“I posted my press release to 5 different press release sites and it only shows up once in Google News. What am I doing wrong?” I get questions about this problem all the time. First off make sure that the press release distribution sites you are submitting to, feed their content to http://news.google.com . To check this, read the instructions here: http://www.bignews.biz/blog/?p=6 this page also includes a list of sites that feed content to Google news.

Once you are sure that the sites you are submitting to do feed their content to Google news, go to http://news.google.com and do a search for a phrase or group of keywords that can only be found in your press release. Once your release comes up in the search results, click on the text link in the upper right corner that says “Sort by date with duplicates included” the search results will then list all of the press release and news sites that published your release.

Creating A Blog To Enhance Your Online Business

Blogging was once thought of as an outlet for people to talk about their hobbies and lives online. However, this is no longer the case. Business people now use blogs to showcase their goods and services in a new way. Not only does this method allow the consumer to feel more connected to your business, blogs are highly favored by the search engines and when done correctly can lead to free targeted traffic that would otherwise be missed.

What should you write about?

The content of your blog is extremely important. In each post, try to give your customers something they can use that will make their life better in some small way. By giving them something of value, you give them a reason to come back to your blog. Understand who your customers are and target your articles towards them. Avoid marketing hype and blatant advertising. A business blog is an opportunity for you to have a dialog with your customers allowing you to improve your brand and get feedback from them that you can use to improve your business.

One of the biggest problems with blogs is when you first start them, you are enthusiastic and have plenty of content to post. As time goes by though, it becomes more difficult to create and publish content. To address this problem, create a list of topics you would like to write about over the coming months. If after reviewing your list you find that there is no way you will have the time to write and post all the content that you want, it might be a good idea to consider outsourcing some of it to a professional writer. Finding a writer is not that difficult and can be quite affordable. Be sure to checkout the “How To Hire Writers” section of our earlier post “Become an authority by publishing articles online” .

What A Business Blog Looks Like

The key to blogging is content. Great content that is updated on a regular basis. This is what sets a blog apart from a static website. A blog needs to be current and needs to be updated regularly to be considered effective.

Blogs are typically broken down into categories. For instance, if you own a landscaping business your categories could include “how to tips,” “plant knowledge,” “seasonal information,” etc. Your blog would also include static pages regarding your contact information, pricing and anything else that potential customers would like to know about you.

The key with your content is you want readers to return on a regular basis to see what you have to say and offer. This way, when they are ready for your service or product, you are the first place they think of.

Some Examples Of Great Blogs

A few blogs to check out would be:

• http://todaysgardenideas.com - following our landscaping example, here is a gardening blog that does many things right. Yes, they have some pictures that don’t load, but their content is new every day and it is always useful. If this were a landscaping company, all they would need to do is change a few things to make it obvious that they DID landscaping, and they would be all set. Use this blog as an example of excellent content and what you should aim for in your own writing endeavors.
• http://www.earnersblog.com/ - while you may have no idea what some of these articles are about, don’t worry about it. Look at the layout of the page. See how you can quickly determine the best posts to read (top posts), how to subscribe to the blog for updates (RSS up on the top right), and even how many readers this blog has (2585)?

Combine this type of layout with outstanding content and THAT is the type of blog you are looking to create. Don’t worry, though. This doesn’t take any type of special knowledge. You don’t need to know how to program or how to do anything other than fill in the blanks. If you can fill out a basic form, you can have a blog as good as these.

Some Examples Of NOT So Great Blogs

Before we move on to creating a blog, let’s take a quick moment on what NOT to do with your blog.

• http://www.problogger.net/ - While this is considered one of the top blogs in it’s genre, Problogger is just a busy site. Your eye is drawn in too many directions at once and you’re not sure what to settle on. Further, content is spread throughout the page, so you may feel like you’re missing something. A good site is well organized and categorized with trails to lead you to your destination (like Earner’s Blog).
• http://arborscapeservices.com/blog - Again, sticking with our landscaping example, here is a site that is on the right path, but could use some improvement. There is no clear delineation where the first article ends and the next one begins. Also, having the word “BLOG” isn’t the most search engine or reader friendly way to introduce your site. Finally, it’s clear that this is an addition that was an afterthought. Content here is not updated regularly, nor are there categories for future content to make articles easy to find. Readers really have no reason to return after the first visit.

How To Set Up Your First Blog

Now that you’ve had some examples of good and not so good blogs, it’s time to create your own site. Luckily, this is very simple to do. You have three options available to you:

1. Use a hosted blog such as Blogger.com or Wordpress.com.

2. Install a free blog via your web host through a service called Fantastico.

3. Install a blog from scratch.

How To Set Up A Hosted Blog

This will be your easiest method to get started. The two most popular choices are Blogger.com and Wordpress.com. Google owns Blogger, so if you have a Gmail account, you can actually create your blog directly under the same account.

