What Are Your Rules for Success?
June 30, 2008
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Rules rule, you know… what are your rules for success? Michelle McCullough guest blogger/mom entrepreneur of Doodads Promotional Products shares hers: Read more
Success is a Decision
June 30, 2008
Fairy Godmother Christine Kloser of Love Your Life, writes: Have you ever wondered why some people succeed and others fail? Maybe you’re discouraged that your colleague’s phone is ringing off the hook Read more
10 Tips to Get Your Product Covered in Holiday Gift Guides
June 27, 2008
By Margie Zable Fisher
Zable Fisher Public Relations
If yours is a product business, most likely the fourth quarter of the year is absolutely crucial to your bottom line.
And one of the most effective sales and publicity strategies for your product is to be included in Holiday Gift Guides that appear in the media (magazines, TV, newspapers, radio, Internet) in November and December.
These Holiday Guides offer recommendations for gifts people should consider buying. Why is this so important? Because these holidays are the time when readers or viewers are READY TO BUY and eager to see what a media outlet recommends.
Best of all, the media usually includes a Web site and/or telephone number where people can buy the recommended gifts (in many publicity articles this information isn’t included).
But you need to get moving on this now. June is the perfect time to submit your product pitches for inclusion in magazine Gift Guides. Many magazines have a 6-month lead time, and have a June deadline for submissions.
As you might imagine, getting into a Holiday Gift Guide is not all that easy. There’s a great deal of competition from hundreds, sometimes thousands, of other companies that are also pitching their products. So, here are 10 tips to help you get your products covered in Holiday Gift Guides:
- Send your pitches at the right time. Timing is critical. Know the deadline for each Holiday Gift Guide. Here are the typical deadlines for sending in submissions:
- Most magazines (other than News Magazines): Six months prior to issue date
- News magazines: Two to three months prior to issue date
- Newspapers: One to two months prior to issue date
- TV/Web/Blog/Radio: One to two months prior to broadcast or publication date
- Determine the category of gifts that each media outlet covers. For example, one in-flight magazine may only include technology gifts in their Holiday Gift Guide this year, while another in-flight magazine may only cover upscale items.
- Pay attention to your packaging and shipping. I‘ve been told many times by media people that products often arrive broken, or with unappealing packaging, and the media people often won’t even consider those products for coverage in the Holiday Gift Guide.
- Offer inexpensive products. Many media outlets cover gifts under $50, $25 or even lower cost stocking stuffers.
- Send in your most colorful products. Most media outlets are visual, and color looks better in the pages of a magazine or on TV than drab colors do. If you flip through magazines with Holiday Gift Guides, you’ll notice that most of the items are bright colors. So, make sure that either your product or your packaging has eye-catching color to capture their attention.
- Donate a portion of your product s sales or profits to charity. Some media outlets ONLY cover products that donate to charity. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it also increases your chances of getting publicity. Be sure to mention this in all of your pitches.
- Offer something that is brand new to the marketplace. Remember, Gift Guide Editors are just like other media people — they want something new. If you create a new product, you’ll get the media’s attention.
- Don’t forget products for pets. Pet Holiday Gift Guides are becoming very popular. I’ve seen them in health and women’s magazines. Remember, there are millions of pet lovers out there who consider pets their family and want to buy holiday presents for them. If you have a unique gift for a pet, you may very well get coverage.
- Mention any celebrity tie-ins. Some entertainment media outlets will only cover your products if celebrities use them. Other media outlets like to know that celebrities use the product, because readers and viewers are fascinated with celebrities, and want to use the same products. So, if your brother-in-law’s cousin knows someone famous who’s willing to tout your product, go for it.
- If you can get a major retailer to sell your products, include that information in your pitch. Gift Guide Editors feel more comfortable recommending products sold by major retailers.
So start celebrating the holidays this summer, by pitching your products for media coverage in June. By fourth quarter you’ll be reaping the sales from your summer efforts!
Margie Zable Fisher is the president of Zable Fisher Public Relations, the leader in Small Business Public Relations. For more information on her products and services, including how to get free publicity opportunities, visit www.zfpr.com.
Is Structure in Summer Possible?
