CHICKMELIONfreelance
It wasn’t too long ago, when I found in my email a promotion from a paid press release service. It was very blunt and point blank about the uselessness of free press release services. In a nutshell they indicated that the free offerings were more self serving than serving the interests of the individuals and businesses that use their services. They balked at “backlink” as being anything but useless as well as SEO in the content. I found the criticism rather harsh and I decided to forwarded this email to a few free services to get their take on the situation. Ironically enough... no answer! So let’s see if we can take a crack at it and even up the argument some.
Indeed, paid press release distribution does offer two tier benefits where your release not only gets published on the distributions arranged syndicated network, but can also attract the eye of the news hound as well affording additional viral potential. Each reporter offering their own subscribers by the thousands (if they belong to a large publishing syndication themselves.)
Indeed that is a good thing if... and this is a big if... it is whether or not the news hound is interested in what you are offering in the first place. Although presentation is key and certain formats are recommended that seem to work best in attracting and motivating the press to pick up on a story. There is never any guarantees! So if you are talking in terms of laying down some heavy money as an investment and your release in not picked up for whatever reason.... that can leave a sour taste. But don’t feel bad, there is a good chance it will not be picked up on the first second or even third insert. Even the top professionals in the field at PRWeb are very clear to point out that to be effective in Press Release Marketing, a business or entrepreneur should focus on at least one press release a month and to give it a good seven eight month run for steady returns to start showing. Now let’s do the math! $399 for eRelease’s services for 8 months of an investment will cost you $3192 (not including taxes and such.)
For the start up business living on a shoestring this may not even be a viable option. Though I am quick to point out that the top distribution networks do have more affordable packages with modest reaches that will suit a leaner budget and by no means are we not saying to run with the big guns if you can afford the opportunity. When your investment pays off, and it will in due time, the rewards will be big! However we are living in lean mean times and it is never recommended for one to put all their eggs in an investment basket. Press Release marketing is a good avenue, but certainly not the end all be all . It should be considered as a part of the overall marketing mix and allotted a part of the advertising budget.
Now let’s address reach, presentation and potential for targeting some traffic to your site via a free Press Release Distribution website. After all that is one of your key motivations. (First and foremost please have a good landing page that will induce your prospects to become repeat visitors as well or all your efforts whether free or not will be of no avail.) These free distribution websites have come a long way. Some offer the same upgraded capabilities as the top Paid networks in the business: video integration, SEO enhancements and proof of distribution. They work with news search engines and aggregators that have a large reach capability. Some hold releases in a library as eRelease.com touts about, and some are specifically SEO and social media press release distribution services. These RSS feed to the top 3 wires as well as Google News, Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com and more. Our own contacts list in our Free Press Release Kit offers a hefty amount of far reaching distribution networks. The beauty about a free service is you can drop your press release on several sites enhancing your potential reach even further.
We would all love to have the big budgets, the glossy ad campaigns, perhaps even not struggle with strategic battle plans to survive in a recession. Reality is most of us are budget conscious because a budget may well be all we have!. That doesn’t mean we pick up our ball and go home! We dig in instead and with steady steps put our irons in the fire knowing that if we get enough in there they will pay off....and our irons are as cost effective as we can get them. We all know that realistically these marketing steps which are not the quick and easy solutions. But we all know that the quick and easy is not a long term solution either. It usually ends up leaving a bad taste in the mouth sooner or later. Long term efforts pay off for the long term. We all have come to know this first hand. I can speak from my own experience that I have indeed had had link backs from both my article marketing and press release efforts. If they were as unsuccessful and fruitless as our friends at the paid press release services had suggested then how does one explain the quantity and longevity of both article banks and free press distribution websites who operations are similar?
