Shy Writer

 The Epic Journey of $250 and a Grumpy Vampire

 

Nathaniel is not exactly a tech-savvy vampire. He still fervently listens to his gramophone, staunchly insists that the nineteenth amendment is just a trend, and believes the computer is a portal of damned souls.

Despite his severe anachronistic nature, I’ve decided to launch Nathaniel to the Internet masses in a big way. And by “big way”, I mean a very small and limited-budget sort of way.

Background

At the beginning of this month, I launched the third short story in my The Vampire’s Housekeeper Chronicles series, which stars Nathaniel, his long-suffering housekeeper Deidre, and a host of other amusing characters dead and otherwise.

The series is – in my oh-so-humble opinion – pretty damn good (And Funny!), and I’d like more people to give it try. Not such an easy task as many fellow writers know all too well.

So how to make Nathaniel stand out?

I’ve made sure that he’s always in his best cape for each story, has got his suspenders in place, and that his cravat appropriately fluffed. I’ve even priced each of his stories at just $0.99 so the barrier to entry is as low as Amazon and Barnes & Noble will allow.

As the approach of Halloween grows nigh, I’ve realized the time has come to do something so big, so bold, and so brash with my short story series that even the dead will crack open an eye and take notice.

Unfortunately, my writing marketing budget isn’t exactly ready for big, bold, and brash, so what I’m going to do instead is drag Nathaniel’s coffin over to Facebook and see if anyone will say hello.

I’m writing this blog post publicly detailing my mini-marketing campaign, because I don’t think I’m the only one in this little boat called “Hey, Check Out My Writing. No, Seriously, It’s Good”.

So here’s what I’m going to do:

The Power of Free

The first big step I’m taking in this marketing campaign is to price the first short story in the series, Employment Interview With A Vampire, for FREE.

What’s better than FREE?  (Answer: lots of money, but FREE is still pretty awesome)

Employment Interview With A Vampire offers big laughs, not one iota of fright, and a very tragic lesson for Mormons that not every huge, creepy, spider web-infested house is ready to embrace The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . I know that readers are bombarded with choices and that they all already have a big list of favorite authors that they’re loyal to, but I’m hoping FREE is a big enough enticement to get some of them to give Nathaniel a chance to strut his cape and suspenders.

Unfortunately, FREE isn’t as easy as you’d think.

Amazon and Barnes & Noble don’t allow authors to price their works for free unless they sign up for special programs that allows them to price their works for free for a very limited time in exchange for exclusively placing the work with Amazon or Barnes & Noble of a specific length of time (90 days for Amazon).

Since I don’t think it’s a good deal to get five days of FREE in exchange for publishing exclusively on Amazon for 90 days, I’m trying FREE a different way. Specifically, I went to an online publisher which lets its authors price their works however they want, including FREE.

Thanks Smashwords.

So now Employment Interview With A Vampire is FREE, but I still need to find a way to tell readers about it.

Nathaniel Takes On Facebook

In Nathaniel’s time, a dollar could go a pretty freaking long way. Not so much today. Can’t exactly buy a billboard or a national television campaign with a few nickels. Luckily for us non-wealthy persons (aka all writers everywhere), the Internet came along, and advertising became relatively cheap again.

 

In my case, I’m going to bet $250 on Facebook that I can get Nathaniel and Deidre some publicity. This isn’t chump change for me, so it’ll be interesting to see if I can accomplish two important goals:

• Increase the following on my Facebook page (which currently stands at a paltry 54)
• Convince people to visit Smashwords or my website to give my FREE Nathaniel story a try

Facebook gives advertisers a pretty big bang for their buck. Facebook users gleefully tell Facebook every single thing about themselves, including their hobbies, favorite movies, where all their tattoos are, etc…, and then Facebook gleefully takes all that information and hands it right over to advertisers who are pretty dang gleeful about it themselves. All of this data lets advertisers focus their campaigns to an extreme level so that they can advertise to those who have already self-selected themselves as the most likely customers.

For my campaign, I’ve developed three different Facebook ads that I’m going to show to two very specific audiences: readers who like humor, and readers who like vampires.

One of the coolest things about Facebook advertising is that I can get immediate feedback on the campaign every time I log into my account. That means that I can tell what’s working and what’s not and make changes in response to what’s actually happening on the ground.

The Campaign

Employment Interview With A Vampire is already FREE on Smashwords and on my website. The Facebook campaign launched on 10/14 and will run through Oct. 31^st. I’m committed to recording the results on this blog so that other authors can learn from my experiment. Sometimes I feel like marketing for authors is one big crapshoot, especially for those of us on a tight budget. It helps when we share our experiences, even those that fail spectacularly.

 

If you want to know how it all turns out, come back to this blog for a visit in early November, and I’ll post everything, even if I don’t get a single download for my free short story or a single new Facebook “Like”. Also, feel free to share this and my follow-up post with your writing community and contacts so we can all learn from each other.

Let me know if you have any questions/suggestions about the Facebook campaign, and I’ll try to answer the best that I can. It’s been a bit of a struggle to try and figure out how to do everything. I think I’m starting to understand why Nathaniel is such a big fan of his gramophone and telegraph.

By now, you should be on your way to public relations awesomeness. In this series of posts, I’ve discussed how to write a press release, how press releases can be used in a marketing strategy and how to deploy a press release through your social networking channels and through paid PR newswires.

That just leaves one last step – getting some authentic media coverage.

Many business owners believe that paying $99 – $499 to send their press release through a PR newswire will result in immediate coverage in large, national publications. Well, I have some bad news. Unless your press release announces something truly groundbreaking, the majority of the media will be woefully unimpressed, and you’ll open your email inbox to crickets.

In my experience, the best way to get media coverage is not to go through newswires, but to roll up your sleeves, build a highly-targeted media list and reach out to individuals with tailored media pitches. It’s a lot of work, and your pitches will, by and large, be ignored, but it only takes one big “Yes” to make all the effort worth it.

In this blog post, I’ll show you how to get the “Big Yes”.

The Current State of the Media

You’re in luck. There have never been so many media outlets available or as many niche media channels to pursue – and they all need content.  Whether we’re talking about your local news anchor, the editorial staff at the New Yorker, or a popular nutrition blogger, each of these people are working furiously to feed a ravenous creature, known as their audience.

Feeding the beast is an exhausting job, and journalists are always looking for quality stories that they can serve as a delicious entrée. You might just be the person to help some of those journalists out by providing them with a relevant story for their audience.

