Briefs, Fillers and Quizzes: How to Write Them and Why Editors LOVE Them

Briefs, fillers and quizzes are some of the easiest ways to get into a major magazine or newspaper. Editors love them because they are short and fill odd-size holes on a page. They engage the reader. They require little if any editing. And they are wonderfully sneaky ways to promote your product or service without making it sound like a blatant promotion.


Here are five ideas on how to use quizzes:


- If you're sponsoring an event, create a quiz that ties into it. A cherry festival, for example, would be the perfect chance to create a true-or-false quiz about cherries.


- Want to get into a trade publication? Identify a problem its readers are facing. Then create a quiz that ties into your product or service.

- If your organization or company is celebrating a major anniversary, create a multiple-choice quiz of interesting historical trivia about your product.


- If you're an author, think of an idea for a quiz that ties into your book.


- Professional speakers and trainers can offer a quiz that dovetails with the topic of their keynote or workshop.


Be sure you also supply a list of answers, and give readers an easy way to grade themselves.


For more tips on how to create quizzes and briefs, check out the audio CD/tape of a recent one-hour tele-seminar titled
"Briefs, Fillers and Quizzes: How to Create Them and Why Editors LOVE Them."
Here's a complete list of everything we discuss on the CD/tape.

- Why you should offer your briefs for free to whoever will print them

- Why editors love briefs

- 3 ways to submit your briefs

- What you must give away in your briefs to attract the media's attention

- My best success story that resulted from a brief

- 3 things to include in a brief that will help promote your products and services

- How a 5-line mention in Bottom Line Personal helped a "mystery shopper" sell thousands of dollars in booklets.

- How to recycle information you already have into smaller briefs

- Tips on how to sell information in different forms

- Why editors love tip sheets

- Examples of quizzes that got fabulous publicity

- How your briefs can be resources to accompany other stories

- How to use briefs to draw traffic to your web site

- How to write a "round-up" brief that's packed with helpful advice

- Why magazines love briefs that explain explain various definitions

- The one section of a magazine that LOVES information on new products

- Easy ways to take polls and surveys

- How to get your brief onto TV

- What kinds of "rights" to offer editors so you're free to submit your briefs to other publications

- What to do when editors want exclusive rights

- What to do when reporters ask for more information

- The right and wrong ways to follow up with reporters

- What you should NEVER ask a publication after it prints your item

- 4 ways to use reprints of your briefs to generate more publicity

- How to use briefs with your pitch letters

- The 6 items that go into a cover letter if you choose to write one

- Tips for enticing headlines

- How to encourage readers to contact you after they read your brief

- Where to get free editorial calendars and how to use them

- The overlooked writers at newspapers and magazines who want your briefs

- How a brief can get more publicity for something that already has been covered extensively

- How tips sheets can help you sell your new book

- How public speakers can use tip sheets during their presentations

- Who to send your tips sheets to at various publications

- The preferred form of delivery for your briefs

- 3 big money-wasters you should avoid

- Tips for e-zine publishers

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