Press Releases...where Is The Best Bang For Your $ ?

would love some experiences on people that have done press release and had good success with the traffic & the site you had write & release it...ty
tony ;~)

 

Yes, it would be nice if people share there experience regarding press releases and results. I would like to know more about this as well. Anyone ?

 

jhmattern helped write me a press release and gave me advice a few months back here, so shes the person to talk to here on Digital Point, she knows what shes talking about when it comes to press releases.

-- Phil

 

Sendig Press releases helped me in lot of ways.

1. Exposure to my new site.
2. Quick Traffic
3. Brought be some good backlinks
4. Brought be some quick sales.
5. You will be called for interview by journalists or shown in TV/Radio stations (if you are lucky with some high quality news)

All you have to do is just use the template to write your press release and post in free PR distribution sites. If you could afford about $10-$20 contribution it would help more.

 

Press releases distributed online aren't going to generally lead to quality quick traffic or backlinks, so let's clear that up from the start.

The quick backlinks generally come from scraper sites or low quality blogs that won't carry much weight. Even getting on the front page of PRweb is only a temporary link, and their archive pages aren't "relevant" pages, which is what you should be targeting.

As for traffic, there's an incredibly common misconception (and one hyped by some of the bigger distribution sites) that using those services is some wonderful direct link to your target readers, and that you'll get a lot of relevant, targeted traffic. It's a nice marketing spin for them and those pushing social media press releases. Reality, however, is far from being that simple. If your target readers consist of average Joes, don't expect much targeted traffic directly from a release. If your target market happens to be bloggers, that might be a different story. The fact of the matter is that bloggers and journalists are still the ones using press releases most often. Many people searching don't bother searching news engines, but rather just general indexes. The key to quality traffic is in getting relevant, hopefully highly ranked, sites to cover your story, provide your link, and be indexed and ranked well for key search terms. The potential's there... you just have to understand that that initial wave of traffic is not the most likely traffic to convert heavily for you. There are two very distinct reader bases.

I offer the exact template I use in my own PR firm currently at http://blog.bizammo.com (will eventually be moving to the main domain). There's a template I've used for clients that's led to major online coverage (like BusinessWeek), major offline coverage (like the Philadelphia Inquirer), and even on-air radio interviews... it works. There are articles with instructions and tips as well. Read them. It will give you a bit of background to go from. What the articles can't do is teach how to write "for the media," but it won't hurt to try one yourself, or you can always hire a professional to help you with the writing (if that's your target, be sure to work with an actual PR person or a copywriter with marketing background, rather than a general content writer... there are several of us right here, or you can hire distribution sites to write it for you directly).

There are three keys to a successful press release that will bring you exposure, quality traffic over time, and permanent, one-way, incoming links from relevant authority websites:

1. A solid news angle (this is the most important - note that starting a new site in and of itself is NOT newsworthy)

2. A well-written press release (this involves writing "for the media" and having all relevant information included)

3. The proper distribution channel (online distribution sites are very rarely the best way to fully distribute a press release, and more effort on a manual front or even using services sending it directly to journalists will help - online distribution sites are a good supplement though, so shouldn't be ignored - www.PR.com will get you at least into Google news for free and others will get you also into Yahoo News inexpensively w/o spending hundreds of dollars - like www.PRurgent.com I believe.... is that owned by you olddocks?).

Asking for results is good, but ask about real coverage. Normally when you ask webmasters for results, they spout PRweb statistics, which are essentially worthless. "Reads" in those stats mean nothing. It doesn't matter in the slightest how many people looked at your press release. If there's no coverage, it means most of those people glanced at it, decided your news angle sucked, and they closed it. So who cares? The "pickups" they use in their stats aren't real pickups, but rather a guesstimate. They seem pretty pathetically far off at that, and I still have to wonder what they include. Sometimes (and I'm not saying they actually do), it seems more like an estimate of links (as in including scraper sites and other such garbage) than real mentions or coverage. I've yet to see a client's coverage (especially anything significant) match anywhere even remotely close to their guesses. All that matters regarding stats is real pickups, from relevant blogs or media outlets that are reaching the company's target audience.

And that's enough of a press release primer for today. Read the articles and template I linked to if you want more information (they're listed under public relations on the site).

Jenn

 

I told you shes good

 

wow..thx jenn !

 

No problem. I hope some of it helped.

 

try prweb.com

 

thanks for the up. Good information

 

Thanks for your suggestible information

 

This is a trick I learned somewhere on DP I guess. Instead of just submitting press releases (and sometimes paying for them too), what you could do is find some popular press release websites on Google News. Better, if they are also free to use. On these sites, create press releases on trending topics in your niche and give a perspective that could have your site in the news. (For example, if you have a site on loans, make a press release about the latest loan related news and add 'According to Mark, the founder of loanadvice.co...').

This way, you get to get high visibility for a topic that is trending (so more people searching and finding it on Google search & news) besides getting more visibility for your blog. Earning backlinks could be a bonus but as someone here already said, it's mostly scraper sites, so not much value out of it. But you can always get traffic from this.