Does anybody know "GOOD" websites that I can use to do free press releases? More importantly, have any of you had success with these free sites? Thanks
I have used them in the past to promote affiliate products and they can work very very well. I would simply go and do a search for "submit free press release pr" and start going to town. Many article directories will have a press release section. I am not allowed to post links yet so I sent you a PM with a link for a free $40 submission with PRWeb.com. They are by far the biggest and baddest but they do not allow free submissions anymore. That link will get you one though. Just remember to keep a "reporter" type of tone. Talk in the 3rd person and think to yourself does this sound like a news article or something I would read in the newspaper? Once you are done don't forget to put your press release on some corner of your own site then submit it to all the soical sites with soicalposter.com. Check your mail for my PM
@Terry: It's nice to see a peon with some good info. You'll be a very well respected member before long. Keep up the good work! ++
Very nice TerryBrazil. Do we have to place Press release article on our website at the same time when it is submitted to prweb or after it is indexed by Google?
Ok links should be sent out. If I missed someone then please PM me. As for the question about putting it on your site. I sure would. But not out in the open. Make a "press" link or "YOURSITE in the news" link on your site. Then post your press release on there. Afterwards you can use all the news submission and social bookmarking sites to get a little more publicity.
One other tip on writing press releases from a marketing class I took at grad school. Not sure the author or I would have cited them just like my marketing prof taught us. "Write the release in the form of an inverted pyramid - with the main points at the top and less important information further down. This format is used for news writing and if you follow the style a journalist will be able to use the release as it is or adapt it easily. A sub-editor may cut the story to size at any point, so even the lead should be able to stand on its own and make sense as a single paragraph. Avoid putting important facts later on in the release because the reader or editor may not bother to look for them. As a test of your release: blank out the last paragraph with a sheet of paper and see whether important facts have been lost, then move the sheet of paper up to cover the lower half of your release and check again - the visible text should make sense on its own."
Very good point. I like the sounds of that. Sorry but I cannot write it for you. Believe it or not I am far to busy. But here is a basic template for you to use. Headline Summary BodyIntro BodyMiddle BodyClosing Headline - This is the only place you should use any form of wording that sounds like hype. Your goal is to grab attention and stir curiosity. Summary - This will be shown on most news pages with your headline. Try to sum up the your release here. Try to answer Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. You want to make sure the reader has a good idea of what they are walking into without telling the complete story. Body Intro - This is going to be fairly similar to your summary. Once again try to sum up the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. This time in the first 2 paragraphs. Body Middle - This is where you get detailed and start laying on the specifics. Just like with sales copy talk benefits but remember to leave out the hype. Take a good 4 to 6 (or what is necessary) paragraphs explaining the finer points of your story. Body Closing - This is where you wrap it up. Just don't forget that ever so important line "For more information please visit YOUR SITE NAME / LINK". This part is often only a line or two. While writing this don't forget to use a reporter type of altitude and talk in the third person. Act as if you had not written this at all. Hell even quote yourself. When Mr. Brazil was asked what makes him stand out from his competitors he replied "Well we simply sell more stuff, Our stuff is superior to other peoples stuff due to our stuffs stuffiness. I dare you to find stuff more stuffy than ours or I will give you your stuff back". So my best advice when writing your PR is to take a step back. Look at what you are offering and start writing from a voyeurs point of view. After all this is supposed to be news that we are talking about. Once you get things down you can pull in some really good traffic with press releases and it will be worth the money to get put on the front page of yahoo, google, etc.... I once sold an affiliate product (satellite tv pro) when it first came out with a press release and got literally thousands of visitors in just a few days to my review page. As you can imagine I also made some decent sales. So by no means think that you can only write news pieces on your own products.
Peon ... thats funny. Yup that was some good info for a community noob .... he/she will be and is already respected in my book. I must ad though that some hosting services allow in their control panel a free or discounted press release. it pays to take a look