Index: continuum-release/src/main/java/org/apache/continuum/release/phase/AbstractContinuumRunGoalsPhase.java
===================================================================
--- continuum-release/src/main/java/org/apache/continuum/release/phase/AbstractContinuumRunGoalsPhase.java	(revision 734311)
+++ continuum-release/src/main/java/org/apache/continuum/release/phase/AbstractContinuumRunGoalsPhase.java	(working copy)
@@ -23,7 +23,9 @@
 import java.util.Map;
 
 import org.apache.continuum.release.config.ContinuumReleaseDescriptor;
+import org.apache.continuum.release.exception.ContinuumReleaseExecutionException;
 import org.apache.continuum.utils.shell.ShellCommandHelper;
+import org.apache.maven.continuum.release.ContinuumReleaseException;
 import org.apache.maven.shared.release.ReleaseExecutionException;
 import org.apache.maven.shared.release.ReleaseResult;
 import org.apache.maven.shared.release.config.ReleaseDescriptor;
@@ -46,28 +48,28 @@
         throws ReleaseExecutionException
     {
         ReleaseResult result = new ReleaseResult();
-        
+
         try
         {
             String goals = getGoals( releaseDescriptor );
             if ( !StringUtils.isEmpty( goals ) )
             {
                 Map<String, String> environments = null;
-                
+
                 if ( releaseDescriptor instanceof ContinuumReleaseDescriptor )
                 {
                     environments = ( (ContinuumReleaseDescriptor) releaseDescriptor ).getEnvironments();
                 }
-                
+
                 shellCommandHelper.executeGoals( determineWorkingDirectory( workingDirectory,
                                                                             releaseDescriptor.getScmRelativePathProjectDirectory() ),
-                                                 goals, releaseDescriptor.isInteractive(), additionalArguments, result, 
+                                                 goals, releaseDescriptor.isInteractive(), additionalArguments, result,
                                                  environments );
             }
         }
         catch ( Exception e )
         {
-            throw new ReleaseExecutionException( e.getMessage(), e );
+        	throw new ContinuumReleaseExecutionException( ContinuumReleaseExecutionException.getErrorTemplate() );
         }
 
         result.setResultCode( ReleaseResult.SUCCESS );
Index: continuum-release/src/main/java/org/apache/continuum/release/exception/ContinuumReleaseExecutionException.java
===================================================================
--- continuum-release/src/main/java/org/apache/continuum/release/exception/ContinuumReleaseExecutionException.java	(revision 0)
+++ continuum-release/src/main/java/org/apache/continuum/release/exception/ContinuumReleaseExecutionException.java	(revision 0)
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+package org.apache.continuum.release.exception;
+
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+import org.apache.maven.shared.release.ReleaseExecutionException;
+
+public class ContinuumReleaseExecutionException
+    extends ReleaseExecutionException
+{
+
+    public ContinuumReleaseExecutionException( String message )
+    {
+        super( message );
+    }
+
+    public ContinuumReleaseExecutionException( String message, Throwable t )
+    {
+        super( message, t );
+    }
+
+    public static String getErrorTemplate(){
+
+    	StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
+
+    	stringBuilder.append("Check that the following section of the pom.xml is present and correct:");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\t\n\n<distributionManagement>");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\t\n<!-- use the following if you're not using a snapshot version. -->");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\t\n<repository>");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\t\n<id>repo</id>");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\t\n<name>Repository Name</name>");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\t\n<url>scp://host/path/to/repo</url>");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\t\n</repository>");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\t\n<!-- use the following if you ARE using a snapshot version. -->");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\t\n<snapshotRepository>");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\t\n<id>repo</id>");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\t\n<name>Repository Name</name>");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\t\n<url>scp://host/path/to/repo</url>");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\t\n</snapshotRepository>");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\t\n</distributionManagement>");
+    	stringBuilder.append("\n\n");
+
+    	return stringBuilder.toString();
+    }
+}