RELEASE RELEASE: Getting Your Press Release to the MediaWritten by Meredith Pond
Each day newspapers, TV, radio, and ezines hand out millions of dollars in FREE publicity. If you have a good story or good information to share, an editor somewhere will jump at chance to use your material. Your name and ideas can be spread to thousands of people over night. And cost to you? Zero.Once you have finished your press release, here are some ways to send it to media. 1. Start small. Think locally. Your best bet for getting media is right in your own home town. Editors and news directors love to do stories on businesses and individuals they can phone without placing a long distance call. In fact, when we send press releases to media across America, many editors say they ONLY do local stories. Find contact information for your local media in Yellow Pages. Call front desk and ask who handles stories like yours. You might even try pitching your story over phone before you send your release. 2. Send your release to a trade publication that covers your industry. The fact that you have created a way for silver coated milk cans to dent less easily probably won't get a second look from your local daily newspaper, but dairy trade publication might put you on front page. Be sure to send them a photo, with YOU in picture. 3. Email your release to media nationwide. Most editors won't go for your release, but since you are casting a wide net, some will give you coverage. You can get addresses of media folks who have asked to received releases by consulting one of reliable media directories like Bacon Publicity Checker or Media Directory at Gebbie.com.
| | TRACKING YOUR ADVERTISINGWritten by David Seitz
When I run an advert in an ezine, print or web I use a simple little log trick to keep track of how effective each run is. Let's say you are placing an add for your home page www.yourname.com. Instead of just using your home page address use following: www.yourname.com/?code If you type ?code after your address it will still take you right to your web page with no interference (go ahead try it I know you want to!) but what it does do is register address in your web-server logs! You can of course substitute word code with any combinations of numbers or letters that you want. You will now be able to easily track as many ads as you want. This is a powerful and free tracking system. All you will need to do to utilize this technique is take a peak into your web server log to see how each ad is doing. Just find call for your unique URL plus your code and you can view it's hit's. Don't understand your logs?
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