June 24, 2008
Vacation, emails, swim lessons, calls, dance camp, conferences, house guests… the list goes on and on in the Summer. My question for you is how are you managing to create any structure and if so, how are you doing it? Read more
Blogs I Love. Blogs You Love?
June 23, 2008
Like you, I find high-quality blogs can be a profound source for reflection, self-discovery, inspiration, humor, marketing strategy and business education. I’d like to give Read more
Special Offer! Advertise on Startup Princess for only $25/month
June 22, 2008
We’re excited to start a new advertising campaign on Startup Princess!
Advertise your business on the right side bar for only $25/month for a mini square 130 x130 pixel ad. Our demographics are great–women business owners and women considering starting a business, mostly college age and above. Our traffic is steady and strong around 2000 uniques a day.
And guess what? we’re going to select 3 official non-profits to advertise for FREE a month.
Email us with questions and to start in July!
Meet Jory Des Jardins, Co-Founder of BlogHer
June 22, 2008
In honor of the Blogher conference recently, I thought it would be great to re-run this feature originally posted in November 2007. Also, here’s a link to a great post she just wrote about celebrity advertising.
I feel a certain sisterhood with Startup Princess Jory Des Jardins and the BlogHer team because their mission is quite similar to what we’re trying to accomplish here at Startup Princess to empower women to have better resources, connect, and learn from each other, in BlogHer’s case, the vehicle is blogging. Personally, I am encouraged by Blogher’s startup fairytale–they started in humble circumstances, a simple blog that served as a “resource/networking blog” for blogging women to meet and learn from each other and occasionally hangout…then the interest grew and grew and grew all the way to venture funding in order to scale their model.
I’ve been anxious to interview Jory for about a year. When I first approached her in 2006 she was off to get hitched and then it was Blogher’s conference season…so catching up recently on the phone was wonderful (although I’m still bummed that I missed her by one day at Blogworld, she had to leave early to travel to Europe). When we chatted I wanted to know everything about what’s made Blogher so successful and how they’ve arrived at where they are now… it was a great morning.Here’s the highlights:
Once upon a time, not so very long ago (2005) Jory and her partners, Elisa Camahort, and Lisa Stone were new media and blog consultants in northern California. As a labor of love they put together an event for women bloggers to meet each other, out of that event a tight community grew and soon a blog of its own was started on Typepad to keep in touch with everyone. BlogHer kept growing way (thanks to word of mouth campaigns and bloggers spreading the word, particularly Tech Crunch) and it continued to expand globally, to the point where all three of the Founders were convinced there was an opportunity financially and decided in January 2006 to dedicate their careers to its success and growth and they became an official LLC. Soon the Typepad blog no longer fit their needs and they started using a Drupal based design on www.Blogher.org so they could have a more enhanced look and feel (note: .com was not available initially, however, they recently purchased it in 2007). In 2006 along with more national conferences, they began to offer their Ad Network to encourage women to keep blogging and be compensated for their efforts (I’m looking into this!) Now, since receiving venture capital last Summer they’ve added a new sales office in NYC and increased staff on both sides of the country to help them reach more women bloggers and also develop partnerships with Fortune 1000 companies who want to build relationships with highly influential bloggers.
According to the BlogHer survey (press release November 13, 2007), 62 percent of readers make purchases based on the recommendations of bloggers and a full 74 percent claim to read ads, with 57 percent of those respondents stating they interact with ads, particularly from brands they know and like. Those surveyed ranked free products (52 percent), discount coupons (40 percent) and contests (35 percent) as the most effective ways to get them to buy online. Surprisingly, a primary reason blog readers notice an ad (38 percent) and then decide to click on it (52 percent) centers around brand recognition and affinity.
“Today, women are turning to the blogosphere to find authentic voices discussing issues which affect their daily lives. The bloggers in the BlogHer Network have built strong online communities based on that authenticity and trust,” said Lisa Stone, BlogHer co-founder and chief executive officer. “As brands begin to participate across the blogsphere, our survey results show that, when campaigns are executed well, companies can indeed join the conversation and honor the trust bloggers have built up with their readers.”
