About Shaun T. Shaun has been marketing online since 1996, and is a veteran of both the domain name and adult entertainment industries. He launched Wealth.info with the goal of providing easy to follow information in a very confusing area, online network marketing.

Ever since one of my other sites starting running Press Releases in its news section, I’ve been amazed at how poorly written many of them are. Writing a press release is not rocket science, and if done correctly can be a great way to publicize your website.

First off, you need a good reason to put out a press release. For instance, you’ve just launched or re-launched your website, or perhaps a contest. You don’t want to over do it and put out a press release every time you update your content. But if you’ve got a good reason, by all means put out a PR!

All PR’s start the same way, and so should yours. Type “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” in all caps, followed by your contact info.

The next, and some might argue the most important, element of a press release is the headline. You want something that’s short, but that catches the eye and is also informative. Most people will only see the headline, so I think it’s always good to try to include your website name. For instance, instead of:

We’re Giving Away $1000 A Month!

I’d use something like…

Wealth.info Launches $1000 Monthly Giveaway!

This way, they get the news even if they don’t read the body.

Next comes the body of the PR. You should begin with your location, and the date. If you’d rather not use your town, or if the PR is a joint release between two companies in separate locations, you can use “Cyberspace” as your town. Some editors may frown on this, but it’s commonly done.

The first paragraph of the release should simply state the news or announcement you’re making. Be short and to the point. You should ALWAYS write in 3rd person, as if you were a reporter writing a story about yourself. I know it feels weird, but that’s how it’s done. You want to sound professional, so don’t go overboard with adjectives, or sound too “sales pitchy”. For instance…

Resource site and community Wealth.info announced today that it will be holding a series of $1000 giveaways. To become eligible, you simply need to register for your free account and post at least one entry to the site.

Next, elaborate a little bit, and/or talk about your company.

Wealth.info is a resource site and community for multi-level marketers. The site consists of four sections - articles, forums, directory, and FAQs. Members can submit articles, commentary, and tutorials, discuss and network in the forums, and post their services and products in the resource directory.

I always like to include at least one quote, usually talking about how excited I am about something or other:

“I’m very excited about this contest,” remarked site founder Shaun T.  “The same person can even win multiple months, so it should be a lot of fun.”

Wrap things up with any “fine print” you feel you should include. Then type “For More Information:” and follow it with your contact info.

After that, hit return a few times, and then put three pound signs:

###

This tells the reader that the press release is over.

Be sure to spell and grammar check everything! Proof read it several times. I find that if I read something out loud I often catch mistakes I missed before. Or even better, have someone else proof read it for you!

Now that you’ve got your PR written, you need to submit it to news outlets. Here are several links you may find helpful:

Run Your Press Release on MarketWire
Run Your Press Release on BusinessWire