Articles vs. Press Releases for TRAFFIC?

I'm wondering which is more effective for driving actual traffic to a site. My impression is that neither works particularly well for site traffic, but are useful for search engine ranking, credibility, and getting qualified leads. What have your experiences been?

 

It would be impossible to properly answer the question because too many variables are in play. You could generalize, but you would still be performing a grave injustice.

The end result would be based on:

I. Topic
II. How well the item was written.
III. Saturation level
IV. Time

and so forth.

The answer will also vary from individual to individual because of varied experience and results.

That said, my money is on articles

 

I submitted two press releases to a paid site awhile back, this place is one of the most well know sites around for press releases...... I got almost zero traffic.

I submitted two articles about the same subjects and sites to about 5 article sites (the biggies) for free, within a few days I had quite a bit of traffic and I got two sales from one of the articles.

So to me, articles are a GREAT source of traffic, sales etc... it doesn't take long to submit them by hand to a lot of sites. I have 20 article places I now hand submit each article to, and it only takes a couple hours. I use auto form submitters, and copy and paste the text, it's well worth the time. Actualy, free article submissions is the BEST source of traffic I have found on the net since 2001, and I have tried pop-up ads, paid traffic, banner ads, forum posts, FFA posts, link exchanges, etc....

Don't waste your money with press releases - go for free article posts and you will see results

 

I think articles beat press releases hands down. Press releases bring in temporary traffic for the most part, while articles will continue to bring in sustained traffic into the forseeable future. I have seen websites I've built with many articles skyrocket in traffic, due to the number of keywords I rank for in the search engines.

Press releases are good just to get the word out.

 

Thanks for your input -- that's what I was looking for!

 

I'd saywith articles you have more possibilites and a much better ROI.

* There are hundreds of article directories you can submit to.

* set up an article archive on your web site

* Create an article announcement list

* You can even contact other web site owners within your niche who post articles on their sites.


I recommend the following formula:

* Create a fantastic headline - take your time for that: build curiosity, ask an open-ended question, propose a solution for a problem many people in your niche are dealing with, stress a major benefit...

* write a short and spicy article (500 - 800 words) that provides real value.

* Put a rsource box at the end of your article which entices your reader to visit your site, buy your product...

* Add a short note where you allow people to use your article (in it's entierty with links & resource box) on their web site or publish it in their ezines.


Hope that helps.

 

I have a few articles out there that bring steady sales - whereas press releases are pretty much an $80 vacuum in my pocket.

 

http://i-newswire.com/ is free and it gets the press release in google news.

 

Links to the 20 places?
Thank you in advanced

 

There's a ton of links for sites that take articles here.

 

For press releases to have the greatest efficacy possible, they must be done cyclic, to maintain a presence so to speak. I agree that articles are a great way to go, but a well worded press release that has the potential of getting picked up by other editors and being repubished is also great.

Of course, there are factors that affect how effective they will be:

Day of release
Industries released to
Quality of the article
Newsworthiness
... more ....

I purposefully released a PR on a holiday and Monday - generally, this would be two back-to-back errors, however, I did this on purpose. The target market of the website is entertainment and geared towards HS and College males .... what else are they doing on a Monday when there's no classes? Surfing the net.

Anyway, here are the statistics of the PR that was released on 10-Oct-05:

Reads 33,909
This number tells you how many times your press release was accessed from our site and other distribution points where we have the ability to measure a click through. This number does not include the number of journalists who have received your release through email. In addition there are online distribution points that we currently have no ability to track.

Estimated Pickup 1,088
This number estimates the number of times your press release was picked up by a media outlet. This does not tell you how many times your story appears in the media. It simply attempts to estimate media interest of your release.

Prints 8
This is the number of times that someone has printed your press release. We measure this by the number of times that the "printer friendly version" link is pressed. In reality, only a small percentage of users actually click this link before printing a release.

Forwards 2
This is the number of times that someone has forwarded your press release to a third party using the link on your press release.

PDF Downloads 62
The number of times your release was downloaded as a PDF document. PDF Downloads may be reflected in "Reads" and "Estimated Pickup" statistics.

This is just one example and not to discount the PR vs. Articles discussion; both can be effective. Remember - "It's Not What You Ask For, But How You Ask For It" which can easily be twisted into "It not what you say, but how you say it" - either can do a world of good, if you put some homework into the assignment and publish to relevant markets.

BTW - The traffic to the main page of my site for a few days did spike nicely, but yes, has tapered back down:

Date / Visits
Oct 8 3934
Oct 9 4065
Oct 10 4422 (Day of Release)
Oct 11 4329
Oct 12 4978
Oct 13 4365

 

I think it's also much harder to write an effective press release (and does cost money too) as you really need a good story for it to be picked up. With articles you can basically write about anything and still get a good effect.

 

Article need lot of effort in writing unique content for promoting your site. If it published then it can give you good traffic.

Press release on the other way is a simple marketing strategy which each small and large company is doing. This is just the way to make people aware of your business with full contact information. So there is a big chances to receive customer on phone and contact address.

 

Good article content may get trafic from SE, so you may also get trafic from your article. And my favorite article site is articlebase.com

 

why not use both, noone says that you can only use one or the other.

S

 

I think articles on a specific topic bring more traffic because they are more informative and less spammy. Both are good for seo purposes.

 

I have just opened a free article directory if you want to post there. Of course the traffic is not built up yet, but it will be and your articles will already be in place for eyes to see. If you want to use my article directory it is http://www.6articles.com

 

A right combination of Press Release and Article Directories will be an ideal mix. Press Release will be better though if your website is relatively new to your niche. Submit unique articles to articles directory to get any real benefits.

 

Both of them are good but i myself think article submission in more effective than press release submission.

 

They'reas good as eachother aren't they. Isn't it all about using different strategies?