Why Write a Press Release?

August 21, 2007 on 12:15 pm | In Press Release | 2 Comments
by Joseph Scott

A proper press release is a pseudo-news story that is written in third person. It should demonstrate to an editor or reporter the newsworthiness of a particular person, event, service or product.

Press releases are often written as news becomes available but can also be a part of full press kit. The publicity gained from writing a press release can be much more effective than graphic ad banners and other forms of expensive advertising.

Why should I bother with publicity? Can't I just buy lots of advertising?

As important as advertising is to a marketing program, it cannot replace publicity. The reasons:

• Credibility: Advertising is clearly understood by the audience as coming directly from the sponsoring business and, as a result, is usually taken with a grain of salt. An article initiated (or "placed") by publicity efforts is viewed as the product of the reporter who wrote it - an objective, third party observer whose positive comments about your business will carry great weight.

• Cost: A big advantage - advertising space costs money, publicity space is free. Plus, publicity helps extend your advertising dollars by reinforcing ad messages.
• Crisis: In business, things don't always go as planned. Product recalls, tampering, theft, financial crises and other unhappy events do happen. An active free publicity operation allows you to respond quickly and efficiently.
• Chronic Ad Fatigue: If you're like me, you are sick, sick, sick of advertising. It's everywhere you turn, online and off. For me, those cruel ad boys crossed the line when they stuck advertising on the wall behind home plate at Yankee Stadium (is nothing sacred anymore?). Consumers have responded in the only way they can — they're tuning it out. Look at what a flop banner advertising has been on the net. Web surfers are ignoring banners in droves. Instead, they're moved only by one thing…
• Content: People don't want ads, they want information! And when you generate free publicity, you're telling your story as part of a newspaper article, a television news story, a magazine feature or a radio interview. In other words, you're in the place where people are actually looking, not ignoring.

Source: http://www.publicityinsider.com

 

Press Release Submission - Free or Paid — Can it be any harder?

August 20, 2007 on 6:03 pm | In Press Release, Search Engine Marketing | No Comments
by James Stacy Jones

So my task this week was do some research on submitting a press release.  I was thinking

"Cool something that should be fairly easy to decipher." 

I thought writing it was 90% of the battle but I now realize that submitting to the right place is just as important as the writing of it maybe even more important because if you write something fabulous and no one ever sees it then who cares.

So I start my search by finding out who the top press release web sites:

prweb.com
prnewswire.com
prnewsnow.com

Of course all these cost to submit.  So of course being the frugal person that I am I decide to look for free press release distribution.  So I start my search with seochat.com to find out what maybe someone knows that I do not know.  I come across 2 lists of free press release submissions.  I will show part of one list :

http://www.afly.com
http://www.afreego.com
http://www.baygo.com/press
http://www.betanews.com
http://www.bizeurope.com/pressrelease.htm
http://www.worldcasinodirectory.com/press-release.htm
http://www.downloadjunction.com/submit_press_release
http://www.express-press-release.com

After going through these I felt the pressure that should not come from submitting a press release, so I narrowed my search to "Top Press Release Submitters"  and I found this article.

http://www.11amdesign.com/faq/index.php?sid=880316&lang=en&action=artikel&cat=26&id=1212&artlang=en

This list was based on 2 factors by Gary Logsdon on July 21, 2007:

1. Search Engine Friendliness
2. Circulation

This now became my starting point for finding the best free press release web sites.  Just so you know I will quote from Gary what these factors represent.

"Search Engine Friendliness - One important factor of a prevailing press release campaign is to gather backlinks and under anchor text, if possible. Since most press release sites do not allow backlinks, a notation has been made to the ones that do.

Circulation - The second important factor of the press release is getting your message to reach a widespread audience. Since some press release websites are visited by thousands of webmasters everyday, a notation has been made to the ones that do."

URL of Press Release Submitter	Search Engine Friendliness	Circulation
http://www.press-base.com/		Yes
http://www.prfree.com/		Yes
http://www.prweb.com/		Yes
http://www.i-newswire.com/	Yes
http://www.pr.com/	Yes
http://www.1888pressrelease.com/	Yes
http://www.przoom.com/	Yes
http://www.freepressreleases.co.uk/	Yes
http://www.free-news-release.com/	Yes
http://www.prleap.com/	Yes	Yes

So according to the data  prleap.com would be the best choice.  And according to its web site it does tell you that you that more than likely will get your release online even in Google news if you pay the $50 Newswire Distribution fee.  But even you go the free route prleap.com, who have been around since 2003, press releases generally get included for FREE into Google News, Google, Yahoo Search, MSN, MSN Newsbot (UK) Moreover, Ask Jeeves, Teoma, News Now and many other leading sites.

Note: PRweb.com does guarantee your press release into 5 targeted industries and 2 metropolitan areas for $80 including Google and Yahoo news.

Now of course I need to submit and test to find out who does what they say and it goes where they say it goes.  Will let you know the results when they are in.

Well this is what I come up with so far but search continues to find the best places to submit to so if you happen to have a better place then please share and end my madness.