There’s no denying that Oprah can make a company successful overnight. The stories of her successful imprint radiate from the pages of Forbes, Business Week and many others to attest to the kingmaker position Oprah has played.

Now that her show is off the air, what are authors, marketers and PR people to do?

First of all, realize that Oprah was a lottery ticket. Like a lottery, many people buy tickets but only a handful win. The game isn’t rigged and the cards aren’t stacked. Oprah picks what she likes and we are all grateful she has exceptionally good taste!

For the people who didn’t win the lottery, there’s a lesson. It’s okay to play the lottery once in a while, but don’t put all your hopes and dreams in that one basket.

You need to have several marketing tactics in place that you perform month after month. While Oprah can point to hundreds of instant hits and best sellers, there are millions of success stories that got there the old-fashioned way: they busted their butts by doing a few things every day. Every day.

The authors of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books talk about how they were rejected by more than 100 publishers before they found one who would print their book. Then they had to create demand for the book, which they did by doing 5 things a day, every day, for a very long time until the idea caught fire.

While we all want to take the easy road, there’s no denying that slow and steady wins the race; and those that do several marketing tactics consistently will always outperform the person who does nothing or who jumps from one bright, shiny marketing tactic to another.

To create your own Oprah effect, I’d suggest you stick to the Chicken Soup effect: do five things a day. Find the five that work and never let up.

Dan Janal helps small businesses get publicity so they can sell more products. My clients get terrific results from my coaching, consulting, done-for-you services and do-it-yourself tools. For info, go to www.prleadsplus.com or call me at 952-380-1554.