BillVannot.com

Are you waiting for some BIG event in your business? Or maybe you think that only large corporations have news worthy of a press release?

Not so!

Contrary to popular believe press releases can be used by small businesses, sole traders, even everyday web users to use press releases and get noticed.

So What IS a Press Release?

A press release is a way of informing the public of company developments and news, by means of issuing an announcement to the news media and targeted relevant publications.

In other words it is a publicity tool – a way of getting information out to the public, in short another way of spreading the word about your business.

With the internet, it is now much easier for any of us to submit a press release and receive traffic to our website within hours.

How Do You Write a Press Release?

Before actually beginning writing, decide what your press release is going to be about. As it is going to be approx 300 to a maximum of 500 words long, do not try to include several things. Adequately covering one item is far better.

Next are keywords.

Like websites, press releases are rated using keywords. Do not choose a one word keyword which covers too wide a subject, for example ‘dogs’, if your piece is about ‘German Shepherd dogs’. It is better to choose a ‘long tail keyword’ (or phrase) which also includes the main keyword – in this example ‘dogs’. You will have more chance of rating higher for the long tail keyword, and just may, with luck, also appear in searches for ‘dogs’ as well.

The title for your Press Release should contain the main keyword you have selected. This ensures that your main keyword is the first thing that the search engines see when they find your item.

Make the title interesting, catchy, enticing. Like all headlines it is the introduction to what follows, so you want to "catch" your reader, encourage them to want to know more.

The next part of the Press Release is a short introduction, or summary, between two to four lines long, which explains what the press release is all about.

This is the ideal place to use two or three secondary keywords. They should not be just listed, but worked into the text, providing a reasonable summary of the article to come.

The Press Release proper:

A press release is always written in the third person, which means the words ‘I; we; our’ should not be used. Write from a neutral point of view, clearly presenting the facts. A Press Release is not an advertisement, and should not be written as one, it is a ‘news’ report which should clearly state the facts.

This is where the reporters friends come into their own: who, where, what, when and why. Writing a short paragraph on each of these will give you a good foundation. Do not blatantly sell, but you could work in why your product/service is special, and what separates your product/service from the rest?

Include links to your website a couple of times within the body of your Press Release, and again at the end of the piece, together with a call to action (to visit your site). The links within the body of the press release will help to get your website spidered and indexed by the search engines. The links do not all have to be to the main page of your website. If appropriate use links to sub-pages, which will also be picked up and indexed by the search engines.

Submitting your Press Release

Once you think you have completed your Press Release, check it through several times, to make sure you have covered the points you wished to include. Then again for grammar and also make sure you spell check.

Only when you are completely satisfied that your Press Release is ready, should you consider submitting it for release.