Are press release sites useful?

[MarloSchneider]

Many of my clients release newsletters and other peices of content qualify as press releases.  I have been wondering if people find that the press release sites such as PRleap or PRweb are useful and worthwhile?  If so, which do you feel is the best?

Is there any research on this?  I am planning to record my results from these sites and perhaps make a Youmoz post in the future.

[jaraca]

I've learnt a lot. Thank you all for the aswers!

[dawnieando]

We have used a range of both free and paid press release services As part of an overall marketing blend.  Of the paid services Marketwire and Pitch Engine releases have performed well in terms of pickup in search but ultimately of course, it's about the news you're pushing out there. If your story is the same as every other man and his dog then it's not going to bring huge benefit.

[ryleepage]

I had really good results with SB WIRE.  PIAD - 35 dollars but my Louisiana Plantation has to pick up a fritchin here and there.  My site is www.albanyplantation.com

im using .. Google's Keyword tool , Scrapebox (but ONLY to find relevant blogs to my niche. Majesticseo, & Seomoz

[Ron10]

Hi!  i was wondering how does PRweb bring stability to your rankings?  is it just from the in text links from the press release or from the backlinks that the press release generates?  i play in a band and am performing at an American Heart Association Fund Raiser and considered using PRweb to announce this fund raiser. Is that something that someone would pick up or is it too localized?  The event will be held in Houston, TX.  Would the link in the press release help my site in the serps?  Thanks in advance for your input!

Ron

[McTaggart]

I've been a PR for over a decade and never once have I used a PR newswire. I find the personal and targeted approach far better. Research your target journalist. Write a bespoke news release. Speak to the journalist. That's the best way to achieve coverage in the most influential media outlets.

[CoreyNorthcutt]

Agree here.  Using the free newswires is a waste of time, but using PRWeb/PRNewsWire correctly seems to yield consistent results (with emphasis on 'correctly' here, as there is a lot to writing and distributing a solid release).

[Skyelarh]

I've seen press releases perform well, but only if they're newsworthy and distribution is done by a reputable company. PR's should not be a primary seo tactic, however I think they should be employed periodically as a business' online marketing strategy. A good pr can drive high quality traffic to a site and generate some nice backlinks. PRweb is effective in this regaurd while maintaining a lower cost then conventional pr wires.

[JaspalX]

In our PR agency, we find that it is true to say the top-tier guys rarely pick up news from a press release site, but it does happen sometimes (albeit rarely). For the top-tier we always send the release directly to the targeted journo/blogger/influencer and follow up.

We do get take up from mid-level blog and news sites from issuing releases via a wire service though (we like PRWeb and PR NewsWire - different services seem to work better in different territories) - those are a bonus and they usually give a link worth having.

[bozzie311]

I have seen press releases thru PRweb bring great stability to our rankings.

[BrianFL]

I think so. There are many free PR sites you can leverage effectively to get good exposure, especially for local businesses.

[DiamondJewelryEmpire]

its always worth to get an extra link from reputable source.

[Sangeeta]

We have used press release sites particularly PRWeb with the social media option for quite a clients. It works good for ecommerce sites as we have noticed online sales going up after each press release. For the others it does not make much of a difference except increase the site traffic by 4-7%.

We use both HARO and paid PR sites for press releases. They both target different audiences.

[jschweitz]

A lot of great advice here about press releases. Why not do them as a way to just get your brand name out there and gain some links? Here is another free site for press releases - http://www.free-press-release.com/

Titles must be catchy and the copy engaging/unique or it won't get picked up. But regardless of that fact, you can still gain some links (albeit sometimes temporary) from the press release sites themselves.

[tomcraig86]

They're still good for links! Plus, as a company you need to be producing Press Releases weekly anyway to give to other various sources. For the extra 10 minutes it takes to upload it to the site you may as well just for the high PR links!

[christinarule]

Thanks! Very helpful!

[SonetDigital]

I’m glad you raised this Spencer. I have been using press release sites (PRweb) for the last eight years and have had a limited success with some of our releases and others were not so hot.

A few years back we had a client who was chosen to appear with her business in a reality TV show. We produced a press release with information about the client and her business and why she was picked for this show. The release was quite lengthy and had a lot of content that was not known about her – it did quite well and was featured on several hundred websites with some nice backlinks to her site.

Another release about why remodelled bathrooms increase house properties performed even better and created some nice linkage for another client.

