Here’s a portion of the announcement:

We’ve recently been targeted by spammers who are using our tool solely as a means to affect their Google rank, which is simply not in the best interest of our users, especially our paid subscribers. While it’s been a great asset for our users, it’s simply not going to work if this content goes unregulated. We’re also going to step up our SMR and brand authentication efforts to maintain the validity of content hitting our feeds – even for paid subscribers.

Releases from those who subscribe, and pay $35 per month, will continue to have releases streamed to Google News.

I realize that nothing stays free on the Interwebs for long these days, but PitchEngine was an outstanding free way to create and make available attractive social media releases.  Now, because the management of the site wasn’t able to police submissions properly, no one gets to take full advantage unless they pay.

I’ve already seen on Twitter a bit of a backlash to the decision, and some support of it.  The response from one of PitchEngine’s site builders to the critics has been to say the spammers are to blame, and that the move adds to the value of the paid service.

Spammers are not going away and they don’t care what you think, so if you blame them for anything, you’re wasting your breath.  They’re like the common cold in that way.  And, as with the common cold, taking a few precautions will help reduce the chance of  “infection”.  Changing the way you do everything seems a bit extreme.

Note: I’ve updated my ongoing Review of Online News Release Sites to reflect this change in policy.

Jiyan mentioned that he’d been getting a lot of questions about the SEO value of news release distribution.  I suspect that many of the questions came from attendees of the PRWeb webinar in which I presented on Wednesday.  I know we got a lot of them during the session.  I told Jiyan through Twitter that his blog post was a wonderful overview on the topic and is one that I’ve been meaning to write.  Now I don’t have to!

News Release Distribution Review 2010

One of the most popular blog posts on this site is my April, 2007 review of online news release distribution services. Because this review is so popular, I feel a responsibility to keep it updated.  I last updated the original post in September, and since then I’ve been promising a complete overhaul.  Now … here it is!

Before we get to the review, I should provide an overview of what online news release distribution can do for you.  When you post a release on a good news release distribution service, they not only place the text of your release (along with a link to your site) on their website, but they also put your release in their RSS feeds.  Those feeds are picked up by media outlets and websites, and are used as content.  Some release distribution services also have digests that are sent to reporters.

There are two major benefits to news release distribution.  One is that it’s a way to distribute your release to the media.  The second is related to search engine optimization (SEO).  When another website posts your release, including the link back to your website, you get a link back to your site.  These links, known as backlinks, are viewed by search engines as votes.  The more quality backlinks you have, the higher you generally rank.  I generally recommend that businesses write and distribute a news release once per month as part of their link gathering efforts.

So, now that we know why you should be using this strategy, let’s discuss which service you should use.  I’m going to break this review into two parts — the pay services and the free services.  We’ll do the pay services first.  In each case, I’ll try to point out changes from my last review.  It’s not my goal to hit every single service in this review, as there are dozens of them.  If you have one you’d like to discuss, please talk about it in comments!

Paid News Release Distribution

PR Newswire (PRN)
Cost: Varies, starting at $180 for a 400 word release
Review: PR Newswire has been around in one form or another for more than 50 years.  They market themselves as being a mainstay among reporters and news organizations.  Out of all of the distribution services, theirs is the one that would most likely lead to news coverage for your release. They also do a good job of distributing your release for use on other websites.  Your release will rank highly on Google News for your keywords, and you’ll get plenty of quality backlinks.

The problem with PR Newswire is cost. They have a yearly fee that you have to pay for the priviledge of paying more to post your releases.  I was told in a conversation with PRN’s president some weeks ago that they’re willing to waive that fee for small businesses, but everyone else has to pay $150 per year in addition to any other distribution fees.   Releases start at $180 for distribution on their city or state wire. That’s for a short release of 450 words, though, and they charge you for each word after that.   At that price, the distribution to the media is limited.  If you want distribution to nationwide media, you’ll pay around $600 for a single release.  With all of this said, I do think PR Newswire does a great job getting the word out to the media, and as I’ll say in a number of cases during this review — you get what you pay for.

