Advice on PR distribution services

[andylong]

I went to an SEO and WEB design conference yesterday and one
major point was the overall importance of submitting PR to professional PR distribution services. We operate an online advertising and marketing resources site and I wanted to find the best methods of getting PR published.

Does anyone have any experience in using press release distribution companies and which ones are you using for UK and International distribution?

Thanks

Andrew

[edited by: pageoneresults at 1:46 pm (utc) on June 30, 2005]
[edit reason] Removed Signature URI - Please Refer to TOS [/edit]

[jonrichd]

It's not a bad idea to use a press release distribution service for your releases for a few reasons. Many people are using Yahoo News and Google News to get current information on topics of interest, and these services can get your release listed there. Also, these sources are becoming the places journalists go to get story ideas; more than reading through the piles of faxes and emails they get every day, since they can search for specific topics.

A well-written press release can also show up in the regular search engine results, since most of these services place their releases where they can be crawled by the regular search engine spiders as well as the news spiders.

I have used some of these services, and got what seemed to me like a tremendous number of page views, given the article content. Some of these releases still show up on search results today, even though the articles were published over a year ago.

I don't know about the UK, but here in the US there are only two or three major distribution services, with other companies offering to do some or all of the work for you (for a fee). So, as you are searching, see if the company will publish your release directly, or if they use someone else for distribution.

Hope this helps.

[Cheeser]

I recently used PRWeb Direct for the first time and have been very pleased, especially considering the price. Their $350-ish level includes submission to PR Newswire (which by itself costs an annual membership + per press release fee which far exceeds $350). After submission, I got a phone call from an editor making sure everything was right and helping me pick specific industry targets. Very impressed. I've gotten a lot of phone calls from media and at least 5 newspaper articles printed to date, with more in the pipeline. That's all in addition to a slew of online stories that got into Google News, Yahoo News and many other PR distribution sites, many with active links back to my site.

I would say that it's very important that your press release is well-written and clear of extreme "hype". Write it like a newspaper article using the upside-down triangle method (most important information first, gradually less important stuff as it moves down). Don't EVER use exclamation points, and use at least one "quote" - even if it's just you. ("This new thingy that the press release is talking about is just great," said Your Name, president of Your Company.)