Section 2.5. Publishing Press Releases

2.5. Publishing Press Releases

It used to be that putting out a press release was a big deal. It required special accreditation and membership in a wire service and could generally only be accomplished by large companies or by using an accredited public relations or ad agency.

As with many other things, the Web has disintermediated and democratized the process of publishing a press releaseso much so that some large organizations don't even bother with them anymore, figuring that their releases will be lost in the flood of information unleashed on the world by the "little guys."

These days, publishing a press release that will be picked up by wire services is technically free. In reality, to get the distribution you want for the release will cost you

Comments, Trackbacks, and Discussion Threads

The "cheap-date" way to get inbound links is to post them yourself, using a mechanism such as a blog comment, a blog trackback, or a discussion thread. These links do not have the permanence or credibility of a link from a stable site, but can draw considerable short-term traffic if posted on a popular site.

There's nothing wrong with adding a link to a comment on a blog, or in a discussion thread, or using a trackback mechanism, provided you have a valid hook for hanging your URL. In other words, it's OK to enter a discussion if you really have something to say, and it's also OK to link back to relevant material on your site, but don't come completely from left field. It will undermine the credibility that you are trying to build up for your site.

about $30.00 per release. Although my general stance is not to pay for listings, this is usually well worth doing, provided you have the skills to write a good press release and have an interesting story to tellnot only will it produce inbound links but also some traditional media may pick up on your site and story.

There are several online services that exist to distribute press releases, including 24-7PressRelease.com (http://www.24-7pressrelease.com), FreePressRelease.com (http://www.free-press-release.com/submit/), and PRWeb (http://www.prweb.com). These sites all work in essentially the same way: an online form is provided for your press release submission, and the service submits your release to wire services, web search engines, and anyone who subscribes to the service's feeds. Free submission is available from all of the press release services, but to get the distribution your press release deserves, you need to buy (in some cases, phrased as a "contribution" or a "donation") premium membership in the service (or upgrades for specific press releases).

PRWeb is probably the best known of these services. To get started with PRWeb, you need to create a free account. Once you've established an account, you have access to a management console, shown in Figure 2-10, which lets you create, edit, and submit press releases and also check to see how many times each of your releases was viewed.

The viewing statistics for PRWeb are impressive, typically in the tens of thousands of views for most press releases. PRWeb also tells you how many times your release was picked up by a media outlet, how many times it was forwarded using PRWeb's forwarding service, and how many times it was printed using the printer-friendly version of your release. However, it's not entirely clear what these statistics actually mean, and you should not necessarily expect a corresponding increase in your volume of site traffic.

Figure 2-10. The PRWeb management console gives you access to press release creation, editing, and submission and allows you to monitor release statistics

To create a new release for submission, click the Submit News Release button on the console. In the form that opens, shown in Figure 2-11, you can copy and paste the elements of your press release if you created it as a word-processing document (See "Preparing a Press Release," earlier in this chapter).

You can edit the press release later, but you do need to supply the following elements initially:

• Headline (one sentence)

• Summary (two to four sentences)

• Body of the press release

• Keywords (don't bother repeating keywords in the release itself, since these will be picked up automatically)

• Industry

• Site URL and contact information

Preparing a Press Release

Before you go online to submit a press release, you should prepare the press release using a word-processing program such as Microsoft Word. It's important that you get your release reviewed by several people, including (if possible) a professional writer or editor. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation do count; if your press release is deficient in these areas it will look amateurish.

A good press release should be succinct. Keep it to one page if at all possible.

The press release should start with a summary of no more than two or three sentences. You should also prepare a single, short sentence to serve as the headline for the release.

Next, the press release should tell a story in several paragraphs (See "Creating a Plan and a Story," earlier in this chapter). If possible, you should include interesting quotations from one or two people related to the story. (If no one else comes to mind, what about quoting yourself?)

A final short paragraph should describe your web site, perhaps with links to an FAQ page and related sites. This paragraph can be used as a slug, which means it can be copied and pasted for use in all your press releases related to your web site.

The press release should provide email and phone contact information in case someone who reads the release wants further information. Don't make it hard to find you!

A press release created in this way can easily be copied and pasted into online submission forms.

To some degree, your industry selection determines to whom your press release is distributed. You need to pick a primary industry when you create the release, but (depending on your contribution level) you can add industry groups after the release has been saved but before it is submitted. You should take advantage of this to get your release as widely distributed as possible.

When you've completed your press release and assigned a release date, click Save Press Release. You'll next be asked to pay for your submission (select a contribution level).

Press releases are subject to a vetting process conducted both by software and human editors. Some kinds of content are forbidden. For example, you cannot submit a press release having to do with adult content and any related industries on PRWeb (see Chapter 6 for information about submitting adult-content press releases).

You can find out more about PRWeb's review policies using the Knowledge Base on the PRWeb site. Generally, besides adult content, PRWeb will reject any outright

Figure 2-11. If you've prepared a press release in your word processor, you can copy and paste into PRWeb's online form

and apparent advertisements, so take care to word your press releases to avoid this stigmatization. If your press release is rejected, PRWeb will refund any contributions as a matter of course. Note that PRWeb does not vet spelling or grammar and does not check factsit's up to you to get these things right.

Provided your press release has been accepted, you'll receive email confirmations and a link to your release online on the wire service site.

For a fee, PRWeb will write or edit your press release for you.