Notice that I said you are helping the journalists, not the other way around. This is an incredibly important distinction. If you only take one thing away from this article, let it be this:

No one will cover your news just because you think it’s interesting. To get media coverage, you must convince your target media that your news will be of interest to their audience.

 

Journalists of all stripes get bombarded with pitches and press releases every day, and the vast majority of them suck. All sucky pitches are defined by one overall trait: they don’t tell the journalist why the news would make a great story for his/her audience.

Before I show you how to write a great, enticing pitch, let’s look at the first step in putting together your press release media pitch campaign.

Step One: Build a Tailored Media Contact List

Roll up your sleeves, mark off a couple of hours in your calendar and get ready to do some serious research. In order to get media coverage for your press release, you’ll first need to develop a list of the media personalities who are the most likely to cover it.

Before you even open up an Excel grid, take some time to consider what type of media you want to contact. Remember, your best chance of getting coverage is to make a convincing case that your news is relevant to the journalist’s audience.

Who is the main audience for your news? What type of outlets would be the most likely to cover your news story?

When my business partner, Leslie, and I launched our business, Grub Street Reads, which evaluates and endorses quality indie books, we developed several different media target lists. The first list focused on journalists in the mainstream press who had written about self-publishing and self-published authors in the past. We compiled a second list of book review bloggers, since they target our secondary audience – book readers who may be interested in reading indie novels that have been endorsed by our company.

Our third list consisted of writers for mainstream magazines, as well niche webzines that focused on authors and self-published authors. Throughout our research, we found dozens of blogs that focused specifically on self-publishing. Even though these blogs didn’t get the same type of audience as USA Today, their readers were our main target audience, and the news of our business launch was highly relevant to their readers.

Don’t limit yourself to large, mainstream media outlets. These are the most difficult to earn coverage from. Consider niche, industry publications and blogs as well as local publications. Local papers and news stations love to cover local businesses. If you’re putting on a big event, or have done something that has impacted the community, you have a good chance of getting some local coverage.

While researching, take care to learn about each publication instead of blindly sending out your press release. Make sure that their audience is a good fit for your news story. The best way to do this is to read the publication’s archives and see if they’ve covered topics related to your business or your press release topic in the past.

Next, pick a specific person from the publication  to pitch. If you’re targeting a blog with just one writer, then this task will be easy. If you’re targeting a larger publication, like a national magazine, target the journalist who has written the most about your topic in the past.

Find the publication’s submission guidelines – most should have some guidelines on their website – and then look for contact info. You may find email addresses for the staff or just a contact form on the website. Even if you can only find a general email address, like editor@bigpublication.com or there’s only a website form, still make sure you address your pitch to a specific person.

Step Two: Develop An Awesome Pitch

As I mentioned earlier in this article, most popular journalists are bombarded with pitches every day. A writer for a top publications can receive upwards of a hundred messages or more in a single day.

This may come as a shock, but most of these busy people don’t have the time to sit down and read through that press release you spent so much time and effort crafting. That’s why you need condense your press release into a “Pitch”. A pitch is a short and direct message that lays out your news in a couple of sentences and explains how it can be turned into a great story that will wow and amaze the journalist’s audience.

In other words, you’re pitching a story that relates to the news in your press release. In some cases, your press release itself may not be the main story. For instance, let’s say that you are a business coach who specializes in coaching veterans. You may pitch a profile of yourself as a story to a local media outlet. That would be an okay angle, but an even better angle might be a story about all the new business resources available for veterans who want to become business owners, or a story about what type of business owners veterans make or even a profile of three local veterans who have started their own businesses. In each of these pitches, you can put yourself forward as an expert who can provide quotes for the article.

Those who are just learning how to pitch media stories have a tendency to write long, rambling pitches all about themselves and their business. This will not usually result in a positive response. The journalist wants to know three main things:

• What’s the story?
• Why should I care?
• How do I learn more?

Your job is to answer those questions as quickly and clearly as possible.

Even though they are short, pitches are extremely difficult to write. They take a lot of practice and a lot of fine-tuning. Here’s an example of how a good pitch should be written.

Subject Line: Big BOLD Headline that snag’s the journalist’s attention

Hi [journalist first name],

Hook – Start off with a bold, clear statement that introduces your news in an enticing manner.

Supplement – Add a few more lines about the news, but not too many and pitch a specific news angle

Relevance – Explain exactly why this news story is perfect for the journalist’s audience. This is the section where you prove that you’re familiar with their publication and writing

Closing – Wrap up, provide your contact info and point them toward your press release if they want more information, which is either pasted below or attached

Personally, I struggle with writing pitches. Mine tend to be way too long. If you want to see an example of a pitch I wrote HERE’S A PITCH TEMPLATE I use to request book reviews of my novel Falling – Girl With Broken Wings from book review bloggers.

In many cases, you may need to write two or even three different pitches, depending on the types of media in your list. For instance, with Grub Street Reads, I created three separate pitches. One was geared toward mainstream press. The second was for author-focused publications, and the third was for reader-centered publications.

Step Three: Sending Out Your Pitch

Your pitch is just a template. Before sending it out, you’ll need to tailor it to the publication and the specific journalist you are targeting. This is the same way you would write a cover letter template when looking for a job. Hopefully, you don’t send the same cover letter to every job you apply for. Instead, you carefully review the requirements of a specific job and revise your cover letter to play up how your skills match those requested in that particular job description.

Take your time with each pitch, and use your knowledge of the specific publication to tailor that pitch.

This is where most people take shortcuts. They create one general pitch and send it out to a huge list of journalists, hoping that even if the vast majority of journalists ignore the message because it is irrelevant, at least a few will reply.

Again, consider a job search situation, except this time you’re the employer. Let’s say you receive ten applications for an open position your just advertised. Nine of the cover letters and resumes are extremely general, but the tenth addresses every skill you asked for in the job description and demonstrates a strong familiarity with your company. Which candidate are you calling in first?

Tailoring each pitch will add a significant amount of time and effort to the PR process, but it will help you stand out from all the other sucky pitches that a journalist receives day in and day out.

Step Four: Follow Up and Maintain Real Expectations

The sad truth is that public relations is a numbers game. The vast majority of your pitches will be utterly and completely ignored, even if you take the time and effort to become familiar with a publication and tailor your pitch to a specific journalist. You may think your story pitch is a perfect fit for a certain publication, but the journalist on the other end of your email may disagree. Or they could just be busy that day. Or maybe they already wrote a story about your topic last week. You can never know why someone doesn’t respond, so don’t take it personally.

