You’ve got your ducks in a row, developed a new dazzling product and conduct a screaming product launch that is well received. Now how do I reach my audience and more important what must I do to hold onto my reader’s attention long enough to get my message across. 

Rich Schefren of Strategic Profits  shares some interesting thoughts and presents some suggestions to increase your engagements.

In today’s ever-hectic world, getting your prospect’s attention is harder than ever.

But it gets worse – because once you get attention, your job has just started.

Well-known copywriter and blogger John Carlton says:

“The most common blunder rookie copywriters make is to assume the reader will ‘hang in there’… Your reader will not hang in there. At the very moment you bore him, confuse him, or ask him to ‘bear with you’…he’s out of there.”

Does this sound familiar? Has it happened to you?: Doesn’t your own experience confirm it?

The truth is, readers don’t bail on your blog post, email, or newsletter and then come back to it again later. Just check your website’s bounce rate.  Nope. Once you lose them – chances are they’re gone for good.

Now don’t get bent out of shape about this just yet.  Because here’s something for you that’ll instantly make it easier for you to hold on to your readers attention. And today it’s my gift to you.

Have you ever heard of the Bucket Brigade?

You’ve been reading it, all through this blog post.

Phrases like: “But it gets worse”, “You see”, “Think about it:”, “The truth is”, “However”, “First” and “Frankly” are phrases that are referred to as the “Bucket Brigade”.  They are phrases and words that keep the reader moving forward, providing a constant momentum.  When done right, they make your writing seem more conversational. Even better they’ll turn your writing into a greased slide, making it almost impossible to stop reading until the end.

John Carlton said one of the easiest ways to come up with them is to “use the old journalism trick of ‘who, what, where, when, why and how’. For example: ‘Who else uses this secret?’ ‘What does this mean for you?’ ‘Why would I share such a valuable tactic with a stranger?’ ‘Where did I find this information?’ ‘How would you like to see it for yourself?’ “

Rich Schefren of Strategic Profits has put together a list of phrases that will help hold your readers’ attention. 

You can grab your copy of the 

Phrases That Keep Attention swipe file right here.

When Sandy Rees of Get Fully Funded worked as marketing director for the Knoxville Second Harvest food bank in Tennessee, her most successful strategy was creating a profile of the ideal donor, and then marketing to that niche.

The food bank did its research and discovered that the vast majority of donors were women over age 50, who attended church regularly.

“We needed to be speaking in front of every woman’s group in every church in town,” she said. “We did. We knocked their socks off with the presentation and we had a special call to action at the end. It worked like a charm.”

Rees says nonprofits that don’t take the time to research, study and market to their ideal donors are leaving money on the table. They’re also missing numerous publicity opportunities because if you don’t know your donors’ profile, you can’t target the media that are reaching them.

She will team up with Joan Stewart this Thursday, Oct. 27, to present her best tips for nonprofit PR during the webinar “Failproof Publicity Tips for Cash-strapped Nonprofits to Raise Money, Recruit Volunteers & Promote a Worthy Cause.”

We’ll share dozens of tips, tricks and tools that will help you save time and money communicating your story to the masses–and achieve the results you need.

Read more about what we’ll be discussing, and register here.

Just when you start feeling comfortable with the latest round of changes to Facebook, along comes another series of new features that can throw you into a tailspin. Like me.

For example, I voluntarily converted to the new format rather than waiting until later this month when everyone will be forced to convert. But that places an ugly photo ribbon right at the top of my fan page.

That’s prime real estate, darn it! Most of the photo ribbons I’ve seen on other people’s pages include a series of five unrelated photos that show fan page owners posing with people they’ve met at events. The photos are usually poorly cropped, too dark, or so small that people looking at the page can’t identify who’s in the photo.

Nor do they care.

But I’ve figured out a way to manipulate that photo ribbon so I use it to promote my business and bring visitors to my website, blog, Twitter profile and even product pages–without being obnoxious.

You can check it out by going to http://www.facebook.com/SerenityVAServices

While you’re there, click on the Like button at the top of the page. Then click on each of the five photos and see what happens.

Knowing how to use the photo ribbon to help your visitors and to promote–and understanding what you can do with all the other new Facebook features–will give you incredible power that you never knew you had.

Three years ago, when I was a guest on  the webinar “11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook,” with Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound and we  walked participants through Facebook and demonstrated how to use the site to attract friends and fans, join the conversation, find your target audience and make people love you.

