The press release is a vital instrument for businesses and individuals worldwide. A press release or press statement is an article written expressly for the news media. The purpose of a press release is to announce something considered to be news worthy.

Traditionally press releases are mailed, faxed or e-mailed to the editors of newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations and new networks. But since the advent of the internet the press release has morphed into an entirely different animal.

Individuals and businesses now have the ability to quickly and easily spread their news. A wide range of press release submission sites sprung up to cater to the flood of incoming press releases but because there were so many new press releases and distribution websites they became diluted. People are simply not reading press releases anymore and their content reflects that. Now press releases are used more for link purposes than anything else. The current reality is that there are too many press releases to do anything with other than use them for SEO purposes.

Writing a Press Release

For the beginner writing a press release is a daunting task. But never fear, the average person can write a professional news release. Anyone with decent reading and writing skills can create a press release. A press release is informational and thereby only needs hard raw facts to work.

Make sure you have “news”

The goal of your press release is to inform the world about your news. Make sure you evaluate your news and make sure that it’s actually newsworthy. Nobody cares if Joe Schmoe down the street is starting his own online business. Identify the 5 W’s of your story (who, what, where when, why) and write an informative article, don’t put emphasis on copy or sales. Remember this is a news piece.

Write for News Organizations

Believe it or not many news stories are picked up from an informative and well written press release. There are even occasions where the news outlets will use your story unmodified. This is great exposure and being in the news is always good.

Embellishment

Exaggerations and embellishments can really hurt your cause here so try to avoid them. If the news you have is not exciting enough on its own to be newsworthy then consider waiting for a better subject. Remember too that since this is news any self-aggrandizement can hurt your credibility.

Simplicity

Make sure to avoid using industry specific terminology since outsiders will not be able to understand it. Another important thing is to limit the amount of words used in your press release. Limiting your words expresses your ideas with more clarity.

Submission

Since the link back is such a vital component of Press Release optimization it is important that your PR syndication website offers this. Here we have compiled a collection of Press Release submission websites that will allow you to place hyper-links in your release.

http://www.prweb.com/
http://www.prleap.com/
http://www.marketwire.com
http://www.articleuniversity.com/
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/BizNews/pressrelease.htm
http://www.looselycoupled.com/news/lsubrelease.html
http://www.bizeurope.com/pressrelease.htm
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/
http://www.pressreleasespider.com/AddFeed.aspx
http://www.prfree.com/index.php
http://www.ap.org/pages/contact/contact_pr.html
http://www.greatpossibilities.com/articles/publish/submit.shtml
http://www.dime-co.com/submitpress.html
http://www.thehostingnews.com/SubmitHostingNews.html
http://www.prurgent.com/submit_press_release.htm
http://www.theopenpress.com/
http://www.free-press-release.com/
http://www.agencyfaqs.com/news/company_news/submit.html
http://express-press-release.com/submit-press-release.php
http://www.i-newswire.com/submit.php
http://www.press-base.com/add-press.html
http://www.fpsnewswire.com/freepost.asp
http://www.addpr.com/addrelease.php
http://www.1888pressrelease.com/