Press Releases can be used in a way similar to Articles to gain Search Engine rankings (backlinks) and traffic for your site. There are three keys to using Press Releases effectively.
- Have newsworthy information - if the information is not interesting, PR distribution sites will not accept it. Try to come up with something you would be interested in, such as a new product introduction, recognition of your company or a milestone met.
- It must be written correctly - though good Press Releases are relatively short, it takes a certain amount of skill to write them to grab attention. They must also be structured in a way the receiver expects to get the information.
- It must be distributed - you can certainly use it on your own site, but to get the real benefit, the Press Release must get in front of other people and on other sites.
Item one is up to you for the genesis of what is newsworthy. No one knows your publicity opportunities better than you. Item two is what we do; you will get an interesting, well structured Press Release. For item three, there are three choices:
- Expensive - There are traditional Press Wires that distribute to traditional channels such as Reuters or AP. These will cost several hundred dollars for each Press Release and do not necessarily result in backlinks or website placements, but if you have great information in your Release and you get very lucky, you might get Press coverage.
- Free - there are a few dozen Internet Press Release Distribution sites that will accept Press Releases for free. You generally sign up for an account and submit the Release. The better sites have a nice Page Rank and manually screen the Releases for quality and interest. We have received dozens of placements in a matter of three weeks using this strategy. Though these sites are free in dollars, they are not free in the time it takes to do 50 manual submissions. The URL links for these sites are available on our site under "Press Release Distribution List" if you want to do your own submissions.
- Small expense - if you want us to do the submission to these sites, we will do it for you for $29.95 (Click How To Distribute Press Releases).
