At present, various search engines are playing a vital role in popularizing websites. In fact, these search engines are not only increasing the popularity of online market but also developing new ways of online marketing. Right now, numbers of search engines are escalating the search process and providing visitors with the finest information on every topic. Many individuals are getting their news and information from news aggregator services and news websites offered by major search engines. These news search engines are offering latest information on every political, historical and social topic. Be it an editorial listing or a sponsored link, a good search engine ranking can bring thousands of visitors to any site; in fact, with top rank on search engine listing a website can get numerous page views and extended press coverage. Usually, most of the press releases do not get desired views, as their content fails to highlight the appropriate keyword. To deal with this problem press release optimization is used; this technique perfectly emphasizes of suitable keyword so that the search engine may find it easily. This technique enhances the visibility of any press release and enables it to grab attention of more and more visitors.

The basic motive of press release optimization is to optimize the content and to submit it with major news search engines. Professionals, who optimize press releases, also submit that keyword rich press release with most renowned online newswire services. Press release optimization popularizes prolific information of your company so that the online visibility of your website can be increased effectively. In fact, this process is cable of attracting target audience, as it provides them with instant and useful information just through a mouse click. With keyword optimization and proper distribution, your press release can also get measurable traffic and sales.

For getting desired success on online arena, every business owner needs to speak the language of consumers. A business can never flourish without grabbing attention of its target consumer segment therefore every business owner needs to take care of every aspect of online presence of his or her business. Press release optimization is that perfect online marketing technique that enables the business owner to make his or her online business visible on World Wide Web. Press releases that are optimized through this technique do not involve poetic content to evoke an emotional response but these press releases contain useful and lucid information about any upcoming product or service.

Professionals, who optimize press releases through press release optimization technique, also change their language and convert the content into keyword based informative articles. To check the effectiveness of press release optimization, URL tracking to the relevant page of the websites is used; with this technique the visitors can follow the link to the host site. Basically, this technique gives the best results when the host site offers a call to action so that the visitor may check the special lending page of your website. Therefore, if press releases of your business are not getting targeted traffic, then optimize them to get incredible traffic with the best opportunities.

Steve Waganer has specialization in web marketing. He is expert in search engine optimization, press release optimization, search engine marketing firm, social media optimization. To get the SEO tips from, SEO firm for your website to get high rank and top position in major search engines visit http://www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

In a fiercely competitive online atmosphere, press releases can be a valuable resource for increasing your company’s overall visibility, but only if they’re optimized effectively. Remember, this tactic is no longer just about publicizing your latest news. Instead, it’s about creating visibility through multiple channels that allow you to connect through content, reaching those audience segments that are relevant to your company and purpose.

When optimized correctly, online press releases can do all of the following:

* Boost Search Engine Rankings for SEO
* Drive Targeted Traffic
* Build Brand Awareness
* Save Money on Pay-Per-Click Campaigns
* Usurp Position From Competition on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)

Despite these numerous benefits, however, many companies continue to use unoptimized press releases that don’t work as well as they could. Instead, these lazy releases stagnate in Deleted folders and are never indexed by the major search engines. Remember, this isn’t a traditional press release like Grandma used to write.

Unlike traditional press releases, which were succinct and written with readers in mind, online press releases need to be more carefully crafted. An online press release (like SEO in general), is half art and half science - in addition to appealing to readers, they need to be optimized for search engines in order to drive results. A few simple modifications could increase their effectiveness drastically, providing far more SEO benefit to your online presence than they would have otherwise.

So how do you write and optimize an online press release that will drive tangible results?

First and foremost, employ common sense and reason. No one wants to read something that isn’t newsworthy, and these type of releases won’t garner any publicity. In fact, according to a DM News survey, 98 percent of journalists are online every day, and almost 75 percent are searching for press releases. So before you write anything, ask yourself if the story you’re thinking about publicizing is newsworthy. As a member of your industry, whatever that may be, would you take the time to read it? If not, don’t waste your time. Wait for a story that will make a splash and matter to your audience.

Next, identify the keywords your press release will utilize. Align them with the keywords and phrases you’re already optimizing in order to derive the highest SEO benefit. In order to make sure you’re choosing those with the most potential, start with some quick competitive analysis. This can be done by performing a News search that includes your keyword on Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN, or any other popular search engine.

Looking at the results page, you’ll know if this is the right keyword or phrase to chase? How? By the amount of competition it presents. If you notice that most of the results are spread out over a longer time span, this keyword is a good opportunity because there clearly isn’t as much competition. On the other hand, if your search turns up ten stories from the past few days, you’ll know that this term is much more competitive due to the many stories you’re competing against.

Now that you’re aware of the competitive landscape, determine the amount of flexibility you have to work with. As I mentioned before, if you’re attempting to enter a space that’s crowded with recent news, you’ll need to focus on a single keyword phrase, while if you have more flexibility, you can chase several permutations of your keywords.

In the end, it’s a better idea to focus on specific online niches, crafting your press release in a way that you know will appeal to your potential readers. Your press release will be much more potent if it gets noticed within a specific sector than if it languishes away in relative obscurity, hidden somewhere in a crowd of similar stories.

This simple research phase can make all the difference in whether your press release gets noticed, but it’s often the most overlooked aspect of this strategy. Don’t get trapped milling around in the virtual crowd - stand out and get noticed by optimizing around the keywords that hold the most potential.

Once you’ve completed this critical research step, you will have identified the most potent keywords with which to write your press release. Now you’re finally ready to start writing!

Start with the headline, the most important part of your press release. Include your most competitive keywords in this headline. While it may be tempting to simply combine all of your keywords, it’s imperative that your headline remains both condensed yet descriptive. Think like a journalist and a searcher here. Stick to the basics, providing the essential facts and the who, what, where, when, and why. All of the major search engines start by looking for keywords in headlines, so be sure to give them what they’re looking for in order to capitalize on relevancy. Observe these rules and you’ll also attract those all important human readers.

After you’ve crafted the headline, it’s time to start writing the body of your press release. Begin by isolating several related phrases to maximize your SEO potential. For example, if you’re publicizing the launch of your new SEO site, your headline may be something like Fusionbox Launches SEO Microsite.

