Fast Track Business Solutions

5 Tips on Choosing the Right PR Firm (Part 1 of a 2 Part series) by Marsha Friedman

You have seen it all over the news: The economy is under stress. The economy is in a recession. Stress and economic trouble all over the place.

On the other hand some businesses are doing just fine and are thriving.

Getting YOUR product supported by the right PR and Publicity can be a powerful thing!

In fact, there is nothing that could be more PR-effective than National and Local Media Attention that gives all your marketing and sales efforts the exact leverage needed to move your company to a higher level. Are you ready for real expansion?If you are one of the hundreds of businesses looking to gain national media attention for your business, corporation or product then you are probably facing the difficult decision of finding the right public relations firm. What can make this decision difficult is that there are so many different kinds of public relations firms out there. Some are local, some national. Some retainer based, some project based. So how do you know which public relations firm will be the best fit for your publicity objectives ? Here Marsha Friedman, founder of Event Management Services Incorporated, a local and national PR firm , will share her first 5 tips on how to choose the RIGHT public relations firm to get your message the media coverage that you desire

1. Find a firm that specializes in your industry. “For example,” says Marsha Friedman,” if you have a technical Business to Business then you should find a national public relations firm that specializes in Business to Business . If the public relations firm regularly works with companies that are in your industry, they will be familiar with how to communicate your message to the media.” Another great thing is that they will be able to get started immediately . “If you choose a national or local public relations firm who is unfamiliar with your industry , be prepared for them to spend some time researching your industry in order to get a full handle on your topic” adds Marsha Friedman. And guess who will be paying for the public relations firm’s research time: you! “Most firms charge a costly monthly retainer, so the longer it takes for them to get started the more money that will be coming out of your marketing budget. Just to give you an idea the minimum is around $3,000 per month, the industry average is approximately $5,000 per month and the large public relations firms can charge anywhere from $20,000-30,000 per month.”

2. Choose a firm that specializes in your medium of choice. If you are ready to hire a public relations firm, then chances are that you have given a bit of thought as to what medium you want to use. “By the time you start looking for a PR firm you will probably have a good idea if you want to use talk radio, television, newspapers or magazines to get exposure for your topic. It is useful to know that not all public relations firms work with all types of media,” says Marsha Friedman. “A whopping 95% of firms specialize exclusively in magazine and newspaper attention .” So if you are interested in doing radio or television you need to find a firm that specializes in these mediums. “The best way to find out,” says Friedman, “is to ask the public relations firm if their specialty is radio, TV or print !simple as that!”

3. Make sure you request sample campaigns. “Before choosing a public relations firm, request to see some sample promotional campaigns that the firm executed for their clients,” says Friedman. “This is the best way to find out the quantity and quality of their work.” When you are given a campaign it is important to know what the duration of the campaign was. “For example, if they show you a public relations campaign that has one huge newspaper placement (such as USA Today or The New York Times) and the duration of the campaign was 2 years - think twice. “If it took 2 years to get one major media placement, based on the minimum retainer level, you would have paid a massive $72,000 for that one newspaper hit.” Sample public relations campaigns are a great indicator of the effectiveness, especially the cost effectiveness, of a public relations firm’s work.

4. Find a pay-for-performance public relations firm! The costly monthly retainer can put a crunch on your finances, so it is good to know that there are other options out there. Marsha Friedman says, “There are a handful of public relations firms out there that get paid based on their performance . My PR firm is one of these and it really works for our clients . The reason is that they only pay for the media exposure that my public relations firm actually secures for them. So instead of paying a monthly fee, they pay for the results that my public relations firm obtains for them.” By choosing a non-retainer based firm you are truly making your public relations firm put their money where their mouth is!

5. Speak to the public relations firm’s clients. When you are choosing a national public relations firm it is very important to ask to speak to some of their clients, past or present. When you get them on the phone, ask the public relations firm’s clients what sort of media exposure they received and how long it took for the public relations firm to obtain it for them. Marsha Friedman adds, “Great questions to ask are; How well did the public relations firm’s staff interact with them? Did they seem interested in the campaign? Were the pitches quality? These answers will give you valuable insight as to how the public relations firm will handle your campaign.”

