It’s not like the good old days when a press release was only issued by a big company with quotes from way too serious executives. In today’s web world, press releases can and should be an important part of your strategy to get the word out about your business… even if you’re a one person start-up working from your kitchen table.

Of course, you need to be realistic. Your press release is probably not going to be “picked up” by CNN or USA Today. But many people will read it including potential customers. That’s the power of the Internet. And who knows… a blogger that follows your industry could see it and comment. And the buzz begins… nothing wrong with dreaming!

In any case, issuing a press release is about creating content. And content is king. Why? Because content gives people something to talk about and helps you generate natural (free) search traffic… which is definitely a good thing.

With that said, here are some tips for writing your press release:

• Make it news worthy. There’s a lot of “noise” out there so you need to break through the clutter with news that’s truly interesting, relevant, and compelling to your audience. And even better, if it’s about something that solves a problem for them.

• Tell a story. Sure it’s news but write it like a story. Grab your reader’s attention with a strong headline and an initial paragraph that tells the essence of your story line. Use the rest of the release to cover the basics of who, what, why, and when.

• Use real life examples. Use quotes and examples from real people to bring your story to life. And adding “success stories” is a great way to show the benefits of using your service while making it easy for prospects to relate to your offering.

• Stick to the facts. Hopefully your press release will be an attention getter. But if you want prospects to take you seriously, then don’t write your release like an advertisement. This means stick to the facts and resist the temptation to over-embellish (no promo fluff please!)

• Keep it lean and mean. Attention spans are short… especially on the web. So keep your press release concise, impactful, and action-oriented. Just like that last sentence!

Now the most important thing… always write with your audience in mind. Here’s a good test: if you wouldn’t want to read your press release then your prospects won’t want to either.

At this point you’re probably wondering what you should issue a press release about. Why not cover the launch of your new website or service? How about that important customer you just landed? Did a retail chain just decide to carry your product? Or maybe you’re presenting at an industry conference or event? You get the idea!

And issuing a press release is not that costly. You can expect to pay $25 to $100 per release at quality services such as: PRNewsWire.com, PR.com, and PRLeap.com. There are also free services available like: PRLog.org, 1888PressRelease.com, and OpenPR.com that you can try out.

Keep in mind the free services tend to only show your press release on their site while paid services will also distribute to other websites plus make it easier to optimize your release for the search engines. So the extra cost may be worth it to you.

Are you ready to get started? Do a search for “press release samples” to find examples and templates to check out. Then pick one of the services… now go ahead and make some news!

Looking at the home page was giving me a headache since there were so many words to read. So I (politely) asked the question: “What were your thoughts in having so much text on your new home page?” The answer: “We optimized it for search.” And no surprise… fewer online orders were coming in.

Yes, optimizing for search engines by adding keywords to home page copy may help you generate more natural search traffic. But please keep in mind the following when you hear the siren’s call of optimizing your home page for search:

• Your home page tells users they’ve come to the right place. And you only have a few seconds to convince visitors that they’ve come to the right place. Your copy plays an important role in doing so. But if users think they need more than a few seconds reading your home page to figure this out… then just say goodbye!

• Your home page is about getting visitors to take an action. You want home page visitors to quickly and easily see your compelling call-to-actions such as “sign up now” or “give us a call”… and your text needs to be finely tuned to drive these actions. Don’t make users think the call-to-action really is “read more words”.

• Your home page is about navigation not keywords. If adding more keywords makes it harder for home page visitors to see your “shop” tab, notice the “contact us” link, or find the “search” box, then don’t do it. Don’t. You’ll only be making it more difficult for everyone… especially yourself!

• Your home page entices users to spend time with you. Remember the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words? And pictures are much more engaging and inviting than words. Too many websites act as if this rule no longer applies… simply because the words are now search engine optimized. Not so!

So go ahead and sprinkle the keywords that are most important to your online business into your home page copy. But if it comes at the cost of usability then it’ll do more harm than good. Just remember: optimize your home page for results not search!

Let’s say the goal for your online business is to generate $1,000 in cash every month. Given this goal, how much should you invest to market your site? Or do you just spend what you can and hope for the best? Unfortunately, too many people I talk to are not doing the marketing math to realize that hoping is not enough.

Let’s do some easy calculations to understand why.

First you need to answer a few questions:

• How much money do you make per order? Just multiply your profit margin by your average order size and this is how much you’ll make per order. For example, if you expect to make a 50% profit on every order and your average order is $100 then you’ll make $50 per order.

• What’s your website conversion rate? Don’t expect more than one out of every 100 visitors to place an order. An order could come from someone using your online shopping cart or seeing your phone number on the site and calling in their order. Either way, it means you have a “conversion rate” of 1% (1 order out of 100 visitors) which is pretty typical these days. And when you’re first starting up, your website conversion rate could be a lot less than 1%.

