Press Releases
In the bad old days before the Internet and the Web, it used to be a relatively expensive proposition to submit a press release for distribution, running into thousands of dollars for an account with a wire service.
These days, it's easy to get a press release distributed for free using a service like PR Web. There are some gotchas:
- You must know how to write the press release in press release format (you can check out the PR Web FAQ or Google "writing press release" if you are unsure about this).
- PR Web tries hard to upsell you on increased distribution services (cost about $30 per release) to get your release out there.
It remains to be seen how effective this "vanity" press release system is: will my (or your) press release get any notice amid the thousands of daily releases that are now available? In theory, PR Web releases should get picked up by wire services, some news media, search engines, and online news services such as Google News. But of course the job of online news services is to only pick up items that are really news worthy, not someone's home made press release touting a dubiously better mouse trap.
I've submitted a press release to PR Web noting that Braintique is open for "business" and plan to use this as a test to see how effective the mechanism is. The press release should get posted in the next few days, and I'll provide a link to it then, and also let you know how well it works out.
Posted by Harold Davis at January 13, 2005 10:02 AM
