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 daily publications for almost 20 years and I can tell you exactly what reporters and editors are looking for when considering whether to feature your story.

1.) Is this story newsworthy?

and, 2.) Does it matter to MY readers?  When people submitted stories to me that had no relevance to my local readers – of course I tossed them without even bothering to consult with my editor.

If you own a local business, you should hit up your local media; before you spend time and effort reaching out to media nationwide, or blasting every media outlet in the country with the news that your dog grooming store won top honors at the national dog grooming competition…stop. Just stop. You are wasting your time and theirs. If you are in Topeka, your Topeka media might care. BIllings, Montana, doesn't care. NYC doesn't care. Harsh, but true.

To increase your chances of actually getting picked up by the news media:

1.) Identify the media outlets who reach your target audience – it may be local. It may be national but specialized – if you train horses or bake cupcakes or own a hobby shop, etc., there are  specialty publications that will have an audience that is interested in your business and your products and services.

2.) Once you have identified those who may be interested in your pitch, contact the media outlets directly – call the newsroom. Find out who you should submit your story to. Do some research so you can personalize your pitch; you can mention recent stories they wrote if it's relevant.  Write a press release with your contact info at the top and send it to the appropriate person.  This takes time and effort – because you are going to have to contact a lot of media outlets and there's no guarantee that they will pick up your story – but you will increase your chances exponentially if you approach them directly rather than just blindly faxing or emailing your story to thousands of people on a purchased email list.
 

3.) The expensive approach is to hire a publicist. This generally costs a minimum of several thousand dollars per month, and publicists want a contract of at least a few months.  This is only worth if it you genuinely have a product or business or service which is truly newsworthy enough to attract national media attention. An ethical publicist will tell you if you do or if you don't.

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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 tell you this because I was a newspaper reporter for many years – is: on its own, probably not.  In order to get picked up by mainstream media, you need to: 1.) Have a newsworthy story to report and 2.) most likely, you will have to contact individual media outlets, reach out to the reporter or editor who might be interested in your story, and submit the story to them directly.

So, you ask, what is the purpose of online press release? Well, the fact is, most people who are searching for a product or service these days go online to search for it. Google has hit one BILLION unique visitors monthly, according to Comscore.  This makes being visible online an absolute must for most types of businesses in the 21st century.

Online press releases rank well in the search engines, get indexed quickly, and help establish your online presence and identity.  They provide links back to your website and can increase sales and visibility.  Writing and submitting an online press release can get you in front of your customers' eyes more quickly and efficiently than a mainstream media press release.

And finally – newspapers and magazines and TV news stations are VERY selective about what news they feature and they reject far more news pitches then they accept. They have all of the control. When you take your press campaign online, YOU have all the control, and you guarantee that your message is heard.

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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 station, find out who to submit your press release to, fax it or mail it to them, call them back to find out if they got it, and then most likely never hear back from them…

And to make it worst you had to make it past gatekeepers like me, who were scanning every press release suspiciously to find out if it was newsworthy or just boring blatant self-promotion, and 99.9 percent of the time, tossing it into the "round-file" – the trash can.

Today, much as it breaks my journalist heart to admit it, hardly anybody is looking in a newspaper to find products and services. They are looking online, on Google or Bing or Yahoo.

And it is incredibly easy to establish a name for yourself and your product online using online press releases.

Here's what you do:

Create a "media" or "press" page for your website and put a link to it on your top menu bar.

Do your keyword research before you write your press release. Hold out for keywords that get at least a couple of thousand searches per month.  Incorporate your best keyword in your headline and your first paragraph. Use your other keywords throughout the body of your press release.

Submit your press release to either PRWeb.com, or free press release distribution sites, or both.  Write and submit a press release a month, at least. (Or hire me to do it for you. There, I said it.)

You will find that press releases get ranked in regular Google and Google news super fast. They can help a new site get indexed right away.  Don't know what to write about?  Below is a list of ten reasons to send out a press release:

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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 blog posts in which you give away great free information. Trust me, this works. It is why I now rank no. 1 or 2 on Google for "press release writer" with twelve million competing sites. If you write vegan cookbooks – give away vegan recipes.  A new one every day or every week.

4.) Invite experts in your field to write guest blog posts for your site. It is unlikely that you will get the superstars in your field to do this, but you can approach other professionals in your field who are up and coming superstars, and of course provide a link back to their site in the blog post that they write for you.

5.) Guest blog for sites like yours. Bloggers are always looking for new, original material. If you are knowledgeable in your field and come up with an interesting angle, you may even get to guest blog for some of the really well known bloggers in your field. Do your research, read their blog, see what other guest bloggers have written, and then make your pitch.  

What are some of your best online self-promotional ideas? 

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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 is 1.) Funny, weird, interesting, or noteworthy in some way, or 2.) genuinely helpful. Contests and charity giveaways fall into category number two.

