Quite a while back, I explained how you could use your blog to send out ping releases to let other bloggers know about what you're doing. I wasn't, of course, talking about ping-spam. On a more conventional PR note, however, old fashioned press-releases can be leveraged as a great online marketing tool. As Lee Odden at Online Marketing Blog explains:

Not only are press releases an effective tool for distributing content to the media and consumers, they can easily be syndicated creating a excellent opportunity to attract incoming links. [...]

Using progressive wire services like Business Wire, PR Newswire, PRWeb and Market Wire simplifies the process of getting news content into these popular news search engines.

Of course, it is not as simple as if you announce it, they will come. No, there has to be an art to your PR craft. Fortunately, Lee also offers 10 guidelines to building those perfect press-releases. Summarized, they are as follows:

1. Start with something worth announcing
2. Think upward and to the left.
3. Distribute the release via a wire service like Business Wire and PRWeb or PRNewswire.
4. Give the reader a reason to click through.
5. Create a landing page to convert referred press release visitors to prospects.
6. Assemble a list of media contacts for the release and email them the release along with a concise, summary.
7. Make it relevant and make it easy for journalists and bloggers to write about your news.
8. Post the release to the company blog enabled media room.
9. Write a blog post version of the news and submit to relevant social media sites.
10. Use social bookmark sites as a clipping service.

If these aren't self-explanatory enough, you can check out the Original Post where Lee goes into more detail. He also offers some tips on how to track the success of any given press release, which is paramount if you want to make sure that you've done things right.