Formats and tips for online media PR submission

Once again, a tip here for all you PR and marketing professionals on how to distribute and format your PR releases... simple really... think TXT. I receive tons of these every day and they come in all shapes, formats, and sizes. The really nasty things you want to stay away from when you send to online media outlets is PDF and even ZIP files. Once you have your properly formatted PR items be sure to remember some of the following tips:
- include the subject in the email subject line DONT EVER USE ALL CAPS!!!! - really, this one drives me nuts and when I haven't had my coffee I often hit the delete key
- A word document is fine, particularly if you have images as well
- even if you have a Word doc, include a simple text copy in the body of the email
- images are cool (one or two max) if you have high res though, provide a simple link to where they can be retrieved on your server - don't email 2MB worth of JPG files
- Don't create a package of documents, images, corp background info etc... and ZIP it all up, editors really don't want the full media package (although they may ask you for it)
- include a website url and email contact at the bottom of the release
- use a valid email address when sending - i.e. if I hit reply, it better reply to a real person and valid email address
These are but a few simple things that will help you distribute PR to online media outlets - oh, and make sure your news is actually news!