In our continuing campaign to identify top Internet public relations resources, we ask for your suggestions on resources to use in producing online tours.

Touring has a long history in public relations, whether it's a candidate riding a train to drum up local news coverage, or a recording artist making the rounds of online radio stations. Booking online tours can be quite difficult. We are looking for resources that help people locate tour sites, resources that help publicists sell the tour to show hosts, and resources that help the guest prepare for online touring.

One resource I use all the time in producing online tours is the Chat Profile. A chat profile (or tour profile) is a web page used to pitch a show idea to a host. It should contain everything the host needs to promote the show once he or she has agreed to participate. Items included in a Chat or Tour Profile are:

* Guest's name & professional title
* Color photo of guest, properly formatted
* Title for program (Make it Snappy)
* One-paragraph show promo
* Introduction to guest used on show
* Sample questions for guest
* Color image of product being promoted
* Links to guest's web sites

A template for the Chat Profile I use is available for free download from my web site. I offer it in Word or HTML. It's one of the handiest tools in my kit. I hope you like it.

Now let's see what resources *you've* found.

STEVE O'KEEFE
Vice President, IAOC

In our continuing series soliciting your opinions on Top Internet PR Resources, we are looking for articles on "Online Newsroom Design" or "Online Newsroom Architecture."

Please post your suggestions here, along with a summary of the article or site and the reason you think it's a top resource. We appreciate proper attribution of sources. I have tried to enable HTML in comments now so that our URLs turn hot again;  please give it a try and let me know if you have trouble.

We're looking for articles on such subjects as:
- The best way to handle contact information in an online newsroom.
- What content should be included in a well-stocked online newsroom?
- What is the stupidest thing you've ever seen in an online newsroom -- dumb ideas to avoid.
- How should an online newsroom handle a crisis, such as an airline site dealing with a plane accident?

Thanks for your continued input in this series. We hope to have a collection together in time for the IAOC Conference May 17 & 18 at Rowan University.

STEVE O'KEEFE
IAOC Vice President

Continuing our call for top Internet PR Resources, this week we are looking for awesome articles on "The New News Release."

Since material on IAOCblog is off-limits to my Tulane student reviewers, I'll start the discussion with a summary of what we have done here on IAOCblog about this issue.

From June 12-16, David Meerman Scott ran a week-long program here on Direct to Consumer News Releases. Scott is the author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR. That multilogue is an example, I think, of some of the finest analysis of how news releases are changing. Scott's focus is using web technology to deliver your news directly to consumers (readers, listeners, watchers) without going through the intermediary of a media outlet (print, radio, broadcast).

While Scott's discussion here on IAOCblog is off-limits to my student reviewers, the leads he points too are not, nor is Scott's own site or the sites of other contributors to that discussion, such as Debbie Weil. And Scott's approach is not the only new thinking on news releases. Share your top suggestions here.

STEVE O'KEEFE
Vice President, IAOC

I'm continuing our experiment at identifying top Internet PR Resources in a variety of categories. This next week, we are asking for your suggestions for articles on "blog ethics" (we don't consider that an oxymoron).

We are looking for leads to intelligent articles on subjects such as:

- Should bloggers identify conflicting or vested interests?
- Guidelines for using ghost bloggers.
- Lessons from the Wal-Mart/Edelman blogging fiasco.
- Fake blogs.
- Transparency in blogging.
- Is it okay for bloggers to accept merchandise and other payola?
- Have blogs knocked down the wall between editorial content and advertising?

I've asked students in my Tulane Internet PR class to locate and review articles on Blogging Ethics this week. Please feel free to point them to articles you like -- or post your own reviews.

Thanks for your assistance!

STEVE O'KEEFE
IAOC Vice President

This week, we're asking for your picks for Best Articles or Resources for Blog PR. We're looking for article summaries or web site reviews, about 500 words maximum, that tell us exactly what was so helpful about the article or resource. Resources must be available for FREE online and should focus on strategic public relations blogging.

Students from my Internet PR class will be adding reviews of articles they find. They've also been reviewing articles and resources that people on IAOCblog.com point them to. So if you have a site or article you would like reviewed, post it here and see if one of my students takes the bait.

STEVE O'KEEFE
Vice President, IAOC

In our continuing series on Top Internet PR Resources, this next week we are looking for your recommendations for Top Online Article Syndication Resources. Once again, we're looking for FREE tools or articles people can use to help them with Online Article Syndication.

Online article syndication is a very powerful tool for raising awareness, improving inbound links, improving search engine rank, and establishing yourself as a leader in your filed. Some "signature articles" have appeared on hundreds of web sites. I'll go so far as to say that one good signature piece -- say, on "permissions marketing" or "long tail" or "the millionaire next door" -- can propel a person to the top of their field and generate hundreds or thousands of responses every year.

So this week we are looking for your suggestions. Please provide reviews of 500 words or less. Or point us to a link and my Tulane students will be reviewing some of the resources you point us to.

Thanks for Your Help,
STEVE O'KEEFE
Vice President, IAOC

Call for Search Engine Optimization Resources

This week, we are looking for your recommendations on the top Search Engine Optimization articles or resources. Please place your suggestions in this thread and students from my Tulane University class in Internet Public Relations will post reviews here. Or post your own review.

Morty Schiller and I have been swapping SEO suggestions. Hopefully, he'll share some of his top picks. Also, my IT department -- Jesse Vohs a.k.a. The MacMaster -- has been doing SEO work for my company and found some good resources for analyzing your web site's SEO-friendliness. If he doesn't post, I'll extract his tips from previous e-mails and post them here.

Here are a couple of my top picks:

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Search Engine Watch

http://www.searchenginewatch.com/

An amazing resource for information about web site registration strategies and search engine optimization. A good list of links to do-it-yourself registration pages. Students will find many articles here worthy of review.

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Words In A Row

http://www.wordsinarow.com/wheretogo.html

An excellent site for do-it-yourself registration, with a comprehensive list of top directories and search engines, links to their submit pages, and tips on using each one.

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STEVE O'KEEFE

Author, Complete Guide to Internet Publicity

Professor of Internet Public Relations, Tulane University

Vice President, IAOC

We will be using this category on the blog to locate and review the best Internet PR Resources. If you have a resource to share, such as an article, tool, or web site, please post a link to it here along with a brief review (500 words or less) about why you think it's valuable.

From time to time, we'll request resources on specific topics, such as Search Engine Optimization or Online Newsrooms. We also encourage comments on these resources by members and visitors. Thanks for your participation.

STEVE O'KEEFE
IAOC Vice President