I've recently just started submitting press releases announcing contests and winners of contests on my photography forum. So 1 press release announcing a new Contest Corner Challenge, one announcing the winner of each Contest Corner Challenge, and one announcing the winner of each Photograph of the Month contest. This equates to about 42 press releases/year (3-4 per month) regarding the contests. Is this too much? I was thinking of submitting press releases when there are interesting articles or tutorials submitted and published in our Photography Resource Center as well. This could add a couple more per month (or more, depending on how selective I am on which ones I would do a press release on, as I put up a new resource about once every 5 days). Would that be doing too many? That could mean as many as 6+/month. Are there downsides to having too many like that?
I think this mainly depends who you're submitting your press releases to. If it's local media, such as your county newspaper or some photography site related to yours then you're fine. I think it's a good itdea because it keeps your name circulating. However, the downside may be that people may get a wrong idea about what your company is about. So I would say it depends on who the press release goes to and what is your goal with the press releases.
I'm not really submitting them locally, as there really is no "local" for an international forum such as mine, know what I mean? I've mainly been submitting them to prweb.com, pr.com. prlead, i-newswire, etc...
From what I hear, the more press releases, the better. It keeps the name recirculating as Hexane mentioned.
So no downside to 6+ press releases/month? Cool. I just don't want to look like I'm spamming or anything, you know?
Actually, the question really has nothing to do with whether you're getting "traffic". It only matters if you're getting "coverage". Press releases are a media relations tool, not a link-generating tool, even if they do have that side effect. You should be aiming your particular site hoping to get photography blogs and niche sites to pick up on the contest, maybe care about the winners, maybe see these and promote the contest to their own readers, etc. Now since you already asked for the new template, I'm assuming you opted to go ahead with this, so sorry for the late response. But the simple answer to your questions is YES, you can send too many press releases ... if you're not sending anything newsworthy. If what you're sending is newsworthy, even to your niche audience, then you're fine. And 3-4 a month isn't a big deal at all. I used to send 10 times that many for a liberal arts college at one point, and really, how many do you think the "big guys" send? A ton. You're fine with those numbers. Jenn
Coverage = traffic site with no traffic = dead site thus .... Press release end result is to have traffic to your site. That is why I ask, are you getting traffic from your press releases. Not asking about link- generating tool mambo jumbo. Bottom line is webmasters use press releases to generate traffic.
The only downside would be if you picked up IBLs too quickly with the same/similar anchor text. I can't see that happening with the number you're submitting at the moment.
3-4 links per month is not a big deal. Although I got quite a traffic from release this tends to be short lived, so repeating is good I believe