Talk to press. Press kits mostly get tossed or buried. But today there are services you can subscribe to that will keep you up to date on what journalists are working on, so that you can respond in time to be quoted in their articles. I respond to health journalists with quotes about my Infertility Diet book; I respond to business journalists with information about my Publishing Game and Expertizing products. But I also respond about lifestyle issues--entrepreneurship, marriage, kids, home business. One of things I do in my all-day Expertizing workshops is train authors and executives to develop soundbites that will propel them into these articles. Even without training, you can generate plenty of press.

Don't forget speaking. If you enjoy public speaking, do as much of it as you can. Speaking can pay--even public libraries pay for talks--and even without pay, it's worth it for publicity. If you speak at Learning Annex, for example, thousands of people see your information. When it comes to speaking, this is one of few times you shouldn't focus just on your niche. Cast your net more widely, and see if you don't have something to say to others. For example, this year I'm speaking at Media Relations, at SPAN, and at Book Expo America, all of which are in my target audience. But I'm also speaking to over 200 CEOs at an executive transition firm event--and that's probably going to generate more business for me, because writers and publishers have heard of me already, but these executives may have not. So look for new audiences and groups that might be interested, as well as your target markets.

And then forget what I'm telling you, about how you have to do this or that sort of PR. Do publicity you love. What you love doing will be most effective for you, because you'll enjoy it. So if you like to speak, go out and do that, but if you'd prefer to sit home in your bathrobe and do it all by email, do that instead. Live dream way you want to.

3. It's important to emphasise that you already have skills, knowledge and expertise that is valuable to your prospective clients. The trouble is most of us take what comes naturally to us for granted, and completely underestimate value of what we know to our prospective clients.

Not only is what you know very helpful, you could be using it to attract your prospective clients, by packaging your knowledge and expertise in a form that meets one of their current needs. A classic way of doing this would be to offer a free report or information pack which answers a question or solves a problem that your prospective clients have.

For example, if you are a recruitment consultant, you have probably noticed that some of your existing clients are more successful at attracting and retaining talent than others. Now if you sit down and reflect upon this, you could probably come up with five things that companies who are successful at retaining talent do that others don't. This could be based entirely on your personal observations over years. Voila! Flesh out your opinions and you now have a report, '5 ways attract and retain talent' or ''What companies who are successful at attracting and retaining clients do that their competitors don't'

This does not need to be a ground breaking piece of academic research. I want to remind you that you already have an opinion on this, which may well differ from mainstream view, and if I asked you this question over lunch, you would have no problem in coming up with an answer.

4. Once you have your article written, you could offer this free report by placing a message or short ad in a place where your target clients congregate. I call this a magnet - something that provokes prospective clients to raise their hands and say, 'I'm interested!' By requesting your report, responders indicate that they are interested in this topic.

Now, not everyone who requests your report will be a hot prospect, but there will be some potential clients within this group. The free report would just be starting point of your relationship. From this point you could offer more 'birdseed' each time demonstrating your credibility in this subject area, up until point when prospect asks, 'can you help me', or a one-to-one conversation is necessary.

This is a low cost way to generate leads and position yourself as an expert in your particular field. Yes, it takes a little brainstorming, imagination and creativity on your part, but knowledge which shapes your 'birdseed' should come naturally anyway, and time spent thinking about needs and desires of your prospective clients will never be wasted.

(c) Bernadette Doyle, 2004. Reprint rights granted to all venues so long as article and by-line are reprinted intact. This article may not be used for any publication unless it is opt-in.