Archive for January, 2009
Online News Distribution: Effective Promotions at Your Fingertips
Posted by: | CommentsThe times will surprise you: it is no longer like it was before. If you think the only options you have are the mere traditional ways to promote your company, think again. The Internet has for several years already, made its power available, not only to a chosen few—but for the majority.
The playing field for small business and big time players, which have been tilted in favor of the latter, has somehow found a degree of balance. The power of the Internet, due in large part to the millions with access, has given small businesses that fighting chance against the more established firms.
Online News Distribution: The First Step
You should have a grand plan on how you will proceed. Having known the advantages of the Internet and doing the press release there, you should do your homework by researching about this stuff and how it works.
Let us however cover some basics here:
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Your Customers. It is time to actually re-analyze your business and decide its direction. Start by determining your target market. If you are vague here, your efforts will have no focus, seemingly like a bunch of arrows hitting all points but the target. If you are lucky, you will hit the target, but rest assured, it will only be a rare occasion. Thus, before anything else, settle this area.
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Do some research. This research involves two parts: a.) the first is knowing the characteristics of your target market, b.) second, is knowing what media will be right for you. Having some data to work with here, will clarify these items of interest. These are important to know so that your business approach—the press release in this case—will be tailored to what you will find out here.
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The PR Writer. Regardless if you outsource this or you get this in-house, the writer should preferably have an experience writing press releases. You want a release that can get the attention of your potential customers. With a badly-written release, expect it to yield below expectations. How good the release is written, is played by a big part on who wrote it.
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A Simple Message. When submitting for news distribution, make sure that you keep the message simple in your release. What does this mean? It merely means you make it brief, with substance, and most of all, no fluff. Anything else should be stricken away. The simpler the message, the clearer it will be for the audience to understand it and act on it.
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Online submission. You can submit at many PR distribution websites. Read the guidelines at each, and see which of these will fit your needs. There will be free submissions, and of course, those that will be for a fee. With paid news distribution services, there will be add-on services that the sites will provide. If you think you are getting good value, it will be your choice as to which service to go for.
Online Distribution as a Viable Alternative to Promotions
Aside from the traditional means for PR distribution, the Internet provides another option. Each and every year, the Internet attracts more users from various age ranges coming from various parts of the globe. The potential, as you can see, is of great magnitude. Going for an online distribution for your release can be effective if done right. It will give your business a fighting chance against the giants of your field.
Free Press Release – A Good Alternative
Posted by: | CommentsLet us face it—we are facing tough times. The economy is not tending towards our favor, and we see a lot of businesses struggling to survive. We want to be competitive. We want to give our businesses the needed jolt: hoping it will impact these in a positive way.
The Need for a Creative Business Strategy
In such times, we need to re-assess our business strategies. How are we going to conduct our business more efficiently? How can we market our products and services with lesser cost? Is there a way for us to creatively approach marketing and publicity, so that we can reach our target customers?
Fortunately, there is one good alternative for approaching our marketing strategies—free press release. Yes, there is such a thing. In the Internet, you can see websites offering this free service. So, if you are in a tight budget, this will be an attractive service for you to grab.
Free Press Release Sites – How to Make it Work for You
When submitting a release on these sites though, be sure you are following the rules and guidelines they have set. Following the instructions will make it easier for editors to work on your release, that is, if they should see your release to be worthy as news.
In these free press release distribution websites, they have standard formats for you as basis when you write releases. In different sites, the formats may vary—but the substance is essentially the same. What is important though is that you follow the rules of the site you are submitting to.
Also, you must check on the quality of your release. Just because the service is free, you think you can just submit a release done haphazardly. Most of these sites offering free press release distribution also have editors who check on your submissions. These sites will want to have quality releases posted in their sites. Otherwise, journalists or news reporters may not want to check on their sites again.
One final tip for your release is that it should be interesting. If it is, most journalists will find it of value to their audience—giving your release that critical chance of landing a space on their news medium. With this, the information on your release will reach a good number of people. Here, you are also then able to get some good publicity for your business.
Free but Effective – Your Release can Make a Difference
To increase visibility of your business, your releases can help. And with free press release distribution websites, this approach will be much easier. You only have to contend with the other businesses sending their own releases. This is where the quality of your releases will set you apart. With a well-written release, the image and impression you give out will make that big difference.
Free press release distribution websites are a viable option—no doubt about it. Make this work to your favor. Especially on these low times of our economy, such will indeed be a good alternative for your businesses to consider. The service is free, yet if done correctly, your business will get its needed push to survive the tough times ahead.
