Content Requirements for All Press Releases

Minimum Content Requirements
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).

TIP: See the links to example press releases at end of this section.

NOTE ABOUT WORD LENGTH: Additionally, with certain plans that have a base word length limit, it's important to be aware that ALL of these elements count in the word length of your press 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, no more than two sentences, and is discouraged as many online systems will skip this content, which we suggest should be in the proper body of the release instead.
   
• 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).

  What is attribution? 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. So, what this means is that in the first paragraph you MUST include the source of the news to make it clear WHO is announcing the news. The most common example would be "Company XYZ announced today their blah blah...." And another is "A new line of rubber baby biscuits was announced today by Company XYZ...." This is called "attribution" and is required by ALL legitimate newswire services.

• 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.


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.

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 "Photos" section, below, this page).

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.

Example press release:
PLAIN TEXT  (Note: line breaks added for readability)
MS WORD   (.doc Microsoft Word format)
RICH TEXT   (.rtf format, for any word processor)

Important Notice About Google News and Headlines
Please be aware that Google News has problems in "capturing" stories which have headlines longer than 18-20 words (tip: if you use long multi-syllable words, use fewer of them, perhaps 15 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 (a secondary headline) is not recommended as many online news systems and sites ignore them entirely, so anything important in a sub-head won't be seen at all, and this may ALSO confuse the Google News spider-bot in "scraping" your story on various news sites if the sub-head is longer than main headline. We do not support more than one sub-headline for online content, but you may use up to two sub-heads, which will be visible in copies sent to media/editors.

If Google News "skips" your story on our site(s) due to the headline length issue and sub-headline, it will not be re-posted or republished again on our site(s) to attempt to have them capture it again. This issue does NOT impact the main Google search.

File Formats We Accept for News Projects
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").

CORRECT:   myfilename7-rev21.doc
CORRECT:   my_muppetz_filename_rev21.doc

INCORRECT:  my file [7].version23*.doc
INCORRECT:  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), Rich Text Format (.rtf), plain text (.txt). We do not accept faxes, or PDF files for release submission.
NOTE: Office 2007/8 ".docx" format files must be e-mailed after form submission, as they are not yet compatible with our old form system which is being replaced during Summer 2008.

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.

Understanding Distribution Plans by Name and Plan Level

Two Levels of Service Plans

Send2Press offers two levels of service: our Premium "Silver" level plans, which provide our Direct to Editors™ distribution of your press release to print, broadcast and online media. We also offer our Extended "Blue" level plans which add to our distribution with additional dissemination through partner newswire systems when applicable to your news and budget. Please see our Plan Comparison Chart for additional information and specifics for each plan.

The plan colors ("Silver" and "Blue") are completely arbitrary and have no specific meaning, and are simply part of the plan names to help identify plans by a color coding more quickly on this site.

Plan Name and Plan E-Z Order Code

All Send2Press targeted news distribution plans have both a "plan name" and an "E-Z order code." The order code is the same idea as a part number. Because people process and retain information differently, this gives you two ways to remember a plan, and/or to locate the correct plan when ordering from our secure online Order Center.

Example: we have two different versions of our "National PLUS" distribution plan. First, there is the Premium Silver Level plan, then the Premium Extended Blue Level plan.

Plan Level »	Premium "Silver"	Premium Extended "Blue"
Plan Name »	Send2Press Premium "National PLUS Plan"	Send2Press Premium Extended "National PLUS Plan"
Plan E-Z Order Code »	#SLV-NAT	#BLU-NAT

All Premium Silver Level plans generally start with a SLV E-Z code (SLV = Silver), and Premium Extended Blue Level plans start with a BLU code (BLU = Blue).

Service Plan Pricing and Payment/Billing Information

Service Pricing Explanation
The pricing for each plan is shown in both our E-Z View 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.

Example: You issue a press release in June about hiring a new CFO, and you choose one of our 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).

Press release writing and revision is not included with the distribution plans found in the Comparison Chart. 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.

Payment Methods Accepted
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 have no annual membership fee, contracts, or subscriptions. 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).