Don’t fall victim to the constraints you’ll encounter with the use of just one keyword or phrase. Instead, use a web of related keyphrases to expand your reach. Alternate permutations like “Fusionbox Launches Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Microsite,” for example, will invariably broaden your scope and influence. These various combinations allow your release to appear in News results for these related phrases as well.

Try rotating various combinations of keywords in the body of the release as well to create more diversity and cover more ground. For example:

“Fusionbox, a Denver SEO agency, recently lauched a new microsite devoted to search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. The company, which specializes in search engine marketing (SEM), web design, and web development, needed a unique platform to reach clients looking for optimization solutions and showcase their SEO services.”

Rather than using the same keyword phrase repetitively and sounding like a broken record (which drives human readers away), this sentence sprinkles other keyword combinations that expand the SEO value of the release without detracting from readability.

Be creative here. Don’t try to overload on keywords or your release won’t flow like good writing should. A good rule of thumb is to write with an eye for your keywords, incorporating them into the release when natural opportunities appear.

Once you’ve finished writing your release, read over it again and circle your keywords in red. Does it sound natural or look like a finished New York Times word search? If so, take a step back and ensure your work flows while maintaining general SEO copywriting best practices and a healthy keyword density.

Next, look for instances of your keywords where you could include a backlink to your site. This will allow you to build valuable incoming links to your site, which are a major determinant of search engine positioning. Remember to use the full URL in your link if you can’t employ anchor text, as this will ensure your link is indexed and available to search engines and readers alike. 1` Finally, you’ve finished writing your optimized press release. Now you’re ready to begin the submission process. There are an infinite number of press release sites on the Internet, but some are far superior to others. Before you go about submitting anywhere and everywhere, make sure the sites you’re submitting content to are crawled by the major search engines, or else you won’t get any SEO benefit from your release.

Many of the more popular distribution services are indexed by Google News, Yahoo News, and others, but make sure by searching for related stories on these engines and noting where the top results originate. This way, you’ll get a better idea of which distribution channels specific search engines favor.

Target these for your own release to ensure your content will be visible where it matters, especially as Universal search rolls onto the scene, showing News links among the regular search results.

As you can see, optimizing your press release is a somewhat complex endeavor. Still, considering that an optimized release is an essential ingredient to a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign for its ability to boost search engine rankings, drive targeted traffic, build brand awareness, and even help you gain digital real estate on the SERPs (search engine results page), the juice is definitely worth the squeeze.

Just observe the best practices I’ve described above and you’ll build your online presence in this fiercely competitive online atmosphere where visibility is everything. An optimized press release will allow you to connect with your target audience through content while deriving tangible SEO benefits.

Nick Yorchak is a Search Engine Marketing Specialist at Fusionbox, a full-service Denver Internet marketing agency offering complete SEM solutions. He can be reached at (303)952-7490. For more information on optimization strategies, see the free Fusionbox SEO Resources library or browse Nick’s SEO blog.

When looking into the press release wire service to use for your business, you might be overwhelmed with the options. In addition to traditional wires, there are many new web-based services. Choosing the right one for your business sometimes requires trial and error. The following press release wire service websites for the most part all provide a similar service, but they all have differences in how they present information, and how helpful they actually are. By looking at the facts and combining the opinions of Christine Slocumb, the owner and founder of an internet marketing firm with 15 years of experience, and Dena Boutsikakis, someone who is just starting in the marketing business, we hope to help narrow your decision as to which wire service is best suited for you.

PR Newswire

PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com) is one of the first press release wire services, with a large client base, because of its efficient and professional setting. It is a very helpful website, because of its mass amounts of information. When clicking on a tab or a link, there is always information that explains its function to the viewer; proving its helpfulness and ease. In addition, there are also many spots within the website that allow for the consumer to add their feedback. There are also many interesting features that one can use to enhance their service. They offer a eWatch service that monitors and tracks your press release. It automatically emails you with any changes. In addition, PR Newswire offers MEDIatlas which distributes your press releases 24/7 automatically to over 460,000 contacts. There is also a free service called ProfNet, which connects you to many experts in each field. These features are all optional but according to PR Newswire are very useful. However, one thing to keep in mind is that sending a press release through them is very expensive, thus for starting businesses it might not be in your best interest to spend the extra money.

Dena: I was very impressed with this websites appearance. It was very clear and organized, while giving the user a large amount of information. In addition, I also felt that as a consumer of their service, I mattered, because of their feedback option. As stated before PR Newswire, also has a lot of features that make it easy for the small business owner to track his/her release, like the eWatch option. However, I do wonder if all these things are necessary, or if they are just another ploy to collect money. Nevertheless, if they are as good as they say they are it might be worth it for those really newsworthy releases.

Christine: When I first started in PR, this was THE wire service and all we used. It’s the oldest, largest, and most expensive newswire service. However, their delay in adopting new SEO technology was a big mistake. Also, the Account Managers assigned to us were not helpful and turned over frequently. We rarely use this service anymore unless it’s a co-release with a large corporation that requires we use this wire. The online pickup of releases is quite good, but no better than BusinessWire.

BusinessWire

BusinessWire (www.businesswire.com) has a similar feel to it as PR Newswire. They provide all the basic information about sending press releases, but also offer a little more. They have a section that will actually help you write a press release, for those who are not sure how. In addition it clearly shows the distribution of where your press release will go, and who will view it. Another helpful tool is that the website comes in five different languages. This can be very helpful if you are doing business with companies overseas, or simply for people whose first language is not English.

Dena: When first seeing this website I was impressed with the ability to change languages, even though they only had five from which to choose. I also thought that this was a fairly easy website to navigate through. However, upon first glance I did think it was a little to plain with just text, it did not make me want to explore it more. It is a decent website that has helpful information; I would say it was average.

Christine: BusinessWire is large but progressive. Through their partnership with PR Web, you can get one of the best deals on the Web. For $269 on www.prwebdirect.com you get distribution on PR Web and BusinessWire’s US 1 distribution. For B2B companies with the budget, we go directly to BusinessWire. To distribute important releases for smaller B2B companies and technology startups, we use the BusinessWire package with PR Web.