PRWeb
Cost: Packages range from $80 to $360
Review: PRWeb has taken a different focus than PR Newswire.  While PR Newswire focuses on the media relations portion of the online distribution equation, PRWeb focuses more on the search engine optimization and link gathering benefits, and they do it very well.  It’s been my experience that if you post with them, you’ll get your backlinks … sometimes from some heavy hitters.  Plus, the release posted on their site will rank fairly highly in the search rankings and on Google News.  They don’t have quite the standing with journalists as PR Newswire, but they’re becoming more and more well known and they do have an additional package that include a special reporter distribution. The big benefit of PRWeb is cost. Pricing for basic PRWeb distribution starts at $80, and goes up to $360.  For what you get, I believe those prices are reasonable.

They have other additional services that cost more, like their brand new online newsroom. I was offered a free trial of their newsroom service, and it’s a pretty good way to have all of your releases in one place, particularly if you don’t have the space on your own site to post all of them.

BusinessWire
Cost: Varies, starting at $180 for the first 400 words
Review: BusinessWire seems to be trying to straddle the space between PRWeb and PR Newswire, offering SEO optimized news releases as well as good media distribution, and they’re doing a good job of both.  Generally, online news release distribution is NOT the best way to get media coverage.  I counsel clients to use it for link building, and if media coverage results then it’s a bonus.  A basic release from BusinessWire will generate quality links for your release, and plenty of them.  One thing I noticed, however, was that the basic release itself didn’t rank very well on the search engines.  You expect an established paid service like BusinessWire to rank above free release services, and that wasn’t the case.

BusinessWire breaks its distribution into levels based on what media will be informed about your release.  The national distribution is the most expensive, with state and city distribution below that.  I recommend looking at the cost of citywide distribution versus state.  There may not be a considerable difference between the two, so the state distribution might be worth the few extra dollars.

BusinessWire offers a fully optimized release that is similar to the one offered by PRWeb.  The distribution, called EON, was originally developed in partnership with PRWeb’s parent company. This release costs an additional $225 above and beyond the regular price of distribution.

While I am very impressed with the number of backlinks generated by BusinessWire releases, time will tell whether they take PRWeb’s top spot for SEO releases.  The primary issue is cost and the lack of a quality ranking for the BusinessWire version of the release.

Online PR News
Cost: $6 (free releases available)
Review: I was contacted by a representative of Online PR News months ago, and was offered a tryout of their service.  It took me a while to get around to taking advantage of that offer, and I wish I’d done it sooner.  Online PR News offers many of the same search engine optimization features of PRWeb, but at a very small fraction of the price.  With your $6 release, you get anchor text links, a preview pane of your website, pull quotes, the standard social bookmarking shortcuts, and the ability to embed images, videos, and slideshows.  All of these features add up to a well optimized and sticky release.  I’m very impressed.  They offer a free release option, but it does not include anchor text links or the ability to embed videos or slideshows.

Distribution appears to be good for the price.  The Online PR News version of my release ranked well on Google and Google News, and it did spread to at least one other website … which is obviously one of the goals of online news release distribution.

I struggled over whether to include Online PR News in the free section, but the low price they’re requesting is well within any budget.  I will definitely be utilizing their services in the future.

DISCLOSURE (added 10/1/09): I have done some consulting for OPN, and have since formed a loose partnership with them.  I’ll be announcing more about this in the coming days and/or months.  This review was written before I had any relationship with the owners of the site.

PR Leap
Cost: Distribution starting at $49.99
Review: This site was included in the free services last time around, but they have discontinued that free option (NOTE: This is a change from the last review!). Their basic distribution is now $49.99.

PR Leap has always been a good option for online distribution, and it’s a shame they discontinued the free option. But, if you’re looking for a less expensive service or perhaps a second site to post on, you should look into their service.  Their releases are usually picked up by Google News and rank fairly well. They’ve put some attention into SEO, and it shows. I don’t believe they’re great at getting the word directly to reporters, but, bear in mind that reporters do use search engines to look for sources for stories.  So, if your release is out there and ranks well, there’s the chance it could lead to coverage.

PR.com
Cost: Distribution starting at $29.99
Review: PR.com is a service that wasn’t included in the last review.  I love the domain name, of course, and their site appears very professional.  You’ll find in many cases the low cost or free services look like spam sites, and in some cases they actually are.  That isn’t the case with PR.com.  I’ll be honest, i haven’t used this service yet, but I did some research into what they offer and how well their releases rank, and I’m reasonably impressed.

PR.com does have a free option, but I wouldn’t recommend bothering to use it.  The free option will not include an active link from the release back to your site.  Their basic distribution is $29.99 and includes links within the release. They claim to usually get inclusion in Google News and, from what I can see that’s true.  They’re probably worth checking out as another low cost alternative to the bigger guys. I probably will consider them in the future.