Using Another Person's Credit Card
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. 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.
Click Here for Fax Authorization Form (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.

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.

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.

All International Orders Using a Credit 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.
Click Here for Fax Authorization Form (PDF)

Base Word Length Limit and Over-Limit Fees

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, 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 FILE FORMAT.

Generally, all Premium "Silver" Level plans have a base word length limit of 700-900 words, which is a fairly long release, and Premium Extended "Blue" Level plans have a base word length limit of 400 words (390 words for the "Public" plan). 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 Premium Extended "Blue" Plans, or each 400 words (or fraction) over with Standard/Silver Level plans.

The reason the Premium Extended "Blue" 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 "Silver" 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.

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!).
• 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.

Examples: 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).

Example press release:
PLAIN TEXT  (Note: line breaks added for readability)
MS WORD   (.doc Microsoft Word format)
RICH TEXT   (.rtf format, for any word processor)

Newspapers / TV / Radio
Targeted Direct-to-Editors™ Distribution to U.S. State Media

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 Plan Comparison Chart, you will clearly see the primary difference between our "State," "Three State," "Regional," and "National" plans has to do with how widely your news is disseminated to in-state 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 "Three State" plan, you can specify any three U.S. states (such as NY, NJ, CT, or NY, CA, IL, etc.). 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.

Regional Distribution Plans: When you order a "Regional" plan, your news is distributed to about 1/4 of the U.S., and you can choose from the following regions:

• Northeast (CT, DE, DC, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT & WV)
• Southeast (AL, AR, DC, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN & VA)
• Midwest (IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD & WI)
• West/Southwest (AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, NM, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA & WY)

If you wish to specify a "custom" list of states, you would order a "National BASIC" plan, and then specify which states you wish to target.

National BASIC and National PLUS Plans: One of the potentially confusing aspects of our service is the difference between the two "National" plans. Basically, if you look at the Comparison Chart, in both the "Brief Plan Overview" and the "Newspapers / TV / Radio" feature rows, you will see that the "National BASIC" plans push your news to about 1,000 U.S. daily newspapers, skipping about 500 "small town" papers. The "National PLUS" plans go to about 1,500 daily newspapers. The reason we have two options is that in many cases most news is not of interest to "small town" papers which have a circulation of under 10,000 readers.

On the other hand, the opposite thinking is that often it's worth sending broad appeal (or "general editorial," or "feature story") news to these small papers on the chance they may have a slow news day and are looking for something to fill space. This is often the purpose of so-called MAT Releases (aka "matte" releases). Special note: If you represent an agency, and wish to push a MAT/matte Release, you must choose the "National PLUS" plan and we will target the small town papers. We only accept MAT Releases from legitimate PR firms or PRSA members (inquire).

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

Trade / Consumer Magazines
Targeted Direct-to-Editors™ Distribution to U.S. Print Periodicals

Targeted Distribution Channels
With all Send2Press® news distribution plans, except the "Online Only" plan, 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.

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.

How Many People Will The News Release Reach?
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. Everything we do is targeted based on both the plan you purchase (i.e., "State," "Regional," 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.

You may research the 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.

How to Choose Categories
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 Plan Comparison Chart for more information.

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

Which Plan Should I Choose?
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.

Special Note for Business Services News
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.

Photo / Image Options

Free Logo and Web Images with Distribution
All plans include a free Web Logo (your corporate logotype), and most plans offer the option to instead include a free Web Photo (see Plan Comparison Chart or Full Info page for chosen distribution plan). These free images are shown online at the resolution of most website 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, for a print-resolution image. You may provide an image any size and format and we will resize to our format.

Each additional Web image is $15, but only one image will appear most places online. With the Silver "State" and "Online Only" plan, you may include a photo for $15 instead of the free logo (meaning, when you order the photo add-on option with the "State" or "Online Only" plan you will get a photo instead of the logo, not in addition to the logo).

The free image will appear online at approximately 180x180 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 180Wx165H in square box). See any of the news stories on our site which are dated later than April 1, 2008, 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). View any of our current client releases for examples of how the image appears in the story online.