If you don’t hear back from a journalist within a few days, it’s acceptable to follow up. You may shoot the journalist a quick email just asking if they received your original message, or you may call and introduce yourself if you have access to their number. When following up, always be polite and direct about why you are calling or emailing. Be sensitive to the fact that journalists may be working on a tight deadline or may have already been harried by a dozen other people pitching stories.

Some journalists, especially if they write for large publications, may be short or even rude on the phone. Don’t take it personally. Living from deadline to deadline could make anyone cranky.

In most cases, you’ll get a voicemail, or your email follow up will go unanswered. Personally, I only follow up once, though there are plenty of PR experts who advise multiple follow ups. My thinking is that if they didn’t respond to the initial pitch and the follow up, they can’t be that interested in the story. I think it’s better to continue down your contact list than to keep badgering someone who hasn’t responded positively.

Send out pitched to your entire contact list and don’t let being ignored get in your way. If you’ve spent time and effort to put together a focused contact list and created a tailored pitch, sooner or later, someone should bite. If not, go back to the drawing board. Maybe your contact list was a little too much of a reach and you need to consider smaller, more niche publications. Maybe there’s a different or stronger news angle that you can pitch. Maybe your pitch isn’t as clean and dynamic as it could be, or your subject line is uninspired.

Public Relations is all about “ try, try, try again”. The more you do it and start to get positive results, the more you’ll get the hang of the process. Over time, you’ll also start to develop relationships with journalists. Once they cover one story from you, they’re much more likely to respond to your next pitch, making it easier and easier for you to place your story and get free media coverage for your business.

***

Even though this blog post was super-duper long, it still only scratched the surface of media interactions. If you have questions about getting media cover or anything to do with writing or distributing a press release, please leave a comment below or contact me at jbennett@endeavorwriting.com.

If you’ve been checking in regularly with this blog, you should now have a pretty good understanding of what a press release is and how it can fit into an overall marketing strategy.

Now you just need  to know how to put your press release out into the world so people read it, get super impressed with your news and then kick down your door so they can buy your product or services.

In this post, I’ll review two common ways to distribute your press release – through your social networks and using a press release distribution service. You can also approach media institutions directly if you’re looking to generate outside press, but since this topic can get a little complicated, I’ll address it in a separate post.

Your Social Networks

The easiest, fastest, and cheapest way to distribute your press release is to utilize the social networks you have already created. Your company’s Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts are filled with people who have opted in to receive news and updates about your business. This is your primary audience – the people who are most likely to be interested and share your news.

Post your press release on your website (if your site has a “news” section, that’s where the press release should go) and post the link on your company’s Facebook page, Twitter feed and LinkedIn accounts. Make sure to include a message to add context and interest. Don’t just post a naked link. Highlight the news, add some zazz and encourage your adoring fans to share it with their social networks.

Bad Example: New press release, come check it out – http://shywriter.com/the-change-is-only-the-beginning-in-j-bennett%E2%80%99s-debut-novel-falling/

Better Example: So excited to announce the release of my first novel, Falling – Girl With Broken Wings. If you like paranormal action, a quirky narrator and more than a little family drama, check out the press release: http://shywriter.com/the-change-is-only-the-beginning-in-j-bennett%E2%80%99s-debut-novel-falling/

[Note: The second announcement is way over the 140-character limit of a Twitter post. I don’t have a Twitter account, so it’s not a big deal to me. However, if you are a Twitterite, I suggest writing a second, shorter version of your announcement rather than posting a short, 140-character update on all your social networking platforms. If you have space for more words, use it!]

You may also consider posting the link in relevant LinkedIn groups and on relevant Facebook group pages. Be very careful that you’re not just tooting your own horn. If your post comes off as too markety, it will most definitely be ignored and could even be taken down.

Distribution Networks

Your social networks are a great place to start when it comes to distributing your press release, but your reach is going to be limited by the amount of connections that you have. If you’re looking to get your news outside of your immediate circle; try to generate some press; or get your hands on some SEO linking power, you’ll probably need help.

Don’t worry, the Internet is teeming with press release distribution networks. These are businesses that specialize in sending press releases out across the Internet and to a variety of media outlets.

These sites offer various distribution packages that typically range in price from $29.99 – $499 per release, depending on how wide a net you want to cast. The most basic press release packages usually just reprint your press release on a handful of low ranking sites without any live links or SEO power.

As you work your way up to more costly packages, you’ll be able to include your link in the press release, along with images and possibly even video. The more money you pay, the more distribution you’ll get. These companies will also allow you to focus your release to specific geographic regions and industries.

Most of these distribution companies also offer “SEO packages” that promise to submit your press release to various search engines. If you buy a package that allows you to place a live link to your website in your press release, this could result in an SEO boost. When your press release goes out, it will land on a wide variety of websites within that distribution company’s network. Each time your press release is hosted on a different site, the search engines will count that as another link in your favor.

[Note: this is a very simplistic explanation of how press releases can affect SEO. In truth, your unique results will have a lot to do with the quality of the sites your press release lands on and how much search competition you have. Also, the search engines get smarter every day and now don’t give companies as much credit for posting the same content across multiple sites]

Usually, links and SEO are offered at packages in the $99 – $199 price range

Is the SEO boost from a $200 press release distribution package worth the price?  (Remember, you may also have to pay a copywriter to write the press release if you don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself)  My honest answer is, I don’t know. Every case is different. In some instances, I’ve seen clients notice little or no traffic difference after a press release goes out, despite the fact that they’ve put down hundreds of dollars for the release. In other instances – especially when a client exists in a less competitive field – the press release brings in decent traffic and becomes a mainstay in relevant search engine results.

For example, on July 9^th, my business partner and I launched a new business, Grub Street Reads, and sent out a press release through PRWeb. As of today, if you Google one of our company’s most important keyword phrases “indie book endorsements”, you’ll see that our press release comes up very high in the search engine rankings. When I did this search just now, our press release came up first, even above the homepage of our website.

However, you’ll also notice that the next three search results are also related to our company, so it’s questionable as to how useful the press release is, at least viewed solely through the lens of search engine placement.

For those business owners looking to generate authentic press from news outlets, they’ll need to invest in the more expensive distribution packages. These packages often promise to send the press release to a wide variety of top-tier news outlets like the New York Times, USA Today and the like. These distribution packages will also include more alliances for images and videos that you can connect to your press release.

