Why your business should be using press releases for marketing its products and services

How to Write a Press Release – Guidelines for formats, and appropriate content

All press releases must contain certain standard elements for the media to consider it a news announcement and not an "advertorial," or an unsolicited article; and for it to be compatible with various electronic news syndication systems. We also tend to follow what is called "AP style" (AP = Associated Press). See section below regarding document formats we accept (we do not accept PDFs for press releases.)

Example Press Releases
Click one of the following links to download/view an example "properly formatted" 400 word press release, with one image link (logo). Your release must follow this format to avoid delay.

PLAIN TEXT  (Note: line breaks added for readability)
MS WORD   (.doc Microsoft Word format)
RICH TEXT   (.rtf format, for any word processor)
OPEN OFFICE   (.odt format, for OpenOffice.org 3x)

Walk Through of Each Section of Properly Formatted Release
Specifically, the required and minimum contents of a release include:

• The headline: the main title of your news announcement, typically no more than 20 words (over 20 words and some systems like Google News may "skip" the story entirely!). A sub-headline is optional, and will be included with copies going to editors and our plain text and PDF archival copies (note that most sites online do not support sub-headlines between main head and the dateline).
  
  Note About Stale News: if you have already issued the release online or through another wire service prior to our scheduled issuance date, you MUST change the headline and first paragraph so that is is not seen as "stale" news or potentially "news spam." We cannot feed old news to our content aggregation/syndication partners or e-mail to media folk. Many sites in our network, and especially Google News, may skip your item entirely if the headline and main elements of release have already been scraped and archived previously (same day isn't as much of a problem, but if you posted your item a week ago on a crap free news posting site, Google may deprecate our version thinking it's a duplicate of that, hence the term "stale" news).
  
   
• The first paragraph, which begins with the dateline based on your physical locale, or event locale, (e.g. LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Jan. 2, 2009), and which summarizes what you're announcing as news, and which must include "attribution" (your name, or company name).

• The body of your release which can include specifications for a product, information about a book, background of a new management hire, etcetera. URLs should be fully formed as www.mysite.com/pagename, and NOT as anchor links.
   
• Media contact information: which is a contact person by name, the company or agency the person is with, a valid phone number, and e-mail address. You may specify on our News Information Form whether the media contact info will be publicly visible, or "for media only," which is the most common usage.
  
  Important Privacy Note: while we may be able to code the required media contact info as "For Media Only" this doesn't mean you can issue a release anonymously. Media Contact info will appear in copies of the release sent by e-mail to editors, publications and bloggers, as applicable. A receiving party may post contact info online, which is outside our control. Also, our media archive text/PDF copies contain the media contact info for interested media who visit our portal for journalists (this may appear in search engines). A link to text/PDF archival media copies is found at bottom of the "article version" on our journalists portal (Send2PressNewswire.com). The media contact info does not appear on other sites in our network in any way unless you code the media contact info to be "public." EXAMPLES:
  • Online HTML version of story without media contact info
  • Example of archival text copy for media with contact info

Optional elements:

• With optional free or paid photo add-on options, each image link counts as five words, and the required photo caption counts in length. Each image (except a corporate logo) must have a caption (short description of what the image shows). If no caption is provided, we will create one (you will not get prior approval if we have to create a missing caption).
• Optional true note to editors: you may include an optional note intended only for editors, that doesn't appear in the public body of release. This can be notes like a link to a media-only press page, link to print-ready image(s), or similar. Place this below the media contact info, at bottom of release.

Generally, 350-700 words is the "optimum" length for a modern press release. Detailed biographies, white papers, how-to animations, or the like should all be located on a website, and linked to in the release for interested media. Sub-headlines (a second headline) are no longer recommended as they get dropped by many online news systems, don't appear in Google News or RSS summary formats, and if they contain important information should be included in text of first paragraph. Be aware of our word length limits for distribution plans: Standard level plans have a base word length limit of 800 words, while the Extended plans have a base word length limit of 400 words (there is an upcharge for length if over these base length limits). Use the "word count" feature in your word processor to check length.

Press releases push to the media as "plain text" format, not HTML, and cannot contain columns or special formatting, bolds, italics, underlines, or similar. Images do not appear in media copies, only links to the image (see "Photos" section, below, this page). Anchor links are supported, in moderation. A press release is a news announcement, and not a flier, sale sheet, or brochure.

Important Notice About Google News and Headlines

Please be aware that Google News has problems in "capturing" stories which have headlines longer than 20 words (tip: if you use long multi-syllable words, use fewer of them, perhaps 15-18 words maximum), and may skip the story entirely. This is outside our control. If you have a long headline we will be happy to push as provided, but please do not be surprised if it doesn't appear in Google News. This limitation is also noted in Google's own help information for their news portal. This does NOT impact the main Google.com search in any way.

Similarly, use of sub-heads (sometimes called "decks," or a secondary headline) is not recommended as many online news systems and sites ignore them entirely (including all the sites in the Neotrope News Network), so anything important in a sub-head won't be seen at all. Anything important should be in the first and second paragraph, not "stacked" above the dateline. Important: sub-heads can be included in your release but many websites no longer support them. Our journalists news portal (Send2PressNewswire.com) supports sub-headlines (one secondary headline).

Additionally, Google News' robot has a problem scraping stories shorter than five paragraphs (i.e., under 250 words in length). This is often an issue with event announcements, media alerts, or very short press releases of two paragraphs and some bullet points. Google's news bot seems to be unable to differentiate a short "article" or "story" from a summary page that leads to the full story, and will presume a short news page is a summary and not the "actual" story. We have seen this issue common with releases under 250 words, and/or which have only two paragraphs and then bullets or stacked news items. This is outside our control if Google News skips your story due to length. This issue does NOT impact the main Google search, social networks, or clipping services, only the Google News site.

PROPER FILE NAMES: before submitting any file(s) using our form system you should ensure that your filename has no spaces (ie., "my file name.doc"), does not have multiple periods or extensions (ie., "myfile.rev1.doc"), and has no special characters (ie., "myfile[rev]*.doc"). Incorrect naming may interfere with uploading the file on our News Information Form. If the upload fails, due to poor naming of your file, you can always e-mail to us.

GOOD:    myfilename7-rev21.doc
GOOD:    my_muppetz_filename_rev21.doc

BAD:  my file [7].version23*.doc
BAD:  my 'muppetz' file is really a long one.doc

PRESS RELEASE FILE FORMATS: We currently accept the following file formats for press release content: MS Word (.doc and .docx), Rich Text Format (.rtf), plain text (.txt) and OpenOffice (.odt). PDFs are not accepted for distribution!

