Our experiences with PRweb press release service

I've heard some mixed opinions regarding the PRweb service, and thought to post our experiences. I purchased a PR to a client. The press release has been live like a week or so. The total purchase cost was $230, and the end result (after one week) was that there were like 50+ visits from PRweb.com. The site also got a few visits from "social media" by PRweb (or whatever it was).

I am familiar with PR system, so I know that in some instances it can take a month (or so) to press the pick it up, but thought to share that spending dollars on PRweb doesn't automatically guarantee flood of traffic.

Naturally it's good to get backlinks from PRweb (they are PR7 after all), and there were few targeted contacts (which might result to sales) - but I'd say the immediate results weren't so huge compared to the price. I think spending few hundred bucks to get some bloggers to do reviews can wield greater results (at least for short term traffic, and getting the word out). Naturally I must add that PRweb IS profiled as a reputable company, and naturally there can be better news coming, but the immediate results weren't so big.

And one final thought: of course it also depends on the press release. There are so many things that can get wrong... and so many things that need to be right (headlines, body, "testimonials", having really newsworthy news etc.). I've being watching closely dozens of press releases getting distributes, and in my experience it's a "hit or miss" to do a press release - sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Perhaps we should have paid more or made a different press release to get better results.

I think PRweb can be addition to marketing/promotional strategy, but I wouldn't use it as the core of getting the word out. Press releases are good - but not only thing to do.

 

PR only work well if the news is newsworthy.

 

Thanks for sharing your experiences Game, I have been looking into PR lately.

 

Be sure to let us know in a couple weeks if you see anything pop up in major news stories, driving lots of traffic..... or if none comes at all.

I represent a company that is/was seriously considering PRweb.

 

I agree on blanket's point ... If you have a PR which says 'uber new directory opened', doesn't matter if they have the best opening article, nobody is really going to care.

 

I have only had one trial with PRWeb. I tried to buy the cheapest bundle to save myself money... and that was a huge mistake. I wouldn't use them unless your site is extremely unique, and you have a big budget.

 

well my site definitely falls into the "extremely unique" category, as for "big budget", sadly not

however, if it was definitely a reliable way of improving traffic, (for a fee), then i am sure that the cost could be found.

i would be interested in hearing the successes people may have had with PRweb, and whether they themselves wrote the press release, whether they paid a 3rd party to do it, or whether it was 100% PRweb

 

I enjoy reading about your experienced hope to hear more...

 

Yep, in this case the budget was not a problem - although I'm not sure how much money you'd need to spend to really get seen.

blanket, definitely - in this case it was about a major product launch by a legitimate business corporation (not "just some kid launching a new website"). In my opinion, it was a newsworthything to do - and we are talking about major budget that was done to create ads/website.

Yep, will do.

 

Also will be waiting for the updates.

 

I might just add that not only does the piece need to be newsworthy, it has to be newsworthy to the readership of the particular publication(s) that you are targeting. And, if you can give it an unusual twist and/or tie in to something that is particularly newsworthy, so much the better. For example, 'dog bites man' is not as newsworthy as 'man bites dog', but even that gets pretty old after a while. However, 'man bites Paris Hilton's dog' would get some play right now.

 

'Paris Hilton bites man's dog?' Oh wait..there was video

Anyway, I'm thinking of doing a press release too. Hurry! Speed up time so I can see your results

 

Not much to tell... few visits and that's it. PRnewswire.com could be worth testing next.

And as a side note, I almost got pretty much as many visits by commenting to Techcrunch.com blog posts a few times....

 

I spent the same amount of money and had a similar experience. I think the best way to approach it is to do a bunch of $80 press releases.

 

Bit old thread, but I'm bringing this up as some people requested for updated information.

About 2 months after the PRweb.com service we got the following results:

prweb.com - less than hundred visits
emediawire.com - less than ten visits
techcrunch.com - less than ten visits
socialcomputingmagazine.com - about ten visits

And for the record, by simply commenting to Techrunch.com couple of times we saw about 10 visits...

I've said it before that in my experience, press stories aren't "silver bullets for getting traffic". It's hit or miss type of promotion. Some stories work, some don't. As I've dealt with PRweb.com just only once, I cannot draw final conclusions about this. There are many things that need to be taken into account - but what I can say is: press stories don't automatically get you to the news - it just doesn't work like that. It's not like that you should spend $100 (or $200-300+) to announce your new biz PR story and think you will see amazing number of traffic. You might be better of by contacting some high profile bloggers (for example) and getting them to review your product, or you could use paid blog posts, or contests etc. and then do "you ground work" by yourself.

Anyway, I was bit surprise about the results. I would have expected better - especially since their "social media boost" (plus we spent more than $80 to the whole release) came with the package.

 

In addition to my comments from earlier in this thread, I wanted to mention that the best results that I have gotten from press releases have been when I did research into the actual reporters/editors for the specific media that would be well-targeted to my news announcement. After sending them the press release, I followed up with a call and mostly listened to what they liked and did not like about my press release. Often, I would make changes and sned the revisions back to them. I stayed in touch with these folks and then asked them about other stories they would be interested in, offered myself as an expert source on the topic if they needed background, etc. I built up relationships with a few of these people and then began to get the press that I needed for my business at the time. It is hard work, but it can really pay off ifyou stick with. Putting a press release on a wire service and sitting back waiting for results is much like buying a lottery ticket. You may get lucky, but probably will not.

 

Similar experiences. I used PR Web and got less than 200 uniques probably. Only used the 80$ package. Something has to be considered... I wrote it myself and MAYBE had it been better written it would of pulled more... Who knows

 

I use PRweb and love it. Its def worth it to spend more on the pr. The $80 ones dont seem to do as much but will get you some exposure and traffic. I did a huge one on my popthatzit.com site. I got really lucky with it. I was able to get 6 radio interviews from it and had 24,000 uniques in 2 days. It was incredible. In fact I have another interview today at 3:20 at http://1057thepoint.com/ThomJeff/index.aspx if anyone is interested in listening.
Ill be doing another PR for a new site "in my signature" on monday! Ill let you know how it goes.