PRWeb

PRWeb (www.prweb.com) is one of the most informational and user friendly press release websites out there. On the homepage it has the most recent press releases within fourteen days, rated by “importance” which depends on how much the sender paid for the release. One helpful feature is their “release features” tab, which will tell you everything you need to know about your press release. They have broken it down to four packages. Each package states what it offers and how much it costs. This lets the business or agency know what they are going to be offered right away, while also keeping in mind budget. In addition, if you are not clear as to why you should use a press release wire service, PRWeb has a YouTube™ video which plainly and cleverly describes why, by showing the benefits. Along with the video, there are many picture and descriptions throughout the website that further guide you. In addition, PRWeb also has helpful tips and samples on how to write a press release, making sure your best work is distributed.

Dena: Personally, I feel as though this is the easiest to navigate through, and the most inviting. It still looks very professional, but makes press release writing and distributing seem very simple. They even state that all you have to do are follow their three easy steps. I also liked how everything was laid out for me, and I did not have to make an account to see pricing and features. However, the one thing that impressed me the most was the YouTube™ video. Being that I am just starting in this business, I found it very helpful. In addition, PRWeb’s pricing seemed to be reasonable; basically you get what you pay for.

Christine: This is probably the most well-known online wire service, distributing over this wire gets you LOTS of links, although the backlink quality is not always the best. We do get amazing results on this wire for special interest B2C press releases such as travel and tourism offers. They also have great offers every once in awhile such as the free Podcast interviews when they first introduced the Podcast service.

Marketwire

Upon first seeing the Marketwire (www.marketwire.com) website, its bold color choice makes it stand out more than the other websites. The layout is very simple and very clean in its appearance. It has very few tabs, but once you start clicking on the tabs, it leads you to other links, which easily navigates you through the website. Marketwire speaks to the busy person that does not have a lot of time, with which most business owners and employees identify. However, you are not able to look at packages or other information about the service you will get until you have opened an account with them.

Dena: The first thing I noticed was the color choice of this website. It was different than all the rest, so it stood out in my mind. In addition, the way it was set up was different then the rest of the press release service websites. I had to navigate through many different tabs to find what I wanted. In addition, the wording of the website was also different from what I was reading before. However, on many pages it does say for further questions to contact them, but for a busy person, everything should be clear and straight forward.

Christine: We tried Marketwire’s SEO press release package last year. They have very competitive rates compared to PR Newswire and BusinessWire. While their SEO console is not as polished as PR Web’s reports, we did get great media pickup on a local Michigan story. We recommend Marketwire for local market releases that need SEO on a budget. For example, you can get regional wire coverage plus SEO features such as reporting and anchor text links starting at $150, significantly below PR Web’s $249 entry-level SEO package. We also get great friendly support from our Account Representative.

PressZoom

PressZoom is a budget friendly way to distribute your press release. The look of the website is very modern and clean, with no pictures and a lot of writing. PressZoom does give a lot of helpful tips about press release writing. For example, how not to make your press release look like an advertisement, thus making it susceptible to go into spam mail. Basic distribution is nineteen dollars, but you have an option of a free XML feed. There is also an option of premium distribution that is only forty-seven dollars, that guarantees a wide variety of options. In addition, there is no account making necessary, and if you use the premium distribution option your press release will go out quickly.

Dena: At first glance I was not very impressed with the website. I thought it too simple and boring. There seems to be little information on the website. However, if you do want something simple and quick it might be a viable option.

Press Media Wire

Press Media Wire is very similar to the other websites that offer press release wire services. It is helpful in the fact that it offers a simple FAQ sectional that gets questions you might have answered quickly. In addition, it also has three press release packages laid out with all the options that each one offers. You are able to submit a press release from twenty dollars to one hundred dollars, each has an option of two day or three day distribution. Press Media Wire also shows where your press release will be distributed, proving helpful if you want a specific category. Another important feature is that Press Media Wire offers free press release, for those who quickly want to get their news out.

Dena: I thought that Press Media Wire was very helpful, by laying out all their information. I like to know what options I am getting before I waste time making an account. I also thought the fact that they offer free distribution is cleaver, because they are going to get more people to access their website, and maybe later start paying for it.

Emailwire

Emialwire has no annual fees when making an account. Also, unlimited amounts of press releases can be sent for a flat rate. In addition, there are no fees if your press release goes over their wanted length, and also for any videos or images. Your news is delivered through other major wire services, allowing your release to reach more people. In addition to these options Emailwire offers EmailWireClip™ for free. This allows you to view your press release on online news sites, newswires, databases and search engines.

Dena: I thought that the appearance of this website was dull, but its options were not. It seems to be user friendly by offering all of these options for free. However, one thing that I found distracting was all the advertisements on the side. Some advertisements were inappropriate for a press release wire service website which might make some users leave the site.

Eworldwire

One interesting thing Eworldwire shows that most other press release wire services do not are the features of their competing websites. On their homepage, Eworldwire compares their features with those of other websites, showing why their service is better. In addition, Eworldwire prides itself in meeting the needs of their users. Eworldwire makes sure your press release goes to the webpages that will most benefit you. In addition, the most basic press release distribution service only costs seventy-five dollars. However, they do have a large variety of other distribution options that offer everything from podcasts to University Press Newslines. Eworldwire also gives advice about what will catch a journalist’s attention in only 2.7 seconds, because that is how much time it takes to see if a press release is interesting.

Dena: I like how this website has a lot of different options for distributing your press release, and how it also tells you the cost of each. It is also interesting that they put the price in US dollars and in British pounds, showing their business with other countries.

24-7 Press Release

24-7 Press Release is a fairly new and affordable press release service that offers forty-eight hour submission approval, to over four hundred channels. 24-7 Press Release also has a helpful FAQ section that shows you exactly how a press release on their website will look. They have an option to send your press release free over the web, or to pay as little as fifty dollars for basic distribution. However, they do have other packages that allow for much faster and better quality distribution, which is priced around $349. They also offer a featured press release option that puts your press release on the top three of that day. This will guarantee more hits and easier access for viewers.

Dena: I was impressed with the layout of this website. I thought it was very professional and very easy to navigate. It had information for the publisher, journalist and advertiser, which many other websites do not show upfront. I also found it very helpful because of the package information was upfront, and there was a useful FAQ page.

