When you send out Word attachments, you're sending the message you don't care about our security, you're so poorly informed you don't know it's wrong to open attachments, and you care so little about your clients that you don't care if their releases never get opened.

Many more corporate email managers are now starting to filter out Word files at the server, so if you send a press release as a Word attachment, it's likely your intended recipients will never even see it.

Bonehead mistake #2: sending Word attachments with no other information
Go ahead and be sure you've read the previous section. Now, imagine we get a Word attachment with no other details. No, we're not going to open your press release. No, we're not going to cover your announcement. If we even see your email, we'll either delete it or, possibly, automatically mark it as spam.

Bonehead mistake #3: sending press releases as PDF attachments
Haven't we covered the don't open attachments message enough? Obviously not. PDF attachments are even more annoying than Word attachments. It's less likely a PDF attachment will screw up our machines, but it's an attachment and we don't open attachments, now do we?

Worse, a PDF attachment means we can't cut and paste anything out of the document. So, if wanted to write about your product and possibly save some time doing so, we'd have to retype everything rather than doing a simple cut and paste. Yes, we have software that lets us extract text from PDFs, but do you think you're worth the time? Nope, you're not. Even if we like you, the extra hour of fiddling is too much of a waste when we get hundreds of items vying for our attention each day.

Bonehead mistake #4: sending other crap as attachments
We. Are. Not. Going. To. Open. Attachments. Period.

And you shouldn't, either. Attachments can truly screw up your computer, so don't open them. If you want us to see a picture, post it on a server. If you want us to read your press release, put its text into the body of the release.

Bonehead mistake #5: embargoes
Embargoes are one of the dumbest things ever invented by PR people. They are useful, to a fashion, for the largest vendors. When Palm or IBM or Microsoft wants to pre-brief us on a product, we'll generally promise not to cover the announcement until the release date.

But when Joe Dumbass Software Co. wants us to know about their product but doesn't want us to say anything about it until three weeks from next Tuesday, it ain't gonna happen. We just don't have time to keep track of every rinky-dink product announcement and when it's supposed to be discussed.

If you want press and you're lucky enough to get our attention, remove all friction possible so you can get the coverage you want. If your competitive strategy is so weak that if Rinky-Dink Software Company knows about your Joe Dumbass Software Co's product a week early, it puts you at risk, you're in far more trouble than a simple review can possibly help.

Oh, one other gimic is that some PR folks think they can use is this. They think that if they act like bigger players and demand embargoes, then we'll think of them as bigger players. Nope. We'll just delete the email and forget they ever existed.