✦ Expertise Overview – Who are you? What is your expertise? Would some TV show love to have you on as a guest or create a show based on what you do? What would you talk about? Have you been on TV before? Have you been interviewed before, whether it’s for a radio show or podcast show?

✦ Interview Questions & Answers – These are questions you (the expert) would like to be asked by the TV host. While the TV host can make up their own questions, yours will give them a few great ideas and help them do their job (i.e., to interview you). Do you have these interview questions available on your website? If so, great! Are they printable? If you don’t, then it’s easy to whip up at least 10 good ones to ask of you. You should then place these questions on an interview question web page so any TV hosts can get quick ideas on what to ask you when you’re on their TV show. When it comes to answering these questions, you should write out and rehearse what you’ll say. Don’t be caught without having a solid and concise answer.

✦ Call-To-Action Statements – Do you know what these are and when to say them? Be sure to have some kind of call-to-action statement when the host gives you the final word (if they do), for example, how the audience can reach you. Typically, all TV guests are asked, “So, Bart, how can people get a hold of your book or reach out to you if they want to work with you?”

✦ Website / Lead Generation / Sales System Audit – I’m certain that 99% of the people who go on TV never think about this, but I do. Before you go on TV as a TV guest, you should spend at least one day/night reviewing and testing your website, shopping cart, eMail opt-in form, landing page, working telephone numbers, contact form, etc., to make sure they work and they don’t blow a gasket when your site gets a surge of traffic from your TV appearance. Do you know how much bandwidth your site allows? Who are you using for your shopping cart and/or merchant account to process orders? It would be terrible if you got 50,000 new visitors to your website within 24 hours and your hosting provider or merchant account shuts you down because those service providers think high traffic to your site is coming from some kind of Russian hack spammers. I’ve been there and I’ve seen it! A client of mine had their merchant account shut down because of too much traffic at one time. She sold about 20 orders instead of 200 orders. What should she have done? She should have communicated with such companies to let them know she’s going on TV and any surge in traffic will be the result of a natural and common marketing tactic, otherwise known as, being a TV guest on a TV show that airs nationally, for example. Either way, a website audit is worth looking into before going on TV.

✦ Product / Service Audit – Do you have anything for sale? You don’t? Why not? You do? Great! What are you selling? Something physical? Digital? A product? A service? Do you have a book? Has it been recorded? Has it been converted into an online eCourse? These are things to consider before making any TV guest appearance. Not that you’re going to sell anything during or after being on TV, but as your popularity and fame grow, so will your chances of selling something. Selling pays the bills! Remember that.

✦ Book/eBook Publishing – We just talked about this; do you have a book or eBook to sell? In many cases, books help people get on TV. You’ve seen shows display a book’s front cover and I bet 25% of the people watching will think about checking you out on Amazon.com. Why not? They see you as an expert now because you have a book. I’ve bought many books after learning about them from a TV interview when an author was a TV guest. Don’t have a book? Check out my book publishing services over at ReallyFastBooks.com. Today, you don’t need to write a 200-300 page book to get your point across. I don’t write lengthy books anymore because people want information quickly so my books are 40-120 pages long. I write them in about 30 days and BAM! I’ve got a new book that gets me interviewed with new niche groups of people and new shows. It’s awesome!

✦ Digital Online Course Creation – We mentioned this in the “Do you have a product?” section of the book. Well, do you? If you don’t have a digital course created, it won’t stop you from going on TV. But, if you do, your time in front of millions just might turn into a few hundred sales or a few extra thousand dollars in your pocket. I love eMail box money, don’t you? It’s not that hard to whip up an eCourse about what you do, what you write about, etc.

✦ Physical Appearance – TV land doesn’t really care what you wear, what you look like, etc., but you might! So, if you wish to discuss this with those who are helping you get on TV, then it’s something worth discussing ahead of time. Ladies might wish to get makeovers and their hair styled, while both men and women might want to buy a new outfit that will enhance their appearance. If you don’t own a tie, guys, you might think about buying one for your TV guest appearance. Again, not that the world will come to an end if you go on with just a sport coat and jeans, but you get the idea. You’re going on TV. Look your very best! You may be competing with other TV guests.

Are there other things to prepare for before you make your TV guest appearance? Sure, for example, the TV show host might make a specific request for you to consider acting upon before the show. If it’s within reason, do it, of course. Otherwise, these are just a few things to consider when preparing to go on TV as a TV guest.