PR Free

Although the word “Free” is in the title, there is nothing free about this site. The minimum “contribution” to distribute a press release is thirty dollars. Even though this is not a large amount, PR Free does not state how much it will cost until you have entered in your press release and are about to click “Submit.” Nevertheless, this website is the only press release distribution service that is backed by “a true wire service, Eworldwire.” It also states that it is the only press release service that actually has copywriters and people with journalistic experience working for them. PR Free also gives hints about what a good press rerelease is. In addition, it gives ten most common “blunders” that can make your press release be ignored.

Dena: At first I was impressed with this site, because it gives information about how to write and submit a press release. However, after I realized that it said it was free but then made you make a contribution to submit your press release, I felt deceived. Overall, it might be a good place to put your release but keep in mind that there might be better for free.

PR Leap

PR Leap is a fairly new company that was started in 2003 and is quickly growing. They have more than 30,000 organizations as of December 2007. PR Leap has discontinued their free service, but their paid service is not very expensive, only costing around fifty dollars. There is a small biography about the owners of PR Leap, and much more information about their company on the company blog. In addition, they have a very helpful question and answer page, where most questions about their services can be answered.

Dena: This website seems fairly simple, with basic information about the services. From looking at the blog I can tell that the owners really enjoy what they are doing, and seem to care about the user. They keep the user updated, by posting many articles on their blog. However, they did have some difficulties with their website last month because of “pay hold” bug, but the problem was fixed rather quickly.

FREE Press Release Wire Services

The Open Press

The Open Press is a very professional website that offers the distribution of press releases for free. The free press releases will only show the release with plain text and it will only be on The Open Press for six months. In addition, they reject about thirty percent of the press releases and do not allow you to fix your mistakes and repost. However, they do have another option, press release with stars, which puts your press release on The Open Press’ PRO PR section. This ranks it higher on other websites, allowing for more viewers. The minimum price for this option is ten dollars and if you would like more stars, which gives you more options, then it is around fifty dollars. Another perk is that your press release will stay on the website for a year rather than six months. The Open Press also provides you with email alerts about your press release, making it easier to track.

Dena: Overall it seems to be very professional. It is a very helpful website, with how to write a release, and how to send it. It also gives you most of your options upfront. However, for being a free press release site it does have a lot of rules. When posting your article, there is an extensive list of “don’ts.” One thing that I did find interesting is that there is no room to edit. If they do not like your article then they will not post it, and you do not have a chance to edit it; this is something that most other websites allow you to do.

Christine: Free postings to this site recently resulted in some great organic rankings on Google.

Newswire Today

There is no fee to make an account with Newswire Today, and also no fee to send out a press release. They offer the basic options for free press release distribution. For example, your submission is published in the order it was received, with third party advertisements. However, they do have a Premium option in which your press release is published the same day, with a company logo, statistics, and no third party advertisements. The Premium option can range from ninety-five dollars to four hundred dollars.

Dena: In comparison to the other free press release wire service websites, this one was the simplest to do. Even though I used their free option they published my press release rather quickly after I submitted it. One problem that I did come across was that the date of my press release was changed after I tried to resubmit. I tried to change it after editing, but it would not allow me to. However, there is a company number that you can call for all questions.

My Free PR

My Free PR offers free distribution of press releases. Its layout and navigation of this website is a little more complicated than the other sites. Every link that you click has another one that comes up, and then another one, and eventually you lose track of where you wanted to go. In addition, there is very little information about the actual website and what it can offer.

Dena: This website is confusing. Every time I wanted to see something on their site, it led me to another place. Also, when submitting a press release it does not have a place for keywords, making it harder for people to find your press release.

Beyond Wire Services

In addition to traditional wire services, some trade sites will post releases for free. A set of sites that is especially interesting for technology company releases is the Pro-Talk family of sites (http://www.pro-talk.com/). Releases posted on EngineeringTalk and LaboratoryTalk have brought significant amount of traffic to our clients’ websites in addition to a page rank=6 quality backlink.

Hopefully these summaries will help you narrow down which press release wire service will be best suited for you. We will continue to update this list as more press release wire services come to our attention.

Christine Slocumb has 15 years of marketing, business development, and product management experience in Fortune 50 and startup firms. Christine has worked with technology firms on marketing strategy, business planning and marketing implementation. Clarity Quest is a leading Michigan marketing firm.

Dena Boutsikakis is a graduating senior from the University of Michigan, majoring in Communication Studies. She is interested in the marketing and advertising field, and hopes to pursue a career in those areas. Currently she is interning at Clarity Quest, an internet marketing firm in Ann Arbor, MI. She is expanding her knowledge of the marketing and advertising world through various assignments.

You may have read short items in you local paper or on the Internet news outlets that covers information on topics of interest about a company or individual doing something newsworthy. You might wonder how the reporters get these stories. The sad news about new reporting is that the vast majority of news stories are culled from Press Releases.

A well written and well distributed press piece can boost your business by over 10%. You can’t afford to pass up one of the best methods for creating Top Of Mind Awareness in your market. Top Of Mind Awareness is the ultimate goal of marketing and and advertising. The current fight for the attention of the consumer is getting harder to win. Way back in 1992 the average person was exposed to 3,000 messages a day now the number has gone up to almost 30,000 messages a day. The toughest goal of marketing is cutting through the clutter to get to your message to the consumer.

The key to public relations is relating to the public. They need to know what you want them to know. When people are aware of who you are and what you do, they are more inclined to respond positively to your other advertising and marketing programs. When they need your services or someone they know is in need; your name is on the tip of their tongue. The Top Ten Tips for a Successful Press Release Submission

1.Keep the length a maximum of one page or about 400 words.

2. Always write your press release in the third person. Any first person commentary, such as testimonials or product reviews should only be within quotes with the source listed.

3. Begin your press release with a short description of the news and then provide the details about the company who announced the news. Do not do this the other way around.

4. Be careful to base your press release on facts. Report the facts about your product or service without fluff or hype. Let the reporter decide from the facts that your business is special and newsworthy.

5.Use timely and new information related to current events. Don’t write about something old or well known. You should have a uniqueness to the topic.

6.When writing, remember who your audience is. Your audience is not your customers. Your audience is the journalists and editors. You must first sell the concept of the newsworthy information to the press.

7. If you can, add a photo of the product or a clear head shot.

8. Do not tell everything. Your purpose should be to provide enough information to generate interest and a follow-up from a reporter.

