If you're a reporter, blogger, author or other content creator, ProfNet can help you with your search for expert sources. You can send a free ProfNet query to tens of thousands of experts and PR agents, or search the more than 65,000 profiles on ProfNet Connect by keyword, institution type and geographic location.

Do you have a book coming out that deserves more attention than it’s getting? Do you want to generate more buzz to sell more books?

If so, make sure to tune in to our next #ConnectChat, featuring Sandra Beckwith of Beckwith Communications.

Beckwith is a former national award-winning publicist who now teaches authors how to be their own book publicists. She works as a book marketing coach, publishes the free Build Book Buzz e-zine, teaches an e-course on book publicity and promotion, and offers training products that help authors become more successful.

Beckwith has authored three publicity how-to books: “Build Book Buzz Publicity Forms & Templates”; “Publicity for Nonprofits: Generating Media Exposure That Leads to Awareness, Growth, and Contributions”; and “Streetwise Complete Publicity Plans: How to Create Publicity That Will Spark Media Exposure and Excitement.”

She is a frequent presenter at the American Society of Journalists and Authors annual conference; has presented book publicity workshops for the University of Wisconsin Writer’s Institute, the Florida Writers Association, and the Mid-Atlantic Book Publishers Association; and has led workshops or provided the keynote presentations at a wide range of nonprofit, small-business and women’s conferences nationwide.

Beckwith’s freelance articles have appeared in a wide range of consumer, trade, custom, and corporate publications. During her PR career, she worked at Burson-Marsteller/Chicago and Heublein Inc., a beverage alcohol distiller and marketer. She also serves on the board of directors of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and is a member of the Association of Independent Authors; Independent Book Publishers Association; and the Small Publishers, Artists, and Writers Network.

The #ConnectChat will take place Tuesday, Dec. 4, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. EST on Twitter. To join the chat, just follow the #ConnectChat hashtag to view all updates from @sandrabeckwith, @ProfNet and the rest of the chat participants. We'll start off the chat with a few questions to get the conversation going, but feel free to jump in with your own questions at any point.

If you do not have a Twitter account or won’t be able to make it to the chat, you can find a recap on ProfNet Connect the following day. To view past #ConnectChat recaps, click here.

Think long-form journalism is dead? Don't tell BuzzFeed that. The site recently hired Steve Kandell as long-form editor.

So what does a freelance writer need to do to get involved with BuzzFeed's long-form content? Mainly, patience and a lot of ingenuity.

"We’re trying to the find long, in-depth, exhaustive equivalent of the kind of quick-hit thing that the site does, in terms of people wanting to share,” says Kandell.

Kandell also says he's open to pitches from freelancers. What does he look for in pitches? Just come up with a great idea, an interesting angle, and execute it well. There are no secrets or hoops to jump through.

Read the full interview with Kandell on The Freelance Strategist:

BuzzFeed's Long-Form Editor: What Freelancers Should Know

If you read my blog regularly, you know I'm a big fan of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. I attend the ASJA's annual conference every year, and I respect the support and guidance they provide their members.

ASJA also publishes a newsletter, The ASJA Monthly, that features articles written by the organization's professional journalist members; interviews with leading authors, journalists, editors, and publishers; reviews of books; reviews of technology, software, and apps of interest to nonfiction writers; and highlights of its members' accomplishments. It's chock-full of information helpful to any type of writer.

I'll be spotlighting some of my favorite articles from the newsletter here on a weekly basis. I'll start with a great piece by Judy Mandel that shares seven tips for balancing your creative and business writing life:

Balancing Your Creative and Business Writing - By Judy L. Mandel

And if you're a freelance writer -- whether for magazines, books or some other type of non-fiction writing -- take a look at what ASJA has to offer.

The Interesting Expert of the Week column spotlights experts from within the ProfNet Connect community that we think readers and reporters will find interesting and timely. With nearly 50,000 profiles, ProfNet Connect offers journalists a vast database of experts and influencers on virtually every topic imaginable. In addition, reporters can also submit a ProfNet query to request experts on a specific topic.

