The Link Publicity Book

Ken McGaffin

45 inspirational online PR stories to help you promote your business and build links for SEO

The Link Publicity Book | 2Wordtracker.com

Chapter 1: The reporter from the New York Times phoned at 6pm on Saturday 7

Inbound links came thick and fast 8 A cascade of publicity 8

Online PR conversion tasks 9

Supercharge your PR with keywords 10

In this book 10

Chapter 2: Online publicity can bring you hundreds of quality links 12

So what benefit does such publicity bring? 14

Chapter 3: Why journalists will write about your website 19 1. Pampered pets impress headline writers 21

2. Fighting crime can be big business 24

3. Hot start-ups see in Memorial Day 27

4. A brief history of underpants 30

5. A PRIME initiative 33

6. Big Feet land in Academy Awards gift baskets 36

7. Federal Stimulus Package 39

8. Joe Sent Me 42

9. The Green Dragon roars 45

10. Debbie Dusenberry and The Curious Sofa 48

11. Blackwell’s Organic and the credit crunch 52

12. Business location is key, and not always obvious 55

13. Kids want to work for themselves 57

14. Scottish pizzeria slays Colonel’s corporation 60

Contents

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15. In business, safety sells 62

16. Concerned dad launches iPhone application 64

17. Trash means cash 67

18. Networking works wonders for small firms 70

19. Pitching in the big league 72

20. Frugal consumers alter shopping habits 75

21. Website makes a Mint 78

22. Some businesses need help in order to flourish 81

23. Graduates speak the language of success 83

24. Beating the bullet 86

25. Stay in control and keep on learning 89

26. Free suit cleaning for the jobless 92

27. Opening night is a chance to promote your business 94

28. Life sciences make most of oil prospectors 96

29. Celebrating success and sharing expertise can reap online PR rewards 99

30. Houston, we have no problem 102

31. Sage advice safeguards start-ups 105

32. Sometimes the big city isn’t such a big draw 108

33. Organized serendipity could be big business 110

34. Big numbers can be big business 113

35. Firms that are beating the recession 116

36. Small business offers affordable securities 119

37. Now that’s a healthy business model! 122

38. UK model makers see high turnover 125

39. Success makes the ride more enjoyable 128

40. Hard work and recognition - a recipe for success 131

41. It actually only takes one to Tango 134

42. Profiting from the slippery slope 137

43. Sometimes even bad news is good news 140

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44. Something for everyone 143

45. Major international contracts save jobs 145

Chapter 4: Preparing a press release 148

1. Focus on a single newsworthy idea 149 2. Decide want you want people to do as a result of reading about you 150

3. Summarize your key messages 150

4. Prepare your supporting material 154

5. Choose your relevant keywords 154

6. Write your press release using this template 155

Chapter 5: How to build a list of journalists who will want to hear your news 157

1. Use a professional public relations consultant if you can afford it 158

2. Sign up for Helpareporter.com (HARO) 158

3. Read and explore your target publications 160

4. Get yourself noticed by taking part 161

5. Follow journalists on Twitter 161

6. Track a news story 162

7. Find freelance journalists 162

8. Find contacts in media directories 163

9. Use press release distribution services 164

A final tip 164

Chapter 6: Help a reporter and help yourself to some free publicity 165

Journalists are desperate for stories 166 Obey the rules of HARO 169

HARO offers fantastic public relations opportunities 175

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Appendix: Useful resources for online publicity 176

List of resources 176

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Why journalists will write about your website

Chapter 3 “As a journalist I learned that everyone has a story to tell … Whether you work in agriculture, automobiles, technology, finance or any number of other industries, you have a magnificent story to tell. Dig deep to identify that which you are most passionate about.”

Carmine Gallo, Columnist, Businessweek.com

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Business is inherently interesting – full of wonderful and inspirational stories. These

stories fill up our media – newspapers and magazines, tv and radio, websites and

blogs.