9. Provide as much contact information as possible: contact name, address, phone, fax, email, website address, etc.

10.You should have a link to your press releases at your website. Media may often come to your website and pick up an old story rather than the new story that drew them there in the first place. Also, the text helps with search engine placement because it provides good food for the search engine spiders.

If you can, follow up with a Press Release every month. The right people will begin to take notice of your news items. If they see your materials regularly you will begin to get the sense that you’re an expert in your field. After a while, you become the go-to person for your subject. When a news story comes up and they need an expert to comment on the story, your name is in their list under your particular topic. This is added mileage for your Public Relations efforts. Give this strategy a try, it will be an investment in time and effort that can add immeasurably to your bottom line.

Dennis Francis is a consultant and business coach for chiropractors and other professional healthcare and wellness practitioners. His website, You may have read short items in you local paper or on the Internet news outlets that covers information on topics of interest about a company or individual doing something newsworthy. You might wonder how the reporters get these stories. The sad news about new reporting is that the vast majority of news stories are culled from Press Releases.

A well written and well distributed press piece can boost your business by over 10%. You can’t afford to pass up one of the best methods for creating Top Of Mind Awareness in your market. Top Of Mind Awareness is the ultimate goal of marketing and and advertising. The current fight for the attention of the consumer is getting harder to win. Way back in 1992 the average person was exposed to 3,000 messages a day now the number has gone up to almost 30,000 messages a day. The toughest goal of marketing is cutting through the clutter to get to your message to the consumer.

The key to public relations is relating to the public. They need to know what you want them to know. When people are aware of who you are and what you do, they are more inclined to respond positively to your other advertising and marketing programs. When they need your services or someone they know is in need; your name is on the tip of their tongue. The Top Ten Tips for a Successful Press Release Submission

1.Keep the length a maximum of one page or about 400 words.

2. Always write your press release in the third person. Any first person commentary, such as testimonials or product reviews should only be within quotes with the source listed.

3. Begin your press release with a short description of the news and then provide the details about the company who announced the news. Do not do this the other way around.

4. Be careful to base your press release on facts. Report the facts about your product or service without fluff or hype. Let the reporter decide from the facts that your business is special and newsworthy.

5.Use timely and new information related to current events. Don’t write about something old or well known. You should have a uniqueness to the topic.

6.When writing, remember who your audience is. Your audience is not your customers. Your audience is the journalists and editors. You must first sell the concept of the newsworthy information to the press.

7. If you can, add a photo of the product or a clear head shot.

8. Do not tell everything. Your purpose should be to provide enough information to generate interest and a follow-up from a reporter.

9. Provide as much contact information as possible: contact name, address, phone, fax, email, website address, etc.

10.You should have a link to your press releases at your website. Media may often come to your website and pick up an old story rather than the new story that drew them there in the first place. Also, the text helps with search engine placement because it provides good food for the search engine spiders.

If you can, follow up with a Press Release every month. The right people will begin to take notice of your news items. If they see your materials regularly you will begin to get the sense that you’re an expert in your field. After a while, you become the go-to person for your subject. When a news story comes up and they need an expert to comment on the story, your name is in their list under your particular topic. This is added mileage for your Public Relations efforts. Give this strategy a try, it will be an investment in time and effort that can add immeasurably to your bottom line.

Dennis Francis is a consultant and business coach for chiropractors and other professional healthcare and wellness practitioners. His website, http://www.doublemyrevenues.com offers its members online coaching on automating marketing on and off the web. He offers a free book called “Double Your Revenues in 12 Months or Less.” offers its members online coaching on automating marketing on and off the web. He offers a free book called “Double Your Revenues in 12 Months or Less.”

Article is very efficient vehicle to get more traffic to your website, increase its page rank, plus as a consequence to get more leads for your sales department. If you are novice in SEO or getting your website higher on the Google ranking, you should know the differences in search engine treating for article and press release. Let’s review article submission strategy and its special niche in comparison to PR or video and text blogs:

1. Article means new knowledge and no ads. When you are writing your article, please try to keep reasonable compromise between you and media portal editor - you would like to place as much keywords in article header as possible while article editor will try to minimize the number of keywords in the header - editor is stronger than you - he can simply decline the article, which is abusing its header and introduction sentences. Article allows author (not company) logo or small photo

2. Press Release means new product or service announcement and it has date and place, introduction, body, and about company sections. Press Release normally allows you some advertisement, but in very modest manner. Press Release could be placed to a large number of media sites, sometimes for small fee, but often free of charge. Press Release typically has shorter life cycle and is forgotten in few months - similar to paper magazine or newspaper publication

3. Where to submit. Assuming that your news is ready for publication, next question is where to submit? This requires you to do your homework and preparation. Open Google, type in the search box something like “submit your article”. Bunch of web pages will be on the first page. Well - open each one-by-one, establish (typically free) account and go ahead and publish. Then you should expect new article submission sites portals will send you invitations to publish on their sites and you will become established author in very short period of time - if you publish one article per week - one year is the reasonable period to become famous author.

Andrew Karasev, Pegas Planet: http://www.pegasplanet.com, subdivision of Alba Spectrum Group: http://www.albaspectrum.com, serving video press release, article, blogging community in USA and Internationally. Taisia Karaseva is Pegas Planet concept author and CEO. You can submit your article, PR, photo or video blog here: http://www.pegasplanet.com/SubmitNews/SubmitNews.aspx

Considering how fundamental they are to the publicist’s trade,
it’s always amazed me how lousy almost all press kits truly are.
Your typical press kit is a bloated folder filled with puffery,
hype, irrelevant information and worse. The vast majority of
these monstrosities do little besides kill trees and clog
newsroom trash baskets.

The good news is that creating a press kit that actually works
really isn’t that hard. Let’s look at the elements of a winning
press kit, and help you avoid some common pitfalls.

The Psychology of a Press Kit

There are two fundamental rules to creating a good press kit:

1. The press kit exists to make the journalist’s life easier, not
for you to present sales messages and hype. Good publicists are
journalist-centric — that is, they think from the perspective of
the recipient, not the sender. They take the time to learn what
journalists need and then they give it to them in as simple,
straightforward and user-friendly a manner as possible.
Remember, publicity is not about you — it’s about giving
journalists what they need to create a strong story.

