{"id":42259,"date":"2011-02-08T11:49:21","date_gmt":"2011-02-08T11:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/blog\/?p=7782"},"modified":"2011-02-08T11:49:21","modified_gmt":"2011-02-08T11:49:21","slug":"6-ways-to-avoid-errors-in-press-releases-blog-posts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/marketing\/content-creation\/6-ways-to-avoid-errors-in-press-releases-blog-posts\/","title":{"rendered":"6 ways to avoid errors in press releases, blog posts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>The next time you’re ready to send a press release, post an article to an online directory or publish a blog post, make sure it’s error-free.<\/p>\n

Mistakes are a bigger problem than you might think.\u00a0 The Sheboygan Press in Wisconsin, where I worked as the editor, says at its website<\/a> that one-third of the corrections it prints are due to incorrect information in press releases and from sources.\u00a0 One third!<\/p>\n

Here are six tips on how to avoid mistakes, excerpted from my ebook, 89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases<\/a>. The ebook is a compilation of my free email course<\/a> on how to write and distribute\u00a0releases.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Ask someone else to proofread your work.\u00a0 Every editor needs an editor. If you don’t have a virtual assistant, who can do this for you, learn more about how to use a VA for publicity and PR<\/a>.
    \n\u00a0\u00a0 <\/li>\n
  2. Tell your proofreader to actually call telephone numbers that appear in the release, and type website URLs into a browser window to make sure they are correct.
    \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/li>\n
  3. Make sure dates are consistent.\u00a0 If the date of an event is Feb. 12 in the headline, is it Feb. 12 in the body copy?
    \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/li>\n
  4. Don’t rely on spell-check.\u00a0 If it’s supposed to be “their,” and the release says “there,” spell-check won’t catch it.
    \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/li>\n
  5. Double-check the spelling of all names.
    \n\u00a0\u00a0 <\/li>\n
  6. Use the Associated Press Stylebook<\/a>, the essential tool journalists use to determine things like the correct names of government agencies, whether certain words should be capitalized and when names of groups should be abbreviated, like AARP.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you learn later that you’ve erred, ALWAYS call publications that received the release and ask for a correction.\u00a0 Most publications will\u00a0make note of a correction on the story where it first appeared.\u00a0 That prevents other writers who use the article as background from repeating the error.
    \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
    \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
    \nHow to Correct Online Releases<\/strong><\/p>\n

    If you distributed the press release through on online press release distribution service like PRWeb, contact the company. PRWeb lets clients correct their own press releases and says the majority of the indexing includes a\u00a0link back to the original release. It does not issue separate corrections.<\/p>\n

    If your correction appears in a blog post, the best way to correct it is with an Update, or\u00a0by\u00a0using a strikethrough<\/span>, like this.<\/p>\n

    What other\u00a0things do you recommend for avoiding\u00a0mistakes in press releases?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The next time you’re ready to send a press release, post an article to an online directory or publish a blog post, make sure it’s error-free. Mistakes are a bigger problem than you might think.\u00a0 The Sheboygan Press in Wisconsin, where I worked as the editor, says at its website that one-third of the corrections\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":1,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[2,13],"class_list":{"0":"post-42259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-content-creation","7":"tag-blogging","8":"tag-press-releases","9":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}