The previous article described what a press release is, and why it can help your Internet marketing business. This time, let’s talk bout how a press release is written.

As with any other form of advertising, your headline will be the most important part of your release, and let’s face it… You’re announcing some important event, but you’re also advertising your business. And remember that your headline will be shown among many, many others. To get people to click on and read your release, it has to grab their eyeballs. Try to associate your announcement with something in the news. A pop culture reference generally works the best. You can surely find something to use at GoogleNews.com. Here’s one we used to launch our Free list building CD promotion: “Stop Wasting Your Time with American Idol and Learn to Make a Living Online: Insider Marketing Experts Reveal Insider Secrets.”

The next part of your release is important, as well–your subheadline or a short description of your event. For the example above, we used: “Internet marketing masters Tellman Knudson and Kyle Battis unleash their ‘Insider Secrets’ to creating massive profit-pulling lists in 90 days or less.” Decide what your release is about and describe it in just a sentence or two.

Your story will be told in the next section–the main body. You’re going to want to make the announcement and give the who, what, when, where, and why of the event, but it begins with a dateline, like this: July 28, 2007 Brattleboro, VT. Then immediately begin your story. If you’re writing about an Internet marketing site launch, be sure to include the important information–who’s opening it, what will the site be about, where is it located (URL), when is it going to open, and what’s the purpose of the website? Sprinkle some quotes throughout the release, too. Even if you’re a one-man show, be sure to quote yourself. Just be sure to keep the release in third person (he, she, it, his, hers, its, they, their, theirs) and don’t write in first person (I, me, mine).

Another important consideration is keyword density. Be sure to use the keyword that you want your Internet marketing website to rank for to around a 2% density. It means that if you write a 500-word article, 10 of those words should be your keyword. If you use more than a 2% density, Google may penalize you for keyword stuffing, which brings more harm than good. Find out what your keyword density is easily by going to http://live-keyword-analysis.com and plugging in your release before uploading it to a directory.

In your “About the Company” section, be sure to provide particulars about your Internet marketing business. When was it opened, who owns it, what’s its purpose? Just provide a short description in about three to five sentences.

The next section is your contact information. Be sure to give the name of your Internet marketing business again, a person’s name to contact, their email address, telephone number, FAX, or any other information that will make it easier for people to contact you. Remember, media people and consumers will be reading this release and you want them to know how to find you for more information.

That pretty much wraps it up. If you follow this structure, you should have no trouble getting your release approved by the directory editors. Next time, let’s talk about PRWeb and how it helps you to add more bells and whistles to get your release noticed and even more traffic to your Internet marketing site.

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In the offline world, a press release brings you traffic when a news source like a paper, magazine or radio station picks up your story and publishes it. They could publish your release word for word or write their own story based on the information you submitted.

In the online world, a press release brings you traffic when you submit your release to a distribution service. A news source could then pick up your story from that distribution. But even if your story doesn’t get picked up, you gain a live link to your site even after your press release has been archived by the distribution service.

You should submit your press releases at least a week before your event or product launch. This gives editors time to pick up your story and run it before it becomes “old news.” Any story more than a week old probably won’t get published because it’s no longer considered news.

If you have a breaking story that demands immediate coverage, submit it before 3:00 pm central time. That’s the deadline hour for newspapers and media organizations around the world.

When submitting to online press release sites, you don’t need to make your release publication-specific. You just need to make sure you have a great headline and solid lead paragraph to get noticed.

A number of such sites are a Google search away, but here are some to get you started: PRWeb, FreePressRelease, PRNewswire, MassMediaDistribution, and I-Newsire. Submitting to targeted publications in your niche requires a little more effort, but the traffic you can receive as a result of your effort makes it worthwhile.

One way to find specific publications to send your release to is through online searchable databases like GebbieInc or NewspaperLinks. These databases provide contact information for thousands of radio and television stations, newspapers and magazines.

A different approach is to sort through magazine racks at your local bookstore. Note the names and email addresses of relevant journalists, and keep track of all the contact information in a spreadsheet.

Always email the journalist directly as opposed to using the general email address of the publication. Your subject line has to be as good as your press release headline in order to pique interest and get read. Personalize the message by using the journalist’s name, and open with a short note letting the journalist know you’re submitting a press release for her consideration.

Include a statement informing the journalist she can use your release “as-is” to encourage her to print it in her publication without editing it. Then provide your contact information.

Copy and paste your press release (that is tailored to this specific publication) below your contact information in the body of the email. People don’t open attachments from strangers, so don’t attach any documents or your press release will certainly not be read.

Then, on the spreadsheet you started, keep track of which publications you submitted to and which ones actually picked up your story. Those that feature you once are more likely to feature you again, so be sure to submit future releases to those publications first.

To stand any chance of succeeding with an online business, you are going to have to drive targeted traffic to your website. Even then, success is not guaranteed! However, the good news for Internet marketers who are working on a shoestring budget is that some of the most effective publicity methods are either quite cheap or completely free.

One cheap and effective method is to write a press release on a regular basis. You will be missing out on a great opportunity to get your website noticed if you do not do this.

It is also a good way to bring your website to the attention of an established journalist who may just decide to run a feature on it.

Let’s look at some of the benefits and techniques involved.

