“In your experience, do you find EReleases.com<\/a> more effective?\u00a0 Or is there an even better service that may cost the same ($399) or less?”<\/p>\n The writer is making the Number One mistake that many people make with press releases: using them to catch the attention of journalists.\u00a0Here’s what I told the reader:<\/p>\n “You’re using online press releases incorrectly.\u00a0 In the vast majority of cases, you cannot rely on online press releases for media hits.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because that’s what everybody else is doing.\u00a0 And a one-size-fits-all-media-outlets press release ends up appealing to no media outlets, many of which are different.\u00a0 The far better way to generate publicity is through customized pitches to a targeted list of media outlets, either from you or from a publicist. (See How to Create a Media Plan<\/a>.)<\/p>\n “The big advantage to online press releases is that you can use them to pull in lots of traffic to your website.\u00a0 How can you measure results from such a release? Two ways:<\/p>\n “Within the release, you use a URL that leads people to a landing page at your website that was created specifically for that press release.\u00a0 Then you check your web stats to see how many people have visited.<\/p>\n “You\u00a0also set as a goal how many additional email addresses you want to gather as a result of that press release.\u00a0 You are collecting email addresses at your website, I hope?\u00a0I use the Hover Ad Creator<\/a>, special HTML coding that creates the box that bounces down from the top of the screen at my website<\/a>. This simple box TRIPLED sign-ups to my newsletter as soon as I started using it.”<\/p>\n Sure, the media can find your press releases online and, in some cases, you generate publicity. But the percentage of success stories is slim.\u00a0Anyone who is serious about using online press releases should subscribe to Expertclick, the Online Yearbook of Experts<\/a> which will also let them distribute press releases.\u00a0I’ve been a subscriber for several years and you can see some of\u00a0the Expertclick press releases I’ve posted. <\/a><\/p>\n Two other huge advantages of Expertclick:<\/p>\n —A subscription automatically gives you a spot in the online Yearbook of Experts which journalists use frequently when looking for specific types of sources. I’ve interviewed dozens of Publicity Hounds who have been interviewed as a result of their Yearbook profiles.<\/p>\n —Because the search engines\u00a0view Expertclick as an authoritative site,\u00a0my Expertclick profile<\/a> gets excellent ranking when someone types “publicity expert” into Google.\u00a0In fact, I have the top three positions for that keyword phrase. The first position is the homepage at my website. The second is to the bio at my website.\u00a0 The third is my Expertclick profile.<\/p>\n So, in effect, I’ve trounced my competitors for this keyword phrase, and I’m working hard to secure the fourth position. How well do you trounce your competitors? Are you even on the first page of Google?<\/p>\n If not, an Expertclick subscription could put you there. In addition to your profile, you can post up to 52 press releases a year at no additional per-release charge.<\/p>\n This week is an ideal time to give Expertclick a try because Mitchell Davis,\u00a0 who runs www.NewsReleaseWire.com<\/a> and Expertclick, wants you to “taste” his service and send\u00a0press releases\u00a0this week without cost or obligation.\u00a0You can get a free week to send\u00a0releases and create a Press Room Page about your business.\u00a0 See their video<\/a> about how it all works. You must respond by\u00a0Thursday, Feb. 19. Call them at 202-333-5000 during Eastern Time office hours and for the “Free Week from Publicity Hound,” and they can set it up for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of my newsletter readers writes: “We’ve used PRWeb a couple times for press releases.\u00a0 The first time, last summer, resulted in a few small market radio show interviews.\u00a0 The second release, this past week, which seemed to be more likely to gain some attention, resulted in nothing.\u00a0 Zero.\u00a0 We realize that a press release\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":3,"wds_primary_category":612,"footnotes":""},"categories":[612],"tags":[13,610],"class_list":{"0":"post-2847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-online-marketing","7":"tag-press-releases","8":"tag-publicist","9":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42140,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions\/42140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"publicityexpert\"](\"https:\/\/www.publicityhound.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/publicityexpert.jpg\" "\\"publicityexpert\\"")
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