This guide to SEOing your PR efforts can help you get high-ranking search results for your press releases, marketing white papers and ezine newsletter content. Whether you are managing PR efforts for several online companies or just one website, youve probably wondered how you can increase your sites (more importantly, your work) overall impact in the Web community.

A musician spends years honing his craft. He writes world-class
songs and performs them in a manner that moves his listeners to
tears. He records a demo tape and sends it to record labels. He
gets a contract and becomes rich, famous and adored.

The lesson: demo tapes are the secret of becoming a famous
musician.

Wait, you say, the demo tape was just a tool, just his way of
conveying his talent. It's his ability as a musician that got
him the contract and made him famous.

Would you like to expand the volume of your business? You can let thousands know about your service, your store, or your new product without spending a penny. Whether you want to make more sales or get an offer on television, you can broaden the scope of your clients by free
publicity.

You dont have to climb a flagpole or hire a dancing bear to get attention.
In fact, with just a telephone, flyers, and some follow up letters, you can be making much more money than you are now.

Stripped down to its core, publicity is little more than one

person persuading another. You, the publicity seeker, must

persuade a journalist that your story is worthy of receiving

print space or air time. Your ability to sell your story to a

journalist is what it's all about.

Although I still believe there is a place for advertising as a brand maintenance or brand affirmation tool, I am convinced that to build a brand today, you need PR. At one time advertising did build brands. But this was in a simpler America. That America, sadly, is no more.

Ive been re-reading The Fall Of Advertising and The Rise Of PR, by Al and Laura Ries, and it is their book that has moved me from suspicion of advertisings demise as a brand-builder to conviction.

Considering how fundamental they are to the publicists trade,

its always amazed me how lousy almost all press kits truly are.

Your typical press kit is a bloated folder filled with puffery,

hype, irrelevant information and worse. The vast majority of

these monstrosities do little besides kill trees and clog

newsroom trash baskets.

The good news is that creating a press kit that actually works

really isnt that hard. Let's look at the elements of a winning

press kit, and help you avoid some common pitfalls.

The next time a newspaper photographer takes your photo, remember the 8 things they hate:

1. Bossy people who demand that other people be included in the photo, so there wont be hurt feelings. Never tell the photographer whom to photograph. This puts them on the spot. Usually, the photographer will oblige and take a few shots just to placate you, then make a mental note that youre a real pain to deal with.

To many marketers, the press release is something of a "one size

fits all" proposition. You want to get media coverage, you knock

out a press release, send it to some journalists and sit back and

wait.

It used to be that all you had to do was pitch a great idea with a clever hook, and youd be booked as a guest on a half-hour radio show.

These days, however, hang onto your wallet. A new breed of radio host is insisting that guests fork over a few hundred dollars-sometimes more-for the privilege of being on their show. Some guests, desperate for exposure for a new book or project, willingly pay the money. Then theyre disappointed when they get little feedback from listeners, or the show leads to no product sales.

Southern grandmothers have often said, there are only three times a respectable persons name should be in the paper: when you are born, when you are married, and when you die.

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