A Blogger account is created in 4 steps:

Go to http://blogger.com

1. Create an account – (email address, password, username and acceptance of terms)
2. Name your blog – This will be how people will find you and part of your web address. So in our landscaping example, you could name your blog mikes-landscaping. This would give you a web address of mikes-landscaping.blogger.com
3. Choose a Template – Once you’ve named your blog, you can choose a layout that you think will best suit your business. Don’t worry, you can change it at any time.

A Wordpress.com account is also setup in just a few steps:

Go to http://wordpress.com

1. Register for an account (username, password, email address, legal terms)

That’s it! Everything else will be run through your administrative dashboard. A point to remember is whatever username you choose with wordpress.com is also going to be part of your web address, so choose wisely!

The Benefits Of Hosted Blogs

The biggest benefit of having your blog hosted with Blogger and Wordpress is that you have everything done for you. These systems are set up to be as user friendly as possible. For someone that is totally new to the Internet and wants to try blogging, this is probably the best way to start out. That being said, Blogger is probably a little more user friendly than Wordpress in the beginning for someone that is totally new to the Internet and not comfortable playing around with an administrative dashboard, (even a very friendly one).

The Drawbacks to Hosted Blogs

The biggest drawback is that you don’t own it. Your content, your links, your entire site ultimately belongs to whomever hosts it. If you decided to sell your site down the road, you can’t sell a hosted site, because it doesn’t belong to you in the first place. As you get more advanced in your Internet marketing skills, you may find that you want to try new marketing methods. Most hosted blogs aren’t going to allow you to sell your products or run your email marketing list through their site which can be a bit of a hindrance.

Using Fantastico

Many web hosts offer a number of free scripts as part of their service. One such service is called Fantastico. Fantastico is a collection of popular scripts that can improve your existing website. One set of scripts offered is blogging software.

While Fantastico offers a few different blogging platforms, for the beginner, Wordpress should be the only one considered. This is because Wordpress is the easiest to administer and the most popular in terms of free upgrades available on the Internet. It is practically unlimited what you can do with Wordpress and free add-ons.

The easiest way to have wordpress installed via Fantastico is to ask your host to do it for you. This is offered for free by many web hosts.

Setting up Wordpress On Your Own

The great thing about Wordpress is that it is famous for it’s 5-minute installation. Don’t worry; if you can fill out a form, you can do this yourself! Here are some resources to help you:

• http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress - Scroll down to the “Famous 5 Minute Install and follow the 6 steps outlined. This will install Wordpress on your webhost.

• http://www.esnips.com/web/cre8d-tutorials - Here is a visual guide to installing Wordpress. It’s a quick movie that shows you everything you just read.
• http://www.blogadr.com/tutorials/free-wordpress-blogging-tutorial/ - for a series of tutorials on how to use Wordpress now that it’s installed, check out this site. These tutorials are video, so give them a moment to load. This site will teach you the basics of how to get around and become more comfortable with your Wordpress blog.

While this may seem overwhelming, you will find that the freedom you get from having your own Wordpress installation versus being on a hosted blog is a huge difference. Here, you will own your content, your links and all the hard work you put into your site. Also, you will be able to customize your site any way you like.

No matter which path you choose, blogging can make a huge difference in your income, your customer list and your authority as an online business. All it takes is a little time to set up and then a whole new world of opportunity will be opened to you.

Questions? Comment? Need advice? Post a comment here or drop me an email at Phil@Bigews.biz

How to Grow Your Site By Posting To Blogs And Forums

One of the best things about the Internet is that given time, you can grow your site into an authority in its given niche with just focus and daily legwork. Given 20 to 30 minutes per day, a site can grow into what the search engines consider an “authority site” within about 4-6 months. The span of time will depend on how large your niche is and the amount of competition within your given area of expertise.

Becoming An “Authority Site”

So, how do you become an “authority site” with no outlay of money? One of the pieces to the puzzle is to post to relevant blogs and forums. By relevant, you are looking for blogs and forums either within your specific niche or in the general area of your niche.

For instance, let’s say you’re an electrician. You have started a website about your electrical services and you may even offer a small store with products like wiring kits, specialty light bulbs, etc. You may find it difficult to locate other blogs dedicated to electrical services and products that are not considered spam. By spam, these other sites would not have any quality content or a reason for a reader to return or stay on the site.

In this case, the niche “electrical services” may be too narrow. You can then broaden out your range to maybe “do it yourself.” Here, you may find more sites dedicated to what you are looking for.

So What Are You Looking For?

The goal is to create a list of blogs and forums dedicated to your specific niche or general niche. (ie. “electrical services” or “do it yourself”) In the beginning, the more you can find, the better. What you will want to do is whittle down these sites to 2-5 blogs and 1-3 good forums as your targets and start up a habit of adding valuable comments to them.

