Press releases have been around near enough as long as there have been newspapers to potentially publish your news.

Nowadays, a press release is as likely to be online as it is to be printed and sent (or faxed) to a journalist.

There are lots of sites that will publish your press release but before I get to that, let’s take a look at why you might want to write a press release and how you should write it.

Historically, press releases were written when you had something potentially newsworthy to say.

Whilst that’s still true today, the definition of newsworthy has stretched over time.

Whilst it could still be news in the strictest sense, it’s just as likely to be a story that’s been manufactured to appear to be news.

The easiest way to spot this kind of story is to buy an actual newspaper. It’s a rare day that there aren’t at least some of these manufactured news stories.

For instance, here in the UK the supermarkets release statistics every Christmas with facts about how many tons of sprouts have been sold, that kind of thing.

No journalist in their right mind would deliberately go out and research that as a story.

But when the figures are presented “on a plate” (no pun intended) then they will quite happily treat it as a story.

You can do this kind of research quite fast – just use a site like SurveyMonkey to create a survey, send the link out to your newsletter subscribers and turn the answers into a story.

Think creatively and time it with the usual events such as Halloween, Valentine’s Day, that kind of thing.

Once you’ve got the topic of your press release, it’s time to get it written.

Getting press releases written

Unless you’ve got experience writing press releases, I’d suggest that you use a professional writer.

They’re not expensive and they will create your release in a format and style that is likely to get approved in the online directories.

For “real” news then I’d suggest that you use GetArticlesDone.

For news that is flimsier and is just a thinly disguised attempt to get extra backlinks then I suggest SubmitInme.

They are less fussy and will write a release about near enough anything. They only thing you should do is check the release before it gets submitted – they are based in India and some of their phraseology isn’t standard (the same as it’s unlikely that you’d write perfectly in a language that wasn’t your first one). They’re quite used to amending the draft releases and won’t be offended when you ask them to make corrections.

Distributing your press releases

Once your press release is written, it’s time to get it sent out to the various press release distribution services.

Again, it’s not really worth spending your time setting up accounts and submitting your press release. Both the services above will distribute your newly written press release for a small extra charge.

I don’t recommend using Fiverr for press release writing or the distribution. It’s not worth skimping a few dollars – the two services I’ve suggested both do an excellent job of writing and have much better quality control.

Fiverr will offer press release distribution but it will almost certainly be done using automated software whereas the two services I’ve suggested will use real humans for the submission of your press release and will get a much higher acceptance rate because of that.

Once your release is written and submitted, that’s it as far as you are concerned.

The distribution happens and you’ll get hundreds, maybe even thousands, of backlinks from news sites and the sites that feed off them. So Google will notice that a news event has occurred. This kind of massive exposure from releasing a press release is normal – they are set up to be syndicated by all and sundry.

Chances are good that at least one of the releases will end up in the actual Google News feed.

It’s unlikely you’ll be contacted by anyone as a result of your press release. So don’t worry about the fact that you’re asked for a contact telephone number, etc.

If you want actual journalists to take notice, print off a copy of your release and actually post it to your local papers, radio stations, and so on. There won’t be many so it’s not expensive to do.

Because press releases are treated as news and news has a shelf life, you need to keep up a regular schedule of new press releases. The frequency is up to you but I’d suggest at least several times a year for maximum effectiveness.