part time writer

Press releases are a beast of their own. That said, many articles writers and web content providers go about press releases the wrong way. Now notice, I didn’t say press releases were difficult to write. Just different.

Quite frankly, press releases are on of my least favorite things to write. Why? Well, the way I look at it, there’s less creativity involved. Rather than figuring out how to weave words together like you do with sales copy, or having the freedom to write about whatever you want as long as you include the necessary keywords with SEO articles and blogs…press releases just don’t give you that much freedom.

Here’s why:

As a press release writer, you’re concerned only with the facts. What you write is going to go out across the web in an attempt to:

• get someone to notice what your company is doing
• gain links back to your site

It’s not the time to try and sell a product or service. In fact, if you try to write it like ad copy, it will fail. That’s right–no news site is going to give it the time of day. Why give you a free platform to post your pushy sales copy? All they want is a good story. And to put their story together, they just want the facts and nothing but the facts.

Of course, being a bit salesy in your press release won’t necessarily keep you from getting the links you want if you submit it to the right places. But if that’s the case, why not just fire out some articles and syndicate them?

Keep in mind also, many sites that accept press releases will not take them if they don’t seem newsworthy. The title and intro of your new PR needs to offer something new or something timely. Comments on recent events from an expert in the field, new products, website launches, etc.

Have any other tips on becoming a press release writer? Share them in the comments.