Rembrandt’s New Blog-40 No Cost Press Release Posting Sites
Fellow Entrepreneurs,
Welcome to my new blog!
After being part of StartupNation since the beginning and speaking with many of you through this online community, I am happy to provide some additional help and resources via this venue.
I’ve been through the trenches. And as a small business owner myself, I know you are working with big obstacles, tight budgets and lots of stress.
Through my comments, I hope to help you save time, money and effort in your PR and writing activities.
But more importantly, I want to give you the inspiration and simple tips you need to be successful…fast!
And I’d love to get your questions and feedback! Feel free to write to me at any time at melanie@startupnation.com, sign-up for my free newsletter here, or provide your comments below.
To get started, here’s a good tip:
Did you know that you can post your press release for free on many sites?
If you have a press release that is ready to go, check out my list of 40 free sites here.
But if you’re not in a rush, you may want to hold on. Sending out a press release is not always the best way to obtain major, targeted media coverage. And if your press release is not written well, you can do more harm than good!
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more…
May 29th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
And if your press release is not written well, you can do more harm than good!
As someone who gets 75-100 press releases a day, it’s more than writing that will sink you. It’s gotten to where I hate getting them. MOST of them are either mediocre or out and out awful -and these are ones put out by PR FIRMS! Maybe I should have put that in quotes. A lot of pr pieces I get seem to have been designed by college freshman operating out of their dorm rooms.
In general, do not, DO NOT waste your time or mine by sending out a PR piece if you don’t include the client’s (or your) URL. It really annoys me when pr firms do that. I am going to look up your client, period. I’m not going to write about them without doing that -my reputation is on the line- so you may as well save me the bother of googling them. Otherwise I’ll either think you’re too dumb to know why it’s important or a control freak. Either way, I’ll think less of your client for having had the lack of judgment or for failing to have exercised due diligence in hiring you.
And use plain text please! Sure, you can gussy it up and save it as a jpeg but I can’t copy and paste any quotations (cited of course) from it. If you want me to write about you, make it easy for me if I’m the one doing you a favor. I have never gotten news so compelling it was worth my time to retype it.
Some brain trusts even neglect to include their contact info. If you’re not sufficiently professional to the extent that you can include a phone number, go out and play with the other kids until you’re ready to leave short pants behind. Otherwise, you have no credibility.
There’s been a lot of dilution of professionalism in PR. Do your homework. Don’t make yourself look bad on a first approach.
May 29th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Kathleen,
Thank you so much for your input and comments!
There are so many misconceptions about how to approach the media.
In future blog entries, I hope to help small business owners learn about what really works…It’s not just about sending out a press release.
Stay tuned…
Melanie