
          INTRODUCTION:  MEDIA PUBLICITY => CREDIBILITY + SALES

           Copyright 1994 Marcia Yudkin.  You may reproduce this
           entire electronic book and pass it on as shareware.  All
           other rights reserved.

               You may have heard media publicity referred to as "free
           advertising."  In truth, it's much better than advertising
           that you do not pay for.  Since everyone knows that
           advertising messages come from the advertisers, many people
           distrust the claims made in ads.  But when the same skeptics
           read a story in the newspaper or hear about it on a radio or
           TV program, they are much more disposed to believe it.  Best
           of all, through publicity, instead of paying thousands of
           dollars for advertising exposure, you can reach millions of
           potential buyers for your service or product for pennies.

               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.

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