How Do You Find These Blogs And Forums?

Finding forums to post to is pretty straightforward. In any search engine, such as Google or Yahoo, simply type in your keyword and forum (ie. “electrician forum” or “electrical forum,” – without the quotes). This should return some results for you. If your niche is too narrow or you don’t see the results you desire, start thinking laterally to your niche as was discussed earlier (“do it yourself forum”).

You can follow this same process with blogs, however in Google there is another method that may yield better results. Instead of going to Google.com, go instead to http://blogsearch.google.com/. This is Google’s blog only search engine. Once there, enter your desired keyword and see what results you find.

For Yahoo, you will want to go to http://dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/Blogs, enter in your keyword and immediately above the search box, check the “this category” button. This search will then find blogs directly related to your keyword in the Yahoo! Directory.

NOTE: If you don’t check off the “this category” radio button, however, it will only return websites and not blogs, so make sure not to miss this step!

Which Blogs & Forums To Choose

Once you have a list of possible blogs and forums you would like to start posting to, check them to see how much traffic they get and what their Google pagerank is.

To check how much traffic a blog or forum is getting, use a service like http://www.Alexa.com or http://www.Quantcast.com . Compare sites to each other and go with those that have the highest levels of traffic.

Another important factor to consider is the Google pagerank of the blogs and forums you are considering. Pagerank is on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best. You can use this tool to check a sites Google pagerank.

again, when comparing sites, you will get the most bang for your time by posting to sites with the highest pagerank on your list.

In most cases you will see that the sites with the most traffic also have the higher pagerank, but this is not always the case.

What To Do Once You’ve Located Some Blogs

As mentioned earlier, you want to narrow down your search to 2-5 blogs. Since you’re going to be commenting on these sites on a daily basis, make sure they have content you like and are willing to read. You can always change your mind later and move to another site, but the more you like the blog and forum you’re posting to, the more likely you’ll be to follow through on your marketing tasks.

Once you’ve found your 2-5 targeted blogs, start up a habit of adding valuable comments to them.

• If you can leave a solid comment every day to just three blogs, which shouldn’t take longer than twenty minutes, you will have success with this process.

• The key here is “valuable comments.” Make sure to read the post you are leaving a comment on. When you leave a comment, make it something meaningful. Stay away from short comments like “great article!” or “just wanted to say Hi!”

• Let the author know you appreciated what they had to say and why. This not only adds to the quality of content on the blog you’re reading, but will encourage readers to come to your site as well.

Most blogs have what is known as a “blogroll.” This is essentially a list of related blogs that the site owner likes and recommends to his or her readers. This is a great way to find new blogs you may have missed in your Google and Yahoo! Search. You can find some of the best blogs in this manner, by looking at blogrolls and seeing where they go.

What To Do Once You’ve Located Some Forums

Once you’ve found the blogs you want to work with and have some idea about how you’re going to comment on them, it’s time to start targeting some forums. Ideally, you will want to find 1-3 forums to work in.

Forums can take more time, but if done correctly can yield quicker benefits. This isn’t to say that you should skip the blog commenting process. These two steps should be done together to get the best results over time. Remember, you aren’t paying a cent for this traffic; it just takes time for you to introduce yourself and get better known in the community.

This is essentially what you are going to do with the forums.

• Once you find the forum that fits your niche, start by posting a nice introduction post. Explain who you are and why you are at the forum. Most forums have an area specifically for introductions. This is a great way to make a first post and get yourself known to the “regulars” in the forum.

• Start a regular habit and post 2-10 new posts to the forum each week night.

• Use a powerful call to action in your signature and include context-relevant links in threads whenever applicable.

• If you are including links to your blog, DO NOT link to items for sale in the beginning. This will mark you as a spammer on most forums. It is acceptable to link to relevant articles that are not sales oriented in nature. Make sure to read the forum posting rules first to be safe.

• Prepare a unique and original article, about 600-1000 words long, make it story based if possible and teach people how to do something (reveal your best stuff), and post it to three popular forums. This will work better if you do it after first building a little profile in the forums. Again, people are suspicious of new members so build a little trust first before attempting any direct marketing approaches in forums. Do this task once every other week.

Follow these methods and you will see results in as little as a couple of months. The key is consistency. If you post once a week, it will take much longer to see results than if you post daily.

Creating A Signature

A signature is basically a couple of lines that are included at the end of every post you make to a forum and the idea is to use a compelling call to action - a sentence or two with a link - to lure people to your blog from the forum. An example would be:

“Learn the secrets of a Master Electrician to save money on your next DIY

Click Here For Details”

To make this link more relevant, you will want to link it to a specific article on your blog about saving money and not just your homepage. This will make people that click through happier, because they found what you were promising and the search engines happy because you were relevant. Remember, each time you post to a forum and you signature is used; a link to your site is created. This adds credibility to your blog in the eyes of the search engines.

