5 Ways Free Press Release Sites Can Cost You

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Yes, free press release sites can and do cost the uninformed and even the experienced marketer. Some of the costs are screamingly obvious others are more hidden. And it’s my role as your advocate to review and reveal them all. Let’s roll!

OK, so you’ve written your press release. Next action: online press release distribution. Now If you’re stuck in terms of a press release distribution strategy, here’s an earlier article about choosing between horizontal and vertical distribution.

(Editor’s Note: feedback please! Take the press release distribution poll at the bottom of this article to help us better gauge topics for future articles.)

Now the purpose of this article is to examine free press release sites-and more importantly-to realize that free doesn’t always mean no-cost. As a big believer of online press releases, consider me amazed, even dumbfounded when a new blog post or tweet surfaces with a BIG list of free press release sites.

So I wondered, am I missing something? Only one way to find out-dig in and do some due diligence. Curious about what I discovered? Well, my search turned up more questions than answers.

A sampling: first, where’s the context? Do I submit an online press release to all those sites? Some of those sites? Which free press release sites do better with the media? Is there software available that will mass submit to those sites? How do free press release sites perform vs. paid sites? What metrics do these sites provide or am I on my own in determining the release’s success or lack thereof?

Yes, my mind was whirring with questions each in search of answers. Here’s the challenge: most of my experience is with paid press release sites and newswires. Of course, some of you reading this now have limited experience in online press release distribution either free or paid.

So consider this foray into the free press release world an educational experience for both of us. And with that in mind…

5 Ways Free Press Release Sites Can Cost You

1. Extra time investment

Time is money. When you pay to distribute online press releases you can often rely on just one service, especially if you use big, established newswires like PR Newswire, BusinessWire and Marketwire. Even PRWeb can provide enough coverage to justify just using a single provider.

However, those newswires are often not budget-friendly, especially for small businesses. So it’s only natural to turn to lower cost or even free press release sites. Dana Willhoit author of “Press Release Stomper” advocates distribution of several free press release sites with every release. Christine Kelly of OnlinePRNews.com has also recommended using multiple free press release sites with every release.

So instead of using one provider now you’re using several. Each press release site has its own interface, its own unique requirements, its own nuances, upgrades, etc.

What’s more, in my tests, adding hyperlinks to press release copy boosts traffic. Yet, some of these providers require a fair amount of hoop jumping, even to the extent of creating your release in an HTML editor and creating clean HTML code to be effective.

And unlike the major press release sites, you’ll need to plan ahead. Many free press release sites have limited editorial desk/customer service hours, often requiring you submit your online press release 48 hours in advance.

Takeaway: is the extra time you’re spending on increased labor worth what you’re saving by going the free route? With some economical press release sites, we’re talking anywhere from $20 – $100 for some good performance results.

2. Online exposure and visibility

One reason to use multiple free press release sites is that you can’t rely on a single free press release site to deliver the typical coverage and exposure you receive from a paid site. Granted, you can increase visibility by paying to upgrade (see #3) but then that’s not a free press release site and it is costing you, right?

Even with the upgrades, I’m not convinced you’ll duplicate the exposure you’ll receive from paid press release sites.

So how do you know what kind of online exposure and visibility to expect? The chart below is a quick, rather unscientific snapshot with a specific outcome. Specifically, the level of penetration in Google News and Yahoo! News. Seeing lots of listings is impacted by the following factors:

  1. Quantity of releases submitted. That’s one reason why PRnewswire typically has the greatest number, simply because that’s the preferred choice of many companies and PR companies.
  2. Quality. Search engines give preferred treatment to more established newswires and press release sites.
  3. Syndication/aggregation. Some press release sites (PR-Inside.com for example) often pick up newsfeeds from other newswires and press release sites.

sevisibility400px1

 

If you’re considering using a free press release site, do a quick search in the news search engines and see what exposure that press release site is getting. Just search site: (insert press release site url). If you don’t see a lot of listings, I’d go with a newswire that has more activity and better search engine penetration.

