Please forgive the newbieness of this question. I've been looking through the forum for an answer to this with no luck, so I appologize if this has already been answered somewhere. Please feel free to just provide the link to the answer if appropriate. I am just trying to figure out where to submit a press release when I have one created. Are there sites out there that allow this, or is this something to do locally? Both? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer here. How, and where, you distribute your press release is all about what your news is, and who your target audience is. For some people that may be a newswire or distribution site. For others, it's trade publications. For others still, it's their local media. In most cases, you'll benefit from a combination. As far as free sites go, I usually recommend www.PR.com as a top choice, followed by www.PRleap.com. For paid distribution sites, of course there's PRweb. I've also heard a lot of good things about www.Webwire.com, although I don't use them personally right now. If you want to purchase media contacts for specific outlets, you could use services such as www.EasyMediaList.com.
And if you're just starting out, you might want to create a free account from the list of websites on this Google search. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=free+press+release&btnG=Google+Search Good luck!
PRweb.com is a good press release site. It may cost you a little but they can distribute your press release everywhere.
I submitted two press releases using the paid services of PRWeb, it was a waste of money. Both releases were written by pro writers, but the reason I say it was a waste of money is, I got a list of free press release sites on this forum, and submitted my own release to the free press release sites, it got more links, readers, and syndication then the paid ones did through PRWeb. My free one was also indexed by Google news, yahoo news etc.......... save your money and submit to free press release sites
You're kidding, right? Are you affiliated with the site or something? For starters, the PR (pagerank) of a PR distribution site doesn't matter the vast majority of the time. Why? Because a lot of releases don't get on the front page (where that high pagerank is), ones that do generally don't have direct links to your actual site on that front page (no link juice), and they're off the front page so quickly and buried in archives that you'd be insane to try to justify a distribution site based on Pagerank. To top it off, you're dead wrong about them having the highest PR to begin with... not even close.
hope you don't mind me asking this... I remember when I launched my first site I wrote a press release and submited it, but I don't think I got much good from it. What are press releases good for? Getting links, getting traffic??? Who actually reads all the flood of releases?
If you're just looking for links and traffic, press releases aren't the right tool for you. They're about getting exposure through pickups (coverage) of legitimate news that you have. You can get a lot of links, but most are of extremely poor quality (on PR sites where they'll be buried in archives quickly, on splogs and other scraper sites, low quality niche sites where people can't be bothered to do anything but copy / paste the releases, etc.). You should be more focused on the real coverage and the fewer, but better links you'll get if you target the right folks. If you just want the backlinks and direct traffic, stick to article marketing. If you have real news, use releases (just know that to have them be successful you need a decent news angle, a well-written release, and most importantly the right distribution plan for your particular audience and news - that's where most webmasters go wrong).
You don't happen to have the link to the forum where the free press release sites were listed? Guess that I should search, but wondering if you have it bookmarked.
I have a list available at www.NakedPR.com - link at the top of the blog. Just don't waste your time submitting to large numbers of them if you're even remotely serious about press releases. That's just press release spam, and it can damage your potential of real pickups in the future when you have something worth saying. Stick to one or two, as a supplement to a larger campaign (meaning targeted manual submissions as well).
As important as Press Releases are, make sure that you are writing them with SEO in mind. There are several good articles out there for this, one by a really good Utah SEO firm. I've used PRweb quite a bit, and if you have the budget to use you can have better control over the anchor text that gets used at the different PR outlets.
Hi, We try to keep a list of press release sites updated on our company blog: http://movingaheadblog.com/2007/04/11/list-of-press-release-submission-sites.aspx ...help yourself to the free download link (no form to fill out or anything) to get the list updated in Excel. We try to revise it quarterly, so check back, too.
Most people who do press releases do prweb.com and pay for their service. If you are just starting out, I would try some free services first and see how it goes. You will not get the results you would if you buy, but at least it will give you practice on writing them and how they all work.
If you'd said most webmasters use PRweb, you maybe closer to the truth, but most "people who do press releases" absolutely don't. And you can get better results with free distribution if you know what you're doing - I run a PR firm and specialize in online PR, so I would know.
I've gotten great results from PRWeb.com in the past, including talk radio show bookings, magazine product placements, increased traffic and sales.