Secrets to Writing Powerful Press
Releases
By Ted Kushner (c) 2005
Using press releases for marketing
purposes has become
increasingly popular lately.
There has been an increase of firms
springing up online
offering optimized press release services for individuals
or firms wanting to get the word out about their web sites, newsletters, products or services.
Using
press releases can be a very effective marketing
tool if constructed properly. Learning to write a powerful
optimized press release can often drive tons of targeted
traffic to your web site.
The real secret behind writing
any effective press release
is to plan your release out carefully before publishing it.
A poorly constructed or planned
press release is just a
waste of your time and resources. You want to target the
message of your press release for the purpose it was meant for.
So, the first thing you must do
before writing your press
release is to figure out just what do you want to
accomplish with it?
-- Do you want to create some brand awareness for your site or products?
-- Do you want to add additional
subscribers to your
newsletter or ezine?
-- Or are you trying to promote
a new product or service
you have developed or are marketing?
Once you've decided what the most compelling reason is for your press release, you can then get down to the business of writing it.
The first thing you may want to
do is sketch out a rough
draft of your press release to see how it flows. Does it
provide the needed information to get the word out and
has it been properly formatted?
Most press releases have a certain
format that they follow.
If you're unsure of how to format your press release
correctly you can view a sample press release template here at http://www.prweb.com/pressreleasetips.php#template .
The number one most important aspect of your press release is your headline.
Get it wrong and you will limit
the effectiveness of your
release.
Your
headline is what the search engines are going
to pick up on first. So make sure you use
it advantageously. List any key points here, using your keywords or a catchy
headline so that it will grab your reader's attention.
Again planning is essential. If
promoting a new site
include the URL in the headline. If promoting a product
or service then include some keywords in the headline.
Some press release services use a summary box. I normally write a catchy one-paragraph recap of my press release using some of my targeted keywords.
Without being spammy, I will normally
optimize my press
release by using some of my targeted keywords in the first and last paragraph. I will also include some of them
throughout the release for a keyword exposure of
approximately 2-3% saturation.
Tip: if promoting a web site, I
will normally mention my
URL around three times within the release for the maximum benefit.
One of the first questions I had
when I first started
writing press releases was what was considered a great
release? What did it consist of and how was it constructed?
Being curious, I emailed my contact at http://www.prweb.com/ and asked them if they could show me a few press releases that they considered as excellent examples.
These releases have received their editorial scores of 5 on their scale of 1 to 5; with five being the highest.
They sent me three of them for review and you can see each one of them here:
http://prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb136748.htm
http://prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb149213.htm
http://prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb203448.htm
Study each one of these against
the press release template
to see what is required for an effective release.
Note: to get additional exposure
for your press release
via www.emediawire.com you have to have an editorial score of 4 or higher.
So it is to your benefit to write the best release you can the first time around.
Once you have studied the examples
and want to try
submitting you own press release you need to know which ones are the most popular ones being used.
Here are some of the press release
services I have used
and found to be effective:
http://prweb.com/
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/index.html
http://www.webwire.com/default.asp
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/
With most press release services
you can submit your
press release for free or via paid inclusion. Paying for
inclusion gives you the benefit of faster indexing into
the search engine news services and natural search engine result pages.
Normally your release will be picked
up by Google news
within a few hours after its release. From there it will
normally show up in the natural search results within a
few days or a week.
I have used both of these services
in the past but have
found that paying them at least the minimum amount allows me to view my stats
online. It also allows me to choose different categories for my press release
to be displayed in, giving my release a chance for wider coverage.
So using press releases can and
is a very effective
marketing tool that you can use for promoting your web
site or affiliate products if done correctly.
By using press releases, I have
been able to create a
steady flow of targeted visitors to my web site and
affiliate programs while generating dozens of back links to my web site.
Even though the effects of each
individual press release
may be short lived, they still have provided me with both
free and inexpensive ways for getting hundreds of new
visitors to my site and quite a few top ten positions in
Google for my targeted keywords.
So get to it and write a few press
releases yourself and
see what they can do for you!
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Ted Kushner of AffiliateRevenueSources.com can show you the powerful benefits
of writing press releases for promoting any product, service or affiliate
program. Learn how you too can get multiple top ten positions in Google
using press releases at:
http://www.affiliaterevenuesources.com/powerful-press-releases.htm
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