Takeaway: Again, there is a time component, since you’ll need to submit to multiple free sites to get the exposure you’d receive from one of the paid sites.

3. Upgrades = extra cost

Now this is an area that gets right to the bottom line. How do free press release sites stay in business? Well, advertising revenue is one way. Another is an upgrade fee.

Here’s the rub: just about anything extra is an upgrade. Even worse, the upgrades are not consistent from site to site. You’ll need to invest some time just familiarizing yourself with the various upgrades, if they’re worth the investment and how that impacts your marketing budget.

In fact, in a review of about 15 different free press release sites, I counted 25 different upgrades. Here’s a sample:

  1. Speed of approval
  2. Speed of distribution
  3. Higher placement on page (above free listings)
  4. Preferred/showcased listing
  5. Distribution: more sites
  6. Other/social media
  7. More industry categories
  8. Placement in additional newsfeeds
  9. More words
  10. Formatting: bold / italic text
  11. Archiving
  12. Media Attachments: images, video, pdf, mp2
  13. Ad-free page

Takeaway: free sometimes costs money, especially for features and functionality that are already bundled in with paid newswires. Again, compare and contrast. Ordering numerous upgrades ala carte may end up costing more than a paid newswire that includes several at one fixed price.

To be clear, I’m not 100% anti-upgrade. Yet, in the spirit of transparency, we are talking free vs. paid. So freebie seeker and buyer beware.

4. Performance metrics/course correcting

At a high level, you can view online press release metrics in two camps: external and internal. External includes search engine performance, keyword ranking, press release views/downloads and backlinks. Internal refers to how that traffic shows up to your website: visitors, conversions, etc.

Many of the paid press release sites provide helpful website stats. (Although I find the “number of reads” stat suspect. These are not human eyeballs, often it’s a site that receives a press release constitutes as a read. )

Still, if you use the same press release sites consistently, key benchmarks begin to emerge. For example, when I use PRWeb, I consider a number of reads plus headline impressions of 75,000 a good indicator of decent exposure. Looking at the screen capture from my PRweb account you’ll notice the overall number of this release was considerably higher, 246,282. )

prwebstats

Takeaway: with free press release sites, performance metrics range from sketchy to non-existent. Many free and even paid providers offer more robust metrics for-you guessed it – an upgrade.

Another takeaway: there’s an old saying “you can’t improve what you can’t measure.” Because of the limited nature of free press release metrics, you gain less market knowledge and insights that you can funnel into future releases, thus improving performance over the long term.

5. Staying power

One of my most effective online PR strategies is creating evergreen content somewhere in the press release. That way, when the release is found via a keyword search, there is content still deemed relevant to the user.

Whether it be from my own experience or that of my clients and customers, there has been a consistent phenomenon: when journalists are performing research for a story, they turn to the same place we do for the information: the search engines. In so doing, it’s possible to get media coverage days, weeks, months, even years after your release was originally submitted.

Takeaway: One key factor determining this is exactly where your press release ranks for keyword searches. Again, the search engines seem to reward the more established newswires. And keep in mind if you use a free press release site and you don’t pay for archiving, then you have ZERO staying power.

Again, in my tests the paid newswires seem to have better staying power. Granted, there are many variables that impact this. I’m only coming from my place of experience. If you have a different experience, please enlighten US with your comment.

Conclusion and recommendations:

Knowing what you know now, if you’re still comfortable with free press release sites, have at it. At least you know what to watch out for. And you can always outsource the distribution and let someone else worry about stayingcurrent on all the pluses and minuses.

I’m also hoping to hear from some free press release sites people and have them state their case. If nothing else, by bringing some of these challenges to light, here’s hoping they up their game and perhaps standardizing what’s free vs. what’s paid. Right now, with all the upgrades, it’s all over the map.

I will continue testing free press release sites further and will report back what I find. You may wonder as to why I didn’t include specific case study results from using free press release sites.