One big benefit is that when you write a press release and publish it, it will be picked up by various news wire services over the internet so your website will get a lot of links from high ranking websites. Other website owners may then pick up your article and publish it on their sites, generating yet more links to your site.

The result of all these extra links will be a higher page rank for your site. As your site gets promoted on the search engines it will begin to get a lot more traffic.

Once you have discovered how easy it is to issue a press release you will want to make it a regular part of your website publicity effort. Issuing regular press releases is one of the best things you can do to get yourself branded as an expert in your particular field.

However, the benefits I have mentioned will only accrue to your website if your press releases are effective. Sadly many press releases sink like a stone. Bear in mind that news wire services receive hundreds of press released every day so they can afford to be selective. To make sure yours gets picked up and published you will need to follow some simple steps.

Place your name, company and contact details in the top left corner where the editor can see it easily.

Next, concentrate on writing a strong opening that paints a vivid picture of the problem that your product or service will solve. Then, explain how you provide the solution. This is where you mention your website URL. Actually, you might want to repeat the name of your website or your product two or three times to impress it upon the reader’s memory.

Write to your target market from their own perspective and use the language they tend to use so that you can connect with them. The aim is to grab the reader’s attention, but bear in mind that the first reader you need to convince is the editor! He is in a hurry, so make it easy for him by keeping the paragraphs and sentences short, make use of white space and don’t use more than a few hundred words.

Another tip is to include a good photo if at all possible. A picture-led story is much more likely to be picked up and published. Even better, a story accompanied by a good photo will most likely be more prominently displayed.

Finally, seek to develop a good working relationship with the editors you submit to as this will yield good dividends over time.

It is not difficult to learn how to write a press release and get it published. It is a cheap and effective way to generate maximum targeted publicity for your website and get yourself branded as an expert in your field.

Over the weekend I wrote a press release. I used the following headline when I first submitted, it was sent back as being to much like an advertisement so I had to redo it. Actually I have to redo it several times, before it was accepted.

Finally it was accepted, and the results have been phenomenal. I have already had over 3500 views and the release has been picked up by 70 different news services in the first day.

I would highly recommend that anyone looking to get exposure for their product or service consider doing a press release.

Here’s the original headline I used, “Construction Worker With No Business Experience Makes $60 Million Dollars Online”.

They sent this back and said it too much like an advertisement, so I rewrote the headline. The new headline I used was, “Online Training Service Set To Launch January 2, 2007″.

That worked like a charm. After I submitted the release, there was an immediate swarm of activity. I was able to login to my account and watch the stats in Real Time. It was exciting to see the amount of times that people were looking at my Press Release, and how many times it was being picked up by different News Desks.

The release was all about the impending launch of a new Online Training Service called The Affiliate Community.

After the headline, you need to write a brief synopsis of the release in 125 words or less. Then you write the body of the release where you tell about the who, what, when and where of your story.

Then I went on to describe the service in detail. And in way it was really a subliminal sales letter. But it was structured correctly as a release.

At the end they allow you to put your contact information and the URL.

What was really interesting about this is that I had put audio on my home page. The audio is auto start, so it immediately starts playing when someone hits my home page.

And in the release the press release service frames in your home page. As a result, when someone went to look at my press release, they were immediately greeted by my audio. So in reality I had created a talking press release. It was cool!

I was so impressed with the results that I plan to do a press release at least once per day.

It was exciting to login and see the response, and how quickly it was picked up. Once again I would highly recommend using a press release as a way to generate traffic to your web site.

One of the most powerful ways to bring traffic into a website and build links is to use press releases.

If you’re using online methods to distribute your press release, you’ll find that every time you submit on, it will bring in both traffic and links.

Even if your press release doesn’t generate any interest from reporters, it will still help your website.

A great press release can completely change your business and bring in a flood of traffic, links, and even get you on CNBC or Oprah.

Even when given all the benefits of press releases, however, most people will never use them.

They have a list of excuses that include: I don’t have anything newsworthy; My business is different; I don’t know how to write a press release; and this one really befuddles me – because someone might actually call them and want to interview them – they’d have to *gasp* actually talk about their business to someone.

Of course, they’re just that – excuses. Coming up with something newsworthy is relatively easy. Any business can benefit from the use of press releases, they’re even relatively easy to write. For those who are afraid you might actually have to talk to someone, though, I’m not sure what to tell you – a lot of times, no reporters will call, but they might.

Here’s a few tips for successful press releases.

1) Headlines Are Vital

Just like a great headline can make or break a salesletter, the headline of your press release can make or break it. If your headline doesn’t grab someone’s attention, then it doesn’t matter how great the rest of your press release is because nobody’s going to read it. If you need help coming up with headlines, just go to your library and look at the headlines of magazines and newspapers. You’ll find plenty of great headlines within their pages.

2) Not An Advertisement

Remember that your press release is not an advertisement. While you can certainly use them to promote a new product or service in your business, the actual press release should read like it’s being written by a neutral third party. Think of yourself as the reporter writing the story about the product, why it was created, and a little history. Don’t hype up the product, just give them the facts.

3) Quotes

Have you ever noticed how just about every article you read in a newspaper has a quote from one person or multiple people? That’s because quotes make your stories more interesting. Always include a quote from someone in your press release, even if the only person you can quote is yourself.

So next time you’re looking for to get more traffic or links to your website, give the press release a try.