Web Press Releases

[Jade456]

Has anyone had any success with using free press releases to increase your website traffic? I know there are several companies that provide free press releases but are they even worth it?


[Post edited: removal of URL drop advertising]
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[DiTryin]

I've never heard of sites that send press releases for free -- most charge a fee.

Press releases do work and it would be worth it for you to submit them to the right places (magazines, sites, radio, TV, etc.)

If you write them yourself, make sure they are news and not just an ad or the editor will toss them.

Diane

[consulticus]

I believe you can still send out free press releases through prweb.com and a few more like (what else?) free-press-release.com.

I've had some luck with PRWeb, but usually the more you pay, the better the response on this site as there are different tiers of service.

[ING_PR]

Press releases can be an excellent way to promote any business, however, I wouldn't recommend writing one yourself unless you know what your doing. You have to use a specific format when writing a release and you have to know that what you are writing about is NEWSWORTHY. If you write a press release and it's not newsworthy than no one will care. If you have any questions or need help with press releases you can email me.

[highcontrol]

Press releases are a quite effective way to promote your product or service, I agree, but anyone can write a press release, as long as you follow the rules, have a newsworthy article and are able to hack a few lines of copy together.

Also requires common sense - the phrase that all news is good news isn't that applicable if your news is detrimental in some way.
A good copy writer will choose wording and phrases which enhances or improves positive perception, ie instead of using negative words, for example: not, no, don't, etc, replace with positive phrases which makes the copy sound positive.
A simple thing to do, but which acts on the subconsious mind and adds to the overal impression of the article/product/company etc.

Jay

[prnuke]

Press releases are very effective and when distributed on the net can increase your visibility and exposure on search engines, etc.

Most are free, it's just that if you want to pay a 'fee' then you will be guaranteed this and that.

[24]

I've heard some positive things about them. From as far as I can tell, they are worth the time and effort. I plan on doing one next week as a matter of fact!

- 24
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[manatee123]

I have used pr.com and prweb.com. Both charge something if you want to include links and be well placed.

It seems that prweb.com has gotten us a bit more exposure than pr.com but both seem worthwhile.

prweb.com is between $40-$200 per press release depending on what you want. We just sent one out at the $120 level and got good results.

on pr.com you subscribe at different levels, and then can contribute more to increase your ranking and so on.

[scottco]

I think the real benefit to web press releases is not necessarily the direct traffic you get to your website, but the back-links (or inbound links) you get from other sites.

Generally, reputable web-based pr distribution sites (like PRWeb) have thousands of web sites who post press releases on their sites (via RSS feeds or otherwise) - and that can give your site potentially a few good back links.

Back links, from a few good quality sites, can end up ranking your site higher on search engines -- which can result in more traffic.

This doesn't happen over night, but it is, in my opinion, a very good reason to have a regular web press release campaign (well written, newsworthy ones).
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Scott
One Hour Marketing

[pressd]

Hi,

Free sites, or sites that only distribute to a list of opt-in journalists, are unlikely to reach the exact journalists you are trying to target. And beware of distributors that use a scatter-gun approach, sending your release to thousands of journalists. If it's not relevant news to the individual journalists, it's considered spam!

Points to bear in mind if you're choosing a press release service;
- Ensure they're strong on editorial and vet every release (we're yet to receive one that doesn't require at least some tweaking!). If your copy has mistakes or is written in the wrong structure/format, journalists will simply bin it.
- That they send releases directly and individually addressed to each journalist, and that the release appears to have come from you (so you're establishing your own relationships with journalists). In the US, distribution is predominantly by newswires but this isn't yet the case in the UK.
- That your news is syndicated to news aggregators and online news sites, such as Google News, Yahoo! News, etc. This helps with links to your site and wider distribution. It also means people can find your release via key word searches on major search engines.
- That the press list covers freelance journalists.

If you are writing a press release it might help to look at examples of other businesses from your sector by using the search box on the Press Dispensary website. We also have following free tips and advice articles;
How to write a press release
When to send a press release
Contacting the media

Hope that helps

[thomas]

I have been writing press releases for my company. They have been effective only when the topic is popular.

For example, we are offering something that is being developed as an alternative to the internet. There was a press release mentioning this but did not carry with the editors.

But when we released a PR that mentioned Supercomputing on the Desktop, it had some reviews.

We have issue PR through Businesswire, PR.com and PRNewswire all paid services. This has helped us get a certain number of links on Search Engines and News Listing.

We cannot say we are 100% satisfied by using PR as a means of distribution information as Editors are very choosy and rightly so.

In the end it all depends like others have said, how you present the information. More content does not necessarily mean acceptance.

So it is better to keep your PR content less than 500 words but give a good punch in the quality of words and the Heading.


[Edited. Reason - Removal of self ads]

[WebGuru]

I have used PRWEB which is heavily invested in search technologies to promote my oozm site. Search engine traffic plays a vital role in the success of your news release. The world increasingly rely on major search engines for their research on search queries. Consequently, PRWEB also claims that press release distributed through their site is optimized for maximum organic search engine inclusion. Search engines can then crawl naturally and efficiently to index the press release. My representative stated that their exclusive technology and unmatched infrastructure provides the best available search traffic directed to your news items. Also, having utilized their services for my new site was very effective for the initial traffic flow, but then you have to keep on marketing and increasing traffic. It is an ongoing process that you need to do in order to maintain your traffic level or keep it from losing momentum.

Webguru