Marketing in a recession got you down? Susan Payton of Egg Marketing & Public Relations is holding an “Eating Cereal with a Fork” Marketing Makeover contest specifically for small business owners.

To enter, submit a creative video of why YOU need marketing help - it’s that easy. The list of prizes is amazing! Prizes include:

• Marketing consultation from Egg Marketing & Public Relations to help you pinpoint your target audience ($150 value)
• A copy of Eating Cereal with a Fork: Maximize Marketing in a Recession ($25 value)
• A profile on The Marketing Eggspert Blog ($50 value)
• Small Business Advertising on Sparkplugging, a site for the new work from home generation; 3 month banner or text ad* (no MLM or business opportunity) ($300 value)
• Learn how to use affiliate marketing to grow your business from Affiliate Marketing Sweetie System ($37.95 value)
• Learn how to use new media to reach your market from leading social media expert Chris Brogan (Consultation is $200 value)
• $100 in Miva Pay-Per-Click Advertising to help gain internet exposure for your brand
• Enhance your corporate identity with printing services from Print Pelican (business cards, letterhead and envelopes) ($500 value)
• Publicity reports that show you how to get the most PR for your business from The Publicity Hound ($30 value)
• Become a small business expert and be interviewed on Small Business Trends Radio ($200 value)
• Learn how to turbocharge your revenue and get more customer referrals in your business consultation with Liz Strauss, “the most influential relational blogger on the Internet.” ($300 value)
• Create a new corporate identity with logo design, business card, letterhead and envelope design from Infinite Ideas & Designs ($600 value)
• Advertise on Etienne Teo’s Blog, which teaches you how to make money online, ($159.95 value)

“We wanted to get creative and help people find a way to market their products, despite the economy,” said Susan Payton, owner of Egg Marketing & Public Relations. “Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, and we have some great sponsors that will help the winners learn techniques they can do themselves,” she stated.

Susan recently wrote the ebook, Eating Cereal with a Fork: Maximize Marketing in a Recession, which helps business owners get the most out of their marketing without overspending. By implementing her seven marketing techniques, businesses will actually save money on marketing while increasing sales.

Entries will be accepted until May 30, and winners will be announced June 6. For more information, visit www.eatingcerealwithafork.com/contest.

When I wrote my post on PDF Basics and Essential Tools, one of the tools I mentioned was Nitro PDF Professional. It is a desktop application that is affordable and extremely powerful in the PDF creation and manipulation department. The team at Nitro PDF saw the post and sent me a license to give their product a try. First impression - WAY COOL.

Nitro PDF Professional goes above and beyond the basic PDF creation capabilities of many of the services I listed. Just a few things you can do with Nitro PDF Professional include:

• Create a PDF from any file on your computer
• Create a PDF from the items in your clipboard or from your scanner
• Combine files from different sources and file types into a single PDF
• Extract PDF parts for use in other files
• Edit text and images in your PDF file
• Highlight and add comments to the PDF
• Add headers, footers, and watermarks
• Convert your PDF to MS Word
• Different security options to control how your document is accessed

I really like the program and will now use it for my daily PDF needs (I am always working with PDFs) and you can, too! The Nitro PDF team has offered to giveaway 3 full licenses for Nitro PDF Professional to my readers. Entering to win one is easy. Leave a comment on this post letting me know you’d like to win. You can blog about it to get a second entry. But act quick! This giveaway will close midnight Sunday, April 6, 2008. I will be drawing the winners at random on Monday, April 7.

Can’t wait to get your full license? You can try out Nitro PDF Professional free for 14 days!

UPDATE: Congratulations to lucky numbers 8 (Lori), 12 (Lindsey) and 23 (OrgJunkie) - I will be in touch with your prize info! Thanks to all who entered! Nitro PDF contacted me last night and loved all of your comments - they have decided to give full licenses to ALL of you who left a comment on this post and entered the giveaway. I will be forwarding your contact info to Nitro and you can expect to get your site license via email shortly. Thanks Nitro PDF!!

A few weeks ago Randa Clay and I decided to collaborate on a group writing project. We decided to make the theme advertising slogans, and we even threw down a prize each! The posts have been collected and we have each selected a winner.

The following are the posts that were submitted to the project:

Vivien at Inspiration Bit posts about Connecting People

Jacob at Just Creative Design wants to know what is the best social media marketing website

Lucy at Corporate Eye submitted Probably the Best IR Site in the World

Wash the Bowl included audio in the Good Till the Last Drop entry

Damien Riley analyzed the Taco Bell campaigns in Aye Chihuahua

Becca knows What it is to be Alive and not Just to Survive

John at Business Opportunities and Ideas knows that sometimes you have to Just Do It!

Katherine says she is new at this but submitted her entry anyhow (yeah) called Enjolie - The ad that inspired a young woman

The Fit Shack takes a healthier approach to a popular slogan in Tastes Great More Filling

And how about a fun poem inspired by Where’s the Beef from The Fork of Ambiguity

And my winner is…. John and his Just Do It post!! Congrats John. Now if you want to find out who the other winner is, you have to stop in at Randa’s.

Thanks to all the participants! It was fun and the entries were all very creative.