Do any of you have any experience with PR web releases? How much traffic did you get from one? I'm just curious.
Press releases aren't about generating direct traffic, so if that's what you're hoping for, forget it. If you write a press release well, the media will see it, read it all the way through, feel it's newsworthy, and either write a story using it or contact you for more information. In many cases, they'll never need to directly visit your website unless they need extra background information. Press releases don't often reach your actual target audience. They're read by journalists and bloggers for the most part, to find ideas for stories. The plus side is that if you do actually have something newsworthy to say, they'll cover you (hopefully reaching your intended target market with the news), and indirectly lead to increased traffic... although it's pretty hard to measure without waiting a few weeks for everything to be indexed in SEs, or without hiring a media clipping service. Jenn
Thanks, Jenn, very good information. This atleast helps me decide where to focus my advertising budget. Jon
In my experience in the past, if you have some news worthy information, then you can get litterally thousands of backlinks, and articles basically scouring the internet. This will get you a good PR (won't get you out of the sandbox unfortunately) some general snowball traffic from blogs/news voting systems. The traffic will come, and the traffic will go, since this will be more internet savvy clients, but the effective on your SEO with generating backlinks is priceless. Not to give it all away, but generally I would say this is one of my major steps in site promotion for a website that requires a good spot on the SERPs, without using blackhat
A well written and published Press Release can create hundreds of backlinks to your website and increase brand recognition and exposure.
Is it worth sending the press release to news papers in your area or news sites that cover your topic? Will news types generally write an article based on an unsolicited PR?
Nearly all press releases are "unsolicited." Just only send them if you have real news. If it's "fluff", you're much more likely to be ignored. Jenn
I've been trying to find a way to make my fluff sound like real news. Just gotta find the right angle...
Or actually do something newsworthy. What's your "fluff" news? Maybe others will see an angle you're missing. Jenn
I'm basically looking for a way to turn a "I'm launching this website" press release into a story that just so happens to revolve around the launching of a website. Shouldn't be too hard, but I don't want it to be cheesy or sappy.
Launching a website isn't newsworthy in the slightest anymore, unless there's something unique about it, or you can tie it into something in the news. I can't even begin to give you a suggestion w/o knowing the topic of the site, features, etc. Jenn
I think I have something that is newsworthy. I have someone writting up a PR release for me and then I will be distributing it. I let everyone know when my site is luanched.
PRs can help. I haven't used PRweb but our own press release distribution system to inform about game interviews, sales stats. Maybe you could try contacting some local newspapers - a guy making money with a blog must be interesting to some newspapers.
Maybe some years ago, then yea, I would agree with you that blogs making money is news. I just don't think that's the case now. There're so many people making big money off blogs/websites/etc that it isn't new anymore.
Well, I run a public relations firm, and have written quite a few for members here, including some that got some nice online media pickups (like clickz.com, businessweek.com, and more recenty, USAtoday.com). Rates are $99 for writing. If you decide you're interested, send me a PM or email me with details on your site and news. Jenn