Getting your news releases published online06 July 2005
Publishing news releases online is a great way of publicising your web site and your business generally. It can help encourage new traffic, and gives an incentive to previous visitors or customers to return and see what new products and services you are offering.
Here are a few useful resources to help get your news releases published online:
- Submit it to web sites such as PR Web and Pressbox.co.uk that offer a free news release distribution service. Your news release is then made available to editors and journalists.
- Publish it on your own web site. You should ensure that it is optimised with keywords, so that search engine spiders are more likely to find it. Check out your keywords with a keyword density analyzer.
- Send it by email to electronic publications. Media UK lists web sites and contact email addresses for hundreds of magazines and newspapers, and you can search the Ezine Directory and the E-zine List by keyword to find relevant e-zines.
Here are some practical tips on writing online news releases.
- Create a snappy, eye-catching headline that sums up the story.
- Online news releases are normally much shorter than hard-copy releases, so ideally you need to write around 300-400 words of text, in short paragraphs.
- Your first paragraph should be no more than 40 words, and needs to tell the story in one fell swoop. You need to cover the five Ws - who, what, when, where and why.
- Remember you're writing something that is going to be read online, so it needs to be scannable - present the text in bite-sized chunks, using bullet points and headers to break up large amounts of material.
- Give links to further information (for example if your news release is about a particular product, provide a link to the product page, or a photograph. If you've done a customer survey, link to the detailed results).
- Make sure that your information is clear and useful - avoid fancy language, jargon and exaggerations.
- Try and make your news release timely - give it an angle or a theme that ties it to current events in the news, or to a time of year such as Christmas or Easter.
- Make sure it includes a date - if you are sending it to a publication, they may not use it immediately.
- Don't forget critical contact details, so people can find out further information. You need to supply an email address that is regularly checked, and a telephone number. A link to the About Us section of your web site would also be useful.
- Make sure the spelling and grammar is correct. Take the time to print out the page and proofread it, and if possible get someone else to look over it.
You can find tips for writing an online news release at PR Web.
If you are going to send your news release by email, make sure that:
- You include the text in the body of the email - don't send attachments, as these will not make it through spam filters.
- The subject line is short, and compelling - it needs to grab the reader's attention, and make them want to read the rest of the news release.
