In 1994, I sent a one-page press release about "The Procrastinator's Penpal," a seminar on postcards that I had created, to Entrepreneur Magazine. They published a short article about it, with my color photo, in the July 1994 issue. A Chicago Tribune editor saw the article and assigned her reporter to do another story, which appeared in a Sunday edition and went out on the newswires. The Los Angeles Daily News, Des Moines Register and Las Vegas Sun, among other papers, republished the story. Months later, an LA News reporter (not the original one) wrote another story on my ideas that was picked up by the Providence Journal, the Kansas City Star, the Arizona Republic, the Tampa Tribune and the Dallas Morning News, among others. And all this exposure produced orders. I received more than seventy calls from Texas alone!
This story has not yet died, but as of this writing, it has reached about four and a half million people. Can you imagine how much it would cost to advertise to that many people? Even in the world of publicity, you can hire someone to get you media coverage or you can do it yourself. Had I hired a well-known firm in Minnesota to get those kind of results for me, this coverage would have cost me $15,675.00. In fact, it all cost me 36 cents.
Yes, for 36 cents I reached four and a half million people: 5 cents to make a copy at the copy shop, 2 cents for the envelope and 29 cents for the stamp.
If that kind of cost-effective effort interests you, read on and learn all the necessary steps to get your profitable, credibility-building, nearly-free turn in the media spotlight.