We do not accept PDFs, or faxes, or Apple Pages files for release submission, either for distribution or for editing/re-write.

IMAGE FILE FORMATS: We currently accept almost any file format, such as .jpg, .jpeg, .tif, .eps, .pdf, .psd, .bmp, .png and the like. Color reduced files, such as .gif format, are not recommended. With logo images, vector files such as .eps should have fonts converted to outlines, and Photoshop files should have fonts rasterized. We cannot use images "inside" of MS Word files, Flash animations, or similar.

Two Levels of Distribution Service Plans

• STANDARD Press Release Distribution Plans:
  Neotrope/Send2Press Newswire "STANDARD" Level Press Release News Distribution Plans (formerly called "Silver" level plans) include Send2Press Direct-to-Editors™ targeted distribution to U.S. media via e-mail, RSS, clipping services (e.g., CyberAlert, eWatch, etc.), aggregators (Factiva/DowJones, Pluck/Blogburst, HTMedia/Asia, Contify, LexisNexis, ProQuest, Thomson-Reuters/WestLaw etc.), and automatic re-publication on sites in the Neotrope News Network (CaliforniaNewswire, eNewsChannels, etc.); plus hand placement to social networks (e.g., Digg, Delicious, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc).
  
  All plans include one free Web-resolution photo (or logo), and our proven SEO+PR™ optimization online, to ensure your story can be found in search portals.
  
  BASE WORD LENGTH LIMIT: the base word length limit for our "Standard" plans is 800 words. There is an upcharge of $20 for every 400 words over 800 (covers time to proof and format). Order the "Standard Plan Length Overage" add-on option, as needed.
   
• EXTENDED Press Release Distribution Plans:
  Neotrope/Send2Press Newswire "EXTENDED" Level Press Release News Distribution Plans (formerly called "Blue" level plans) extend our Standard level distribution plans (noted above) with additional custom U.S. national distribution via PRNewswire® and Thomson-Reuters.
  
  BASE WORD LENGTH LIMIT: the base word length limit for our "Extended" plans is 400 words. If your release is over 400 words, you must order one (1) of the 100-words add-on option for Extended Plans for each 100 words or fraction over 400 words. Example: if your release is 465 words long, it counts as 500, which is 100 words over the base 400 word limit for PRN and you'd have to order one (1) of the 100-words add-on option ($75); and if your release is 565 words, you would have to order two (2) of the 100-words add-on option. (Specifically, the words over 400 all count; this is PRN's fee not ours!)

Online Posting "All you can Eat" Subscription Plans:

NEW! Starting early 2011, we are adding a new service level, which is our "Online Posting Subscription" plans. These plans come in two flavors where you can either subscribe per month, and post up to XX number of stories in our system; or, an annual subscription fee, with a modest per-story review/approval fee. The net cost works out to be about $20 per story, and is ideal for small book/music publishers, associations, non-profits, and PR pros (such as PRSA members) who want to provide an additional option for online dissemination of news content.

These plans require that you log-in to our Send2PressNewswire.com CMS (content management system) to post your stories, and you must make them "clean" prior to posting (fit our format, remove double spaces; and special characters like ™ must be converted to either (TM) or ™ in the text; anchor links must add the target="_blank" tag, etc.). Stories are approved within 24-48 hours, during normal business hours. Photos must be provided as 250x250 pixels, no larger than 15kb. Absolute maximum word length is 800 words, all inclusive. More information is available in our updated pricing information pages on the main area of our site. If you know how to use a program like WordPress, then you will be at home with this service.

All Send2Press services have both a name, such as "Standard National LITE", as well as an order code (often called a SKU), such as SD-NLITE. Generally, all STANDARD plans will start with a code of SD-AAAAA, and EXTENDED plans will have a code of EX-AAAAA. Optional add-ons to service plans (such as photos, word length, etc.) will usually start with OP-AAAAA, and writing plans will start with WR-AAAAA.

Starting 2011, we have also added a new service level, which is our "Online Posting Subscription" plans, and these will have a service code of OS-AAAAA.

TWO TYPES OF NEWSWIRE SERVICE OPTIONS:

• Targeted News Distribution — with this kind of service plan, Send2Press will disseminate your news directly to editors in the media at print, broadcast and online venues (depending on plan level). This is our classic newswire offering, which we have provided to our clients for more than 25 years.
   
• Online Only Subscription Posting — with this kind of plan, you pay either a montly or annual subscription fee with log-in to our system to post your stories for our online-only network.

The pricing for each targeted news distribution and/or writing service plan is shown in our pricing charts, and in the Plan Comparison Chart, and are shown in U.S. funds (we are a U.S. company, located in Los Angeles County, California). This price is what we charge for each news announcement you wish us to disseminate. This is not a subscription, annual fee, membership, or price for software. We are a newswire service which distributes news directly to editors at targeted media who cover the content found in your news release. (Note: Starting Spring 2010, we are adding specialty online posting subscription plans which can be found in the pricing charts, when available, to learn more.)

DISTRIBUTION PLAN EXAMPLE: You issue a press release in June about hiring a new CFO, and you choose one of our distribution plans. You would pay the fee shown for us to distribute that specific "CFO" press release. If you do another press release in September, announcing a new version of your WackyWidget software, then you would again choose a plan and pay the fee for that plan, for the new "WackyWidget" press release announcement. Basically, you pay a plan fee each time you send out a news announcement, since each new release is considered a unique project. A single release goes out once, it is not resent over and over (a press release is not an advertisement).

ONLINE POSTING SUBSCRIPTION PLAN EXAMPLE: With a monthly plan, you might post a story for one client on January 2nd, another client on January 5th, the first client again on January 30th; and all of these would be covered by the monthly plan fee (there is no rollover for unused posting allotments). With the annual subscription plan, the annual fee covers set-up and a brief training session; then you pay a simple review/posting fee for each story you post which covers our staff's time to check your work before it is made live.

NOTE: Press release writing and revision is not included with the distribution plans, other than a quick tune-up of normal typos and formatting. Our professional Press Release Writing or draft revision services are optional "add-ons" which can be ordered at same time as any distribution plan. See the yellow/gold tab "Press Release Writing" at top of our main site pages, for detailed service information and examples.

We currently accept American Express, VISA, MasterCard, and Discover for services. We do not offer open-account billing, we do not accept checks or money orders, and we only accept wire transfers when ordering ten (10) or more distribution plans at once (minimum $1,000). We also, optionally, accept PayPal for payment from your bank account or eCheck (see our Order Center for information). (Note: PayPal eChecks take 3-5 days to clear before we will be able to provide services.)