2. Everything in the press kit goes to support your clincher.
Everything else gets yanked out. (A refresher: a “clincher” is
my term for the one or two line distillation of your publicity
message. It’s the publicist’s version of the Universal Selling
Proposition that marketers use to boil a product’s marketing
message down to its essence.) You lay out your clincher in the
pitch letter that gets clipped to the cover of the press kit, and
the press kit serves to flesh out and support your clincher.
That’s it. If your clincher is that you’ve brought a radical new
way of thinking to your market segment, then a backgrounder about
your “old fashioned commitment to excellence” not only doesn’t
support your clincher, it may actually contradict it.

The Elements of a Press Kit

The Cover: In my twenty years as a publicist, I have never
encountered a single journalist who told me the cover a press kit
had the slightest impact on their decision whether to run a
story. Yet, businesses still spend thousands on glossy, four
color folder covers. Don’t bother. A simple colored folder with
your business name imprinted upon it will work just fine.

Some businesses choose to get stickers printed up with their logo
and place them on blank folders, which is fine too, as long as
the stickers are neatly applied. Either way, don’t obsess over
it — it’s what’s inside that counts.

Letterhead: The first page of each press kit element should be
on your letterhead. Some folks prefer to get special “News from
(name of company)” letterhead printed, although, again, I doubt
it really matters.

The Lead Release: If your press kit is going out in support of
an announcement, an event, a trend story or for another specific
purpose, the release that lays out the news should be the first
thing a journalist sees upon opening the folder. This “lead
release” should be positioned at the front of the right side of
the folder.

Backgrounder: This is the element of your kit that provides,
well, the background information to support your pitch. It’s
written in the fashion of a standard news feature (i.e. in third
person, objective tone). This is typically the longest element
in a press kit, often going 2 or 3 pages. As you’re crafting
this, keep something important in mind: if a journalist is
reading your backgrounder, chances are he’s already interested in
your pitch. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t bother with it. You’ve
hooked him and the backgrounder can reel him in. To do so, you
must answer the two questions he has: “Is the claim made in the
pitch legitimate?” and “Is there enough material here for me to
do a story?”

Your pitch letter (based on your clincher) made a claim of some
sort about you, your company or your product. You’re the
fastest, the most advanced, the hottest-selling, the most civic-
minded, etc. Now you have to back up your claim. Your
backgrounder is where this happens. Provide proof, by giving
concrete examples, third party observations, study results, etc.
to support your pitch. If you’re claiming that there’s a trend
taking place, here’s where you provide the statistics to back it
up. If you’ve claimed that you’ve won more awards that anyone
else in town, here’s where you describe them. Don’t stray from
your purpose — to reel in the journalist by convincing him that
your claim is legit.

The backgrounder also must demonstrate that enough material
exists to support the claim - and that it will be easy for the
journalist to access this information. Journalists don’t have
time to do extended investigation on every piece. Provides leads
to websites, trade journals, experts and other resources to back
up your claim and help the journalist complete the story, you’ll
have a big edge.

To write a backgrounder, do some role playing. You’re a
reporter. Your editor has handed you a pitch letter and said
“write this up”. In this case, of course, the pitch letter is
your own. While you’re writing it, try to forget that the piece
is, essentially, about you. Pretend you’re an objective
reporter. Track down resources, dig up stats, interview
experts. Try to see if you can create a credible piece that
proves the pitch’s claim to be valid and interesting to the
reader. If you can, you’ve got a great backgrounder. If you
can’t, it may be time to come up with a new pitch!

Bio: Only include bios of people who are relevant to the pitch.
A bio of your sales manager in a press kit designed to support a
claim of technological superiority is pointless. A bio of your
head of R&D is valid. Keep bios short (three paragraphs at the
most) and include only information relevant to the pitch. The
fact your head of R&D spent twenty years at NASA is relevant,
that she loves golf and has two cats isn’t. The point of a bio:
to show the legitimacy of those quoted in your release or being
offered for interview, and to help the reporter craft a short
description of the person when writing the piece.

Fact Sheet: The fact sheet should distill the entire press kit
into an “at a glance” document. Keep it short, use bullet points
and bold headings. For example, I might start with the heading
The Story: and include a bullet point repeating the pitch. The
next heading might be Why It’s Important: followed by some
bullet points putting the pitch into a broader industry-wide (or
perhaps even worldwide) context. Finally, I might use the
heading Why (name of my company) is at the Heart of this Vital
Story: and run some bullet points taken from the backgrounder
giving support to my claim. Put this fact sheet at the front of
the left side of the folder, just across from the lead release.
This sort of fact sheet is amazingly powerful and almost never
crafted in the fashion I just laid out. I’ve sold countless
stories because of this style of fact sheet and you can too.

Other Stuff: Filling out the kit with a company brochure and a
photo or two is reasonable, but don’t get carried away. Keep your
kit simple, stick to your clincher and think like a journalist,
not a marketer, and you’ll have crafted a first class press kit!

Bill Stoller, the “Publicity Insider”, has spent two decades as
one of America’s top publicists. Now, through his website, eZine
and subscription newsletter, Free Publicity: The Newsletter for
PR-Hungry Businesses http://www.PublicityInsider.com/freepub.asp
he’s sharing — for the very first time — his secrets of scoring
big publicity. For free articles, killer publicity tips and
much, much more, visit Bill’s exclusive new site:
http://www.PublicityInsider.com

At present, various search engines are playing a vital role in popularizing websites. In fact, these search engines are not only increasing the popularity of online market but also developing new ways of online marketing. Right now, numbers of search engines are escalating the search process and providing visitors with the finest information on every topic. Many individuals are getting their news and information from news aggregator services and news websites offered by major search engines. These news search engines are offering latest information on every political, historical and social topic. Be it an editorial listing or a sponsored link, a good search engine ranking can bring thousands of visitors to any site; in fact, with top rank on search engine listing a website can get numerous page views and extended press coverage. Usually, most of the press releases do not get desired views, as their content fails to highlight the appropriate keyword. To deal with this problem press release optimization is used; this technique perfectly emphasizes of suitable keyword so that the search engine may find it easily. This technique enhances the visibility of any press release and enables it to grab attention of more and more visitors.