A point well taken as my views are shaped by my experience at an aggregate level. Again, I’m coming from own area of experience, which is via paid newswires.

To present all sides of the story as a benefit to my readers, I’ll be interviewing Dana Willhoit, an expert on free press release sites to gain further insights into this area of Online PR. Do watch for that coming soon. And I’m open to interviewing execs at free press release sites as well.

Please take the poll and leave your reply to this post.

Story highlights and action steps:

  • Time to review: 14 minutes
    • Know your distribution strategy going in, let that guide free vs. paid choice
    • Free sites do not mean no cost, many include extra charges for service upgrades
    • Free sites can have obvious costs (upgrades) and more hidden costs (time investment, performance, metrics, etc.)
    • Free sites can and do work, but more are needed for effectiveness of each release distributed
  • Related Resources:
    • Dana Willhoit, Press Release Stomper.
    • PR Traffic System for optimized press releases
  • Action Steps:
    • Review this online press release distribution article for strategy insights.
    • Comprehensive directory of press release sites coming soon. Sign up for 30MinutePR tips (top of the page) to get on the notification list.
    • Test! Use a free press release site and a paid press release site for each release and measure results. And report back the outcome via the comments below.
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    84 Comments

  • Michelle Cox says:

    Nice article and one that I will likely share with clients.

  • Michelle Cox says:

    Nice article and one that I will likely share with clients.

  • Hi Marc ~
    Thanks for sharing your thoughts on free press release distribution sites.
    Another concern about free press releases: how will the search engines treat duplicate content? Will you get bounced out?
    We find that PitchEngine.com is the most-fully featured free press release distribution option. Free releases expire after 30 days. Upgrade options include a fully branded online newsroom for $50 per month or $550 per year or a release archive for $35 per release or $400 per year. Releases get indexed into Google almost immediately.
    PRWeb offers better reporting and some clients are okay with paying for that. I agree with you that the overall numbers are suspect. What we value more is search reports that tell us how people are finding our clients and where the readers are located.
    Both services offer multimedia uploads. Visuals support words and give publications/readers a way to see the story.
    By the way, I like how you include a poll in your post – very clever and useful.
    Barbara
    @wiredprworks on twitter.com

  • Hi Marc ~
    Thanks for sharing your thoughts on free press release distribution sites.
    Another concern about free press releases: how will the search engines treat duplicate content? Will you get bounced out?
    We find that PitchEngine.com is the most-fully featured free press release distribution option. Free releases expire after 30 days. Upgrade options include a fully branded online newsroom for $50 per month or $550 per year or a release archive for $35 per release or $400 per year. Releases get indexed into Google almost immediately.
    PRWeb offers better reporting and some clients are okay with paying for that. I agree with you that the overall numbers are suspect. What we value more is search reports that tell us how people are finding our clients and where the readers are located.
    Both services offer multimedia uploads. Visuals support words and give publications/readers a way to see the story.
    By the way, I like how you include a poll in your post – very clever and useful.
    Barbara
    @wiredprworks on twitter.com

  • Nate Towne says:

    One very important consideration you didn’t touch too much upon is the cost for distributing additional content such as images, video and audio files. In the new reality of the social media release (SMR) video and audio are almost expected by journalists. PR Web is a very affordable way attach additional content whereas PR Newswire will cost you an arm, a leg, and most of your remaining leg’s cankle. PitchEngine can do all of this for free, but of course you don’t get the distribution/feed unless you pay for it. One other important difference between PR Web and PR Newswire is I know exactly who picks up my release (along with a link) because they go far beyond PR Web when it comes to monitoring pickups and the range of data they offer. Great post, thanks for doing all this legwork – I’m glad I found you on Twitter!

