Sections From: 101+ No B.S. Secrets to Getting Massive Amounts of Free Advertising, Publicity and Promotion For Your Product, Service, Business, Web Site, MLM or Book! By Mike Van Norden and Ron Ruiz

This is part four of a collection of sections from my best-selling e-book that I wrote with Ron Ruiz. It was written in 2002, so some of the sections may mention outdated topics, but there’s still a ton of good sales and marketing advice throughout. I hope you are able to take some of these ideas and use them in your business to grow and prosper. Enjoy!

Didn’t read part one? Read part one here!

Didn’t read part two? Read part two here!

Didn’t read part three? Read part three here!

My Million Dollar Book Promotion Technique

Here’s my favorite technique. I could pull out a box of literally hundreds and hundreds of articles that have been written about my clients using this same technique.
Give something away for free!
Here’s how I do it…
I develop a checklist or special report for the book or informational product I want to sell.
-Then I put it up on a web page with the checklist or special report. On the free checklist or report page, I put links to the complete book, course, or whatever I ‘m trying to sell. I don’t want pitch to them the free page. My intent is to give them free information with some links to pages that contain the “hard sell.” Get the difference? I’ll tell you why I do it this way in a minute.
-Then, I create a news release offering the checklist or special report, and fax it out to the media.
For example: “New Special Report Helps Parents Obtain Financial Aid For College .” Then I would tell the reader where they could view this special report on the web site.
Of course, this is mentioned in the press release. Also, I give the reader the option of sending a self addressed stamped envelope to a particular address. Remember, not everyone is on the web yet!
The reason this works so well, is that many of the editors take the time to visit your web site to make sure that you are really offering useful information, and not just a big sales pitch!
Editors don’t mind if you have links going to your products but they are far more likely to give you free publicity if you give their readers something of value-especially if you give them something free, first.

Importance of Special Reports

The key to making this work is the checklist or special report! It can be on weight loss, it can be on anything. It can be on “How To Get a Great Deal On Insurance”, it could be on, “How to Buy a Home With No Money Down”, whatever you’ve written the book on.
You write the release, offer some material for free, so they get a taste of what you offer and you’ve got them. You’ve got their opt-in e-mail address, you’ve got their mailing address, because they send a self addressed stamped envelope. It’s very important to offer both.
Probably almost everyone reading or hearing this is probably on the internet, but trust me, about 70% of the people that are reading the newspaper aren’t online. So you need to make sure that you do mention an address to send a self addressed stamped envelope. That’s very important because a lot of people will send you that envelope for information. If someone is going to write to me for free information I like to pre-qualify the lead by asking them to include a self addressed stamped envelope. What I have found is the more you qualify them, the better. In addition, this way you’re not out of pocket 1 penny for postage. The only out of pocket expenses that you have are the printing costs.
If you send out a hundred special reports this week with the sales letter and make four sales, that’s O.K. because you didn’t have any mailing costs! All you have is printing costs, which is very, very inexpensive.
While we are on the subject of sales letters…
Your ability to write great “sales copy” is CRITICAL to your success!
We’ve invested thousands of dollars learning how to be better copywriters. It’s one of the best investments we made.
Turning Low Priced Books Into High Profit Products
Once again, this tip alone is worth 100 times the cost of this ebook!
If you’re an author with a $10-15-20 book, you must turn that information into a more expensive product. Here’s one interesting thing I’ve found, if a hundred people call in and they have an option between a $12.95 book and a $149 “course or program” believe it or not 80-90% of the people who buy will pick the full $149 program. I know that’s hard for people to believe that people would rather spend 10x the money for a comprehensive system, but in the 10 years or more I’ve been doing this, I have seen it happen over and over again. I have seen sales go up. I have actually seen close ratios go up.
Believe me it doesn’t take very many of those to get your money back for whatever printing cost that you have and there’s a lot of profit that is left over at the end of the day when your production cost is only about $10.00 on that $149 product.
The biggest mistake that people make is the idea, “I’ll keep my product price low because more people will buy it.” You may not get as many total buyers, but the dollar amount you receive could be 10x higher. You will make far more money. You’ll also have a better quality of customer who is more likely to buy something else from you in the future because they have already invested that money with you.

