LOS ANGELES, CA (Fast Track SEOP) March 5, 2004 - The fact that you are reading this should be testament enough to the fact that internet publishing is changing the way businesses communicate with the general public. That being said, of the thousands of press releases published on the internet every day only a small handful are seen, let alone read and for several reasons. The vast majority of writers producing those releases not only don’t know how to write, most know very little about the world of internet press release distribution, let alone the value of writing optimized, search engine friendly copy.
This blind spot affords both aspiring and seasoned freelancers, an extraordinary opportunity to generate a substantial income writing promotional copy that gets local, regional, national, and international exposure as well as continuing readership on the first page of natural search engine results for months on end. A well placed release will generate 50,000-100,000 online readers in a week or less. An optimized one will continue to be read month after month.
As a freelance writing opportunity, a knowledge of the intricacies of internet press release distribution and search engine optimization is even opening doors for veteran writers looking for a way to get the attention of prospective clients.Sharon Dotson, President of BayouCityPR.com and a highly respected publicist in Houston, can attest to that. “As a traditional publicist and website copywriter, I had been trying for years to get my foot in the door with a large national service provider here in Houston, but I was turned away time and time again.
“That all changed after I completed Fast Track’s press release promotion and optimization training program. When I showed the company’s marketing director a press release I had written on my own behalf not only sitting in Google News but at the top of Google’s natural search results, I had her attention. When she discovered that I’d placed that release in those locations in less than a week, he gave me the proverbial key to the executive washroom,” she says.
Freelance writing opportunities abound, but the process is cumbersome and the pay is all too often paltry. For the writer without credentials, it’s an experience often fraught with frustration and disenchantment. Typically, the budding freelancer will send a query letter out to a number of editors hoping to generate interest in an particular article. To add insult to injury, writers have to frequently enclose a self-addressed envelop the editors use to mail them a boiler plate rejection letter.
Should an editor eventually express interest, the writer will then spend a couple of days, weeks, or months researching and writing a spec piece, submit it, and then wait for a month or more to find out if it has been accepted. If jumping through those hoops wasn’t enough, even when a piece is accepted, the writer sometimes doesn’t get paid until the article actually appears in print and that may take another month or two.
As an internet publicist, freelancers don’t have to cater to editors, let alone play the waiting game. Applying their writing skills to feature stories and promotional copy, they can easily garner $500 fee for every piece their write. What’s more, they get paid within a week. “A skilled writer can put together an 800 - 1,200 word press release in a day or two. Once approved by the client, it can be publihed and distributed to the world the following day. Even better, payment can be exacted immediately,” Ron Scott, Fast Track SEOP’s president says.
“We charge two fees when we write a press release for a client. The first, an editorial fee of $350, is charged when the piece appears in Google News. The second, an optimization fee of $150, is charged when the press releases appears in Google’s natural search results,” he says. ‘Normally, the entire process from start to finish takes a week or less.”
Recognizing that press release optimization affords a rare freelance writing opportunity, Fast Track SEOP has recently added mentoring to its portfolio of services. “We have every reason to believe this particular freelance writing opportunity is sustainable, timely and unique,” Scott says. “We give writers all the tools they need to make money quickly doing what they love to do. What is more, the writing opportunities our program affords are virtually unlimited.”
When Scott talks with freelance writers unfamiliar with press release promotion and optimization he provides one example after another. It’s not hard to imagine the impression even a beginning writer can make with a prospective client calling to inquire about his/her press release services. “By way of introduction, we ask callers to Google a specific search term so they can see an illustration of what we can do for them. They can’t help but be impressed when they see one press release after another holding a top ranking on eleven of the world’s most popular search engines.
“When we point out that these releases aren’t just sitting at the top of search results, they are sitting at the top of millions of competing pages, we get their undivided attention. Obviously, once they’ve seen the results we get, the cost of our services is superceded by the need to know how long it will take for us to get them the same kind of exposure,” Scott says.
And that’s not all. “When we also inform them that a release they are looking at generated 50,000 to 100,000 reads the first week and further explain that our clients don’t pay us anything until they actually see their release online, any resistance they might have put up has dissipated," he says. "Concerns about cost are displaced by the need to know how long it will take for us to do get the same kind of exposure for them."
Fast Track’s press release promotion and optimization course doesn’t teach writing. “If you are in need of a writing course, you’ll have to go elsewhere. What we ‘do do’ is provide struggling writers the insider knowledge they need to get their business clients immediate, targeted, long term internet exposure,” Scott says.
Most business owners and publicists these days are savvy enough to know that it is to their advantage to publish their releases on the web using syndicates like PRWeb, PRNewswire, PrimeZone, and BusinessWire but, according to Scott, that’s just not good enough. “Recognizing the value of long term exposure, a couple of online distributors now charge upwards of $250 to just optimize a release," he says. “Now I ask you. Why would anyone pay them to do what he/he can learn to do for himself/herself.”
And this still isn’t all. The market for an internet publicist is not restricted to companies with web sites. “The skills we teach enable freelancers to secure top rankings for their clients even if they don’t have a web presence. If you think about it, a well distributed and strategically placed press release can make the phone ring just as easily as it can be used to drive traffic to a website,” he says.
Regarding the relative value of top search engine placement, current research shows that more than half of all internet users put greater credence on generic search results than they do sponsored advertisements. Pay-for-performance (PPC) advertising certainly has its place but it also has its limitations. Getting top search engine placement assures a business owner that at least 50% of the people looking for a particular product and/or service are going to see and read his/her release for an extended period of time. Of those searches, the vast majority find what they are looking for on the first page of natural search results.
“Our personalized, public relations training course usually doesn’t take more than four hours to complete (it's done over the phone with students sitting in front of their own computers) and we’re there to mentor our students through the process until they see one of their releases holding top placement. Half of our fee is collected at the beginning of training. The other half is collected when our students see their first release on the first page of Google search results,” he says.
Is the training affordable? “That gets to the heart of the matter doesn’t it,” Scott says. “College students, more often than not Journalism and English students, pay 1,000s of dollars a semester to basically learn how to go to work for someone else. By contrast, Fast Track offers students the means to not only start their own publishing business in a week or less, but the ability to recoup their investment and make a profit publishing their first two releases."
As far as curriculum is concerned, “Students learn where and how to conduct a keyword analysis. How to evaluate the competition and, thereby, the probability of securing a virtually unlimited number of top ten rankings for their clients’ releases. They learn how to format their press releases and where to publish and where not to publish them. They are finally shown how and where to generate business,” he says.
If you are tired of dealing with faceless editors, rejection slips, and an empty bank account, take a few minutes to visit Fast Track SEOP's website or drop them an email.. This could very well be the freelance writing opportunity you've been looking for.
About the Author: Pat Spinelli is a freelance writer who lives near Los Angeles.
