Marketing & Book Publishing Blog

This blog provides marketing tips and strategies to help you build a buzz about your business, your book, or you. It also offers information and insights about book publishing, including traditional publishing, print on demand publishing and e book publishing.

It's for anyone looking for practical, hype-free, cost-conscious guidance and advice, but especially for law firms, financial advisors, other personal finance experts, and authors.

I hope you enjoy my blog and find it of value!

Market Smarter, Not Less, In a Down Economy

Don't cut back on your marketing in this economy. Market smarter, not less. Here are 6 ways to do that.

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Marketing Resolutions for the New Year

When you’re making resolutions to improve your personal life in 2012, why not resolve to improve your business marketing too? Here are some resolutions you may want to make.

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Ten Website Mistakes to Avoid

Here are my ten web site mistakes to avoid.

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Large Company Goes the Extra Mile

This weekend, I was pleasantly surprised when a large telecommunications firm went the extra mile for me.

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Writing and Publishing a Nonfiction Book With Your Name on It

Having a book with your name on it can be a powerful marketing tool for your business.

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Go the Extra Mile with Your Marketing

In addition to providing your clients with high quality services, let them know that they really matter, that you truly value the fact that they spend their money with you and not with your competition, by adding a few well-conceived extras to your marketing mix.

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Make it Easy for Journalists to Interview You

Being readily available to the media is key to getting quoted in an article or column, especially given that most journalists have short deadlines. They are not going to chase you down!

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Benefits of Having a Strong Brand

The benefits of having a strong brand are undeniable. Here are some of the most important benefits..

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Affordable Marketing Help

With the assistance of a marketing coach you can have a champagne-quality marketing program on a beer budget.

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Social Media Marketing. Don't Overemphasize It!

Social media marketing is important, but don't overlook traditional marketing activities!

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Publicity Basics for Your Financial Planning Firm

Here's some basics to keep in mind when you're trying to generate publicity for your financial planning firm.

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PR Nightmares

Have you ever had a media interview go terribly wrong? Share your story here.

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Financial Advisor Marketing Tips -- My Top 12

Here are my top financial advisor marketing tips.

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Choosing a Book Publicity Firm

Choosing a book publicity firm is an important decision. Here is some advice on how to do it.

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Drum roll please! I've chosen a contest winner.

Recently, I sponsored a PR Nightmare contest and invited people to share their worst PR Nightmare stories with me for the chance to win a free hour of PR services from me, a $150 value.

I received a number of great entries but Duncan Long's story won hands down. Not only was it truly nightmarish, but also it made me laugh out loud.

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Your Book Marketing Plan

Your book marketing plan is essential to solid sales. It's your marketing road map. Here is what you need to do to write your book marketing plan.

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How My Neighborhood Relationships Went Downhill

I started in the publishing business as a writer illustrator back in the 1980s. The survival movement was big then, I had always been interested in firearms,

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Contest Reminder! Winner gets 1 hour of free pr services

Have you ever had a media interview go bad? A reporter asked you completely off the wall questions, for example. Or something else?

Share your PR Nightmare story with me up through June 10th, 2011! All of your stories will be posted on my web site and on June 17th, I will pick the one that I think is most nightmarish. If you're the winner, you'll win a free hour of public relations services from me -- a $150 value.

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The Radio Host Who Compared Me To Lee Harvey Oswald

It was during my campaign for Nevada State Assembly last year (2010.) I went onto a radio show to be interviewed about my campaign, knowing that the host

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Social Media Marketing. Don't Overemphasize It!

With all of the attention being paid to social media marketing these days, it’s easy to forget that more traditional marketing tools can be very effective as well.

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Boost the Impact of Traditional Marketing Using Social Media

You can boost the impact of your traditional marketing efforts by injecting some social media marketing into the mix. And, you don’t have to be a social media marketing maven to achieve great results.

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Questions for Book Publicists

When you’re in the market for a book publicist, it’s critical that you have all of the information you need to make an informed hiring decision. So, talk with several publicists and ask them plenty of questions.

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Choosing a Public Relations Firm

Choosing a public relations firm is an important decision. The firm you hire can make the difference between your business achieving and not achieving its public relations goals and your feeling like you've received a good return on your investment or as though you've thrown your money down a hole.

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Publicity Ideas for Small Business Success

Last week I attended a webinar on pr and marketing for small businesses. The presenter was Peter Shankman, founder of HARO and owner of a pr and marketing strategy firm. Some of what he had to say I had heard plenty of times before, but he also served up some fresh ideas. Here's a recap of his comments.

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TV Interview Tips

Doing a TV interview can be a fantastic opportunity to promote your business, your book, or yourself, or it can be nerve wracking and disastrous. Here are tips to help you ensure that your time in front of the camera goes well.

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Public Relations Rules of Thumb

If you are handing your own public relations, following these rules of thumb will help increase your chances of success.

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Book Signing Success

Here's my advice for having a successful book signing.

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Writing a press release

Here are my 12 tips for writing a press release that will get noticed by the media. The tips will help your release stand out from the crowd, which is important because journalists are bombarded every day with hundreds of releases, and you want yours to be one of the releases they read.

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Making HARO Work for You

According to HARO, more than 100,000 sources or experts respond to queries posted on the site. So competition for a journalist's attention can be fierce. However, if you follow the advice below, you’ll increase the likelihood that your response to a journalist's query will land you an interview.

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Advantages of Ebook Publishing

If you have written a great book, there are many compelling reasons for publishing it as an ebook.

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In Today's Economy, New Respect for PR

Great blog on the value of PR, especially in a difficult economy where businesses need to make every marketing dollar count. If public relations is not a part of your marketing mix or if you are considering reallocating your marketing expenditures to get more bang for your buck, this blog post is worth a read.

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Don’t Let Social Media Marketing Overshadow Traditional Marketing

With all of the focus on social media marketing these days, it’s easy to overlook tried and true traditional methods of marketing yourself, your business or your book. Although you should certainly be doing social media marketing – no doubt about it – for many of you it shouldn’t be the only thing you do to get the word out. In fact, when you effectively integrate traditional marketing with social media marketing, the two will complement and reinforce one another and the impact of your efforts will be greater than if you pursued just one or the other marketing approach.

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