Forum Etiquette

As in any social endeavor, there are specific do’s and don’ts in the forums. Already mentioned was linking to anything commercial before you have a reasonable profile built up. A reasonable profile is typically considered 50+ posts, but be sure to read your forums posting rules. Some forums never allow commercial linking.

Also to consider:

• Non-relevant posting. Similar to blogs comments where you have nothing to say. If you have nothing of value to add to a conversation, don’t post in the forum.

• Off-Topic posting. Nothing will raise the ire of a moderator quicker than if you post in the wrong part of a forum. Make sure that your post going in the right section. If you aren’t sure, then start your post with an apology and say something to the effect of, “I wasn’t sure where this should go, please feel free to move this post if necessary…” This will go a long way for keeping you in good stead with not only the forum “locals” but also the moderators that have the power to ban you.

• Profanity. While some forums seem to encourage it, remember, you are here to promote your site. Don’t become known as “that guy” or “that woman” that always has a problem with something (or everything) - unless that is the specific slant of your blog. In the end, it will drive away more traffic than it will attract.

By posting to relevant blogs and forums on a daily basis and having a specific plan of action, you can build your site from zero to authority in a relatively short period of time. This is with no outlay of funds, just time and effort on your part. The other benefit is that you will get to know other people in your niche that can lend their assistance as you grow your site and they grow theirs.

Publishing Articles- A Winning Way To Help Your Web Site Succeed!

One of the primary ways to draw traffic to your website is to indicate you are an expert in your field. The best way to do this is to write articles related to your field of business and provide pertinent information. For example, if your are an electrician then writing an article regarding the proper installation of a ceiling fan would increase your expertise and credibility amongst those searching out a good electrical contractor.

How to Structure An Article

One of the primary features of credibility is writing an article that is articulate and easy to understand. If you are directing your article towards an English speaking audience and English is not your primary language then find someone who speaks English very well to proof read your article. In addition, you want your article to be grammatically correct. Once again it is vital your article be properly written with the correct tense, spelling and use of words. For example, using the word “ain’t” instead of “is not” will surely classify you as an illiterate. Keep in mind the following lessons when writing an article:

• Plan your article. Decide before writing the article what you want to say and how you want to say it.
• Develop an outline of your article. Consider how you are going to discuss the pertinent points in your article and in what order you want them to appear.
• Use short sentences and short explanations. The longer a sentence is, the more confusing it is.
• Include real life examples in your article. Readers prefer to read about the real world and not theories.
• Do not use contractions. Use “is not” instead of “isn’t”.
• Do not use the same word repeatedly in an article. For example, if you are a landscaper and have several flowers that are pretty, do not use the word “pretty” over and over to describe your flowers. Check out the thesaurus online to find different words with the same meaning. For example, alternate uses of the word pretty could include, lovely or beautiful.
• Write in the same tense. Do not begin an article in the present tense and end the article in the past or future tense.

Good vs. Bad Content

We all remember our grammar classes from the 6^th grade. One of the concepts that was instilled in us is the proper way to write a paper. The following items must be included when writing your article:

• The first paragraph should include a sentence stating the purpose of the article and what the article will accomplish. For example, when writing an article on how to decorate a cake your first paragraph should include your purpose, “This article will teach you to decorate a cake” as well as how this will be accomplished, “The following steps will walk you through the process of how to decorate a cake”.
• The next few paragraphs should outline how to accomplish the task set forth in the first paragraph. For example, when learning how to decorate a cake the first article will speak of tools needed to complete the decorations. The second paragraph will talk about preparing the cake for decorating. The next paragraph(s) will go through the step-by-step process of decorating the cake.
• The last paragraph is a summation and validation of the previous paragraphs. The last paragraph should emphasize the purpose of the article and how the article satisfactorily completed that purpose.
• Keep in mind that throughout your article, you should include no more than 2 keywords. This keeps your article focused and easier for the search engines to “read” and index.
• Ideally, your keyword should be in the first sentence and the last paragraph, then sprinkled loosely throughout. Don’t go overboard here. Put the keywords in where it looks natural. Forcing it will not only make your content look bad, but can actually hurt your ranking in the search engines.

A bad article on the other hand fails to fully explain the statements made in the supporting introductory paragraph. For example, if the first paragraph states the purpose of the article is to teach the reader “how to decorate a cake” and the following paragraphs discuss the best flavors of the cake and the different colors the frosting or fondant can be, that is no help to the reader. The author has failed to complete the primary purpose stated in the first paragraph; how to decorate a cake.