Publicity and Free Advertising Case Studies and Articles From “The Business Fastlane”

Note: We’ve included these success stories and informative articles so you can see how others are using free advertising of all types. You should find them inspiring and informative.

How to Use Free Publicity To Explode Your Traffic!
3 Case studies
One of the most overlooked ways to promote a website is through the power of free publicity. By knowing a few simple techniques, you can use this exciting and low cost method to get massive exposure for your website in a very short time.
There are many techniques for making your website worthy of media attention. One of the oldest but most effective techniques is to make your website or subject controversial.
Here are 3 case studies showing how different websites combined the power of controversy and publicity to get massive exposure. The first 2 show positive examples and the impressive results they generated. The last one shows controversy may generate traffic but won’t produce sales for a bad product.
Case Study #1 From Zero to $30,000 in 3 Weeks
Last December, John Fischer of Colorado, launched a small website. He sold a few cheap bumper stickers and other items that read “He Is Not My President.” His site brought in $1,500 the first week.
Then he sent out some news releases and all heck broke loose! His site was mentioned in USA Today, The Denver Post, and other media. The poor guy had to work 40 hrs. a week for 3 full weeks just to fill the orders. One article claimed he earned over $30,000 in just a few weeks. Then he contacted the media again and announced he was shutting down the site (smart plan) and when the word got out he was swamped with requests to keep the site open and keep offering his products.
Could you earn an extra $30K in a few weeks using this model?
Case Study #2 100,000 New Website Visitors In 10 Days!
Publicity pro Mike Van Norden used some creative thinking and PR to get over a hundred thousand visitors to a brand new website in a few weeks! Here’s what he did: About a year ago, there was a BIG debate in Dallas regarding the re-naming of Texas Stadium. Texas Stadium is where the Dallas Cowboys play their home games.
The debate was whether to re-name Texas Stadium, “Landry” Stadium after the great Tom Landry, beloved former coach of the Dallas Cowboys!
Mike and a friend quickly registered landrystadium.org and set up an online “petition” where people could vote YES or NO on whether to re-name Texas Stadium…Landry
Stadium!
He wrote a simple press release in less than 10 minutes, and faxed it to all major radio, TV, and newspapers all across Texas. Result: They were featured in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, ESPN, and all local TV Stations! They were all “plugging” the website, and telling “thousands” of people to go vote yes or no! In a very short time they received over 70,000 votes (with emails.) without spending ONE penny on what ended up being $100,000+ in FREE PUBLICITY! He put “banner” ads for ALL of his products on the “voting” page of the web-site! He had over 100,000 click thru’s, and over 50,000 Opt-In emails from this very targeted bunch of people which resulted in thousands of dollars in sales!!
This is a great model to get massive exposure in a short time and build a targeted mailing list. The more passionate the story, the more publicity and traffic you’ll generate. Keep your eye on the news.
Case Study #3 60,000 Visitors Per Day With No Advertising But Not Recommended
Wife beaters
Taking a subject as serious as domestic violence and making light of it isn’t one I recommend or condone. You may enjoy your 15 minutes of fame, but you also tarnish your name, your reputation, you can become the subject of death threats and although it may be a joke to you there are probably a few crazies that may be encouraged to actually abuse their wives thanks to you. Talk about selling your soul for a few dollars!
Although I don’t like to promote this type of site, since it is generating tons of publicity it’s worthwhile so study it and learn from his techniques so it can be applied to more
positive topics.
The originator said he got the idea for selling T-shirts (with the word “Wife Beater” on them) after watching several segments of the television show COPS. He said that many of the people arrested in the real-life show wear sleeveless T-shirts and are charged with domestic violence. He said that young people began calling the T-shirts “wife beaters” and that he just picked up on the theme.
Although he says it’s a joke he does do his part in getting people riled up. For example, his website has a photo of a woman being spanked while a rap song promoting domestic violence plays in the background. He also gives discounts to anyone who can prove they’ve actually been arrested for domestic violence.
Are these techniques working? The site has been slammed in articles in the major media and by women’s groups all over the country. However every time a new article comes out his traffic and sales goes up-now up to 60,000 visitors a day without any advertising. Although his traffic is high, t-shirt sales have been slow which shows that while you can generate lots of exposure by offending most people, it probably won’t translate into sales.
Combining Controversy and Publicity With an Existing Website
In the last case study, the person did many “right” things to get publicity even though his subject was “wrong.” His techniques can still be used for controversial but much less offensive topics.
There are several ways you can do this. If you already have an existing website, keep a sharp idea out for current events you can use to tie in your site/topic.
For example, if you sell children’s education products, watch for government studies that show the decline in education. When a new study is released, quickly get your story out to the media telling them what’s wrong with the way kids are being taught, why yours is better, etc.
If you sell business information or marketing, watch for the latest dot com layoff announcements and tell why these companies were doomed from the start and how your business/marketing methods are better. etc.
As these 3 case studies show, publicity is one of the fastest ways to get massive amounts of traffic to your site with little or no money. Review these case studies, do your homework, and we might be hearing about you in the media soon!

