Traditionally, PR firms have charged a monthly retainer. That means clients pay the monthly fee—usually in the thousands of dollars—every month, whether or not the PR firm has gotten any results. Often, there is a minimum commitment of six months or more.

Spending thousands of dollars a month is scary, especially when there is no guarantee that there will be any media coverage to show for it. When a firm comes along offering to charge only for the media placements they get, it can look awfully attractive. But is it really?

The obvious advantage of pay per placement is that if you do not get any publicity, you do not spend any money. There are some disadvantages, though, that may not seem obvious at first.

What you get for the monthly retainer is a firm actively working for you. That means that they are looking for opportunities to pitch you all the time. When the firm is being paid by the placement, they can not afford to be building campaigns and actively pitching you in any coordinated way. It is more likely that they will simply try to match clients to publicity opportunities they uncover. When you get publicity, it can be scattershot, rather than as part of a planned campaign implemented over time.

Here is one that often surprises PR clients: Pay per placement can be more expensive. Because of the way fees are set, getting one national feature can end up costing more than months of having a PR firm on retainer. Retainers are usually based on the hourly rates of the staff working on the client’s account. Pay per placement has no relationship to the time the PR firm spends working for you. They may learn about an opportunity for a national TV feature, pitch a few of their clients and have one used in the story. Total time: maybe a few hours. Total fees: probably in the thousands.

If you are conducting regular PR campaigns in-house, supplementing them with a pay per placement deal with an outside firm might be a good choice. That means that you regularly send out press releases, seek out publicity opportunities, and follow up with the media contacts you have cultivated, only using the PR firm for the occasional hit that you would not have found on your own. However, if you will only get publicity based on the efforts of a PR firm, a pay per placement arrangement may make you a one-hit wonder rather than a long-term success.

Pierpont, one of the largest public relations and marketing firms in Texas, regularly brings clients and others together for a variety of events. Each is an opportunity to create connections among some of the 10,000 people in their contact database, and to strengthen Pierpont’s relationships with these people.

Every month Pierpont brings 20 clients or other contacts to their offices for a networking luncheon. The luncheons are designed to let attendees meet people they do not know and make helpful connections. Guests may seemingly have nothing in common but their connection to Pierpont, but lasting friendships and business relationships result. Everyone gets three minutes to talk about themselves, what they do and what help they need. Attendees are asked to do something for at least one other member of the group. That might mean making a referral or an introduction, recommending a book, or getting them involved in an event or organization.

In addition to the monthly networking meetings, Pierpont hosts other client events in their offices through the year. The largest event, attended by 175 people this year, is the annual First Taste of Turkey, held one week before Thanksgiving. It is an opportunity to thank clients, friends and supporters with an early Thanksgiving dinner, complete with all the trimmings.

Because the general manager of Pierpont’s Austin office is a wine aficionado, they started the Tasteful PR Series in their Austin office. About once a quarter they provide a program by a speaker, entertainer or artist, followed by a wine tasting. Invited guests get to mix-and-mingle, view an interesting presentation and sample a variety of wines.

According to Morabito, holding the events in the office is important. “My theory on it is that you want to get people on your home court, get them to your office,” he says. “I always tell people to make your place a shrine of who you are and what you do, so that when people are there they can look around and say, ‘Ah, these people are creative. These people are good at marketing and PR.’”

Look for ways to bring your contacts–clients, potential clients, suppliers, investors and others–together. Host a structured networking meeting or an informal open house where the people you know can meet each other. If you want to build your network of contacts, encourage each invited guest to bring a colleague with them.

Bringing groups of people together not only helps them to form new relationships, it enhances your bond with them. As Phil Morabito says, “When you set up a social setting, the conversations go to places they wouldn’t normally go in a business setting or meeting. You end up deepening your relationships with the people who are most important to you. And you can never go wrong doing that.”

We all want to get the attention of the bloggers who have huge followings, have feature stories written about us in major publications, and be on Oprah’s show. Some people and companies direct all of their efforts toward those goals.

The problem is that everyone is trying to get the attention of the biggest media. That means that it is hard to get their attention and even harder to get them to cover you. However, there are lots of other media that would love to have your story. Would you rather have 1000 people read about you on a few blogs, or 0 people see you on Oprah?

One of the most important points in Tara’s post is to reach out to the people who want to know about you. She sent out a Twitter message offering to send copies of her new book, The Whuffie Factor, to 20 bloggers. The people who responded are people who want to read the book, and are likely to review it. (At least one of them has already posted a review at Amazon.com.) And you never know who will read those reviews, or where they will lead.

There is nothing wrong with having big dreams and aiming high. Sometimes you can hit that grand target. But do not neglect other opportunities that can bring you results faster, and perhaps take you further.

So go ahead and submit your story to Oprah, and hope for the best. But don’t stop there. Contact local media, look for bloggers in your niche, and reach out to your social networks and beyond to spread your message.

Here are some ideas that can help you get attention through new media, or by going around the media and directly to customers.

Go to the bloggers. If you can attract the interest of one or two prominent bloggers, your story can quickly spread. Get to know who the top bloggers are in your industry, and approach them when you have news.

You can find bloggers by searching for your topic or industry name along with “blog.” Try searching at http://www.Techorati.com/ and http://blogsearch.Google.com/. Get familiar with the top blogs by reading them regularly. Offer appropriate and useful comments to posts, and the bloggers will become aware of you. That is definitely a plus when you approach them with a story.

