How To Generate Free Publicity: The Art of Everpresent Ideas
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I came across a great little publicity primer on Stumbleupon tonight that I thought was well worth sharing. It's amazing to me that what so many people try to pass off as startling, amazing and ingenious new "techniques" for making money online, writing link bait, reputation management and the like are almost always restating the obvious, if not very simply, co-opting someone elses work. 
So I found it just a touch ironic that after reading a 17 page paid guide on "HOW TO GENERATE 5000 BACKLINKS IN XYZ AMOUNT OF DAYS" I "stumbled" across this aptly named free guide on how to give your reputation management efforts a kick in the pants - which was written and sourced primarily in the early 1990's ( when most of us were still only surfing the net primarily for the porn) and predates just about every million dollar product launch du jour that will aim to take credit for the strategies therein.
The point is simply this: Ideas are everyhere.
The stuff that worked then, works now. It's just called different names. Link bait is simply a web 2.0 take on taking a pro-active position in getting your name out on the marquee. Read through this little, simple text document and you will see the powerful ideas that big name bloggers and "product launch specialists" are selling as some sort of divinely touched or inspired wisdom. It's not. Hell - even I wrote a post on the 7 laws of link bait - and people emailed to tell me how smart I am. And they would be right…;-) But only because I have the sense to regurgitate good ideas - I come up with very few of my own.
Notice all of the key points made here - use contests, surveys, write controversial press releases, interview a celebrity, use humor, etc - it's the VERY same stuff that makes up the bones of a good niche blog, a good you tube video, and culminates in a good fat bank account as well. This is the stuff you NEED to master if you really want to get rich online - it is an aquired skill that ANYONE can master with a little bit of skill and a whole lot of practice - and can be applied to EVERY niche, bar none.