A NY Mets jacket with Madoff’s name on it sold for $14,500. A plain, old crappy satin Mets jacket - $14,500.

A few sheets of his unused personal stationery sold for $850. Three duck decoys that were expected to sell for $53-$80 sold for $11,500. A pair of his wife’s earrings that were expected to bring less than $7,000 sold for $70,000 - over 10 times the estimate.

Why is this so important to you?

For years I’ve been telling you how critical it is for you to create your own celebrity status. For the past year I’ve not just told you, I’ve implored you to do it.

If your possessions - or mine - were auctioned off, they would bring pennies on the dollar. But Madoff’s sold for astronomical sums. Why? Because of his celebrity status. Of course, I don’t want you to create that type of celebrity status. But the implication is clear - if you don’t create your own celebrity status, you’re at an increasingly great disadvantage. It makes absolutely no difference whether you make yourself a celebrity in your tiny little neighborhood or across the nation. Without that status you’re headed for trouble. Of course, that’s just my opinion. Maybe you disagree. If so, let me know. Post your opinions below.

So the sale of Madoff’s possessions has added pressure on you to become a celebrity.

I was listening to a story about the auction on NPR radio. They interviewed one guy at the auction and asked him why he was there. He spent a minute or so spouting off the script of indignation. He righteously spewed on about how terrible Madoff is, how he damaged so many lives and on and on. You know the gibberish.

The reporter asked if he was going to bid on anything in the auction. This potato head said: “Probably. I want to own a piece of history.”

History? HISTORY???

I’ll bet this jughead couldn’t name one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, one Supreme Court Justice or one Nobel Prize winner, but he thinks that by owning something once owned by that slime-with-a-heartbeat, Bernie Madoff, he’ll own history.

I was incredulous, but only for a moment. I quickly reminded myself of what I’ve been telling you for years - we are a celebrity obsessed society. It may not be right, it may not be what you want to hear, but it is what it is. You can either use that to your advantage or have it used against you.

If you are a carpet cleaner, a real estate agent, a dentist, a chiropractor, a chimney sweep or whatever, I’ll guarantee that eventually there will be a competitor of yours that will realize how critical it is to create that celebrity status. He’ll learn how to do it - and you’ll be in trouble.

Some of you may already be in trouble. One or more of your competitors may already have created that celebrity status and is sucking away your customers.

If you want to know more about how to create that celebrity status, read the postings on this blog. I’ve written about it often.

If you subscribe to my paid publicity newsletter, read the back issues. Again, is a favorite topic of mine.

Frankly, this whole celebrity status thing bothers every cell in my body. We’ve spiraled down so far that we adore Kim Kardashian and want to know everything about her vacuous life. We even watch a TV show all about her wedding.

People take medical advice from the likes of Suzanne Sommers and Jenny McCarthy. If I recall, the height of their accomplishments included posing nude for Playboy. Neither of them has any medical credentials whatsoever - unless you consider the University of Google a certified institution of higher learning.

But they are celebrities, so hoards of people are entrusting their health, their lives and the lives of those close to them, to these two!

And it’s not a tiny minority of us who are celebrity-obsessed - it’s the majority.

In my opinion, it’s a harbinger of very sad things to come.

But what I think makes no difference. The only thing that matters is what is - and celebrity is what is.

So, you’ve been screwed over by Bernie Madoff. How does it feel? More importantly, what are you going to do about it?

I’d like to help you solve those problems; to get rid of any frustrations you have about getting and using publicity.

Would you do me (and you) a favor and let me know what’s holding you back from getting powerful publicity for your business? If you do that, I’ll do my best to help you solve the problems and get rid of the barriers.

Publicity has given me a life 99.9% of people would envy. It’s given me my dream life.

I’d like to help you achieve your dream life. But I can’t do it unless I know what the problems are.

So right below this message, post your questions, your problems and your frustrations about publicity, press releases, doing media interviews, etc. and let’s see what we can do together to get rid of them.

Today, two horrendous events happened that slapped us all in the face.

First, dog torturer Michael Vick got his own reality TV show. So this vermin who tortured and murdered dogs is rewarded by getting his own TV show. And we wonder why young people engage in horrific behavior! They’ve been trained, by all of us, that immoral, unethical, criminal behavior will be greatly rewarded. Oh sure, you may do a little prison time, but it’ll be worth it. The payoff could be in the many, many millions. How many times are we going to turn the scum of the earth into “heroes”, rewarding them with huge paydays, celebrity status and a life that the vast majority of people can only dream about but never achieve?

Disgusting.

Second, Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace prize - simply because he says we should have peace on earth (wow, what an original idea). And this decision was made in February when Obama was president for only two weeks. What an outrageous slap in the face for people who’ve spent years, have sacrificed their lives in the quest for peace. If Obama has any character, he’ll decline the prize and suggest that someone truly deserving gets the award. This comment is not directed at Obama, it’s directed at the people who made the decision to award the Nobel to him.