NOTE: In the media copy, the image appears only as a link, not an attached binary file.

Example:
*(Photo Link 72dpi: Send2Press.com/mediaboom/yourphoto_72dpi.jpg)
*(Photo Caption: New Widget being worn by bunny rabbit.)

NOTE: with the "State" and "Online Only" plan, the free logo will not appear in the media copy of the release, only on the Website version of story.

Optional High-Resolution Image
With all plans except the "Online Only" plan, 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 option is $39 and can be ordered at same time as any distribution plan. When ordering this option, you do not get a second free Web image/photo, since the high-resolution image must also be used online with the story. Or, put another way, this option includes the same one free Web Photo, but an additional copy of the one image is linked to for media at print-resolution so that they do not need to contact you for the print-ready image.

File Formats
For the Web logo/photo, you should provide a .jpg, .tif, .bmp, .eps/.ai, .pdf, or similar file (.gif images are color reduced and will have lower quality). File should be no larger than 2MB. We will resize and optimize all images for our server. For high-resolution image option, please provide a Photoshop image 4x5-inch (5-inches one dimension, can be less than 4-inches in other dimension), 300dpi, RGB/CMYK, 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). We cannot use any graphics placed into a MS Word or RTF file.

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" the license to third parties (such as newswires, websites, printed newsletters, or similar). We cannot use any image copied from a manufacturer website (e.g., if you have a "mall" of products from various companies, 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% 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 free Web Photo (approximately 180x180 pixels), this is usually not recommended. For the free Web Photo, if you provide a product image that looks like an ad banner, brochure, flier, or similar, we will modify to fit our format, such as cropping out text elements, as needed, without prior image approval.
• The "free Web Photo" is intended to be used for temporary enhancement of your news release when found online, and will not be used by the media as it is not print-quality. The free image will 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 Google News, which "scrapes" 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. Again, the FREE image is exactly that and 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.

Required Photo Caption
A caption is required for all photographs, which is a very brief description of what the image shows, 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.

Basic SiteWatch (NetwireWatch) Reporting
and Optional PRTrax™ Reader Tracking

IMPORTANT NOTE: we do not provide a list of "where your news was sent" with our basic distribution plans. You may research this information on your own, in our publication and broadcast outlet media lists page, found here.

Clear Time Confirmation Report
With all plans you will be sent an e-mail "clear time" (also called "push time") confirmation e-mail, once your story has gone out to the media and is also beginning to appear online. This is a hand-created confirmation, not automated, which is why it will generally arrive later than when the story actually goes out. Basically, a "clear time" is the time your news either started or completed being transmitted to the media. This clear time report also includes some quick links to sites which will grab the story immediately, like Google News, Voxant, and others; and, it will have an overview of what was done for your project such as delivery to A.P. (except with Silver Online Only plan).

Basic SiteWatch (NetwireWatch) Report
With most plans (see Plan Comparison Chart) you will receive a basic SiteWatch report within 2-3 working days, which has example links to sites running your news story automatically. This is a very simple report which simply has links to Internet based content sites or aggregators that run the story automatically (Google News, Voxant / TheNewsRoom, NewsBlaze), RSS feed sites (Syndic8, NewsisFree, Wikio, etc.), and some of the social network sites we hand-submit news to (e.g., FURL, Del.ico.us, Reddit, Technorati), as well as any applicable sites in the Neotrope News Network such as California Newswire®, eNewsChannels™, Publishers Newswire™, et al. (Note: actual sites included in the report will vary.)

This report also tells you how many times your news was read within the first 48 hours by media and public (based on unique I.P., not "hits"), on the Send2Press.com website for your story "article version." This information is tracked permanently and you can view this information for all of your stories as long as they appear on our site in article format (there is no tracking for the plain text or PDF archival media copies of each press release).

With our "Blue Extended Plans" your report shows additional links on sites from Comtex, Thomson and PRN syndication. You ALSO get a second report about 7 working days later which has some additional information on readership of your story on both Send2Press.com and the PRN for Journalists (PRNJ) website. This gives you an overview of how "responsive" your story was on these two media portals which each receive millions of visits per month from media professionals looking for story ideas or researching past archival material.

