Dos and Don'ts of a Good Press Release

Press release is a written document issued to the members of news media for the purpose of announcing something ostensibly newsworthy. Make sure that you write newsworthy press release. Editors generally publish news release that will surely pique the interest of the reading public. Plain articles without any news value or poorly formatted press release will be rejected by site moderators.

1. Press release must have the following sections: Title, Summary, Place, Date, Body, About US and Contact Us.
2. First letter of title must be in capital case. First letter of each word in the title must be in capital case. No need to capitalize connecting words like 'the', 'a', 'an', 'and', 'or','is','was', 'are', 'were', 'with', 'for',  'from', 'to', 'by', 'of', 'at', 'in' etc.
3. Title must announce the news in a simple declarative statement. Title can not be a question, exclamation, command, instruction, advice or call for some action.
4. Avoid non-alpha numeric characters, special characters like *,: ? ! # - ' ' " " or website address(URL) in your title or summary.
5. Minimum 40 characters and maximum 120 characters are allowed in title. It must be a single sentence.
6. Insert a two line summary between title and main message body. Summary must present the essence of news to busy readers in two or three crisp sentences.
7. Press release body must start with place and date followed by the text - (PressReleasePoint).
8. Press Release body must have four or more paragraphs. Each para must have two to six sentences, preferably three or four sentences.
9. Last paragraph of a press release must be "About Us" section describing the company.
10. Your press release must be written like a third person reporting your news story. Keep the news release written in a professional tone and state facts only.
11. Do not include first or second person pronouns like 'I', 'We', 'Our', 'Us','You', 'Your' in your press release except when quoting someone say something relevant to the press release.
12. Press release can announce a range of news items: scheduled events, personnel promotions, awards, new products and services, sales accomplishments, new hiring, business expansion, survey results etc
13. The timing of the press release is very important. It must be relevant and recent news, not too old and not too distant.
14. Do not post trivial articles, tips, opinions, expert advice, biodata and company profiles,. Do not submit sales letters, product catalogs, advertisement or product promotion.
15. Do not include "advertising" or "hard sell" language such as "By doing this you will get that" or "Are you in need of". Never sound as if you are trying to sell the reader something. Always sound as if you are trying to inform the reader of something.
16. Do not submit press release promoting illegal activities like gambling, drugs, online fraud, explicitly sexual activities, pornography etc
17. Do not publish press release about dull commonplace activities.
18. Do not insert external links in title, summary or first two lines of press release body.
19. Three hyperlinks are allowed in main message body after first three lines.
20. Maximum of 4 relevant industry, region, and news type categories can be selected in total.
21. Press release must have a "Contact us" section with contact name, organization, address, email, phone and website.
22. Do not try to submit the same press release again and again.
23. Do not submit other company news as your own press release.