Free News Release Distribution

PitchEngine
Cost: Free (no ads)
Review: PitchEngine allows you to easily create social media press releases, complete with videos, images, supplementary information and links, and even a Twitter pitch!

When you sign up for the site and post your first release, you’re asked to create a profile for the organization behind the release.  This can be somewhat time-consuming if you post releases for a number of different organizations.  However, the way that information is used is very slick.  On your final release, there will be a slide-down tab on the top with all of the info you enter about the org.

The only issue I have with PitchEngine is the system of entering your release.  It’s mildly ponderous, but can be overlooked … given the price.

Edited on 5/30/09 to add: Pitchengine announced today that they are removing free releases from the feed that goes to Google.  What this means is that free releases are no longer eligible for inclusion in Google News.  The site’s owners say this is because spammers were using the site for SEO reasons.

Edited on 10/30/09 to add: It’s come to my attention that NO PitchEngine releases are currently being indexed by Google News.  This includes those posted by paying subscribers.  I’m told it’s a temporary issue.  You can read PitchEngine founder Jason Kintzler’s response and explanation in the comments of this post.

24-7 Press Release
Cost: Free (ad supported), with a $49 paid option
Review: 24-7 Press Release does a good job of free distribution.  I’m not fond of the name at all, as it sounds a bit low rent, but they do a good job.  They have free and paid options, and a professional looking site. I’ve seen that their releases rank well for a free site … which is the most you can ask for from a free site.  Generally, you will NOT get Google News inclusion from a free site.  Their free option does not include a link within the release, but they will include one in a contact information box that’s on the page.  They have a paid option of $49, which includes enhanced SEO benefits such as anchor text for links within the release.

24-7 Press Release does review all releases before they’re released.  Now, this is a pain if you’re in a hurry, but presumably this means they’re filtering out the ones that are truly spam.  Or, it could be that they’re trying to get you to pay for quicker distribution.

PRLog
Cost: Free (ad supported)
Review: This is a site that i had some very nice things to say about in the original review.  Unfortunately, that’s not the case any longer.  This Bulgarian-based site has gone in the wrong direction, in my opinion. The site has started accepting job listings and they’ve added quite a few unattractive elements to the site in general. With all of the additions, the site has become confusing and looks a great deal like a spam site.  A lot of the releases you’ll find on the front page are not so much releases as poorly written blog posts.  It’s obvious that there’s little quality control, and they were concerned that they weren’t getting enough traffic.  Unfortunately, it also appears that their releases are no longer being indexed by Google News.

With all of this said, release from PRLog still rank very well on Google.  If you can tolerate the look and feel of the site, it’s something worth considering.  It’s free, so you don’t have any money to lose.  And, with the decision by PitchEngine to neuter its free service, PRLog is looking more attractive.

I-Newswire
Cost: Free (ad supported) with a $25 paid option
Review: This is another good free distribution site that has a paid option.  Their service is similar to 24-7 Press Release in that the site looks professional.  They allow you one link within your release, and have additional options in their $25 paid option.

The Open Press
Cost: Free (ad supported) with a $10 paid option
Review: This is a great free distribution site, with one downside.  Signing up is extremely ponderous.  Currently, you cannot sign up on the site, but rather you have to send an email and request to be registered. The explanation given is that they’ve had issues with spammers.  Once you go through that process, however, the site is very good.  It looks businesslike, and the releases posted there rank well in Google web search.  Tasteful ads are placed on your release, which can be removed by paying $10.

Wikio
Cost: Free
Review: This site is a bit different in that it takes more of a social networking approach to news release distribution.  Releases are voted for, similar to the Digg system.  They’re worth checking out.

PressReleasePoint
Cost: Free to post on their site (ad supported) and $15 to distribute elsewhere
Review: This site has another different concept.  You can not only post a release on the PressReleasePoint site, but but for $15 they claim to be able to post your release on more than 50 other free distribution sites.  I’ve not tried the service, but I must admit that what they offer is interesting.

I do have some concerns about the site and the concept for this service.   The first is that Google’s duplicate content rule may come into play after the same content is posted on that many sites.  Another problem is the layout of the site.  The text in the releases frequently ends up ON TOP of the advertising on the site.  My final concern is a big one, as it has to do with credibility.  The text on the website itself (not just the releases posted by users) is riddled with grammatical errors.  It appears to be written by someone without a good grasp of the English language.  My suggestion to the owners is that they have a professional copy editor go through the site with a fine-toothed comb.

