Did you know that using online press releases is one of the most 
powerful ways for almost instantly driving hundreds or even 
thousands of potential targeted customers to your new product, 
web site or newsletter?

Within hours of having your press release distributed over the 
Internet your press release could be picked up by some of the 
major online news networks like Google News and Yahoo News.

And then within days or just a few weeks they will begin to show 
up in the natural search engine results of the major search 
engines.

Nowhere can you achieve so much publicity for so little effort. 
But let me explain what I mean by 'so little effort'.

Even though press releases are a powerful marketing tool that 
everyone should be using as one of their marketing methods you 
need to do a little research before just whipping one up.

As someone who uses press releases quite often in marketing of 
new products and web sites I have seen and learned how to avoid 
some common errors in writing my press releases.

Avoiding these errors can mean the difference in driving a few 
hundred visitors to your new web site or product to receiving 
thousands of targeted hits for the same amount of effort.

So what are these mistakes? And how do you avoid them?

Mistake #1- Not focusing on a main theme.

You need to determine what the key purpose of your press release 
will be about. You don't want to target multiple items in the 
same release.

If you just released 10 new software products this week you don't 
want to talk write about all of them at one time, pick one and 
focus on it and get your audience excited about it.

Once their curiousity is peaked they will click on your link to 
get additional information and that is what you want.. You can 
always do multiple releases for each product.


Mistake #2- Not researching the keywords you want to target 
before hand.

You want to do a little keyword research based on the concept of 
your press release. Why would you want to do keyword research for 
a press release? Because you need to optimize your press release 
so that it will rank high in the natural search engine results 
once it gets picked up by Google, MSN or Yahoo.

I normally target a keyword that has a decent amount of monthly 
searches but has little to moderate competition from highly 
optimized web sites.

You can determine this by doing a search on Google and seeing how 
many web sites are competing for the same term. You also want to 
see if the keyword is being used in the title and if the web 
site(s) have the term in their top level domain name.

By targeting the keywords that are moderately popular but don't 
have many competing web sites that are not highly optimized for 
your keyword you will stand a greater chance of ranking in the 
top ten search engine results once your press release gets 
indexed.


Mistake #3- Not creating a compelling headline.

Just like an article or sales letter you need to create a catchy 
title to grab your reader's attention. Since press releases are 
normally only displayed for a short period of time when they are 
first released you need to get the most bang for your efforts.

Look at the following title which one grabs your attention the 
most?

"Bad Breath Resources at Bad-Breath-Cures.com" or

"Proven Little Known Secrets for Curing Bad Breath Fast at 
Bad-Breath-Cures.com"

I also always use my main keyword in the title. As your title 
will become the key factor in your rankings in the search 
engines.


Mistake #4- Not formatting your press release correctly.

Writing press releases is not rocket science. But you do need to 
take some time in formatting your release correctly so that you 
stand a chance of being picked up by the various news and web 
site outlets.

How careful you format your press release can determine your PR 
score with some press release services like PRWeb. The higher 
your PR score the greater chance of you being picked up by some 
of the leading news outlets.

For additional information how to correctly format your press 
releases go to: 
http://www.prweb.com/pressreleasetips.php#template


Mistake #5- Using the wrong press release services.

You want the most coverage but at a reasonable price. Using the 
wrong service could cost your hundreds or thousands of wasted 
dollars.

Here are some of the press release services I have used and found 
to be effective:

http://prweb.com/

http://www.pressbox.co.uk/index.html

http://www.webwire.com/default.asp

http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/


While there are some free services out there I've found that 
paying a small fee to a few online press release services can 
afford you a wider coverage then using one who charges you a 
hefty fee just to submit your release for you.

By paying a small fee you get to track your stats online and 
target additional industries and groups giving you a wider 
coverage for your press release then if you went the free route.

So by using press releases effectively you can learn how to add 
this handy little technique in your marketing arsenal to drive 
tons of highly targeted traffic to any program or web site you 
choose in a matter of no time.
 

Ted Kushner of AffiliateRevenueSources.com can show you the 
powerful benefits of writing press releases for promoting any 
product, service or affiliate program. Learn how you too can get 
multiple top ten positions in Google using press releases at:
http://affiliaterevenuesources.com/powerful-press-releases.htm