The most innovative way to get noticed on the web these days is to increase your search engine ranking. This will bring more traffic to your website and ultimately bring in more sales. How do you achieve this? Get the word out about your book, new product or service, business, or event by sending out a press release.
Press releases have been around for several years but these are now widely used in Internet marketing. Well written press releases that follow the editorial guidelines of the online news website, paper, magazine, television or radio station that you are submitting to will get the best results.
But having a great press release is sometimes not enough to bring in your desired outcome for your business or product. Proper press release distribution is also key to getting it out to the right audience.
Media outlets receive thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of press releases everyday. With this large volume coming in, it takes only seconds and perhaps the first paragraph of your press release for editors and producers to make the decision to either use your release or throw it into the bin with the junk mail.
Before deciding on where to send your press release, you have to remember the following:
- Build a media list
Start small. Your local media would most likely be interested in your story and this would also serve as a “rehearsal” for you to hone your writing skill. Additionally, many larger media outlets scan these local media, so there is a probability that they will pick up on your press release.
However, before sending your release to your local media, you should also do some research. Get information as to how press releases are submitted to them. - Get specific contacts for your press release
Don’t send your press release to just anyone you can think of. If you do this, you will be accused of spamming. This kind of approach has been detected by some editors and some of them have even built up a list of such persons or companies who have been sending press releases indiscriminately. This is their “black list” and if your name ends up in such a list, you will never be able to send out your release through them.
Addressing your press release to a specific person will give you better results than addressing it to the media outlet. - Become familiar with the editor and/or reporters
You should get to know the preferences of the editor, producer or reporter with whom you may end up working with. For example, some editors prefer to receive press releases through email, but others do not. Some prefer fax or mail.
You should also familiarize yourself with their deadlines. That way, you will know when your press release should be given to them. - Never send press releases as attachments to emails
Viruses have been known to be sent through email attachments. Most people are wary of opening these attachments, so they usually end in the trash folder. Always copy and paste your press release into the body of your email.
You should also address emails individually and you should never send bulk email.
Now that you are aware of what you should know about before having your press release published, where do you send it?
- YOUR OWN WEBSITE
This may seem an obvious choice but surprisingly, most people who have their own websites do not post their press release on their site because they are afraid of being penalized for duplicate content. This is just a bad excuse. If you don’t want to get penalized, post it to your own site FIRST. When it gets indexed, usually in just a few hours, you can go ahead and send your press release to a bigger audience. This way, it will be clear that your website is the original source of the press release. - Your local media
- Online industry publications
Use your favourite search engine. Search for websites in your industry and check which ones might be interested in running your story. - Online news sites
Submit your website to a number of these online news sites. Some require payment that is usually expensive but there are some free ones. - Blogs
- Newsletters
- Free press release listing sites
- Free online press release distribution services
Distributing your press releases personally can be a powerful experience if you have established a positive relationship with an editor. But if you don’t know any editors, your press release would probably not be used. This is where you will need to hire a press release distribution service.
A press release distribution service will distribute your press release on your behalf. They are relatively easy to use and they are usually inexpensive. There are several free online press release distribution sites on the internet but only a number of them are really good ones.
Following are the criteria that you should base your choice of a free online press release distribution service:
- Cost
While these sites claim to be “free,” they may offer additional services that require payment. Some of these sites even have premium paid services. - Google page rank
For a rough idea, you can go for press release sites that have a Google page rank of 4 or higher. You might also want to consider sites based on their ranking in the SERPs. - Google News
Find out if the press release distribution site is getting its content indexed by Google news by typing “site:sitename.com” in the Google News search box. - Traffic
Check the traffic of the PR site by going to Alexa.com. Set your own standard for which you think is acceptable traffic for a good press release site.
Writing a great press release and sending it out through the right online and offline channels will ensure that you get the best results for your story. Just like any project, it takes skill, patience and good timing for a successful outcome.
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written by pangsiyan, May 13, 2010
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written by louis
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July 28, 2010 -
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