All reports are provided by e-mail in plain text, which makes it fairly simple to copy-paste these into other documents for client delivery, archiving or internal reporting.

IMPORTANT NOTE: These basic SiteWatch reports do NOT track media pick-ups or queries, only general online news sites which replicate news content automatically, or which are content partners with Send2Press.

Optional Neotrope® PRTrax™ Reader Tracking
For those who need or want more extended reporting of online readership of either a specific news story, or an entire campaign, Neotrope's "industry first" reader tracking service is an affordable, powerful option to all Send2Press distribution plans. It is not a media monitoring service; it is a reader tracking service to provide both metrics/demographics and ROI for your content. The PRTrax™ system tracks your news release(s) appearing in the Neotrope News Network of sites, which are all powered by our best-in-class ContextEngine® system. The ContextEngine® system helps maintain the persistence of your news at the top of search engines (dependent on actual content of your release text), and PRTrax™ can help you track who is clicking through from search engines, social networks and blogs, aggregators like Google News, and more.

With PRTrax™ you can track readership of your story across all Neotrope News Network sites of your story, and view reports at any time which show number of reads, keywords used to find the story, search engines used to find story, country, language, referring sites, and more. A single account plan starts at $69 and would track just one news announcement, while a multi-story account for $99 would track all stories for a campaign (releases from a single company) with one log-in account. (Pricing is based on annual subscription, which is renewable.)
Click Here to Learn About Neotrope's PRTrax™ Service

Search Engine Optimization

Powered by ContextEngine®
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. 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.

Additionally, with our higher level plans, a real person will pick out unique phrases by hand for submission to systems like Technorati, Del.ico.us, Yahoo! MyWeb, FURL, Reddit, and similar. Some of these additional tags appear in our RSS feeds, and on other sites when "cloned" by news aggregators.

IMPORTANT NOTE: 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.

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 is optional, and is provided to clients after checkout is complete, and also in our Member's Area.

Optional SEO+PR PowerPack™
Our Optional SEO+PR™ PowerPack, $149, provides a single account in the PRTrax™ system to track search terms and readership metrics; plus, you can specify META, del.ico.us, and Technorati tags (which also appear in RSS feeds), and use our free Keyword Density Checker to self-optimize your text. This option is only available to U.S. based companies, and cannot be used with the "Online Only" plan.

Specifically, this optional add-on service includes:
• Single project account in our premium PRTrax™ reader tracking system.
• Story "featured" on top of eNewsChannels™ magazine portal home page.
• Choose Keyword and META data for your content:
  1. four most desired three or four word phrases for Technorati (no hyphens or apostrophes)
  2. any special words for del.ico.us (single words only, up to four individual words, such as BrandNameHere or book)
  3. up to five keywords or 2-5 word phrases for meta data and cross linking purposes.
• Chosen meta data embedded into Neotrope News Network pages which normally don't allow that, such as California Newswire®.

IMPORTANT NOTES: 1) You must already understand what META tags are, and what tags do in general to order this option. We cannot educate you on the value of tagging, META data, and related topics, as part of this service. 2) Neotrope/Send2Press does not, and cannot, guarantee that any news story will rank or appear at top of any search results under any specific phrase. If you are using a press release for SEO purposes, please also see our "Hotlink Policy" under "Disclaimers."

Click Here to Learn About Neotrope's PRTrax™ Service

How Quickly Can My News Go Out?
Daily "Cutoff" Times and Deadlines

Daily Cutoff (Deadline)

• 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 60-120 minutes* 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, first-time PRTrax™ account set-up, 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 Silver "Online Only" plan the cutoff is 3 p.m. EDT/EST for same day publication.


"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).

Scheduling Options

• You may schedule a "Blue" level plan to push any day, date, and hour of the day, provided the project is submitted prior to our cutoff time. Example: 6 a.m. EDT, June 1.
• You may schedule a "Silver" level plan to push any time between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. EDT/EST, Monday through Friday. Generally releases scheduled for 11 a.m. 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.