Personally, I am highly skeptical of the value of the highest-end PR distribution packages, unless your news is something that the general public would truly find interesting. Be aware that these contacts that the distribution sites are sending your press releases to get bombarded with thousands of similar press releases each week. Unless your news would be considered groundbreaking, your chances of having a USA Today reporter begging you for an interview so they can give your company a full feature in their Sunday magazine is extremely minimal.

If your news is anything other than groundbreaking, save your money and stay away from high-end PR news packages. There are cheaper and better ways to get news coverage (which I’ll go over in my next post).

Here’s another big warning – many press release companies will offer memberships or packages that include distribution for multiple press releases at a discount. Unless you are planning on introducing new products on a regular basis, or your company is set to release a lot of newsworthy information, these packages and memberships are not worth it. Press releases are not blog posts. In other words, they aren’t something you need to do every week to keep people interested. They are a strategic release of a news item. Most small and medium-sized companies simply do not generate enough news to justify regular press releases. This means, if you sign up for a membership or a multi-distribution package, you could be scrambling to find something to write a press release about, which will result in tepid, boring, and, ultimately, weak press releases.

With that in mind, here is a list of the most popular press release distribution sites:

Premium Press Release Sites (High cost, best distribution)

• PR Newswire
• BusinessWire

Popular Press Release Sites for Small/Med Business

• 24-7pressrelease.com (free w/ads)
• PRWeb (paid, less costly, still good results)

Low Cost/Free Press Release Distribution Sites (Results are limited)

• Online  PR News
• PR Leap
• PR.com
• PRUnderground
• PR Log
• I-Newswire

Generating Media Interest

If you want to generate media interest for your news, I recommend staying away from the $499 press release packages, rolling up your sleeves and doing it yourself. This method is highly time consuming, but for most businesses, I think it has a higher likelihood for success.

Stay tuned for my next blog post to learn how to use your press release to generate media coverage (and you want to).

It’s one thing to write a good press release; it’s entirely another thing to actually use it effectively as part of your overall marketing campaign. I’ve seen many a good press release go to waste or be released out into the world only to flounder and settle onto the Internet junk pile (I think MySpace is somewhere in that pile too).

If business owners are going to spend time and effort on writing a press release (or paying a professional copywriter like myself to do it for them), it’s important that they have a plan on how they are going to use the release.

You laugh, but alas, there are people out in the world who will pay good money to have a writer create a press release for them, and then it will go right into the “News” section of their website where all of no one will ever see it again.

So let’s talk about how to use a press release.

There’s More Than One Way To Use A Press Release

This really shouldn’t be a shocker. When it comes to the online world, content is as fluid as…well, fluid. If you aren’t repurposing your blog post at least 564 times across different online mediums, then you’re just plain lazy.

Likewise, there are multiple ways to utilize a press release. These can be divided into two main categories:

• To gain media attention
• To generate awareness and website traffic

Garner Media Attention

Let me sing you a sweet song:

You’re a large, innovative and very loved company that’s name happens to rhyme with Lapple. You’re launching a new product that’s going to revolutionize how we [fill in blank]. To kick off the launch, you send out a press release through a large press release distribution company, like PR Web or PR Newswire. In addition, your PR agency sends out the press release to top tech journalists all over the world.

Is the media going to pick up on their news? You bet your buttons.  (Don’t ask me why you’re wearing buttons). There will be stories galore, which will generate more news stories and blog posts and social media buzz, and the whole thing will turn into a giant feeding frenzy.

Great story, right? Too bad it will most likely never happen to you.

Let’s look at a more realistic example. You are a medium sized business which just won an industry award. Good job. You probably care a lot about this award. Your mother is probably mildly interested. Your uncle will at least feign interest because you’re family. The rest of the world? They really couldn’t care less unless that award happens to be a little gold man or start with the word “Noble”.

You may pay a hundred dollars or more to distribute your release through a professional distribution site. Don’t wait by the phone. Journalists will not be calling you.

The truth is, journalists care about one thing and one thing only: entertaining their readers. If your press release is like 99.9% of press releases, then it’s boring and irrelevant to the majority of the world’s population. It won’t get picked up on its own. If you do a little extra leg work, like reach out to industry publications, local media outlets in your community or niche bloggers, you may get some pickup, but don’t expect a media blitz unless your news really is life-altering.

Sorry to rain on your little parade, but that’s life. However, all is not lost. Just because you’re press release won’t likely be plastered on the front page of the New York Times doesn’t mean it isn’t worth pursuing as a marketing avenue. You just need to keep your expectations realistic and understand the other major way a press release can to be used …

Generate Awareness and Website Traffic

It’s much more reasonable for small and medium-sized businesses to use press releases to generate awareness and website traffic through search engine optimization. The strength of a professional press release newswire is in its distribution network. (I’ll talk all about press release distribution in my next blog post). These companies will basically fling your press release across the Internet in exchange for a little green. If you have strong keyword in your press release, the search engines may take notice and help boost your company’s presence for those keywords.

The sites that host your press release are also indexed by the search engines. Think of each site hosting your press release as another in-bound breadcrumb that will lead potential leads back to your website.

For instance, if you win an important industry award and send out a press release through a newswire service, someone may one day do a search for that award and find your press release in the search engine results.

More Press Release Distribution Tips

Here are additional tips on how to maximize your press release exposure:

• Contact Local Media Outlets. Send a short, friendly note to local media outlets in your area about the news and attach the press release. Note, I didn’t say just blindly send the press release to all the news outlets in your area. Write a note explaining why the news is important to that outlet’s audience and offer to do an interview about it. Local media outlets need to fill their pages or their timeslots and often run news about local businesses
• Contact Niche Publications. Send a similar but uniquely-tailored note to journalists and bloggers who write for your primary audience. The more niche the publication, the more likely you may get coverage. Again, be friendly. Address the contact by name and explain why your news would appeal to their readership or viewership. (Yes, it takes time to track down the name and contact info for certain news outlets and blogs, but a personalized note has a much stronger chance of a response than a general letter sent to “editor” or “to whom it may concern”.
• Post the Press Release on your Website. The “News” section is usually best. This way, it will be indexed. Also, you never know, a website visitor may accidentally stumble onto that page.
• Share your Press Release. Post the press release on your company’s blog and then send a link to all your social networking pages, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It doesn’t hurt to let your friends know what’s going on in your business. These will be the people most likely to spread the news.
• Check your Website Analytics. If you paid money to send your press release out through a professional distribution company, check your website traffic about a week after the release went you. You will want to see if your traffic spiked the day the release went live and if it stayed elevated for the following days. Compare the rise in website traffic with the amount of money you paid to have the press release written and distributed and make sure it was worth it. If it wasn’t, consider whether press releases might not be the best use of your marketing time and funds in the future.