  • Nate Towne says:

    One very important consideration you didn’t touch too much upon is the cost for distributing additional content such as images, video and audio files. In the new reality of the social media release (SMR) video and audio are almost expected by journalists. PR Web is a very affordable way attach additional content whereas PR Newswire will cost you an arm, a leg, and most of your remaining leg’s cankle. PitchEngine can do all of this for free, but of course you don’t get the distribution/feed unless you pay for it. One other important difference between PR Web and PR Newswire is I know exactly who picks up my release (along with a link) because they go far beyond PR Web when it comes to monitoring pickups and the range of data they offer. Great post, thanks for doing all this legwork – I’m glad I found you on Twitter!

  • Jiyan says:

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic, Marc. The points you raise are valid as are some of the points in the ensuing thread.

    I just have a couple of additional points to share:

    Regarding duplicate content (Barbara’s question), a crawler is going to look for what it considers to be the canonical version of a release and then position it accordingly. Although this may push down syndicate or duplicate versions, we have not really seen instances where multiple versions of a release will result in negative placement for the canonical version.

    One additional consideration for people to think about is whether the distribution service has any editorial oversight. PRWeb, along with the traditional wire services, all have editors who review content for adherence to editorial guidelines. This provides an added sense of quality assurance for the journalists and bloggers who write about the news release as well as the publishers out there who syndicate.

  • Jiyan says:

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic, Marc. The points you raise are valid as are some of the points in the ensuing thread.

    I just have a couple of additional points to share:

    Regarding duplicate content (Barbara’s question), a crawler is going to look for what it considers to be the canonical version of a release and then position it accordingly. Although this may push down syndicate or duplicate versions, we have not really seen instances where multiple versions of a release will result in negative placement for the canonical version.

    One additional consideration for people to think about is whether the distribution service has any editorial oversight. PRWeb, along with the traditional wire services, all have editors who review content for adherence to editorial guidelines. This provides an added sense of quality assurance for the journalists and bloggers who write about the news release as well as the publishers out there who syndicate.

  • Marc,

    This is a fantastic post. I’ll be sharing with others and reading it more in depth myself.

    One thing I would note is that I’ve personally had great success with PitchEngine.com. Using it, I have acheived very high rankings on the main Google page itself. I know they have made some changes recently due to spam issues that may have affected their Google News listings, but I’m sure that is being addressed.

  • Marc,

    This is a fantastic post. I’ll be sharing with others and reading it more in depth myself.

    One thing I would note is that I’ve personally had great success with PitchEngine.com. Using it, I have acheived very high rankings on the main Google page itself. I know they have made some changes recently due to spam issues that may have affected their Google News listings, but I’m sure that is being addressed.

  • Thanks for doing the homework here Marc. Unfortunately, you picked a week where we were experiencing an issue with our Google News indexing! Typically all of our subscribers receiving Google News placement.

    The bigger point though that I wanted to address is that you are reviewing sites based on the assumption that traditional PR distribution is what a tool should provide. Would you believe that less than 1% of our total SMR views come from Google News?

    Before PitchEngine, all PR services were designed to do one thing – distribute your content to the masses. Push a button, spend some cash, send it out. But who’s listening? The social web is a completely different animal where numbers mean zero. If I’m selling whitewater kayaks does Google News get me anything? How about a paragraph in the Wall Street Journal? But getting my content in front of infuencers (friends, fans, followers, journalists and bloggers) – that’s where the work is being rewarded. (See the Jackson Kayak uses PitchEngine story from the SF Chronicle).

    Effective PR doesn’t mean volume of impressions – that’s the old metric. How many of your brand or client’s influencers did you reach? How much did you sell as a result?

    Why is it important? Those old metrics applied to PR are the same that were applied to news distribution. Remember, when people all got their news from news outlets where brands could advertise…News distribution has completely changed – isn’t it time PR caught up?

    Thanks again for the detailed post. Now let’s take the next step.

    Jason Kintzler
    @pitchengine

  • Thanks for doing the homework here Marc. Unfortunately, you picked a week where we were experiencing an issue with our Google News indexing! Typically all of our subscribers receiving Google News placement.

    The bigger point though that I wanted to address is that you are reviewing sites based on the assumption that traditional PR distribution is what a tool should provide. Would you believe that less than 1% of our total SMR views come from Google News?