How to Hire Writers

Once you know how to structure an article and what separates the good from the bad, if you don’t want to write the article yourself, you are now free to outsource the writing to someone else. There are many sources you can use to find freelance writers. The most common online path is to go through a specialty online service that matches up freelancers with people needing their services. A few to check out would be:

• Getafreelancer.com
• Guru.com
• Digital Point Forums
• Elance.com

Each site has its own process, but they are all fairly similar. You will register with the site, and then create a listing similar to a classified ad. Once the ad is completed, it will go live for all prospective freelancers to see and respond to. Just like a job candidate applying for a job, you will need to discern the good from the bad.

Points To Remember

1. Before writing your ad, take a look at other ads already posted. How much are they willing to pay for a writer?

2. Look at the details in the different ads so that you can see what you need to have listed in your own ad.

3. Make sure you have an email address that is checked regularly and also be sure to check the sites regularly for any questions asked by potential writers. Answer them as quickly and honestly has possible. The more detail the writer has about your project, the better your article will be.

4. Many freelancers will lowball an offer just to get the work. While this doesn’t make them a bad writer, you should consider asking for a sample of their work to make sure you won’t “get what you paid for.”

Your goal should be to build a relationship with a good writer and keep them. Like any good employee, knowledgeable writers can be hard to come by. If you find one, keep his or her contact information handy, as you may be able to use them for future writing projects.

Where To Publish Articles

There are two mindsets that go with article publishing. One is to get your article read and have you established as an expert in your particular field. This builds credibility not only for you, but for your website that should be referenced in each article that is published. Another mindset is to publish articles so that links to your website are created, thus giving you better standings in the search engines.

To establish yourself as an expert, get your articles seen in the search engines and build the most PageRank for your website – there are 2 places that you should have publish your articles:

1. Ezinearticles.com

2. Goarticles.com

Short of a public relations campaign where you are targeting newspapers and offline media, Ezinearticles.com is the most important site you can have your articles published online. While it can take up to a week for new articles to be approved, once done, your article will have higher placement on Google that other article directories and will receive better PageRanking by Google.

Of course, this assumes you followed the steps to creating a good article with great content and keywords that targeted your audience. After Ezinearticles.com, you will want to submit to Goarticles.com. This is another large article directory that receives a decent amount of respect currently from Google and the other search engines.

Other Directories You Can Submit Your Articles To

There are many more directories that you can submit your articles to. These directories are good for generating backlinks to your website, which over time will give you higher rankings in the various search engines. What this means for you is more free traffic, as people will find you either through your articles or directly though your website as it is listed in the search engines. A few directories you can submit to are:

1. Articledashboard.com

2. Articlepros.com

3. Articlebase.com

4. Articleset.com

5. Articlealley.com

Article publishing can make a huge difference in traffic to your website over time. It takes patience and persistence to keep submitting new articles that have great content and are relevant to your audience or niche. However, that patience can payoff in the form of free traffic that continues to come in month after month once you’ve done the footwork.

It’s Thursday evening and I’m checking my stats on the BigNews.biz site. Traffic for the day was good, but one particular press release went to the top of the popularity list in less than a day.

As of this post, the press release located here was viewed 2891 times in one day. The reason for this is largely because of the image on the left (quite clever) that was posted by the Coltons Point Times. The Google News algo seems to test images in their search results and when an image gets clicked on alot, they show it more. If it does not get clicked on, they move to the next image inline, for the story their algo has associated with that image.

About 2 years ago, I saw something similar happen with a story on circumcision. A National Institute of Health (NIH) study had found that circumcision significantly reduced the risk of acquiring HIV. The NIH press release ran on the healthnews-stat.com Web site with an ancient Egyptian illustration of a man being circumcised. The release has been viewed on that site 58,545 times and a later release on the same topic with the same illustration was read 22,732 times. These are huge numbers for a press release.

In both cases the popularity of the release on the healthnews-stat.com Web site, was driven by traffic from Google News because their algo saw how many people were clicking on the image in their search results and continued to use the healthnews-stats image to illustrate that story.

So what does this mean for you?
Find interesting images to illustrate your press release. I have very detailed instructions on how to then optimize your photos and illustrations here.

What I don’t understand is why over 80% of press releases I see posted online have no photo or illustration associated with them when they can get so much more traffic with even a simple photo. Even if you can’t find something interesting, try to include some type of image with your press release. On BigNews.biz, there is no additional charge to ad an image, just keep it under 50K in size, jpeg format and no larger than 300 pixels wide or high.

What is a news release?
A news/press release informs the public and the media about news related to your organization or business. “News” is defined as information about a recent or important event. As an example, if your organization or business hires a new CEO or introduces a new product or service, you could write a news release about this event. However, if you wrote an article about what your organization does or what your business sells, this would NOT be considered a news release because it does not give information about “a recent or important event”.

What are the parts that make up a News Release?

