[TotalCallGroup]

10 days later what are the results of your press release?

[MoneyBusiness]

I believe it's still too early to see how well it has done, but so far so good. For the $250 I spent on PRweb.com, I'd like to see a good handful of backlinks more than anything else (since it's relatively new). If, and when, the search engines catch up, there should be a good number from waht I can tell.

Wrote a little about it here: http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=78721

edit: I have managed to gather a nice base of emails for permission marketing through the promotion on my site. Waiting till the whole thing ends before I send out any emails.

[Trust]

What did you spend $250 on?

On October 23, PRWeb did away with free press releases.

They now have:

$80 - BASIC SEO
This package optimizes your press release for high search engine rankings using PRWeb's many SEO tools.

$120 - BASIC SEO + SOCIAL MEDIA
Using the Basic SEO package as a platform and then enhancing it with Social Media tools plus additional distribution provides for an excellent set of features.

$200 - ADVANCED ONLINE VISIBILITY
Advanced Online Visibility pulls out the stops. It provides the tools and features of the other two packages, along with advanced reporting and statistical analysis.

Trying to figure out which package to get. Will go thru it some more over the weekend when I have a little more time.

[MoneyBusiness]

What's up Trust. I bought the full package for the press release, the $200 package, plus spent the rest on upgrades (stars).

If anything, it was a fun experience. The particular vertical I was promoting was a bit borderline in how effective the campaign would be (would be much more effective if it were something more popular). Needless to say, I did garner a good number of backlinks, with a few that were very useful to have. It also gave great exposure to the sweepstakes I was running, which turned out better than expected.

If you need any help with it, let me know (or PM me). Good luck.

[Gary-AvantLink]

Trust, IMO the two key things that come with the $200 contribution level at PRWeb are...

1. You get to set up your links from within the summary or body of the press release, using the strategic anchor text of your choice. You see a lot of folks just link up their site with their URL, but you should strategically link with text instead.
2. You get a free podcast with the $200 level.. but you have to request it. This is important b/c it's a whole seperate distribution through their podcast web site (www.prwebpodcast.com - take a look at that site. Our blog launch podcast is still on homepage after two days)..

The most important thing I figured out from doing these was to add your power link in your summary. At the $200 level, this puts your link (with anchor text of your choice) on PRWeb's PR 7 homepage for a day...even if it's 50 spots down. For example in our blog launch release here is our summary on the press release: "AvantLink recently launched their weblog at AvantShare.com to help communicate new program announcements, technical tips, merchant promotions, best practices and more. AvantLink's **Affiliate Marketing Blog** is powered by WordPress."

With **Affiliate Marketing Blog** as the link back to our site.

We've gotten everything that we've needed and more from the $200 level. Oh and if you have any questions, it's a pleasure to call and speak to the folks at PRWeb. They are real easy to reach.

Hope this helps, Gary M

[Vinny O'Hare]

Gary

I just listened to your podcast well done!
I met the nice folks from PRWEB at ad tech and they gave me a few great ideas on what I was doing wrong with my press releases. It is an art form to get them to be effective. I was using presell spin which doesn't work well if you are looking for media attention.

even though my few press releases were done on the cheap and not very good I can see why the 200 level is the way to go for sure.

[Gary-AvantLink]

Glad you listened! They make the free podcasts short and sweet. Although it's cool to be recorded and have your podcast published online, the real value is in the sep. distribution you get, and all the podcast directories that subscribe to their RSS feeds, etc...

[Trust]

Thanks for the replies. DL the podcast now to take a listen.

"plus spent the rest on upgrades (stars)."

Which upgrades? And any that you recommend or should stay away from?

[MoneyBusiness]

Basically, I bought the $200 package (which I suppose is - was - an upgrade as well, from the free releases). At that point, users have an option to purchase gold stars. These are the ones that you see listed beside a press release within PRweb. The more stars, the higher the placement and visibility.

The combination of upgrades, as well as the popularity of the industry (not much) allowed me to rise up pretty high on the first page. Had nice action for a while.

As far as recommendations, there really aren't any to make. If you purchase the $200 option, you get the full kit 'n kaboodle (such as: multiple industry targets, file attachments, seo wizard, trackbacks, choice of keywords / links, images, etc). The only other option at that point is to purchase the stars.

Hope that helps.

edit: I realized the total I gave earlier was incorrect (yay to my math skills). I spent a total of $240, not $250.

[rockcreeker]

Originally Posted by Gary-AvantLink

Glad you listened! They make the free podcasts short and sweet. Although it's cool to be recorded and have your podcast published online, the real value is in the sep. distribution you get, and all the podcast directories that subscribe to their RSS feeds, etc...

Now that PRWeb has made the podcasts an add-on for $100, we're starting to reconsider when we should use them. My instinct is that it would still be worth it at $100 because you are getting separate distribution, but it was nice to have it free while it lasted!

"Beginning Monday, December 18th, PRWeb's existing podcast services will be available as an add-on to any of PRWeb's press release distribution packages for $100. An additional podcast service offering an in-depth, extended 20 minute interview will also be available for an add-on of $200 to any existing press release package."

