But this isn’t a media story. I don’t expect my local newspaper to pick up this story and run with it. The newspaper’s readers don’t care that I’ve just launched an AdSense Coaching Club. None of them know who I am, and many of them won’t know about AdSense.
The only outlets that are going to pick up a press release like this are those that already know me and understand AdSense. It’s a story aimed at a core audience—an audience of Internet marketers who are most likely to become customers. While it’s unlikely to appear in a mainstream newspaper, it will be picked up by blogs and web sites that discuss AdSense and Internet marketing. I won’t get a great deal of expert branding, but I should get some sales.
Compare that press release to the one on the next page.
Google AdSense Guru’s Breakfast Up for Bid at eBay
Edmond, OK (PRWEB) June 8, 2006—No one wants to buy a half-eaten breakfast on eBay ... unless that half-eaten breakfast belongs to a celebrity who is offering 30 minutes of one-on-one personal consulting for the lucky winner of the leftovers! That’s precisely what one attendee of Carl Galletti’s Internet Marketing Superconference decided to pursue when Google AdSense expert Joel Comm took the stage on Saturday, June 3, in Las Vegas, Nevada!
Comm, known for his Amazon.com #1 best-selling book The AdSense Code, took the platform and offered anyone in the audience the opportunity to share his breakfast. Lin Ennis, sitting in the front row, seized the opportunity to enjoy the other half of Joel’s bagel with egg and bacon and roasted potatoes. Little did Comm know that his breakfast sandwich would appear on eBay.com, the world’s largest auction site, in the form of an auction!
“When I saw my breakfast was up for auction, I thought I would offer the winner the same thing they would receive if they actually sat down to enjoy the breakfast with me,” says Joel Comm. “So the winner of the auction will also receive a free 30-minute telephone consultation providing the opportunity to discuss my best Internet moneymaking strategies.”
Ennis, a resident of Sedona, Arizona, has vowed to donate all proceeds from the breakfast auction to the “Young Internet Entrepreneurs of Sedona.” She has also included an additional set of bonuses that would appeal to anyone wanting to learn how to make money online.
Joel Comm’s breakfast auction is set to end on June 13, 2006, at 11 a.m. To view the breakfast and bid in this auction, go to www.adsense-secrets.com/breakfast.html.
To read more about Joel Comm or his Amazon.com #1 best seller The AdSense Code, go to www.joelcomm.com.
About Joel Comm
Joel Comm is an author, technology buff, and entrepreneur who has been successfully marketing products and services online since 1995. He is the founder of InfoMedia, Inc., a company that strives to provide family-friendly entertainment and other useful resources through web sites that include www.DealofDay.com, www.WorldVillage.com, and www.FamilyFirst.com. Joel is the cofounder of Yahoo! Games and the author of many books focused on teaching people how to make money online. He is frequently invited to speak and teach at conferences and seminars. For interviews or more information, contact InfoMedia, Inc. at (405) 348-2800, or visit www.JoelComm.com.
This is a press release aimed at a much more general audience. It’s entertaining rather than sales-y, and it could be picked up by anyone. Any publication looking for a funny story would be interested in running it. It touches on the Internet, on the range of goods available on eBay ... and it’s ridiculous.
Although it’s meant to be funny, look at how I’m portrayed in the press release. I still come across as an expert. The press release describes me as an author, a speaker, and someone whom people will bid for in order to win half an hour’s coaching. It’s a light, attention-grabbing story. But the impression is serious.
It’s a different way of writing press releases. The format remains the same. There are quotes that show reporters they’ll be getting usable sound bites. There’s still a headline, and I still include a bio at the end so that reporters know whom they’ll be talking to. But the subject is meant to appeal to anyone, not just to people who already know me or my subject. That will spread my name even further—and help with my branding.
You can use both of these kinds of press releases. Whenever you want to win publicity, you can write one press release that’s filled with basic information for the blogs and web sites in your field. And you can write a more general release—one that’s entertaining, informative, or fun—pitched to a wider audience. If you get both releases right, you could pick up publicity in both channels.
Distributing the press releases has changed, too. Once you had to program a long list of numbers into a fax machine. Then you could use a computer-based fax program to do the same thing. Many reporters still like to receive their press releases by fax, but it’s perfectly appropriate to send e-mails to them if you have their details—or use a distribution service. I like PRWeb (www.prweb.com) and Expert Click (www.ExpertClick.com). PRWeb prices start around $80 per press release, but Expert Click allows you to send 52 releases for approximately $800. Both can be very effective, and they are easy to use.
Figure 7.3This is speaking.joelcomm.com, the web site that I use to promote my public speaking work. Note how I use my press appearances to build my branding and reinforce the impression of expertise. IfFortune,CNN, andBusinessWeekwant to speak to me, then I must know what I’m talking about, right? Once you’ve won publicity a few times with press releases, you might well find that the media view you as a trusted source and come back to you regularly.