    Before PitchEngine, all PR services were designed to do one thing – distribute your content to the masses. Push a button, spend some cash, send it out. But who’s listening? The social web is a completely different animal where numbers mean zero. If I’m selling whitewater kayaks does Google News get me anything? How about a paragraph in the Wall Street Journal? But getting my content in front of infuencers (friends, fans, followers, journalists and bloggers) – that’s where the work is being rewarded. (See the Jackson Kayak uses PitchEngine story from the SF Chronicle).

    Effective PR doesn’t mean volume of impressions – that’s the old metric. How many of your brand or client’s influencers did you reach? How much did you sell as a result?

    Why is it important? Those old metrics applied to PR are the same that were applied to news distribution. Remember, when people all got their news from news outlets where brands could advertise…News distribution has completely changed – isn’t it time PR caught up?

    Thanks again for the detailed post. Now let’s take the next step.

    Jason Kintzler
    @pitchengine

  • Great info Marc. Comparing the metrics for both free and paid wires helps clients and PR pros alike.

  • Great info Marc. Comparing the metrics for both free and paid wires helps clients and PR pros alike.

  • Marc Harty says:

    Thanks Aerial. This is just the first of many posts about press release site performance. feel free to share your results as well.

  • Marc Harty says:

    Thanks Aerial. This is just the first of many posts about press release site performance. feel free to share your results as well.

  • Marc Harty says:

    Thanks Michelle!

  • Marc Harty says:

    Thanks Michelle!

  • Marc Harty says:

    Barbara,

    Thanks for sharing your info on PitchEngine.com. I’ll be testing them in-depth soon. I’m all for whichever site or newswire provides the best balance of cost and performance. As you know, such an approach is ongoing and when I have new data, I’ll be sure and publish it. Thanks again for your thoughtful reply.

  • Marc Harty says:

    Barbara,

    Thanks for sharing your info on PitchEngine.com. I’ll be testing them in-depth soon. I’m all for whichever site or newswire provides the best balance of cost and performance. As you know, such an approach is ongoing and when I have new data, I’ll be sure and publish it. Thanks again for your thoughtful reply.

  • Marc Harty says:

    Nate,

    Thanks for your comments and your are 100% correct. I think you gave me an idea for my next article: comparing enhancements for paid press release sites and newswires. I will say that PR Newswire will do a better job reaching journalists. And social media releases, well that too is worthy of more detailed examination. Stay tuned!

  • Marc Harty says:

    Nate,

    Thanks for your comments and your are 100% correct. I think you gave me an idea for my next article: comparing enhancements for paid press release sites and newswires. I will say that PR Newswire will do a better job reaching journalists. And social media releases, well that too is worthy of more detailed examination. Stay tuned!

  • Marc Harty says:

    Jiyan,

    Thanks for adding your comments. And I do agree with your assessment on both fronts. I will say I have quite a bit of experience in PRWeb as a news release service provider. And as one of the other comments noted, PRWeb does bundle a lot of added value and enhancements into the various price levels. That’s one of the appeals for my customers, clients and coaching students.

  • Marc Harty says:

    Jiyan,

    Thanks for adding your comments. And I do agree with your assessment on both fronts. I will say I have quite a bit of experience in PRWeb as a news release service provider. And as one of the other comments noted, PRWeb does bundle a lot of added value and enhancements into the various price levels. That’s one of the appeals for my customers, clients and coaching students.

  • Marc Harty says:

    Brandon,

    Thanks for your kind words. I’m familiar with you and actually follow you on Twitter. (Thanks for the RT!) You, Barbara Rozgonyi and Jason Kintzler have all responded with favorable comments on PitchEngine.com Naturally, I’ll be doing follow-up articles about press release site performance where I’ll be covering PitchEngine.com in more detail.

    Would you mind sharing a case study about your success with Pitch Engine?

