Monday, April 30, 2012
How to Write a Press Release that Gets Attention : @ProBlogger
This guest post is by Frank Strong of PRWeb.
Writing good content for a blog is only half of the equation: promoting your blog to drive traffic is the other half.
Previously we offered five reasons to promote your blog with press releases as part of an overall content marketing strategy. This post provides a few tips on how to write a press release for maximum media exposure.
1. Create compelling headlines.
Should you use a sexy headline that attracts eyeballs or a headline stuffed with keywords for search? We’ve always found that people read content, not search engines, so while it’s important to include keywords in your headline where possible, only use them when they make sense in context.
Just like the subject line of an email invites a recipient to open a message, headlines should compel a reader to consume your content.
2. Draw the reader in with the lead.
The first sentence of the body—the lead—should compel the viewer to keep reading (think: time-on-page). Traditional PR pros will tell you to write using an inverted pyramid, where the content flows top down and the first paragraph explains the five Ws: the who, what, when, where and why.
There’s nothing wrong with that, however, we think the use of press releases has evolved, where they once were primarily used to provide a news hook to the media in order to reach an audience, they now can also reach that audience directly.
As such, in some cases, the press release is the story and the better performing releases (in terms of page reads) we’ve seen read like the story—complete with a powerful lead.
3. Use anchor text links.
It’s a fundamental, but often overlooked, point: anchor text links are pivotal! Be sure to hyperlink your keywords to pages on your blog that are optimized for the same key words.
This ensures that when press release syndication network distributes the content, your keywords are still hyperlinked to the content you’re promoting. Once again, people read content, so ensure that the keywords make sense in the structure and flow of your copy.
4. Include a powerful call to action.
You’ve written a release with compelling headlines and copy that drew the reader in. Now, what action would you like people to take? Invite them to take that action. For many blogs, this would be to visit the blog, subscribe via RSS, or sign up for email alerts on new posts.
5. Choose a strong press release topic.
Stuck for press release ideas? We have a list of hot topics for press releases. When you’re coming up with an idea, the trick is to think like a PR pro—what about your blog, personal life, or business could you see being picked up by the mainstream media? What is the “remarkable” story you have to share?
While those are big-ticket themes, a more tactical approach would be to publish a release about your most popular posts—the top ten of the year, or the five most read every quarter (or month if you’re a prolific blogger). Your release content should focus on the trend. For example, why are readers consuming those specific posts?
For further reading on creating great press releases, try:
- PRWeb Picks: Five Releases we Love this Month
- Use News Releases for More Than PR
- 5 Tips to Optimize Your News Release for New Media
- News Flash! Press Releases Aren’t Just for the Media Anymore
- PR pros should write for search engines
Have you used a press release to promote your post? What tips can you add to this list?
Frank Strong is director of public relations for PRWeb.
via problogger.net
Friday, April 27, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
How to Use Google Search More Effectively [INFOGRAPHIC]
Among certain circles (my family, some of my coworkers, etc.) I’m known for my Googling skills. I can find anything, anywhere, in no time flat. My Google-fu is a helpful skill, but not one that’s shrouded in too much mystery — I’ve just mastered some very helpful search tricks and shortcuts and learned to quickly identify the best info in a list of results.
Sadly, though web searches have become and integral part of the academic research landscape, the art of the Google search is an increasingly lost one. A recent study at Illinois Wesleyan University found that fewer than 25% of students could perform a “reasonably well-executed search.” Wrote researchers, “The majority of students — of all levels — exhibited significant difficulties that ranged across nearly every aspect of the search process.”
That search process also included determining when to rely on Google and when to utilize scholarly databases, but on a fundamental level, it appears that many people just don’t understand how to best find the information they seek using Google.
Thanks to the folks at HackCollege, a number of my “secrets” are out. The infographic below offers a helpful primer for how to best structure searches using advanced operators to more quickly and accurately drill down to the information you want. This is by no means an exhaustive list of search operators and advanced techniques, but it’s a good start that will help set you on the path to becoming a Google master.
Infographic via HackCollege
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, LICreate
via mashable.com
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Friday, April 6, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Flashback trojan reportedly controls half a million Macs and counting
Variations of the Flashback trojan have reportedly infected more than half a million Macs around the globe, according to Russian antivirus company Dr. Web. The company made an announcement on Wednesday—first in Russian and later in English—about the growing Mac botnet, first claiming 550,000 infected Macs. Later in the day, however, Dr. Web malware analyst Sorokin Ivan posted to Twitter that the count had gone up to 600,000, with 274 bots even checking in from Cupertino, CA, where Apple's headquarters are located.
We have been covering the Mac Flashback trojan since 2011, but the most recent variant from earlier this week targeted an unpatched Java vulnerability within Mac OS X. That is, it was unpatched (at the time) by Apple—Oracle had released a fix for the vulnerability in February of this year, but Apple didn't send out a fix until earlier this week, after news began to spread about the latest Flashback variant.
According to Dr. Web, the 57 percent of the infected Macs are located in the US and 20 percent are in Canada. Like older versions of the malware, the latest Flashback variant searches an infected Mac for a number of antivirus applications before generating a list of botnet control servers and beginning the process of checking in with them. Now that the fix for the Java vulnerability is out, however, there's no excuse not to update—the malware installs itself after you visit a compromised or malicious webpage, so if you're on the Internet, you're potentially at risk.
If you think one of your machines may be infected, F-Secure has instructions on how to use the Terminal to find out.
This machine is clean
via arstechnica.com
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
Google offers free websites to Florida businesses - Tampa Bay Business Journal
A new partnership between Google Inc. and the state of Florida will bring free websites to small businesses statewide.
The partnership, Florida Get Your Business Online, will help drive economic growth by giving Florida companies the tools and resources to establish a website, find new customers and grow, a written statement from Gov. Rick Scott's office said.
While 97 percent of Americans look online for local products or businesses, 68 percent of Florida small businesses do not have a website, the statement said.
Businesses can sign up for the free service at www.floridagetonline.com. Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) is providing website offerings, a customized domain name and free Web hosting for one year.
The same website can be used to register for free workshops Google is providing for small businesses as part of the program. One program will be in Miami on April 3 and April 4, followed by a program April 5 at the Tampa Museum of Art .
via bizjournals.com
Check this out
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)