Wow, look at you. If you read my last blog post, you’ll now know how to write a press release and how to use it in your marketing campaign. You’re practically a public relations stud! Now all you need is a little knowledge on how to use professional newswires. Stay tuned for my take on that topic in my next blog post.

Having worked at a public relations agency, I’d written my fair share of press releases even before I started by copywriting business, Endeavor Writing. Press releases continue to be a popular request from the small and medium-sized business owners I serve.

I field a lot of questions from my clients and from other business owners about how to effectively incorporate press releases into an overall marketing strategy. What I’ve discovered, however, is that many small and medium-sized business owners have an incomplete idea of what a press release even is.

Before looking to include press releases into a marketing strategy, it is imperative that a business owner understand what a press release is used for, the style in which it is written and how it is constructed.

So, buckle up, turn your concentration levels to High, and let’s get learning about press releases.

The Basics

A press release in its simplest form is an announcement written in the form of a hard news story. Things are happening to a business all the time, and in some instances, the business wants to spread this news to their clients, potential clients, stakeholders and the media.

Common press release topics are:

• A new product launch
• The hire of a vice president
• Sponsorship of a community outreach program
• Results of an important scientific study using their products
• A re-vamped website
• An industry award
• Etc….

A press release is not an article and not a blog post. It is written in the manner of a hard news story, which focuses on facts and information, not subjective statements and opinion.

You wouldn’t go to the national news section of the New York Times website (cause who actually reads physical papers anymore) and read a story that went something like this:

“The senate took up a new climate change bill today. The debate was really boring and no one paid attention. We all know the bill isn’t going to pass.”

Maybe something like this would be found on the opinion page (hopefully written with much more insight and wit), but definitely not on the hard news pages. Likewise, a press release shouldn’t contain subjective or markety content.

The reason for this is simple. One of the original intents of a press release was to be picked up by mainstream media outlets. Press releases were thus written in a way so that they could easily be added whole-cloth to a newspaper without consumers ever being the wiser. (It’s not really that shocking, is it.)

Things have changed drastically in the marketing world over the last decade, and the purpose of the press release has evolved with it. No longer is it strictly a tool for garnering media attention (though this continues to be a primary purpose among others). I’ll go into this more in my next blog post. For now, let’s stick with deconstructing a press release, so you can see exactly how it is written.

Press Release Format

Unlike articles and blogs posts, a press release has a highly standardized format. Over the years, these standards have started to fuzzify a little, but, for now, at least, they still stand. If you ever decide to attempt a press release on your own, you’ll need to adhere to this standard if you ever want to submit your press release to a newswire or press release distribution site.

Top of the press release

The very top of the press release includes the contact information of the person who will responses to the press release. If the press release focuses on a highly newsworthy item, the contact person may get calls and emails from journalists who want to conduct interviews and write stories. The contact information should include a name, phone and email. The contact person’s position in the company is optional.

It’s also important to include the phrase “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” at the top of the press release, signifying that the information is allowed to be distributed. I also like to include the company’s logo at the top of the release for branding purposes. If you use a newswire service to distribute your press release, they will include your logo and “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” for you. (More on press release distribution services in a future blog post)

 

Headline

The press release headline should impart the gist of the news in one short, clear statement. It doesn’t have to be a full sentence. The shorter and more impactful, the better. To get a good idea of what a press release heading should look like, check out some of the top newspapers in the country. Scan the article headlines, and you’ll see what I mean. In some cases, you may want to add a fun twist to the title related to the contents of the story. For instance, I once wrote a press release about a company called Grill Charms™. The company’s CEO was featured on the ABC reality show “Shark Tank”. The title of the press release was, “Grill Charms Hooks An Investor In The Shark Tank”.

Clever, no?

Sub-Heading

The sub-head of a press release is a single statement or sentence that expands upon the headline. Basically, whatever important details you couldn’t fit into the heading go into the sub-head, although you want to make sure and keep the sub-head down to a single sentence.

With my Grill Charms press release, the sub-head was, Barbeque Accessory Start Up Brings Multiple Investors To The Table On ABC’s Hit Show

Body

The very first thing in the body of the press release should be the city where the news took place (usually the home base of the company) followed by the date that the press release will be distributed. I was taught to include the state if the city was not generally well known and to write the date as abbreviated month and day (ex. OCT. 05). When writing the body of a press release, think of it was a news funnel. The most important news goes at the top, and as you go down the funnel, the story should expand to include all the additional facts and details of lesser importance.

Again, take some time to read hard news stories in your favorite paper, and you’ll see this same style used.

The first paragraph should plainly and comprehensively explain what the news is. There’s no need to try to be cute or go overboard with dramatic lingo. Your job is to impart the gist of the story as clearly as possible and then to expand upon that in the following paragraphs. Sorry to keep harking back to my Grill Charms press release, but I think it serves (pun!) as a good example of what I’m talking about.

(To view the press release click HERE and scroll down. The Grill Charms release is the first sample provided)

In the first paragraph, I state that Grill Charms was featured on the Shark Tank and got multiple offers from its panel. In the second paragraph, I highlight the company’s president, Leslie Haywood, who was featured on the show and explain more details about the offers she received. The third paragraph describes what Grill Charms are, and the following paragraphs add supporting details about the company, product and Leslie’s appearance on the show.

Most press releases stick to one page, or about 500 words. This roughly translates into 4- 6 paragraphs of content. The last paragraph should add any wrap up details about the company, including a note that more information can be found on the company website.

The Quote

Most press releases include at least one quote from a top figure in the company. Oftentimes, this is the president/CEO, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. The quote is the one area of a press release that can be subjective – because it is being attributed to someone with a stake in the company. When I help my clients develop quotes, I ask them to think about and react to the news item. If they won an award, oftentimes they want to mention how proud they are and that the award provides proof of the quality of their product. If the press release is about a product launch, then perhaps the company’s president will speak to how this product will positively impact the lives of customers. Quotes shouldn’t be too long or effusive. If they are overly markety, readers will ignore them and reporters won’t put it into the story.

In some cases, two quotes may be necessary, especially if the news relates to two people. For instance, if a company hires on a new sales VP, the press release may feature a quote from the company’s president as well as a quote from the new hire.

Usually, the quote goes toward the middle of the press release after the main news items have been covered.

