Press Release Marketing
- ARTICLES |
The online press release has undergone something of a renaissance in recent years. For some time, it was very effective, as you could get indexed in major news aggregation just by blinking in their direction.
Then it got much harder and people stopped doing this because, well it was harder. However, today, it is much easier once more and for a variety of reasons.
Press releases are a valuable resource for many websites and because of how successful the curation model has been for many large news hubs, it is a necessary tool.
Fortunately for us, anyone can pay the money it takes to distribute a press release and get that exposure. We just need to create a powerful release that clearly describes your service and that is likely to be distributed to various websites with high page ranks.
Remember when we looked at the High Traffic Academy in Google Trends – the two news sources were clearly press releases distributed by the authors of the guide or their affiliates:
Those are real newspaper websites – the Houston Chronicle and the San Francisco Chronicle and they have the page ranks to prove it, along with a huge volume of traffic being sent at the site being linked to.
We want to tap into that strategy.
Here’s how it works.
When you launch a new site, you have a short window of time to get it ranked very quickly for your target keywords. You need it to appear at the top of the search rankings in a matter of days and that won’t happen unless you have authority sites linking to it.
Press releases offer one of the most successful ways to do this.
So, we need to write a press release. You can outsource this for $20 or so on Media Piston or Elance or you can get a low cost one from Text Broker for $10. I recommend you practice wirting them yourself, however.
A good press release only needs to be 300+ words and it can be about pretty much anything.
Is there a right way to write a press release? Yes. Do we need to use it for our press releases? Not really.
The key is exposure and if you hit on popular keywords and the release is written well, you will get that exposure.
The Distribution Model
The key to really tapping into the potential of press releases to drive traffic to your website is to time them well and not oversaturate.
When you write a press release you immediately have the opportunity to distribute it to millions of people, but the distribution you get will depend on what you are willing to spend.
Other gurus will tell you that you can reach critical mass with free press releases, but the odds of that are slim. Realistically, if you release a free press release, you will get some exposure, but not as much as if you pay for greater distribution.
It’s common sense. The problem is that many people WANT it to work, so they assume it does, and as a result, they think that press releases as a traffic source are worthless.
Let’s take a closer look at what you can do with press releases.
When I launch a new site, I will release 2 press releases – 3 weeks apart from each other.
Each press release is distributed through PR Web for $90. Yes, it costs $90, but for that $90, look at the exposure I gain:
That is for just one press release. It has been distributed into a half dozen major news sources, including Yahoo! News.
Not nearly the same. I get the free page on the press release website and a few backlinks, but none from authority domains, and there were almost no shares. The paid release was in Yahoo! News and got more than 14,000 total impressions compared to 1,000+.
You get what you pay for.
Do you need to pay for higher level distribution?
Fortunately, no. The benefits gained in the higher distribution levels on PR Web and other press release distribution sites is for offline exposure. Yes, you will probably get better exposure online too, but not so much that it is worth the extra $200+.
Now, if there is competition for this keyword at some point, it won’t stay in that position. It will drop fast and hard, which is why we subsequently use the other strategies in this program, especially those in our backlinking section, to generate more traffic.
Writing Your Press Release
A good press release is simple and to the point. It should be impartial while still selling your site and providing enough information to drive traffic. Here is the one I used for the above examples:
Internationally Renowned Traffic Expert Releases Opus “High Traffic Academy”
Vick Strizheus’s High Traffic Academy provides a comprehensive look at the traffic process and how people can perform get more traffic fast using paid advertising methods.
Released to the public in early 2012, the High Traffic Academy provides an in-depth look at the traffic world of men who are extremely successful with getting traffic in almost any setting of their lives. The High Traffic Academy is written by Vick Strizheus, a traffic expert who has appeared on nationally syndicated daytime talk shows, has produced his own radio shows and offers ongoing advice for men in all walks of life for how to talk with getting traffic.
The goal of the High Traffic Academy is to open up the process of traffic for men to see exactly how those who are very successful interact with getting traffic in social settings as well as when on the internet. The program includes a core program along with multiple bonus modules about elements of traffic. Vick also includes a number of video training modules and offers an ongoing training module as part of a monthly membership. Included in the monthly membership are additional modules and hand-in-hand coaching opportunities.
The goal of Vick Strizheus in his program is to actually help people with getting traffic, but he makes sure to clarify “my program is not a collection of traffic tricks!” referring to people such as those featured on the internet who use tricks and demeaning tactics to convince getting traffic to go with them. Vick's program has become a runaway success since its release, earning him the #1 spot in the internet marketing industry.
Written with getting traffic in mind, the High Traffic Academy is a universal program with tips for both beginners and advanced marketers The value of the contents of this program have led to rave reviews on a number of sites including the growing popularity of the program among other traffic experts.