1. Headline - Like a newspaper story a press release needs a brief yet memorable headline that summarizes the topic of the news release in one sentence. As an example: A fictitious business, FreeFuel.biz just started selling a new widget that turns water into automobile fuel. The headline for the press release that announces this new product to the media and the public might be “Revolutionary Invention from FreeFuel.biz turns water into automobile fuel eliminating need for gasoline”. It’s important that the title also contains important keywords that pertain to the topic of the release.
2. Summary - The summary is a bit longer than the headline and allows you to give more details and include more keywords that pertain to the release. Some public relations professional just use the first paragraph of their news release for the summary. My personal preference is to write something a bit different from the first paragraph of the release. Again, using our fictional company and their new product as an example, the summary for their press release might be “After 5 years of research, FreeFuel.biz begins distribution of their revolutionary converter that turns water into automobile fuel, eliminating the need for gasoline”. As with the headline it’s also important that the summary contains important keywords.
3. News release body - This is the body of the press release. In this section you want to answer the questions: who, what, why, when and where, as if you were writing a story for a newspaper. Make your release interesting by telling your target audience how your news will have a positive impact on their lives. Above all, avoid the temptation to sell them something with your release. Don’t get caught in the trap of turning your press release into an advertisement. Your release should read like a story in a newspaper. The body of a press/news release has several different parts….
   • Location and date - At the beginning of the first line of the release, you want to give the geographic location that the press release is originating from and the date. As an example the standard format usually looks something like: “Key West, Florida - September 07, 2008 - … “
   • Who is sending the release - The date would be followed by the name of the company or organization that is publishing the release. This can also include the URL or Web address of the company. Using our original fictitious company again, the first line might look something like this: “Key West, Florida - September 07, 2008 - FreeFuel.biz (http://www.FreeFuel.biz) today announced…..
   • What is the release about? - Following the location, date and who is sending the release, is the topic of the release. This first paragraph is very similar to the summary mentioned above. For this first paragraph, you want to give the reader a very concise outline of your news and you want to grab their attention as well. You should also be careful to include keywords that pertain to the subject of your release. Using our fictitious company again, The first paragraph of their news release might look something like this:”Key West, Florida - September 07, 2008 - FreeFuel.biz (http://www.FreeFuel.biz) today announced that after 5 years of research and development they have eliminated the need for gasoline as a fuel. The company has developed and is now manufacturing a small, inexpensive, revolutionary device that converts water into automobile fuel. The new converter is expected to hit store shelves in October of 2008 with a suggested retail price of $29.95.”
   • More details about the product or service - In the paragraph(s) following the first/opening paragraph, give more details about the product or service. Using our fictitious company once again as an example:”The “FreeFuel” water converter uses proprietary technology to convert common tap water into fuel for most gasoline powered vehicles. The converter can be easily installed by the owner of the vehicle or their local auto mechanic, in about about 30 minutes. The converter also allows the driver to switch from conventional gasoline to water by simply flipping a small switch on their dashboard.”Feel free to ad more paragraphs as needed to tell your story, but keeping it brief and factual will serve you better than long and commercial.
   • A quote from someone of authority at your company or from outside your company - Following the details, include a quote with 2 to 3 sentences from someone of authority. Example:”As you can probably imagine, our new FreeFuel water converter is going to change the world as we know it.” said James Smith President and CEO of FreeFuel. “We are very excited to be able to bring such a revolutionary product to market.”
   • Closing paragraph and a call to action by the media - If you distribute your press release online, it is going to be read by both the public and the media. In your closing paragraph you may want to reiterate some of your important points and then encourage the news media to contact you about this story. For our fictitious release the closing paragraph might look something like this..”The FreeFuel water converter will be available at retail outlets across the U.S. beginning October 1st, 2008. For a detailed list of locations, visit the FreeFuel Web site at http://www.FreeFuel.biz .Accredited media interested in scheduling an interview to discuss this press release in more detail are encouraged to contact Bill Smith at bsmith@xyzprcompany.com
   • Boilerplate - This section contains a paragraph or two about your company and appears after the closing paragraph. Once again, using our fictitious company as an example…”About FreeFuel.com
     FreeFuel.com was founded by Tim and Tom Turner in 2003 after the fraternal twins obtained doctorates in chemistry from MIT at the age of 16. The company is based just offshore in Key West Florida on a repurposed oil drilling platform. Twenty million dollars in first round funding was secured through WeFundAnything partners in 2004 allowing the company to secure 32 patents and begin manufacture of their water fuel converter. The company is currently privately held.”
4. Contact info - This can appear at the top of the page above the release or at the end of the release and would look something like this…Contact Info:
   Bill Smith
   XYZ PR Company
   1-888-555-1212
   bsmith@xyzprcompany.com
5. Keywords - Many press release release distribution service will give press release publishers the option of including keywords with their release. If you have this option, ALWAYS include keywords with your release. This may help your release with search engine optimization as well as other features offered by the service you are using. For the Fictitious release we have been creating, the list of keywords might look something like…Alternative fuel, gasoline, water, converter, FreeFuel, fuel, automobile, car, petroleum, revolutionary.
6. Photos & Graphics - Including and optimizing graphics and Photos for Internet distribution of your press release is extremely important. Proper optimization has the potential to more than double the number of readers your press release will get. Be sure to review our blog article about how to properly do this here: http://bignews.biz/blog/?p=11
7. Putting it all together - When you take all the parts and put them all together, you get a press release that looks something like this…

