Daily Archives: March 13, 2009

This HARO Brought to You By…

March 13, 2009
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Me!

Anyone in the media business has become a huge fan of HARO, which stands for Help a Reporter Out. Social media and marketing guru Peter Shankman created it, oh, about a year ago.

HARO is a thrice-daily list of media leads, which I’ve used as a writer and as someone trying to promote her books. Today, I took my HARO-ness to a new level by purchasing the “ad” that appears at the top of every HARO dispatch.

In case you’re interested in reading that ad, here it is:

This HARO is thanks to Leah Ingram, writer, book author and spokesperson extraordinaire. Do you need to hire a media-trained, camera-savvy spokesperson for your next PR campaign? Then Leah’s your gal. Leah is a high-energy lifestyle expert with a low-maintenance attitude. She knows how to deliver on-target message points in a friendly, conversational way, and she gets results. One tour she completed helped to increase sales of a technology company’s products by 20%. Did I mention that she’s an awesome, nationally published writer, too? Leah can put words to any story that, well, needs writing. Want to see Leah in action? Visit her website http://www.leahingram.com to view video segments, read her clips or check out any of her 13 published books. Her newest book on frugal living, called Suddenly Frugal, hits bookstore shelves in September.

Only time will tell if this ad will bring a worthwhile return on investment. Considering that each HARO reaches nearly 25,000 people, I’ve got fingers crossed that it will.

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Suddenly Frugal is a Fave Five

March 13, 2009
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picture-7Hey, there folks. Just wanted to share with you that the Role Mommy blog has named Suddenly Frugal a Fave Five for this week. They’ve highlighted my recipe for DIY laundry detergent, and held it up as an “ingenious post.” Pretty cool. I hope you’ll check it out.

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3 Safety Precautions with DIY Cleaners

March 13, 2009
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When my children were really young, I was vigilant about keeping cleaning products away from curious fingers. We had those special child-resistant locks on all of the cabinets, and anything that could potential hurt the kids, well, we stored that stuff way up high. Even I couldn’t reach them when I stood on a step stool! (Thankfully, hubby is 6’3″.)

Now that the kids are older and know better, I don’t worry so much about accidental poisonings, though I still keep cleaning products away from the dog. The last thing I need is for him to decide to “clean up” some spilled toilet bowl cleaner or something like that.

Anyway, it’s been a long time since I’ve thought about poison control, until I heard this: next week (March 15-21) is National Poison Prevention Week. And you know what causes some concern for poisonings these days? DIY cleaners.

According to a new survey from The Soap and Detergent Association, 28 percent of Americans say they have mixed their own cleaning product at home. And if they’re like I am when I made my own laundry detergent, they just tossed the ingredients in a container and called it a day. Here’s where that can be a problem: if you have to call poison control, you don’t have a traditional label to refer to.

That’s why the Soap and Detergent Association came up with some safety precautions to keep in mind when it comes to DIY cleaners. Here are 3 of them.

  1. Label your DIY cleaners. The next time I whip up a batch of my laundry detergent, I’m going to get out my Label Maker and print this out: contains washing soda, borax and soap.
  2. Use child-safe containers, if possible. Truth be told, I don’t know of any cleaning product that comes with a truly child safe container, like OTC medicines have child-safe tops. But you do want to make sure that whatever top you put on the container, you put it on securely.
  3. Store all cleaners–even the DIY kinds and those labeled as so-called natural–out of reach of curious fingers, like I used to do.

If there’s a poison-related emergency, contact the U.S. Poison Control Center’s nationwide toll-free number: 1-800-222-1222. This is a number that you should post next to every phone in your home, and it probably wouldn’t hurt to program it into your cell phone, too.

The Soap and Detergent Association can provide more information about DIY cleaner safety here.

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