There you have it ! The first five tips on how to choose the right public relations firm for you! Make sure to look out for Part 2 when Marsha Friedman will share her final five tips . If you would like to learn more about gaining national or local media attention for your company, product or service, without the financial burden of monthly retainers, Marsha Friedman is here to help . Feel free to contact her directly at mfriedman@emsincorporated.com or visit her firm online at http://www.emsincorporated.com. As a public relations expert Marsha has the ability to get the media attention that you desire without costly monthly retainers . Marsha Friedman has been a leading authority on public relations for nearly two decades as CEO of Event Management Services, Inc (EMSI). If you would like to receive her free Ebook “How to Be a Great Talk Radio Guest” visit http://www.emsincorporated.com

When I started practicing Aikido 2 years ago, every time I stepped onto the mat, I felt like a club footed monkey after a lobotomy. I was bad. Very bad. Nothing went right. I didn’t know how to roll, fall, attack, turn, or simply keep my balance. My Kote Gaeshi looked more like Kote Wussie and Ikkyo was more Sicko.

Hardly anything done in Aikido is what a normal person would choose as a first option. It takes a lot of practice to overcome the basic instincts of avoiding punches and kicks, instead stepping into them. Do you know how much confidence it takes to realize just when your attackers think they have you where they want you, they just gave you a great opportunity to introduce them to the Earth… very suddenly.

An internet business is much the same. You’re going to start out doing everything badly. The first product will squeak and whine and you’ll say too little in some parts and cover too much in others. The conversion rate on your first sales page will probably be less than 1%. Benefits instead of features? Not likely in a first draft! When you start blogging, the posts will be short and me tooish or too long and cumbersome. Articles will be hard to come by and lack lustre. You’ll struggle for traffic and sales will be dismal.

But it’s important you do them AND you release them. What you’re looking for at this time is feedback. It’s similar to the time I was performing a technique (poorly) and my partner thought I should have been doing it better. So she (all 5′ 90lbs of her) countered and introduced me to the mat, sharply. In an online business: Did the sales page convert? Where is the traffic coming from? How can I get more? Am I getting a lot of returns? What could I have done better? Each time did I survive and learn my lesson? Yes. Have I had similar lessons since then? Of course, both in Aikido and in my online business. Improvement is the key. Focus on getting better, not how terrible you are today.

Here’s 3 reasons why being bad at something is good:

1. For the ideas. Everything you have problems doing is a potential product/blog post/article - once you find an answer. Don’t understand what FTP is? There’s a blog post. Did you find a nifty combo of techniques for bringing traffic to your site? There’s an e-book. Can’t find a plugin to display a collapsible list of pages in WordPress - develop the software to do it. My suggestion: If you’re having problems with something - WRITE IT DOWN! Put it in a text document specifically for product ideas or write it in your personal journal. I personally keep a list of product ideas in a Writeboard in Basecamp.

2. You get better at it by doing. Everyone was once a beginner. Leonardo Da Vinci probably once drew in stick figures but he went on to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. You don’t get better my reading, you get better by practicing. My suggestion: Consider everything between now and when you consider yourself a master to be nothing more than practice. Practice, practice, practice and make it fun!

3. It’s fun. Perhaps it’s just me, but I find learning fun. I’ve learned you can’t learn about things your already a master of, so if you’re learning, you’re going to be doing it badly. There isn’t a single person who is good at everything. So make learning fun. My suggestion: Kids find most everything interesting. Adopt a child like attitude towards all the tasks you’re faced with. When you learn something let out a big AHA! Then do a little dance.

So get out there and be horrible at something. If you keep at it, in a couple of months/years, you’ll actually be good at it. That’s how the masters got to be masters.

