It may surprise you to know, folks, that most anyone can write a really, really high quality press release.

For those of you who thought you’d need to hire a public relations company or something similar in order to get the word out about your products and services, think again.  Turns out that you can do it yourself in just a few simple steps.

1. Get a template. What most people likely don’t know about press releases is that they all are done in the same format.  The content of each, naturally, is different, but the basic structure is always the same.  You can get press release templates from just about anywhere–they’re just a Google away.

2. Pack it full of bricks. Remember when we talked about “the brick”?  This is a GREAT time to use your bricks.  If you’ve written a book about cryptozoology, which sounds more exciting to you?  “Local Author Releases Book on Mythical Creatures”,  or “Need Proof Bigfoot Roams Your Neighborhood?  Try Local Author’s Guide To Mythical Creatures” or even “Prevent Chupacabras From Eating Your Face With Local Author’s Guide To Mythical Creatures”.  Okay, there’s a limit, but you get the idea. You’re out to catch interest, so favor the bricks.

3. Don’t forget to follow up. I’m not suggesting you pester editors–they’re busy people too, you know–but it’s never a bad idea to make one or two calls, spaced out over a few weeks, just to see if it’s been received or is being considered.

And with those three steps in mind, your goal of getting free advertising is all the closer.

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Okay, now I’ve probably convinced about half of you that I’ve just plain old lost my MIND, right?  Complete Daffy Duck, woo-hoo! territory now.  But I tell you this…making up words for your blog may well be the best thing you’ve ever done.

First, a clarification of terms: the word of the day is JARGON.  Jargon, itself a made-up word not so long ago, means essentially “insider-speak”, or the language used to refer to concepts that are specific to an industry.  For instance, no one uses “calendar” as a verb outside of the business community or Dilbert comics.  But in there, it’s a valuable phrase that means, basically, “to schedule”, or “to add something to your calendar”.

You can take that power of jargon and try to make up your own words for things.  For instance, here in the blogging realm, we’ve got a lot of very specific concepts that can apply almost nowhere else.  Linkbaiting is one such concept, and means, to create a post designed specifically to be linked to elsewhere.

Perhaps you might like “tideriding”, or the process of setting up links in your post to keep a tide of traffic moving throughout your archives.  Or perhaps an application of surprising your readership by forcing them to look at a concept in a completely different light, or “bent space”.  Why, we even took an item of masonry not so long ago and defined it as “a short punchy intro sentence designed to attract attention”.

Remember the “brick”?

This is exactly the kind of thing you can do in your own blog to keep people interested–an occasional made up word or two gives you a little extra industry force.

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People love to argue.

That’s clear enough just about anywhere you go.  One of the biggest games for the Nintendo DS is the Phoenix Wright series, and all that is is a game about a series of arguments.  But when you harness the sheer love of bickering that all mankind possesses, whether it’s heated or friendly, you can turn your blog into a well-trafficked DEBATE BLOG.

A debate blog exists to allow people a forum in which to square off and talk about the issues of the day.  You can call it discussion or anything else, but when you’ve got people talking back and forth, one thing’s for sure.  You’ve got lots of eyeballs, lots of repeat traffic, and lots of possibility for advertising.

So how do you spark debate?   Remember that thing about the brick?  Try some of those, except in post form.  Try an occasional note of controversy to infuse your proceedings.  Call somebody out, make some trouble, stir the pot.  I’m not suggesting anything really obnoxious or obviously illegal, but telling a roomful of Apple fans that you’ve got ten good reasons why Windows Vista beats anything Apple can bring to the table is sure to spark up a firestorm.

And anything that keeps people coming back, looking around, and clicking links is a good thing.  There’s no such thing as bad publicity, and this will qualify as good.

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The brick.

It’s a literary term that I’ve stolen for my own selfish purposes, and you’ve just seen it in action.  It’s a short, punchy statement at the beginning of an article that’s designed to get people’s attention.

It takes its name from the old comic strip, Krazy Kat, in which the titular cat is pursued by a mouse that finds himself in love with her, and to get her attention, he frequently throws bricks at her face.

Basically, any statement that makes people do a double take, forces people to look twice, or elicits an involuntary cry involving the words “what the” qualifies as a brick.

Naturally, you don’t have a third eye in your forehead.  If you had sufficient powers over space and time to know what would make people pay attention in advance, chances are you wouldn’t be blogging.  No, you’d be engaging in mind control over supermodels or entire cheerleading squads.  But anyway–what you CAN do is put in something that makes YOU have that reaction and then hope it carries over.

Give that a shot next time you’re blogging.  Start your blog with a statement that comes out of nowhere.  Maybe “the sun is likely to burn out next week” or “have you ever tried inserting raw squid into your ear canal” or even “have you ever seen a television with a picture so clear you can reach in and pull something out”.  Make sure it’s related to your blog, however–don’t just spew nonsense for its own sake, but say something unexpected that relates to what you’re about to blog about.

Throw a few bricks around, and see what happens when they hit your audience.

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