We have no annual membership fee or contracts for our distribution plans or writing. You "pay as you go," when you need something. All services are ordered online using any major credit card (we don't accept gift cards or fillable debit cards as they won't pass address verification), in our Secure Order Center. We do not offer open account billing or credit terms. See the yellow/gold "Order" tab with shopping cart on it, found at top of all our main site pages, to visit our order system. All services are offered and provided subject to our Terms of Service (TOS).

Because of credit card rules for "card not present" transactions, if you place an order and use another person's credit card (such as company partner card, spouse's card, client's card, etc.), you will be required to have the card holder (person whose name appears on the actual card face) fax us a signed authorization form along with the card holder's personal e-mail account (for copy of receipts). This simple form requires the signature of the card holder, and security code from card, and authorizes you by name to use their card for a purchase with Neotrope/Send2press. (Note: If you are unable to fax the form, you can "scan" it using a scanner, then email us a PDF or JPG of the scanned document.)
UPDATE JUNE 2011: we have merged the card authorization with the Customer Terms of Service (TOS) Agreement, found here:
Click Here for Customer Agreement (PDF)

This requirement is for both the protection of us and the card holder from fraud. Orders with another person's card will be HELD until the form is filled out, signed, and faxed to us. The signature must not be forged. You only need to fax the form once per calendar year per card and card holder. So, if you place an order in February and then again in April, you do not need to send another fax form in April.

AGENCIES: For agencies or representatives, you should order using your own credit card, then bill your client for services. If you use a client's card, BOTH you and your client are agreeing to abide by our service terms and conditions (TOS), which are agreed to during the checkout process, related to non-refundable credit card purchases. Additionally, legally, your client would then become our client since they would be making a legal contract with us to provide services, and you must set-up an account for them to use their card in our system.

All credit card statements will show a charge from "NEOTROPE" and not from "Send2Press." International orders (outside of U.S./Canada) may NOT use a third-party credit card.

IMPORTANT NOTE! We MUST have a signed document for third party card usa prior to release being issued; we cannot accept an unverified e-mail or phone call authorization, as this does not properly confirm the actual card holder has authorized the use of the card.

IMPORTANT: If your country and/or credit card provider does not support AVS (Address Verification System) for credit cards, you will be required to FAX a photo copy of the front and back of your card, clearly showing name of card holder, number, expiration and security code; and send a signed authorization form. We will NOT ACCEPT any international order unless this FAX is provided. Currently all VISA and MasterCard, and AMEX cards issued in the U.S., and most in Canada and the United Kingdom, support AVS. International orders (outside of U.S./Canada/U.K.) may NOT use a third-party credit card.

IF YOU ARE UNWILLING TO PROVIDE A COPY OF YOUR CARD YOU MAY NOT ORDER OUR SERVICES USING AN INTERNATIONAL CREDIT CARD.

International customers must FAX us this authorization form along with a clear photocopy of BOTH the front and back of the physical credit card. If you don't have a physical credit card, you cannot order our services.

UPDATE JUNE 2011: we have merged the international card authorization form with the Customer Terms of Service (TOS) Agreement, found here:
Click Here for Customer Agreement (PDF)

Each press release distribution plan has what is called a "base word length limit," which is the number of words found in your press release when using the "word count" feature in your word processor such as MS Word, OpenOffice.org, etc. (see the Help in your word processor software for how to do this). Releases must be submitted in a word processor format like MS Word, RTF, or plain text. We do not accept PDF (because they introduce hard returns at end of each line), Publisher, Quark, HTML, MS Works, faxes, tif/jpg, or similar formats for press releases. (See example files, below, in this section.)

PREFERRED FORMAT FOR RELEASE SUBMISSION IS MS WORD .DOC OR .DOCX FILE FORMAT. (You should be able to do a "save-as" from ANY word processor to this format, or to rich-text, .rtf format.)

Generally, all STANDARD Level Distribution plans (formerly "Silver" plans) have a base word length limit of 800 words, which is a fairly long release, and the EXTENDED Level Distribution plans (formerly "Blue" plans) have an "allowed" word length limit of 400 words (counting everything in the release, see information understanding word length above, this page); specifically, if your release is 400-495 words it counts as 500 words, if 500-595 words counts as 600 words, etc. If your release is longer than this in word length, then you will have to add-on an over-limit fee for each 100 words with EXTENDED Plans, or for each 400 words (or fraction) over with STANDARD Plans.

The reason the EXTENDED Plans have a shorter length limit is due to the additional newswire systems your news is disseminated through, and their base length is shorter than that of Send2Press. Technically, the STANDARD Plans have no word length, but the added fee for "over long" releases is to cover additional time to proof and properly format the typical press release. It is also important to leave 5-10 words free with all Extended plans (meaning, submit a 390 word release, not 400 on the nose) due to the way PRN charges for length.


Important: All the required elements of a modern, properly formatted, press release count in the overall word length. You should remove any headers, footers, or similar letterhead elements from any press release submitted (for instance, a website address found in a graphic will not appear in the text when removed).

Specifically, this includes:

• The headline: the main title of your news announcement, typically no more than 20 words (over 20 words and some systems like Google News may "skip" the story entirely; Digg, and others often truncate headlines after 16-18 words).
• The first paragraph, which begins with the dateline (e.g. LOS ANGELES, Calif., Jan. 2, 2009), and which summarizes what you're announcing as news, and which must include "attribution" (your name, or company name). Attribution is the same thing as the "source" of the news being announced. An agency representing a client is not the source, the organization announcing something is the source, and must be mentioned in the text of the first paragraph.
• The body of your release which can include specifications for a product, information about a book, background of a new management hire, etcetera.
• Media contact information: which is a contact person by name, the company or agency the person is with, a valid phone number, and e-mail address.
• With optional free or paid photo add-on options, each image link counts as five words, and the required photo caption counts in length. Each image (except a corporate logo) must have a caption (short description of what the image shows). If no caption is provided, we will create one (you will not get prior approval if we have to create a missing caption).
• Optional true note to editors: you may include an optional note intended only for editors, that doesn't appear in the public body of release. This can be notes like a link to a media-only press page, link to print-ready image(s), or similar.

Generally, 350-700 words is the "optimum" length for a modern press release. Detailed biographies, white papers, how-to animations, or the like should all be located on a website, and linked to in the release for interested media. Sub-headlines (a second headline) are no longer recommended as they get dropped by many online news systems, don't appear in Google News or RSS summary formats, and if they contain important information should be included in text of first paragraph.

Press releases push to the media as "plain text" format, not HTML, and cannot contain columns or special formatting, anchor links, bolds, italics, underlines, or similar. Images do not appear in media copies, only links to the image.

