This guest post is by Jiyan Wei, director of product management for PRWeb.
Creating content on a blog is just one aspect of being a productive blogger—you’ve written the content, but now what? How are you going to promote your blog or specific posts within it?
Companies, businesses, and individual blog owners try out many tactics, but few consider using a press release as a promotional tactic for their blog. It’s an idea many blog owners simply forget about, underestimate, or don’t even know exists.
Why a press release?
1. Quality links
An external link to a website is like a vote of confidence—imagine how powerful those votes could become with targeted anchor text. Press releases with anchor-text links can help increase the authority of your blog in search engines, whether in the release itself, or reused in original content by an influencer. Not only are you using targeted anchor text, but you also gain domain authority from websites that your blogging competitors who aren’t using press releases may not have.
Remember not to fall into the trap of overdoing your links in press releases. Include too many links, and it’s obvious to the reader and to search engine robots what you’re trying to do. The reader will be put off by too many links and feel advertised to, while the search engine bot will recognize that the document contains way too many links and won’t value them highly. The links in press releases can be powerful, but only if they’re used when necessary. My recommendation (conventional wisdom) is one hyperlink for every 100 words.
2. Exposure to media
Press releases are still a format that’s preferred by mainstream media, so promoting your blog through press releases may grab you an inquiry from a mainstream media outlet. The media will be looking for something unique, so promote the most eye-catching or attention-getting content on your blog (or even your blog itself). Even if media don’t write up the story from your release, if that release exposes an influential journalist to your blog and they become a subscriber, they could easily write about you later on.
3. Qualified traffic
Releases from the major wire services which have large channels of distribution will send your blog fresh, niche-specific traffic. The larger the site, the more channels and categories of distribution there will be (which is what you receive with the paid wire services vs. the free). Remember, press releases reach a community of influencers. Journalists and other bloggers from your niche could see your release and send you highly targeted traffic as a result. This is also the power of the new direct distribution model—it gives you the ability to create your own audience.
4. Influential subscribers
The days of actually visiting a site to obtain information are long behind many of us, and the best press release distribution services have kept up with the evolving demand for content. Since categories are prevalent in large distribution sites, web savvy influencers subscribe via RSS based on their interests. By promoting your blog to an audience that’s already using RSS, and sharing your feed within the release, you can increase your subscriber base of influencers significantly.
5. Search engine exposure
Press releases can rank well in major search engines, providing a great entry point for a new niche blog. Sometimes just one highly optimized press release is all it takes to get on the first page of a search engine for a competitive term, drive consistent organic traffic, and creating increased awareness about your blog.
Release resources
New to press release writing? These resources will help you get started:
- Press Release Writing Tips From the New York Times
- Press Release Writing Tips (From Journalists)
- 5 Tips for Writing a Great Press Release
- Press Release Writing Tips And Resources
- Five Killer Press Release Tips for Small Businesses
Jiyan Wei is director of product management for PRWeb, leader in online news distribution and online publicity. For more tips on using press releases, follow @PRWeb on Twitter.
Great article! I would have never thought of this and I bookmarked for a later date. I am sure that this would not work for a start up blog such as I have as re directed traffic would arrive with my first few posts and I think that would be weird. Do you have any advice or other posts more related to start up blog advertising.
Thanks.
You’ve convinced me. I’m going to start a new blog soon and have made a note to do a press release (after reading this).
This is realy interesting!
I will try this for our new business, and our new blog.
Besides PRWeb, what are some other press release webites/services?
Press release never really crossed my mind as a serious contender to promote your blog. Thank you for this information and I will be looking into this further.
I guess my only concern would be the content of your blog must match the press release, or does it not matter – its debatable.
Great points and I will implement writing a Press Release and track what traffic it generate. Thanks for the post.
I use press releases all of the time for other projects of mine, but have never used it for the blog, though that does seem to be a great tool for blog promotion.
Sounds good for promoting to search engines and maybe journalists, but do the people I really want to influence actually read press releases? mm. No.
“The days of actually visiting a site to obtain information are long behind many of us.”
That’s a silly comment because most people visit the site if they are interested. The blogger is paying for the press release because she wants visitors to her site for comments, reactions and to promote other articles and adverts etc.
Hi Jiyan,
A friend of mine is a fitness coach and he is always sharing with me how important it is to use press releases. I’ve never had one before, but I’ll have a closer look now.. thanks for the excellent resources,
I was just thinking of doing PR this morning.
Very well written Jiyan! So is PRWEB the best place to get a Press Release Submitted? I have a new site that I’m now thinking I should submit a PR for!
Hi Mr Wei,
I have a blog that I promote mainly on social media and it is giving me good results so far. The process is quite simple, I write everyting on my blog and share it automatically on all my social media accounts. People who like the title of my posts come on my blog and that’s it.
For Press Release, what kind of approach would you suggest. Press Releases are primarily for journalists looking for scoops, am I right? If yes, how would you suggest a blogger to twist his content in order to make it a scoop?
Thanks for the article, it opens up my mind on a new strategy I knew existed, but never used!
And by the way I’ll be sharing this with all my followers.
Guillaume Bareil
Aren’t press releases expensive as hell?
