79 replies to this topic

[opcis]

I'm glad to see all the feedback. They have been quite useful, especially the last post from copywriter. I should have attempt #3 done in a day or 2 to show you.

[Adam Rivard]

6. Is it OK to do it from a first person narrative?

With regards to these issues the most important part of the press release is to show people that you are a company and not just some guy running a website in his free time. Never ever use I and a persons name. Always use us, we, the staff of..... No one knows who you are so it is important to start off fresh making them think you are a massive corporation with plenty of staff. If you are the writer of the article and the Owner of the site I would recommend putting a friend or staff members name as the author of the article. In effective releases that I have read they all read like a newspaper arcticle.

The key is to have quotes like "opics" the CEO of the company had to say this about the companies recent success........

Remember to always say the things people want to hear and not necessarily what actually occurs at your site.

One of our partner sites recently wrote an article on prweb and paid around $100 to have it placed on yahoo news. This created massive amounts of traffic for the site and the adsense profits for the site almost doubled within a week. The site was WhyDoWork.com you can contact their management I'm sure they would be willing to provide you with their article that you could use as a referrence.

Hope this gives you a better understanding.

Edited by Adam Rivard, 01 May 2005 - 07:47 PM.

[opcis]

Is this the article of which you speak:

www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/3/prweb223444.htm

Edited by Jill, 01 May 2005 - 09:29 PM.

[Adam Rivard]

Yes, that is the one. It is a great model to use. The $100 dollar placement on Yahoo as mention was worth the money. Just make sure your site is fully developed before you begin to advertise in that form. It would be a waste of time if you have not fully finished the site. You want to create return users from the news article.

[copywriter]

the most important part of the press release is to show people that you are a company and not just some guy

I don't know about the most important, but it is important.

Remember to always say the things people want to hear and not necessarily what actually occurs at your site.

I'm sorry, Adam, but that's just wrong. You never want to mislead a journalist (or a customer or anyone else for that matter).

[Jill]

I don't find anything newsworthy in the press release Adam referenced either.

[Adam Rivard]

Sorry to provide you with an article that doesn't seem to fit your standards. I was simply trying to show what worked for other sites.

With regards to copywriters comments:

The best part about PRWeb is it allows you to create your own free article so people know it is the website administration releasing the article and not a jounalist. This information doesn't mislead anyone either it is just smart to do it. Your not going to create a press release talking about how your site was just released you have no users and no established reputation. The news article is the first step to point you in the right direction and the writer of the article has to be confident in their writing promoting the business by showing success and not weakness.

Edited by Adam Rivard, 01 May 2005 - 10:14 PM.

[Michael Martinez]

Actually, that press release Adam refers to touches some major chords in the freelance writing community. However, I checked out the Web site and was very disappointed. I am sure they made some sales, but it struck me as being more of a picks-and-shovels kind of site than an actual stake-your-claim kind of site.

A press release doesn't have to work with everyone. It only needs to work with the right people.

[copywriter]

I have no problem with PR Web, Adam (except that they don't qualify their releases). My comment was aimed strictly at your statement that you should lie in your press releases if the truth doesn't appeal to people.

[Adam Rivard]

Michaels comments brought up a good topic. The fact that the article should be marketed to the type of people who visit the site. Maybe to us it looks like nothing out of the ordinary but it effectively attracted return customers in that industry.

[storyspinner]

Reading this... I think I'm a bit confused ... perhaps I'm missing the boat here .. (I know I have a few times! *lol*)... but I thought the point of the press release is to generate interest from media outlets - newspapers, magazines, trade journals, radio stations, tv stations, online publications, etc. in a company's ..... business, services, products, special event, etc. ?

Press Releases themselves aren't written for the general public "consumption" like a freelance journalist writes and article. At least this is what I've been taught. That's why you need to change the voice/target of a P.R. towards media. As Michael said .. the "right people".. which would be media. Using the press release, you want to hook the media into actually writing a more indepth article because they have the larger audience at their fingertips

optimizing the press release with the right key words, allows the journalists who haven't gotten the press release to find it easily. placing a copy of it on your website in pdf format helps even more for search. I just don't know about paying to place a Press Release on Yahoo News, a piece that's been written as an article to deciminate how to use products/services/ides (from said company)... yes I can see the use in that.. but not a Press Release.

Am I misunderstanding something? Or am I just too "old school"

[copywriter]

You are absolutely correct, Story Spinner. But PRWeb pretty much publishes anything and everything people submit... press release or not.

Notice the term "article" is used in this thread. That's exactly what many people are submitting to PRWeb a lot of the times. There is a big difference in an article and a press release.

If those articles drum up business, great! Many times they do and I'm not disputing that. But, just as a matter of semantics, these articles are not press releases by definition.

If you're looking for media coverage (which is what a release will get you, provided it is written well) then you'll want to actually write a press release.

[Scottie]

Right or wrong, many people reprint content from PRWeb as it is presented, so writing an article for PRWeb seems to be OK.

I have a hard time considering PRWeb as an actual news release site anymore. It's just dollars for links, submit anything. They don't appear to refuse anything or enforce any editorial guidelines.

I'm sure they are making plenty of money, and it's a strategy that's working for a lot of people right now so I'm not knocking it- I'm just saying it's not really a professional news release site anymore.

[copywriter]

Exactly! And if your ultimate goal is to get a burst of business that's great. Go for it. Everybody needs dollars

If you want journalists to call you and arrange for interviews or to quote you in their news stories, articles are not the way to go.

Scottie is right about PRWeb. Not necessarily a "news" source.

[Michael Martinez]

The nature of the press release is evolving because the Internet has made it possible for anyone to write and distribute press releases. When I need media attention, I either go directly to them or work with a publicist. I use the free press release services to reach anyone else who is looking at them, but I still put as much quality into those releases as I can.