SEE IMPORTANT NOTICE IN THE "REQUIREMENTS" SECTION AT TOP OF THIS HELP SECTION, REGARDING LONG HEADLINES, SUB-HEADLINES, AND GOOGLE NEWS SKIPPING STORIES.

Example Press Release:
Click one of the following links to download/view an example "properly formatted" 400 word press release, with one image link (logo). Your release must follow this format (see our topic at top of this page, "requirements," for more information).

All Send2Press press release distribution plans include our Direct-to-Editors™ dissemination to U.S. daily news media. Specifically, "daily media" includes newspapers, television news rooms, and news/talk radio stations. Weekly media is included, as applicable, since it is usually locale specific (meaning a local weekly newspaper in Manhattan Beach has no interest in news originating from Atlanta).

When reviewing the price list or Plan Comparison Chart, you will clearly see the primary difference between our "State," "4-States," and "National" plans has to do with how widely your news is disseminated to in-state "daily" media sources. All news is highly targeted where possible, meaning we would send book news to the book editor at the Washington Post and not the automotive editor (unless, of course, it was a book about cars).

Examples: If you order a "State" plan, your news would only be sent to the in-state media within the U.S. state where you're located, or where an event may be located (e.g. "California"). If you order a "4-States" plan, you can specify any four U.S. states (such as NY, NJ, CT, or NY, CA, IL, etc., or "metro" area, such as Los Angeles, NYC, Miami, and Dallas). If you wish to reach media in all U.S. states, you must choose a "National" level plan (currently available plans may vary).

IMPORTANT NOTE: You specify targeting such as desired state, region, or similar information on our News Information Form, after checkout is completed in our secure Order Center, and NOT during the order/payment process.

Local/City Distribution: If you wish to target only a major city ("metro circuit"), such as "Los Angeles," or "Miami," or a portion of a state, such as "South Florida," you would choose our "State" level plan, then specify your in-state targeting on the News Information Form, after checkout.

Where We Send News:
View Where We Send News - Media Lists (opens new window)

National LITE, National, and National PLUS Plans:
One of the potentially confusing aspects of our service is the difference between the "National" plans.

• NATIONAL LITE PLANS: with our National LITE distribution plans, your news will reach the top 1,000 daily news media nationwide (in U.S.), or you may use the "flex" options to target a region such as Northwest U.S.. This give you the flexibility of creating a custom regional distribution, or hitting the top news media nationwide. Of course, your news also is sent to all applicable national trade/consumer magazines related to your news. (This plan would be a near-enough replacement for our old Silver/Blue "National Basic" plans, although reaching fewer media than old plan.)
   
• NATIONAL PLANS: with our National distribution plans, your news will reach all daily print/broadcast media outlets in the U.S., which would be a minimum of 3,000+ newspaper and broadcast outlets. These plans are the most affordable and effective true dissemination plans of any major U.S. newswire service. You can add our Latino Netwire list, or Black PR Netwire list, at no extra cost, if applicable to your news. We do not send to PBS or PAX broadcast outlets; and we only send to Black/Latino media if applicable to project. (This plan would be a near-enough replacement for our old Silver/Blue "National Plus" plans.)
   

Targeted Distribution Channels: With all Send2Press® news distribution plans, except the "Online Only" plans, your news is sent Direct-to-Editors™ for the purpose of enticing media professionals to consider your news for their audience. All news is highly "targeted" which means we do not send car news to cooking magazines, or biotech news to aviation editors. We do not send "news spam" to everybody in our lists.

Where We Send News:
Click Here to View Where We Send News (Media Lists)

News is sent to specific "industry categories" — which are also sometimes called micro-lists, channels, or selects — based on your actual news content. So, if you have a press release announcing a new book about animal health, this might be applicable to editors at book and library magazines, animal/vet magazines, and daily newspaper editors covering books and lifestyle, as well as talk radio programs that interview book authors. In this example, your news would NOT be sent to editors at motorcycle magazines, or any of the other dozens of industry categories we send news to. This is how "targeting" works. We do not "blast" news to every editor in our database, under any circumstance. (Note: we do have a weekly double-opt-in summary push of "all news" to 650-750 editors each Friday, who have specified they do not want news via RSS, or daily as it happens.)

This is difficult to say, since we do not send out a "blast" to a fixed number of people. Nor, do we charge for so-called "micro lists" of choice specific contacts on top of our normal distribution fees for things like Telecom editors, or Music editors. Everything we do is targeted based on both the plan you purchase (i.e., "State," "4-State," or "National," or "Industry Focus"), and the content of your release. So, the number of people your news will reach obviously varies quite a bit based on the number of publications applicable to your news content, the breadth of the national daily news distribution you order, and the number of media contacts in any given category or U.S. state. Simply put, a press release announcing a cookbook, will likely have more media folk we can target than niche content like ocean contract rate management software.

We also hand research and select media from our vast database where specific media might be more "conditional" than general, meaning they only cover sub-sets of industry topics. These "micro lists" are done per story, by a live editor, and may vary from release to release.

You may research the common example magazines, daily newspapers, TV stations, and other media we send to by viewing our Media Lists page (see "Where We Send News" link, below). This is the best way to understand where your news will be sent. After checkout, on our News Information Form, you may specify applicable industry categories, or simply let us do that for you. Obviously we're going to choose all those media who might be interested, and not send it to those who won't be interested.

Further, with the growing popularity of "social media" we are seeing a growing number of folks who subscribe to our news channels on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, BusinessWeek/Bloomberg, etc. — as of Spring 2011, this is actually now several hundred people.

You specify applicable categories on our News Information Form, after checkout in our Secure Order Center. You may optionally, have us "choose for you." In either case, we will always select the most appropriate media based on your actual press release content, regardless of what you specify on the form. The number of categories you may select is generally unlimited except with the "State" plan (and this does not apply to the "Online Only" plan where nothing is sent to editors directly except the weekly summary, obviously) — see the pricing pages, or Plan Comparison Chart for more information.

In most cases, our "National" level plans are the best value as they have the best mix of distribution to applicable trade magazines, daily news, and search optimization — the "National" plans allow unlimited "applicable" industry categories related to your news. If your news is related to a "niche" category and won't be of interest to daily news editors, you should look at the "Industry Focus" plan, which targets the trade and consumer magazines, and only goes to daily news in your major metro area.

From time to time we have clients with B2B or general business services news, who feel we should send their release to ALL industry categories, because they serve all industries. This is not appropriate. Remember that a press release is NOT direct marketing; it does not go to CEOs, business decision makers, and/or your potential clients. Press releases ONLY go to editors and journalists who will review your news and determine if they find if newsworthy, and of interest to their specific audience. If you happen to have clients and services in the medical industry, but your press release has nothing to do with medical related news, then editors at a surgical, medtech, or hospital publication will have zero interest and this amounts to "spam." Which we do not do. Please remember that all of our Send2Press® Direct-to-Editors™ distribution is highly targeted so that only appropriate editors will receive your news, based on the actual content of your press release.