“Visit my blog and learn the art & science of separating your life from your business.” -Steven Lohrenz. Here is the URL: Internet Business Automation

- Steven Lohrenz

In todays modern day in business world, article marketing is very important and powerful tool in advertising certain product. So that this will educate a potential customer and also enhance people to engage in this kind of business. It should be short and has a sense that capture the readers interest on a certain topic, has a valuable information and should lead the customer choose or use something with that topic.

A good article works on two levels: the level of the reader, and the level of the spider. The reader is engaged by the quality of the writing and content. The Internet spider is attracted by a strategic placement of keywords. These keywords must be placed carefully, but with the right approach, they can help you rank higher in searches while avoiding red flags.

You’ll be most successful at this endeavor if you take the time to compose one or more articles every day of the week. Then post them on your website to increase your ranking on the popular internet search engines. Article marketing works wonderfully. With a minimum of effort, you attract traffic to your website and impress your readers with your expertise.

The key fact to recall when using article marketing on your web page is to use unique articles with every new posting. Articles or any posting which is not unique content does not achieve a high rating or customer loyalty. Customers don’t want copied content, they want to see new items whenever they visit.

It is imperative for the creation of a brand new article every single day. This guarantees that your old reads will remain interested, as well as making your business seem full of experience to any new readers you may attract. The more people interested in your articles, the more profit you seek to gain.

Article marketing is a great way to market your products and services online today. Just remember that it is vital to make sure that your content is new and unique and can not be found anywhere else on the internet. If you follow these simple steps, you will be able to gain profit and ranking in the search engines without doing much actual work.

Article marketing is a new way of advertising. These articles are very interesting and designed to hook the reader. This is a new and very strong approach to the world of business. All articles written are very unique articles, you must make sure that the article are unique to keep readers interested. Another key factor is unique content, which is just as important to keep the readers hooked. You want to make sure that the articles are interesting and grab attention. They must also keep the readers attention so that customers keep coming back.

- Shawn Montgomery

Many businesses at the current time are venturing into article marketing, for the internet has lured a large host of customers that are hoping to locate unique and contemporary merchandise. When wanting to attract and keep these customers for a length of time, take care to post descriptions that have creative and unique content.

Writing an article for such a task is not easy. It will not only take a talented writer, but also someone who is willing to think about the minds and thoughts of any number of visitors on any given day. This writer must be able to get creative with the topic and engage their readers to promote an interest in whatever the article is about. If you can achieve this, then the marketing plan will be a success.

Unique articles are the main portion of article marketing. It’s vital to verify that the articles you choose to use are brand new. You should not be able to find any of these articles anywhere else on the internet. Cut and pasting any articles from other sites will make you look bad. It will also not flag the search engines, and your rating will not be changed.

How to attract a multiple variety of people to your site? Effective writing is not an easy task. The person writing the article must have the quality of having good and various backgrounds on the article he or she is writing on. Trying to engage readers various interests and perspectives to be able to capture their attention.

Because article marketing depends on the software to find the most amounts of matches with the specific query made by the customer, it’s advisable for companies using this type of marketing to do everything they can to keep their page at the top of the list. This typically means making many articles as possible to keep matches high.

While there are other types of marketing available to you and your business, article marketing is taking the net by storm. This new type of marketing is providing lots of businesses with customers who have been looking for them. By gaining search engine rank and engaging readers in the topic, articles are able to boost your sales and profits.

Those who specialize in article marketing find that intuitiveness and unique content are the most important aspects of writing an article that people will wait for and appreciate. Unique articles are the main portions of marketing. It’s vital to verify that the articles you choose to use are brand new. You should not be able to find any of these articles anywhere else on the Internet. Cut and pasting any articles from other sites will make you look bad. It will also not flag the search engines, and your rating will not be changed.

- Shawn Montgomery

If you are an author or a professional who has lately been downsized, you can find loads of ways to earn money by doing article marketing without even leaving your house. Sure you might like to write the traditional way - on an assignment given to you by an editor and with a regular salary - but times have really changed.

Lots of people write articles in their home and them sell them online to web pages or print media outlets. Typically, you should market an article before spending time researching, writing, and editing it. An article proposal and sample writing can be used to market the article to ensure there is a buyer before it is finished.

