The purpose of a press release is to generate traffic to your website, but you can use press releases to increase your client base even if you do not have a website. If you have a business, product or service, that you want to advertise, a press release is a good way to get started. Begin by deciding what your story will be. What do you want to inform the public about? You might be launching a new product or making a change in your company that will affect your customers.

There are many free press release submission sites on the internet. Simply go to the site, sign up for a membership, fill out your profile, and submit your press release by filling out a template. The press release submission service will generally publish your press release within 24 hours; some publish within minutes, others publish them immediately.

Some services have certain requirements and they may reject your press release. One important thing to remember is that a press release is not a classified advertisement; it must be newsworthy. One way to make your press release newsworthy is to say something like, Mr. Business Owner was recently interviewed and he said ?put your quote here; what was said about your business.? Another example would be Mrs. Service Provider was a guest speaker at a local event where she addressed the following topics: list some topics of interest, followed by a quote from someone who attended the event. One attendee said, ?I was amazed at how unique their products or services are. I am going to tell all my friends about Mrs. Service Provider.? Attending meetings, speaking at events, donating a portion of proceeds to charity or receiving awards are just a few examples of newsworthy content you can put into a press release.

Other essential parts of an effective press release include your contact information, name, address, phone number, fax number, email address and website. The headline should be very concise and descriptive and contain keywords and the city and state of your service area. Keywords are what people type into a Google search engine when they are looking for you. For example, if your service is dog grooming, one would type ?dog grooming city state? into a Google search to find someone who provides this service in their area.

Make sure your first paragraph contains the most important statements, answering the five critical questions: who, what, when, where and why. You want to gain your reader's attention in the first paragraph so you don't lose them. You want them to continue reading to the end where you will put your ?call to action? statement with your contact information and a link to your website where they can learn more about your product or services.

Keep your press release around 300 ? 500 words and proof read carefully to be sure it is grammatically correct with no spelling or punctuation errors. One tip to proof reading is to write your press release, and then put it away for a couple hours while you focus on something else. Read it again later as if it is the first time you have seen it. You will be surprised at the errors you will spot that you did not see earlier. Remember, the public is going to read your press release like they read the news. Your press release is going to represent you, so you want it to be professionally written and error free.

It takes some time and effort to write a good press release but the rewards of free media exposure, resulting in new clients and generating more profits for your business make this a very worthwhile investment.

This article was written by Mark Maupin, a college instructor who teaches internet marketing and search engine optimization classes. Mark has been hired by many national franchises to do their internet marketing and he has been very successful at getting them to the top of a Google search. To get Mark's FREE CD of market proven strategies that he uses every day to generate traffic to his website and his business go to http://www.imtruegrit.com