Images with Press Releases – Overview:

• FREE WEB IMAGE: All plans include one free Web resolution image/photo or logo (Web resolution means it is optimized for viewing on a PC or mobile device on the Internet; the quality is not high enough for printing in a magazine). Size will be 250x250 pixels, no larger than 159kb. Only a photo or logo is supported; you cannot use ad banners, or similar.
   
• OPTIONAL PRINT READY IMAGE: With all distribution plans you may optionally include a print-ready image for $19 (see Order Center or Price List page for current actual costs of all services), which we will host on our server, and provide a link to in the release when sent to media. This print-resolution image is up to 4x5-inches, 300dpi, RGB, and can be used by media who wish to print image in magazine or newspaper. (Adding a print image also uses up the free Web image, as a Web version is still needed online.)
   
• VIDEO NEWS RELEASES (VNRs): See the next section, below (after photo information section), "Multimedia Releases", for more information on free VNR options.

Logo or Web Images with Distribution

All plans provide the option of including a free Web-resolution (72dpi) logo or photo image. These Web Resolution images are shown online at the resolution of most Web site content, which is 72dpi (dots per inch). These images are suitable for online, but are not high enough quality for printing. A media editor would need to contact you, using your media contact info in the release, for a print-resolution image. You may provide an image any size and format and we will resize to our format (250x250 pixels, no more than 15kb).

Each additional Web image is $10, but only the first image will appear most places online.

The "Web Resolution" image will appear online at 250x250 pixels, and will fit to the box depending on type and layout of your image(s) (NOTE: there is a 15 pixel white Send2Press Newswire notation across bottom, so actual image size will be about 250Wx235H in square box). See any of the daily news desk stories on our site for examples.

Note that only a few sites actually use the image, but it will normally appear on sites in our network, RSS feeds, and sites like Google News (we were the very first newswire to have all our images appear in Google News, by the way), NewsBlaze, Wikio, Digg, Zimbio, etc. View any of our current client releases for examples of how the image appears in the story online. Most "news cloning" sites will not use any image, and sites in the PRN/Reuters networks will show only a link to image with caption/cutline (short description). Please understand we have no control over whether ANY other site will use, grab, scrape, or include the image with the story.

Important Reminder: we cannot use stock/royalty-free images with press releases as you do not have full reproduction rights, or the right to extend reproduction rights to other parties (see section, below, "Important Notes About Photo Content").

A caption/cutline is required for all photographs (not needed for logos), which is a very brief description of what the image shows (it's NOT ad copy), and both the image link and caption count in the word length (see section above, this page, on understanding the word length of your release). No caption is needed for a logo (corporate brand logotype). You should credit the image to the photographer, if known, but that is not required unless your license with the photographer states it's needed.

NOTE: In the press release for media and archival copies, the image appears only as a link, not an attached binary file. Please include caption for image at bottom of your press release, below media contact, as in the following example:

*(Photo Link 72dpi: http://Send2Press.com/mediaboom/yourphoto_72dpi.jpg)
*(Caption: New WidgetWainCoat, being worn by bunny wabbit. Credit: Joe Smith Photography.)

With all plans except the Standard level "Online Only" plans, you may optionally include a 300dpi, 4x5-inch, print-ready image for the media, which is common with broad-appeal product images, and entertainment or celebrity news. This add-on option is $19 for each image, and can be ordered at same time as any distribution plan (except Standard "Online Only" plans). When ordering this option, a "Web Resolution" image is automatically included, since the high-resolution image must also be used online with the story, it doesn't give you a second Web image.

With some Send2Press distribution plans, like our National PLUS and special book/music packages (our "National" plan, when used for books with ISBN, or commercial music news get high-res photo free), a high-resolution image may be included at no extra cost. (NOTE: Adding a print image also uses up the one free Web image, as a Web version is still needed online; it does not create two free Web images.)

For the free "Web Resolution" logo/photo, you should provide a .jpg, .tif, .png, .bmp, .eps/.ai, .pdf, or similar file (.gif images are color reduced and will have lower quality). File should be no larger than 2MB if possible. We will resize and optimize all images for our server, to the 200x200 pixel size. For optional "High-Resolution" (Print Quality) image option, please provide a Photoshop image 4x5-inch (5-inches one dimension, can be less than 4-inches in other dimension), 300dpi, RGB, saved as a standard JPEG (NOT a Web jpg) with quality of 7 or 8. We will resize if necessary (e.g., a 72dpi 8x10 image will be resaved to 300dpi 4x5). Any file format may be provided, smaller than 3MB in size. We cannot use any graphics placed into a MS Word or rich text .rtf file.

PLEASE allow a minimum of one hour (up to two hours during peak times, such as Monday morning, and first/last days of each month) for the image to be optimized and hosted on our system before the release can post online and push to media.

IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT PHOTO CONTENT:

• We cannot use any "stock" or "royalty free" images (whether licensed or unlicensed), as this may violate the licensee and/or copyright holder's rights; and we cannot verify you have the rights to "reassign" (or extend) the license to third parties (such as newswires, Web sites, printed newsletters, or similar). We cannot use any image copied from a manufacturer Web site (e.g., if you have a "mall" of products from various companies, like costumes, or whatever, you do not own the rights to other company's images, and you cannot assign those image rights to us). If you are not 100 percent certain that you own ALL rights to an image, and that you will be legally responsible for any claims made for all use relating from the issuance of the release with said image, you should not use the image.
   
• We can only use corporate/brand logos, or photographs of products, people, locations/property and the like. We will not accept or include any brochures, fliers, ad banners, Web banners, business cards, or similar graphics. The only exception is an event poster; however, due to the very small size of the Web Resolution Photo (250x250 pixels), this is usually not recommended. For the Web Photo, if you provide a product image that looks like an ad banner, brochure, flier, or similar, we may modify to fit our format, such as cropping out text elements, as needed, without prior image approval. You may submit an image for approval before release is submitted, if desired.
   
• The "Web Resolution" photo is intended to be used for temporary enhancement of your news release when found online, and will generally not be used by the media as it is not print-quality (although, this is changing as many blogs/bloggers transition from print to online-only). The Web Resolution image may not be permanent, and may be reduced in quality from the image provided. Please see any current news story found in our news indexes for examples of how the image will appear online.
   