A popular article that attracts attention from readers and editors is crucial to marketing to print media. Choose a topic that is current and interesting. Daily, there are news items, human interest stories, breaking news that can be used to create profitable articles. Keep up with news sites for such stories.

The internet also provides a new venue for article marketing. There are several services seeking articles from writers. These services often make money from advertising messages that are associated with the articles. These articles need topics that are of interest to potential web researchers and contain key words that the web searchers are likely to use to locate information. “How-to” articles, holiday themes, guides for beginners, and reviews, are staples of this type of writing.

After you have started your own web log, look into joining an ad affiliate service. Such a company places ads on your page and pays you for the number of unique viewers. If you are an expert in some hobby such as coins, stamps or records, you will have a built-in audience.

Articles that provide unique content are the best. You are able to make your stories stand out if you have personal experience or knowledge in the topic. These articles can simply be comprised of basic information on any given topic. The internet is often the first place people around the globe look for information. Article marketing will be simple for you to master if you are able to bring something to the writing, such as a particular point of view or a good sense of humor.

Whether you are a writer or a recently laid-off white-collar worker, the Internet abounds with opportunities to make money from home with article marketing. Writing for an editor with an assignment and a pre-arranged payment schedule would be ideal, but things have changed drastically. Articles that provide unique content and unique articles are the best. You are able to make your stories stand out if you have personal experience or knowledge in the topic. These articles can simply be comprised of basic information on any given topic. The Internet is often the first place people around the globe look for information.

- Shawn Montgomery

Selling articles is a type of advertising that is now universal and trendy among online businesses. Firms have been created solely to provide unique articles with unique content for web pages as a method for their promotion.

Free articles are also a benefit of article marketing. This technique has produced directories with extensive materials. These free articles can be used to provide interesting and useful content that drives traffic to a website. Other sites, though, provide unique content that they can control to a fine level of precision.

An important feature of article marketing is SEO targeting by using specific key words. Articles will be germane to the overall content of a website but will be loaded with certain words and phrases to make web crawler programs detect them and lead those who search the terms to see the page on a results page and then to visit the site.

In order to attract the most available traffic on a web page, some liters will actually misspell words or phrases that they feel people will commonly mistake. It’s a good way to generate extra results, but at a price. This can also have an undesired effect, as those same people may feel a lack of professionalism

Article marketing can provide you with revenue in several ways. The primary source of profit is by linking to sites to generate traffic from visitors, to sell products online, or to provide in some other way for the needs of those who are intrigued by the articles and drawn to the site. You can also offer your articles to other website owners, and tailor the articles to their needs.

Some site owners think that generating traffic is everything, even though they make little money if no one buys their services or clicks on ads. High quality articles are important because they encourage visitors to stay longer when they visit and to make return visits. They generally give your site a professional atmosphere that encourages visitors to purchase your goods or services. Good articles are worth the extra expense.

Some site owners create their own copy, but others may not have the time or skills. Those individuals hire ghostwriters to provide professional copy that is tailored to their needs. They may find their ghostwriters through soliciting individual professionals, or by subscribing to an online site that collects and distributes the work of numerous authors, credited to the purchaser.

S. Montgomery is a lifetime article marketing student who manages a FREE Article Marketing Blog that reveals the secret tricks and techniques the top marketers use to flood their sites with targeted paying traffic!

- Shawn Montgomery

The opportunities to create a profitable Internet business are tremendous but with all the people flocking to the Internet it’s difficult to find a good domain name anymore isn’t it? Certainly all the good .com names are gone and it’s getting harder to find .net, .biz, and .org domains too. It won’t be long until we’re relegated to the dreaded .info domains.

If you actually believe that, think again because it’s far from the truth. If you just use a little imagination and creativity, it won’t take very long to find a memorable .com name for your domain but it might take a bit longer than it did a few years ago. Then again, you might be surprised to find your first choice still available.

