Lesson #76: Free press release distribution services
If you do an online search for free press release distribution services, you can spend days researching them all.
My advice about any of them can be summed up in six little words: you get what you pay for.
If you want to experiment with any free service and see how effectively it draws traffic to your website and generates calls from the media, go right ahead. But please, don’t experiment when you have important or even semi-important news.
Some people post press releases at lots of these free sites because they want more inbound links to their website, which increases their page ranking. That’s fine. But do this in addition to using one of the paid services.
Here are the disadvantages of using free press release distribution services exclusively:
- Even though they call themselves “distribution” services, many of them don’t distribute anything. Your press release is simply “parked” at their website, waiting to be found by the search engines. Problem is, the search engines are busy paying more attention to the press releases that were posted through the paid services.
- The media seldom if ever visit these websites. They have more than enough press releases to review by concentrating on the major sites like PRNewswire, BusinessWire, MarketWire and other paid sites like PRWeb and Expertclick.com.
- The free services don’t have special arrangements with Google, Yahoo and other search engines to make content part of the search engine news feeds.
- There’s no way to track statistics, such as how many people viewed your press release.
- Many of the free services exist for one reason–to entice customers to pay to upgrade their release for a higher level of service so the search engines can find the releases. Or to generate revenue from Google Adsense ads.
Most Publicity Hounds who are truly serious making their press releases really work for them will be willing to pay a fee to a press release distribution service. If you’ve gotten fabulous results from one of the free services, please email me and let me know.
Word of caution: Don’t buy software that promises to automatically format and deliver your press releases to free press release “distribution” sites and “put your press releases on steroids.” Using these software programs can hurt your standing with search engines like Google. Most of these junk press release portals are created for one reason: to accept advertising.
Opportunity #76: Sponsorships
If you’re sponsoring something or someone, write a press release. For example, churches sponsor immigrant families that are settling into the community, companies provide equipment for famous athletes or sports teams through sponsorship arrangements, and nonprofit groups solicit sponsorships from companies to support a particular cause or issue.
Tomorrow: Whichever service you use, remember…
Need help with publicity?
The Publicity Hound’s Resources List includes products and vendors that can help with many aspects of your publicity campaign. You’ll find press release distribution services, publicists, audio experts, ghostwriters and more.
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