Success With Stamps
A few months ago I told you about the Democrat who was profiting from the last election fiasco by selling anti-Bush bumper stickers and other merchandise. This month, it’s turnabout.
Gene McDonald was pretty apolitical until our former commander-in-chief’s finger wagging and “I-did-not-have-sex-with-that woman” speech sent him over the top.
He didn’t just get mad, he created a homemade anti-Clinton protest sign and stood on a busy Florida street corner 3 days. Although almost all the comments were positive, on the last day he actually got attacked by a detractor. Although the attack gave him a bloody nose it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to him.
His story appeared on the evening news and soon his phone was ringing off the hook from people who wanted to protest with him. He became so driven he decided to start looking for ways to turn his passions into a business.
On a whim he came up with a parody of a commemorative postage stamp. His first one was a caricature of Clinton behind bars in a prisoners uniform. “Jail to the Chief.” It was followed by “Queen Hillary Stamp”, Jesse Jackson “Keep the Hoax Alive” and many others. His latest victims are Gray Davis “No More Grayouts” and Gary Condit, “Resign Now” stamps. Business has been so good that he’s getting out of his pay phone route business so he can enjoy this full time. One things for sure, he’ll never run out of subjects for his stamps 🙂
You could create and sell stamps for your favorite charity, cause, hobby, sport, or trade. Buy a few of the above stamps and ask a label company what it would cost to create something similar in your own niche.
More Examples of How to Profit Online From Current Events
We’ve talked about this concept many times with past case studies but every time new examples appear they serve as good reminders for all of us to keep our eyes open. Here are several examples:
gaspricewatch
Instead of just moaning and complaining about high gas prices like most of us, Brad Procter started a company that seems to be profiting from it. Launched in March 2000, it is reported to be one of the most heavily trafficked sites on the web.
The site helps consumers find the lowest priced gas in their local area by monitoring 640,000+ gas prices. This is done through 12,000+ volunteer price watchers.
The highest price reported today is $2.55/gal in West Covena, CA. The lowest? An amazing $1.27 in San Antonio, TX. Pretty interesting. You can imagine how it’s attracting the media. In fact, if you look at their site they list a huge number of media outlets who have reported their story.
Are they making any money? I don’t know. I see that they are trying to generate money through advertising and a partners program. That model has failed for other dot com companies who received lot’s of media attention and website traffic but still failed. Do a little brainstorming. How would you turn this great idea into a profit center? One of the things I would do is make part of the site free and part be a pay for access.
The free part of the site would have some pricing information but the paid site would have more detailed, timely and local information. Or think of all the people who might pay $5-10/month to have the latest prices in their local area emailed to them. You might save $5 with just one fill up!
You could arrange joint ventures with companies producing gas saving and other related products. You could create a series of special reports on car care, money saving ideas, how to make your car last longer, etc. Finally what about arranging an additional discount with major gas stations for gaspricewatch customers and sharing in the additional business profits you would send them.
Get the idea? There are lot’s of ways this site could be a money maker. Let’s keep our eyes on it and see if they follow the path of all the other failed dot-com companies, or if they’ll wise up and use direct response techniques.
Leavingcal
Unless you live in a cave, you’ve heard all the woes California is facing these days. Besides our ridiculous housing prices, (a relative just sold his nice, but not that nice, 3 bedroom home for over $600,000), gas and food prices, now we have the fun of rolling blackouts and power bills that are increasing each month.
All this has added up to something that hasn’t happened in a long time, more people leaving the state than coming in.
One person is trying to capitalize on it with this website. There you can find out about relocation resources, cost of living info in other states and other resources.
While he has received some media attention, it certainly hasn’t been in the same quantity as the previous example. However some of the ways to make money from it still apply.
What we can learn from both of these ideas is that there will always be items in the news that we can profit from. Study these examples and brainstorm what you would do differently. How would you make them more profitable from the start? What “hook” would you use to attract the media. As you watch T.V. or read the newspaper, play a little game. Brainstorm how you would turn different stories into a “product.” This is great practice and it’s free.
95% of people won’t do this and that’s why they’ll never be prepared when the right opportunity comes along. Put out a little effort now and I promise you that within a fairly short time you’ll see the story that has all the right elements for you to turn into a product. This will give you a big jump on any competition you may have.