Equally as disgusting.

Somewhere along the line we jumped the tracks. We no longer admire and respect the people who’ve accomplished truly great things. We don’t admire people who stay on the straight and narrow, are great role models and have led lives of honor.

Instead we admire and reward the lowest of the low or the least deserving or - I’m sad to admit - the person with the best PR agent.

I so clearly remember listening to one of those radio psychologists years ago. A woman call up from Kansas or Nebraska or one of the states in the western US. You could tell from her speech that she was a very modest, kind-hearted woman.

She explained to the radio-psychologist that she and her husband were fostering eight children and on that Friday all of the children were to be returned to their parents.

The psychologist then rudely interrupted the woman and went on a rant. Paraphrasing her, she said: “Oh I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to tell me that you don’t think the kids should be returned to their parents on Friday. You think you and your husband can do a better job than the parents. That’s what all of you foster families think. Well let me tell you…” and then she went on to ream the woman the proverbial new download chute.

After the psychologist had run out of her vile hot air, the woman, in her soft, warm voice, said: “No, ma’am. We know the children have to go back to their parents. We have seven more children coming on Monday. We just want to know if it would be OK to send these children presents on their birthdays.”

There was dead air on the radio station. When the psychologist came back 10 or 15 seconds later, you could tell that not only did she have tears in her eyes and a quiver in her voice, but also she had just experienced the most humbling moment of her life.

The psychologist told the woman it would be fine to send birthday presents to the children going back to their parents. She then asked if she could ask the woman a few questions.

“Yes ma’am” was the soft answer.

“Do you work?”

“No ma’am. We always have a lot of children here, so I have to stay home to take care of them.”

“Does your husband work?”

“Yes ma’am. He’s the janitor in the school.”

“Can I ask you how much he earns?”

“About $27,000 a year, ma’am.”

“You foster all these children on $27,000 a year plus whatever little you get from the state?”

“Yes ma’am. It’s tight, but we do fine.”

“Do you take vacations?”

“No ma’am. Being with these children is our favorite vacation”.

The psychologist then went to a very LONG commercial break - no doubt deeply shaken by what just happened.

That broadcast has had an enormous impact on me. I’ve never told that story without tears filling my eyes. Even typing this I get teary.

Where is the Nobel Prize for those people? Why aren’t we celebrating people who do things like that. Instead, we shower our adulation on entertainers who are engaged in the most aberrant behavior. We come up with reasons why Roman Polanski should be set free, even though he admitted he drugged and raped a 13 year old girl. We admire people like that and call them heroes.

Yeah, I know this is supposed to be a blog about publicity, marketing and business. But there are just times when things aren’t right and I have to speak out.

I’m disgusted. I feel like I need a shower.

One of our favorite exhibits at the Fair is the arts and crafts competition. Now this isn’t just a bunch of construction paper cutouts and other simple crafts. The things people make for this competition are truly beautiful and require lots of skill.

As soon as we walked into the arts and crafts building we saw a magnificent wooden ship a man had built. Must have taken him months of hard, detailed work.

Next to the ship was an equally spectacular side table and lamp, all hand made from wood.

The top prize in this competition is called The Director’s Choice. Incredibly, neither the ship or table won The Director’s Choice award. The ship won first prize (which is actually second prize) and the table won second prize (which is actually third prize).

Didn’t seem right to me, so I went into the office of the director of the competition and told her I wanted to sponsor two prizes and award them to the ship and the table.

She thought about it for a few seconds and said: “Sure, why not.”

She asked the name of the prizes. I thought quickly and called it “The Milo Cody Woodworking Excellence Award”.

She asked how much of a cash prize I was offering. I asked how much the top prize usually was. She said “$20.” I couldn’t believe it. The top prize in a statewide competition was twenty bucks.

I said my prize was going to the $50 each.

Her eyes bugged out. Seems like fifty bucks created a major impact.

She contacted the sign shop in the Fair, had two signs made announcing that each person won the prize, put one on each of the winners and then she notified the two winners of the prize.

Several days went by (the Fair is 12 days long and we go to every one of those 12 days). I went back to the arts and crafts competition and saw that the 82 year old gentleman who made the table was demonstrating his skill. I introduced myself and congratulated him on winning the award. You would have thought it was the Nobel prize. He was ecstatic.

It turns out that a whole group of members of his woodworking club were there too. When they found out who I was and what I had done for a member of their club, they contacted their photographer to come and take our photo.

Photos were taken and I was told that the photo and story of the award would be in the next issue of their newsletter.

Instant publicity.

I’ve made a promise to Mary that when we go on vacation I won’t work. Keeping that in mind, I let the story end there. But if I had been working I could have quickly and very easily spun that into tremendous publicity. Right at the Fair there were several radio stations, TV stations, newspapers, etc. They were there to cover interesting stories at the Fair.

