Shel Horowitz’s Clean & Green Newsletter, July 2011
There were some delivery problems with last month’s issue, so some information is repeated here. the main articles, however, are new, as are several of the items in other sections.
In This Issue…
- Can You Help Me Out (and Get Paid?)
- Special Price On Shel’s Award-Winning Book
- Do You Qualify for a No-Cost Consultation with Shel?
- How to Get Media Coverage From Reporter Query Sites
- Another Recommended Book: Elizabeth & Hazel
- Hear & Meet Shel
- Friends Who Want to Help
(Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links-if you want to know about any particular link, please ask.)
Can You Help Me Out (and Get Paid?)
I find myself looking for a few different types of people to work as part-time independent contractors. You can pick up some income, working from the comfort of your own computer and telephone, while helping to spread the message that green and ethical behavior is not only the right thing morally, but also a great way to grow your business.
* Webmaster: Format and post content, administer newsletters, revise content as necessary, research and install/troubleshoot new tools and scripts. Note: most of our sites are now in WordPress, which makes changing appearance or content very easy. But some of our older sites–the ones with the most articles–are in old-fashioned HTML, so some basic familiarity is necessary. This will probably take about five hours a week. USD $10/hour.
* Speech Booker: Commissioned sales: 25% of the speaking fee (my standard rate is $5000 for a 60- to 90-minute speech, plus noncommissionable travel expenses).
* Other Commissioned Sales: Sell my monthly Green And Profitable and Green And Practical columns to corporate and media
clients. Sell my membership program. Sell foreign rights for books and information products. Commissions vary depending on the product.
Contact me to learn more: shel at greenandprofitable.com, or (8 a.m. to 10 p.m. US Eastern) 413-586-2388.
Special Price on Shel’s Award-Winning Book, Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World
This Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award finalist is a one-stop guide to low-cost, high-ROI marketing methods. Detailed coverage of copywriting, design, marketing online, selling in person, expertise-based marketing, and much more–plus a supplemental e-book that covers social media marketing in detail Please visit https://www.frugalmarketing.
List price is $22.95–but right now, you can grab a copy for just $12.00 plus shipping (that’s the same price my publisher charged for a smaller and less comprehensive book I wrote many years earlier, and a savings of better than 47 percent.
And if you want to train your whole team, pay just $10 per book if you three or more, or $8 each if you buy ten or more. What a deal!
To order, visit https://www.frugalmarketing.
single copies at $12 each: GM12
3 to 9 copies at $10 each: GM10
10 or more copies at $8 each: GM8
Do You Qualify for a No-Cost Consultation with Shel?
I am giving away four 15-minute consultations this month on any aspect of marketing, book publishing, or green business. They will go to the first four people to respond with appropriate answers to the brief five-question survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/
How to Get Media Coverage from Reporter Query Sites
Last month, I showed you six places where reporters go to actively find the perfect sources for stories they’re working on (or producers looking for guests). Now, learn how to get the most value out of the contacts you initiate.
• Respond as instantly as possible (except for Radio GuestList—in most cases, they have an ongoing need, and you’ll stand out more by waiting until the deluge dies down). These queries may draw 200 responses, so the fastest in get the closest consideration. Consider setting up a separate e-mail address to receive and respond to queries, and check that account every hour from 6 a.m. to 6 pm. US Eastern Time (or better yet, turning on audio notification just for that account).
• Stay on topic and relevant—don’t try to make a fit where one doesn’t really exist. That means paying attention to such factors as geographic needs, size of company, or anything else the reporter might specify in the query (yeah, it would be nice if more reporters put the restrictions in the headline).
• Give the reporter something to quote right in your query (I usually do between 2-5 bullet points or one very meaty paragraph).
• Mention your relevant credentials.
• Set up Google and Yahoo Alerts for your name, book title, and perhaps main topic keywords (if not too general), so you can see if you get quoted—reporters won’t always tell you.
Another Recommended Book: Elizabeth and Hazel
Another Recommended Book: Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock, by David Margolick (Yale University Press, forthcoming September, 2011).
Although this is not a business book, it has deep implications for business—and especially for those businesses trying to rehabilitate their image after a history of polluting, unfair labor practices, or other unethical behavior. For every Walmart that successfully pulls itself out of the pit, there are many BPs whose efforts at going clean turn out to be nothing but greenwashing. And managers at those sorts of companies may well want to spend a couple of hours with this book.
Elizabeth and Hazel starts at a very ugly moment in American history: a white girl (Hazel) is captured mid-scream as she curses Elizabeth, the unbowed black girl in front of her, one of nine students chosen to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, on her first day of school, in 1957—when both girls are just 15. The book follows these two women, separately and together, for more than 50 years. And it explores how the photo, and Elizabeth’s miserable year at Central, influenced both their lives, with both good and bad consequences.