R → RESEARCH, ROLE PLAY & REVIEW – So true! You’re about to get on TV, whether locally or nationally. What should you research before you go on a particular TV show? How about watching past shows with the host you’re about to be interviewed with. Watch how he/she interacts with previous guests. I like doing that because you never know when you might say something like this, “I remember watching a past show of yours and you had a guest on that said _____.” That right there lets the TV show host know you did your homework and you’re a great guest to have because you researched some aspect of the show you’re going on. What’s more, why not role play with someone who can ask you your interview questions so you can practice answering them? Then, review all you’ve learned so far in this section about what you need to do, have in place, and are ready before you go on any TV show.

E → EXPOSURE – When you’ve taken some time to prepare yourself to get on TV and you’ve even researched, reviewed and role played a little, it’s time to consider how you’ll get exposed for what you have to share with a potential TV show host and their audience. Exposure can come from a variety of ways, some of which are free, low-cost and expensive. What’s your budget for getting you out there, heard and in front of those who make the decisions as to the type of guests they’re looking for or show ideas? Will you hire a publicist or TV show placement consultant? How much do they cost? Most range from the high $100s to $1000s of dollars. There are directories that can list what you do for $25 to $250 per month. You can send press releases out in hopes of getting exposure for what you want to be interviewed for. Those services range from free to expensive. No doubt, if you want to be on TV, unless you’re plucked out of obscurity, which rarely happens, you should plan to budget $500 to $5,000 to get you the kind of exposure you need and in the right circles to increase your odds of getting asked to be on a TV show. Now, if you choose to go the free route, that just means more research, time and pitching is on your shoulders; no one else’s. You can easily go to the website of a local TV show and pitch the prospect of you being a guest on their show. “Hi, I was on your TV show website/web page, and saw that you accept guest/ideas for shows. I actually saw a previous episode and wondered if you’d like to interview me about _____? In the episode I saw, I noticed you touched on x-subject, but ran out of time. Perhaps, you could pick up from where you left off with me and we could create a segment continuing that conversation. Check out my website (or TVGuest.com listing) to learn more about me, view sample interview videos, read sample interview questions, and more. Everything you need is there. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience. Sincerely, Your Name, Tel#, Website!” That was easy, right? Now, go and pitch 20-40 TV shows and see what happens. That’s the free route. You go to them, expose what you do, and see if there are any takers. Of course, they probably get 50-100 people a day asking for interviews. So, just know, there’s a lot of competition out there from other experts wanting what you want ... TV exposure!

P → PITCH / PLACEMENT – If you’re all prepared to be on TV, you’ve done your research, role playing and you have some of the basic tools to help expose you as a TV guest to show hosts, then perhaps what you could benefit from is someone in the media, TV or publicity industry to work on your behalf to find you a TV show appearance opportunity. The one major drawback to this approach is the PRICE! It can be expensive. Some industry placement people charge upwards of $2,500 per TV guest appearance that they book for you. OUCH! Is it worth it? It can be. Can you afford $2,500 to get you started? If you can great! You could be on TV in no time. Just remember, don’t go on TV without preparing. Review this question, early on, and be sure you’re ready to get on TV. Another way to get placed on a TV show is for TV people responsible for looking for guests to find you on some of the websites they frequent to find guests. For example, there are websites that “help reporters” when they need guests. Okay. That’s good, but that’s not enough. What is enough, to some degree, is having a directory profile listing on TVGuest.com. Why? Because a directory listing serves many purposes and it is still low-cost.

Your directory listing on TVGuest.com is where TV people go to find GUESTS! Your directory listing tells your story by you sharing your bio, videos, audios, articles and photographs about what you do. Just imagine paying $2,500 per show placement when a low-cost directory listing might attract 2-10 calls per month/year for you to be a guest on someone’s show? Just suppose you received five TV show invitations per year from having a directory listing on TVGuest.com? Imagine if you had to pay $2,500 per TV show appearance? That’s $12,500 out of pocket expenses you’d have. To me, having a directory listing on TVGuest.com is the first step I’d take in getting the exposure I need to be a guest on someone’s show, in addition to helping me pitch any TV show I approach to have me on their show. “Hey, look at my profile on TVGuest.com/name and let me know if you think I’d be a good guest for your show!”