I have paid for a press release using PRWEB.com in the past in it made it into Google news and anyones mailbox that subscribed to that subject. What I am wondering is if I should pay for a press release again or use freepressrelease.com????? What is the difference between an article submission site and a press release site??? What is better? What makes it into genuine "Google new" that people receive in their mailboxes??
PRWEB is fantastic and it pays to pay (no pun intended!) I have found that the more CONTROVERSIAL the press release the better. There is also an art to writing them and it took me 2 weeks to get mine right Thanks
A press release is one of the fastest ways to generating lots of traffic to your site however you need to make sure that you are paying a stablished site to get better results for your $$ and like NATTERBU said the more controversial the better! I have e tested and had good results on sites like Reggaeton Music with very good results.
An article submission is a way of giving or writing your ideas that is related to your product or your website then submitting it to article sites. while a press release is directly advertising your website (what's with your site, new features or what products do you have etc.) both can help you specially both can give you free backlinks and giving your information to the public. it is same as marketing your site.
Well first of all, make sure you don't ever send a press release to an article submission site, or vice versa. There's really nothing similar about them. I run a small public relations firm. I regularly write press releases for clients, including quite a few from here at DP. If you have something truly newsworthy on a national or international scale, submit it to AP for free. That's generally the best bet. However, they're not going to care about things like a new small website launching, so a lot of people still use sites like PRweb instead. If you want to submit it for free and get into Google news and such, I'd recommend www.pr.com. They get it listed fairly quickly. I've seen clients spend nothing and get no coverage. I've seen clients spend a few hundred dollars and get great coverage with major online media. So yes, it can make a difference. But the real key is whether you really have anything newsworthy to talk about. If you don't, I don't care how much you spend; you still won't get good coverage with reputable media outlets. If you do have something significant or unique to say, it can definitely make a difference if you pay to get high placement so your release is in front of the right pair of eyes. I would say press releases are always better than article submission sites if you have something newsworthy. They're a media relations tool, used to generate large-scale publicity. Article directories are a promotional tool (and publicity and promotion are NOT the same thing), used to essentially bring in backlinks and in viral marketing techniques. Jenn
To netmaster with the http://www.reggaeton-song.com site.I think that is one of the best ideas i have seen recently.This music seems to be really popular and have you got any links to your press release?
Thanks for the reference jhmattern. I have been considering paying for a release at prweb.com but after looking at the free pr.com service I might go with that instead.
I have never paid for a press release. There is a wealth of resources on the internet that teach you techniques, give you samples and even suggest where and when to send them. I found that a good way is to make friends with someone who writes for a newspaper and have them go over the press release because they see hundreds of them and know exactly what to change. The bigger the newspaper, the better.
Have you got any friends who work in journalism and for which papers? Did they help you out with any campaigns? And for the rest of us would it be easier to hire a pr company than trying to make friends with a journalist who may not even write about our specific product/area?
A newspaper journalist only knows their own preference and their own media. They can't teach you a thing about appealing to online media, TV, radio, etc. Just because someone's in journalism doesn't mean they understand PR. A PR professional's job is to know how to essentially manipulate members of the media into agreeing that something is newsworthy enough to cover. You're certainly better off with a PR pro if you're aiming for media relations. Online newswires have their own standards and rules that are often different than manually distributing a release to the media anyway. A journalist can't tell you that, what the best and worst days to send releases are, etc. If you're just looking for someone to help you with general structure to write your own releases, there are plenty of templates available and you certainly don't need a journalist to review it. I have one available you can feel free to use at www.allinfoaboutmarketing.com, along with tips on writing them. But if you want your release written appropriately to appeal to the media, there's no substitute for having a professional's help. You can even get some basic feedback for your own releases here. Just post it in a thread or PM it to me. I won't edit it for free, but I'm more than happy to pass along suggestions and tips for improving it. Jenn
Hey JH, We are using PRWeb right now, and it's great. Would it hurt to also submit each release to PR.Com? Would that be considered spamming? Or is it okay to use multiple sites to release PR's? Also, are there any good resources for finding editors to submit PR's to? Thanks.
It's certainly ok to use more than one newswire. I'd suggest at least www.PRweb.com and www.PR.com. I usually submit to 5 total (www.PRleap.com www.i-newswire.com and www.free-press-release.com in addition to the first two). The reason is that they all have different posting policies. Two get your release published w/in 24 hours, and the others require editorial review. PRweb gives you a rating system and the best exposure if you upgrade for live links and Google submission. PR.com is the best free one to still get listed in Google news if you don't upgrade with PRweb. And PRleap has come through on the very rare occasion where PR.com doesn't get picked up quickly enough. To find editors? No. Not unless you want to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for a professional media directory like we professionals have to do. That's one of the reasons why it costs so much more to have pros do manual submissions, and why they're unlikely to give you the actual contacts (they handle submissions and followup for you usually). Those are the only ways to have constantly updated information to handle changeover and such. My preference is Burrelles (www.burrellesluce.com). You can see if they have a free trial or something - I know they did back when I started using them at least so you could test out the interface. I prefer online services, simply because they're updated more often. However, some libraries do carry the print versions in their reference sections (you may have a better chance of finding a Gales print and broadcast media directory in that case). They're usually outdated though pretty quickly, but it's an alternative. Other than that, you can look for general newspaper listing sites... there are tons (just search for free media contacts, newspaper directory, or something like that). You're unlikely to actually get an editor's name that way, but you can at least get a link to individual websites and look up the information or get their number to call and ask. Just write down any contacts you intend to use regularly and keep your own media list for the future. Jenn
I would recommend to test it with free PR site and check overall response, a good PR site with reasonable number of thoughtful reader base can give you positive result. If you write good article and your news is really "news" people will post that particular link in different forums, this will generate good backlinks and also you'll get good exposure.
