Press Release distribution analysis

Paying for distribution. Is it worth it? Here at ISGroup we have some daily SEO and Social Media tasks concurring with Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking sessions. Nowadays any sane company do some Media/PR/Communication in-house, right? And while we are in no way experts sometimes we perform better than “real” Media companies, at last from a technical prospective. Our advantage is that we can code BASH (LOL!) and measure results. You can do amazing automation with just CURL wrapped by some logic, and the hacking mindset apply perfectly to Content/SEO/Social automation. Still there are professionals and companies who sell plain Ifttt and HootSuite to customers.

When it comes to Press Release distribution we generally outsource it. One can easily use Odesk and Fiverr to find contractors, after all they should be better specialized and more efficient than us.

If we will keep this method or not is still under discussion, seen the low results we are getting lately. For example a month ago I personally bought a gig from http://fiverr.com/cyberstorm/submit-your-press-release-to-50-top-pr-sites for a side project I’m expanding with Gianluca (not something we earn money from).

This is the Gig description was great:

MANUAL Press Submissions to USA BASED MEDIA. You can gain a wide audience for your site news with 50+ Top P.R website and some free Press Release Distribution sites. USE the PR & Search benefits of the online media with a service that gets results & saves your time & Make Money . PLEASE READ. All press releases must include your contact info at the bottom of the press release. Now you can add one IMAGE & VIDEO with ORDER. Gig Extras 50 more PR site $5 each , you can get up to 300 pr site $30 or 6 gigs.For 600 pr websites $50 or 10 gigs. PLEASE Make sure your press release is well written. Spelling and Grammar will not be checked. ( Press Release is submitted AS IS) I can help you promote your Start up, news business/company, Mobile Apps , kickstarter, indiegogo or any crowdfunding.

With an astonishing budget of 45$ the promise is the publication on more than 300 sities. Ideal for our Press Release about ScadaExposure (http://www.scadaexposure.com/)! The reality was pretty different:

The Results of the campaign are:

• Published on 109 unique domains, for a total of 131 post;
• Half of them are not working (not resolving, the ones with “investor” in the subdomain);
• Only 9 pass a link to our target URL;
• 8 of them are PR0 sities, like socialjunki.com;
• 1 PR1 link from prnation.org;
• The prnation.org service is worth 5$.

In conclusion one can archive better results without the need of outsourcing a Press Release distribution, just use the right free resources and buy the right services from the beginning!

Note to self, many PR resources are free or very affordable:

• http://comunicatinocost.x10.mx/ [Free, ITA]
• http://launch.it/ [Free]
• http://new.pitchengine.com/ [Free(1 Article)+Pay] From $39/Article
• http://pressreleaser.org/ [Free but not accepting new members]
• http://prnation.org/ [Pay] From $5/Article
• https://aap.com.au
• http://www.1888pressrelease.com/ [Free+Pay] From $15/Article
• http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/ [Pay] From $49/Article
• http://www.clickpress.com/ [Pay] From $75/Article
• http://www.freepressindex.com/
• http://www.free-press-release.com/
• http://www.i-newswire.com/
• http://www.marketpressrelease.com/
• http://www.mediasyndicate.com/
• http://www.newswiretoday.com/ [Free+Pay] From $99/Month
• http://www.onlineprnews.com/ [Free+Pay] From $22/Article
• http://www.openpr.com/ [Free]
• http://www.pr.com/ [Free+Pay] From $199/Year
• http://www.pressreleasecircle.com/ [Pay] From $15/Article
• http://www.prleap.com/ [Free+Pay] From $79/Article
• http://www.prlog.org/ [Free]
• http://www.prnewswire.com/ [Pay] $195/Year
• http://www.prweb.com/ [Free+Pay] From $99/Article
• http://www.przoom.com/ [Same people of newswiretoday.com]
• http://www.realwire.com/ [Pay] From £125/Article
• http://www.sbwire.com/ [Pay] From $20/Article
• http://www.scoop.it/ [Free]
• http://www.vdsys.com/ [???]

 

 

It would be nice to measure the performance level of each service!