Press Release?

What exactly is a press release and how does a site benefit from it?

 

Press release - is message (article) you sent to press and media informing about any news. It should be written in good style and not be like advertisement or product presentation.

Biggest advantage of it is that if your press release looks interesting to press or media, you will get it posted on big sites like Yahoo!, CNN or even shown on TV.

From my personal experience press release gave me some quite good backlinks and also boosted my PR a little.

 

Press releases are a necessary part of your marketing and public relations, but unless I'm doing something terribly wrong, I haven't seen a significant increase in back links. So, I would say unless you have something incredibly interesting and newsworthy, your gonna only get backlinks from the sites you submit to plus a handful from other, mostly scraper sites.

The sites I run are pretty niche so maybe the releases don't have a wide appeal...? I usually submit to about 40 sites and use the pay prweb service.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Do a search on the last sentence with quotes in yahoo, only 7 matches come up.
http://www.worldgolf.com/newswire/browse/4405-GolfHomeConnect-com--Golf-course-real-estate-made-easy

Now, I've had people tell me they can get thousands of backlinks with a press release. I'm rather sceptical especially for us smaller niche site operators. I hope I'm wrong.

 

Much has been said about the topic by the posters above. Now I'd add the list to those Press Release submission sites where you can submit your PR.

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List of Press Release Submission Sites

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http://www.prweb.com - PRWeb
http://www.pressflash.com/cgi/click/?3384 - PressFlash
http://www.prleap.com - PRLeap
http://www.prnewswire.com - PR Newswire
http://www.prwebdirect.com - PRWeb Direct
http://www.sbwire.com - SB Wire
http://www.theopenpress.com - TheOpenPress
http://www.hotmicrocap.com - Hotmicrocap
http://www.billhartzer.com - Billhartzer
http://www.free-press-release.com - Free-press-release
http://www.dbusiness.com/pressrelease.htm - D Business
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com - Software Marketing Resource
http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com - Press Release Network
http://www.macgo.net/news/submit.php - Macgo
http://www.devpress.com/addNews.html - Dev Press
http://www.betanews.com - Beta News
http://www.softpressrelease.com - Soft Press Release
http://www.devarchive.com - DevArchive
http://www.ideamarketers.com/library/profile.cfm?writerid=9643 - IdeaMarketers
http://www.i-newswire.com/submit_free.php - I-Newswire
http://www.afreego.com - A Free Go
http://www.lunareclipse.net/pressrelease.htm - Lunareclipse
http://www.hspstreet.com/pr/ - HSPstreet
http://www.marketwire.com - Market Wire
http://www.mediapost.com/ - Media Post
http://www.baygo.com/press/ - Baygo
http://www.urlwire.com/ - URL Wire
http://www.webwire.com/ - Web Wire
http://www.press-base.com/ - Press Base
http://www.newspad.com/ - News Pad
http://www.storebuilder.co.uk - Store Builder
http://www.creativecommons.org/ - Creative Commons
http://www.emediawire.com - EMediaWire
http://www.businesswire.com - BusinessWire
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi - Pressbox.co.uk
http://www.pressmethod.com/ - Pressmethod
http://www.click2newsites.com/ - Click2NewSites
http://www.newswire.ca/ - Canada Newswire
http://www.cdn-news.com/ - Canadian Corporate News
http://www.malebits.com - MB Publishing Press Releases
http://www.internetworldstats.com/press.htm - Internetworldstats
http://www.forrelease.com/ - For Release
http://www.hungarynewswire.com - Hungary newswire
http://www.groupweb.com - GroupWeb
http://africa.emailwire.com/africa/africa_media_list.html - Africa Newswires Service
http://www.prfree.com/ - PR Free
http://www.openpress.com/ - OpenPress
http://www.downloadjunction.com/submit_press_release - Download Junction
http://www.majon.com/advanced/advanced-pr.html - Advanced Press Release
http://www.itilcommunity.com/modules.php?name=Submit_News - ITIL Community
http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com - Press Release Network
http://www.ideasiteforbusiness.com/cpress1.htm - Ideasiteforbusiness
http://www.media-press-release.com - Media press releasean
https://www.promaxum.com/promaxum_newsflash.html - Promaxuml
https://www.prudentpressagency.com - Prudent Press Agency
http://www.dime-co.com - Dime-co.com
http://www.thehostingnews.com/gate.html?name=Submit_News - Host News
http://www.webazar.com - Webazar.com
http://www.software-review-center.org/act/addnews.php - Software-review-center
http://searchwarp.com - Searchwarp
http://www.tmcnet.com - TMCnet
http://www.bizeurope.com/pressrelease.htm - Biz Europe
http://www.symbcity.com/new/public - Symbcity
http://www.programmersheaven.com - Programmers Heaven
http://www.openpr.com - Open PR
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/ourworld/publish/index.html - Our World
http://www.eceurope.com/index.htm - ECEurope Buy Sell offers
http://www.press-release-writing.com - Press Release writing
http://www.seo-pr.com - SEO-PR
http://www.internetwriters.com - Internet Writers
http://www.gebbieinc.com/ - Gebbie Press
http://www.XpressPress.com - Xpress Press
http://www.imediafax.com/ - Imediafax
http://www.earthvision.net/market/addstory.cfm - EarthVision
http://www.webnewswire.com/ - WebNewsWire
http://www.opportunityupdate.com/articles/ - Opportunity Update
http://www.internetnewsbureau.com - Internet News Bureau
http://www.ereleases.com - eReleases
http://upload.it/shareware_soft_000005.htm - Upload.it
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com - 24-7 Press Release
http://store.1choice4ystore.com/articles.html - YStore
http://www.ideasiteforbusiness.com/cpress1.htm - Click Press Direct
http://www.threadwatch.org/ - Threadwatch
http://www.eworldwire.com - EWorldWire
http://www.afly.com - aFly
http://articlecity.prwebdirect.com/ - Articlecity Press Release
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/BizNews/pressrelease.htm - Powerhomebiz
http://newslink.org/ - NewsLink.org
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/business_resources/newsstatsca.jsp - MediaINFO Links
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi - Pressbox
http://www.bizeurope.com/pressrelease.htm - Biz Europe
http://www.pr-scotland.com/addpr.htm - PR Scotland
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/pressrelease.asp - Fashion and Garment News
http://www.e-syndicate.net - e-syndicate.net
http://www.our-hometown.com/ - Our Hometown
http://www.emailwire.com - Emailwire
http://www.africanewswire.net - Africa Newswires Service
http://www.express-press-release.com/ - Express press release
http://www.prbot.com/ - PRBot
http://highwire.stanford.edu/ - Highwire Press
http://www.newzalert.com/ - Newzalert
http://www.addpr.com - Add PR
http://www.click2newsites.com/press.asp - Click2newsites
http://www.profnet.org/press.html - Press Release Resources
http://mediapeak.com - Mediapeak
http://www.softwarewire.com/SubmitRelease.htm - Software Wire
http://news.baou.com/ - OfficalWire