• For sites like Google News, which "scrape" the text and visual content from our site(s), we have NO control over whether Google will properly capture any content, including image(s) found in your story. From time to time Google News has "hiccups" and may skip capturing images due to system issues in their network. Social networks like Digg sometimes grab the image, somtimes they don't. Again, the free "Web Resolution" image is intended to enhance the online copies of your story, but we have no way to control or guarantee that ANY other site or network will capture, display, or link to any image on our network.

With all of our plans you may convert your news release into a "VNR" simply by providing an embed code from a video you have posted to your YouTube channel (we do NOT currently support VIMEO, however you can link to a VIMEO page/video, it just won't appear inline with the story on our sites). This allows us to take out the unique 11-digit I.D. from the video, and embed that into our site along with your press release text. This can be useful if you have a promo clip, product demo, presentation, interview, music video, etc., to help better promote your news. This is free of charge (allow a little extra time to set-up the VNR format on our site, which must be done prior to the release going out).

Note: We cannot currently use Vimeo hosted videos (even though our sites support it), as most of our content partners do not and this causes an error or empty box on some sites.
Click here to view example VNRs (opens new window to 2011 journalist portal)

Example of the unique I.D. code for YouTube video (in blue):
... www.youtube.com/v/65hxi9rWEl8 ...

If your video lives on another hosting site (other than YouTube), you can include a normal URL/URI link to that page/video in your release text (e.g., www.videosite.com/file=1234567), but we cannot "embed" video into a release using HTML. Do not put <embed> code into your release document or any special HTML (inline frames, etc.) as it is not supported.

As noted below under "How to Provide Your Multimedia," please provide a second MS Word file with all your special media elements (video, social media bugs) which are NOT part of the release, but which are part of our Web publishing system.

Update Nov. 2011: please note we will opt to use the HTML5 version of YouTube videos over the Flash version for future-proofing the story online and for compatibility with mobile devices.

Send2Press Distribution Plan Reporting Overview:

With all distribution plans we provide the following:

• Clear Time Confirmation and Quick Report:
  Once we have confirmed your release has pushed to the media and posted online, we hand-prepare a simple confirmation e-mail which has links to your story on our site, on several sites and social networks which will have the story very quickly, as well as a custom search link for Google News. This "Clear time" (or "Push Time") e-mail is prepared by hand and is not automated; so, be aware if you schedule your release to push early morning before we are here and awake, you won't get this confirmation until we are here during our normal business hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT M-F).
   
• Send2Press SiteWatch (NetwireWatch) Report(s):
  Usually at the end of the day your release pushes (or the following day for stories posted in afternoon), we provide a second hand-prepared report which shows direct links to your story appearing on sites in the Neotrope News Network, social networks, and other sites capturing the news. This "SiteWatch" report also provides links to general syndication sites, where you can view your news along with our other stories. With this report we also include QuickStats, showing how many times your story has been read in the first 24 hours on our main site (using the read counters - see next section, below). This report is provided as both a plain text (.txt) file, and PDF file. (SiteWatch not included with Online Posting Subscription plans.)
   
  Because the SiteWatch report is provided as plain-text (UTF-8), this makes it easy to re-use for your clients (if you happen to be an agency), or to re-package if you manage your company marketing effort. For example, you could put the data on your own letterhead in a MS Word or Apple Pages file, or create a custom read-only PDF for your client/team. Note that the plain text file provided doesn't have live hyperlinks, since it is plain text with no special formatting; this means to make the links in the report live you simply copy-paste the entire text and e-mail to yourself and your mail reader will make all the URLs in the report into links. We no longer e-mail the report all in the e-mail as a large number of mail systems will block the message due to having anywhere from 100 to 500 links (the "Extended" plan report is somewhat lengthy).
  
  (Note: with Std. Online Only plans, only a single confirmation report is provided, with limited tracking; no full SiteWatch report is provided.)
   
• Ongoing Reader Tracking:
  With all stories on our main sites (the classic Send2Press.com portal, and the 2011 news portal Send2PressNewswire.com), we provide a very simple tracker which you can view without any log-in/password.
  
  How to find the simple read trackers: On the "classic" site, the tracker is found below the gray "Terms of Use" box at very bottom of all story pages (except those prior to 2005). On the 2011 portal look below the links to text/PDF copies at bottom of the story page, next to the Creative Commons CC logo.
  
  This simple "read counter" system tracks how many times your story has been read "so far." On the "classic" site, it breaks down the reader tracking by "today, this week, this month, and this year." This tracking is permanent (provided you don't violate our TOS, of course), and allows you to easily review your current and archival news on our site to confirm continued visibility from our SEO/SEM component (which keeps your news in search engines).
   
• PRTRAX™ — due to client side tracking being blocked in most modern web browsers, we have (for now) retired our PRTrax reader metrics dashboard, effective August 2011.
  

Important Notes About Reporting/Tracking:

NOTE: these reports do NOT track traditional "media pick-ups" such as a magazine running your news 3 months later, or a printed newspaper or broadcast media outlet choosing to use your news. Most legitimate media outlets will contact you to fact check or get a quote, or obtain a print ready image, or even a review unit; however, this is not always the case. Generally it's wise to learn to use the advanced search options in Google, and do periodic searches which include your company name, product name, CEO/principal, or whatever else was unique in your release, so that you can catch media pick-ups which may occur much later than when your news actually pushed.

With all our plans you can easily research where we send your news, from our media lists. You may research this information on your own, in our publication and broadcast outlet media lists page, found here.

We do not provide "circulation" numbers for Websites cloning your story, as those readership numbers don't equate in any way to how many people will ever see your news on those sites. However, with our "Extended" level plans, we do provide the same circulation data that PRN does for up to 200 sites that are cloning your news in first 24 hours.

We never provide a list of media contacts by name, phone, or e-mail as that would be giving away our proprietary information, and a violation of both our privacy policy and the privacy of those media folk we send news to. We do not sell, or license, media contact information.

Neotrope was one of the first companies in the marketing industry to perfect SEO for our clients during the dawn of the World Wide Web, while building brand identity projects, Web sites, and e-commerce solutions for our clients. Prior to the launch of Send2Press.com, during the mid 1990s, we offered SEO-optimized press release placement in early search engines like Infoseek and AltaVista, before Google even existed (we offered these services only to our corporate clients, on our ga-ga.com site at the time).

When we spun off Send2Press from the MindsetNetwire/MindsetMedia offerings in 2000, we were promoting SEO right on our home page from day one. Don't believe us? Check the Internet "Wayback Machine" (archive.org) and see for yourself. We've been doing SEO, and specifically search optimization of news content and the pages/sites where that content lives, longer than anybody; and far longer than the majority of our upstart competitors have even been in business.

