According to many experts, press releases are an absolutely essential part of any traffic generation campaign. Additionally, they often interface perfectly with a traffic generation campaign, as such campaigns are usually used after a site or product launch – or to kick off a contest. While there are several different press release services available over the Internet, PR Web, which you can find at http://www.prweb.com is considered to be the current industry leader. They provide clients with wide-distribution press releases, which range in price from free to well over $500. Of course, the quality of the distribution is directly related to the price. A free submission may yield several hundred to several thousand views; whereas a $500 submission will be sent to radio stations, newspapers, publishers, tens of thousands of webmasters, and all other press release services. This could end up yielding tens of thousands of visitors.
Now, when writing a press release, there are two important things to take into consideration.
The first thing you must consider is the submission guidelines of the press release service you choose. Some services will require character-per-line formatting. Additionally, they may ask you to include certain elements, such as your telephone number, address, and byline.
The second thing you must take into consideration is the construction of the press release. This is something that writers often bungle, even when they are talented. This is because a press release isn't written as an article would be written; although several elements are the same.
When writing the actual press release, you will want to start with a compelling title that will intrigue the largest possible crowd while still remaining at least somewhat related to your topic. Avoid using your business's name or your own name in the title. Instead, keep it powerful, but vague. Make readers click to find out what it's all about.
Now, when you get to the body of your press release, it is important to take one of two approaches: the “story” approach or the “newspaper” approach. If you take the newspaper approach, put all of the pertinent details in the first paragraph and then slowly scale down the story. If you take the story approach, don't give any specific details until the end. The latter often works best for generating traffic to your site.
And there you have it: a short recipe for effective press releases.