.. disregard.. i will google it.
I understand and this is a great idea, i own a hinduism blog. How i do this on it!!
Regards
My major problem is figuring out what to write about. So even though I know PRs can help a lot, I get stuck when it comes down to writing! :/
Hmmm, an article about how press releases can help your blog from none other than PRWeb, which is a product of Vocus, the sick company that fills my inbox daily with totally and utterly useless junk that no, I don’t read! I’m not even a reporter anymore, and when I was, guess what–I didn’t read press releases because I never once found something I would write about. If it was important enough to write about, I would have found out about it from a direct contact much sooner than some silly spam hit my inbox (and appropriately went to my spam box where I never even saw it). Save yourself the time and money and use social media as it’s supposed to, not with some silly dead form of marketing.
I have used press releases many times but i have not seen any significant traffic coming out of it, however, press releases create backlinks to many websites, as many blogs, portals, etc.. use press release feeds. Of course it depends what is the purpose of your press release campaign.
An interesting article and one area I’ve never got involved in.
It’s always good to consider adding new elements to the marketing mix and I will be looking into press releases further in the near future.
Great post!
I had never even thought about doing press releases for my Blog! I may have to consider this option in the near future! Look out for my site coming soon to the New York Times ;)
Thanks again for a great post!
I think only paid press releases are useful to us and they can give more exposure on media
Nice suggestion but make sure the PR is well-written and targeted well otherwise it’s just a huge waste of time.
Very well written Jiyan!
Thanks for the great advice!
I did write a press release once but for some reason the paper decided not to run it.
Jiyan, some press release services are free and some cost a lot of money. Can you recommend best of breed in both categories?
first, I use a press release. to promote affiliate links, the results I get some referrals
This is very easy, I get this knowledge from an ebook, well. I collected a lot of ebooks, but now I forgot lol ( a don’t where the ebook )
Nice article, but where can you submit press releases?
Press Release sites are something I haven’t taped into yet..but I will now..Thanks
“TrafficColeman “Signing Off”
I’d love an example to refer to. I have a hard time not beeing too pitchy for PR.
Stumbled upon this excellent post on Google and I’m glad I did.
I agree… nice article… on the WHY. I’m sold.
You planning a follow-up post on how? And where?
Hope so. Thanks for planting a great idea. Would love to grow it!
Question to Jiyan: What makes PRweb the best for press release distribution? Why should we not choose your competitors?
Question to experienced readers: Which other PR distribution sites are good and economical for blog promotion?
PRs are a great way to promote your services and products. I use them all the time. The trick is to write them and target them well. The tittle is probably the most important part of a PR. It needs to be catchy and suggestive.
Wow, never thought of doing this, great tip!
Thanks for the article. I get so overwhelmed with everything I should be doing I don’t do anything–here’s to my first press release
Its definitely a nice post. I make links to my blog (http://www.productivehobbies.blogspot.com) from Social Media like Twitter, Facebook and commenting on other blogs. But yet, I could not reach good PageRank. Can u write post about ‘How to increase PageRank’ for blogger users? I read posts in the category Search Engine Optimization about different SEO strategy. But I didn’t find any post dedicating to Blogger Users. Hope you write. I would love read ur writing. I have another question, “Is ProBlogger comments are Dofollow tags?”
I have been playing with the idea of PR submissions for a while and would love to see a detailed post on how to accomplish this along with a list of good sites to submit to. A lot of people are talking about this and there has to be something to it.
Press Releases are by far the most under used tool on the web. I spent some time in the TV world and I was amazed by the amount of news story’s that were created off a PR. I created a local Press Release site to handle local news and offer the service to the clients.
Thanks for the great information and the links are wonderful resources to help those of us just getting stared in the world of media.
I am so glad this has been posted! The value of Press Releases stretches far beyond Media Pitching.
Coming from the PR side of things, I can confirm that 80% of the traffic to my (PR) website is actually generated by search terms/words found in press releases ( of our clients) sitting in the online ‘Media Room’. I get more traffic to the site from this than from people searching for PR! We have even recorded more traffic to our media room than specific clients to their own sites purely due to the fact we host their key word rich and link heavy media releases. My advice is to post your press releases directly on your blog or create a Media Room/page aswell as distributing it.
As for press release distribution sites – you get what you pay for – there are many, so research is essential.
@Joshua Lynch: Key point: releases aren’t just for the media anymore. But I am sorry to hear about your trouble. Looks like you used to report on a very specific topic. Hit me up on Twitter and I’ll help you out. @Vocus or @PRWeb.
For everyone else, Jiyan’s tried to post comments here a couple times, but ironically, they haven’t made it past moderation. We think it’s because he included hyperlinks to provide specific answers to some of these questions. He’s going to make another go at it here in a bit — minus the hyperlinks.
an excellent release,i’m so glad to be here read your great post, the first time know the importance of press release for blog
I am looking for examples of press releases that promotes a blog. I hope you can give me an example.
Thank you.
I have used PR Web and found it to be like SEO on steroids.
Mike Veny
Professional Drummer
MikeVeny.Com
Great points and I will implement writing a Press Release and track what traffic it generate. Thanks for the post.