I encourage my clients to regularly hold contests with valuable prizes, and charity giveaways, and announce them in press releases. If I see a contest from a legitimate company with a valuable prize, I will retweet it and post in on Facebook. The prize doesn't have to be huge – a $100 digital camera, a netbook, etc. – but it can't be something like an ebook, or a coffee mug, or something else that really doesn't have a lot of value.  I'm only going to tell my friends and followers about it if the prize is something cool, that they would want.

Charity giveaways are another way to get good free exposure. Let's say you give away all of your net proceeds from one day to a battered women's shelter or animal shelter or cancer research. Write a press release about it, and tell all of your followers about it, and ask them to tell THEIR followers about it. People love to publicize a good cause. It's a win-win. 

These are the two best ways that I know of to get people to want to help you publicize your news

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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 love handles and you have released a video on how to do just that – find out how many searches are done monthly for phrases like "how do I lose love handles" or "get rid of love handles", etc. Make a list of good keyword phrases and use half a dozen of the best ones in your press release. 

2.) Include what is referred to as a "call to action" in your press release. "Those seeking more information about Annie's All Natural Dog biscuits, or wishing to purchase them, may visit (your website link here)"  I try to get a link to the website near the top of the press release and again at the end. 

3.) Read the press releases on PRWeb and PRNewswire and Businesswire to get an idea of how a press release should be written, how long it should be, what the headline should look like, etc.

4.) Statistics show that press releases that are sent out on weekdays get more clickthrough then those sent out on weekends, generally. 

5.) If you can afford to, pay extra for services like PRWeb and PRNewswire and Businesswire, where they let you embed video and/or pictures, and let you use anchor text in the body of your press release.

Oh, and freebie tip no. 6 – hire me to write your press release. And also hire me to fill up your website with SEO web content, and to write articles for Ezinearticles and Goarticles. You're welcome! 

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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 each other because the website was not designed to work well in different browsers…or terrible grammar, misspellings, incorrect punctuation all over the place…

Now, when I write a press release and distribute it online, the goal is to send more people to your website, and to help your website rank better in the search engines so that more people find you.  But a few of my clients have websites that are so poorly designed that they should be hiding them, not advertising them. Yes, I always (nicely) let a client know if I see significant problems on their website. Some of them fix it, most don't. 

The biggest problem with sending a stream of traffic to a poorly designed website is that the people who are coming to your site don't know you, and THIS is the first impression you are showing them. You are showing them that you can't spell, can't write, and can't afford a decent web designer.  I personally wouldn't trust anyone with such a shoddy website with my business, and neither should you.

A decent website doesn't have to cost a fortune. For anywhere from a few hundred to a thousand dollars you can have an attractive, professional looking website. If you need website content written for you, I charge $50 per page of website content up to about 250-words, and there are plenty of other good website writers out there. It's a one-time investment that pays off. And there is no point in hiring me as a press release writer, paying me to write that press release, paying me to distribute it online….until you have a website that is worth sending people to. 

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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 client wasted their time and money, and then had to start all over again from scratch.

Anyone can call themselves a press release writer or a publicist; it's not like being a doctor or lawyer or nurse, where you need years of training and a license.  So it's up to you to screen the press release writer that you are planning to hire – after all, it's your good name on the line. 

That's why you should always screen the person that you are planning to hire to write your press release – a little time invested up front can save you time and money in the long run. It can also help save you embarrassment – I've seen some press releases with typos and terrible grammar that actually made it through the editing process and ended up posted online.  That's not the type of writing that you want associated with your company name.

Here are a few things you should ask before selecting a press release writer: 

1.)  Ask the press release writer about their background. If they don't have a background in either public relations, marketing, or the news business, what IS their experience in writing press releases? I myself was a newspaper reporter for 17 years and read thousands of press releases during that time. The professionals that I know and trust who write press releases have degrees in journalism or public relations or some similar type of training, or have marketing experience, or have worked in publicity in some capacity. 

I've had a few people contact me and ask for advice on how to be a press release writer – and I can tell you, they didn't know a thing about the business, they didn't know where to submit a press release, and their emails to me were riddled with errors.  Yikes. I really hope none of them ended up in the PR business.

2.) Ask for a couple of samples of press releases that they have written – press releases that have been posted online somewhere. This shows you how they write, and also tells you that the press releases that they wrote do end up getting accepted by press release distribution sites and do get posted online. (Don't ask them to write anything for you for free as a sample. As a professional, I never, EVER do that for a potential client – it's the perfect way to get burned.)

3.) Ask them where the press release will be submitted, and when they will submit it. They should provide you with a list of sites where they will submit the press release. Here's my list of free press release sites: http://www.thepressreleasesite.com/list-of-free-press-release-sites.html.  I also tell my clients about the paid press release distribution sites and the advantages of using those sites. 

4.) Ask them to submit the press release to YOU for your approval first before they send it out to the press release distribution sites. Even if they are an excellent writer, you know your business best – they may phrase something in a way that is not accurate, or they may leave out something that you want included, etc.