The Best of the Best

So, which of these sites are the BEST?

For SEO: PRWeb
PRWeb has the best mix of available SEO options, and their prices are reasonable.

For Media Visibility: PR Newswire
It’s hard to beat PR Newswire’s reputation among journalists and the media distribution they offer.

For Free Distribution: PRLog
Despite unfortunate decisions from the ownership of the site, releases rank very well on Google … which in the end is the name of the game for SEO PR.

Honorable Mention: Online PR News
It’s hard to know where to rank this site.  It’s not a free site, but their $6 price is extremely manageable. Regardless of what you call them, the features they offer are outstanding for the price, and the releases rank well.

Now … Discuss!

Disagree?  Agree?  Did I miss one I shouldn’t have?  Discuss in comments below!

I’m honored that the other presenter at next week’s webinar will be Amy C. Cosper, Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine.  I don’t pretend to have as impressive a title, but I think between us we’ll be able to dole out quite a bit of good information and advice.  My portion of the presentation isn’t finished yet, but I expect to be speaking primarily about marketing on the web through SEO, SEO PR, social media and blogging.

The next webinar is on October 22 at 2:00 p.m. ET.  It will likely last about an hour.

To register, just follow this link.  It’s free!

The webinar is from 2:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. ET.  Currently, more than 2,000 people are registered but I’m told they’re still accepting registrations!

If you’re interested in learning a little and maybe even heckling me, sign up at the registration page for this PRWeb Webinar!

News Release Distribution Review 2010

I read recently that the online news release distribution business is booming, and that certainly explains the explosion in the number of companies jumping into the fray. Generally speaking, online release distribution services take your release, post it on their site, and then distribute it via RSS feed to other sites that use the releases for content. Other services also distribute your release directly to reporters via different means. Communications professionals use online news distribution for many different reasons, but they generally fall into two categories…

1) Media relations professionals want to put the release in front of reporters, via distribution service reporter feeds.
2) SEO PR professionals want to put the release in front of consumers and build backlinks, via distribution service news RSS feeds

So, which is the best place to distribute your news releases to reach the above goals? Below is a review of what I consider the best of the best, both free and paid. Feed free to add your own via comments!

PR Newswire
News feed distribution: $180 and up
Free option: None
PR Newswire is the granddad of the group, starting out more or less as a way to distribute your release directly to reporters via old fashioned newswires. They’re still the best at getting your releases in front of mass numbers of journalists. Releases placed on PRN not only appear online, but also are distributed via a portion of the Associated Press Newswire. PRN also has lists of reporters who receive news on selected industries via email.

Where PR Newswire falls short is search engine optimization. They just don’t seem to understand optimizing online news releases. They will still get you a number of links due to being an industry giant, however, they could be better. An option is available to have PRN optimize your release, but I wouldn’t recommend it. To take advantage you must first purchase their top distribution, which costs a minimum of $680.

PRWeb
News feed distribution: $80 and up
Free option: None
PRWeb was the first release distribution service to fully embrace news release optimization, or at the very least they were the one who promoted it best. Until last fall they had a free option that was outstanding, but it was eliminated shortly after they were purchased by Vocus. These days they have essentially three pricing levels – $80, $120, and $200. Different services are available at the different levels, but all three include some type of news feed distribution. A new product was announced last month that offers distribution via the same Associated Press wire that PR Newswire uses. This “Media Visibility” package includes online distribution as well as the media distribution, and costs $360.

Releases on PRWeb are more fully optimized for search engines and social media than any I’ve found. They include features such as links to social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Technorati, category listings, and a proprietary trackback system. If approved, your release appears on PRWeb’s sister site, eMediawire, which automatically gives you a second backlink. Their stats at the $120 and $200 level are impressive as well. One irritation I do have with them is that at the $80 and $120 pricing levels there is a two day delay before your release is distributed.

PRLeap
News feed distribution: $50 and up
Free option: Available DISCONTINUED
PRLeap essentially wants to be PRWeb. It’s not a bad thing to desire, as PRWeb has been very successful. However, they just don’t seem to get there. Their pricing is good, but my experience is that link building via PRLeap isn’t as affective as PRWeb. One huge advantage they do have is that they have a free option. I do recommend taking advantage of that, as posting is quick and easy. Free releases have reasonably unobtrusive ads placed on them. Anchor text links are available starting at $20, however at that level the release is placed on the PRLeap site, but not distributed via news feeds.