Whatever topic you’re writing about, ProfNet can help you find the sources you need – at no charge. Get started now: Submit a ProfNet query or search the ProfNet Connect experts database.

With 1 billion people now on Facebook -- that’s one in every seven people on the planet! -- there’s no denying the fact that the social network has changed the way we interact:

• A recent study found that 34 percent of all Facebook users check their account before brushing their teeth/hair in the mornings.
• Nearly 60 percent of users talk to others more on Facebook than they do in real life.
• Facebook was implicated in a third of all U.S. divorce filings last year.
• An estimated 350 million people around the world have admitted to being addicted to Facebook and are potentially suffering from Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD).

Many of us know a Facebook addict (we might even be one ourselves!) and are frustrated by the behaviors of our friends, partners, colleagues or family members on Facebook. But telling others to break the habit -- or at least tame it -- isn’t easy.

For this week’s Interesting Expert spotlight, we caught up with award-winning author and artist Gemini Adams, whose new book, “The Facebook Diet: 50 Funny Signs of Facebook Addiction and Ways to Unplug with a Tech Detox,” takes a tongue-in-cheek look at our love of social media through a series of cartoons that complete the phrase, “You Know You’re a Facebook Addict When…”

Adams hopes that by illustrating the more idiotic, embarrassing and cringe-worthy behaviors of our social networking excess, readers will examine the health of their high-tech habits and consider taking the Facebook Diet and unplugging once in a while.

Adams is an artist, educator and multiple-award-winning author of several books, including, “The Top 100 Recipes for Happy Kids: Keep Your Child Active, Alert and Focused” and “Your Legacy of Love: Realize the Gift in Goodbye.” She is featured alongside Marianne Williamson, Sharon Stone and Jean Houston in the documentary, “FEMME: Women Healing the World,” which premieres this winter.

What are some of the more embarrassing and cringe-worthy behaviors people need to watch out for?

I'm sure you've overheard those screeching "OMG” Facebook photo cries while someone’s tickling the chin of a performing chimp on the corner of Central Park, or while scoffing an XL banana split at T.G.I. Friday's with their friends. Then there are the Face-hooked, who check their accounts for messages while using the restroom, during a dinner date, while crossing the road or, far worse, during more intimate moments. These are pretty embarrassing signs of Facebook over-use, even though the people concerned may not realize how inappropriate their behavior is.

How can you tell if you or someone you love is addicted to Facebook? What are some of the signs?

First off, you are probably really fed up with the amount of time they spend facing their screens rather than you. Feeling neglected is one of the first things partners and loved ones feel and identify with.

Another symptom might be frequent bruises or injuries. I'm not kidding! People who are constantly checking in on Facebook, updating their walls, scrawling newsfeeds, etc., often do so on their cellphones. The end result is bruises, bumps and, occasionally, broken bones from walking into walls, doors, lampposts, open car doors, etc. I read about one poor chap who had fallen down an open manhole cover! You'll find a lot more of the symptoms to look out for in “The Facebook Diet” book.

What does a Facebook detox entail?

Give yourself (or your friend or family member) a day without using Face-crack -- sorry, I mean Facebook. The withdrawal symptoms may be painful: anxiety, a sense of loneliness or feeling excluded, and the need to write on walls (please don't take up graffiti). These will all pass. However, what this one-day digital detox will do is help you to see whether or not there is a problem.

If you can breeze through a Facebook-free day without any sense of loss, then you are probably addiction-free, but if you find yourself jonesing to check your messages or see what others are doing or saying about you, then you might need to take a look at the effect it’s having on you and consider a proper program of regular unplugging to get things back into balance.

Are there positives to using Facebook obsessively?

