My interior clock is out of whack. Or, should I say, my cat’s clock is out of whack and is throwing my schedule off. On consecutive days last week, I awoke at 4:30, 3:15, 2:00 and 4:15 a.m. The 2:00 a.m. start I can blame on myself. The others I blame on one of my cats, who hasn’t realized that Daylight Savings Time is now passed. But 2:00 a.m. was just a bit too early for her. Although she watched me wiggle out of bed, she was nearly certain I’d be back. Fooled her. I was wide awake, so I went into my office. She followed not too much later and sat at my door. Tilting her head, her eyes could barely open. She yawned. It was apparent what she was thinking: “What in the world are we doing up at this hour?” I was thinking the same thing. We were joined shortly by the other cat. While I settled in to finishing up work that was long overdue (undoubtedly the reason for my restless night), the two cats curled up in their baskets underneath my desk. I got a lot of work done and they got to go back to bed. I finally got a nap at 3:00 p.m. Here’s to taking advantage of unexpected gifts of time,

Web Site Basics

Teleseminar Thursday, November 29

Pat’s back! My Web guru Patricia J. Velte has agreed (after much cajoling) to rerun the fabulous teleseminar she gave us last December. At that time, our recording equipment malfunctioned and we didn’t record it. We’re taking another stab at it. Join us to learn the basic information for getting your art online.
http://www.artbizcoach.com/classes/webbasics.html 

► View all upcoming classes and events.
 

FEATURE ARTICLE

Write a News Release (and another one)

Why wait until you win a MacArthur “Genius” Grant? You’re doing stuff right now. Tell people about it in a news release.

In the good old days (something like three or four years ago), we wrote news releases in hopes that they’d get us a big splash in a metropolitan newspaper or get picked up by the evening news. In other words, we wrote news releases for the traditional press. Notice that I didn’t call them press releases. That’s because these days, news releases are dispersed on the Internet to an audience that is much larger than the traditional press. These days, you write news releases for the world. Better put, you write news releases for your target audience.

• Have an exhibit? Write a news release.

• Receive an award? Write a news release.

• Tackling a juicy topic on your blog that’s generating discussion? Write a news release.

• Teaching a class? Write a news release.

• Giving a gallery talk? Write a news release.

The format of the news release goes something like this.

1. Your name and contact information at the top. Always provide a phone number and email address and be prepared to respond to requests immediately. When your release piques the interest of the traditional press, they’ll want action ASAP.

2. News releases used to announce FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, but I understand this is no longer necessary when you’re immediately releasing them online.

3. A catchy heading with appropriate keywords and phrases that will get picked up by the search engines. Don’t be afraid to make it longer and spill over into a second row. You can even do a subheading if you find need for it. The subheading is an additional place for your keywords and phrases.

4. The body of the release (under the heading/subheading) opens with your location and date (called the dateline)--e.g. “Golden, Colorado, June 1, 2007--“ and then launches into the text right after the “--“. It answers the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How that readers will be looking for. Those answers no longer have to be outlined in the first paragraph. Instead, you want to use that first paragraph to grab attention. Because releases are now online, they no longer need to be double-spaced nor do they need to stay on a single page. Aiming for 500 words or less might be a good goal for your release.

5. Signify the completion of your news release by typing “--END--“ at the very bottom.