PR Services / Media Contacts ?

[MarkPearson]

Has anyone used or had success with a press release sent using www.prweb.com or www.prfree.com or any other similar service.

I am considering using one of these services and would like to know if they are worth it?

Alternatively, if anyone has any Pr contacts and would give them to me (PM me!) or pass on my 'Personalised Roses Press Release' to them for me I would be very greatful.

To encourage anybody who has a contact to come forward I will be giving free personalised rose/s for any contact that turns into media coverage!

[cjd]

I've used PRWeb and found them to be decent value and well organised - they actually had a free promotion when I first used them so you might ask for that :-)

I would imagine you'd be reasoably successful as you have a good story to tell.

Beware tho' - they just email a very big listing. Feedback I've had from journalists is that they tend to just bin them as they get literally hundreds per day. They see them, usually correctly as not press releases but adverts.

You'll also be called by publications offering to run your story (we'll publish your picture....) then you find that they want paying...

For the money tho' (about £510?) it's generally worth it.

Look too at PressDispensary - the same product but cheaper and less follow-up.

[SillyJokes]

I used pressdispensary recently. It was OK, I have got two notable contacts out of it (Beano and Dandy) plus about three regionals. They should be worth the fee alone as they are both quite a bit with me.

Makes me wonder why I didn't contact them directly myself.

Caroline

[CaroCaro]

I suggest you go to the local newsagents and pick up a few mags in various categories eg: Heat and Now, Harpers & Queen and Vogue, GQ and Arena, Living etc and Elle Decoration and a couple of weekend newspapers, specifically their supplements eg: YOU Magazine, Mail on Sunday and The Guardian, saturday mag. Look through them and see who is written about new products etc and then send them a personalised rose/es. Obvioulsy you can't do everyone because of cost, but five or so should be doable. Look for correspondents such as 'lifestyle, home and interiors, consumer editor. If you have a look over the next week or so you could drop me their details and I will let you know if I think they are OK. I would send them during the 1st week of Janm they would be really welcome I think in all the gloo and doom of post Christmas! You have missed Valentines for monthly mags as they work 3 months in advance, so you should really crack on with newspapers, call each newspaper up, ask speak to features, say 'Hello I am x from x and I wanted to know if you had anyone working on valentines gift ideas that I could send info to' Remember they are normally stressed and bossy, so ALWAYS be polite and friendly. Normally they want a simple email, no attachements. Send me a PM if you have any more questions. Good luck.

[CaroCaro]

PS: You should do the same with all bridal mags and definately send them all a gorgeous package of info and product, the bridal market should be massive for you, I spent a hidous amount of cash on real rose petals about 8 years ago as we were not allowed fake stuff! Also you should send a press release to trade magazines eg: those who cover corporate events, conferences etc.

[MarkPearson]

Thanks for your advice.

This is the method I have been working on.

I was wondering if it would be easier to use any of the above named services, but I guess me doing my own PR would work just as well.

[DarrenC]

I've used PRweb.com but have gone for the lower option of $30 for a listing on Google and Yahoo News.

It's not been successful for me but to be fair its probably because my press releases have been dull.

It's a big risk spending a couple of hundred ££'s if you aren't going to see anything for it.

[bwglaw]

How does one get their news in Google Alerts, News etc. We have a Google Account and run several Googla Adwords campaigns.

We have a news section on our website at:

http://www.handsonaccess.com/xhtml/article.asp?PageName=115

and would like these to be featured on other sites etc.

Thanks

[DarrenC]

Hello,

Good questions!

If you want to publish an article on Google News, then you can submit your press release to PRweb.com for a $30 cost.

You will find that other websites will pick up on these news articles and publish them. If you have a regular amount of news, then you might want to contact Google direct as they are always looking for news publishers.

http://www.google.com/support/news/bin/request.py

The only advice I will give is that your news articles need to be unique and interesting to readers, otherwise they will reject you.

Also you can submit your news articles to one of the many article submission websites out there like www.articledepot.co.uk or if it's travel related you can send it to me :D

Hope this helps

Darren

[JustOneUK]

Mark i would think that PRWeb would work well for you as you have a distinctive product. The only thing is it will probably be picked up worldwide.

Send a bunch to the team who run the BBC website :).... and tell 'em I sent ya !! :)

[DarrenC]

Or contact Radio 2 and ask them to feature your site on 'Site of the Week' - for the life of me I can't remember which show it is on though.

