A little while back while doing a random Google search I inadvertently stumbled upon a list of 50 free press release submission sites in one of the results. Free submission sites, eh? Sounded a bit to good to be true. What pay for something if I can get it for free? If these free sites could do the job just as well as a paid site like PRWeb or BusinessWire, why not switch over?
The problem is they don’t. Not even close.
After testing all 50 websites on that list we ran into several common problems. Lets start with the simple words free press release submission site, concentrating primary on the free. Upon testing these sites, it was absolutely astounding to see how many thought that the word “free” meant only a free profile. Only until you’ve registered, filled out your press release forms, and pressed submit (which took a considerable amount of time for most sites) did they bring up the surprise pricing options for distribution.
A press release submission site should be clean cut, easy to navigate, and straightforward so that any business owner, big or small, can take their release and get it online. A simple goal- one that many of these free sites forgot. Due to the lack of a price tag, wading through endless advertising and unclicking all of the “monthly newsletters” and “weekly promotions” boxes became a nightmare. One site, pr-inside.com, even asked me to send a text message to an Australian phone number to complete my registration process! Um…no, thanks.
The next mark of a good submission site comes when it accepts any type of submitted content then organizes it accordingly. Many of the free sites we tried would only accept press releases related to a very specific niche or industry. And while this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it can be a bit disheartening. Complete a long registration process only to find out that the website A will only take press releases concerning the metal fabrication industry. Website B will accept nothing but news on nano-technology. Of the fifty websites we tested, one fifth were industry related news sites. Too bad they don’t tell us BEFORE we do the work.
Finally we get to a few more technical aspects that should be found with submission sites but was lacking in nearly every recommendation on this list: pictures, keyword links, and URL links. The SEO implications of these three things on a press release are huge, yet not a single site on the list offered all three. Worse yet, only a handful of sites offered at least one of those three options. So your odds of your press release showing up in Google searches are slim.
But alas, all was not lost during this experiment. Out of the list of 50 we found several mediocre websites and three good ones that we’d actually recommend.
- free-press-release.com Not only was this site one of a few that was easy to navigate and didn’t take half a lifetime to simply submit a release. It also indexed our release with Google in under five hours after submission!
- pressbox.co.uk Lets go international. PressBox was a very quick submission, not requiring a profile or login and even included the option to attach a picture online with your press release!
- prfree.com PR Free was the only free site we tested. It allowed keyword links and hyperlinks in the body of your press release. A clean site and easy to use interface helped this site up to the top three.
So what did we learn after this? Probably the biggest take-away is that there really is no substitution for major news release sites like PRWeb and BusinessWire. The quality of what you can release on their sites far exceeds anything we tested off of this list. The ability to add keyword links, URL links, and pictures to your press release makes any paid premium worth it in the long run. The moral of this story, however, is pretty much the same thing that submitting a press release is all about- getting your messages out there!
When you are done with your submission at PRWeb why not take a quick trip over to these sites as well? Sure, the services may not be quite as top notch but they are free (except for your time), so what have you got to loose?
This post was written by Chad Waite of Daily Derbi with assistance from Janet Thaeler.
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3 Responses to “Free Press Release Sites – Are they Worth your Time??”
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November 9th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
I have a special arrangement with PR WEB to offer a $50 discount on SEO version press releases. So instead of paying $200, the price is only $150. This offer is good only for December 2009 and January 2010. Call me at 952-380-1554 to order or see:
http://ow.ly/AQxi
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May 5th, 2010 at 6:27 am
Thanks for the tips. I’ve often struggled in this area to create a campaign that works.
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June 20th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
Here is a good press release site you can share with your users http://www.postpressrelease.com
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