The Boilerplate

A boilerplate goes at the very bottom of the press release. I prefer to add three centered asterisks (***) at the end of the press release and then write add the boilerplate on the next line, so it’s clear where the press release ends and the boilerplate begins.

A boilerplate is simply a quick summary of the company behind the press release. Most companies should already have a boilerplate, though not every small business does. The boilerplate usually includes when the company was founded and by whom, a sentence describing the company’s mission statement, a brief mention of its major products and contact information.

On the press release page in my Endeavor Writing portfolio, you can see an example of a boilerplate on the second sample for the company Snug Attack™.

To get a sense of what different press releases look and read like, you can see examples of press releases I’ve written on my website as well as see real life press release newsfeeds from the major distributors. For example, HERE is a link to PR Web’s news center where you can see the latest press releases they’ve distributed.

This is only the beginning

So there you have it. You should now have a basic understanding of what a press release is. However, knowing the composition of a press release is only one part of the equation. If you’re considering adding press releases to your marketing campaign, you also need to understand how they’re used – especially in the wild wild west of our current online marketing world. I’ll address this fun issue in my next blog post.  Stay tuned!

If you feel like your head is spinning right now, it’s most likely because you’re a small or medium-sized business owner trying to figure out what happened to the marketing landscape over the last ten years.

Things used to be, well not easy exactly, but more clear. If you wanted to get the word out on your business, the choices were pretty clear cut. You could create a snazzy postcard, pay for an ad in the Yellow Pages, maybe even create a local radio or television ad. All of these marketing tactics are considered “out-bound” as in, you’re broadcasting your message out to consumers whether they want to hear it or not.

In most cases, the answer is “not”. Think about it, how many commercials on television really appeal to you? How many billboards have you learned to ignore on the way to the grocery store or to your office? How many times do you switch to another radio station as soon as they cut to ads?

Exactly. Outbound marketing is easy to ignore, to throw away or to switch off.

Which brings us to today. If I had to sum up the current marketing field in a single word, it would be “fractured”. The Internet has imploded the options for a consumer’s attention, opening up endless marketing channels, each with its own niche audience.

How is a business owner supposed to find and appeal to potential clients when they’re roaming anywhere and everywhere and highly conditioned to have the attention span of peanuts?

The answer is to put down your spears and nets (out-bound marketing) and to lay out a trail of breadcrumbs instead (in-bound marketing).

In-bound marketing leads potential clients to you through the use of quality content that educates, entertains and starts building a relationship. Each breadcrumb in your in-bound marketing strategy is a piece of content that a potential customer will enjoy nibbling on. A breadcrumb can be almost anything – an informative blog post, a funny video on your website, a whitepaper that elucidates a complicated issue related to your business, a post on your Facebook page, or a guest article you write in a consumer publication.

Each time you lay out a breadcrumb that is useful, entertaining or educational, your potential lead comes a little closer and a little closer. See how it works?  You’re not running around with a huge net, trying to pull everyone in, you’re attracting self-qualifying leads with the quality of your content.

Each great crumb you leave out strengthens the bond the lead has with your company. If you give them something they can truly use, they’ll appreciate it and remember you. This may translate into a call two months down the line or even multiple referrals.

When starting on your breadcrumb trail, there are two thoughts that you should keep nailed to the very front of your brain:

• Content
• Good content

Content

The more content you produce, the bigger your breadcrumb trail One blog post will probably do exactly nothing to bring in leads. One hundred blog posts is a different story. If each blog post only brings in one lead each month, that’s 100 leads per month, every month!

It’s also important to utilize different forms of content. A lot of people don’t read blogs. Most that do have a handful of favorites that they stick with. Consider creating a whitepaper or ebook on a topic you get a lot of questions on, especially if there is little good information online.

Note: a whitepaper or ebook is a big undertaking. If you decide to go this route – do it right. Plan, outline, develop amazing content that will blow your reader away (more on that in a moment), and copyedit (or pay me to copyedit).

Videos, social networking accounts, games and more can all make great breadcrumbs. Just make sure it attracts the types of people who would likely convert into clients.

Good Content

It should go without saying that whenever you create content for your business it should be quality. There’s no easier way to send leads scurrying than to throw out stale breadcrumbs with bits of lint and dirt all over them.

An in-bound marketing campaign is not a race. It’s a long-term strategy that will grow over time. You don’t need 100 blog posts tomorrow. Start with one really good blog post today. Write it. Edit it. Edit it again. Post. Repeat.

I cannot emphasize this enough. Quality comes before anything else. In-bound marketing is meant to attract leads. The best way to do that is to create content they will appreciate. Many business owners go the educational route, creating informative pieces to help potential leads who are in the information-gathering and decision stages of purchase. For instance, remodeling contractor bids often vary greatly from one another, and it can be exceedingly difficult for homeowners to figure out how to compare them.

One of my clients happens to be a remodeling contractor, so we wrote a post for his blog explaining to homeowners how they can effectively compare varied remodeling bids. The post provided helpful and informative information to my client’s primary audience on an issue they may be currently struggling with. How much do you bet that homeowners who read his post will remember and appreciate my client for this information? Might they decide to ask him for a bid as well?

***

Think about the concepts of out-bound vs. in-bound marketing. What do you feel is more appealing? A billboard for the local casino that you have no plans on visiting or your favorite blog that’s always filled with great information written in a clear and compelling manner?

Look at your own marketing strategies and determine if it’s time to start spreading breadcrumbs.

Okay, public relations probably isn’t the worst job an overly shy person can have – but it’s pretty damn close.

Public relations is all about trying to persuade strangers in the media to take interest in your client’s product and write about it. This usually involves hassling them by all means necessary – email, phone, in person – repeatedly until they give in or invest in a restraining order. Public relations also involves high concentrations of flirting and schmoozing, which are both effectively Kryptonite to shy people.

So what the hell was I doing in Los Angeles as a public relations coordinator?

That Cliff’s Notes are that I wanted to get to California, public relations fit my college degree, and I somehow convinced myself that doing something that I would likely be terrible at was a great way to overcome my shyness.

The company I worked for specialized in promoting video games. My vast video game resume included playing Mario Brothers and King Kong on my Nintendo when I was seven. Luckily, the company’s hiring policy was “take the first person who walks through the door and is breathing.” After demonstrating my impressive breathing skills, I was golden.

 

Over the next couple of months, it became more and more apparent that public relations was the exact opposite of everything that I was good at. For instance, I am great at not talking to people and not going to parties and not impressing crowds with my wit and candor.