Or submit press releases to newspapers direct, and internet magazines, magazines which are based on your sites theme..

... I think Im in the wrong job! :lol:

[jklondon]

how does one get a news release into the Press Associations hands?

[DarrenC]

By visiting this website www.pressassociation.co.uk and submitting your press release or visit www.pa.press.net

[MarkPearson]

What is the press association?

[DarrenC]

The Press Association is the national news agency of the UK and Ireland, covering all the news that matters 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The Press Association’s range of editorial services offer customers content solutions for a wide variety of platforms as well as operational support for back office functions.

Off the website.

I haven't been on to site for a long time - but you used to be able to submit press releases to them.

[jklondon]

am considering taking on someone for PR to launch our product - not cheap £400 per day - including writing and distributing a release - either directly to the PA and/or doing an exclusive plus follow ups...

[LindseyMHC]

Regarding being picked up by Google News ... if you submit a news release or article to www.clickpress.com or www.prleap.com they will automatically be included when you search for your company name in Google News. You will be included in searches for about the next month.

PR Leap is quite good regarding statistics - once you log in you can see how many times your release has been opened and when it was last accessed.

Lindsey.

[DarrenC]

Hi Lindsey,

Have you had any success with these two PR websites?

Darren

[Richard Glynn]

I think that the free PR posting websites are great for website referrals and search engine statistics - but (controversial?) NOT for quality media coverage.

Journalists like to feel that they are one of the few people to receive newsworthy information. If a journalist follows up your release with an internet search and finds it already posted on free news sites all over the globe there's a risk that it could devalue the newsworthiness of your news.

I don't know of any journalists who use PR Web for info. That's because - if you read the releases - they're predominantly commercial (we are this, we sell that) with very few taking the time and effort to develop a newsworthy angle.

Here's what I'd do.

> Draw up a distribution list. www.mediauk.com is amongst the best for free contacts. Address emailed to named recipients where possible. 'Hi Dave' etc.

> Only post on free sites like PR Web (because they do have a role) once your satisfied that all the online and offline media who are going to pick it up have done. Give it a couple of weeks.

This way you should get the best of both worlds.

[LindseyMHC]

DarrenC,

It's as Richard says mainly. These should not be the only way you issue a news release, but use them as a back-up method so you can reach any residual media missed by your initial distribution.

It's hard to quantify 'success' as journalists won't tell their source for a story, so you are unlikely to know if a story emanated from one of these websites.

The reason I mentioned them in my posting was that if you are adamant you want to be included in a Google News search then PR Leap and Click Press will do this for you - they won't guarantee you coverage.

Lindsey.

[Anonymous]

I've submitted pr to prleap and prweb and although I've not been able to directly attribute any particualr success to a specific lead, the increased hits on our website was so significant that it can only have originated from those sources.

I was given some good advice to make sure that you use keywords in the headline about your product that might be typed by journalists trawling through the search options.. e.g our compnay might use " UK business finance investment opportunity offered by software developers"

Not great Grammar maybe, but it did seem to work.

[jklondon]

silky (or anyone elase!)- can you explain what the costs and rough proccess is for submitting a release to prleap and prweb?

Thanks

JK

[clairemackaness]

You can submit a press release to PR web for free if you just want it to go out to paper based publishers. If your bothered about Google news etc, then it needs to be paid for.

I only submit my press releases when I've had no response from my media database which I have created myself, through hours of internet searching, but I find tht most releases get picked up by someone or another.

[10 Yetis]

My two penneth worth...

People like Claire have got it absolutely spot on... "I only submit my press releases when I've had no response from my media database which I have created myself, through hours of internet searching".

I use PR Web and the others occasionally, but I do this absolutely last thing. The best bet is to look at the type of media you are targetting and find out who the journo's are that you need to speak to.

You will be amazed at how beneficial an hour spent shiftily lurking in WH Smiths, trawling through mags etc, trying to find relevent journo's names really is.

Plus, if you speak to them then you have much more chance of getting coverage.

PR web and all those sites are good for getting increased traffic to your site, but it is not brilliant. Only a very few actually get picked up by media and also, what other people have forgot to mention is that most trade and national media (e.g. the personal finance or travel writers etc) have their own media specific websites. These are where industry PR's post their clients/copmpany's press releases. e.g. the fantastic Headline Money for financial services, Personal finance, etc etc and then journo's can quickly dive on, find a story they fancy covering and then source the info themselves direct with the company or PR.

