Are free press release sites worth the effort?

That’s the question I’m posing today as I embark on a mission to see if they really do produce results.

I’ve asked my able assistant to post a press release announcing my new blog, “Dan Janal’s Teleseminar Tips” (http://www.greatteleseminars.com/blog) on 10 press release sites. All these sites are free and claim to have hundreds, if not thousands of readers, presumably most of them are journalists.

I’m a bit skeptical, but I’ve heard good things from several people I trust that when they post press releases to these sites they actually get increased traffic.

I’m not at all sure that reporters really read press releases — they get so much garbage sent to them over the transom that I can’t believe they would actually troll these sites for more info, but who knows. Prove me wrong and I’ll be delighted.

Anyway, I think the benefit of these sites is that you’ll get another link to your site, which will help your site’s page ranking in the major search engines. If that’s all I get, I’ll be happy.

I’ve set up several other metrics to judge this campaign, including:
– number of inbound links to the site
– site visits
– number of clicks on affiliate links
– orders from affiliates
– inquiries for Great Teleseminars services

We set up a spreadsheet to track these numbers. I’ll report back in a few weeks to let you know if this appears to work or not.

The good news is that the services are free, so I’m just paying for my assistant’s time. If this works, it should be easy to make this pay for itself. If not, it is a nice exercise to see what can happen.

Here’s to success!

Dan Janal
Your Fearless PR LEADER
PR LEADS
www.prleads.com