Press release through PRWeb (using SEO package) - Un-natural/Harmful?

i did the press relase for my new websites http://loanaskey.com.

The results are amazing

I love prweb.

http://www.loanskey.com/faxless_online_payday_loan.php
http://www.loanskey.com/pennsylvania_mortgage_loan.php
http://www.loanskey.com/student_loan_consolidation.php

 

In what way tradealoan?

Pete

 

Do you have a link to the PR?

 

Looking forward to reading about your experience

 

So is the prwebdirect for real?

Anyone have an example of the results

 

I just did a release with prwebdirect. Here is a breakdown of my experience.

The good:

• I created a press release and uploaded at 1AM. I got a call at 1:05 AM from them- very helpful.
• They helped to optimize my article (I had it well optimized already so I didn't really bother with the updated version)
• They where attentive and explained every option to me really well. I ended up going with the grand daddy package (my press release was not just for SEO purposes, it was mainly a PR piece hoping to get picked up by large networks)
• The ability to place links in a press release is outstanding.
• Got direct links from biz.yahoo.com and some other good networks (plus the typical temp links you get from PRweb releases
• They fixed a problem, re-released my article, and refunded 200 bucks for the headache (see below in "the bad" section)

The bad:

• The press release was not in my normal PRweb account till right when it launched - had to send edits through my rep (this would be good for some, but wasn't as convenient for me)
• It was eeexxxpppeeennnsssiiivvvveee (over 900 bucks for full distro)
• The distro to biz.yahoo.com, or anything through PRnewsire strips the links, so all you got is a home page link at the bottom (see below)
• The process ended up not being smooth because I didn't have direct access to edit the article until it was launched - the release went out on PRnewswire with a few errors that where not caught by the editors (a space before a period and a comma, hotlink BBcode still in the release, a slight misspell of our name (missing a comma before Inc. in NextStudent, Inc.)

In all, the experience was not so bad for my first time trying it. I think they are used to PR firms and reporters using this side of it, not web geeks playing PR manager for a day, so for me it wasn't as easy as the normal side, but the distribution and hotlink ability is awesome.

If you want to see the press release, feel free to search Google News for Student Loan Consolidation. Our article should be the top one.

You can also see it on biz.yahoo.com here:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060202/sfth055.html?.v=44

So far (this was launched about 36 hours ago) we have had:
Reads: 72,181 (that's a ton)
Estimated Pickup: 681
Prints: 20
PDF Downlaods: 39

We rank #1 in Google News and Yahoo News for "Student Loan Consolidation"

In all, it was a successful launch, although it was very expensive.

Hope that help

 

Arizona - Have you been seeing sustained traffic since the launch? How has the read, prints, etc translated into profits?

 

In my opinion, those "reads" numbers and pickups are being fudged. I did a couple of press releases on PRWeb, with similar pickups and "reads" of about 35,000 or so. The resulting traffic was 30 people or so coming to the site. I think what they are doing is telling you it's a "read" anytime someone loads the page of a scraper site with a link to your prweb press release. Many of the pickups are just pages with a prweb newsfeed, and they don't actually put your press release up - they just put the headline or part of it and a link to the page it's on. So in my view most of your "pickups" are people who have an automated script that linked to your press release on scraper sites and most of your "reads" are people who never even saw your press release and just loaded a page with links to about 40 press releases on it. All I know for sure is that there is no way you only get 30 people to any site if 35,000 people read a press release about it.

 

What was your press release, kneukm03? Could you paste it. I'm interested in how only 30 people came to your site.

Was it shite and totally un-interesting and un-newsworthy or what?

Pete

 

Well I don't really want post the sites here, but it was across several releases for a couple of sites. I know there are some old threads on this as well where people have had similar experiences in terms of traffic produced. The main reason I don't buy it is that even for an uninteresting release, if someone has actually "read" it in the sense that they clicked on something to actively go to that particular press release, they have to be at least somewhat interested. My advice is that if you want to try it, you can try their free option first - I'll bet the traffic doesn't come in proportionate to the number of reads listed.

 

Reads as I understand it is 'How many editors read it' (or saw it, whatever), which will be a LOT I imagine for any article submitted really, but how many published/used it? Well that's another matter.

Did you submit for maximum distribution ie. $150+ ?

Did your release end up in Google News etc or any high traffic web sites related to your subject?

Pete

 

I think I did a couple of free ones and one for around $82 (if you do it, you should keep in mind to pay a few bucks more than all the round numbers that get you more benefits. I think $80 was the line at which you got a bunch more services - putting it at $82 bumped me ahead in line of a ton of other people, and it ended up on the front page of the daily listing). It did get into Google News and I believe it was also in Yahoo's news thing as well, but that is based on memory and it was several months ago. However, there were no high-traffic web pickups (it was mainly sites that were using the PRWeb feed at the bottom of the page to get a fresh content boost). One other thing you should look at is there is some past thread where I believe it was Shoemoney who said that there are two different services - if I remember correctly, there is a separate and more expensive service from PRWeb that journalists actually use, and the general press release service is not really used by the press because of the spammy kinds of stuff that webmasters are putting into it. That's my vague recollection of somebody else's post here though, so you might want to do a search to verify it. If you've got a "newsworthy" angle and that's true, then I think you could get a little more mileage out of it.

 

I just checked it; we are at 174,589 reads so far. Sure many of them are screen scrapes or whatever, but plenty of actual readers. Estimated pickup is 1,138. That's a good amount of sites publishing our content, and I'm sure a good portion of them kept the links in tact. More links = better link pop. Better link pop = better ranks. Better ranks = more profit.... but it isn't just the SEO that benefits a company of our size. Branding is important, and keeping our name out there helps students to remember us when it is time to consolidate student loans or to get a private student loan for college expenses. Some of the benefits are traceable, some are assumed.

Sending out press releases when there is actual news to report definitely drives more interest too, so I suggest having something press release worthy before you commit to sending stuff out on the wire.