All our clients, regardless of plan/service level, benefit from our ContextEngine™ technology (which includes our old dot.Sorcerer™ and DotComMojo™ technologies) which has helped us place literally millions of keywords/phrases into the top five in Google and other search portals for 15 years.

All Send2Press plans include basic inclusion in our ContextEngine™ system which helps our content rank at top of search engines like Google under phrases found in your release text; this includes both Send2Press.com and news portals in the Neotrope News Network (i.e., eNewsChannels.com, MusicIndustryNewswire.com, CaliforniaNewswire.com, etc.). Depending on the plan you purchase, the amount of hand-work versus automated work applied to your project will vary (more expensive plan will equal more hand-work in choosing META data for your content).

Our "patent worthy" system automatically scans your text once posted into our network for unique phrases, and helps to create relevant cross-links within our pages to help the page rank higher, in addition to traditional META tags, title tags, and similar methodologies. This is a very organic process and works entirely within the normal accepted practices of search portals like Google.

Basic SEO Tips/Guidelines for Best Placement:
In order for your news to rank better under your most desired phrases, our recommendation is to follow these simple tips:

1. Ensure your most desired keywords/phrase is found in your release headline/title.
2. Use the most desired keywords/phrases in your first paragraph, at least three times in body of release, and the final paragraph.
3. Avoid over-use of any phrase, which can look like "peppering" as that makes it look like you're trying to hard in any pattern recognition system or search engine 'bot.
4. Avoid using anchor links on phrases and use normal organic visible URLs (e.g., www.mysite.com/services/ ).
5. Ensure content is not stale, has not already been posted online anywhere (indexed by Google), and has not been posted on any content farming site (such as faux article sites, free news sites overseas, etc.).
6. After the release is live on our sites, be sure to link to them from your social media accounts, Web site, etc., to help increase cross-linking.

These simple tips can help increase the visibility of the press release online based on your most desired content. Please remember than press releases are technically "paid content" and may not rank as well for some things, as most press release sites and news aggregators are not really posting original "organic" content.

To address the issue of duplicate content and the lack of quality in some news aggregators who will clone your news item, the Neotrope® News Network sites will re-publish your story as a psuedo-article under our ContextEngine™ system, using our "multi-threaded headlines" methodology which helps break the pattern recognition system for certain pages containing your news item (headline will vary on our network sites because of this methodology, but may rank higher as a result).

A major shift in all search engines for 2011 is the advent of real-time Web results, or the "dynamic Web", where the search results you see may be entirely different than what another person sees based on locale, if Google (or Bing, Ask, etc.) are tracking you, and the Web browser you happen to be using. Our 2011 news portal for journalists (Send2PressNewswire.com) is specifically designed to better work with the dynamic Web, while our classic portal (Send2Press.com) is still architected for the traditional, classic "spidered" Web.

Additionally, some news pages will settle over time as they fall out of the "this week's news" bin on Google News. So, some searches may provide entirely different results 8-14 days after the original press release is issued.

Please remember: we are not your ad agency, PR firm, or marketing consultant. It is entirely up to you to optimize, compose, and submit the press release you want us to issue for you. Send2Press is a newswire service (a service of Neotrope), and we cannot provide in-depth SEO consulting as part of your news dissemination package. You may hire us for these kinds of services, separately, but SEO consulting is NOT provided as part of your news dissemination service.

SEO News Releases and SEO+PR™

Our plans include a wealth of SEO features, at no additional cost:

• You may specify your own desired keywords/phrases on the News Information Form, after checkout, on which you submit your news release project. These keywords must be relevant to the actual release text, or will have no value when embedded into the META data or body data of the page(s). Additionally, with our new National PLUS plans we include our SEO+PR™ service where we will revise your text to highlight the phrases you most want to be found under (you have final approval), and also embed anchor links in the text to provided page URLs/URIs on your site with complementary content (deep-linking).
   
• With all our plans, a real person will pick out unique phrases by hand for submission to systems like Technorati, Delicous, DIIGO, Reddit, and similar. Some of these additional tags appear in our RSS feeds, and on other sites when "cloned" by news aggregators.
   
• Free SEO Keyword Density Checker: All clients have access to our free online utility to optimize the "weight" of your desired search terms simply by pasting your release into a dynamic box, entering your three most wanted phrases, then adjusting the text to reach a mimimum recommended "density" for that phrase. This self-serve tool is optional, and is provided to clients after checkout is complete.
   
• Anchor Links in Text: With all our plans (except the "no rush" online only plan) you may include up to six anchor links around words/phrases in your text linking to your site. Note that many sites will strip out any HTML links, so it's always recommended to include one visible, fully formed URL/URI at bottom of release, such as:
  For more information, visit: www.Send2Press.com.
  
  See examples of how to do this in the section regarding anchor link formatting, below, this page.
   

Important Notes Regarding SEO and "News Spam":

We cannot guarantee news will be found under any specific phrase in any search engine. You can "optimize" your release for specific phrases, and you may find our free Keyword Density Checker to be helpful in this regard (you have access to the density tool after checkout). With an "optimized" release, your content will be more likely to rank higher under the optimized phrases, but we have no control over any specific ranking.

Daily "Cutoff" Times, Deadlines, and Scheduling:

• Our daily "cutoff" time for news to push the same day is generally 5:30 p.m. EDT/EST (2:30 p.m. PDT/PST), for a complete, properly formatted release. Normally releases can push within 2-3 hours* from receipt if complete and properly formatted project. *NOTE: Allow additional time on last/first days of each month, first Monday of month, first two hours of each Monday morning, and if your release has photo/logo, or special additions like high-resolution 300dpi image, international add-ons, and similar options.
   
• Our daily "cutoff" time for news to push "very early" the next morning, or next business day, is generally 7:30 p.m. EDT/EST (4:30 p.m. PDT/PST). Example: for a release to be scheduled prior to 11 a.m. EDT/EST Monday morning, we need to have that by 7:30 p.m. EDT/EST Friday night.
   
• For the STANDARD "Online Only" plan the cutoff is 3 p.m. EDT/EST for same day publication. If later in day, it may not post until next morning once business is open.
  
  "EDT/EST" refers to Eastern Daylight Savings Time, Eastern Standard Time, or U.S. East Coast Time (New York). "PDT/PST" refers to Pacific Daylight Savings Time, Pacific Standard Time, or U.S. West Coast Time (California). Most news services push news based on Eastern Time.

Scheduling Options

• You may schedule an EXTENDED Distribution Plan (formerly "Blue" level plan) to push any day, date, and hour of the day, provided the project is submitted prior to our cutoff time. Example push time might be: 6 a.m. ET, June 1, or 9 p.m. June 2, or simply "ASAP."
   
