announcements or press releases

**Chilihost** · 05-03-2006, 03:04 PM

I know there are a few experts with announcements or press releases on the board, so I am asking for some help. How do you do it? Is there a common set of places to submit to? Do you hire someone to do this for you? Is there a person or company that offers this service?

cheers,
Luke

**XXXWriterDude** · 05-03-2006, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by Chilihost

I know there are a few experts with announcements or press releases on the board, so I am asking for some help. How do you do it? Is there a common set of places to submit to? Do you hire someone to do this for you? Is there a person or company that offers this service?

cheers,
Luke

Anyone can write a press release. They are essentially stories designed to market your site/product. They are pretty easy to write, as long as you have a basic grasp on story writing and proper grammar.

You can post your press release on all the webmaster boards, and you can email them to AVN Online and Xbiz, among others. You don't need to hire anyone to do this for you, unless you are too busy to do it yourself. Anyone can market themselves.

It's essentially like writing a strong news story. You want to start off with your lead (the reason for the release), then go into specifics in the body and make sure you include quotes from the pertinent players.

Go to avnonline.com and look at the press releases section. There are a bunch of examples in there.

dwaynered · 05-03-2006, 03:21 PM

Ditto to what Ken said. You are your best PR person!

**Lee** · 05-03-2006, 03:24 PM

Ken and Dwayne are correct, anyone can write a press release however, not everyone can write a good press release.

You might want to try writing one yourself and have a few people read it over before sending out to places.

Also, when it comes to posting your press release on message boards, dont post the same message on every board, instead, alter it, that way, more 'eyes' will end up seeing your news. For example, if you mention 'affiliate program' in your press release, make sure you change those words on the next place you post it to 'sponsor program' and on the next board change it to, 'webmaster program' the next one, 'cash program', the next one, 'revshare', the next 'per sale', etc etc etc

Regards,

Lee

**Chilihost** · 05-03-2006, 04:46 PM

Thanks, I am pretty sure I can write it up myself (with a little help from some friends who I will be bugging)...its just the submit process thats puzzling me. I will definately be posting it here and on a few other boards that I am active, but what about all those other boards out there? And yes, AVN Online and Xbiz are both now on my list. Any others that are recommended?

Lee, good tip on the variation stuff, that would help with boardtracker too!

cheers,
Luke

**basschick** · 05-03-2006, 04:58 PM

xbiz sends your press release to more places, so you'll see some action from good places you didn't submit

**chadknowslaw** · 05-03-2006, 06:46 PM

When I was running for [and winning~] political office, I learned the value of a good press release. I had one campaign volunteer that did nothing but write press releases.

Newspapers and other media outlets have reporters that are usually overworked and underpaid. They have a need to write articles that are timely and interesting to their readers while meeting deadlines.

If you present a well-written news article about you, then you have just provided a pre-written news piece that is [hopefully] timely and interesting to read. You have just made someone else's life easier.

Your press release should sound like a news story, so it will not need editing. Make sure you include your name and all contact information as well as date of release. After your story, put a paragraph that states you are giving the recipient permission to publish and permission to give the story to others to republish; also permission to edit as necessary and *permission to the recipient to claim authorship*. That way it can be edited slightly [or not at all] and the reporter will run it with his or her name as author, making it appear more like a news story and less like a press release, because news stories are more interesting than press releases.

It is the advertising you just cannot buy.

**XXXWriterDude** · 05-03-2006, 07:04 PM

You have no idea how many HORRIBLE press releases we are sent at AVN Online. Some people don't even have a fundamental grasp on language. I often wonder, How did you possibly graduate high school with these English skills? They must have been on the football team.

From what I see, Xbiz does very little editing to press releases. We take a bit more time to clean them up and make them sound more professional before we post them on the AVNOnline.com site, which is one reason why you'll see some pieces make it up on Xbiz before they do on AVNOnline.com. My personal belief is that by making someone sound better, you make them look better.