Get media attention with a press release

You don't have to be a corporation or a publicist to write a press release. Anyone can write one.

The main purpose of a press release is to make a newsworthy announcement about your business. Journalists are always looking for story ideas - and your press release may prompt them to contact you.

In order to get the attention of the media, your press release must answer the question: "Why should anyone care about this?"

Write a press release to announce things such as:

Your new book

An event that you're planning or sponsoring

A new service that you're offering

Expert training that you have completed

Write in an engaging manner, as if you were talking to a friend. The press release should fit on one page, and should have attention-grabbing headline.

In my Market With Authority Home Study Course, you'll hear a Chicago Publicist reveal how she worded a headline that generated calls from major media with minutes of posting a press release online.

Press releases follow a certain format. For guidelines and tips try one of these websites:
eHow: How to write a proper press release
wikiHow: How to write a press release
PRWeb: Press release tips and guidelines
Pressbox: Writing press releases for online use

Submit your press releases online. Here's a list of sources.

Scribd - the 'youtube' of article publishing

In my last blog post I described how to get more mileage out of your articles by submitting them to article banks.

Here's another idea: upload them to Scribd.com, which combines article hosting with social media.

That means people can comment on your articles and/or easily share them with others - thus the potential for your articles becoming viral.

Scribd uses technology called iPaper, which converts documents to Flash format. (Scroll down to see an example.) Flash is built into all Internet browsers. If you can view youtube videos, you will be able to read iPaper documents. iPaper uses less memory than Adobe Acrobat, and loads faster.

To use Scribd, sign up for a free account. Upload your article in .doc, .pdf or other supported file types. All formatting and images will be retained as you originally set them.

Next, choose a topic category for your article, and type in keywords that tell the search engines what your article is about.

You can decide whether to make your article public or private.

You can also decide whether to allow the article to be downloaded, and in what format (plain text, Word doc, pdf.) If you want your article to be read only online, and not downloaded, uncheck all the download options.

Assuming you make your article public, website owners can add it to their site by simply copying and pasting the 'embed' code - similar to how youtube videos are streamed through individual websites. Your article appears in its entirety, in its original format. You can use the embed code to show your articles at your own website, blog or Facebook page.

Here's an example of one of my articles that I uploaded to scribd.com. To enlarge the font, click the little down arrow to reveal a drop-down menu. Or to view in full-screen mode, click the icon at the top right corner of the document window.

Breaking Up is Hard To Do - Especially for Men

Get your own at Scribd or explore others: Health divorce breakup

Get more mileage out of your articles

One of the best ways to establish yourself as an expert online is to write articles.

You can post them on your website, of course. But to get greater distribution, you should submit them to article banks, such as ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com and others. Just search for "article bank" at your favorite search engine for thousands of other article banks.

Article banks are websites dedicated to collection and dissemination of articles written by experts who offer their work for free.

When you submit your articles to article banks, they may get picked up by publishers who are looking for fresh content for their ezines, newsletters and websites. Thus you have the potential of reaching audiences that you would otherwise not have access to.


Boost your chances of getting your article picked up by publishers:

• Publishers generally look for brief articles that offer tips, advice or insight - emphasis is on BRIEF. Keep your articles to 500-700 words.

• Keep your focus very narrow. Better to cover one or two points well than to try to pack in tons of information.

• Write on topics that appeal to large groups of people. But don't be so general that your article is watered down.

Include links back to your website.

In the body of your article, or at the end, be sure to include a link back to your website or blog. 2 reasons for this:

1. It will encourage readers of other people's ezines, newsletters and websites to visit your website. Those who click on your link are obviously curious about you or what you have to offer. Once they get to your website, they'll learn more about how you can help them.
   
   
2. It will boost your ranking in the search engines. When people click over to your website from somewhere else on the internet, that tells Google and other search engines that these other websites are "recommending" you - which raises your popularity value in search results.

Click to learn more about marketing yourself online to build a strong expert presence in this tough economy.

-- Pauline