In my last post, I mentioned that writing an SEO press release and submitting it to free press release sites is a great way to publicize your business, get backlinks for your website, and help customers find you online - BUT - it probably won't help you get picked up by the mainstream press. Why is that, and what can you do to get your story featured in newspapers, magazines, and radio stations? I was a newspaper reporter at weekly and ... Continue reading

Happy New Year, everyone!  Now that the holiday season is behind us, it's time to concentrate on how you're going to publicize your business for 2012. I specialize in online publicity for my clients - writing and distributing press releases to free and paid press release distribution sites. One questions my clients frequently ask me is, if we send this to online press release distribution sites, will newspapers and magazines pick it up? And the honest answer - and I can ... Continue reading

When I first started working as a newspaper reporter, eons ago, before the invention of electricity, when we carved out each day's edition on stone tablets(you get the idea...it was a looooong time ago)...when someone wanted to publicize their business, it was an expensive proposition in terms of time or money, or both. Publicists cost thousands of dollars EVERY MONTH. And if you wanted to do it yourself, you had to individually contact people at each newspaper, television outlet, and radio ... Continue reading

SEO press releases are a great way to promote your website and business, and build brand awareness and position yourself as an expert in your field...but they're not the only way. So, aside from writing and sending out great press releases, how else can you promote yourself online? 1.) Build up a targeted social media presence. To do this, follow leaders in your field, and also follow their followers and send them friend requests. 2.) Regularly interact on social media sites.  3.) Write excellent ... Continue reading

Online press releases are a powerful way to establish your online identity and brand and spread your news across the internet...but there is a way to make them even more powerful. How? By writing a press release which people will want to retweet, post on Facebook, announce to all of their friends... And here's how you do it. What type of info do YOU generally retweet and tell all of your friends about? If you're like me, I will retweet news that ... Continue reading

1.)  Do some keyword research to see what keywords people are searching for to find products or services like yours. Make sure that the keywords that you choose have a decent search volume; at least a few thousand searches a months is a good target.  Put your best keyword in your headline.  https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal is a great tool for keyword research. Example - if people are looking to lose ... Continue reading

Since I specialize in online publicity, every press release that I write links to someone's website. I always check out the websites that I am going to be linking too. Most of the time, they are well designed and professional in appearance. However, a certain percentage of my clients have websites that look as if they were designed by their fifth grade kid for a class project. Ugly design with massive blocks of text, garish colors, blocks of text overlapping ... Continue reading

I've had a number of clients come to me for help after they hired someone else to write a press release, and the press release was rejected all over the place for being poorly written, or for violating certain press release conventions such as sounding like an advertisement rather than a short news announcement. When I read those press releases - it was clear that the person who wrote them had no experience in writing press releases. This means the ... Continue reading

I was reading an article in the Romance Writers Of America magazine, Romantic Times, the other day, and in the article a book publicist was asked by an author how to get people to visit her website. The publicist responded that the way to get people to your website is to give people something worth reading when they get there. Which is what inspired my post today.  Think about the blogs and websites that you visit regularly.  I can just about guarantee ... Continue reading

A number of clients hire me to rewrite press releases, or write new ones from scratch, after a press release that THEY wrote was rejected by the online press release distribution sites. And the number one reason those press releases were rejected? They sounded too much like advertisements. A press release needs to read like a short news announcement, not a big screaming ad. I know there can be a fine line, because after you are writing a press release - or ... Continue reading