[Edited September 2, 2008: PRLeap discontinued their free option effective the first of this year.  Their paid options are $49, $99, and $149 ... with different options available for each.  I can't believe I missed the elimination of their free option, but it's probably because I haven't used PRLeap for quite a while.  I was actually planning to try it out tomorrow, given my distaste with the changes at PRLog, but if I'm going to pay for a release I'm going to pay for PRWeb.  At this moment, I'm considering a switch over to using 24-7 Press Release (see below) when I'm only planning to post in one place.]

PRLog
News feed distribution: Free
Free option: Available (ads included on releases)
A new entrant into the field, PRLog is quickly making a reputation for a free way to create a quality backlink. My experience with the service is that releases posted on their site are always indexed very high by Google. Recently I had a free PRLog release actually rank above a paid PRLeap release on Google News! My theory on this is that it’s because PRLog has a .org URL instead of the .com you would expect. As you may know, .org addresses are automatically given special consideration by the search engines. Regardless, the site provides outstanding performance for a free service. I haven’t noticed a large number of additional backlinks created by using PRLog, but a top ranking on Google News will do that for itself for many searches.

With every release, PRLog includes links to bookmark on social media sites like Digg and Technorati. They also give you the option of linking to long URLs that include your release title, or non-optimized URLS that are slightly easier to remember. PRLog also allows you to upload a logo or image for your release.

[Updated August 13, 2008: I've posted a couple of releases on PRLog lately, and frankly I'm not liking the direction this service is going.  The site is looking rather "spammy" these days, and they're now accepting job listings in addition to news releases.  Not good.  I'm still thinking about it, but it looks as though PRLog may be losing grip on its "favorite" status.]

Express Press Release Distribution
News feed distribution: Free
Free option: Available
Express Press Release offers free release distribution with no frills and no links included.  They also have $29 distribution that includes link activation and improved placement on the site. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve never used the pay service. However, despite the lack of links I’ve actually found good search results for their free service. Two releases I placed their for my PR firm have popped up for my primary search target for months.

24-7 Press Release
News feed distribution: $45 and up
Free option: Available (ads included on releases)
Like Express Press Release, I have only used the free option on 24-7 Press Release. However, the results have been good. Generally my releases have been indexed on Google News, and some have ended up on the news site Topix. 24-7 is trying to nudge into the PR Newswire world by offering what they call “Mass Media Distribution” for $299 (releases with more than 375 words cost more). This service claims direct distribution to trade publications, as well as 80,000 individual journalists. If anyone has tried this out, let me know how it worked for you!

PR News Now
News feed distribution: Free
Free option: Available (ads included on releases)
I hesitated to include this one because it has the appearance of a spam site, to be honest. However, I’ve used the site and found that my releases there do rank for target searches. Releases posted on their site are littered with ads, and they don’t look terribly professional. But, for SEO purposes, they’re beneficial.

[Update from 2/14/08: I've been meaning to post for a while that you may actually find your PRWeb releases popping up on PR News Now, much to the chagrin of the PRWeb folks.  PR News Now is apparently taking PRWeb feeds and reposting them without attribution and sometimes without even including the links.  I've decided I'm staying away from this service.]

Others:
Wikio: A site built specifically for people to post articles and releases. It’s painfully easy to use.
SearchWarp: More for articles than news releases but, at least with the way I write, it’s not tough to turn a release into something that looks like an article.
I-Newswire: Another site much like PRLog, 24-7 Press Release, and PRLeap. I’ve had fairly good results posting free releases here.

There are many, many, many others. But, which are the best? Here are the Media Relations & SEO PR Blog Best Bets:

For reporter distribution: PR Newswire
Despite being chocked full of news releases, PR Newswire actually has a reputation among journalists as being a good place to find story leads.

For link building: PRWeb
No one beats PRWeb for the number of links generated from one release. Period.

For free release distribution: PRLog
I’ve been extremely impressed with the tools offered by PRLog, and the results I’ve gained by using them. I have a sneaking suspicion they’re going to launch a paid service soon, and I’ll be trying it out.

As I said earlier, I’d love to hear about your success stories using services I didn’t mention. Lay them on me in comments!