Readers who are willing to help can offer their best ideas as comments at my blog. I choose the best ideas the following week and print them in that week's newsletter. Authors, small business owners, PR people, publicists and nonprofits submit the most questions. But this service is open to anybody.


Why people love it

Here's why "Help This Hound" is so popular.

--Most of us are too close to our own businesses to be able to see clever angles or unusual hooks that can catch a journalist's attention.

--Many Publicity Hounds who are promoting events, or products or services, are on razor-thin or non-existent publicity and marketing budgets. They appreciate the free ideas.

--The blog posts live forever. That means that as the search engines pull in traffic, ideas will be accumulating at my blog during the next several months or years. If I use your question, you can check back every few weeks to see who else has commented.

--Even though I created this service to help you solve a problem, your question exposes you to my audience. Several people who have submitted questions over the years have gotten calls from journalists and bloggers who read about them in my newsletter.  Others have even received additional business as a result of their "Help This Hound" question.

No anonymous questions, please. Be sure to offer enough information in your question so that my readers fully understand the problem. Explain what you've done that hasn't worked. And include a link to your website. If appropriate, attach a photo of your event, or anything else that ties in to what you're promoting.

Right now, I'm short on questions, and I could really use yours.  But don't just email it to me.  Help other Hounds by contibuting your best ideas when you see a question in my newsletter that you can answer.


How to subscribe

If you don't subscribe to my newsletter, you can do so by going to PublicityHound.com typing your name and email address into the box that bounces down from the top of the screen. Then check your email (or spam folder) and click on the confirmation link within that email. The subject line will say: "Response Required Confirm Your Publicity Hound subscription."

You can't get the newsletter unless you click on the confirmation link.

I'd love so see your questions. Really, anything related to marketing or publicity is fair game. I've had some bizarre questions over the years. I've had some really fun ones. And I've had questions that I didn't think would generate much interest from my readers. But boy, was I wrong!

Bring 'em on! 

Email your questions to me at JStewart@PublicityHound.com. Please put "Help This Hound" in the subject line. If I decide to use your question, I'll get back to you and then, hopefully, you'll get lots of free advice from my readers.