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Can someone help with "press release"

by mjming81
9 replies
I'm attempting a new (to me) marketing technique through "press releases" but having trouble differentiating between "advertising content" and "press relaase content" having had my first 2 attempts disallowed in 1888Press Release. One is a Clickbank.com product the other my own website promotion. Can anyone help here?:confused:
#press release
  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by mjming81 View Post

    having trouble differentiating between "advertising content" and "press relaase content"
    A press release is not from you to your customers, to convince them they should buy your product.

    It is from you to the press, to convince them they should write about your product.

    Your press release should be sufficiently like a newspaper story that they can simply chop the top and bottom off, and print it as is.

    But if you want an ad, you have to pay for it. Your press release is a convenience to reporters.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    Here's some pretty good info on writing/structuring a press release: http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Press-Release

    In your press release you kind of have to keep it "for your information" rather than "buy here." I've found that it works well to treat it more like an announcement about something new your company is doing. As CDarklock said, you are announcing the news to the press to encourage them to report about it. You can't treat it like a promotional article where you're trying to convince people to come buy from you.
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  • Profile picture of the author aandersen
    Caliban said it brilliantly.

    I'll add that a press release should be as concise as possible and should contain no unneeded words. Give good info, but steer clear of hype and use your adjectives sparingly.

    You need to find an angle (something newsworthy), and write your PR around that one specific topic. Stay focused and make the whole thing about that one topic.

    IMO finding the angle is often the most difficult part.

    More than anything else, it should not read like an advertisement. This is the quickest way to get your PR rejected, and/or ignored. A PR should read like news.


    There's a lot more that can be said on the subject, but I'll stop here for now.


    Dana Willhoit (Dana's Profle) is the press release expert around here. I suggest reading through some of her previous posts and checking out her blog :

    http://www.thepressreleasesite.com/blog

    There's some real gold on there. Maybe start with this article first, but keep reading after that because you'll learn a lot.
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  • Profile picture of the author CR
    Easy formula:
    Who
    What
    Where
    When
    Why
    Not necessarily in that order.
    Short, concise, interesting.
    And if you can come up with a great "action" photo to send out with it...
    the more chance of it appearing.
    Lastly... read it out loud. If it sounds stilted... it probably is. Go back and make
    it read like you're talking directly to someone.
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  • Profile picture of the author mjming81
    A Postscript: I posted a comment on Dana Willhoit's blog (thank your so much,Warriors, for that bit of informaton) in the list of press releases sector in the form of a question: Why does a simply-named press release site called free-press-release dot com publish my press release that in its first few hours managed over 100 hits – whilst 1888Press Release dot com declined the exact identical release? Any Warriors help out with an answer to that one?
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  • Profile picture of the author aandersen
    That's an easy one.

    free-press-release.com, prlog.org, and a few others, are not initially moderated. You post and they pretty much go live instantly. If the community flags it down, or it's randomly spot checked, and it's found to be inappropriate, it will be removed and your account might be banned.

    1-888-Press-Release, on the other hand, moderates PR submissions before they ago live (much like EzineArticles does). Your PR was probably not up to spec, and therefore 888PR declined it.
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    • Profile picture of the author mjming81
      Now you've got me worried!
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  • Profile picture of the author aandersen
    Don't worry, just hone your skill and get good at it...

    Think about it this way... If you're most worried about SEO benefits and initial traffic coming from PR sites and/or a temporary spike in the SERPs, you're being too short sighted.

    Don't get me wrong, I think those things are cool, and I realize that PRs can make those things happen. What you need to think about is how much cooler it would be if you got picked up by a big new site, newpaper, magazine, or any other press outlet.

    Pull that off and trust me, you're going to get a lot more out of it.

    You wont pull it off most of the time, but that shouldn't stop you from trying. If you write every single PR with this goal in mind, you're going improve your chance of exposure dramatically.

    There's an added benefit of writing this way: you will never have to fear the big bad editors at 1888PR again.

    Just think about it
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    • Profile picture of the author mjming81
      2011 here we come!
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