Arrive at your speaking engagement prepared to offer valuable information that audience will be able to benefit and utilize immediately. Don't make your presentation a glorified sales presentation for whatever it is your selling. However, do make sure that all of your handouts include your URL boldly and clearly.

3. Take your newsletter offline. Everyone online has a newsletter these days and competition to get read is fierce. The best way to garner attention in this new medium is to do unexpected. Instead of just utilizing email utilize real mail. It doesn't have to be monthly as it will incur an expense, but three to four times a year will make a significant enough impact to impress your clients and prospects and get you noticed.

An offline newsletter can be simple in presentation but it must be clean, crisp, and professional or image will kill your business reputation. Remember that online it's easy to look like big guys, but offline it gets a bit trickier. Take time to hire talents of a professional designer to set up a template for you that you can use over and over. The expense will be worth that professional look while not being continual.

It is most creative that will lead in today's economy, so step out of Internet to get a clear view of all opportunities available for you and your business. Once you begin sparking that creativity you will soon find that it can't be reigned in and an increase in profits will be just a new idea away.

HOLIDAY PUBLICITY OPPORTUNITIES If your product/business lends itself to increased holiday sales, next several weeks are a perfect time to get a product publicity campaign launched - given right media targets. Although many holiday issues have already been laid out for magazines, many other media outlets are feverishly seeking information/pitches on innovative stories for holidays. Some media outlets even reorganize or beef up staff toward end of year to allow for an increase in stories on products. Have your publicist help you take advantage of this increased media opportunity.

I have in fact had media outlets respond to our media release literally minutes after pitching it. Conversely, one media outlet responded to one of our releases 17 months after a pitch. (I had to ask reporter what YEAR was on release!) You can definitely increase odds with some hard work and effective media relations. That's why timing of your publicity pitch is so critical. Have your publicist get your pitch to media, allow editorial staff to digest it a bit, and strategically and professionally "rattle cage" over next several weeks to generate as many placements as possible.

What we are trying to do is plant seeds in media outlets' editorial garden so they will bear fruit -- in form of articles/show placements -- continuously over next several weeks and months. Like plant that comes from a seed, publicity placements can also grow roots and lead to other arterial media placements in other media outlets. Given right tending, publicity seeds you plant over next few weeks will indeed germinate and you'll reap a wonderful harvest for your business now and into first quarter of next year.