FREE PRESS RELEASE GUIDELINES - UPDATED JANUARY 2009

24-7 Press Release provides a free press release service to help companies bring awareness to their products or services. Our service has been an important and invaluable resource to start-up companies and small organizations since 2004. Although we are pleased to continue this free press release service, we have implemented a zero tolerance policy due to the heavy submission volume for free press releases. We will only publish news worthy stories that follow our submission guidelines.

Submission Guidelines:

• Submit a maximum of 1 free press release per day
• Use Sentence Case for your headline eg. ABC Inc. Announces the Introduction of a New Widget (CAPITALIZED headlines will be rejected)
• No HTML is allowed. For paid releases, we offer formatting codes similar to HTML
• No keyword spamming allowed
• Some special characters are not supported therefore ensure you preview, check and fix your release
• Ensure your release has proper paragraph spacing for ease of readability
• Do not resubmit a previously published release
• Do not abuse! Abusers will have their account deleted and all releases removed

HOW DO I KNOW IF MY PRESS IS REJECTED?

• Your release will no longer appear in the system (if it has disappeared, it is rejected) OR
• You may receive a general rejection email

Due to the large volume of free release submissions, we do not guarantee your press release will be published. We limit the amount of free press release inclusions each day. If you would like your press release published, choose one of our paid distribution packages. Click Here for pricing plans

REASONS WHY YOUR PRESS RELEASE MAY BE REJECTED

In order to improve the quality of our site, 24-7PressRelease.com has applied a more stringent review during the press release approval process. This process is to increase the quality of news content on our site, in turn providing journalists & researchers an optimal resource for business research while maintaining a higher quality of news to our news feed partners. Criteria that our editors look at during the review process include, but are not limited to the following.

• Reading like a press release should. Does the press release read like a press release should? This includes the proper use of attribution and third party. Articles that are submitted as a press release will be rejected. There are plenty of article related sites on the Internet to submit these to. Unfortunately, we are not an article depository.
  
  
• Contact information. When journalists and researchers look for a story, they are looking for credible sources. When was the last time you flipped through the Yellow Pages, to find no phone number or address of the company you were looking up? 24-7 Press Release does not display your email address on the press release. The email is only displayed when the “Email us Here” option is clicked from the press release. This is to limit spammers and scrapers from pulling our publishers email addresses. If we do not find complete credible contact information, your press release will not be published. As a note of interest, your email address does matter.
  
  
• Your email address matters. How often have you looked at a Yahoo, GMAIL or Hotmail email address, used for business use, and wondered to yourself, “why does this person not have an email address @ their own company name?.” I.e. john.doe@widgetsandthings.com instead of john.doe@hotmail.com. Or better explained, how professional would it be if someone from Sony gave you a business card of john.doh@hotmail.com instead of john.doe@sony.com? Your press release will not be rejected due to the use of a free email account service, but we do recommend, for credibility, use of a proper email with your own domain name.
  
  
• Company name included in headline. Your company name should always be placed in the headline of your press release to lend credibility. When journalists & researchers are combing the web, the press releases less likely to be read or even clicked on are those that do not have the company name in the press release. Press releases with poor headlines will be rejected.
  
  
• Content within your press release. Your press release should read like a press release and not appear as blatant advertising. This includes being informative, informing your readers of a new product, service, event, etc. This is not to be confused with sounding like an advertisement. “Buy Now!”, “FREE!” “MAKE MONEY QUICK!”- these are all red flags that are sure to have your press release rejected.
  
  
• Punctuation & Capitals. Over use of punctuation and capitals is prohibited. This is due to the information coming across as “spammy” and unprofessional. If your headline contains all capitals, it will be rejected.
  
  
• Duplicate Content and Submissions. Avoid resubmitting the identical press release already approved in the system. You can write a similar release but use a unique headline. If your press release has been rejected, DO NOT resubmit it over and over again. Journalists looking for stories will not look upon this favorably. This may also result in your account being suspended or deleted.
  
  
• Poor Grammar, Spelling & Punctuation. With paid releases of $49 or more, our editors will take the time to correct minor grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors during the review process. Unfortunately we do not have the resources to apply this to free press releases and will reject press releases containing grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors.
  
  
• Keyword Spamming. This is a common technique used to gain advantage on the Search Engines. Your press release will be rejected due to blatantly excessive keywords or phrases. This applies to the Headline, Summary, and Body of the press release.
  
  
• HTML & Formatting Codes. No HTML formatting is allowed in the press release. Formatting codes are allowed for paid releases of $49 or more. Free press releases containing HTML code this will be rejected.
  
  
• Character Codes. If you cut and paste your release from a WORD document, it may contain special character codes not compatible with our system. Ensure you take the time to preview and correct any character code errors.
  
  
• Legal Reference. Your press release makes reference to legal content which could result in liability. Only Mass Media Distribution press releases that have fulfilled the required paperwork and faxed back to us may distribute press releases making legal/ lawsuit references.
  
  
• Illegal, Pornographic, Escort related websites. Those types of content will be rejected.
  
  
• Creating multiple accounts and submitting similar theme content under different aliases. This type of abuse will not be tolerated and will result in all accounts being banned and flagged.
  
  
• Poor/Limited Newsworthiness. Our editors will reject press releases containing poor or limited news value. By switching to a paid press release option, you increase your chances for inclusion.
  
  

If you would like to increase the chances of your press release being accepted, please see our PR Resources area for some tips and pointers on writing a proper press release. 24-7PressRelease.com reserves the right to select and publish press releases suitable for distribution. Please keep in mind that we do track IP addresses, and any attempt to use falsified information, including false phone number, address or name may result in your account being permanently banned and flagged.