BlogHer has done an excellent job of building relationships with the blogging and corporate communities. Bloggers turn to BlogHer for the AdNetwork, plus community and support, including national conferences. BlogHer conferences rank as one of the highlights of Jory’s position. She says she enjoys the conferences, because “it’s the evolution of all the work!” She loves to see and talk with the women they support. She really feels as though she’s a liason for them and their advocate as well. I appreciate BlogHer’s consideration for their participants and how they offer onsite daycare (great for moms who need to travel from faraway) and they even have had a Lactation Specialist for nursing moms. I asked Jory if males attend BlogHer events and she said, Yes! There are a few that come and they are very active and engaged participants. 2008 conference plans include: SF, Boston, NYC, and mini-event “road shows” and teleconferences as well!
With the expansion of BlogHer recently, it’s impressive how Jory, Elisa, and Lisa have continued to maintain ownership and active/key leadership positions, not always the case when venture capital is accepted. Jory attributes constant contact with one another as a key to moving things forward and also they have regular meetings and one on ones with Lisa Stone (CEO). Jory appreciates the expanded staff and the opportunities for growth that that has brought to their company. Her magic wand tip for Startup Princesses reflects a wise leader! 
Jory’s Magic Wand Tip: Delegate! Delegate! Delegate! As soon as you can! It’s hard to walk people through things sometimes, but you really need to take people through the process, and then you’re giving them the gift of history.
Thank you Startup Princess Jory for taking the time for our interview and for being such an inspiration! Enjoy reading Jory’s Startup Princess Profile:
Name: Jory Des Jardins
Hometown: Evanston, IL
Current Residence (City, State): Oakland, CA
Education: English Lit Major, BA, University of Illinois
Professional Background (brief, please): Author and media strategist Jory Des Jardins is president of global sales and business development for BlogHer, Inc. Since co-founding BlogHer in 2005, Jory has developed strategic relationships with Fortune 1000 brands and led innovative campaigns to integrate contextual marketing and advertising into communities of women interested in every topic, from food, health and family to business, finance and technology. As an author and media strategist, Jory regularly writes on women’s business issues, blogging, relationships and pop culture for such publications as Fast Company, The San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Inc. Magazine, and her blog, Pause. She’s also written for Sports Illustrated for Women, Working Woman, USA Today Magazine, Good Housekeeping, The New York Times and edited for The New York Times Syndicate and Time Inc.’s Custom Publishing Division. Jory has helped high-technology start-ups Pluck and Rojo launch successful blog syndication initiatives and produced Third Age’s successful network of bloggers. In addition to her personal blog, Jory blogs about personal career growth and entrepreneurship on BlogHer.
What you wanted to be when you grew up: A TV anchor or talk show host
What you are: President of Global Sales & Business Development, and an evangelist of blogging to Fortune 1000 companies who are contemplating connecting with this influential group.
Brief Summary of your Start Up: Founded in February 2005 by Elisa Camahort, Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone, BlogHer’s mission is to create opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community and economic empowerment. BlogHer provides the number-one community for and guide to blogs by women, via annual conferences, a Web network, and an advertising network of more than 1,000 qualified, contextually targeted blog affiliates. BlogHer provides the highest quality content on a range of topics, with all blogs continually edited to meet strict editorial standards, including content quality, category relevance and blog frequency.
Company Website? http://blogher.com
What inspired you? After the first BlogHer conference, when I was still consulting, and I saw these women come together so powerfully, I knew I would have to figure out how to do this for my full-time work. Being around blogging women is addictive.
How long have you been in business? BlogHer was founded in 2005, though I’ve been plugging away at my various pursuits in traditional and new media for 13 years.
How did you fund it? BlogHer Inc. is majority-owned by three co-founders and has additional backing from Venrock (http://venrock.com).
Do you have a Fairy Godmother (or Mentor)? I’ve had a few in my past, but most recently it’s been a woman named Gina Garrubbo. She worked with my partner, Lisa Stone, when she headed up sales at Women.com, and now she’s been helping me grow the sales team at BlogHer. She’s who I want to be when I grow up: powerful, and yet incredibly humane. You can be a force to be reckoned with and kind at the same time.
Do you belong to any Business Organization or Networking Groups? My partner, Elisa Camahort, a few other women, and myself founded a small networking group for women in the Valley called the Silicon Valley Supper Club. This organization provides an opportunity for women in all stages of their careers to connect and help each other. We share everything from job leads to good books. We’ve had little time to devote to it recently, but we still see the women who have joined us for networking dinners are connecting with each other, which is gratifying.