 

So then why are some people saying that they are paying money to post their press releases? I've heard something like paying $20 to $40 is a good amount, if you pay less, it's not worth it.

Does the amount of money you pay increase the chances of it getting picked up and how does it increase your chances? Does paying more put your press release in a certain place that offers more exposure or something?

 

I have done everything for free without investing any money. It depends on your topic, so if your article is very interesting for your target audience and press with media, I think it's worth to invest, but if you short of money, it could be enough to use free option only.

 

But what does paying money get you? A better placement on the front page of the PR website or something?

 

Depends whom you pay money.

If you pay money for Press release writer, it gives you more professional press release which has more chances to be more interested to media.

If you pay PR distribution companies (PRWeb, etc.) you get faster distribution (there is no 3 day lag on PRWeb), also you can get placement on Yahoo! or Google News, etc.

That depends very much on whom and how much are you paying.

 

Also just submitting articles through an article submisiion site is a good cheap way to get publicity and links (and clicks) back to your site. Article marketer has very easy submission and a free option if you want to save money.

If you already written a Press release then you coild spend a few minutes changing it to suit an article format and get a lot of extra links for very little extra work, mark

 

Guess my point was that you're not going to get extra back links except from the site you submit to and therefore unless you have something incredibly newsworthy, it's only worth submitting a few press releases since the links will be from the same ip address is the sites you submit to.

 

Sometimes it's ok to get even 1 backlink, because it's from high PR page and it helps to index your site even faster.

But as always there are various problems with that. I have made PR on the time I changed my site into english and started targeting english speaking market, it made me increase my position for the terms I needed a little bit and also gave some information to potential users.

 

So does anyone have any information or good sites on how to write a Nice press release?

 

http://www.publicityinsider.com/release.asp

 

nice link,
thansk

 

I wrote a press release for a friend. He received several radio show offers and got a lot of exposure on several national radio stations.

 

Marketing Experiments dot com had an awesome study on press releases.

They did a whole lot testing on Press Releases and found them to be highly beneficial in terms of getting back links when done in the right way - and especially when done as an ongoing press release campaign. Plus Press Releases can create a lot of traffic.

You definitely need to have something news worthy.

 

Can you guys list what you normally pay for a press release, who you distribute through, and how (National, regional, local, international?) you distribute?

 

sufyaaan,
you really know your press release sites! Thanks for the long list! I'm gonna try it out and see how it goes, I'll report back here if anything interesting happens with my traffic.

 

I'd be very interested to find out what happens. Please do report back here and let us know!

 

Great Topic, Love the list sufyaaan provided