The worst part was the phone.

It would always happen the same way. Our client would make some sort of announcement, maybe new screenshots or a game trailer. We’d send out an email to our vast list of media sources asking them to write about it. 99.9% of all these emails were ignored, and so we would turn to our next weapon of choice: phone.

I would print the list of contacts out, sometimes hundreds of names, and call them one by one, pitching them the story and using all of my non-existent charm, wiles. It took me all of one day to develop a deeply-seeded complex about the phone. I loathed it. I woke up in the morning and felt the weight of all the calls I’d have to make that day pressing crushing me.

In other words, it sucked royally. I should just add here that I hardly ever actually played the video games that I was pitching and did not, in fact, own a single gaming system – not even a Game Boy.

Each day of work became harder. I started taking the stairs instead of the elevator just to forestall the inevitable calling for a few extra precious seconds.

 

And then there were the events my company threw on behalf of our clients. We were not only expected to attend but also to come off as mildly interesting. My memories are a blur of crowded bars filled with fashionably dressed strangers. For the most part, people were very nice, but I had a lot of trouble with the “at least be mildly interesting” instructions I was given.

 

My coping mechanisms at these events included fiddling with a drink, wandering aimlessly from one side of the bar to the other and texting my sister to call me so I could step outside and regroup for a couple of minutes.

Sound like a nightmare? It was.

I was a terrible fit for the position and left after less than a year. Yet, for all that stress – all those dreaded climbs up the stairs to a list of names I needed to call – I’m glad for my public relations experience.

Why?

Simple – I learned one of the most important lessons of my life. No matter how hard I try, I’ll never be a bright, blossoming social butterfly.

The more I struggle to force myself into the wrong mold, the more miserable I’ll be. When we concentrate on improving weaknesses, we may be able to reach a level of mediocrity if we’re lucky. If we concentrate on improving our strengths, we may just be able to become great.

When I started focusing on the things I was good at – mainly, writing – my confidence grew, and I noticed my shyness backing off. There’s no self-esteem booster like being good at something and knowing it.

Now, as a part of my copywriting and copyediting business, I’m on the phone almost every day. I also have to network and meet potential clients – sometimes complete strangers – to pitch them. In essence, I’m doing a lot of the same things that used to give me hives in my PR days, yet I don’t feel the same nearly-terminal level anxiety.

The reason’s pretty obvious. I’m not pitching video games I don’t care about, and I’m not thrown into a situation I have no control over. I’m pitching myself and my writing skills – two things I truly believe in. That makes all the difference.

The moral of this story is to do what you’re good at. Be proud of your skills and use that confidence to keep your shyness at bay. This may seem like a really simple lesson, but it took me nearly a year of hell to figure it out.

Below is the template I use to pitch my novel Falling – Girl With Broken Wings to book review bloggers. I’ve had about a 15% success rate so far using this pitch, which I think is pretty good.

Personally, I think the pitch is a little long, but I always struggle to write short pitches. Also, it’s important to stress that this is only a template. I carefully review each blog I want to target and pay particular attention to the submission guidelines to make sure the reviewer excepts my genre and is accepting submissions. I then tailor my template to their blog, sometimes commenting on recent posts or something they wrote about themselves in their “About Me” section.

Lastly, when pitching, I usually try to come up with a clever and enticing email subject line. In this case, however, I’m sending a book review request to a book reviewer, so I opted for upfront and clear in my subject line.

 ***

Email Subject Line: Review Request: Falling – Girl With Broken Wings

Email Body: Hi [F Name],

I am a fan of [blog name] and appreciate your unique and witty reviews. I know that you are probably inundated with review requests, but I’d like to offer my debut novel for the pile.

Falling – Girl With Broken Wings is a paranormal adventure that will appeal to older teens and adults. From your previous reviews, I know you are drawn to strong and flawed characters. My protagonist, Maya, fits this bill. She is an unapologetically quirky narrator who holds grudges, usually bombs the witty comeback, and is mostly sure she isn’t a monster—at least not a full one. You can read a short summary of the story at the end of this letter.

The novel is approximately 70,000 words in length and is available as an ebook at most online publishers, including Amazon, Barnes & Nobel and Smashwords for $2.99. If you do choose to review my novel, I can provide a thumbnail of the cover and an eBook file in whatever format you prefer.

Additionally, I would love to provide up to five copies of the book for a giveaway if you’d be willing to host. Lastly, I am offering a pretty significant free sample of the book on my website, www.GirlWithBrokenWings.com if you or your readers would be interested in getting a taste of the novel.

Thank you so much for your consideration and for your support of authors like myself,

J Bennett

JBennett@GirlWithBrokenWings.com

About Falling – Girl With Broken Wings

Maya knew something was wrong.  The stranger’s glowing hands were a big tipoff.

 

When the stranger murders Maya’s boyfriend with a single touch, drags her to an abandoned storage unit, and injects her with a DNA-altering serum, Maya prays for a savior.

 

Instead, the college sophomore gets a double helping of knight-in-not-so-shining-armor when two young men claiming to be her half-brothers pull off a belated rescue. Now Maya is swiftly transforming into an “angel”, one of the scientifically-enhanced, energy-sucking creatures her brothers have spent their whole lives trying to destroy.

 

Maya’s senses sharpen, her body becomes strong and agile, and she develops the ability to visually see the emotions of those around her as colorful auras…beautiful auras…tempting auras.

 

One brother wants to save her. The other wants to kill her before she becomes too strong. Maya just wants to go home.

 

Struggling to control the murderous appetite that fuels her new abilities, Maya must find a way to accept her altered condition and learn to trust her brothers as she joins them in their battle against the secret network of powerful and destructive angels.

 

Oh, and she’d like a few words with the one who changed her. Words, then lots of stabbing.

The Exciting Conclusion!

I know that you’ve been on the edge of your seat waiting for the results of my groundbreaking free press release experiment.

…not the edge?

At least the middle of your seat then…oh…not even that huh?

Mild curiosity?…come on, don’t make me beg.

Alright, so you’ve been mildly curious to learn the results of my free press release experiment.

Last week, I put together a little experiment to test the integrity of the free press release options on the web. Sure, there was a little scientific curiosity in the mix, but mostly this experiment was spurred by my lack of marketing budget for my new ebook Falling – Girl with Broken Wings.