Find the reporters who want to find you. Wouldn’t it be great if you knew which reporters were working on stories about your topic? You could exponentially increase your chances of getting coverage for your story. Two paid services, http://www.ProfNet.com/ and http://www.PRLeads.com/, will let you know what stories reporters are working on and how to contact them. You can then target your pitch to the specific angle the reporter is working.

A free option is Help A Reporter Out. Peter Shankman sends three emails each business day, each containing up to 30 queries from journalists looking for stories. You can sign up at http://www.HelpAReporter.com/.

Can you digg it? Sites such as http://www.digg.com/ allow users to submit stories. Other users then vote and popular stories are elevated to the front page of the sites. Making the front page of digg can bring tens of thousands of people to your web site in a single day. To give this a try, you need to have a great story, write a catchy headline, post it and see what happens. You can encourage your friends and fans to vote for your story to get it moving, but if it isn’t good, the regulars will vote it down quickly.

There are other more specialized sites, too. Although you may not get tens of thousands of visitors from hitting the front page of those sites, it is easier to make it there and the traffic you get will be targeted. To find the sites in your niche, start by doing a search for your keyword (or a good, descriptive term for you niche) and “social bookmarking.”

Hook into breaking news. When you have a unique angle on a hot story, get in front of the media. And do it quickly, before someone else does. Do you have a local angle on a national or international story? Call local media and let them know. Ask for the assignment desk and tell them your take on the breaking story.

Are you ready for your close up? You may have noticed that online video is extremely popular. Make clever and entertaining videos and you can capture the viral magic of videos. To show off their powerful blender, the Blendtec folks created a series of Will it Blend? videos where they throw everything from a full Thanksgiving dinner to a video camera to a hockey puck into their blender and press start. You can view the videos at http://www.WillItBlend.com/.

Syndicate your articles. Publishing articles on your web site is a great way to demonstrate your expertise. You can get even more attention for your articles (and yourself) by using an article distribution service. One inexpensive service is http://www.iSnare.com/. Or you can submit your articles for free to directories such as http://www.EzineArticles.com/ and http://www.GoArticles.com/.

Go beyond the press release and get the attention of thousands–or millions–of new customers.

Get free publicity.

It is not as hard as you might think to get a little famous and, no, the paparazzi will not begin stalking you. Of course, publicity is a great way to gain fame, but you are dependent on the whims of the media for that.

So, while you are waiting for The Oprah to call, here are some things you can do today to make yourself a little famous. Many of these techniques are free, and all can help to create awareness of you and build your expert reputation while making you (at least a little) famous.

Become a famous expert by submitting tips to http://www.Lifetips.com/ and http://www.Lifehack.org/ Lifehack will give a live link with your tip, Lifetips allows you to mention your web site in your profile.

Put up a profile and some of your articles at http://www.EzineArticles.com/ They refer more visitors to my site on a consistent basis than any sites other than the major search engines.

Put your profile on LinkedIn.com, then connect with your network, and their networks, and their networks…this is MySpace for grown-ups with jobs or who are looking for jobs. No garish backgrounds or bad music, just the opportunity to make mutually beneficial connections.

Set up a page at http://www.Squidoo.com/. Post articles, photos, links to your site and more.

Post thoughtful comments on leading blogs in your field. Not sure who they are? Browse the directory at http://www.BlogCatalog.com/. You can also add your blog to their directory.

Distribute an online press release. When it goes out to the news services you will see an increase in traffic to your site. And there will be links to your site, well, forever. Get it done at http://idealady.prwebdirect.com/.

Put yourself on a t-shirt. Or a mug, a mouse pad, a necktie…at http://www.CafePress.com/ or http://www.Zazzle.com/.

Watch yourself get famous by setting up Google Alerts for your name, web site, etc. Go to http://www.google.com/alerts and tell Google what terms you want to watch for. When they run across a term you want to know about, they will send you an email with a link to the page.

None of these things have to take a long time. Just select a couple actions from the list and get started today. A little weekly maintenance will take your fame to greater heights.

First of all, if there is a call to action in the story you will hear from people months or years after the story ran. Always ask the interviewer to include information on how their audience can get something free from you (e.g., download a free report from your Web site) or how they can order your product. I often receive orders from customers who saw an article that appeared more than a year earlier. Although there is no guarantee that your call to action will get in the story, ask.

Here are some additional ways to continue getting results from publicity successes, long after your moment of fame.

Set up a media room on your Web site. Post all of your press releases there, and when you appear online, link to articles about you.

Include your media appearances in the bio you post on your Web site, print in your brochures, and give to clients and media. The fact that you appeared on Oprah, or that your were quoted by The New York Times or featured in other major media will give you more credibility.

Get permission to reprint articles. Put copies in client proposals, mail them to current and prospective clients, post PDF copies of articles at your Web site, and include them in your press kit.

Get permission to use clips from television and radio interviews on your Web site. The video clip of your appearance on CNN will have more power than simply saying that you were on CNN. And audio and video clips allow other media to see and hear how you perform on the air.

Make a demo CD or DVD of your television and radio appearances. Even if you have only appeared on a couple of local shows, use them to show producers of national shows what you can do. Most national television shows will not book you without seeing what you are like on the air.

Ask for testimonials. This is especially effective for radio interviews. Booking additional interviews will be easier if you have testimonials from several shows saying what a great guest you were, or the response they got from their listeners.

Ask radio interviewers and producers to pass your information along to their sister stations or online. There are several Web sites where radio staffs share information about guests. One mention could get you booked on many more shows.

Keep in touch with producers, editors and reporters with whom you have worked. Let them know when you have another story that might be right for them. If you gave them a great story, they will be glad to hear from you.

Need help getting publicity?