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.

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. )

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.

Whether you are an entrepreneur, a company or a PR firm, the distribution of optimized press releases does present both challenges and opportunities. The good news? With a little extra work-make that a little extra attention-you’ll maximize and leverage both the reach and longevity of all your optimized press releases BEFORE they are sent.

Your press release distribution strategy should start with answering two VERY important questions:

1) Press release distribution: horizontal or vertical?
2) Who’s more important: reporters or customers?

Now you may think, distribution of optimized press releases can’t be that black and white, it’s more gray. Well, sure, you’d like to have everything, but that’s not how it works. There is a reason we call them “target” audiences.

Let’s tackle horizontal vs. vertical press release distribution first. And the best way to illustrate the difference between the two is with a few examples:

• Selling online = horizontal
• Reaching a business to business audience = vertical
• Targeting a specific industry sector (like technology) = vertical
• Geo-targeting a specific region: city, state, or country = vertical
• Appealing to multiple regions and countries = horizontal

With distribution of optimized press releases, you can even adopt a horizontal vs. vertical perspective when it comes to targeting reporters or customers…

• Reaching local business community and media reporters = vertical
• Reaching customers directly = horizontal

The reporters vs. customers dynamic will also impact the decision on which press release distribution service provider you select. Some are better for reaching customers directly via search engines, while others do better with journalists covering a specific topic. (Often via emails sent directly to a list of reporters on that topic.)

Distribution of optimized press releases: the one-to-many benefit

The distribution of optimized press releases is a real time saver. You upload a release to a press release distribution provider and it’s sent out via RSS feed to thousands of web sites, journalists and media sites.

Press release distribution reality check: not your grandfather’s press release

The word press comes from printing press. People like to call press releases “news releases” or “media releases” and yet “press release” is still the most used and familiar term. Perhaps the new descriptions are an attempt to better communicate the venerable press release’s social marketing capabilities.

Today, optimized press releases can include audio, video, images, and more. There is seamless integration with podcasts, social marketing, social bookmarking, as well as article marketing and more.

To sum up, the horizontal vs. vertical press release distribution strategy really helps focus on the ultimate objective behind your online press releases.  For some best practices read my article about press release distribution. For specific tips and tricks on getting every extra search engine visitor read my post regarding optimized press releases.

Story highlights and action steps:

• Time to review: 12 minutes
  • Determine distribution strategy and target audiences first
  • Examples of horizontal and vertical Press release distribution
  • Enhancements for optimized press releases include audio, video, social marketing
  • Paid press release distribution delivers superior ROI
• Action steps:
  • Set a goal for your next release: horizontal or vertical?
  • Identify distribution options: 1 horizontal (PRweb.com) and 1 vertical: (many industry publications allow direct submissions)
  • Feedback and comments: horizontal or vertical success stories?
• Related resources: Tutorials on submitting optimized press releases: PR Traffic

Getting stuck sucks. Maybe it’s a momentary indecision or something more deep-rooted. The outcome, or lack there of is the same regardless. To give you some background on how I identified the top 4 press release distribution stumbling blocks, they were culled from the following sources:

Source #1: client and consulting work

Source #2: information product research, development and sales feedback

Source #3: Speaking engagements

That gives you some insight on how I identified where individuals and companies alike are having the most resistance when it comes to press release distribution.

Stumbling Block #1:  How often should you distribute online press releases?

Uh, more than once. You wouldn’t believe how many people do one release, expect the world to beat a path to their door and when that doesn’t happen, they get discouraged or give up. Like most marketing, press release distribution is an ongoing endeavor.

In my  PR Traffic Press Release Optimization System, I review over a dozen distribution strategies from beginner to more advanced. A good and realistic strategy is a couple online press releases a month.

Stumbling Block #2: Press release distribution-free or paid?

Simply put, you get what you pay for. And time is money. Can I toss around any other clichés? I know publicity, by its very nature is free, yet in our tests with hundreds, even thousands of press releases, the amount invested, over time, gets your click cost down to less than 5 cents a click.

When you pay for press release distribution, you’ll find many of the free press release services and directories pick up your release anyway.

Perhaps most importantly, there is a pecking order with press release distribution providers. Google and other major search engines see paid wire service providers as more credible and rank them accordingly.

In fact, in a recent study, it showed that online press releases submitted via PR Newswire were four times more likely to be included in Wikipedia than other newswires.

That doesn’t mean you can’t succeed by sending out releases for free. And my team is always testing free providers, yet my advice is go the paid route.

Stumbling Block #3: Which web site is best for press release distribution?

There is no one be all, end all choice to accomplish everything you want. There are any number of choices based on your campaign’s goals and objectives. You can invest a lot and choose PRNewswire, Businesswire or Marketwire, and do a better job with reaching reporters. You can pay anywhere from $10 to $200 and reach customers directly as well as getting some SEO and search engine benefits.

Keeping informed on the latest developments with press release distribution websites can give you a competitive edge over your competition. That’s why I developed  The PR Traffic Newswire Directory. It lists over 75 press releases and contains reviews and best practices. Here are a few highlights:

• Under $50: Webwire.com, PitchEngine.com
• $50-$100: PRleap.com, Webwire.com, 24-7pressrelease.com, send2press.com, PRweb.com
• $100 – $400: PRweb.com (enhanced with anchor text links), ereleases.com, Marketwire.com
• Over $400: Businesswire.com, PRnewswire.com

The directory comes as a free bonus with the PR Traffic Web PR Resource Guide. Check it out.

Stumbling Block #4: Does press release distribution via fax, email or snail mail still work?

Yes. It takes longer, but it still works, especially if you do some research on reporters that regularly cover your topic. What also works is calling reporters directly, either as a follow up to a release or before the release goes out, more of a “teaser.”

My good friend and business colleague Jeff Crilley has some great tips on how to approach a reporter over the phone and get them to call you back.

All in all, while there are lots of moving parts with press release distribution, the best approach is to break them into easy to digest steps or phases.  The good news? You don’t have to be a technical wizard. In addition, press release distribution can be outsourced at a reasonable cost.

Check out MainTopicMedia.com, my corporate site for more information on optimized press release distribution services.

Story highlights:

• Time to review: 12 minutes
• Doable distribution: two times a month
• Paid press release distribution delivers superior ROI over free
• Fax, email/snail mail distribution still works
• Tutorials on submitting press releases: PR Traffic
• Action steps:
  • Map out your campaign schedule
  • Research paid providers: PRWeb and Webwire
• Related Resources:PR Traffic Press newsire directory of over 75 press release sites (A free bonus when you buy the PR Traffic Web PR Resource Guide )
• Great free publicity tips from ex-reporter Jeff Crilley