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 Reddit, FURL, Del.ico.us, Yahoo MyWeb
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."

Business Hours

• Our normal business hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PDT/PST (California), 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, 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

Submitting News on Weekends
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., 7 a.m. EDT/EST). Any projects submitted over a weekend will not be reviewed or personally confirmed prior to 8 a.m. PDT/PST Monday morning, and will be scheduled ASAP at that time in order received.

Disclaimers

Hotlink/Hyperlink Policy for Send2Press.com

Normal Hotlinks/Hyperlinks Formatting
All hyperlinks (hotlinks, active links, et al) appear online as fully formed URLs on Send2Press.com, in our RSS feeds, NewsML, and syndication system, in copies sent to media, and partners like PRN, California Newswire, etcetera. So, for a link to be active, it must be found in press release text as a fully formed URL/URI, as so: http://www.yoursite.xyz/my_page/.

ANCHOR LINKS AROUND PHRASES:
For customers using our "National" level plans, you may include up to two anchor links around 2-4 word phrases (not single words), and one normal fully formed URL with no anchor link. This allows you to target two phrases for contextual links, but keep one link as a full URL to your main site page for sites that don't support anchor links/HTML (e.g., Voxant, PRN, etc.). All anchor links must point at same site to normal pages, not different sites, and anchor links cannot point to redirects or counter systems.


Special formatting for anchor links
(unless provided in this format, no anchor links around text will be made active):

In your press release, pick out the two phrases you wish to highlight, but remove any embedded URL or links from your MS Word file, so that it's just plain text. Then put a forward slash / at front and back of the phrase, followed by the URL you want the page to go to in parenthesis with a capital A:.   EXAMPLE:

The puppies were jumping at each other on the floor, rolling, and this suggested the title for the new book about bunnies and puppies. The author, Mrs. Daye Dreem, chose the subject /puppies adopted by bunnies/ (A: www.yoursite.xyz/puppies.htm) because it was a heart-warming tale (or tail) for the ages.

Note that the "/ /" and "A:" will not be visible in any copy of the release; this is for us to create two versions of your story for the varied electronic systems in which your news will be submitted. Anchor links will be active on our site, but will not appear on the majority of other sites due to their own content systems and policies on linking. So, if a story runs on Forbes.com in the press release section via PRN, there will be no anchor link, but the fully formed URL will still be there if you use this formatting.

Linking Limitations
We will not hotlink from Send2Press.com to any site hosted by a blog portal like blog.com or blogspot.com, due to the way our SEO system functions. We will not hotlink to any search engine which redirects to your website for any kind of ranking/points based placement of your site.

Because of the way our search engine placement system works we must limit the number of hotlinks (links to Web pages) from our "article" pages on the Send2Press.com news archive. In general we will only link to your home page, and up to two additional pages on your site or client/partner site. We do not post pages full of links for keyword stuffing or similar practices. With all plans we limit the number of links from the Send2Press.com site, but this does not restrict links from other sites when using our "Blue" level plans, where the full text of your release runs on up to hundreds of sites automatically via partner wire services. So, while you may fill your release with a dozen URLs, we will use our own judgement and limitations for linking from Send2Press.com pages to your site. We usually avoid linking to short-term, temporary, or promotional links; our links will always prioritize the long-term links such as your main site pages, or main URLs. Links from our site are not guaranteed to be permanent, although the pages themselves will usually be permanent (subject to our TOS). inquire for specific examples. If you pepper your release with links to your homepage, we will typically only link to it one time. We cannot direct link to any site or page containing nudity, nor will any of our wire service partners; links to mature content will be broken like (www.yoursite .com) with a space before the dot to prohibit automatic online linking through networks (Note: we do not accept adult industry content).

