Press releases are very powerful when done properly and can get you lots of targeted visitors flooding to your website. There is a basic standard press release format that you should follow before submitting your news release for publication. Here is a formatting technique that will be effective and get hits for your website. They are listed line by line from the top of the press release to the bottom.

For Immediate Release: All press releases begin with this statement. These three words precede all other items including the date of the release. These are all in capital letters to gain the attention of the copy and that it is important and needs to be read.

Headline: The headline will be the main point of the press release. It should be eye catching and give the reader a base of what they are about to read in the body of the press release. It should be short and to the point and not drag on and make people want to read what the press release is about.

City/State/Country and Month/Date/Year: All of these items appear in the next line of the press release. Not only is the city and state necessary in the release but also the country. This is because people from all over the world will be reading it and you cannot assume that the reader knows where you are. For example, there is a Paris, Texas and a Paris, France.

The date is also important for the obvious reasons. It also sorts press releases by date for the reader to know which release is the most current. For breaking news a press release can be written several times a day and the reader will know which one is the one that was written closest to the time they are reading it.

Body: This is the story or information you are relaying to the public. It should be short, concise sentences that do not editorialize but give facts about the information you are going to tell. You do not need to use a lot of descriptive words, yet still give it enough flair that people will want to read it.

Company or Organization: This will be a line that will give information about the company or organization that is featured in the press release. It will again be precise and to the point. You just need to give factual data that tells the reader about the institution.

Contact Information: Give the information to contact a person or company if applicable. You can also give a website or email address. This will give the reader a place to find who they need to contact if they choose to.

Ends or ####: This indicates that the press release has ended and the information has stopped. The reader then knows that there is no more pertinent information available. In some instances you will also after this tag line give a word count. Many times this is an internal marker for the writer to give to the person they are writing the press release for.

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