How to do a good business write in your Press Releases

A press release is often the best way of promoting your business. Well, you can't really call it promoting, because when you read guidelines to writing press releases, you will understand it is a different kind of a business write-up. The first thing you should know about a press release is - It is a kind of news releases, which is acted upon by journalists.

Straight to the point - In the past, I have seen some press releases, which are straight in-your-face kind of advertising material. On the other hand, I have seen some press releases being submitted to top PR directories like PR Newswire, that have tens to thousands of errors. Gets me to think - Do people even know how should they be writing press releases?

When the answer, I found was a vehement No, I get to write this. So read below, if you wish to write press releases, and good ones at that.
1. Start with a bang - Pay close attention to your headline and opening para. If the headline does not grab the reader's attention, probably your press release won't. Open strong and you win half the battle.
2. Cut the junk stuff - So, all you advertisers and hardcore sellers - Writing press releases may just not be your cup of tea after all. Don't write press releases with an eye to sell or promote your product. Your press release should talk only of news about your company and how it can benefit people, in general.
3. Watch the words - If you don't have time, journalists have even lesser, and trust me, when people read newspapers, they just don't read it fully either. In such a label-go-lucky world, you obviously want people to read what you wrote. Value your words. No point writing 1000 word fiction novels, as people would in all probabilities end up trashing it.
4. Exclamation points - People think it is fancy using ! in press releases. Definitely not, and what are you anyways getting excited about. Reserve this for the articles at best. Even if you wish to use them in your Press Release, use a single ! mark. Don't use (!!!!!!!) or something like that.
5. Finally have your company boilerplate at the bottom of the Press Release. Even if your release is good, it would go waste if you don't tell people how to contact you.

These really are the basics of writing press releases. In my next article on the subject, I will talk of a Sample press release template and the common mistakes you should avoid in a press release. Until then, happy press releasing!!!! (I can use this because it is an article, not a PR)

Work Freelance - Getafreelancer review

Owned by Plendo Sweden AB, Getafreelancer is a leading freelance website that has seen a record number of subscriptions to it (Providers and Members). Known for their easy interface for projects and excellent supporting features, Getafreelancer, also known as GAF to people, is steadily climbing the charts of popularity.

Getafreelancer (Hosted at www.getafreelancer.com)
Advantages

1. Gold Membership for providers - Any provider (new or old) can purchase the Gold Membership with this site, which comes for $12. On purchasing the Gold Membership, you are allowed to bid on 150 projects in one calendar month. This allows you to bid on a lot of projects and win some work for yourself.
2. Very easy Search Interface - With this freelancing website, you wouldn't have a lot of issues locating a project related to a specific skillset.
3. Low commissions - Getafreelancer.com charges relatively low commissions for regular providers. Importantly, if you are a Gold member with this site, you don't need to pay any commissions to the site when you win a project.
4. Regularized payment process - They pay regularly and on time. Some freelancing sites don't even pay on time, and considering this fact, it is a real advantage for sure.

Disadvantages
1. Low billing projects- Buyers often post projects in this freelancing website at atrocious project fees. Imagine you seeing a project for writing 20 500 word articles for a total of $10. Worse still, projects like these form a major chunk of all the projects in Getafreelancer.
2. Ridiculously low closure rates - If you apply for 100 projects in Getafreelancer, you could hope for 7-8 projects to be closed in your favor. Now, this is a bad conversion ratio, even if you consider the highly competitive domain of freelancing.
3. Bad customer support - Of all the freelancing websites in the domain, Getafreelancer.com is considered to have the worst customer support. Your queries will often go unresolved.
4. Bad dispute redressal mechanism - Their dispute redressal mechanism may seem like being one of the best, but this mechanism finds its way only through to the paper. The measures seem hardly ever implemented.

Final Thoughts
It can be a good website for you, if you want to earn some bucks (Not big bucks). With most projects here hardly finding the top tier of the billing rates, you definitely can't look at earning a lot of money.

Work freelance - Scriptlance review

The sudden spate of job layoffs and no jobs has allowed a lot of people to take up to work freelance as an option. Now, staying at home, freelancers can think to make a whole lot of money. In fact, early results seem to indicate that freelancing job is soon being treated as a way people could establish their online business. Surely, they are worth a look.....errr... a listen, definitely!
Freelancing often means you approaching work to your clients on an independant basis. Assuming you work from your home, apart from your electricity and Internet bills, your cost overheads are considerably low. This is, thus the time, for you to know which one is the best Freelancing site around. Well, I deal with this in two parts. In part 1, I would talk of various freelancing sites, their advantages and possible drawbacks. Of course, I would look at it from a neutral view because I have been a member with most of these sites for the last 3 years now.
So, here we go!
1. Scriptlance (Hosted at http://www.scriptlance.com/)
Advantages
1. User-friendly interface for you to post projects and invite bids from candidates or freelancers.
2. You could post your project on any domain (Writing, programming, Website designing)
3. Safe escrow feature that allows you to minimize your risks in dealing with programmers
4. User rating system that allows both parties to review their work relationship on a scale of 10.
5. Forum, which allows you to voice your concerns and share your opinions.

Disadvantages
1. Scriptlance has received a lot of negative reviews due to their unfriendly customer service. See their reviews submitted by users and buyers at http://www.xomreviews.com/scriptlance.com.
2. High commission fees - Scriptlance deducts 5% of project fees as commission for the project. This is a bit high compared to other freelance work sites.
3. Account suspension - Scriptlance is not known to be a provider-friendly site. See the reviews at http://www.xomreviews.com/scriptlance.com and you will know of the many instances when the site has been accused of stealing money off people.

Final Thoughts
This site has about 3600 active programmers on the site, over the last 7 years since it ever started. A good place for you to approach work on low-billing projects! It though has to prove itself on high-billing projects, especially when it comes to releasing monies to programmers.

In the next article, you would read the review of Getafreelancer, another freelance site.