A recent domain shopping spree left me almost shocked at how easily I found good domain names. The first domain was for an information product that demonstrates how to create, produce, and ship a DVD for free. My first choice was createdvd.com and it came as no surprise that one was taken but CreateDVDProduct.com was available. The second domain was for a DVD I created to show how simple & easy it is to create customized CD & DVD covers. This one wasn’t quite as easy but it didn’t take more than a few minutes before I chose DVDnCDCovers.com over many other good choices. Both of those sites are now live.

For an online course that teaches how to create online video courses, I found CreateVideoProduct.com. That domain was found with relative ease too. TheWebmasterBasics.com was a logical choice for a 3 volume DVD set designed to teach aspiring Internet entrepeneurs the basics of being their own webmaster. These two domain names might a bit lengthy on one hand but anyone can see how quickly they convey exactly what is being sold and the search engine traffic I’m getting echos that sentiment.

I’m not always this lucky. Sometimes it really is difficult to find a good domain name but with some creativity you’ll eventually find a good one. Try putting a letter or short word in front of your desired domain name like a or e or i or the. Use the letter n in place of the word and. Instead of an s, use a z. I did that with BlogCarnivalz.com. The key word phrase “blog carnival” is still in the domain. Use that lump on your neck and I’m sure you can think of lots of other ideas. It just isn’t difficult to find good .com domain names.

Would you like to convert your personal computer into your personal cash register? If you answered “yes,” then you’ll want to visit: Online Business Blog

- David Crestrum

Everyone who has a website knows that to have sales you must have traffic, but not just any traffic - it has to be targeted traffic.

What do I mean by targeted traffic? It simply means visitors to your website who are interested in what your website is about. For example, people wanting to buy jewellery will find jewellery websites interesting.

How do I get targeted traffic? Here are some effective techniques:

Forums: Whatever your topic, there’s sure to be at least one forum about it. Subscribe to a couple of forums. Answer questions and join in the debates there. Become known as an expert in the field. Place a discreet link to your site in your signature file, which will appear in every reply you make. What can be placed in your signature is often determined by the forum moderators. Do not spam the forum or you will be stopped from posting. You should be able to get a fair amount of traffic from a popular forum, and the people who click your link will already be familiar with your writing style.

Linking from/to other websites: Look for websites which are similar to yours (but which do not compete directly). Ask the website owner for a reciprocal link. Be sure to pick link partners who match your customer profile. Try using a software program like Arelis to help you find link partners.

E-Zines: Buy adverts in ezines that target your market. Be sure to have a test run to ensure that the return on investment is enough to cover the expense involved. You may save a considerable amount.

Newsletters: When people visit your website offer them something of value for free if they sign up to your newsletter (like an e-Book). Your newsletter should be written tightly geared towards your topic. You should publish your newsletter regularly, preferably once a week.

E-Books: Write (or have written) a free informational eBook which you can give away to your clients and others. Place links back to your website in the eBook.

Joint Ventures: Contact online marketers looking for new products to sell. They may have large mailing lists with ready to buy customers. Normally they will be willing to send an email to their list for a percentage of the sale price. This works especially well with informational products. It produces a number of benefits. It can give a large boost to both your sales and mailing list in a short time.

Buy Expired Domain Traffic: This may be the most expensive in terms of money, but also the cheapest in terms of time. It gives a traffic boost normally within 30 days. What is it that you’re buying? You are buying traffic from a company which has invested in expired domain names. They are domain names which are still registered on the search engines which get a considerable amount of traffic. The previous domain name owners have either lost interest in the name or simply forgot to renew the registration. This means that the traffic from the expired domain name is redirected to your website. Generally this is high quality traffic as only expired domains with relevant traffic is redirected to you. As usual, you should undertake a test run to see if this traffic is suitable.

When you combine these techniques and apply them consistently over time you will find a rich source of targeted traffic coming to your website. This, combined with quality products will ensure the success of your online business.

Mike Devoran is the publisher of DJTraffic.com, a website devoted to improving your website traffic.