—————————-
Headline:
Revolutionary Invention from FreeFuel.biz turns water into automobile fuel eliminating need for gasoline

Summary:
After 5 years of research, FreeFuel.biz begins distribution of their revolutionary converter that turns water into automobile fuel, eliminating the need for gasoline

News Release Body:
Key West, Florida - September 07, 2008 - FreeFuel.biz (http://www.FreeFuel.biz) today announced that after 5 years of research and development they have eliminated the need for gasoline as a fuel. The company has developed and is now manufacturing a small, inexpensive, revolutionary device that converts water into automobile fuel. The new converter is expected to hit store shelves in October of 2008 with a suggested retail price of $29.95.

The “FreeFuel” water converter uses proprietary technology to convert common tap water into fuel for most gasoline powered vehicles. The converter can be easily installed by the owner of the vehicle or their local auto mechanic, in about about 30 minutes. The converter also allows the driver to switch from conventional gasoline to water by simply flipping a small switch on their dashboard.

“As you can probably imagine, our new FreeFuel water converter is going to change the world as we know it.” said tom Turner President of FreeFuel. “We are very excited to be able to bring such a revolutionary product to market.”

The FreeFuel water converter will be available at retail outlets across the U.S. beginning October 1st, 2008. For a detailed list of locations, visit the FreeFuel Web site at http://www.FreeFuel.biz .

Accredited media interested in scheduling an interview to discuss this press release in more detail are encouraged to contact Bill Smith at bsmith@xyzprcompany.com

About FreeFuel.com
FreeFuel.com was founded by Tim and Tom Turner in 2003 after the fraternal twins obtained doctorates in chemistry from MIT at the age of 16. The company is based just offshore in Key West Florida on a repurposed oil drilling platform. Twenty million dollars in first round funding was secured through WeFundAnything partners in 2004 allowing the company to secure 32 patents and begin manufacture of their water fuel converter. The company is currently privately held.

Contact Info:
Bill Smith
XYZ PR Company
1-888-555-1212
bsmith@xyzprcompany.com
—————————-

Once you have a press release, you can post it online to a general press release distribution site like BigNews.biz or a topic specific press release distribution site like News-Antique.com . This blog also keeps a list of the top free press release distribution sites, which is updated several times each month. You can view the complete list here. If you want someone to write and distribute a press release for you, drop me an email at phil@bignews.biz

If you were given the choice of selecting one of two similar newspaper stories and one of them had an interesting photo, which would you select. Like most people, you would read the story with the photo first. This same principle applies to press releases. People are drawn to illustrated press releases, so each release you publish should include a graphic or a photo whenever possible.

I probably edit about 100 press releases a day on the press release distribution sites that I run. Surprisingly most of them don’t have photos accompanying the release. From the statistics I see, releases that do have photos consistently get more readers than those that don’t. If the object of a press release is to get people to read it, the people who submit these releases are making a huge mistake by not including a photo or an illustration with each release they publish. Any photo or illustration included with a release is much better than none at all.

Another reason for including a photo with your press release is that it gives people another way to find it online. Believe it or not, Many people use Google images to search for things online. One of my press release sites actually get about 40% of it’s search referrals from Google Images. That’s a huge number and represents more referrals than this site gets from either Yahoo! or MSN search. Press releases also show up in Google News and releases with photos are MUCH more likely to get seen than those that don’t.

Now that you understand how important photos and illustrations are to the visibility of your release, here is what you need to do….

1. Make sure that you include a photo or illustration with every press release you submit online.

2. Whenever possible, use a press release distribution service that also accepts photos along with your text.

3. The image/photo should be in JPEG format at 72dpi. Try to get it larger than 200X200 pixels. google news seems to be sensitive to the size of the image and the format of the image. If it’s too small or not a jpeg, there is a chance that it will not show up in Google News.

4. Give the image a filename that describes the photo and also includes keywords that are important to the press release. Don’t make it longer than 4 keywords.

5. The title of your press release should contain keywords that are in the filename of the photo.

6. If the press release distribution service you are using allows for “Alt Text” for the image or a photo caption, be sure to fill this in and include keywords that are in the filename.

7. Use the most interesting image you can find. From what I have seen, I suspect that Google news actually tests the popularity of different images to see which are clicked on the most. It then selects the most popular image to illustrate all of the stories on that topic. So pick an interesting image to go along with your press release.

