For the benefit of our software and hardware company clients. We have created a guideline for content which should always be included in an electronic news release to media. Following the pointers is a sample news release.

• Offer a FULL evaluation unit of the product to reviewers;
• Software should be available for download from the Web;
• Supply the MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price);
• Itemize in a list the key product features;
• Include any system requirements, especially the platform;
• Include a url to background information, white papers etc.
  Don't send this in the release.
• Many editors want photos to accompany a story. It is especially helpful to online editors to have a photo already uploaded on the web to which they can link. In addition to the general company Web site url and url for downloading, a product photo or image which demonstrates visual effects generated by the product can enhance your placement or review opportunity.
  We don't send photos as attachments with any press release.
• Finally, a sentence or two about your company and the headquarters address.International clients: if you would like coverage in the U.S. is is helpful to list a U.S. contact person as well as a contact for the office where your headquarters are based.

Sample Release for e-style and format. The idea here is to include online download information up front and get to the first paragraph of the release in the first screen.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WebPosition Software For Automated Monitoring and
Improvement of Web Site Ranking in Top 10 Search Engines.
Product allows users to track their company and competitor web sites.

FOR EVALUATION COPY:
Download it from http://www.webposition.com/presscopy.htm

CITY, State/Province or Country - Month 00, YEAR (Software Wire)--Companies looking to improve their standing in the Internet community will benefit from a new program called WebPosition. Web Position tells web managers exactly where their site ranks with the Top 10 search engines and how to do a little social climbing.

Developed by Innovative Solutions and Technologies, Inc., WebPosition Agent for Windows 95/NT is designed to automate the web management task of monitoring and improving a web site ranking in search engines. The program performs organized searches by keyword, phrase or page URL and returns a report specific to each Internet search engine. In addition, the software can gather and maintain the same information on a competitor's site.

Search Engines included in the software are; AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, LinkStar, Yahoo, WebCrawler, Magellan, InfoSeek,Lycos, OpenText, and YellowPages.

"Ultimately, as a marketing tool, WebPosition will increase traffic to a web site," says IST President, Brent Winters. "WebPosition identifies problems like ineffective keyword choices, search engine errors, such as lost pages, and allows the user to track competitor sites which are gaining on them in search engine visibility. For example, the program issues an alert when a site or page has declined in rank."

Key Product Features:

- Schedule to run daily, weekly, monthly or on demand;
- Runs automated Missions (i.e., tasks) to multiple search engines simultaneously;
- Advice for improving rankings and links to submit or resubmit pages to the search engines;
- Shows user's site in relation to competition along with links to competitor's site;
- Alerts user when a site/page submission has been indexed;
- Unattended or parallel search capability, supports off-line browsing;
- Auto-dials and establishes Internet connection
automatically in Win95 and NT 4.0.;
- Complete on-line context sensitive help and Uninstall option.

System Requirements:
32 bit version: Windows 95/NT compliant.
16 Bit version: Windows 3.1 or WFW 3.1 (to be released later)
8 MBs RAM. 486DX or better.
Requires less than 5 MBs of hard drive space.

Pricing:
-WebPosition Personal $99. Supports 1 Domain name. 6 Keywords.
-WebPosition Standard $189. 2 Domain names. Unlimited Keywords.
-WebPosition PRO $289
Unlimited Domains. Unlimited Keywords. Designed for
consultants servicing many web sites. Generates reports.

All versions include lifetime support and free maintenance updates.

FOR EVALUATION COPY:
Download it from http://www.webposition.com/presscopy.htm

About I.S.T., Inc.

I.S.T., Inc. (Innovative Solutions &Technologies), based in the heartland of America, has been providing software solutions to the industry since 1991. I.S.T., a privately held corporation, has been successful in identifying market needs and providing tools to meet those needs including commercial products such as OpenExchange PRO, OpenExchange VBX/OCX Developer's Kit, and the OpenExchange DLL 2.0.

CONTACT: Brent Winters 1-800-962-4855
President Innovative Solutions &Technology, Inc
E-mail: support@webposition.com
http://www.webposition.com

Innovative Solutions and Technologies, Inc.
2831 S. Monroe Ave. Joplin, MO 64804
1-800-962-4855 (U.S. &Canada) or 1-417-781-3282
Fax: 417-781-3299