But that was three years ago. So much has changed on Facebook that some of the strategies we recommended back then can actually waste hours of your precious time due to the numerous changes on Facebook.

I’ve fielded so many questions about Facebook’s new look and navigation that Joan and I are hosting a webinar at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, March 15. It’s called “12 More Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on the New & Improved Facebook.”

If you participated three years ago, or you’re confused by any aspect of Facebook, you owe it to yourself to take this crash course to learn about the new tools and how to use them to promote your expertise.

We’re even going to be sharing a cool new tool I discovered that will help you find other people’s fan pages where you can post helpful content to their walls, talk directly to their thousands of fans, and get a link back to your own fan page–without spamming.

Register here, even if the time is inconvenient for you because I’m recording it, and Joan will send you the replay link and all the handouts.

It’s Joan Stewart’s a.k.a The Publicity Hounds birthday and she is blowing out 59 candles on the cake.

There’s an old tradition that says the birthday person should get a birthday spanking–one light pat on the behind for every year. But at 59, she won’t let that happen.

So here’s another way to make her cry.

Clean out her inventory and slash 59 percent off the total price of your order. If you’ve been putting off buying CDs, transcripts, ebooks or special reports, now is the time to grab ‘em.

Go to her website at The Publicity Hound and look around.

Important: You must enter the numeral 59 into the promo code box at check-out and then click on “Apply.” And you must order by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time tomorrow night, Feb. 4. This applies to products only, not the mentor program or other services.

P. S. She is cleaning out her inventory in the next few weeks and eliminating old titles. So if you see something you want, grab it now before it’s gone. Or kick yourself later.

It’s time for Joan Stewart’s annual Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s gift to you.

“The Best of The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week of 2010″ includes the best 25 tips from this year’s newsletter, or tips that generated the most response from readers.

Feel free to re-gift it to your own blog readers, newsletter subscribers, clients, customers, Twitter followers, Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections. They don’t even need to opt-in with an email address. Just pass along this link: http://Ez.com/bestof2010

If you work at a company, share it with your PR department. If you work for a nonprofit, show it to your staff and even your board members.

This version is chock full of tips for both traditional and social media, with a heavier emphasis on social media. It includes:

–The 4 big advantages of creating a Google profile, and what you’re missing if you don’t have one.

–5 clever places to meet journalists. Ninety-nine out of 100 other publicity-seekers aren’t bothering with this.

–Where to find a handy, organized, color-coded social media cheat sheet that will help you understand how various major social media sites can help you.

–How to create a sizzling headline for an article or blog post within seconds (this is a fabulous free tool that my readers loved!).

–5 things that could put your security in jeopardy on Facebook.

–How to catch CNN’s attention and possibly end up in one of their stories.

–How to earn a Badge of Honor on LinkedIn and impress people who read your profile page.

–3 easy ways to prompt recommendations from other people on LinkedIn without being pushy or feeling embarrassed.

–5 ways to encourage journalists to include your blog or website address in their stories (and make it look like it was their idea).

–8 ways you can become a victim of The Stealth Interview and be quoted by journalists even though you never talked to them.

You can get the ebook here, save it to your hard drive and then share it on the social networking sites: http://Ez.com/bestof2010

P.S. Re-gifting this ebook is entirely appropriate. Share this: http://Ez.com/bestof2010

I can across a business page on Facebook today that is quite nice. Not only aesthetically, but also from a business standpoint.

I get quite a few emails from artist, songwriters and other internet business owners on who to use Facebook to promote their businesses.

The list is too long, but there is a short list of some of many tools on the internet in which to promote you business.

1. Facebook Events
2. Facebook pages
3. Online event calendars
   • Yelp.com, Upcoming.org, gary’s guide.org (just to name a few)
4. Press release services such as ExpertClick.com
5. ArtistData.com

What stood out to me about this page, is that they included their menu. A fantastic idea and a great way in which to promote your restaurant. Chef’s, foodie and others, this is a shining example on how to get it done….brava!

If you are looking for more ways to promote your product or services, look no more.

You can purchase a copy of a webinar that was earlier this week featuring Joan Stewart, 50+ Places Online to Promote Your Live or Virtual Events to Reach Your Target Market & Pull Sell-out Crowds

If you’re doing publicity for an upcoming live or virtual event, from teleseminars and book-signings to concerts and black-tie charity fund-raisers, and you’re relying on the same old media outlets and websites to promote them, you’re leaving money on the table.