8. If possible, include the name of your Web site on the image, along the bottom. This is often called a watermark. So if someone uses the image or sees just the image without the release, it will always point viewers to your Web site.

If you have any comments or suggestions regarding the techniques I’ve outlined, please don’t hesitate to post them here.

.:Phil:.

So I took some of my own advice and posted a press release about our new list of the top 13 press release sites (See http://bignews.biz/blog/?p=6) , to the sites on the list. Guess what, most of them ran the release

Within 2 days, if you did a search on Google for “List of Free press release sites”, out of 24,000,000 pages listed for this term on Google, we moved up to #5 on page one, from having an extremely low placement in the SERPs for this term. As time passed and our release slowly migrated off of the home pages for these 13 press release distribution sites, we moved back in the SERPs (Search engine results pages). As of this posting, we are now listed as #4 on page 3. Which is not too bad at all, but we’ll try to do better.

To me this shows that Google search results are more dynamic than ever. The SERP’s are updated daily (maybe hourly) instead of weekly or monthly. So a site can have great placement in search result on one day, but as sites that link to it change, the search results in Google can change just as quickly.

So the list of top free press release sites does work and has given us a very interesting insight into how Google search results work as well.

.:Phil:.

Note: Last list Update 12-16-08

First off, yes I do design and sell Web sites that distribute press releases online. I also use free press release distribution sites for my PR clients, so I’ve seen both sides of the online PR distribution business.

Based on this experience, I have a bit of a bias about what I am looking for in a press release distribution service. The number of Web sites in this space seems to change from day to day. Sites disappear, change policies and appear daily. So this list needs to be just as dynamic.

Before you post a complaint that I’m missing a site, keep in mind that this list is a work in progress. It had to start somewhere so consider this a first draft. PLEASE don’t hesitate to submit a site for consideration. We’ll probably include it, as long as your submission fits the 4 criteria outlined below.

There are quite a few free pr distribution sites on the Web. Many of them are not worth the time it takes you to submit a release. However, there are some that are quite good. Following are the 4 criteria that I used to create this list of the top free press release distribution sites.

1. Page Rank - What is the Google page rank of the site? I’m only listing free PR sites that have a page rank of 4 or higher. To determine the page rank of a site,

2. Google News - Are most of the press releases that are published by the site picked up by Google news? To find out if a PR distribution site is getting their content indexed by Google news, go to Google News and do a search for “site:sitename.com”. This will show all of the stories by that site that have been indexed by Google News. As an example, a search for all press releases for the free PR site BigNews.biz, would look like this “site:BigNews.biz”

3. Traffic - Does the free press release site get any traffic? For this list we used Alexa.com to check traffic. You will have to set your own standard for what you feel is acceptable. For this list, I’m using any site that is ranked above or around 200,000 by Alexa.

4. Cost - For this list we are looking for sites that are primarily free. However, they may offer additional premium services for a fee.

Keeping in mind the 4 points listed above, here is my list. Feel free to send me additional suggestions, but they must fit the 4 criteria listed above. The order listed here is loosely based on the sites Alexa rank and can change from day to day.

Note: All of the following site statistics are updated daily and all of these sites feed their content to Google news.

1. PRLog.org -

2. Merinews.com -

3. PR-Inside.com -

4. IndiaPRWire.com -

5. PR.com -

6. OpenPR.com -

7. ClickPress.com -

8. PowerHomeBiz.com -

9. 24-7pressrelease.com -

10. NewsWireToday.com -

11. free-press-release-center.info -

12. PressreleasePoint.com -

13. TheOpenPress.com -

14. BigNews.biz -

15. PR-USA.net -

16. PR-Canada.net -

17. USPRWire.com -

Submit a site….

Again, this list is a work in progress. So if you have suggestions, please forward them to phil(at)BigNews.biz.

Other features you might want to have when selecting a free PR site…
a) Does the site also accept photos or other file types as part of the release?
b) Does this site give you reporting tools so that you can see your traffic?
c) Is the site fast and easy to use?

.:Phil:.

I just got back from 3 days at eBay Live in Chicago. Most of that time was spent walking around the “solutions center” which is the area at the show where vendors market and sell eBay related services to attendees. You can see photos at Auctionbytes.com

I’ve been attending these events for the past 4 years. The message I got loud and clear from many vendors and eBayers at this year’s show was “we’re looking for other venues”.

So now we have thousands of small businesses looking for alternate ways to sell and market their merchandise outside of eBay. Vendors at the show were offering many solution, from creating blogs to managing customer email lists.

So in the middle of eBay’s own trade show, you’ve got vendors and lecturers helping eBay sellers become less dependent on eBay as their primary selling venue.

It’s interesting to note that eBay canceled eBay live for 2009 .                     .:Phil:.