Current Business Challenge? Scaling our business as quickly as it’s growing. We just topped 4.2 million unique visitors to our blog network a good problem to have and with that growth we are always seeking to refine the infrastructure to keep pace. I work with some patient and incredibly competent people, thank goodness.
What are you doing about it?: We’ve outlined a process, including ownership roles, required permissions, alternative courses of action, etc., which is currently being refined by the people on the front lines. We figure, these are the people who know the most about the issues that come up they come to us for next steps so they should help us refine this process and make sure we aren’t missing anything. The key to this process is that it empowers our people to make their own decisions based on knowledge of best practices and our values.
Favorite motivational quote: Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent, by Eleanor Roosevelt.
Family? I have a husband and a cat who loves it when I work from home.
If so, how do you balance family and business? This is the $64,000 question. You don’t balance them, you negotiate. If I’ve been on the road for a long time, I make sure that I plan a day or weekend or dinner date with my husband to catch up. Since I’m not available very often to take care of the household, I try to pitch in by paying bills, planning a trip, or fitting in a trip to the grocery store.
Favorite book? I have favorite books of the moment. The most resonant one of recent memory is FLOW by Mikhaly, oh gosh it’s a long last name! It really breaks down the anatomy of passion.
What do you do to relax?: I wish I could say I do yoga or meditate, but I actually only promise to do those. Usually I take a walk, I’m a power walker while listening to music, and I trade backrubs with my husband.
What do you want to change most about your world?: I think that on a global level we’ve become a culture of packaging and waste. Why do we need to wrap everything ten times over in non-biodegradable plastic and insist on replacements of perfectly good vehicles and clothes? This translates into our time as well. We insist that we “package” our work by time spent on it. I agree, we need to be polished and dedicated, but not at the sake of our best work. I’d like to see a work culture that’s focused on optimized time, not face time. I say this with the understanding that some of my most valuable business relationships came from the result of face to face interaction. But I think I’m referring to something else, the need to constantly be on the clock.
What are you most proud of? BlogHer. Hands down. It’s a labor of love that isn’t always fun and games, but I, and my partners dedicated ourselves to building a community. Having worked at large media companies, I’ve always come in after the fact. It is enormously gratifying to have seen the community grow into something far bigger than I’d ever imagined.
What advice would you like to offer other Start Up Princesses? Delegate! Seriously. I’m still not as staffed as I fantasize I could be, but now that I have some talented people helping me, I see just how much the business would have lost in missed opportunity had I not asked for and received help.
Favorite Magic Wand (tool/resource)? My PDA. I curse it at times, but it has my brain in there.
*This post was originally featured November 29, 2007 and was written by Jory Des Jardins and Kelly King Anderson, Startup Princess Founder
Save the Date! Sept 26th Startup Princess Conf, UTAH
June 21, 2008
It’s official, we have a location, a date, and a keynote speaker! We’re so excited to move this event forward and “make it happen!” Last year our event had nearly 100 women entrepreneurs…this year we’ve moved to a larger facility and are expecting even more friends to join us.
Here’s a few more details:
Make it Happen Conference for Women Entrepreneurs
Miller Innovation Center, Sandy, Utah
ALL DAY (9am-5pm!)
$159 full day ticket, including lunch ($199 day of event)
Keynote Speaker, the fabulous inspiring, Heather Madder
Small Group Networking
3 tracks of afternoon breakout sessions featuring 12 different classes!
Elevator Pitch Competition, with prizes during lunch!
Boutique from 4-5pm featuring Startup Princesses’ products and services! (limited space/early registration suggested to reserve a spot!)
To be notified when registration becomes available, please email us.
Post-Pageant: What’s Stuck, What Hasn’t
June 20, 2008
It’s been one month post-Mrs. Utah pageant. Wonder what’s stuck and what hasn’t from it all? Read more
More Thoughts on Faith & Entrepreneurship
June 20, 2008
The best mentors don’t have the right answers, they have the right questions. I want to be that kind of mentor who guides entrepreneurs to dig deep in their souls and ask themselves what’s my true purpose and what will be different in the world because I exist? or what will be different in the world because what I create exists? Read more
