Don't wait until the last minute to create press releases announcing your new online business. Plan a series of press releases that will generate interest in your business over the first six months or year of business. Make your company newsworthy and tell the media about it. You'll gain free public exposure and the kind of credibility that money can't buy.

If yours is the first online store of its kind, that's news, and most Internet magazines will print it if you send them an announcement. If your store is the first online business in your city or community, that's news, and your local newspaper will print it if you send them an announcement. You may even make it into the technology pages of Newsweek or Time if you send an announcement about a unique Web site or service.