5.) Be sure to discuss online vs. offline media – I, for instance, specialize in online publicity. I refer people to some excellent publicists if the client is hoping to get picked up by mainstream media such as newspapers, television, and radio. Any press release writer who tells you that being featured on PRWeb, PRNewswire, or Businesswire, or any other online press release distribution site, is a way to get picked up by mainstream media – is greatly exaggerating. 

All of those sites that I just named are well respected online press release distribution sites and having your press release posted on their site MAY get the attention of a newspaper editor or TV news crew – but there is absolutely no guarantee, and it's actually pretty unlikely.  That takes an actual publicist. So beware of false promises. 

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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 that those sites update on a regular basis and always have something new and fresh and interesting to you when you visit them. Not to brag – okay, I'm bragging – but I have several dozen very good posts on this site about how to publicize yourself all over the internet, how to write press releases, where to submit them, etc. – and a lot of people link back to my site or recommend my site, and my services, to others because of it.

To start getting visitors to your site for the first time: join social networks, visit relevant blogs in your industry and post on them, visit relevant forums in your industry and post on them, with links back to your site, and, ahem, hire someone to write and submit press releases to online press distribution sites – you can write press releases that update fans on your upcoming book tour, on your recent book sale, on the contest you just won, and you can also hold contests, charity fundraisers, give away promotional materials, all of which are good press release subjects.

Writing those press releases and submitting them online gets you excellent coverage in the search engines. Thus ends the self-serving portion of this blog post. 

Oh – word of caution – make sure you are writing interesting, thoughtful responses on the forums and on the blogs you are commenting on – if you just go on there and say "nice post! Very interesting!" you will be seen as a spammer. 

So, once you've gotten visitors to your site – make sure that your site is filled up with interesting content that is worth coming back for. If you just have a standalone website that talks about you and lists your books, your products or your services – you're not giving people a reason to come back for more.

Also – you want people to recommend your website to their friends, their followers, their fans, etc. People recommend sites full of good content; they don't recommend a site which just has an "about me" page and a list of products. 

Here are some of the sites that I regularly visit:

www.pubrants.blogspot.com, because I want to get a book published some day and this agent/blogger has at least a few fresh, interesting blog posts every week.

www.tessgerritsen.com, because I love her writing and she updates regularly with news about what she's doing, and writes about creepy forensic stuff

www.thrillerwriters.org, because I like to read author interviews and there are hundreds on the website. 

www.cuteoverload.com because I am a sucker for cute animal pictures with goofy captions and they have thousands of them.

Yes, that's a weird variety of websites. But the thing that all of these sites have in common is that they update regularly and have a big archive of stuff that interests me.

The only reason for people to come to your site, and come back again and again, is if you give them something interesting to read when they get there. So if you're an author – you may give away free short stories, or the first few pages of your books, and you can update people on your writing progress, tell them anecdotes about how you researched your murder mystery, etc. Let's say you have a book about dog training – write anecdotes about dogs that you have trained, write dog training tips, give away dog food recipes, link to interesting posts about dogs on other blogs, etc. 

What if you write, say, Christian romance novels? Do posts on your favorite proverbs.  Blog about particularly inspiring moments in your life. Blog about faith and your marriage. Talk about how you met YOUR loved one. Write reviews of other authors that you admire.  Talk about how you market your books. Talk about what drew you to this field.

Mystery and thriller writers – as I mentioned, Tess Gerritsen is a supreme world class thriller writer and she has written numerous blog posts about forensic subjects.  Write about your research, review other thriller writers, write about the mystery convention you just went to, write about mystery movies that you just saw.

In short – and you all know this, it's like saying "To lose weight, eat less calories then you expend every day", but it needs to be said – the only way to have a popular blog/website is to regularly update it with topics that will be interesting to your readers.  

If you don't have the time or energy to update your blog daily you can:

Hire someone to do it for you,

or

interview interesting people in your field and post those interviews 

or

Post lists of resources and links that  would be interesting for your readers – that gives them a reason to come back! 0r

Join up with other writers in your field and take turns blogging. Get five people together – you'll each only have to blog once a week to have five days a week of fresh content! 

Yes, it is a fair amount of work to update your website or blog regularly, but it is the best and most effective form of free advertising that I know of! 

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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 having one written for you – to PROMOTE your company, right? So how do you avoid sounding like a late night TV shopping network ad?

Most importantly, do not address the reader as "you." That is advertising language, and press release sites will reject you for it.

Don't say "If you want to learn how to avoid foreclosure…" or "If you want to finally housebreak your dog…" Instead, say something like "Dr. Smith's ebook tells readers how to avoid foreclosure." "Veteran animal trainer Jane Dough has created a series of videos to help frustrated pet owners housebreak their dogs."

At the end of your press release, you need what is referred to as a "call to action." Don't say "To get YOUR copy of Dr. Smith's ebook…" 

Instead, say something like "Those interested in purchasing Dr. Smith's ebook may visit www.(your website link here.)" or "Those seeking more information about Jane Dough's methods, or interested in purchasing her ebooks, may visit…" 

These may sound like minor details, but trust me, they make a big difference. 

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