We will not hotlink to any site which contains services or links to/by SEO companies, "traffic blasting" sites, or competing newswire services or press release services (e.g., "press release writing" or "press release distribution"), or which contain malicious pop-ups or pop-unders or which attempts to install software on page exit (or any other "malware"). We will not link to any site that mis-represents themselves as members of the BBB or other verification systems, and may choose not to link to sites or pages which collect personal information without legally required privacy statement that complies with U.S. laws, COPA/COPPA, and California privacy provisions. We will not link to start-up search engines, bookmark sites, "user generated content" sites, or classified ad sites, generally; please inquire regarding these kinds of links prior to submitting a project.

News We Will Not Accept
WE WILL NOT ACCEPT "NEWS RELEASES" WHICH PROMOTE CASINOS, SEO COMPANIES, SEX REMEDIES, BODY PART ENHANCEMENT, MORTGAGE REFINANCE, CANADIAN OR INTERNET PHARMACIES FOR OTC DRUG SALES, HERBAL WEIGHT LOSS PRODUCTS (HOODIA, ETC.), STOCK RELATED REPORTS ON PUBLIC COMPANIES UNLESS FROM THE OWNER OF TICKER SYMBOL, MONEY MAKING REPORT SITES, INCOME OPPORTUNITY SITES OR "MAKE MONEY AT HOME" LINK PORTALS AND SEMINARS, INTERNET CASINO LINK LIST SITES/FORUMS OR "MAGAZINES", SPORTS BOOK/BETTING "PICK" SITES, NEWS AND HEADLINE SITES WHICH AGGREGATE STORIES FROM OTHER SOURCES, COUPON SITES LINKING TO AFFILIATE PROGRAM SHOPPING SITES, ONE MILLION PIXEL ADVERTISING SITES, AFFILIATE PROGRAM RESELLERS OF TRAVEL PACKAGES (e.g. "COASTAL VACATIONS" or "GLOBAL TRAVEL"), RAFFLES OR ESSAY WRITING CONTESTS (OR SIMILAR), HEALTH/DENTAL PLANS OR WATER PURIFICATION SYSTEMS (OR SIMILAR), CREDIT REPAIR OR SCORE IMPROVEMENT LOAN SERVICES, PAYDAY LOANS, OR BRANDED CALLING CARDS OR CREDIT CARDS.

LEGAL/LAWSUIT CONTENT: As of July 1st, 2008, we only accept lawsuit related news if it is in reference to a successful judgement (court win) which is a matter of public record; and you will need to provide copy of court docket showing this. NOTE: we no longer accept any release content related to pending civil lawsuit matters, "alleged" wrongdoing by court officers, complaints against businesses, or class action matters (unless it's announcing a "win" in court), or appeals for lost cases. We are removing any and all such content from our network due to apparent abuse from lawyers and law firms seeking to mis-lead both the media and public using newswire services such as ours. Per our Terms of Service (TOS) all content on our websites is subject to removal at our sole discretion.

FAUX ARTICLES AND ADVERTORIAL: We do not accept "advertorial" material, editorial articles, op-ed pieces, or similar. A press release is a NEWS announcement, not prose or an unsolicited manuscript.

WE WILL REJECT NEWS OF SIMILAR NATURE TO THESE AT OUR SOLE DISCRETION. If you feel your news may fall into one or more of these categories or conditions, please contact us FIRST prior to placing an order.

Results Disclaimer
DISCLAIMER: AS WITH ALL PR AND MARKETING CAMPAIGNS, INDIVIDUAL RESULTS WILL VARY DUE TO NUMEROUS FACTORS OUTSIDE THE CONTROL OF ANY NEWSWIRE SERVICE, INCLUDING THE VALUE OF NEWS CONTENT BEING DISSEMINATED. NEOTROPE/SEND2PRESS CANNOT GUARANTEE ANY MEDIA RESPONSE OR ANY SPECIFIC MEDIA PLACEMENT IN PRINT OR BROADCAST, WHICH IS MOST OFTEN BASED ON THE "NEWSWORTHINESS" OF WHAT IS BEING ANNOUNCED, AND NOT THE SERVICE PROVIDED. ALL SERVICES ARE OFFERED AND PROVIDED SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS OF SERVICE (TOS).