Sure. Most social media professionals are self-confessed obsessive users of Facebook and other social networks. And a large percentage of people who now get their mainstream news via their friends on Facebook may otherwise be unaware of what is happening in the world. If you're someone like me who uses a journalistic line of investigation to immerse themselves in the world you are researching, then you could even end up writing a book as a result of obsessive use!

Is this a bigger issue than just on an individual level?

Yes. The prevalence of multimedia and excessive use of screens and social media is a real and increasing issue in our society. Our high-tech lifestyles are so new, and I don't think we're evolving as fast as the technologies are. We are natural creatures and we mustn’t forget that. We need time away from tech to recharge and to reconnect with the things that are important -- our loved ones, friends, hobbies, family and nature -- if we are to live a balanced, healthy and happy life.

[This is an update to a previous post on guidelines for bloggers requesting products.]

While ProfNet is a primarily a service that connects journalists with expert sources, bloggers who are in need of products to review or for giveaways can also use ProfNet. Here are our guidelines:

To qualify for product requests:

• Your blog must be up and running for at least six months.
• Your blog must comply with the FTC blogger guidelines regarding disclosure.
• Requests must not involve any type of fee, including advertising.

In addition, a product request can only be transmitted once in any given month. Please keep this in mind when deciding on a deadline for responses.

To submit a query, log in to your ProfNet account. If you have not yet registered for ProfNet, you can do so for free by visiting www.profnet.com and clicking on the green “Sign up as a journalist” button.

Once you’ve logged in, the query form will automatically come up in the middle of the page. You can also click on "Create Opportunity" in the upper left-hand corner to open the query form.

The first time you submit a request for products, a ProfNet editor will contact you via your ProfNet inbox to ask if your blog complies with FTC guidelines and if you can guarantee that you will never charge ProfNet users for any reason. If you meet the requirements, we will distribute your request with the following sentence included at the end of the text: "This blog complies with FTC guidelines; there are no fees associated with this request."

After we've distributed your query, we cannot distribute the same query again until a month after its original distribution date. We do this to prevent our users from seeing the same requests repeatedly, and it gives everyone a fair chance for visibility.

Also, please note that we do not "cloak" product requests. We must include your name, the blog name and the blog URL in the query.

Suggestions

We recommend distributing your queries to authors, speakers and consultants; corporations; PR agencies; and small businesses to maximize exposure. You can find these industry limitations under "Institution Types" in the query form.

Include your blog's statistics, like your number of Facebook fans, Twitter and Google Friend Connect followers, unique monthly visitors, Google PageRank, etc. This information helps company reps understand the potential for publicity.

Provide a timeline. Let ProfNet users know how long they can expect to wait to see your review of their product. If they know ahead of time, they may help you promote the review once it has been published. And if you're requesting a giveaway, and expect the company to send the product to the winner(s), this information is particularly important to ensure a timely delivery.

Identify your audience. Who are your fans? Are they mainly parents, teenagers, professionals, video gamers, or some other demographic? ProfNet users will appreciate that they did not waste their time (and yours) sending men's clothing to a women's blog, for example, and your readers will appreciate hearing about products they care about too.

Specify what types of products you're interested in receiving. Even if you run a blog for women, you might not be interested in receiving makeup products, for example. Details like this are good to include in your query, because it helps companies determine which product(s) is appropriate for your blog specifically.

Keep your query as concise as possible. Although there's a lot of information to include, do your best to keep it concise. No one wants to read a book, and users might end up skimming through it or not reading it at all if it seems too daunting. Queries are meant to be informative, not entertaining, so there's no need to write catchy headlines or include quirky comments.

While we don't require you to return products, we do ask that you include whether or not you will return items. That will prevent misunderstandings down the line, in case a PR person can't send a product that won't be returned.

