Monday 30 May 2011

Press Release Copywriting Can Help Your Business

A press release copywriting is nothing but a well written statement to the media. Press release can also mean many things, be it an announcement of a news item, scheduled event, announcement of a new product or service.

Writing effective press releases will serve your business well as it attracts the attention of the online audience. It would also get picked up by the various news sites and as a result boost the site's search engine rankings.

The headline of an effective press release should be brief, clear and to the point. In other words, a compact version of the press releases’ key point. Such a news release not only builds your business reputation and credibility, but can also create a virtual story. It can also announce events and narrate an inspiring story thereby helping your organization by indicating why you are the best in your field.

It can also drive selected traffic to your website. Any event that happens in your company (be it an opening or even appointments) can be turned into a compelling press release by good press release copywriting. This, in turn can elicit maximum response from your clientele thereby earning the trust of your target audience.

An effective press release can be written to be informative to the reading public with a defined "tactic" that gets reporters, editors and producers interested in what's going on with your business or agency and your clients.

The primary important information of a good news release is contained in its lead sentence, which generally is about 25 to 30 words. It is here where you grab the reader's attention by giving a brief of the press release that you intend to announce. Another common mistake that copywriters make is that they confuse the title / heading or the summary paragraph with the lead. It should be important that the lead has its own identity. The rest of the news release just illustrates the details provided in the lead paragraph.

Like any news story, an effective press release should try and keep the paragraphs and sentences short. In other words, about three lines per paragraph. Good press release copywriting ensures that the first few paragraphs provides details on whos', whats', whens', wheres', whys' and any such similar queries.

Another important factor to remember is that a press release is not a reprint. In other words, a press release should not blindly copy its information from another similar source. However, it can re-craft it as a feature or news article.

A normal press release is about 350 to 750 words and is generally written using a word processor (MSWord in most cases)

Finally, make certain that your press release does not look like an article. If you plan in writing effective press release, then it is better you get your copywriting right.

Saturday 14 May 2011

How To Increase Website Traffic

There is one hard and fast rule in generating income for your website and that is by having a steady flow of website traffic.

If no one goes to your site, it hardly has a chance of generating any income.

Many sites have tried and failed in doing so, and these results to the end of those sites. It takes money to maintain an income generating site. In short, it takes money to make money.

BUT, it doesn’t take a whole caboodle of cash to generate website traffic for your site.

Ever wonder how does big hit sites drive traffic top their site?

Most of them are spending tons of money to drive the traffic to their sites, investing in many advertising campaigns and different forms of marketing schemes and gimmickries. This is all worthwhile because, well, they are what they are now, high earning, big hitting websites.

You don’t have to do this if you don’t really have their resources.

There are many ways to generate low cost website traffic without having to spend what you don’t have or can’t afford. Many people have banked on high cost methods and have ended up losing their shirt over it.

Mentioned here are some of the better methods to generate low cost website traffic that could help your site a whole lot. Even if you only get a small percentage of successful visitors in to client ratio it still works especially if you get a high number of website traffic.

Exchange Links

This is a sure and proven method. Rarely would you see a site where there is no link to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another so that they could produce more public awareness about their sites. You’ll soon see and feel the sudden upsurge of the traffic coming in to your site from other sites.

A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites is having the same niche or content as the other site. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the providing of service and information to what interests your target traffic.

Exchanging links also boosts your chances of getting a high ranking in search engine results. It is common knowledge that search engines ranks high sites that have inbound and outbound theme-related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines, you will generate more traffic in your website without the high costs.

Traffic Exchange

This is like exchanging links but on a different higher level. This may cost a bit more than exchanging or trading links but could be made cheaper because you get to earn credits. You can use those credits when viewing others traffic, while you earn credits when someone views yours.

Traffic exchange services are the viewing of another’s site or page. This is done vice versa where a site can use your sites contents and so can you to his or her site. You both benefit from each others efforts to generate traffic. The other sites visitors can go to your pages and know more about your site as well as theirs. Once again the public awareness of your sites existence is boosted.

Write and Submit Articles

There are many e-zines and online encyclopedias in the internet which provides free space for articles to be submitted. If you want to save costs, you can do the articles yourself. There are many freelance writers who are willing to write for you for a small fee, but to save money, it is wise to do those articles yourself.

Write articles that are themed along with the niche of your site. Write something that you have expertise on so that when they read it, they can feel your knowledge about the subject and will be eager to go to your site. Write articles that produce tips and guidelines to the subject or niche your site has.

Include a resource box at the end of your article that can link them to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. If you provide a light, information-laden and interesting article, they will go to your site for more.

Make a Newsletter

This may sound like hard work because of all the articles you may need to use to build a newsletter but on the contrary, this is not so. There are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in on your newsletter. This will also provide free advertising for them as well.

As your newsletter gets pass around, you can widen your public awareness and build an opt-in list that can regularly visit your site.

Join Online Communities and Forums

This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities as well as your website. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche with your site.

Share your two cents and let them see how knowledgeable you are with the subject.

As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, making it a reputable and honest business that could be frequented and trusted by many people and as a result – a steady increase in website traffic as well.

Sunday 1 May 2011

Are Indias Cyber Laws adequate?

Till over ten years back, India did not have any specific cyber laws. It was in October 2000, the (ITA) Information Technology Act came into force in India. Over the last ten years, despite the technological measures adopted, the Indian cyber laws are still grossly inadequate in relation to the contemporary situation.

Spam

There are currently some relatively good methods to block spam, but they aren't very effective and hence a new cyber law is badly required to sort out this problem.

Cyber Pornography

Though the ITA states in detail about obscene information as being cyber crime, they don’t specifically define the difference between obscene and pornography. As per India's cyber laws it is only publishing of obscene material that is an offense, but not viewing of pornography.

Cyber Phishing

As the ITA doesn't carry anything specific against cyber phishing, it is imperative that such a law is introduced at the earliest.

Privacy/ Intellectual Protection

The absence of a specific privacy law in India has resulted in a substantial loss of foreign business and it is important that a legislation addressing various privacy related issues is issued at the earliest.

Data Protection via Internet Banking

Bank transactions and information on their customers change hands several times and this information becomes all the more dangerous when it is available on the internet. Electronic Banking is a high risk area and strong cyber laws are needed to protect any leakages or data tampering

In short, an Indian cyber law has many shortcomings and is far from satisfactory and should strive to address these issues at the earliest.