For more information about the High Traffic Academy along with an in-depth review of the program and the supporting program, visit www.warriorforum.com/warrior-forum-classified-ads/699557-full-review-high-traffic-academy-vick-strizheus.html. Included are multiple articles about High Traffic Academy.
As you can see, it is less than 400 words and is fairly redundant, hitting on a few key points multiple times. Let’s break this down a bit:
The goal of this is to get links from major news sites, which means it needs to be picked up by those sites and published. Since so many news sources use bots to do this these days, as long as you meet the guidelines for PR Web, you’ll be set.
But that’s not all. This strategy is not done yet.
Once you create a press release, you want to ramp up the value of the links you are receiving.
Remember that just because you receive a link from a high PR domain doesn't mean the link itself is high PR. It’s valuable, but not as valuable as one that has many links to it.
Additionally, a truly valuable press release will get backlinked and buzzed in the social sphere. So, we’re going to help the process along a bit.
To do that, we will do three things:
Total, this process will take less than a couple hours but will substantially increase the value of your press release backlinks. Remember that the release itself will be distributed to a number of high PR domains, so point to three or four of those high PR domains to ensure they gain the attention needed to maximize the value of what people see on your site.
From start to finish, this can be done in less than a week. Most of that time is waiting for distribution of your press release (which can take 24-72 hours).
But, the time and the money are well worth it.
Your goal is to rank quickly for a non-competitive keyword with major limited buying potential. This strategy will help you do just that.
Looking for other ways to get targeted traffic? How about getting 100,000 targeted visitors to your website today? Impossible? I'll show you how I made $48,333 in a single week - click HERE.
Then it got much harder and people stopped doing this because, well it was harder. However, today, it is much easier once more and for a variety of reasons.
Press releases are a valuable resource for many websites and because of how successful the curation model has been for many large news hubs, it is a necessary tool.
Fortunately for us, anyone can pay the money it takes to distribute a press release and get that exposure. We just need to create a powerful release that clearly describes your service and that is likely to be distributed to various websites with high page ranks.
Remember when we looked at the High Traffic Academy in Google Trends – the two news sources were clearly press releases distributed by the authors of the guide or their affiliates:
Those are real newspaper websites – the Houston Chronicle and the San Francisco Chronicle and they have the page ranks to prove it, along with a huge volume of traffic being sent at the site being linked to.
We want to tap into that strategy.
Here’s how it works.
When you launch a new site, you have a short window of time to get it ranked very quickly for your target keywords. You need it to appear at the top of the search rankings in a matter of days and that won’t happen unless you have authority sites linking to it.
Press releases offer one of the most successful ways to do this.
So, we need to write a press release. You can outsource this for $20 or so on Media Piston or Elance or you can get a low cost one from Text Broker for $10. I recommend you practice wirting them yourself, however.
A good press release only needs to be 300+ words and it can be about pretty much anything.
Is there a right way to write a press release? Yes. Do we need to use it for our press releases? Not really.
The key is exposure and if you hit on popular keywords and the release is written well, you will get that exposure.
The Distribution Model
The key to really tapping into the potential of press releases to drive traffic to your website is to time them well and not oversaturate.
When you write a press release you immediately have the opportunity to distribute it to millions of people, but the distribution you get will depend on what you are willing to spend.
Other gurus will tell you that you can reach critical mass with free press releases, but the odds of that are slim. Realistically, if you release a free press release, you will get some exposure, but not as much as if you pay for greater distribution.
It’s common sense. The problem is that many people WANT it to work, so they assume it does, and as a result, they think that press releases as a traffic source are worthless.
Let’s take a closer look at what you can do with press releases.
When I launch a new site, I will release 2 press releases – 3 weeks apart from each other.
Each press release is distributed through PR Web for $90. Yes, it costs $90, but for that $90, look at the exposure I gain:
That is for just one press release. It has been distributed into a half dozen major news sources, including Yahoo! News.
Not nearly the same. I get the free page on the press release website and a few backlinks, but none from authority domains, and there were almost no shares. The paid release was in Yahoo! News and got more than 14,000 total impressions compared to 1,000+.
You get what you pay for.
Do you need to pay for higher level distribution?
Fortunately, no. The benefits gained in the higher distribution levels on PR Web and other press release distribution sites is for offline exposure. Yes, you will probably get better exposure online too, but not so much that it is worth the extra $200+.
Now, if there is competition for this keyword at some point, it won’t stay in that position. It will drop fast and hard, which is why we subsequently use the other strategies in this program, especially those in our backlinking section, to generate more traffic.
Writing Your Press Release
A good press release is simple and to the point. It should be impartial while still selling your site and providing enough information to drive traffic. Here is the one I used for the above examples:
Internationally Renowned Traffic Expert Releases Opus “High Traffic Academy”
Vick Strizheus’s High Traffic Academy provides a comprehensive look at the traffic process and how people can perform get more traffic fast using paid advertising methods.