A Basic Guide: Press Writing that Delivers
Posted by: | CommentsIf the responsibility of doing the press writing falls on your lap, you may feel overwhelmed as you have not done this before. You start to think: “This is one of those times, when that part of my job description which states that it will include all other tasks that may be assigned to me, will hold true.”
Don’t worry, such cases indeed comes with the job—and too often, we are placed in positions where we have no background but held accountable for the success of the tasks. Start by accepting the fact that this is now in your hands and that, you are not alone in the experience of such predicament.
Now to continue on with the responsibility you have been assigned with: press writing. The first question you might ask is what this means. This means basically what it is, writing for the press—because what you are actually doing is, producing material that the press will have to work on, that is if they see your material to qualify as news.
Press writing involves documenting special events and happenings in your business as: awards given by government agencies to your company or those of like happenings, mergers and acquisitions, new line of products, appointment of new CEOs, special service offerings, etc. These events will be subject of your writing, which you give out or distribute, hoping media will take the bait and give you the publicity your business needs.
Now, since you are not yet sure how to go about this in detail. Let us go through the steps to get you going with your assigned tasks.
Your Guide: Press Writing Steps
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Know the angle you are going to write about. This starts with knowing the right event or happening to feature. Then you give it just the right angle so that it will spark the interest of media and to your target market. One critical step here is to make sure media will like what you have written: in this case, they are your first customer.
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Get the details of the story. Get your facts straight and record them. You will need this to be able to provide the needed details on your press release. Don’t leave anything to chance, and keep your facts ready. Journalists, if they should wish to, will at time call you to ask for more details.
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Prepare photos applicable for the story. If media should wish to give you that spot on their publication, some appropriate photos will give the article a better appeal. Make sure you have shots that are of good quality and are taken with basic photography standards.
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Follow the standard format for your release. There may be some differences in the formats that media will want your release to follow, so be sure to abide by the requirements. Like in the online platform for press release, they have online forms ready to be filled up. So be sure to check on this.
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Write it right. Aside from writing the release according to format, write it with style as well. Make it interesting. In the release, you are delivering an important message—and you can always make it enjoyable for your audience to read, along with being informative.
Some More Tips for Your Press Writing
In any event, it will help if you ask the help of those you know are knowledgeable about these things. If you can’t ask someone, use the Internet. A lot of good resources are out there for you to study. There are also many books that you can buy so that you will learn how this works.
However this will go, look at it as a learning opportunity for you. So while you are at it, make the best of it and give it all you’ve got. If you succeed in getting good results, you know you deserve it. The next time around, you know what to do. Not only can you make press releases, but ones that can actually deliver.
About i-Newswire.com
Posted by: | Commentsi-Newswire.com is a free press release distribution center. Unlike many other press release distribution services, we care about quality press releases. A common problem in today’s distributions are distributors who publish anything to make money. This results in journalists and editors ignoring such places after time.
The new PR killer - Press Release Spam (PR Spam)
Today’s journalists and editors are not interested in “PR Spam” (abusing press releases to advertise products or services) which is also the reason why i-newswire.com is not accepting such submissions. Press releases are designed to tell the world about newsworthy business developments. No editor cares about “Buy our great software today” - however they do care about “Software X released by Company Name”.
Our Mission
Our mission is to help you announce newsworthy events / happenings. We have teamed up with many leading news sources who display our submissions on their web sites / search engines. We won’t tell you where and when your newsitem will appear as we want to offer a “fair service” - meaning it doesn’t matter if you submit your release free or featured: “We distribute every press release to all our partners”, no matter if you run a small/new company with low funds or a huge multi-million dollar business.
Why should I submit a featured press release then?
Journalists and editors visit sites like our’s to find the latest news. A featured press release will help you to help journalists and editors to get all the facts from one place instead of having to browse your site to find a logo that fits. Our featured press release service allows you to highlight your news on our web site and to add your company logo or business card to your news item. By doing this, journalists can download your logo instantly instead to browse your site to find a logo that fits. Time is money and journalists and editors are always in a hurry. By using our featured press release service, you help them help you.
How did our press release get here?
99% of our press releases are submitted by companies directly. I-Newswire.com also employs editors who visit sites such as IBM, AMD, Microsoft and other well known newsrooms to fill available spaces. If you find one of your press releases here and you did not submit them our editors may have found your release interesting and published them at no cost. If you want to have a press release removed feel free to contact our editors by using our contact form