Sample Press Releases… For Immediate Release Contact Information
Wine Country Living Magazine Brings Flavor of the Napa Valley to Subscribers Worldwide
Napa, CA. Wine Country Living magazine is dedicated to wine lovers who enjoy the vineyards, wineries, and atmosphere of the Northern California wine country.
Each month, readers get to sample the flavor of the unique surroundings which make this region of the country such a desirable place to live and visit. “It’s almost as if you could taste the wonderful wines and smell the vineyards,” comments editor, Joe Wino.
Features include unique destinations, lodgings, little known wineries, real estate listings plus restaurant and entertainment information. Subscription rate: $29 (US). To subscribe or for a free sample contact: Joe Wino, 1234 Vineyard Street, Napa, CA 94558.
###
For Immediate Release Contact Information
It’s Happening to President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky . . . Will You Be Next?
New York, NY- President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky are the latest public figures to discover the hard realities of privacy, or lack of it, in the information age. The alleged secret tape recordings, wire taps, Internet gossip, and leaking of personal information to the public, raises new concerns over individual privacy . . . and for good reason.
You don’t need to be under investigation by an independent counselor to feel your privacy is shrinking. Just ask privacy rights advocate, Mary Sample. “Every time you use your credit card or computer you leave behind information that could be used against you,” says Sample.
Sample started None of Your Business, a N.Y. organization.
Privacy issues are addressed in a popular book by Sample, “Get Your Nose Out Of My Private Parts.” The 200 page book discusses the whole privacy issue and gives readers the knowledge they need to take control of their own personal information. It can be ordered at [website]”
END

Closing Thoughts

We’ve Given You The Tools….Now It’s Your Turn!
Congratulations, you made it! You now have your own personal ‘arsenal’ of publicity getting, business enhancing, money making, tools, tips, templates strategies and concepts. You’re now in the top one tenth of one percent of people seeking free advertising, publicity and promotion. Not only that, you have a systematic plan of action to attack the media on all fronts. Now, it’s up to YOU!

All contents Copyright (c) 2002. Marketing Edge Publishing/Ruiz and Associates except where indicated otherwise. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint only with express permission from copyright holder(s). All trademarks are property of their respective owners. All contents provided as is. No express or implied income claims made herein — your business success is always dependent on many factors, including your own abilities.