I'm not sure what the original poster's intentions are, but at least one other person asking questions in this thread appears to actually want to use a press release properly... not as a back-link generating tool (based on the fact that they want to find real editor contacts). In that case, there's no "testing" to check link responses to see if forums and such post a link. Press releases have nothing at all to do with forums. The lowest you should be aiming is for blog owners to blog about your news. At best, you want major online and offline media outlets to give you their attention. You get one shot to send your release to the media. That means you better make it effective the first time. If you're just sending a press release as a "test" you obviously don't have anything newsworthy enough in it to justify sending a release anyway, and you're just clogging media inboxes (and the Web) with more garbage. Every single release you send should have the intent of being picked up by the media... not just generating a few links. If that's what you want, stop misusing such an important public relations tool, and stick to article directories. Jenn
Jenn, My point is Few PR sites trackbacks the Press release and encourage discussion about the Press release in the blogosphere/forums and hence it allows for link building that is built around legitimate content, Many people are posting about a PR/news in proper section in forums, that also generate bio links. Many tools are already available for "testing" to check the links.
Jhmattern I am very impressed with what you have to say Can you let me know if my press release is up to your standards? And any ways i can improve it it is here http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/3/prweb356806.htm Thanks
1. Is there something more newsworthy that you can say about the new website in the header? For example, are there unique features, is it a pretty rare topic, etc.? Honestly, your news isn't even that you have a new website. That should just be a side note. The real news is that your company is entering an entirely new market by making products available in the UK. 2. The summary is way too short. At least 2 sentences there, and work a url into it. Some people do nothing but browse the summaries, and you want to give them a link to your site there (if you upgrade to get live links at least). 3. First sentence: Right after the company name you should have a verb. Get right into the action. Actually, the whole first paragraph needs to be re-worked. Forget the whole background bits you have set off by commas. That's not important, and should be later in the release or in the boilerplate. The first paragraph is just to jump right into the news. Keep it as brief as you can while still answering who, what, when, where, and why. By saying something about the growth of the market, you're "trying" to answer the why apsect. But you're not doing it well yet. That doesn't mean anything to the media. Give them a particular statistic of the growth, how rapid it is, other industry trends, etc. Not only that, but general trends have nothing to do w/ why you'd break specifically into the UK market. So you want to explain that and the stats should be particularly relevant to that. 4. The last paragraph really isn't a boilerplate. It's ok for a last body paragraph, but you should have a line saying just "About Company Name" then drop down and include a paragraph of background on the company. That's what a boilerplate is for... to give extra background on the company. And that boilerplate should generally be the same on every press release you write. 5. Second paragraph: don't start off saying "the company" - give the company name again. Here you're trying to give the "why" finally that I said you need in the first paragraph. That whole quote should be eliminated. Never use a quote in a press release unless it's absolutely vital that what's being said is coming from a specific person. That quote isn't. It's just general background information. Re-write it, cut it, and move it to the first paragraph. 6. Since your primary news should be changed to reflect the new market; not the new website, create a new second paragraph adding the basic information about the new site's launch as a vehicle for reaching this new market, and include the url there. 7. Third paragraph - remove the comma after "offering". "oil based" should probably be hyphenated. Don't say what you're "hoping" to do. The media doesn't care. Don't talk about news that might happen in the future. Only discuss what's already happened, confirmed, and newsworthy. Another problem with the quote. The media doesn't care that the company spent a lot of money on something unless it's an astronomical figure, in which case you better tell them how much. Trust me, what you consider a lot is nothing to most of them, as they're hearing from huge corporations regularly. Actually that whole quote is just a bit of self promotion or justification. Remove it completely. It's useless in a press release. If you need to justify anything, it's like telling the media you aren't sure if your news is actually newsworthy to begin with. If you want to emphasize that you're a small company from the Phillipines, that's fine, and may actually work for you. But do it earlier on, like when you first mention you're breaking into a new market, and don't ever give general information like that through a quote. 8. Fourth paragraph - change it to "founding member". Take out the comma after "companies". Your first sentence is actually a pretty big run-on. Break it into two. 9. Boilerplate - Add one. 10. Add a blurb either at the end, or just before the boilerplate saying something to the effect of "For more information about [the topic of your news], contact [contact name] at [contact phone number]. You can add the email address in most cases (and should). Just don't directly on PRweb, b/c they don't want email addresses in the body of the release. Hope that helps a bit. Jenn
Woah once again I am blown away! I will ask the owners about giring you for their PR campaign. Have you also written an ebook with your knowledge? Thanks
No, I don't have any ebooks. I do run the Marketing / PR site for All Info About though. It's still pretty new and doesn't have a ton of content, but there are a few articles on press releases, and a press release template there: www.allinfoaboutmarketing.com I'll PM you with a few links to specific press releases I've written. Jenn