Self-Promotion or Death: PR Tips from Sara Dobie

Tip of the Week: Be the hot topic version of an ambulance chaser. This tip is directed at the blogosphere, and it works—I’ve done it on my personal website. As a writer, you have a blog, because it’s what writers do. We WRITE. As a writer, you should also read, specifically issues of pop culture popularity and newsworthiness. Then, as a reader and a writer, you should write about what you read. Post the popular pop culture post on your blog, and voila, whenever someone searches for additional articles about, say, book burning in West Bend, Wisconsin (http://saradobie.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/we%e2%80%99re-still-burning-books/), your blog will pop up. This will drive traffic to your blog, which will drive traffic to you and your work. So stay up on all industry news and pop culture. Write about the hot topic when the mood strikes, and I’m telling you, your blog will explode with Google searches for weeks because of it.

Self-Promotions or Death: PR Tips from Sara Dobie

Being that my company is in the midst of a massive PR blitz (http://saradobie.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/hail-to-the-sylvan-dell-revolution/), the tip for this week is well founded on my experience over the past five days. The word is BLOG. I know I already told you to make friends with your local media. The same goes for your blog community. Your blog community does not have to be composed of your geographical neighbors. In fact, it shouldn’t be. Your blog community DOES have to be related to you and your book. First, find blogs that relate to your target audience. Second, build a rapport with said blogger, following his/her posts and commenting where applicable. Then, you can ask said blogger to review your book. Maybe said blogger can cover a new release or write about your upcoming events. Either way, I’m beginning to see the techie world is the world that matters. So go out there and conquer your blogosphere. (I just did a full month series on blogging, in fact, so if you want some extra help, visit ForeWord Magazine’s Publishing Insider, month of July: http://www.forewordmagazine.com/blogs/insider/.)