I have a press release that I would like to submit. Is there any really popular free press release site or is a paid site like PRWeb the best choice (is PRWeb even the best choice?). If you recommend PRWeb which package would you use? Is SEO Visibility package worth the $200 over the Standard Visibility package? Thanks for any replies.
The best option is always to custom-tailor your distribution model to the individual release and the audience of that release. Anyone who just flat out recommends one service as the best option for everyone doesn't know what the hell they're talking about. Here are a few tips: 1. For the sake of getting into things like Google News, there's no need to submit to a lot of sites. PR.com will get you into Google News for free. PRleap will often as well. I'm sure others do too. 2. If you want any kind of offline coverage, and you really want to use a paid service like PRweb, go for the media visibility package - or better yet, go with a service like PRnewswire or Marketwire. Or, just submit the release yourself for free to the Associated Press (www.ap.org) - it would have to be some pretty interesting news to get picked up, but it never hurts to try. 3. Alter it to give it a slight local spin, and then send it to the appropriate editor or journalist with your local paper and other area media outlets that may have an interest in it. That's just the bare minimum you should be thinking about for every release. You'll also need to know the audience to determine which niche outlets to manually send it to. You'll need to know what type of media best reaches and influences your target audience. etc. Jenn
Use the $200 PRWeb SEO package and write a newsworthy release in the proper format. Don't forget to include links for your keywords and one excellent quote from a key person with the company (CEO/VP/etc). I do about 12 $200/SEO releases a year with PRWeb with amazing results.
Here's a great list I found, don't remember where tho. Good luck! http://www.clickpress.com http://www.webwire.com/ http://www.emediawire.com http://www.businesswire.com http://www.prwebdirect.com - http://www.theopenpress.com http://www.free-press-release.com http://www.pressbox.co.uk http://www.i-newswire.com/ http://www.pr9.net http://www.pr-inside.com http://www.newswire.ca/ http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com http://www.marketwire.com http://www.urlwire.com/ http://www.prweb.com (small contribution) http://www.prurgent.com http://www.prleap.com - http://www.prnewswire.com http://www.prfree.com/ http://www.openpress.com/ http://www.softpressrelease.com
Thanks for all the important tips. I'm not really looking for any offline coverage (though it would be nice) and my market is dating, mostly in the US and Canada (not any of the sites listed in my sig). I am mainly looking for some news sites (google, yahoo, etc..) or bloggers to pick up the Press Release. Will the free sites like PR.com, PR Leap accomplish this or is PRWeb's paid services the better option (ie a lot more exposure)? Currently I am leaning towards PRWeb, does anyone have any coupon codes for them? The site the Press Release is about has been mentioned before in articles at CNN.com and Time.com
You'll get a lot more links from PRweb, but most are crap links if you really look at them. You can get blog coverage and news engine pickups fine with free services. I have an article about effective free press release distribution in the right column of www.NakedPR.com if you want more info about doing it well without spending a lot on any one particular service.
If you are looking for more purely online coverage, I would suggest PRweb if you can afford it. That's not to say that you cannot get good coverage from free distribution services as Jenn said.
This article has some nice resources included. Have a look at it http://www.moneymakerboy.com/2007/09/7-effective-ways-to-drive-trafficto.html It will give you an idea of where to start from.
That's not good advice in that article, and precisely the same kind of gibberish that leads to loads of press release spam. For the record, press releases are not "an article that describes what's your site and what does it help". They're a PR / media relations tool for disseminating news, and news alone.