Tips From PR Reps

We asked PR reps via Twitter what they'd like to suggest to bloggers requesting products:

• @MEPRagency suggests always reviewing products received: "Review products, good or bad."
• @JennaSnacks: "Tell us exactly what you want, how you'll use it and where it will be promoted. URLs are helpful. And a concise and organized request is the most helpful."
• @Narciso17 suggests being considerate of the other person's time. Ask them if now is an OK time to reach/talk to them. "Just taking into account that they also have a workload helps. A little bit of sugar goes a long way."

Please note: If you are looking for products for events, you can do so by posting your request in our Promo Opps forum on ProfNet Connect. There is no charge to post.

"The world of content marketing has become a go-to destination for creative types of all stripes. But what does it take to land a job?"

That is the question posed by James O'Brien, a writer for the Boston Globe, in a recent article on The Freelance Strategist.

"Content marketing has become competitive," writes O'Brien. "There are plenty of talented and tenacious writers all shooting for a chance to work on the next blog."

So, how do you get the edge in an interview? Content marketing specialists share their secrets.

The Interesting Expert of the Week column spotlights experts from within the ProfNet Connect community that we think readers and reporters will find interesting and timely. With nearly 50,000 profiles, ProfNet Connect offers journalists a vast database of experts and influencers on virtually every topic imaginable. In addition, reporters can also submit a ProfNet query to request experts on a specific topic.

Whatever topic you’re writing about, ProfNet can help you find the sources you need – at no charge. Get started now: Submit a ProfNet query or search the ProfNet Connect experts database.

With the presidential election just a few weeks away, the news seems to revolve around everything politics. Last week, we featured Sean Ziencik, creator of the Mitt Romney oven mitt.

This week, we shine the spotlight on Ken Toltz, founder of Obama-Bling.com.

Obama-Bling.com, based in Colorado, is an official vendor to the Presidential Inaugural Committee. Products include the his and hers Obama Hope Pin, the Democratic Rhinestone Donkey Pin, and the official Inaugural Theme Pin. In July 2009, nine of the pin designs were accessioned to the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of National History.

We sat down with Toltz to find out more:

What led you to create Obama-Bling.com?

My partner, Heide Schmaltz Lasher, is a jewelry designer specializing in vintage pins and bracelets. I am an entrepreneur and marketing consultant who is also very politically active. In 2007, I became an early Colorado supporter of then Sen. Barack Obama running in the Democratic presidential primaries. Heide had begun working with patriotic brooch designs, so we combined our interests with Heide’s design of a rhinestone brooch modeled on the Obama campaign “rising sun” logo.

With the permission and support of the Obama campaign, and the happy coincidence that the 2008 Democratic National Convention was to be held in our hometown of Denver, we began to market several custom-designed patriotic pins to early Obama supporters.

We created the website in time to support our efforts to become official merchandise vendors for the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, which was a huge hit among delegates and other convention-goers.

Heide immediately realized there would also be a similar market demand among supporters of GOP nominee Sen. John McCain, particularly when he selected former Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin always wore a patriotic lapel brooch, usually a rhinestone American flag, which caught people’s attention and became one of her signature image accessories.

Do you come up with the designs yourself?

Heide used her talent and creativity and love of vintage jewelry to design all the pieces we introduced to the market.  She would exhaustively research, late into the night, all types of early 20th century design elements and incorporate those into her new designs.  Each piece went through multiple versions before a design was finalized for production and marketing.

Do you only sell items with an Obama/Democratic slant, or also for the Republican side?

The business model is the same for both markets and some of the pin/brooch designs are offered to both markets.  Our tag line, “Fun Patriotic Pins for Serious Times,” communicates a pro-American and non-partisan business philosophy.

What is the most popular product right now?

Obama supporters are drawn to the Hope Pin, which is our original design based upon the Obama campaign “rising sun” logo.  There is also high demand for rhinestone “name” pins, such as “Yes We Can,” “Hope” and “Obama 2012.” Obama supporters also like our “peace flag” and lapel pins with the campaign logo and various iconic slogans from the 2008/2012 campaign.

What is your favorite of the products you sell?

