Julie A. Fast and John D. Preston

Here is an example of a great author publicity photo, Julie A. Fast with co-author John D. Preston, PSY.D.

Keep your websites up to date, professional and media friendly by providing everything a reporter might need to feature you. A hi res professional picture of you and your book are musts! 

Remember, your job is to make it easy for the media to choose you.

 Tip: Use Craigslist.org to find professional photographers in your area. Great pictures don’t have to break your budget.

Did you know that when you comment on blogs or post reviews around the WWW and you use your URL (www.yourname.com) that you are creating backlinks to your own website? Google loves this, the more backlinks the more love you get and the more Google loves your website the better your search engine rankings. This is a long term,  high pay off activity that can be added to your natural course of web browsing.

 I always highly recommend commenting or posting reviews on various sites to my clients for purposes of promotion. Even if you are posting a review for the latest greatest socks in your wardrobe, speak up and use your URL where you can, it’s a win-win.

Always add valuable content in your posts, don’t just post to beef up your back links.

Anything you post on the internet can be found by your potential clients, customers and the media. Make sure you are not only providing great content but that you aren’t sharing anything that you wouldn’t share with the media.

If you are commenting on a blog you will most likely have the opportunity to submit the post to various social networking sites using a “share” feature, do it!  This not only helps the original poster’s following but…it increases the value of your backlink in Google love.

Refer back to number 1! I never ever suggest you participate in this activity just to create more backlinks. Use these tips as a way to provide valuable and sincere content as you visit various places on the web and every body wins.

Congratulations to Julie Fast, one of the worlds leading experts in mood disorders. Julie is one of my long standing clients and she has earned some national publicity in SELF magazine’s January 2009 issue. Julie has authored three best selling traditionally published books and 3 self published books that she offers from the internet.

Although it would be nice to take all of the credit for this coverage due to my fantastic pitch, there is another piece that was instrumental in gaining the reporters trust and respect, Julie’s website and her web presence. Julie clearly showcases her expert status and has developed materials in language that let reporters “check her out” before they decide they want to spend time interviewing her. Her ongoing work and development on her websites really helped to get her the ink she deserves.

To be the next expert that gets ink, you must have the essential elements that the media is looking for equipped with a well developed website and online presence that tells them who you are, why and how you are the expert and gives them a feel for you and your “voice” should they decide to follow up on a publicist’s pitch or even Google an area of expertise.

E-commerce is one of the top markets in the world economy. If you are not selling and promoting your products and services online, you are missing out on high yield opportunities.

I know the prospect of selling and promoting online can be overwhelming for many entrepreneurs. My best advice, make a plan, even a simple business & marketing plan and get moving. By breaking your ideas into actionable steps and always keeping an eye on your “big picture” plan, you can join the ranks of the world’s top entrepreneurs.

It will take some time to build momentum and get through some of the backend steps but it’s done everyday and with amazing results! Don’t let the overwhelm stand in your way.

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Welcome! The website is up and still needs a ton of developing but I am so pleased to be here. Come back and visit soon. I promise the site will be full of expert publicity and emarketing tips, tactics and strategies that will want to add to your own promotions.

Laura L. Solop