Submitting a press release is one of the oldest and most “tried and true” methods of promoting your website and or company.  We have been doing it for a long time for our sites and have learned quite a few things over the last 10 years.  Here are some tips:

1. Have a strong lead:  In press jargon the first paragraph is called the lead.  Your lead always needs to be strong and effectively communicate your message as quickly and concisely as possible.  Think of it this way, if someone was to only read the first paragraph, would they understand what your press release is about?   The rest of your press release should provide the details that support your lead.  Remember, journalist see tons of press releases a day and you only have a few seconds to grad their attention sufficiently for them to continue reading

2.  Who, What, Where, When, and Why: The five W’s are what any journalist looks at.  It is the first thing that they teach you in journalism school.  A good press release will always answer these questions.

3:  Do not sound like an advertisement: Again, news sites and publications sell advertising, they don’t print it for free.  If you sound like an advertisement you will have zero chance of having your press release picked up.  Avoid any terms like “best, favorite, etc”.   Journalists are looking for news not biased opinion.

4:  Why should they care: Companies launch products and websites all the time.  What makes yours special?  What makes yours different from all the other ones out there?  If you have something new or different write about how it.  What is your angle?

5:  Brevity is the sole of wit: Your press release does not have to be long.  Publications and new sites have a limited amount of space that they dedicate to press releases.  Communicate your idea as effectively and efficiently as possible.

6:  Vocabulary: Speak plainly and limit the use of insider jargon.  Don’t use a big word when a small word will do just as well, that is of course, unless your target audience where all English majors in college.

Press Release submission has long been a popular for of SEO but what are your really getting.   We have put together a few facts to help people decide which method is write for them.

First,  always remember, the ultimate goal of any press release is to get picked up by traditional publications or by online news sites so make sure that your press release is newsworthy.  Publications and online news sites are not in the business of giving free promotion.   Remember that these sites primary source of income is advertising and they are not going to give it away free.  If your press release is news worthy then it is valuable to them.  If you press release just talks about how wonderful your are, it won’t get picked up.

Standard Press Release:  A standard press release is generally only on the press release site for a couple of days which is generally plenty of time for any publication or news site to pick it up and add it to their publication or site.  News companies subscribe to press release sites in search of content and are alerted to relevant content when it is posted.   In the couple of days it is up on the press release site any links you have written into your article will be visible to search engines and should help your page rank.  Press release sites are popular and get indexed by search engines constantly.  A couple of days of free PR is always a good thing.

Featured Press Release:  The main reason for purchasing a “Featured Press Release” is that it will remain on their site for longer or forever (it differs from site to site) and the link to your site will remain active and help your ranking in search engines.   We generally do free submissions and build our links with directories and articles but it can be valuable to have your release perpetually on a highly rated press release site.  If you do want to buy a “featured” press release, here are some things to look for.

1.  How much does it cost:  Price varies from site to site

2:  How long does it stay up:  Some sites will archive your press release and keep it up forever, some will keep it up for a month.  It varies from site to site.

3.  How good is the press release site:  Check the ranking of the site on Alexa (www.alexa.com).  The better the ranking the more weight your link will carry with search engines.

Banner Ads and Text ads can both be very effective ways to bring customers to your site but each offers very different things to advertisers.  The choice of which is right for you is a vital to how well your ad campaign will perform, thus, you can assign a dollar amount to making the right choice or the wrong choice.   So how do you make the right choice?  A good basic rule is that  if you have a product that people will care very much about styling and appearance (apparel, electronics, furniture, and pretty much any product that people buy for a certain look) then banner ads are the way to go.  No one is going to click on a text ad for the latest fashion, they want to see it.   If you have a product that is more of a commodity (financial services, Insurance, ) then text ads are a better option.  These are of course just general guidelines,  some products are impossible to put into a broad category and at other times products that are not visual can still see significant traffic via banner ads.

Here are some big strengths of banners ads:

1. Branding:  Your logo and your name get seen.  Often people come to the site because they remember the visual
2. Visual:  If your product needs to be seen.  Only a banner ad is going to show it
3. Convey more info:  Advertisers can convey much more information with a banner ad.  There is a much larger area and “a picture is worth a thousand words:”

Text ads also have some major advantages.  They include:

1. More sites accept text ads:  A wider variety of sites is always a plus
2. Cost:  You can get about three times the number of views with text ads as you can with banner ads.
3. Simplicity:  It can’t get any simpler than text
4. Variations:  Easy to create several text ads and rotate them since you don’t need an graphic designer to make them.

The above are good guidelines to consider before your campaign and if you have questions your account manager can always help you.  Also,  you can always switch from banners to text of vice versa at anytime during your campaign.  Just contact your account rep and they will be glad to help.

For more info please go to banners vs text