Press Releases

By One Way Links in category: Website Promotion

A press release is a news story about a website, company or service.

Press releases have been seen for over a century now, are still running strong and are a great way to promote a business whether it be online or otherwise.

Because a press release can be sent out in the form of a news article rather than a paid advertisement or review, the cost for advertising done through a press release is often very low, if not completely free.

So, with it being proven that press releases work wonders in the traditional paper-media world, why use a press release for your website?

Your pocketbook may be very thankful: press releases can work in the exact same way in modern media as well, getting you free exposure for your website.

Rather than reaching out to just newspapers, magazines, or TV stations with your internet based press release, you want to be able to reach out to web-based news sites; but more importantly, you also want to reach out to the user-controlled social media networks.

By reaching out to social media networks, you are exposing your website to perhaps millions of people. Extreme popularity such as this is often referred to as “viral”, meaning that it spreads really fast.

With social media websites such as Digg and StumbleUpon plus countless others, catchy content will oftentimes receive the highest ratings, and the highest ratings will get the most hits. The more hits you have to your press releases, the more likely these hits will turn into traffic to your website.

If your press release becomes popular, then the results could also lead to other websites linking to your site. Your press release would then have also succeeded in creating the much envied “linkbait”.

Many services online, such as “Free Press Release” or “PRLog” will send your press release to various online media and news websites totally free – therefore continuing the idea that you can get a great amount of exposure with little or no investment apart from your input.

But don’t be fooled, press releases do take time, and perhaps practice as well. First of all, you need a concise and catchy headline.

Whether it’s an intriguing question or an interesting statistic, you need something in your headline that will catch the eyes of both the web journalists and the web readers alike.

Secondly, your content needs to be powerful but not over hyped to the point that it sounds fake. Too many accent words or phrases such as “perfect”, “amazing”, “cutting edge”, or “life changing” can make your press release have a negative effect.

Even if you are promoting a product (free or paid), make the press release seem objective – try not to make any promotion obvious, whether it’s of a person, a website, or a product.

If people feel like they are reading an advertisement rather than a news article, they may very well just close out your page and quit reading.

Lastly, you need a conclusion that acts as a hook. Perhaps leave out a few minute (yet interesting) details and then say that more information can be read at your website.

Of course, if you don’t include any links to your website at all, the whole purpose will have been defeated, so make sure all information such as your name; company, URL, and contact information are available.

Once you have all that down and with a good press release, go ahead and send it out to as many of the best press release websites and companies and see how much traffic you can gain for free!