How to Get More Traffic with a Press Release

Posted by Paul on July 8, 2013

What is a press release?
So we're not talking about the old fashioned kind of press release that goes in a printed newspaper. These days there are lots of press release websites that allow you to submit a press release, often with a link, as long as it is well-written and newsworthy. The amount of traffic these can generate can be significant.

How could it work for an ecommerce website?
There are various possible subjects for an ecommerce business-related press release. These could include:

You have a new product in stock
You have new premises
You have a new website
You have a new picking/packing system for faster delivery
You've won a business award
An interesting story involving one of your products

What's the format of a press release?
Most of the press release sites have strict guidelines about the way your release must be written. Usually it will need to be written in the tone of a news article rather than a sales pitch, it will need to have excellent spelling and grammar and it will need to be written in the third person (think back to your science write-ups at school!). DON'T USE ALL CAPS AT ANY POINT! If your release doesn't meet the guidelines, it's likely they'll just reject it, and they are pretty strict.

The guidelines vary but you will probably need to include these parts:

Headline - a short, punchy headline summing up the content
Summary - slightly longer, summing up the content in a bit more detail
Content - the press release content itself, written as a news article, usually a minimum of 300 words and sometimes 500
Keywords - any keywords you want associated with your release
Contact Details - your name, email, phone number and a web address

It makes sense to save your press release in a Word document and modify it for each site you submit it to to meet their guidelines.

It can be worth also giving it to local newspapers/industry magazines but these are far harder to get published in and probably won't drive quite so much traffic anyway.

What are some good, free press release sites?
There are lots of free press release sites but I'm not sure it's worth submitting to more than these listed below:

http://www.1888pressrelease.com/
http://ecommwire.com/
http://www.i-newswire.com
http://www.newswiretoday.com/
http://www.pagerelease.com/submit/
https://www.pr.com
http://www.pr-inside.com
http://www.prlog.org
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/
http://www.theopenpress.com/

Summary
It's not as easy as it sounds to write a good press release but doing so and submitting it to a selection of PR sites will increase traffic and sales on your website.

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