• How much are you paying for each website visitor? Whether you advertise using paid search or banners, you want prospects to “click” your ad and come to your website. To keep things simple, let’s assume you pay Google $2 for each of these clicks. This means your cost per website visitor is $2. (Generally speaking, you should expect to pay Google $2 to $4 per click)

Now we’re ready to do the math:

1. Cash goal: $1,000 (my example)
2. Profits per order: $50 (per our assumptions)
3. Orders needed: 20 (20 orders * $50 profit = $1,000 cash goal)
4. Conversion rate: 1% (1 out of 100 visitors will order)
5. Number of visitors required: 2,000 (20 orders / 1% conversion rate)
6. Cost per visitor: $2 (cost per click)
7. Marketing spend needed: $4,000 (2,000 visitors * $2 per visitor)

Once you’ve figured out the math you’ll come to an important conclusion: in my example, you have to spend $4,000 on marketing your website to generate $1,000 in cash. What’s the bottom line? You’ll actually lose $3,000 every month!

Or said another way, it’s almost impossible to make money paying Google to drive traffic to your website. Does this mean that all is lost and you’ll never make money with your online business? Of course not! There are a number of ways to more cost-effectively market your site than handing over every dollar to Google.

For example, search engine optimization can help you generate natural (free) search traffic to your website. You can also submit your site to online yellow pages and directories that make it easy for prospects to find your business. And when you make your first customers happy, they’ll become a “volunteer sales force” and tell everyone to come check out your site!

I was recently chatting with a business owner who needed help marketing her e-commerce website. It cost $10,000 to develop and had a nice design, lots of dynamic pictures, and an integrated shopping cart. It was also search engine optimized with a home page that included the most relevant keywords. I was looking forward to helping out and asked the obvious question: “What’s the budget to market your site?” She said: “A couple hundred bucks a month.” Huh?

Turns out she basically spent all her money developing and keyword optimizing her website… and now had very little left to market it. Why? Because she thought the search engines would find her site (remember, it was search engine optimized) and the resulting Web traffic would guarantee her business taking off. Not much I can do to help now…

Here are some suggestions to make sure this situation doesn’t happen to you:

• Understand that natural search takes time. I don’t care how search engine optimized your website is. It will still take (a long) time before the search engines find you, other website owners link to your site, and your site listing moves up the natural search ranking so that prospects can find you when searching on the keywords you care about.

• Use a 50/50 budgeting approach. Sure, every situation is different, but as rule of thumb, you should expect to spend on marketing at least what you do in developing your website. So if you budget to spend $2,500 in creating your site then you need that much (if not more) for marketing your site. That means you need a total budget of $5,000. Does that make you rethink how much you should spend on your website? Good.

• Please… no bells and whistles. A simple website that meets your basic needs is what you’re looking for. Forget the “bells and whistles” since most of your visitors won’t even care about them. For example, if your goal is to “get the phone to ring” then a website that describes your service, tells why you’re great, and prominently displays your phone number is all you need to start.

• Don’t spend a lot on SEO. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of search engine optimization. With that said, if your website doesn’t have lots of content to begin with then there’s only so much you can do to keyword optimize it. Instead, buy an SEO book with great reviews on Amazon, put in practice what you learn, and then use the thousands of dollars you save on marketing your website.

With dollars in hand, you now have money to spend on generating Web traffic for your site!

Your website’s up and you’re ready to begin marketing it. And what does everyone tell you? Advertise with Google. But be afraid… very afraid! Here’s a quick story to convince you why.

Someone I know set up a Google account to start advertising his new website. He put down his credit card for $1,000 and started the Google machine… figuring the money would last at least a month. The next day he gets an email saying he’s already used up the $1,000 and must approve more on his credit card to keep his ad up and running. And guess what? He didn’t even get one customer or prospect from the traffic Google sent. That’s right, $1,000 gone in a single day and no orders or leads generated. Welcome to Google advertising!

Now in all fairness, Google is a great advertising service that will cost-effectively generate lots of qualified visitors to your website… if you know what you’re doing!

Here are some things to keep in mind when considering advertising with Google:

• Google is for professionals only. Those able to compete against Fortune 1000 marketers and search engine consultants for the best ad pricing. It’s definitely not for newbies learning the ropes… unless your willing to pay way too much for each visitor to your website.

• Test your ads anywhere but Google. Google is a very expensive place to test your ads. Sure it’s “pay per click” but what you pay also takes into account how well your ad performs relative to comparable ads. Popular ads that generate lots of clicks will cost much less than unpopular ads. So test your ads using other search networks like Yahoo!, Microsoft, or LookSmart. And only bring your best performing ads to run on Google.

• Judge success by results not just clicks. Always remember, it’s about the orders, phone calls, and leads that result from the clicks. So even if Google is generating lots of clicks… you still need those visitors to turn into the results you care about. If they do then be happy with what you’re paying Google… otherwise, you’re paying too much!

• Limit your risk with spending caps. Use daily spending limit caps when you first start your advertising programs. A good place to start is a $50 daily cap. And as you get comfortable with how your ad is performing, you can then move to a monthly spending cap. This guarantees you’ll never be surprised by blowing your whole budget in a single day!

• Become an expert or hire a professional. Don’t kid yourself. You really only have those two choices. Otherwise, you’ll spend way too much and still be unhappy with the results. Not sure where to find a professional? Do a search for “search engine marketing” plus your location (e.g., San Francisco). You’ll get lots of choices in the search results. Just make sure and talk to at least three firms, tell them your budget and objectives, ask for pricing and references… and then check the references!