Announcing Your Web Site With Press Releases
November 10th, 2007Press releases are a great way to get your company name and product out to your customers. It is also a great way to obtain a large number of incoming links to your web site which can help improve your Google PageRank and in turn, your search engine rankings. A press release is a mock news story about any newsworthy information about your company, such as releasing a new product, acquiring a product from another company, or announcing significant company news.
There is a ton of information online that can teach you how to write press releases. For now, you can use the following guidelines to take into consideration when writing your press releases;
- Make sure your press release relates to a newsworthy event
- Don’t make your press release sound like a sales pitch. You are providing an unbiased news releases about a significant company event.
- Always write your press release as if it were going out to people who have never heard of your company or product. Make sure you clearly define who you are and what you do each time a press release is sent out.
- Always include an easy way for publications to get in contact with you if they have more questions.
- Your first paragraph should concisely answer the questions, Who, What, Where, and When. Essentially a short summary of your entire release.
- Try to keep your release to a page long and never exceed two pages.
There are a number of press release distributers. You can find ones that are more expensive but will get you a greater reach and have more credibility with publications, and you will also find some which are not too expensive and can still provide you with a number of media contacts and links back to your web site.
One of the most popular, and least expensive press release distribution web sites is PRWeb. You can send a release for as little as $0 to $80 $40 depending on who you want to reach. If you live in the UK, another popular newswire web site is http://www.sourcewire.com/.
Look around for other press release distributers, especially one that may be specific to the product or service your offer. For example, if you were a Mac Software developer you may want to use the services of PRMac which targets just Macintosh related web sites and publications.
Other press release distribution web sites that are more expensive but provide added credibility in the eyes of your target media include;
PR Newswire
Business Wire
CNW Group (Canadian)
Update: Changed the PRWeb pricing details as they have changed since this article was originally written. Thanks Mario!
November 13th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Thanks for the ink love and the mention. I would also like to encourage your readers to use their digital assets as part of the release to give depth and understanding to the content. We have made changes to our services and no longer accept free releases. Our services start at $40 per release and really can be effective at the $80 level.
Mario Bonilla
PRWeb