Free Stuff! (If You Have A Media Company)

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I’ve never realized the benefits that a media company has. If you’re reading this, you’re most likely in the media and publishing industry. If you publish content of any type, you’re media. If you have more than ten readers, you’re media and you can reap the following benefits and get free stuff.

Free Press Passes

When I found this out, I was in absolute shock. Did you know that you can attend events absolutely free? Conferences always give away free passes to the media to get press coverage. Remember the last CES event that occurred in Vegas? You could have gotten in for free. I actually tested this out, with a non-profit conference. I called, asked for a media pass in exchange that I write about them on my site. They said no, but they’ll give me the members’ discount.

I later found out that it works great with for-profit conferences. Non-profits use those events to raise money  So, what I just did was harder than getting a free press pass.

Free Books

Again, when this started happening to me, I thought this was very cool. Whenever someone writes a book, they go out looking for different places to help promote them. You’ll see that the latest book gets covered by New York Times, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Martha Stewart. The author does him or herself a favor when they send them a copy of the book in exchange for media exposure. Why? Because behind all those online publications are readers who might want to purchase the book.

If your niche is in cooking, get an interview with someone who’s released a cookbook. It’s a great win-win situation. You get content, they get press. You also get a free book. If you’re in the entrepreneurship space like me, get an interview with someone who recently released a book. The ones that come to mind is Scott Gerber with Never Get A “Real” Job. He won’t turn it down and he could possibly offer you a copy of the book in exchange for it.

Free Advice

This one may be a bit of a stretch. If you’re media, you can get access to entrepreneurs or celebrities. With entrepreneurs, they’ll do an interview because you’re an online publication. And you are free to ask them about how they built their business. That’s essentially free advice. What I learned is that, they won’t turn you down. They may not have the time immediately but they’ll fit you in. Getting interviews with a media company is much easier than someone making a call to an entrepreneur.

What other free stuff have you gotten?