A release for a client who is in the luxury and designer clothing industry did not do so well – and in my opinion was a great press release. Why it didn’t do so well I have no idea – it was a real head scratcher – it could have been timing – London Fashion Week had been over for a month and was old news.  It could have been other factors in the wrong type of circulation – basically not the right audience.

I think a Press Release can work quite well and perform if the subject matter is a trending topic / Buzzword, or has a current popularity level.

[Goetzman]

Thanks mark, i'm looking into both of these sites. I agree that bloggers and journalists probably don't care without using other factors

[Goetzman]

looks promising

[rodnic66]

Hi Shailendra, let me know how you get on, it's always great talking to people who use our stuff.  My email address is in my profile.

Cheers

Rod

[IM_Learner]

Thanks for the reply Rod! It's really a life saver for me as i registered on your site last week

[rodnic66]

Hi Spencer,

Full Disclosure: I work for PR Newswire

What's dead about press releases is the old send and forget, broadcast model.  As part of a set of communications tools that includes social media, use of compelling images and video, tells a story well, is focused on what the audience is looking for and provides relevant and tangible calls to action, then press releases can be an extremely effective.  Press releases are content and their use needs to be optimized, tracked, assessed and revised as much any other.

If you're looking for tools, look for those that give the best measurement.  If you can't measure what effect you're having, how do you know the tool is working?

Cheers

Rod

[UPform5]

I am a fan of press releases and indeed they work (well for me) as long as you have great magnetic headlines (read: copyblogger & shoemoney) a great copy can always go a long way!

[MarkHodson]

There is one strong benefit for companies to use press release sites: those sites are likely to get crawled and indexed by the engines much more quickly than the company's own site.

I've run my own tests of 15 PR sites over a period of several months and found that some get crawled very quickly (others don't). I like Pitch Engine for paid services and I've found the best of the free sites to be Prlog.org (if you don't mind competitors' ads on your releases).

It's often said that press releases are an outdated mode of getting out information and, in a sense that's true, because journalists and bloggers don't rely on them for stories (arguably, they never have done).

However, journalists and bloggers do rely on Google to provide news and research material. So if you put out some company news - whether or not you call it a press release - you want it to be crawled and indexed immediately.

[MarloSchneider]

Awesome, thats the one, thanks!

[PeteGregory]

Sorry for the delay in response, I didn't notice this until now.  Anyway, I think yolu are referring to Zemanta and Rand talked about it here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/4-valuable-link-building-services

[monicawright]

I haven't tried out the service yet, but someone just told me about PitchEngine.com which may be an interesting way to build out your media relationships. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[MarloSchneider]

Thank you, Those are both very good sites although not necessarily directly related to Press Releases (but I guess those are dead, anyway).

I remember in a Rand presentation or article there was a blog site that was relatively the same as HARO with people posting their blog posts to be used as cited quotes in other blog posts, and the site pulled them up as you wrote your blog post for relevancy, any chance you remember the name of that site?

[Dr-Pete]

I have some smaller clients who have had limited luck with it, but I think it's best to just stick to one of the sites and do periodic releases (maybe every couple of months). If nothing else, it'll give you a sense of what's working, and you can take some of the popular releases and push to get them a broader market.

What I wouldn't do is go after multiple low-value PR services and plaster the same releases everywhere you can. At best, it's diminishing returns - at worst, they'll be devalued. I'm with Peter G. - the best press release opportunities come through relationships with the media. Obviously, though, that takes a lot more time.

[gfiorelli1]

I not a great fan of press release sites, as I think they are not giving a real personalized (is it correct this word?) service.

If I was you I would try to convince your clients to transform those press release into posts creating a blog. Then I would use the newsletters as a way to promote the blog with Media and contacts in Media.

That way it would be possible to create a more personal relationship between your clients' sites and the media, and from there more interesting linking opportunities.

[PeteGregory]

Funny enough I was just reading a recent article on forbes on this topic.  You can check it out here: http://blogs.forbes.com/marketshare/2011/01/23/why-the-news-release-is-worthless-in-todays-social-media-age/

I think that having a solid social network and using places like HARO, you are going to get a much better response for the effort you put in.  I think some of the cases where this can still be effective is when you have a really good newsworthy story (not a sales pitch) and an exceptional title that will not be jumped past by potential publishers.

As for a company to go to for pr's I have used prweb with good results in the past, but rarely use them anymore as we find HARO, MyBlogGuest, and building strong social networks to be far better performers.