Stop the Presses! Want to get noticed? Take your marketing to the next level with these 9 tips for writing a powerful press release.

One kind of press release is pure magic; it can catapult yourbusiness from obscurity to celebrity. The other kind is a waste oftrees.

Take a look at these tips and learn how to take your pressreleases from bland to buzz-worthy:

1. Think like a reporter. The target audience for yourpress release is the reporter. And reporters don't care aboutthe success of your business. They only care about whether yourpress release will make a good news story.

The more passionate you are about your business, the harder itwill be for you to understand one critical fact: Your businessitself is not news. And if you aren't news, you have tocreate some news before you can even think about interesting themedia.

You're going to sell pasta? No news. Homemade pasta andimported sauces? Better, but you can get those at three otherplaces in town. So instead of yet another "GrandOpening," you'll cook dozens of pasta shapes and saucesfrom different countries and invite local food writers,restaurateurs and politicians. To top it off, you'll call yourevent "International Pasta Day," connect it with thecurrent craze for organic foods, and throw it open to the public.Now that's news.

2. Write like a reporter. That means you write the wayreporters write news articles. Don't use I, we oryou, except within interview quotes. Avoid fancy fonts orquirky formatting, and don't change fonts within the bodytext.

3. Make the headline count. Would you be reading thisarticle now if it had been entitled "Yet AnotherArticle"? Seems unlikely.

Your headline is the bait for your pressrelease. If it'sjust ho-hum or, worse, nonexistent, it won't matter howriveting the rest of the text is because it will never getread.

Pare all unnecessary words from your headline until it'spacked with your most exciting news. Try imagining it on the coverof your town newspaper--if it feels out of place, keep working onit until it doesn't.

Capitalize the first letter of all major words, or use all caps.If the headline runs longer than two lines, don't hesitate todivide it into a headline and a subhead.

"Announcing Grand Opening of New Store" is a dreadfulheadline because it says nothing about what makes you differentfrom last week's 10 other grand openings. But "SeattleInvited to Take a Bite of International Pasta Day" should havereporters scrambling to call you for interviews.

4. Catch 'em early. You'll often hear that thefirst paragraph is where you should cover the "five Ws and anH": who, what, when, where, why and how. In reality, trying tojam all this into one paragraph can bury your news under a mountainof information.

Keep the first paragraph short with no more than 30 wordssummarizing the most interesting aspect of your story. Don't beafraid to take two or even three paragraphs to get to those five Wsand H. As long as the paragraphs are succinct, they'll pull thereader in deeper.

This isn't the place for your company boilerplate, yourbiography or your product list. Read the first two paragraphs ofall the news stories in your local paper, and base your writing onthose examples.

5. Don't sell anything. A press release is not asales letter. You write both to push your business, but with apress release, you have to give the impression that you're outto inform, not to sell. Reporters will toss any press release thatreads like a sales pitch.

Don't make promotional offers or use any phrasing that couldbe used in an ad. Beware of hyperbole (like "absolutely thebest selection"). Stay away from hype-laden expressions like"breakthrough" and "state of the art."Don't run down your competitors or make exaggerated claims.

Don't capitalize or underline sentences within the body ofthe text. Try to avoid using exclamation points, and if you mustuse them, stick to only one. Never do this!!!!!

6. Be easy on the eyes. It's very tiring to the eyeto read entire paragraphs in ALL CAPS or italics. Reporterswill toss rather than slog through anything written this way.

Use a standard font in a size that's large enough to readeasily (11 or 12 points). Align your lines to the left (don'tjustify), and make sure there's enough space between lines andparagraphs.

7. Watch your language. Triple-check your grammar,spelling and punctuation. Mistakes can destroy your credibility.Beware of words that sound or look similar, liketheir/they're/there or affect/effect. Remember, apostrophes arefor possessives, not for multiples (pastas, not pasta's). Ifyou're in any doubt of your language skills, find aproofreader.

8. Be accessible. Unless you've just discovered thecure for cancer, reporters won't make any extra effort tocontact you. Include an e-mail address, a phone number and thehours when you can be reached, and put them where they're easyto spot.

9. If you are still in doubt, consider hiring aprofessional copywriter. Press releases are fairly affordable evenon the tightest budgets--especially considering that the publicityyou get as a result of your press release can ultimately make orbreak your business.

Isabella Trebond, a former news reporter, is a consultant whospecializes in startup business marketing and copywriting.