My friend, publicity expert Joan Stewart, aka The Publicity Hound, has identified more than 50 websites you could be using in your publicity campaign. Some are major high-traffic sites that accept calendar listings, free press releases and articles.

Others are smaller niche sites you probably don’t know about. But they can help you really target your market like a laser beam.

Joan will explain them all Oct. 19 when she hosts the webinar “50+ Places Online to Promote Your Live & Virtual Events to Reach Your Target Market & Pull Sell-out Crowds.”

Whether you’re promoting teleseminars, book signings, classes, boot camps, concerts, charity balls, fund- raisers or tourist events, you’ll come away with a long list of websites, and lots of other tips, to really build the buzz.

Register here

When to know when blogging is paying off  for your business…that is the $64,000 question.

I recently had a chat with a client with  who stated she wanted to pull the plug on her blogs.

My first thought was WAIT! ARE YOU CRAZY?

No, in fact, she isn’t. She is quite sane. The problem is that, like most of us that are self-employed, it is a matter of time. Or, lack thereof.

We did have a phone conversation and we decided not to pull the plug and start re-posting to her blogs. The problem a lot of us have about blogging is that we feel it has to be a 1000 word article, at least.

My client and mentor, Joan Stewart recently conducted a teleseminar with Patsi Krakoff titled “Blogging for Business is Easier Than You Think”, Time-saving Tips for Smart Business Blogging.

This product is especially perfect for:

• Anyone who hasn’t started blogging yet and doesn’t know how to start
• Bloggers who want to learn how to save time and build in efficiencies
• Bloggers who are having trouble pulling traffic to their blogs
• Anyone who blogs and has trouble finding enough content…you’ll never be lacking for it after this!

So, if you’re thinking you don’t have time to blog or can’t find content. Look around you, it’s everywhere!

If you’re active on Twitter, you’ve probably seen at least one reference on your own profile page to Twitter lists.

They’re a powerful way to categorize Twitter users according to their area of expertise, or the topics of their tweets and then, once the list is created, let anyone see it. They save valuable time because when you create a list, every tweet from every person on that list feeds into that particular list. You don’t have to drink from a firehose on Twitter to be able to find the tweets from people who have a particular expertise.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that that’s the only way to use Twitter lists. They’re powerful tools that can help you do valuable research, track down experts in a particular niche, find people in your target market, spy on your competitors, find journalists who cover your industry, and so much more.

They’re also an excellent way to determine how other people perceive your expertise and your brand. Here’s what I mean.

Go to your Twitter Home or Profile page and look under your photo on the upper right side. You’ll see the number of people you’re following, the number of people who are following you, and the number of lists you’re on. Click on “Listed.”

Instantly, you can look down the list and see which Twitter users have put you on one of their lists, and you can see the names of their lists. For example, I’m on a number of Twitter lists. When I click on “Listed,” a window opens and I can see that many of the lists include the words “virtual assistant”, “VAs” and “social media.”

If you aren’t on many lists, or you haven’t created your own lists yet, that’s OK. Joan Stewart, aka, The Publicity Hound is hosting a webinar  at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Aug. 26, called “How to Use Twitter Lists & Directories to Generate Publicity and Build Your Brand.” If the time is inconvenient for you, sign up anyway because she is recording it. You’ll get a link where you can watch the streaming video, or download the video.

Here’s some really bad advice that the so-called PR experts dispense: Your email pitches to journalists and bloggers should be as short as possible. No more than three or four words.

Why is it bad advice? Because it forces people to make their subject lines sound cute rather than informative.

Publicist Michelle Tennant, a master at booking her clients on top-tier TV and radio shows, often uses as many words as necessary in her subject lines so they scream, “Open me!”

And wow, do journalists ever open them!

During this webinar on “How to Tie Your Pitch to Breaking News and Make the Media Interview YOU,” Michelle dissected three email pitches that scored publicity in major media outlets. All three had the critical elements of an email pitch and made the journalist’s job incredibly easy. You can adopt them for your own use.

News is breaking all around you–and that’s the very best time to pitch. Joan recorded the webinar and you can watch it at your computer, or download it along with the MP3 file, the handouts and Michelle’s sample pitches. Read more about what she taught at http://budurl.com/pitchingthemedia

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Reprinted from “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” an ezine featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity. Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email the handy cheat sheet “89 Reasons to Send a Press Release.”