Someone also mentioned PA News... this is really valuable, if you get a story picked up by PA news then you have pretty much hit the jackpot as 9 out of 10 times it will get syndicated over to a number of regional media e.g. someone like the Northcliffe group of titles.

For those starting out on the holy grail of doing either their own, or someone elses PR, getting a good "in" with PA is vital.

Hope this helps

[10 Yetis]

:D And then after re-reading the thread I realise that I have just saiud exactly what Richard said but in a much more long-winded way... damn these late nights :)

[MarkPearson]

If anyone who already has compiled a journalist list to contact the media or has contacts please get in touch.

If you help me get a feature I can send some beautiful personalised roses in your direction! :-)

[DarrenC]

I only submit my press releases when I've had no response from my media database which I have created myself, through hours of internet searching

I can't believe I didn't think of that before! Excellent idea.

Whoever suggested this website http://www.mediauk.com - thanks! It's an awesome resource. Ok, I'm off to go and create my database now.. if anyone wants to help me and join our efforts please let me know.

Just a thought - is there any data protection / copyright issue here if I am storing media contact details? I was going to use MediaUK's directory to collate contact information and add it to the database.

Would appreciate your comments before I start this exercise

Darren

[Martyn Salmon]

How does one get their news in Google Alerts, News etc. We have a Google Account and run several Googla Adwords campaigns.

We have a news section on our website at:

http://www.handsonaccess.com/xhtml/article.asp?PageName=115

and would like these to be featured on other sites etc.

Thanks

I am not sure if this is of interest to you, but, the following news sites have run a similar item to your "Disability Discrimination Act" news article:


http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=145366&command=displayContent&sourceNode=145030&contentPK=13633847&folderPk=83730


http://www.westpress.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=145786&command=displayContent&sourceNode=146275&contentPK=13622635&folderPk=75887


There are also a few more, drop me a email if you are interested in all of the different articles I can find.

[daveashton]

A few simple points.

1: BRAD lists all mags/ papers etc in the uk and gives the editors details.

2: PRweb PrLeab etc work well ONLY if you get your key words right. i.e. think about what the journalist would type into a WORLDWIDE site to find your story.

More details under helpful information on www.bizal.com

Cheers

Us

[clairemackaness]

Just a thought - is there any data protection / copyright issue here if I am storing media contact details? I was going to use MediaUK's directory to collate contact information and add it to the database.

Would appreciate your comments before I start this exercise

Darren

I dont think theres an issue if you are storing the contact details for your own use, after all, how do they know that you havn't e-mailed them directly from the website in question. It becomes a data protection issue if you wer to sell on your database.

[DarrenC]

Claire, good points and thanks :)

[Richard Glynn]

:D And then after re-reading the thread I realise that I have just saiud exactly what Richard said but in a much more long-winded way... damn these late nights :)

Two great minds!

[Tin]

Hi Mark

Don't know if it's helpful but I've used a freelance journalist who has regular columns in The Independent newspaper and also does articles for Homes & Gardens magazine etc. I can dig out his email and tel if you're interested.

Ray

[MarkPearson]

Hi Mark

Don't know if it's helpful but I've used a freelance journalist who has regular columns in The Independent newspaper and also does articles for Homes & Gardens magazine etc. I can dig out his email and tel if you're interested.

Ray

That would be great Ray!

Pm or email it to me when you get a chance

Thank You

p.s if anything comes of it, I will be sending some personalised roses over to you or your loved one as a thank you :-)

[click2britain]

Hi Mark,

I have found the following link for list of PR sites for you. You can choose them in alphabetical or Page Rank order.

http://www.info-sales.co.uk/index.php?page=article

In UK point of view, I have come across couple of sites, which are

www.pressbox.co.uk
www.articledepot.co.uk

I hope this helps....:)

[MarkPearson]

Thanks Lisa,

Will take a look over them later :-)

[DarrenC]

Hi Mark,

I have found the following link for list of PR sites for you. You can choose them in alphabetical or Page Rank order.

http://www.info-sales.co.uk/index.php?page=article

In UK point of view, I have come across couple of sites, which are

www.pressbox.co.uk
www.articledepot.co.uk

I hope this helps....:)

I was interviewed by info-sales.co.uk
http://www.info-sales.co.uk/index.php?page=interview&id=8

Also used pressbox.co.uk alot with limited results - still think www.prweb.com is the leader - but some good suggestions Lisa

Darren