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One of the secrets of succeeding online is generating great traffic. That's not just getting people to come to your site, but rather getting people who are good customer prospects to come out again and again. And a fantastic way to do this is to get some buzz generated in the right places.

Companies have known for a long time how to start the buzz; the time-honored press release. When you get the press involved, they will report your news and get the buzz flowing. Writing an effective, compelling press release is easier than you think.

Start by understanding the format. Press releases have a semi-set format, with contact information for a media spokesperson at the top and boilerplate text about your company at the bottom. Go out to press release sites and look at formats for an idea of what you need to follow. The good news is that you can use the top and bottom parts for every press release you write in the future, so save it.

Once you have a template, ask whether the news you have is really newsworthy. The media is used to hearing about online store openings and big sales - what makes your store new and different, truly worthy of coverage? Recent unique online businesses I've heard of include a date matching site for self-described nerds and an automatic dog wash appliance; these are the sorts of things that get on the news. If your business isn't unique in this way, find an angle that makes people sit up and listen - donate something really special to a charity or overseas soldiers, for instance, or come up with a fun new way of doing things.

An example: let's say your business makes custom doll clothes. How about matching the doll's clothes to the child's favorite outfit? Or working with the Girl Scouts to teach young girls how to make clothes themselves, and donate the resulting works of art to a children's hospital or Toys for Tots? It's things like this that make the media melt.

Write your press release just like a news story. Here's the big secret: an awful lot of the stuff you read in a newspaper comes straight from a press release. Editors don't want to rewrite, and they don't want to hire reporters to do it. If your press release reads like an article in a newspaper, its chances of gaining you publicity goes up a hundredfold.

All other writing rules apply: clarity, conciseness, and truthfulness without spin. You want your article to begin with a hook, a compelling idea or question that will "hook" the attention of readers. You need it to be active in tone, not passive ("Danny kicked the ball" vs. "The ball was kicked by Danny"). Focus in the story needs to be on your special news and on your business, not on anything else. And don't use exclamation points or flowery language to make your dull news seem exciting - this never works. Just stick with the facts, and if the facts aren't compelling by themselves, change what you're doing until they are.

When you have completed your press release, what's next? On the web, there are dozens of services like PRWeb, where you can submit them for a small fee. In turn, they will send it out to hundreds of media outlets. You should also have a press release section on your own site, listing subsequent press releases as written. It will become part of your press kit and promotion will take on a snowball effect over time.

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