  • Marc Harty says:

    Brandon,

    Thanks for your kind words. I’m familiar with you and actually follow you on Twitter. (Thanks for the RT!) You, Barbara Rozgonyi and Jason Kintzler have all responded with favorable comments on PitchEngine.com Naturally, I’ll be doing follow-up articles about press release site performance where I’ll be covering PitchEngine.com in more detail.

    Would you mind sharing a case study about your success with Pitch Engine?

  • Marc Harty says:

    Hi Jason,

    Thank you for your thoughtful and insightful reply to my post. And let me highlight your major point since it’s worth both discussion and expansion. Specifically, you have added valuable context as to visibility in Google News being only one element of the distribution landscape.

    Now I have noticed that releases that rank highly in the news search engines do seem to get increased exposure across other sites and audiences. So while it’s not the only measuring stick, in my experience, it’s one worth considering.

    And yes SMRs have impacted news distribution BIG time and many PR folks are either playing catch up or not seeing the light.

    You also raise another important element: metrics and reporting. How can we utilize services such as PitchEngine.com and measure the impact of our releases with the influencers you refer to? It seems we need to cobble together data from the newswires as well as third party reputation management and monitoring services. (I’ve had good results with Filtrbox.com)

    I’m in agreement about taking the next step. Here’s an idea: would you be open to an interview where you can expand on the thoughts you’ve shared here?

    Finally, i figured there was something awry with the results of some of the newswires in the news search engines and added that caveat in the caption of the performance table. I’ll be testing PitchEngine.com extensively over the next few months and look forward to sharing those results with my readers. (And hopefully the recording of our interview as well.)

  • Marc Harty says:

    Hi Jason,

    Thank you for your thoughtful and insightful reply to my post. And let me highlight your major point since it’s worth both discussion and expansion. Specifically, you have added valuable context as to visibility in Google News being only one element of the distribution landscape.

    Now I have noticed that releases that rank highly in the news search engines do seem to get increased exposure across other sites and audiences. So while it’s not the only measuring stick, in my experience, it’s one worth considering.

    And yes SMRs have impacted news distribution BIG time and many PR folks are either playing catch up or not seeing the light.

    You also raise another important element: metrics and reporting. How can we utilize services such as PitchEngine.com and measure the impact of our releases with the influencers you refer to? It seems we need to cobble together data from the newswires as well as third party reputation management and monitoring services. (I’ve had good results with Filtrbox.com)

    I’m in agreement about taking the next step. Here’s an idea: would you be open to an interview where you can expand on the thoughts you’ve shared here?

    Finally, i figured there was something awry with the results of some of the newswires in the news search engines and added that caveat in the caption of the performance table. I’ll be testing PitchEngine.com extensively over the next few months and look forward to sharing those results with my readers. (And hopefully the recording of our interview as well.)

  • @marc Thanks for the response! Here’s a new case study regarding social distribution using a picthengine SMR from PFS Marketwyse – good data! PFS Case Study

  • @marc Thanks for the response! Here’s a new case study regarding social distribution using a picthengine SMR from PFS Marketwyse – good data! PFS Case Study

  • Dave Hale says:

    Marc, thanks for the great article. It gave me several ideas for new advertisement methods for me and my clients. Keep the great info coming Brother!

    Dave Hale
    The Internet Marketing Professor
    http://www.drdavehaleonline.com/

  • Dave Hale says:

    Marc, thanks for the great article. It gave me several ideas for new advertisement methods for me and my clients. Keep the great info coming Brother!

    Dave Hale
    The Internet Marketing Professor
    http://www.drdavehaleonline.com/

  • Congrats on the PR News Daily pick up for this post, Marc. That’s quite a coup! Interesting to follow the poll results. Talking about how to approach/manage PR among my peers is so intriguing – everyone seems to have a different take on how it works best for them and their clients. Thanks for sparking this conversation.
    @wiredprworks on twitter.com

  • Congrats on the PR News Daily pick up for this post, Marc. That’s quite a coup! Interesting to follow the poll results. Talking about how to approach/manage PR among my peers is so intriguing – everyone seems to have a different take on how it works best for them and their clients. Thanks for sparking this conversation.
    @wiredprworks on twitter.com

  • Barbara says:

    Marc,

    I’m writing to cast a vote for the no-cost marketing webinar idea. No doubt entrepreneurs of all types would value your insights on that topic.