Clearly, the Hope Pin is the product that established the business. This pin was also recognized by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History when they added it to their permanent collection of presidential campaign pins in 2009. We are also very proud of our “Obama Celebration” pin and necklace, and our “Peace Bling” rhinestone pin in the shape of the peace symbol.

How have people reacted to the products?

We have very happy customers. Not only do they love the unique designs, they love the name of our business and find that we live up to our slogan. Further, we’re known as a small business that donates pins for state party fundraisers, and have produced custom pin designs for various organizations and events. There’s only one Obama-Bling.com!

Who are some of the most influential people who’ve worn your products?

One of the very first people to receive a pin was Michelle Obama. Several of her close Chicago friends also acquired the Hope Pin for the 2008 Democratic Convention and for the Inaugural festivities in Washington, D.C.  Well-known political figures such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, cabinet secretary Kathleen Sebelius and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright have also worn the Hope pin to campaign events.

Additionally, several NYC fashion designers and Hollywood movie set designers have also acquired pins. Recently, at the 2012 Charlotte Democratic Convention, singer James Taylor purchased several Hope pins.

We’re very proud to have created a business model that celebrates America, democracy and the political process regardless of party affiliation. People with an idea, determination and creativity to see it through to product introduction can always succeed in America, particularly with an e-commerce business model.

We hear the terms libel, slander and defamation being used interchangeably, but do you know what they mean? As a freelance writer, it’s important for you to know the difference, to avoid being sued and hurting your own – or someone else’s – reputation.

Today on The Freelance Strategist, Frank Morgan, a practicing New York attorney and a former freelance associate producer for News12 Connecticut, explains the ins and outs of defamation, and what freelance writers should look out for. You can read it here:

So Sue Me: What Exactly Is Defamation and Could I Be Sued for an Opinion?

The Interesting Expert of the Week column spotlights experts from within the ProfNet Connect community that we think readers and reporters will find interesting and timely. With nearly 50,000 profiles, ProfNet Connect offers journalists a vast database of experts and influencers on virtually every topic imaginable. In addition, reporters can also submit a ProfNet query to request experts on a specific topic. Whatever topic you’re writing about, ProfNet can help you find the sources you need – at no charge.

With the presidential election just a few weeks away, the news seems to revolve around everything politics. So who better to spotlight as our Interesting Expert of the Week than the guy behind the Mitt Romney oven mitts?

Sean Ziencik is the owner of Convention Inventions, which creates promotional materials for a variety of campaigns. Their latest creation is the Mitt Romney oven mitt. The tag line: “Vote Mitt. Don’t Get Burned.”

We sat down with Ziencik to find out more about his creations.

[And stay tuned as we represent the other side of the aisle next week with an interview with Ken Toltz, founder of Obama Bling]

What led you to create the "Don't Get Burned Oven Mitt"?

In 2004, we released our first item, “The Original John Kerry Flip-Flop.” At the time, we thought it was a creative idea and our association with Pennsylvania Senator Jeffrey Piccola prompted us to produce a limited run. Piccola gave the flip-flops away as part of a gift basket he provided to his staff and volunteers during the 2004 Republican National Convention. As a result the flip-flops gained national attention and, before we knew it, there was a demand for a second and third run -- and Conventions Inventions was born.

For 2012, we couldn’t resist the obvious play on words, and the suggestion of a Romney Oven Mitt that could be worn and waved at rallies was too irresistible not to produce.

Do you only create promotional with a Republican slant, or have you also created them for the Democratic side?

We are fundamentally a bipartisan organization and have associates with affiliations to both parties working for us. As a result, we will gladly help any organization in need of our services, or produce any product for which the required seed funding can be raised. To date, we have only produced two politically oriented products, both of which were for clientele who support the Republican party. However, we would welcome the opportunity to work with anyone who has an idea they would like to see come to life. (Plans for a Weapons of Mass Destruction Lunch Box were in the works but ultimately shelved with the ending of George W. Bush’s administration.)