Released to the public in early 2012, the High Traffic Academy provides an in-depth look at the traffic world of men who are extremely successful with getting traffic in almost any setting of their lives. The High Traffic Academy is written by Vick Strizheus, a traffic expert who has appeared on nationally syndicated daytime talk shows, has produced his own radio shows and offers ongoing advice for men in all walks of life for how to talk with getting traffic.
The goal of the High Traffic Academy is to open up the process of traffic for men to see exactly how those who are very successful interact with getting traffic in social settings as well as when on the internet. The program includes a core program along with multiple bonus modules about elements of traffic. Vick also includes a number of video training modules and offers an ongoing training module as part of a monthly membership. Included in the monthly membership are additional modules and hand-in-hand coaching opportunities.
The goal of Vick Strizheus in his program is to actually help people with getting traffic, but he makes sure to clarify “my program is not a collection of traffic tricks!” referring to people such as those featured on the internet who use tricks and demeaning tactics to convince getting traffic to go with them. Vick's program has become a runaway success since its release, earning him the #1 spot in the internet marketing industry.
Written with getting traffic in mind, the High Traffic Academy is a universal program with tips for both beginners and advanced marketers The value of the contents of this program have led to rave reviews on a number of sites including the growing popularity of the program among other traffic experts.
For more information about the High Traffic Academy along with an in-depth review of the program and the supporting program, visit www.warriorforum.com/warrior-forum-classified-ads/699557-full-review-high-traffic-academy-vick-strizheus.html. Included are multiple articles about High Traffic Academy.
As you can see, it is less than 400 words and is fairly redundant, hitting on a few key points multiple times. Let’s break this down a bit:
- The Headline – Your headline will be displayed on major news sites so it needs to be written without a marketing spin, but with enough of a hook to convince people to read it. That means removing unnecessary verbs, not using any adjectives or superlatives and presenting a clear reason why the reader should open the release. Pretend you are sending this to a newspaper editor – why would they want to read your release? Again, the sole purpose of a press release is to get backlinks and drive traffic, but if you CAN get press, why not?
- The Tag Line – The second part of a press release is a short summary – usually 2 lines – that goes into greater detail about the contents of the press release. It should provide a clear reason to continue reading and if someone asks “who cares?” this should answer that.
- The First Paragraph – Your first paragraph should provide background information and a concise description of the piece of news you are sharing. So, it should say where, when, how and why this matters. This is the most important paragraph and often the only one someone will read.
- The Meat – The rest of your press release can be as long as you want it to be. It usually goes into greater detail about your website, who you are, a quote from you or the creator of the product you are promoting and whatever other information you want to share. I personally use this for keyword insertion and to spin a few marketing tag lines out to drive some clicks from people who might be interested in checking out my website.
- The Conclusion – The last paragraph of a press release should be a summary of your website or company and a non-CTA – a call to learn more without actually selling anything.
The goal of this is to get links from major news sites, which means it needs to be picked up by those sites and published. Since so many news sources use bots to do this these days, as long as you meet the guidelines for PR Web, you’ll be set.
But that’s not all. This strategy is not done yet.
Once you create a press release, you want to ramp up the value of the links you are receiving.
Remember that just because you receive a link from a high PR domain doesn't mean the link itself is high PR. It’s valuable, but not as valuable as one that has many links to it.
Additionally, a truly valuable press release will get backlinked and buzzed in the social sphere. So, we’re going to help the process along a bit.
To do that, we will do three things:
- Blast the Link – Send the link out in three ways. RSS feeds, social programmarks and a mass ping. These sites will ensure your link is indexed.
- See High Traffic Academy for more information about how to do this.
- Point to It – Go one step further and have your backlinker create 10-20 backlinks through blog comments and forum signatures to your press release.
- Keep the number down each week to make it seem natural and spread them out over time.
- Web 2.0 – Finally create a handful of Web 2.0 resources using spun articles from your site’s main articles and point to your press releases.
Total, this process will take less than a couple hours but will substantially increase the value of your press release backlinks. Remember that the release itself will be distributed to a number of high PR domains, so point to three or four of those high PR domains to ensure they gain the attention needed to maximize the value of what people see on your site.
From start to finish, this can be done in less than a week. Most of that time is waiting for distribution of your press release (which can take 24-72 hours).
But, the time and the money are well worth it.
Your goal is to rank quickly for a non-competitive keyword with major limited buying potential. This strategy will help you do just that.
Looking for other ways to get targeted traffic? How about getting 100,000 targeted visitors to your website today? Impossible? I'll show you how I made $48,333 in a single week - click HERE.