When you read the newspaper, do you read advertisements as closely as you read news stories? Do you believe advertising as readily as you believe news stories? I don't and neither do most people I know.

Because we have advertising shoved at us from every angle we tend to ignore it, but we pay attention to news or public interest stories. Not only do we pay more attention, we also are more likely to believe news stories than your basic advertisements. When your news is published either online, on the radio, TV or in newspapers people automatically feel that since it's being published it must be worthy information.

I read somewhere that "Advertising is what you pay for. Publicity is what you pray for". This is so true. You can spend a fortune on advertising and yes, it will bring you some traffic but traffic is only part of what you need and it stops when the advertising stops.

What you really need is PUBLICITY - free publicity so that your information reaches your potential customers and people will begin to get to "know" you. When people see and hear your name over and over they will begin to think of you as an expert in your field. They will trust your judgment and buy your products or the products you endorse. They will also recommend you to others which in turn cause a chain reaction and the process starts all over again. One of the best ways to get free publicity is by writing articles and press releases then submitting them to the third party sites and newspapers for publishing. Plus with a price like FREE, why not take full advantage of it?

The most important thing to remember when writing news is to write a STORY not a sales pitch. Don't you hate it when you ask someone about a product and instead of them telling you what it is and how you could benefit from it they go into this "elevator speech" about its features and why it's a good product ("it comes with this and that, plus as an added bonus you get?.") Please! If I wanted to hear a sales pitch I'd turn on the TV.

Sales people call it "selling features instead of benefits" but among news editors this is called, "selling the store, not the story" and it's the WRONG way to get your news published.

You should be trying to sell a STORY connected to the product instead of trying to sell the product itself. Why you ask? Because people love stories! We've been listening to and telling stories for centuries and we will continue to for a long time to come. People will pay attention if they think they're going to hear a good story but will turn away if you give them a sales pitch.

By writing like a storyteller, you will get free publicity which will increase your traffic and your sales.

** Melody Spier is a work at home mom of two teens. She is the owner of Ballyhoo Virtual Services a Virtual Assistant business catering to women in business. She specializes in business marketing and promotion with article and press release submissions, blog maintenance as well as many other services. You can contact Melody by visiting http://www.BallyhooVA.com or by email Mel@BallyhooVA.com