In about 10 minutes I could have walked up to each media booth and told them about the awarding of the prize. I have no doubt that every one of them would have come over and covered the story.

What’s the publicity lesson here?

For just two prizes of $50 each, I opened up very significant publicity opportunities. Now this wasn’t about me. It was about the two men who won the awards. But you can take this very same idea and make the story about you and have the media very happy to promote it and you.

All you have to do is sponsor something. You can sponsor an award like I did. You can sponsor a contest. You can sponsor people entering a competition. You can sponsor a local sports team. You can sponsor a reading program. You can sponsor a health screening.

This list can go on for a long, long time.

On my last coaching call I went into detail on exactly how to put together the sponsorship, how to contact the media, how to get benefit for yourself without seeming to take advantage of the sponsorship.

You can do the same thing. I don’t care what kind of business you’re in, what kind of product or service you offer, whether you do business locally, nationally or internationally. You can follow my model and do the exact same thing.

I’ll be talking about this more on upcoming coaching calls. If you have questions about how to repeat this strategy, let me know.

Well, one strip club in Florida combined their usual products and services with flu shots and hit a publicity jackpot.

Rachael’s “gentlemen’s club” offers senior citizens free flu shots PLUS a free buffet lunch.

Just when you think you don’t have any ideas for publicity for your business, along comes a story like this. It’s a fun story. You can see the video HERE.

So if a strip club can get huge publicity for giving out flu shots, you should be able to come up with publicity ideas for your business.

Having trouble coming up with those ideas? Be sure to be on my next free publicity coaching call and we’ll come up with ideas together.

One of the secrets, one of the major keys to my success is my willingness to try something different.

I try different press releases, different postcards, different sales letters.

Sometimes what I try is completely outrageous.

But many people have difficulty thinking up the different, outrageous things to try.

I can highly recommend a book that will solve the problem for you. I have the book, I’ve read it from cover to cover and it’s become one of the most important parts of my business library.

It’s written by Dan Kennedy’s partner, Bill Glazer. Information about it is below.

Along with the book you’ll get a free copy of my special strategy report “The Outrageously Simple Way To Grow a Business, Become a Celebrity and Live a Darn Great Life!”. You don’t want to miss out on that.

Here’s the information about the book. Please let me know your thoughts about it when you’ve gone through it once:

Have you ever heard of Bill Glazer?

Just in case you haven’t he’s Dan Kennedy’s business partner, one of the top Marketing Strategists in the world and one of the highest paid and OUTRAGEOUSLY successful copywriters alive today.

In fact, he’s written 23 sales letters that have EACH generated once one million dollars in sales.

If you’d like to get a copy of Bill Glazer’s most OUTRAGEOUSLY SUCCESSFUL sales letter he’s ever written and now used by business owners and entrepreneurs in 67 different business categories (online and offline) in association with the launch of Bill’s JUST RELEASED new book “OUTRAGEOUS Advertising That’s OUTRAGEOUSLY Successful” then click on the link below:

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PS: Do it NOW while your thinking about it…you won’t
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You can find over 100 publicity tips at: http://www.FreePublicityTips.com

There’s always lots of information about how to write press releases, how to come up with good story ideas, how to do interviews, etc. right here on my blog.

I also post lots of publicity tips on my Twitter page: http://www.Twitter.com/PaulHartunian

Have you ever had your website go down without you knowing about it? That means lost sales, lost customers, etc. You’re welcome
to use my website monitoring service Best Website Monitor.

Do you need something translated? Maybe your website, a letter, a sales page, etc.? Why not use my free translation service Translate Wizard.

And remember, there is no charge whatsoever for using any of these services.

I also have more resources for you at: http://www.Hartunian.com/resources including the two web hosting services I use, the best Internet marketing course I’ve found and plenty more.

I’m happy to do whatever I can to help you
succeed. Let me know what you need. I’ll see
how I can help.

Enjoy the resources and profit from them.

Paul

The call is open is everyone who purchased the Explosive Niche report. All buyers received an email with the call-in information.

If you’d like to be on today’s coaching call, but you don’t have the Explosive Niche report, you can purchase it now and receive the call-in information by return email.

If you have questions on any aspect of niche marketing, research or publicity, email them to me now. I’ll answer questions in the order I receive them. If there’s time (and there usually isn’t) I’ll open the lines for more questions.

I look forward to talking with you later today.

You can see what’s up for sale at:

http://tinyurl.com/m8epm7

The bidding ends this Sunday. Don’t miss out on your chance to get some of these scarce marketing products.

The information you need to participate in the coaching call is in the yellow insert that came with your last newsletter.

If you’re not a subscriber to my paid newsletter but you’d like to participate in the coaching call, you can subscribe right now.

Once you subscribe, send me an email for the information you need to be on the call.

If you have questions you’d like me to answer, email them to me now. I’ll answer questions in the order I receive them. Then, if there’s enough time, I’ll open the lines for more calls.