 

I spent three hours putting together a press release announcing the book’s release and two hours submitting it to five press release websites:

• 24-7 Press Release
• Online PR News
• PR.com
• PR Log
• I-Newswire

The release went out on 01/11/12. It’s been a full week now, and the results are in. Was my five hours of time worth the investment? Do free press releases provide any type of reach? Am I now a multi-million dollar author who can afford to clone my favorite goldfish so that me and Hans the guppy will never be separated? (Hint: the answer to that last one is no, but I’ll find a way Hans. I swear it!)

They say that the vast majority of scientific experiments end in failure. It’s comforting to know that I’m in good company. Below is a screenshot of a Google search I did using the exact title of my press release.

 

You’ll see that I got a whopping three results. I’m no math major, but I do understand that, with the exception of the numbers one and two, three is pretty much as flimsy as it gets.

The top result is from the 24-7 Press Release website. The second result got picked up from I-Newswire, and the third result was from the PR Log site. It’s disappointing enough that these three companies provided only a single link each, but what the heck happened to Online PR News and PR.com? Does their free press release option distribute to an Internet that exists in an alternate reality (and do these alternate reality web suffers even have access to Amazon?)

It’s interesting to note that the press release I posted on this blog (not exactly a search engine powerhouse) made it to the second page of search results. Therefore, I can only conclude that this humble blog is a better PR site than PR.com and Online PR News. (Thus, I will soon be rolling out an online press release service called “Shy Writer Diamond Plan – sure, you’ll only get one link but we’re still better than Online PR News and PR.com”)

Just for kicks, I searched for the title of my press release on Google News, which brought back zero results. This was not surprising as most PR distribution services require payment to submit to Google News. Googling the full title of my book did not bring up any of the press releases on the first two search results pages. My efforts weren’t a total waste, though. I did learn that there is a song called “Girl With Broken Wings” by Manchester Orchestra.

By the way, I have heard a crazy rumor that other search engines exist that are not called Google. A quick Google search quickly laid these rumors to rest. (This is a joke. Bing and Yahoo! do exist, I think. I’ve never used them.)

Lastly, combing through the Google Analytics for my book’s website, I was not able to find any indication that my press release adventure had resulted in a bump in traffic.

These results point to a non-surprising, non-revolutionary conclusion that will not rock your world in any way, shape, or form (won’t even jostle your world a little bit). Free…sometimes sucks.

If you are looking for a cheap way to market your company, I suggest taping your cat for five hours. You’re bound to catch it doing something that will garner a few hundred hits on YouTube. Adding your company’s website address in the video’s background should result in some decent exposure, certainly more than you’d get by spending five hours putting out a press release through free websites.

Don’t have a cat? Well, then you might need to dole out some bucks. Most of the same press release companies I used in my experiment offer basic distribution packages starting at $22 on Online PR News and $49 on 24-7 Press Release. I-Newswire offers monthly packages, PR Log is a free press release site, and PR.com…well, that site just looks ghetto. I’d recommend staying away unless you want to get your car jacked as soon as you look the other way.

In the past, I’ve used the 24-7 Press Release $49 service with decent results. They put together a nice report with over a dozen links to distribution sites, which I appreciate.

I know that there are additional press release sites out there on the net. Some of them may even have free options with a little more push behind them, but I’ve learned my lesson. Free press releases aren’t worth the effort. Plus, I don’t have time at the moment. I’ve got to go walk the fish.

So, I find myself in a bit of a quandary. I’ve released my ebook, Falling, and I want to let everyone know about it, but I have a marketing budget of roughly zero dollars.

Luckily, chance/fortune/providence/a broken condom saw to it that I ended up right here in this time and place where access to bunches and bunches of people was just as easy turning on Torgo (my laptop) and hopping online.

Free is the new black, so why not take advantage?

The traditional way to announce an important piece of news was to launch a press release. Now, many people are satisfied with posting an update on Facebook and Twitter. Press releases are still around however, and so are a growing number of press release distributors (the companies that actually release the press releases to news and media networks).

I’ve written many press releases; first as a worker bee at a public relations agency, and more recently for my own clients as part of my copywriting business, Endeavor Writing.

There are some top tier (means expensive) press release distribution sites like PR Newswire and BusinessWire that PR agencies typically use to cast a huge net. There’s also a growing crop of smaller distributors. These guys don’t have quite the distribution muscle of the big guns, but they’re also within the budget of most small business owners. Some even offer free press release options.

Free, the magic word.

I’ve always been curious about these free options. I’m well aware that they don’t have the distribution power behind them of a paid press release, but do they get any love at all?

No time like the present and a non-existent budget to try it out. Earlier this week, I spent roughly three hours creating and polishing a press release. It wasn’t one of my best, but I am a big believer in the idea that “perfection is the enemy of actually getting stuff done”. Next, it was time to hunt down these free press release sites, upload my little baby and see what happened.

On 01/11/2012, I ended up submitting to five different sites that offer free press release distribution options:

• 24-7 Press Release
• Online PR News
• PR.com
• PR Log
• I-Newswire

In all cases, these sites offered a free press release option that was ad supported. That means my baby could very well be announcing my book and pushing weight loss diet pills at the same time. It’s not a comforting thought, but I’ve little room to complain.

Most of the programs restricted free press releases to one per week, or even one per month. Understandably, the free press releases were allowed very few extras in the way of category choices, keyword options and image inclusion. Bare bones means bare bones. In fact, only one company – PR Log – allowed me to add an image.

On a side note, PR Log is a free press release site and was, by far, the easiest site to use. Many of the other sites kept hounding me to switch to a paying option throughout the submission process. One company in particular – I-Newswire – was really bad about this.

It took me just under two hours to submit my press release to these five sites, making it a five hour adventure from start to finish. Now we’ll see if my time was well spent. I’ve created Google Alerts for a few terms related to my book. These alerts will pick up any mentions across the web and let me know what type of distribution my press release got. I’ll also be checking the Google Analytics on my book website to see if any traffic was generated from these websites.

All in all, I think I should be able to track the results of this experiment pretty well. I’ll give the press release a couple of days to land, and then I’ll report back the results on this blog.

On a last note, if you are considering performing this same experiment, don’t rush the process. Make sure you develop a compelling press release (Google “How to Write a Press Release” for help). You’ll need to create an account with every press release distribution service that you use. You’ll also find that each company has a slightly different submission process. Some of these sites are not very intuitive. Some of these sites, in fact, seem to take some malicious pleasure in watching you impotently click on every conceivable links searching for where you can actually submit your god damn press release! Read all of the instructions carefully and double check everything before you submit. Once your press release is out, it’s out.