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Most of us think of press releases as being a document that is syndicated to the media whenever there is a big news story to announce. This is the traditional view of the press release, and it is still used in this way every day to good effect. However, in today’s online environment, the humble press release can be utilized for announcing just about anything, anytime you choose. The trick is to do it the right way to gain the maximum effect.

There are a number of reasons why a press release might be written. These include the broadcast of valuable information, to boost and increase profits in a business, and to keep a target audience up to date with latest developments. However, sometimes you may not have valuable information to broadcast, or any latest developments to comment on. You most likely will want to increase your business profits, but without a good reason for a press release, you will most likely turn to other methods of boosting your business.

This is a shame, for it doesn’t take much to come up with a good, valid reason for writing a press release. You should never lie, of course, but you can make the truth more interesting, while still keeping it the simple truth. Don’t use unnecessary hype, but find ways to create interest.

Here’s a small checklist of what to do and what not to do when writing a press release:

• Always use a reporting style and write in the third person. Check out a newspaper if you’re not sure how to.
• Never talk to your audience directly by using limp phrases like, “If you do this you will immediately see that…”
• Always include one quote at least (if you are promoting your own site you can quote yourself).
• Never use a hard sell style of writing, phrases like, “Opportunity of a lifetime,” or similar.
• Always write in proper, grammatically correct English with no spelling errors!

The last point is very important. If you don’t know the difference between “loose” and “lose,” “its” and “it’s,” “your” and “you’re,” “their” and “there” … the list is endless – then learn the difference before you let your press release loose on the world! If you don’t, you’ll lose out.

A press release should be fairly short, between 250 and 300 words. Three paragraphs works well using the inverted pyramid reporting style. The first sentence should summarize the entire story as much as possible. Answer the obvious questions next, the who, what, where, when, why and how of the matter.

The second paragraph should expand on the first one. This is where a quote can be used to best effect. In the third paragraph, back up all claims and facts stated, rounding up the story with a link to more information if possible. This will usually be the web site that you are promoting. You can also include one or two relevant links in the first and second paragraph, but only do so in a reporting manner; never say, “click here!”

There are various conventions that are used in the traditional press release structure, such as placing ##Ends## at the end of the release to signify that it has finished, but it is really more important to structure the actual release properly before being concerned about anything else.

I didn’t mention the headline… I left it until last deliberately, because it is arguably the most important part of your press release. Your headline should be interesting and compelling to draw the reader in. Dull headlines ensure no readers, even if your press release is great. Conversely, a really awful press release will get read hundreds of times if it has a stunning headline!

The results of writing a good press release? I wrote a press release for my web site at http://www.writesystem.com one evening. Within one hour it was ranked number 4 on Google for the keyword phrase I was targeting. There were over 3 million competing web sites. It only took me about an hour to write. Did it boost my business? Oh, yes! It certainly did, and so did all the others I have written. Properly structured press releases are probably the best kept secret on the Internet.

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