- Mike Devoran

ebooks are basically electronic books, most commonly in PDF format that you can download directly on to your computer. You can find a variety of these books ranging from fiction to business. It is an emerging new trend and many people are appreciating the fact that they are easily accessible. Once you download what is required, you can read it at your leisure and they are comparatively easy to read.

You can make lots of money with minimal effort through marketing ebooks with resale rights. The product in question already has been written and published so you only need to successfully sell it on the internet. You can buy these volumes using one of a pair of methods. The first and most common involves obtaining simple resale rights so you can sell the item. It does not cost a lot, but using this method you cannot claim authorship or change the content at all.

Choosing resell rights over affiliate programs requires weighing the pros and cons. Simple resell rights allow you to keep all the profits, but you may be on your own in terms of marketing and distribution. Affiliate programs generally provide well-tested tools and techniques.

When you purchase an ebook with resale rights, you must know and understand what those resell rights are. Some ebooks may be given away at no charge but other shave a fixed price attached to them. Be absolute certain that you are able to meet the conditions and any restrictions on product distribution. You need to know exactly what you are purchasing.

Spending more time in researching about the demand for a certain product is more likely important before purchasing your ebook with resale rights package. See to it how many people are searching the information about your ebook? Is there any competition? Or is the product good or not? Quality of course is important to a certain product before trying to introduce it. With people trying to make an easy buck on poor quality ebooks then it turned rubbish on the internet.

Be diligent in reading all the fine print and conditions of the agreement. Check demand for your ebook and make sure you’re getting a truly good deal. If you do this, then you should definitely be able to profit from selling an ebook with resale rights. A lot of online directories of ebooks for sale are online for anyone to view. Navigate to some of these lists and choose the ones you want.

Edson Buchanan invites you to check the weekly low cost “Resale Rights” or private Label rights product available at http://www.infoprofitweekly.com Most of these weekly deals can be sold, used as bonuses or a list building incentive. Go to http://www.infoprofitweekly.com today to start increasing your online profits.

- Edson Buchanan

Recently my online business has started making enough money to enable me to leave my job and strike out entirely on my own. I have had to work hard to be able to get to this point, but I attribute my ability to leave my job to the 3 things below (they’re things you can do too):

1. Low overhead lifestyle. My wife and I have managed to reduce our expenses to the barest of minimums. We’ve managed to reduce our rent and utilities to zero. Our insurance, petrol and groceries are our largest expenses now and they come in under a grand. It doesn’t take much sales from our business in order to cover those bare necessities. Now we are just looking for products that are base hits instead of home runs. Look to reduce by following the 1 time downside (ie moving) with ongoing upsides (1/2 to 1/4 the cost in rent). Avoid doing things with the opposite costs. Avoid clipping coupons because they incur an ongoing downside with a once off upside.

2. Make time. I’ve been spending extra time working on the business leading up to this point. It meant giving up TV and sleeping in. If you can’t squeeze a few more hours out of your day by eliminating low priority items (such as TV and lie ins), you will never succeed. It gave me time to learn the skills I need and set up a basic level of income before going completely on my own.

3. Having a backup plan. Having a backup plan reduces the fear of being out on your own. My backup plan is to go back into IT and contract. I can make enough to cover our yearly expenses (if the business has 0 income - worst case scenario) in 3-4 months of contracting. Then I have a window to give the business my full attention again. The company I just left has made it very clear that I am welcome back at any time and they are in a unique position where they are going to be growing even if the economy goes to pot. Figure out a way to make ends meet if your initial plans don’t work out and put it on the shelf to help hold the fear at bay.

Those are the 3 things I did in order to build my skills and reduce my fears to the point where I confidently struck out on my own. They are really easy to do but they may be emotionally difficult, especially if you are addicted to TV or really tied to a certain area. If striking out on your own is your number 1 priority, doing the 3 things above will speed you on your way.

“Visit my blog and learn the art & science of putting your internet business on complete autopilot.” -Steven Lohrenz. Here is the URL: Internet Business Automation

- Steven Lohrenz

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