How and Why You Should Become Famous

By Chris Christopher

Don't worry-I'm not talking about Britney Spears type of fame. There are many levels of fame. Your level of fame will probably fall somewhere in between your local TV weatherman and Santa Claus.

Why do you want to create a certain level of fame for yourself? Here's a few reasons:

• You may have a product or a service which you'd like to sell thousands or even millions of.
• You might like getting paid thousands of dollars to speak at companies and conferences.
• You may want to attract licensing deals for your product.
• You may have a political or social issue you'd like to educate the public about, or get new legislation passed.

All of these reasons (and many more) can be accomplished with concentrated publicity efforts. There are many examples of the power of publicity. Walk into a bookstore; there are thousands of books, but only a handful are "best sellers". Is the "best seller" book that much better than another book on the same subject? Probably not. The difference is publicity! The "Best Seller's" book author has been seen on the Today show and several cable network news shows, been heard on lots of radio talk shows across the country and mentioned in USA Today newspaper.

This kind of mass media exposure is what makes winners in the marketplace. We like to buy things that everyone else is buying. The thinking is, "This must be good, everyone else is buying one". So your job is to make your product/service well-known in the marketplace.

How do we (or our product/service) become famous across the country? There are two ways to do this: Advertising and Publicity. Advertising is going to be expensive. You can spend millions on commercials on network TV. There are tons of advertising sales people who will be glad to take your money and buy ads for you.

The other way to become famous is to use publicity. The difference between advertising and publicity is easily illustrated by a newspaper like USA Today. You can buy a full page ad in USA Today, but it will cost you thousands of dollars. You can also have an article written about you in USA Today. You will not pay for it, but you have to convince an editor to write about you. And that is the challenge for publicity success.

Publicity is not a one-shot deal. Publicity should become a routine part of your business, just like paying the electric bill every month. Large companies sub out their publicity efforts to PR (public relations) firms who charge monthly retainers. If you don't have thousands to spend every month on a PR firm, you will have to handle your own publicity efforts. You should learn how to write a press release and build a list of contacts in the proper media to send your press release to.

It's a lot of work to do a proper publicity campaign, but well worth the effort!

Chris Christopher is a PR specialist for PublicityForAll.com Her company specializes in affordable PR services for small businesses and individuals. Visit their website (http://www.publicityforall.com) and get a free consultation on solving your PR needs and ask about their $95.00 PR trial subscription.