The basic motive of press release optimization is to optimize the content and to submit it with major news search engines. Professionals, who optimize press releases, also submit that keyword rich press release with most renowned online newswire services. Press release optimization popularizes prolific information of your company so that the online visibility of your website can be increased effectively. In fact, this process is cable of attracting target audience, as it provides them with instant and useful information just through a mouse click. With keyword optimization and proper distribution, your press release can also get measurable traffic and sales.

For getting desired success on online arena, every business owner needs to speak the language of consumers. A business can never flourish without grabbing attention of its target consumer segment therefore every business owner needs to take care of every aspect of online presence of his or her business. Press release optimization is that perfect online marketing technique that enables the business owner to make his or her online business visible on World Wide Web. Press releases that are optimized through this technique do not involve poetic content to evoke an emotional response but these press releases contain useful and lucid information about any upcoming product or service.

Professionals, who optimize press releases through press release optimization technique, also change their language and convert the content into keyword based informative articles. To check the effectiveness of press release optimization, URL tracking to the relevant page of the websites is used; with this technique the visitors can follow the link to the host site. Basically, this technique gives the best results when the host site offers a call to action so that the visitor may check the special lending page of your website. Therefore, if press releases of your business are not getting targeted traffic, then optimize them to get incredible traffic with the best opportunities.

Steve Waganer has specialization in web marketing. He is expert in search engine optimization, press release optimization, search engine marketing firm, social media optimization. To get the SEO tips from, SEO firm for your website to get high rank and top position in major search engines visit www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

In a fiercely competitive online atmosphere, press releases can be a valuable resource for increasing your company’s overall visibility, but only if they’re optimized effectively. Remember, this tactic is no longer just about publicizing your latest news. Instead, it’s about creating visibility through multiple channels that allow you to connect through content, reaching those audience segments that are relevant to your company and purpose.

When optimized correctly, online press releases can do all of the following:

* Boost Search Engine Rankings for SEO
* Drive Targeted Traffic
* Build Brand Awareness
* Save Money on Pay-Per-Click Campaigns
* Usurp Position From Competition on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)

Despite these numerous benefits, however, many companies continue to use unoptimized press releases that don’t work as well as they could. Instead, these lazy releases stagnate in Deleted folders and are never indexed by the major search engines. Remember, this isn’t a traditional press release like Grandma used to write.

Unlike traditional press releases, which were succinct and written with readers in mind, online press releases need to be more carefully crafted. An online press release (like SEO in general), is half art and half science - in addition to appealing to readers, they need to be optimized for search engines in order to drive results. A few simple modifications could increase their effectiveness drastically, providing far more SEO benefit to your online presence than they would have otherwise.

So how do you write and optimize an online press release that will drive tangible results?

First and foremost, employ common sense and reason. No one wants to read something that isn’t newsworthy, and these type of releases won’t garner any publicity. In fact, according to a DM News survey, 98 percent of journalists are online every day, and almost 75 percent are searching for press releases. So before you write anything, ask yourself if the story you’re thinking about publicizing is newsworthy. As a member of your industry, whatever that may be, would you take the time to read it? If not, don’t waste your time. Wait for a story that will make a splash and matter to your audience.

Next, identify the keywords your press release will utilize. Align them with the keywords and phrases you’re already optimizing in order to derive the highest SEO benefit. In order to make sure you’re choosing those with the most potential, start with some quick competitive analysis. This can be done by performing a News search that includes your keyword on Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN, or any other popular search engine.

Looking at the results page, you’ll know if this is the right keyword or phrase to chase? How? By the amount of competition it presents. If you notice that most of the results are spread out over a longer time span, this keyword is a good opportunity because there clearly isn’t as much competition. On the other hand, if your search turns up ten stories from the past few days, you’ll know that this term is much more competitive due to the many stories you’re competing against.

Now that you’re aware of the competitive landscape, determine the amount of flexibility you have to work with. As I mentioned before, if you’re attempting to enter a space that’s crowded with recent news, you’ll need to focus on a single keyword phrase, while if you have more flexibility, you can chase several permutations of your keywords.

In the end, it’s a better idea to focus on specific online niches, crafting your press release in a way that you know will appeal to your potential readers. Your press release will be much more potent if it gets noticed within a specific sector than if it languishes away in relative obscurity, hidden somewhere in a crowd of similar stories.

This simple research phase can make all the difference in whether your press release gets noticed, but it’s often the most overlooked aspect of this strategy. Don’t get trapped milling around in the virtual crowd - stand out and get noticed by optimizing around the keywords that hold the most potential.

Once you’ve completed this critical research step, you will have identified the most potent keywords with which to write your press release. Now you’re finally ready to start writing!

Start with the headline, the most important part of your press release. Include your most competitive keywords in this headline. While it may be tempting to simply combine all of your keywords, it’s imperative that your headline remains both condensed yet descriptive. Think like a journalist and a searcher here. Stick to the basics, providing the essential facts and the who, what, where, when, and why. All of the major search engines start by looking for keywords in headlines, so be sure to give them what they’re looking for in order to capitalize on relevancy. Observe these rules and you’ll also attract those all important human readers.

After you’ve crafted the headline, it’s time to start writing the body of your press release. Begin by isolating several related phrases to maximize your SEO potential. For example, if you’re publicizing the launch of your new SEO site, your headline may be something like Fusionbox Launches SEO Microsite.

Don’t fall victim to the constraints you’ll encounter with the use of just one keyword or phrase. Instead, use a web of related keyphrases to expand your reach. Alternate permutations like “Fusionbox Launches Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Microsite,” for example, will invariably broaden your scope and influence. These various combinations allow your release to appear in News results for these related phrases as well.

Try rotating various combinations of keywords in the body of the release as well to create more diversity and cover more ground. For example:

“Fusionbox, a Denver SEO agency, recently lauched a new microsite devoted to search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. The company, which specializes in search engine marketing (SEM), web design, and web development, needed a unique platform to reach clients looking for optimization solutions and showcase their SEO services.”

Rather than using the same keyword phrase repetitively and sounding like a broken record (which drives human readers away), this sentence sprinkles other keyword combinations that expand the SEO value of the release without detracting from readability.

Be creative here. Don’t try to overload on keywords or your release won’t flow like good writing should. A good rule of thumb is to write with an eye for your keywords, incorporating them into the release when natural opportunities appear.

Once you’ve finished writing your release, read over it again and circle your keywords in red. Does it sound natural or look like a finished New York Times word search? If so, take a step back and ensure your work flows while maintaining general SEO copywriting best practices and a healthy keyword density.