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/P...rweb491964.htm

[Gary-AvantLink]

Yep, I noticed that too on our most recent press release. I was bummed but at least we got a good handful of free podcasts while it lasted!

But you're right.. it probably is still worth the $100 for that separate distribution.

Gary M

[john9245]

Press Release's are very good for getting backlinks on good quality sites, you are most likely to also get your press release listed on Google News by listing it with PRweb. A press release is worth it as far as what I have heard, but make sure you write it so that it looks newsworthy.

[RSnapper]

I have used both the $200 plus and the $40 PRweb levels.


I have had success at both levels, but have not noticed much difference.

From reading this thread, I have noticed that I don't do enough releases.

Thanks for motivating me to get back to work with PRWeb.

One thing nice about PR is their customer service. If you have a question, they seem to answer it quickly. I even ask them to review my whole release, especially at the $200 level to make sure I am not forgetting to utilize any one of the features that I paid for.

[mmuise]

I run a site with information that's only relevant to Canadians. Are services like PRWeb worth it for sites that target audiences outside the U.S.?

[OptimistUnderSiege]

If you don't really have the budget for PRWeb just yet, is it worth distributing press releases through the multitude of free press release services out there? Is there any downside (besides wasted time)? Has anyone had any success (or lack of success) with the free services?

Thanks!

[Snib]

I've had much better luck submitting my press releases to popular, relevant blogs in my niche. I follow a handful that generate tens of thousands of visitors per day. Just getting one write-up is worth a lot of traffic and a good number of links when other blogs pick up on the story.

When it comes to press you've got to research and set goals. Build a list of sites that you'd love to pick up your story. After you've submitted to PRWeb send a copy to each of these sites with a custom letter pertaining to their service or blog. Hopefully they'll receive your press release before it goes live on PRWeb. This is give them the scoop and hopefully motivate them to do your story right away.

In the end it's your responsibility to get your story in front of the right people.

- Scott

[angelinna]

To increase my traffic and my sales I used email advertising.

I googled 'opt-in email advertising' and tested each week the companies I found there (used the first ones listed on that page) and got a lot of traffic, but the sales did not increase too much.

Acceptable results I got for [spam url removed] where I paid 1000 emails for $15 and got not only traffic, but also some sales.

I searched alexa.com for stats, and it seems that most of the traffic on this website is US based, so it would make sense to use it in my case.

[Sarah Bundy]

Guys, thanks for the great posts. I have been thinking about PR a lot this week since just starting my company and launching my website three weeks ago. I'm going to take all this advice and use it.

Thanks VERY much for your time and thoughts contributing to this thread.

[RSnapper]

I submit press releases at least quarterly through prweb. Submitting press releases is one of the best ways to create quality back links.

I use a copywriter to write/edit my releases. She is excellent and reasonable.

Send me an e-mail if you want the contact details. I think my e-mail is enabled in my account area.

[sprewellpj]

PRNewswire netted me tons of quality links as it has access to higher quality sites than its competitors

[Trust]

el bumpage

I use PRWeb (paid) for my main site. And I'm testing 3 free press release sites for my niche site over the next few days and will post the results. I'm testing:

http://www.free-press-release.com/

http://www.prlog.org/

http://www.pr.com/press-releases

Those were the first 3 to pop up on Google when I searched for free press releases. Anybody know of any other good free press release sites, I'll test those out too.

edited to add, one of the ones above is already sending me traffic. Tried 2 of them this morning, will post more next week.

[loxly]

Thanks for this bump Trust, I have been talking to people about press releases and although I have been told about free (and paid) services that are very good, I can't remember them all, lol. Hopefully people will see this and post here!

[Julian]

I am interested in this as well. Free is great, but nice to know if it is worth paying instead

[Gary-AvantLink]

Will be anxious to hear about the results, Trust. We haven't used a paid service in a while. Our Wordpress blog was getting better reach than our last few paid PRWeb releases.

Been curious myself about some of the free services. Here are a couple more I've been told about..

www.prleap.com
www.clickpress.com

Edited to add: Actually, doesn't look like they're free. So obviously I haven't looked to close at these. However some folks I know have good things to say about them.

[AffiliateHound]

Originally Posted by Trust

el bumpage

I use PRWeb (paid) for my main site. And I'm testing 3 free press release sites for my niche site over the next few days and will post the results. I'm testing:

http://www.free-press-release.com/

http://www.prlog.org/

http://www.pr.com/press-releases

Those were the first 3 to pop up on Google when I searched for free press releases. Anybody know of any other good free press release sites, I'll test those out too.

edited to add, one of the ones above is already sending me traffic. Tried 2 of them this morning, will post more next week.

Of these three, only prlog.com is really free, including a site link. pr.com will publish your RP for free, but if you want a link to your site, it costs $29.00. Same for free-press-release.com, but they only charge $1 for a link (but the minimum payment is $20, so you have to buy the rights to 20 links to get the first one).