How To Distribute A Press Release

  • Do It Yourself For Free - We do not generally recommend this option, but you could try to just distribute a press release yourself. You would find some sort of contact info at any kind of media outlet you were interested in. Then you would mail or e-mail your press release to them and hope it gets read by the right people. At most, this would only cost you the price of postage or maybe a telephone call to track down some contact info.

  • Do It Yourself With A Media Contact List - Another do-it-yourself option that would have a better chance of succeeding is to purchase a media contact list. This will save you considerable time and effort as the contact info of many popular media outlets would already be compiled for you. You would then just have to e-mail or occasionally mail your press release to these people.

  • When Doing It Yourself Is Best - If you have a web site that is only of local interest, it is probably worth it to just do it yourself. You can contact your local paper or any local magazines if there are any and ask them where to send your press release. Another reason to do it yourself is if you don't have an extra penny to spend on press release distribution. You can just try to send your press release to one media outlet at a time and hopefully it will get picked up here or there.

  • Use A Press Release Service - If you want to distribute your press release in the most successful manner, you are almost always better off using a professional press release service. There are many reasons why it is worth it:
    1. Because they do this for a living, they keep on top of the latest contact information for all the major media outlets.
    2. It will save you considerable time and effort which is probably extremely valuable to you.
    3. Some members of the media who have limited time will only read press releases that are distributed by a professional service. This is because they know that if an web site like yourself spent some money to have its press release distributed, it may very well be a newsworthy event. On the other hand, a random press release that some company self-submits has a high likelihood of being trivial and worthless info to them.
    4. A professional press release service can also check and proof your press release to make sure that it is formatted in the way that most media outlets prefer.

  • Recommended Press Release Service - Internet Wire charges $275 for a general press release (please verify current prices). This is the lowest price we have found among the top press release services in the industry. On their web site, check their "distribution lists" section and you will see the hundreds of world class media outlets that they will send your press release to. web site operators who have first tried to distribute a press release on their own and then later try Internet Wire have raved to us about the difference it made.
    Not A Sure Thing - Be aware that simply distributing a press release to all the best media outlets does not guarantee that your web site will be written about and receive free publicity. Although, it is true that media outlets are constantly starved for things to write about, particularly in the ever-fascinating online arena, it may turn out that every media outlet will read your press release and deem it unworthy of mention in any way, shape, or form.

    Unfortunately, until you have gotten a press release into these hands you will never know for sure what can happen. Money spent on distributing a press release can often be the most bang you will ever get for your marketing buck, but be aware that there is also the potential for disappointing results.

Go on to: Another Great Way to Get Mentioned in Media Articles or Features