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How To Turn A Press Release Into A Free Reprint Article

By Steve Shaw

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 23Jun2009 Word count: 777 Viewed: 778 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Article submissions and online press releases are two great ways to drive traffic to your website. You can use them both if you like, and you can even do double duty with your marketing content by morphing your press release into a free reprint article.

Why can't you just submit a press release as an article?

Press releases and free reprint articles are two very different types of writing.

How are they different?

Articles used in article marketing are ideally timeless and the information conveyed should be valid for years and years to come.

Press releases on the other hand tend to me more news oriented--about a certain event that is coming up, or a business that is being launched, or a study that has taken place.

Press releases tend to rank higher more quickly because of their news oriented nature, but they also quickly lose ranking as "fresh" news is published.

Article submissions, on the other hand, are a long term marketing technique, and as time passes, the likelihood that an article will be picked up by more and more sites increases.

Ideally, when you are submitting an article, your topic should be timeless, because the longer the article is published the more it can gain steam and benefit your website.

A great way to determine if your topic is timeless is to focus on educational content. The articles used in article marketing are educational in nature, so any time you can teach a reader how to do something the content is likely to stand the test of time.

If you have a press release that you think might also make a great article, here are some things to keep in mind:

1) Word count

While press releases can be very short (some with as few as 200 words), articles usually need to be more substantial. Most publishers will accept articles that are at least 400 words, but if you can, try to shoot for a word count of 700-800 words, as that length of article will appeal to a wider spectrum of publishers.

2) With an article, there is no need to put 'For Immediate Release' anywhere on the article. Your article body should just start with the first paragraph of your article.

3) Do not date your article, as you would a press release.

Because your article will hopefully be picked up by publishers for years and years to come, you don't want to do anything that would make a reader or publisher think that your information is outdated.

Even if the information is timeless, if you alert the reader that the article was written years ago, it can give the impression that the content is no longer fresh. Your best bet is just to not mention any dates at all.

4) Limit your links.

With a free reprint article, it's a good idea to place any relevant links after the 3rd paragraph, as having a link right off the bat can be distracting to a reader and there are some publishers who require that links appear further down in the article.

5) Do not link to your own website from your article body.

That's a good rule of thumb when doing an article submission, because it's very important that your article come off as educational rather than sales oriented or self-serving. The best place to link to your own site is the author resource box, which will be republished along with your article.

6) Be certain that your topic is not promotional.

While it's perfectly acceptable to write a press release about your own business, products and website (if it's presented in a news oriented way), writing to promote your own business, products or website is not usually allowed with a free reprint article.

Remember, the power of article submissions comes from the article being republished, so you want to make your article acceptable to as many people as possible. Not many people want to republish an article on their website that is about your business, products or website (something that benefits solely you), so be sure that your article topic is something that is of value to your readers and to publishers.

The article should not be sales oriented, but rather educational. Your website and business will get more than enough exposure through your resource box which will accompany your article.

If you have been writing press releases you can achieve a different type of traffic and a more long term effect on your search engine ranking by doing article submissions as well. There may be times when you can bounce one piece of content off of the other, saving yourself time and getting more bang for your marketing buck.

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