Press release - is message (article) you sent to press and media informing about any news. It should be written in good style and not be like advertisement or product presentation. Biggest advantage of it is that if your press release looks interesting to press or media, you will get it posted on big sites like Yahoo!, CNN or even shown on TV. From my personal experience press release gave me some quite good backlinks and also boosted my PR a little.
Press releases are a necessary part of your marketing and public relations, but unless I'm doing something terribly wrong, I haven't seen a significant increase in back links. So, I would say unless you have something incredibly interesting and newsworthy, your gonna only get backlinks from the sites you submit to plus a handful from other, mostly scraper sites. The sites I run are pretty niche so maybe the releases don't have a wide appeal...? I usually submit to about 40 sites and use the pay prweb service. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Do a search on the last sentence with quotes in yahoo, only 7 matches come up. http://www.worldgolf.com/newswire/browse/4405-GolfHomeConnect-com--Golf-course-real-estate-made-easy Now, I've had people tell me they can get thousands of backlinks with a press release. I'm rather sceptical especially for us smaller niche site operators. I hope I'm wrong.
Much has been said about the topic by the posters above. Now I'd add the list to those Press Release submission sites where you can submit your PR. ********************************** List of Press Release Submission Sites ********************************** http://www.prweb.com - PRWeb http://www.pressflash.com/cgi/click/?3384 - PressFlash http://www.prleap.com - PRLeap http://www.prnewswire.com - PR Newswire http://www.prwebdirect.com - PRWeb Direct http://www.sbwire.com - SB Wire http://www.theopenpress.com - TheOpenPress http://www.hotmicrocap.com - Hotmicrocap http://www.billhartzer.com - Billhartzer http://www.free-press-release.com - Free-press-release http://www.dbusiness.com/pressrelease.htm - D Business http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com - Software Marketing Resource http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com - Press Release Network http://www.macgo.net/news/submit.php - Macgo http://www.devpress.com/addNews.html - Dev Press http://www.betanews.com - Beta News http://www.softpressrelease.com - Soft Press Release http://www.devarchive.com - DevArchive http://www.ideamarketers.com/library/profile.cfm?writerid=9643 - IdeaMarketers http://www.i-newswire.com/submit_free.php - I-Newswire http://www.afreego.com - A Free Go http://www.lunareclipse.net/pressrelease.htm - Lunareclipse http://www.hspstreet.com/pr/ - HSPstreet http://www.marketwire.com - Market Wire http://www.mediapost.com/ - Media Post http://www.baygo.com/press/ - Baygo http://www.urlwire.com/ - URL Wire http://www.webwire.com/ - Web Wire http://www.press-base.com/ - Press Base http://www.newspad.com/ - News Pad http://www.storebuilder.co.uk - Store Builder http://www.creativecommons.org/ - Creative Commons http://www.emediawire.com - EMediaWire http://www.businesswire.com - BusinessWire http://www.pressbox.co.uk/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi - Pressbox.co.uk http://www.pressmethod.com/ - Pressmethod http://www.click2newsites.com/ - Click2NewSites http://www.newswire.ca/ - Canada Newswire http://www.cdn-news.com/ - Canadian Corporate News http://www.malebits.com - MB Publishing Press Releases http://www.internetworldstats.com/press.htm - Internetworldstats http://www.forrelease.com/ - For Release http://www.hungarynewswire.com - Hungary newswire http://www.groupweb.com - GroupWeb http://africa.emailwire.com/africa/africa_media_list.html - Africa Newswires Service http://www.prfree.com/ - PR Free http://www.openpress.com/ - OpenPress http://www.downloadjunction.com/submit_press_release - Download Junction http://www.majon.com/advanced/advanced-pr.html - Advanced Press Release http://www.itilcommunity.com/modules.php?name=Submit_News - ITIL Community http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com - Press Release Network http://www.ideasiteforbusiness.com/cpress1.htm - Ideasiteforbusiness http://www.media-press-release.com - Media press releasean https://www.promaxum.com/promaxum_newsflash.html - Promaxuml https://www.prudentpressagency.com - Prudent Press Agency http://www.dime-co.com - Dime-co.com http://www.thehostingnews.com/gate.html?name=Submit_News - Host News http://www.webazar.com - Webazar.com http://www.software-review-center.org/act/addnews.php - Software-review-center http://searchwarp.com - Searchwarp http://www.tmcnet.com - TMCnet http://www.bizeurope.com/pressrelease.htm - Biz Europe http://www.symbcity.com/new/public - Symbcity http://www.programmersheaven.com - Programmers Heaven http://www.openpr.com - Open PR http://ourworld.compuserve.com/ourworld/publish/index.html - Our World http://www.eceurope.com/index.htm - ECEurope Buy Sell offers http://www.press-release-writing.com - Press Release writing http://www.seo-pr.com - SEO-PR http://www.internetwriters.com - Internet Writers http://www.gebbieinc.com/ - Gebbie Press http://www.XpressPress.com - Xpress Press http://www.imediafax.com/ - Imediafax http://www.earthvision.net/market/addstory.cfm - EarthVision http://www.webnewswire.com/ - WebNewsWire http://www.opportunityupdate.com/articles/ - Opportunity Update http://www.internetnewsbureau.com - Internet News Bureau http://www.ereleases.com - eReleases http://upload.it/shareware_soft_000005.htm - Upload.it http://www.24-7pressrelease.com - 24-7 Press Release http://store.1choice4ystore.com/articles.html - YStore http://www.ideasiteforbusiness.com/cpress1.htm - Click Press Direct http://www.threadwatch.org/ - Threadwatch http://www.eworldwire.com - EWorldWire http://www.afly.com - aFly http://articlecity.prwebdirect.com/ - Articlecity Press Release http://www.powerhomebiz.com/BizNews/pressrelease.htm - Powerhomebiz http://newslink.org/ - NewsLink.org http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/business_resources/newsstatsca.jsp - MediaINFO Links http://www.pressbox.co.uk/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi - Pressbox http://www.bizeurope.com/pressrelease.htm - Biz Europe http://www.pr-scotland.com/addpr.htm - PR Scotland http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/pressrelease.asp - Fashion and Garment News http://www.e-syndicate.net - e-syndicate.net http://www.our-hometown.com/ - Our Hometown http://www.emailwire.com - Emailwire http://www.africanewswire.net - Africa Newswires Service http://www.express-press-release.com/ - Express press release http://www.prbot.com/ - PRBot http://highwire.stanford.edu/ - Highwire Press http://www.newzalert.com/ - Newzalert http://www.addpr.com - Add PR http://www.click2newsites.com/press.asp - Click2newsites http://www.profnet.org/press.html - Press Release Resources http://mediapeak.com - Mediapeak http://www.softwarewire.com/SubmitRelease.htm - Software Wire http://news.baou.com/ - OfficalWire
So then why are some people saying that they are paying money to post their press releases? I've heard something like paying $20 to $40 is a good amount, if you pay less, it's not worth it. Does the amount of money you pay increase the chances of it getting picked up and how does it increase your chances? Does paying more put your press release in a certain place that offers more exposure or something?
I have done everything for free without investing any money. It depends on your topic, so if your article is very interesting for your target audience and press with media, I think it's worth to invest, but if you short of money, it could be enough to use free option only.
But what does paying money get you? A better placement on the front page of the PR website or something?
Depends whom you pay money. If you pay money for Press release writer, it gives you more professional press release which has more chances to be more interested to media. If you pay PR distribution companies (PRWeb, etc.) you get faster distribution (there is no 3 day lag on PRWeb), also you can get placement on Yahoo! or Google News, etc. That depends very much on whom and how much are you paying.
Also just submitting articles through an article submisiion site is a good cheap way to get publicity and links (and clicks) back to your site. Article marketer has very easy submission and a free option if you want to save money. If you already written a Press release then you coild spend a few minutes changing it to suit an article format and get a lot of extra links for very little extra work, mark
Guess my point was that you're not going to get extra back links except from the site you submit to and therefore unless you have something incredibly newsworthy, it's only worth submitting a few press releases since the links will be from the same ip address is the sites you submit to.
Sometimes it's ok to get even 1 backlink, because it's from high PR page and it helps to index your site even faster. But as always there are various problems with that. I have made PR on the time I changed my site into english and started targeting english speaking market, it made me increase my position for the terms I needed a little bit and also gave some information to potential users.
I wrote a press release for a friend. He received several radio show offers and got a lot of exposure on several national radio stations.
Marketing Experiments dot com had an awesome study on press releases. They did a whole lot testing on Press Releases and found them to be highly beneficial in terms of getting back links when done in the right way - and especially when done as an ongoing press release campaign. Plus Press Releases can create a lot of traffic. You definitely need to have something news worthy.
Can you guys list what you normally pay for a press release, who you distribute through, and how (National, regional, local, international?) you distribute?
sufyaaan, you really know your press release sites! Thanks for the long list! I'm gonna try it out and see how it goes, I'll report back here if anything interesting happens with my traffic.