Press releases and fre publicity

WHERE TO SEND YOUR PRESS RELEASES
by Phil Wiley

If you want to get a lot of publicity for your product you've got to send out press releases. It's no good sitting back and waiting for the media to contact you. They'll only do that if you've done something wrong, or you're romantically linked to a movie star.

The right press release can generate you so much free publicity that you're swamped with sales. But remember that if your product stinks even a great press release won't help you.

You need the kind of product that people want to buy and you need the kind of product that editors will feel happy telling their readers about. Plus, you'll probably do better if you can target 'niche' markets. Markets where the publications are starved for new products and the editors will fall over themselves to give you space.

Okay, so you've got the right product. You've written the press release. But should you send it by email, fax or snail mail? Speaking as a daily newspaper computer columnist I much prefer to get my press releases by email. I'm far more likely to use emailed material for the simple reason that it saves me having to scan or retype the material.

So how do you get hold of the email addresses of journalists and editors? Fortunately there are plenty of web sites listing media information.

Here are some of the best sites on the net with information on how, and where, to contact the media.

(note. This article was written over a year ago. These links mignht not be accurate)

The number One site has to be GEBBIE PRESS with lots of tips and tricks about public relations and internet marketing. Plus 7000 links to print and electronic media on the internet, 2800 email addresses for radio and tv stations, and 200 links to internet and computer related magazines. You can either click on the links and visit all 7000 newspapers listed and try to find their email address, or you can buy a disc with the addresses, or buy mailing labels.

Also useful is the INTERNET NEWS BUREAU which, for a fee, will distribute your press releases via e-mail to media subscribers throughout the world. You'll find them at http://www.newsbureau.com/welcome.cgi?1266

AJR NEWSLINK at http://www.newslink.org has some great lists and helpful articles.And so does MEDIA INOF LINK'S online media directory at http://www/mediainfo.com/emedia

For a good list of world-wide news agencies, such as UPI and Reuters, you can't beat
http://www.dds.nl/~kidon/media-link/agencies.shtml
which also has hundreds of other media links.

And finally there's CINE MEDIA which bills itself as the
largest film and media listing in the world with over 8000 entries. You'll find it at
http://www.afionline.org/CineMedia/welcomes/you.html

For complete up-to-date info on dealing with the media click here