If you’re writing and distributing press releases online, don’t
rely on all those free press release distribution services.
The dirty little secret is that most of them don’t distribute
anything. They simply park your press release at their website,
where the search engines might or might not find it.
For example, let’s say you sell patio furniture. You write a
press release about how to care for patio furniture and you
submit it to one of those freebie sites. If somebody is
searching online for “patio furniture,” there’s a good chance
your press release won’t show up on the list because it isn’t in
the Google or Yahoo news feeds.
Even worse, if you submit a press release to their service then
suddenly discover it includes an error that you need to correct,
there’s usually no way to correct it because there’s no customer
service number you can call. Disastrous!
In my free email tutorial on how to write a press release, I
recommend two services that I’ve used: PRWeb and News Release
Wire, which you get when you subscribe to Expertclick: The Online
Yearbook of Experts. An Expertclick subscription lets you post
up to 52 press releases a year.