    Appreciate the substantive information you consistently provide.

    Barbara

  • Barbara says:

    Marc,

    I’m writing to cast a vote for the no-cost marketing webinar idea. No doubt entrepreneurs of all types would value your insights on that topic.

    Appreciate the substantive information you consistently provide.

    Barbara

  • Samantha says:

    I, too, have had good luck with PitchEngine and PR Web. There is one reason for the free press release, however. I like to keep a steady stream of press releases flowing and sometimes we just don’t have anything particularly newsworthy to report – at least, not exciting enough to justify the top price on PR Web. So I will do a freebie and it always results in a nice selection of links back to our sites. I know that they’re picked up because I always create a Google Alert about whatever I just wrote and Google itself notifies me of new links. It’s not as powerful as being picked up by real media, of course, but it’s definitely helpful for growing any site.

  • Samantha says:

    I, too, have had good luck with PitchEngine and PR Web. There is one reason for the free press release, however. I like to keep a steady stream of press releases flowing and sometimes we just don’t have anything particularly newsworthy to report – at least, not exciting enough to justify the top price on PR Web. So I will do a freebie and it always results in a nice selection of links back to our sites. I know that they’re picked up because I always create a Google Alert about whatever I just wrote and Google itself notifies me of new links. It’s not as powerful as being picked up by real media, of course, but it’s definitely helpful for growing any site.

  • Excellent information. You are absolutely right there’s never anything that is absolutely free. Even guerrilla marketing techniques have a price to them. The biggest one is time. And, as you said time = money. What’s your time worth? What else could you be doing with your time? Visiting with friends and family, playing with your kids, attending an event, etc.

    There is another paid service that we have used that isn’t mentioned. It’s http://www.Send2Press.com. It’s about half the price of PRNewswire, but uses PRNewswire as part of its distribution process.

  • Excellent information. You are absolutely right there’s never anything that is absolutely free. Even guerrilla marketing techniques have a price to them. The biggest one is time. And, as you said time = money. What’s your time worth? What else could you be doing with your time? Visiting with friends and family, playing with your kids, attending an event, etc.

    There is another paid service that we have used that isn’t mentioned. It’s http://www.Send2Press.com. It’s about half the price of PRNewswire, but uses PRNewswire as part of its distribution process.

  • Marc Harty says:

    Samantha,

    Thanks for your comments. Which free sites have you had the best success with? And I’ve created “story-driven” press releases that were more like articles that I sent via PR Web.

  • Marc Harty says:

    Samantha,

    Thanks for your comments. Which free sites have you had the best success with? And I’ve created “story-driven” press releases that were more like articles that I sent via PR Web.

  • Marc Harty says:

    Jeff,

    I too have used and had success with http://www.send2press.com If you’ve ever talked with their founder, he’ll give you an earful. (They’ve been around a LONG time.) 🙂

  • Marc Harty says:

    Jeff,

    I too have used and had success with http://www.send2press.com If you’ve ever talked with their founder, he’ll give you an earful. (They’ve been around a LONG time.) 🙂

  • Marc Harty says:

    Barbara,

    Thanks for your vote. Stay tuned for further details. And thanks for the kind words. 🙂

  • Marc Harty says:

    Barbara,

    Thanks for your vote. Stay tuned for further details. And thanks for the kind words. 🙂

  • Marc Harty says:

    Barbara,

    Thanks for noticing! What new trends do you see with your work and clients?

  • Marc Harty says:

    Barbara,

    Thanks for noticing! What new trends do you see with your work and clients?

  • Marc Harty says:

    Dave,

    Thanks and I will. And please report back on your results…it’s all about best practices and ROI these days.

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