Next, look for instances of your keywords where you could include a backlink to your site. This will allow you to build valuable incoming links to your site, which are a major determinant of search engine positioning. Remember to use the full URL in your link if you can’t employ anchor text, as this will ensure your link is indexed and available to search engines and readers alike. 1` Finally, you’ve finished writing your optimized press release. Now you’re ready to begin the submission process. There are an infinite number of press release sites on the Internet, but some are far superior to others. Before you go about submitting anywhere and everywhere, make sure the sites you’re submitting content to are crawled by the major search engines, or else you won’t get any SEO benefit from your release.

Many of the more popular distribution services are indexed by Google News, Yahoo News, and others, but make sure by searching for related stories on these engines and noting where the top results originate. This way, you’ll get a better idea of which distribution channels specific search engines favor.

Target these for your own release to ensure your content will be visible where it matters, especially as Universal search rolls onto the scene, showing News links among the regular search results.

As you can see, optimizing your press release is a somewhat complex endeavor. Still, considering that an optimized release is an essential ingredient to a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign for its ability to boost search engine rankings, drive targeted traffic, build brand awareness, and even help you gain digital real estate on the SERPs (search engine results page), the juice is definitely worth the squeeze.

Just observe the best practices I’ve described above and you’ll build your online presence in this fiercely competitive online atmosphere where visibility is everything. An optimized press release will allow you to connect with your target audience through content while deriving tangible SEO benefits.

Nick Yorchak is a Search Engine Marketing Specialist at Fusionbox, a full-service Denver Internet marketing agency offering complete SEM solutions. He can be reached at (303)952-7490. For more information on optimization strategies, see the free Fusionbox SEO Resources library or browse Nick’s SEO blog.

Press releases are amazing in their ability to accomplish so much in so few words. Consider this: a piece of writing of, say, 300 to 500 words can reach readers all over the world, almost instantaneously, at little or no cost. You can submit frequent press releases for a cumulative effect. And sometimes a news publication will get so excited about the news item that they’ll assign someone to turn it into a complete story.

Following are the basics of creating an effective news release.

The purpose of a press release:

# To create awareness about your business and your product or service.
# To establish an image of you and your business as standouts in your niche.
# To drive traffic to your website or store.

How to use press releases most effectively:

# Don’t think of a press release as a one-time thing. Send them frequently, perhaps once a month, to maintain top-of-mind awareness among your target audience.
# Sell, don’t just tell. Since your goal is to generate business, your news needs to be more compelling than “here we are, we’d love to have your business.” It’s okay to use that occasionally, or just to get started. More persuasive angles are discussed below.
# Distribute them far and wide. Depending on whether you’re an online business, a brick-and-mortar business, or both, you have many options: your local newspaper(s), trade publications, and online news release services. Go ahead and send it multiple places.

Attention-grabbing angles for a press release:

# Push an emotional hot button. Depending on your product or service and your own convictions, there’s a lot to choose from; hot-button issues are famous for getting people to take notice–and take action.
# Piggyback on a current news item. Anything in the news already has their attention; they’ll be interested in your story for more information.
# Tie into a holiday. And be imaginative with what constitutes a holiday! Probably every week of the year, there’s a recognition of some sort; find one that connects with what you do.
# Hook up with a charity. Depending on your niche, it could be animals, children, world hunger, or any number of good causes. The ways you can capitalize on people’s generosity are almost countless.
# Tell about a controversy. Or…create one, by challenging something that an expert has recently said.
# Reveal a scam. People love to hate scams, and this works very well in certain niches.
# Announce a free report you’ve just released. (Be prepared to deliver the report, of course.)
# Hold a contest. Or ask for contributions of reader stories on a particular theme that relates to your business.
# Give away a free product or service.
# Do a human-interest story. People love warm-fuzzy stories, so this is one that has great potential for being turned into a full-length story.

Remember, whatever angle you choose, the press release should always lead back to you, your business, your product or service, your website, or your store. A word of caution, though: in order to do its job, a press release must be done right! No readers means no buyers.

The ultimate goal of a press release is to motivate people to buy from you. When done right, they can be powerful marketing tools. Find someone skilled in writing press releases and get in the habit of sending them out regularly. Before you know it, you’ll be the best-known business in your niche–and have the profits to show it.

Lisa J. Lehr is a freelance copywriter specializing in direct response and marketing collateral, with a special interest in the health, pets, specialty foods, and inspirational/motivational/self-help niches. She has a degree in biology, has worked in a variety of fields including pharmaceuticals and teaching, and has volunteered for many causes including special-needs kids and literacy. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, art, music, outdoor exercise, and all things Celtic and Renaissance.

Have you signed up for her free e-mail series on marketing strategies?

http://www.justrightcopy.com

Press releases have some unique characteristics that can contribute to an increase in search engine positioning for your site. They are similar in many ways to pages that use search engine copywriting techniques. They have a narrow focus, include copy that deals with one specific topic, incorporate the use of key phrases and use keyword-rich headlines. Usually, people either do not like or do not have the time to read poorly written content. Therefore, when you are writing an optimised press release, it is essential that you write with concise language, correct grammar and credibility. Besides increasing readership, you will make the search engines very happy, which is exactly what you are looking for!

Press releases incorporate each of the elements used with good search engine copywriting, which make them the perfect addition to your site. Because search engine spiders follow links, you will have to open a door from your home page to the section of your site that houses the press releases so your web pages displaying the releases will be picked by the Search Engines.

As well as adding Press releases to your site, you should consider posting them to specific press releases websites.

Newsworthy press releases that are optimised with keyword-rich content are invaluable to your business. If properly optimised, press releases add the potential for increased traffic to your site from clients searching for your product and business, provide improved rankings overall and in News search engines, and increase your chances of additional press. They may even enhance backlinks (also called inbound links) to you website. Press releases also increase your brand awareness.

Another use of press releases is linked with inbound links and link building. When you submit your press releases to those websites, think of leaving your URL somewhere and even better, add some anchor text links in your press release on target keywords that would link back to your site, thus helping your site to achieve better positions and get more traffic.

Romain works for White Hat Media, a good SEO company providing link building, keyword research and more Search Engine Marketing services.