In this section, we’ll show you 45 stories where businesses have got great coverage

and important links from the pages of big media sites such as the New York Times,

BBC, CNN and many others.

That’s great for the businesses featured, but how does that help your business? Well,

they’re meant to be a source of inspiration and show you what is possible.

The Switch is a well-established comedy writing technique. It means you take the

underlying structure of a gag, and apply it in a different setting to create an entirely

new joke. So a gag about bankers can be switched to a gag about teachers.

The same technique can be applied to business news stories. Look for the underlying

structure of the story and apply that to your own situation.

So how could you Switch the pre-launch publicity of Pet Airways (page 21) to your own

business?

Could you use research in the same way that Agilence.com (page 24)?

How about the personal story behind Curious Sofa (page 48), could you emulate that

For each story we’ve included a short observation at the end, “The Switch – what does

this mean for your business?”

Answer the questions I suggest, consider your own situation and you’ll come up with a

stream of ideas for your own business.

It’s time to get started so here are the 45 stories drawn from some of the largest news

sites on the web …

Chapter 3 | Why journalists will write about your website

The Link Publicity Book | 99Wordtracker.com

29. Celebrating success and sharing expertise can reap online PR rewards

Website: http://www.helpareporter.com/

Article in The New York Times:Which P.R. Firm Do You Use?

Figure 3.29: HelpaReporter practices what it preaches

In this media-centric world, small businesses who spread word of their successes can

gain beneficial online PR from coverage by national news providers without needing

to spend thousands on marketing.

That is the central message of an interesting article on nytimes.com, which

highlighted the work done by Help a Reporter Out (HARO) - a website that itself aims

to publicize small businesses to a wide-yet-targeted cadre of writers.

In a blog for the internationally-renowned news site, Jennifer Walzer explained that

her own business has received coverage from the New York Times, the Wall Street

Journal, Money Magazine, the New York Daily News and New York Enterprise Report.

Chapter 3 | Why journalists will write about your website

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This was achieved through countless hours networking with media contacts, spreading

news of her company’s success and its reputation as an expert in its particular field -

something which HARO can aid small businesses in achieving, she explained.

Originally conceived as a networking tool for social media website Facebook, the

service provides an easy way for companies to share their success stories and

expertise with reporters who might be interested.

Reporters make queries for information they can use to write articles, which are then

emailed to somewhere in the region of 100,000 companies, or “sources” as they are

known.

Upon reading a query from a journalist that they think they could answer, all a source

needs to do is reply and they could end up with positive online PR in a piece being

published on websites or in print.

The link building potential provided by the PR tool is virtually limitless. “This is a great

service that connects reporters with potential sources using daily email blasts,” Ms

Walzer wrote on nytimes.com.

“Not only do we use the site to look for PR opportunities for ourselves, we also keep

an eye out for anything that might be appropriate for our clients. This is a simple way

to help them out and let them know we’re always thinking of them.”

In highlighting the innovative service that is offered by HARO, Ms Walzer has given the

site itself extra positive exposure. But as HARO founder Peter Shankman explains,

the “good karma” that he receives from spending a few minutes each day sending out

requests is so “immeasurable”, that he doesn’t even need to charge companies to

become sources.

In fact, Mr Shankman insists that if firms do want to give him donations for any link

building success they enjoy as a result of his service, they should instead send the

money to an animal hospital or an animal rescue society - to “keep the good karma

flowing”.

The Switch - can you apply this to your own business?

There are already well-established commercial services that bring reporters and news

sources together. However, they are expensive because of the high cost of researching

and maintaining their database. This puts them outside the budget of many small

businesses.

Chapter 3 | Why journalists will write about your website

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Enter Peter Shankman of HARO who uses the power of social media to bring the

two together. The result is that he can offer the service for free – and many small

businesses are benefiting as a result. (We tried this service and found it so good that

we’ve devoted a section to it – see page 165.)

Does your business bring something that was previously unattainable within reach?

How did you manage to pull that trick off and what do your customers think?

Chapter 3 | Why journalists will write about your website