Unlike many of her peers, Hazel begins to feel remorse, and within a few years, contacts Elizabeth to apologize. Eventually, they form a friendship, touring together as eyewitnesses and participants in history—but later, the friendship unravels. Reconciliation, it turns out, is a very messy business, especially when one side holds grudges not only against her white tormentors, but against some of her allies whom she saw as manipulating her situation to advance their agenda without regard to her own needs—while the former tormentor has a need to move on but doesn’t grasp the deeper psychology of the trauma she helped create.
It should be required reading for any diplomat or therapist trying to end a long feud, from a family conflict on-up to the centuries-old race and ethnic hatreds that lead to war. For healers looking for a glimpse of how violence can create long-term trauma and destroy brilliant potential in the victim, but also how it can eat away at the perpetrator. And yes, for business owners who want a positive role in the world, whether or not they are typically seen as having already earned it.
Pre-order now: https://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300141931
Hear & Meet Shel
July:
- Clamshell Alliance Reunion and Planning Conference, World Fellowship, Conway, NH, July 22-24, https://www.worldfellowship.
org/prog2011.shtml#22-Jul . Help plan a clean energy future and shut down the nukes! I have been a strong opponent of nuclear power since 1974, when I researched and wrote a college paper, and discovered how horrible it is. If Fukusjhma didn’t convince you, maybe the Associated Press year-long study on nuclear safety will. Links to three of the four parts of the AP report are on my blog, at https://greenandprofitable.com/latest-ap-nuke-safety-report- population-growth-not-factored-in/ and https://greenandprofitable.com/ nuclear-safety-procedures-are- absolutely-unacceptable/. - Leading a teleseminar, Making Mainstream Media Your Book Launch Partner, on getting free publicity–for D’Vorah Lansky’s Book Launch Formula telesumit (20 speakers). https://3bl.me/n3wgtb Tuesday, July 26, 3 p.m. EDT
- Another teleseminar, on effective and profitable uses of Twitter for National Association of Independent Writer and Editors: “Twitter for Writers: Greatest Thing Ever or Waste of Time?” Here’s an excerpt from the course description, which you can’t see unless you’re a member:
Shel usually spends between 5-20 minutes a day on Twitter. Yet he has 4,510 followers (all organically acquired–no cheats or automated software) on Twitter as of 6/30/11, gets retweeted frequently, has Twitter connections with some of the top names in marketing and publishing, has been a featured guest on several high-profile TweetChats–and used Twitter to help propel his most recent book launch to reach an estimated 5 million people. Join Shel as he shows you
– Four different types of Tweets and how best to use them
– Three super-effective tools that will vastly increase your efficiency with social media
– Strategies to stay active, get noticed, and still keep Twitter from taking over your life
https://3bl.me/petqfa (cost of this program is applied to membership, if you join). Wednesday, July 27, at 3:30 p.m. EDT.
September
- 350.org and climate activist Bill McKibben are organizing a national day of action on climate. I’m sure I’ll participate in some way. https://www.moving-planet.org/
October
- Speaking at Bioneers-By-The-Bay, wonderful conference October 21-23 in New Bedford, MA, https://www.marioninstitute.
org/connecting-for-change
Negotiating on several other speaking engagements. Remember–if you set me up an engagement, you could earn a generous commission.
Friends Who Want to Help
Want to create more business on LinkedIn? This series of templates and guides will help you beef up your profile, have a more authoritative presence in discussion forums, and generally make it more likely to actually do business. In fact, while I was reviewing this material, I stopped what I was doing twice–once to change my profile headline, and once to make some changes in the way my Green And Ethical Business group is set up–and I’m not exactly a LinkedIn newbie (in fact, I was member #150225 out of more than 100,000,000). www.
Every day, I take a few moments to review the things I’m grateful for. I think this actually helps create more things to be grateful for. Kim Serafini’s new book i am gr8ful for you is a collection of fun photos, inspirational thoughts and meditations. A great thing to keep in your bathroom, or perhaps right by your bed to look at at the very beginning and end of the day. https://iag4.info/y/22310
We all know someone who’s been burned by work-at-home scams–yet 137 million people worldwide successfully telecommute. Leslie Truex’s new Jobs Online: How to Find and Get Hired to a Work-At-Home Job helps you learn about jobs that match your skills, interests and hobbies–*and* how to separate the genuine offers from the rip-offs. Plus you’ll find hundreds of companies that take applications continuously. https://3bl.me/2kqk4p