What are some other promotional products you've created? Do you only create political products?

The largest part of what we do is what we refer to as convention support. Since our backgrounds are in the digital marketing and IT services industries, the majority of what we do consists of website, mobile application and kiosk development. For instance, if your organization needs to solicit registrations or sell tickets to a given event and wants to do so through Web and mobile channels, you could call us. We then provide the design and development services that make sure you can present the registration form, collect payments and integrate attendance lists into your organizational processes. So, in most cases, what we do occurs mostly behind the scenes. Since we have an onsite design staff, we also offer promotional material development and printing. The opportunity to develop both the John Kerry Flip-Flops and the Mitt Romney Don’t Get Burned Oven Mitt are more to showcase our creativity and spotlight and how we might do more for an organization than what is traditional.

What is your favorite of the products you've created?

Definitely the John Kerry Flip-Flops and the Mitt Romney Don’t Get Burned Oven Mitt. These are products which have allowed us to stretch ourselves creatively and showcase some more imaginative possibilities. We love attracting clients who are willing to push the envelope and conceptualize more creative ways to promote their organizations and build recognition. That being said, so much of what we do on a day-to-day basis is more technical and behind the scenes. After all, if a registration process or kiosk application is developed correctly, it should be really non-intrusive and intuitive for the user, and ultimately be very easy to use and call very little attention to itself.

How have people reacted to the product(s)?

The political products are very polarizing. When you present something that a particular person either agrees or disagrees with, it’s often hard for them to hide their immediate reaction. Even when presenting the Mitt Romney Don’t Get Burned Oven Mitt to friends and family with differing political views, it is sometimes hard for them to look past the candidate being promoted and see the creativity in the items themselves. Supporters, on the other hand, immediately light up and can’t help but to smile or laugh. After all, it’s a fun item that also has a practical purpose. I don’t know how many people will use the Romney Oven Mitt in their kitchen or at the family BBQ for the next four to eight years, but they could.

Once you come up with an idea, what is the process to make it a reality?

Traditionally, all of our ideas go through a similar process, whether it’s a printed item, a website or mobile application, or some other custom promotional item. We start with a discovery or brainstorming session, where we lay out possibilities and options and collect those that seem to be either the most polarizing or widely agreed on. Oftentimes, the polarizing ones are more fun -- after all, you’re vying for the attention of the audience.

Once the preferred options are identified, we can then work with the client to set budgets, due dates, etc. We then take the basics and start the research and design phase of the effort. The key is that whatever we are producing needs to be top-quality and ultimately exceed the client’s expectations. After all, the goal is to wow the audience, so the vendors we source material or expertise from and or who we contract with to provide us with materials or skill sets must be top-notch. The fact that the partners have artistic backgrounds results in them having a keen eye for detail and a higher-than-normal level of perfectionism when it comes to the final Convention Inventions product.

Given the timeliness of the items, what do you do with the ones that don’t sell?

Well, if all goes well, we will sell out and have to turn away a few orders in the last week or two leading up to the election. Should that not be the case, hopefully we have enough left over to create the padded room we’ve been in need of for so long! Or we will have car-washing mitts to last a lifetime…

In all seriousness, they will likely be donated to one of the local organizations for either resale or repurposing, sometimes you have to take the chance, and if it doesn’t work out as planned, hopefully at least someone benefits.

Anything else you’d like to add?

If anyone has any interest in including the Mitt Romney Don’t Get Burned Oven Mitt as part of their upcoming political rally, or for resale in their victory center(s), we do provide wholesale pricing models and opportunities for donation-friendly resale, enabling a portion of associated sales to be donated directly back to your organization.

Additionally, if there are any other questions or comments about this product or other Convention Inventions services, we encourage people to contact either me or David Szwak at contactus@conventioninventions.com or 412-475-9101, or to visit our website at www.conventioninventions.com.