Good Press Releases

Copyblogger has an article titled The 6 Essential Steps to Writing a Killer Press Release. The first step is the most intriguing in my view. The hook. If you think of a good one, artfully write about it and include a good headline the rest is downhill.

A hook clearly needs to arouse interest and interest is a function of the particulars of the news you are reporting. Who is likely to be interested in the story? What are the readers like? If you can answer these questions it then becomes a matter of matching the interests of readers with some aspect of your news story.

Skillful wording is the forte of a good writer. Copyblogger lays out a productive step by step methodology. An accurate determination of the hook, followed by utilizing the methodology, should yield an effective press release.

Enhancing SEO with Effective Keyword Phrases

Double Barrel Web Marketing Tactics, is an article with advice on how to get more productivity out of SEO efforts. The main idea is to focus an entire page's content around a central keyword phrase. Adopt that strategy for each web page and include the keyword phrase in the title headline and URL. There can be variations of the keyword phrase but they should appear throughout the page.

This Google link will give you an idea as to how much traffic your keyword phrase will generate.

Entrepreneurial Success Linked to Practical Intelligence

This quote from the article, High Level of Practical Intelligence a Factor in Entrepreneurial Success:

ScienceDaily (2010-10-30) -- General intelligence is not enough. Practical intelligence can mean the difference between entrepreneurial success or failure. Psychologists have identified multiple kinds of intelligence, but a new study has found one -- practical intelligence -- to be an indicator of likely entrepreneurial success.

It is now believed that there are different types of intelligence and that the intelligence quotient, which is used as a likely indicator of academic success, does not necessarily correlate to success in other fields of endeavor. The article indicates that practical intelligence is revealed by an experimental hands-on style of learning. Knowledge is acquired by doing rather than through watching and reading. You can see the advantage of this approach for an entrepreneur. Business is a doing activity and if this is one's learning style then one can profit from business mistakes.

J. Robert Baum, who is the Director of Entrepreneurship Research at the University of Maryland, supplied information contained in the article. According to Baum, past experiences lead to practical intelligence. Acquired knowledge, when used effectively, can further a business enterprise.

Government and Private Enterprise: a Comparative Analysis

John Stossel authored the article Private Enterprise Does It Better. Why? As he points out, a fundamental difference is that government is largely immune to the adverse impact of functioning inefficiently. Companies which function poorly and lose money go out of business (unless bailed out by the government) but the government is protected from this effect. Government has the coercive power to raise money through taxation.

Stossel illustrates his theme with examples of better function through a willingness to go forego conventional wisdom. Real examples involving roads, traffic lights and signs help further Stossel's argument.

Business Cards

The importance of business cards is probably overrated. However, there are times when all other factors guiding decisions about competitive options are just about equal. The website eHow features an article titled How to Create an Elegant Business Card. As the title suggests this is a hands on approach necessitating action on your part.

Getting the Media's Attention

How to Attract the Media to an Event is an informative eHow article. It contains a nine step list of instructions. The first one is critical because it answers the most important question which is: what makes an event newsworthy? You may know of one that is but are unaware of its news value or perhaps by tweaking a planned event you can transform an event into one that is newsworthy. Favorable factors cited are:

A unique slant

The participation of popular local heroes or celebrities

A charitable cause for which money is raised

Anniversaries of note

An annual activity and its kickoff

The author recommends subscribing to PR Newswire.

How to Create a Press Kit is linked to within the article.

Oil Spill Exposes Executive Inexperience

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann authored Dems Turn On Obama at the Townhall website. In his usual analytical style Morris makes some insightful observations. One being that the environmental damage caused by the continuous leakage of oil into the Gulf of Mexico is particularly galling to leftists. Obama's attempts to deflect the criticism with attacks on BP and a renewed push on cap and trade legislation cannot overcome the problem which will abate only when the flow is stopped.

Morris poses the central question which he then seeks to answer namely, why can't Obama plug the gusher? The answer is said to be Obama's lack of administrative experience. The President's background does not include experience managing or directing large organizations. Morris contrasted Obama's history with former President Clinton's experience as Governor of Arkansas. Reacting to unexpected disasters is a part of governing. Morris explained that Clinton would consult with experts and get answers to probing questions. In this way Clinton could acquire the expertise needed to make effective decisions. Obama's academic and legislative experience did not expose him to the kind of challenge he now faces in the Gulf.

Morris also makes a very cogent observation relating to the handling of bureaucracies. A good executive knows that intervention in the usual bureaucratic processes is necessary during a crisis. Bureaucrats function according to rules some of which must be set aside to deal with an emergency. Experience dealing with prior emergencies would have conveyed this message. Obama's experience is coming with on the job training.

As a specific example Morris points to an offer by the Netherlands to dredge the Gulf. There is much expertise from that country on the matter of dredging. The country is largely below sea level. The dredging capacity of the USA needed augmenting. The Dutch were not taken up on their offer. Morris believes Obama never asked the questions needed to familiarize himself with the dredging issue and therefore caught unprepared.

The most revealing part of the article may have been the observation that Obama's mishandling of the crisis indicated to conservatives and centrists that Obama was in over his head. Yet to those on the left the same ineptitude was viewed as an unpardonable sin. Therein lies the difference between the ideological camps. The left has great faith in the ability of the government to effect desired outcomes. In this case that means capping a leaking oil well. That faith is not shared by the left's more conservative counterparts who view government as limited with respect to its capacity to solve problems.

There are immense technical difficulties involved in fixing a leak in a pipeline drilled 5,000 feet below the surface of the water. Conservatives and centrists have an instinctive feel that the President's failures are related, not as much to stopping the leakage, as to a failure to respond adequately to the effects of the spillage. Therefore while the left is viewing a moral failure the right is seeing incompetence. President Obama is being hammered from both sides.