• You may schedule a STANDARD Distribution Plan (formerly "Silver" level plan) to push any time between 5 a.m. and 8 p.m. EDT/EST, Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. EDT/EST Saturday. Generally releases scheduled for same time will push in order received, meaning we won't push five releases at exactly the same time to the same editor at a daily newspaper, as a courtesy.
   
• WRITING AND EDITING: Per the main page on our site regarding writing/editing services, we need one full day to do a one-draft revision/re-write, and ask for 2-3 working days for a full writing project. Generally you would wait for approval of your final release text before scheduling your distribution (this is the default option on the News Information Form).

The Process of Sending News

Remember, this is not an "instant" process, such as you have when you paste news onto those cheesy free news posting sites. We're a real newswire service and there are many steps to "getting the word out" with your release when we send it Direct-to-Editors™.

Here's an example of the process. Once we have your order in-house, we:

1. review your text for content, formatting, and any omissions like headline, or media contact info (releases that don't meet our "minimum requirements" will be delayed)
2. set-up any photo/logo, fit to our size and format including minor retouch if needed
3. format release to AP style and our own formatting
4. post archive copies in UTF-8 plain text and PDF formats, and image(s), to our media server
5. submit release to media using the Send2Press Direct-to-Editors™ media database
6. post online version for capture by news systems, NewsML, and RSS; hand-embed META data, Technorati tags and other data for syndicators
7. verify the story has been captured by systems like Google News
8. also, with our "Blue Extended" plans, we must also submit and verbally confirm your release with a wire partner to fit their system requirements
9. hand-submit your news to systems like Digg, Delicious, Diigo, Facebook, Google+, etc.
10. prepare a "clear time" (also called "push time") confirmation e-mail for you, and send that to you manually.

As you can see, this is all done by real people and often takes more than a few minutes. Please be reasonably patient in allowing all of these steps to be performed. Often we can push your news within 120 minutes (two hours), but during very busy times, certain days of month, Monday morning, and so forth, you may need to allow additional time for your project to be "done right."

Our normal business hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PDT/PST (California) which is 12 noon to 8 p.m. EDT/EST (New York), Monday through Friday, and closed on major U.S. holidays. You may order services through our Secure Order Center any time of the day or night 24/7/365, however we can only personally confirm and review your project during our normal business hours.
Click Here to View our U.S. Holiday Hours
Click Here to Contact Us for Assistance

It should be self-evident that if we are closed weekends, and you submit a project on Sunday, then we cannot setup and schedule your release to go out prior to when we open Monday morning (i.e., submitting a project on Sunday to go out at 7 a.m. EDT/EST Monday will not happen).

IMPORTANT: Any projects submitted over a weekend will not be reviewed or personally confirmed prior to 9 a.m. PDT/PST Monday morning, and will be scheduled ASAP at that time in order received.

With all Send2Press STANDARD (formerly "Silver") and EXTENDED (formerly "Blue") level plans, we do support hyperlinks (anchor links) around phrases, in addition to full URL/URI linking (with EXTENDED level plans, PRN now supports anchor links as well!). Basically, any visible URL (i.e., www.yoursite.xyz/pagename) automatically turns into a live link on most of our sites (except the classic archives), and other sites that pull our content (you cannot turn this feature off on sites supporting visible URL conversion to live links, as it's an automatic site-wide process).

We will typically limit anchor links to six to ten links of any kind; and a MAXIMUM OF FIVE ANCHOR LINKS AROUND WORDS/PHRASES. Any more than that, and some search portals may adversely tag the page for "link farming" and deprecate it in search results (not good). However, for most plans, having four anchor links around words/phrases, plus 2 or 3 visible links will be okay (they should NOT be all the same links to same page, however). For the Standard "Online Only" plan, there is a limit of five links total (remember all visible URLs convert to live links!). Remember that many sites do not support anchor links on words/phrases, and on those sites unless you have visible URLs, there will be no links at all!

IMPORTANT: Please note that since our news portals do not use "nofollow" links, we cannot anchor link any words/phrases to social media portals like Facebook or Twitter. You can have normal URLs to your Google+, Facebook or Twitter page. We also cannot have links to things like Google search results for your company, brand, and you cannot make anchor links out of competitor brand names. We also don't support affiliate or tracking URLs of any kind, nor do we allow bit.ly type links as they are not considered permanent, nor is it clear for media where those links will land. Anchor links do not appear in email copies sent to media, only online copies on those sites that support them. All links to PDFs should be visible URLs only since Acrobat files are commonly insecure and potentially harmful and so cannot be blind links in text.

You should ALWAYS have at least one full URL, typically at bottom of release, in this format:
  For more information, visit: http://www.mysitename.xyz.
This is because many sites that pull (syndicate, clone, copy, etc.) news from Send2Press and PRN will strip out any HTML, such as anchor links around words/phrases; so, by having at least one full URL visible, you're assured that folks finding the news online should see at least one link to your site (some news clone sites do strip out all HTML including any URL, but that is outside our control).

For live links (hotlinks, hyperlinks, anchor links) around words/phrases, you need to format the links in MS Word (if using OpenOffice.org, or comparable, you would "save as" to MS Word or RTF format) as live links, where they become underlined with the link as shown in this illustration:

In your word processor you would basically highlight the words/phrases and then mouse-click "insert hyperlink" (procedure will vary by word processor, so check your built-in help for your program), then type in the URL those words should link to. We will always double check links actually work before anything goes out to media or online.

IMPORTANT! Anchor links around phrases cannot be placed in headline or sub-head due to how the RSS feeds and syndication systems work. URLs must be to actual landing page, not a redirect URL (or shortener site). So, if your link says www.mysite.net, but lands on www.myothersite.com, we will correct that when hand-embedding the actual URL on our site (we won't correct the PRN copy, only the Send2Press.com story page). It is our policy that anyone clicking a link from our site should be able to see what the actual landing page is from hovering the mouse over the URL. Affiliate program links of any kind are strictly forbidden.

Many sites don't support anchor links around words/phrases, and many strip out all HTML links of any kind. Note that our classic news portal (Send2Press.com) does not support active links for image, nor does it display any images with the archive copy of release text. Our 2011 news portal for journalists (Send2PressNewswire.com) supports anchor links, visible URL links (all visible URLs will become live links), and images/logos. Sites in the Neotrope® News Network have varying policies on what kind of links, if any, will be live/active.

ALSO NOTE: All of the above rules, and restrictions, are in place based on 15 years of linking from search engines to our sites, and to avoid the links actually adversely impacting your landing site, or search engine rankings, as well as our pages.